Dungeon Robotics 9 - 15

Good morning Everyone! I'm back! My daughter and I just moved into a new house! Wouldn't have happened without the help of everyone that is on here and all my readers on Amazon. Truly, thank you for all the support over the years. I do want to say that moving is a headache. Sore as hell.

Added the fight scene

Regan

We positioned ourselves as best we could around the mountain sized monster, but there were only so many of us. Even with the automata forces I brought along, we only covered about a third of the distance around the base. We would have to blast through a forest to be able to actually harm the creature. I personally hated having to fight such an ancient being, but as long as the dungeon core was hostile to us it would be as well.

“Let’s do this quickly,” I called to others and got nods. I pointed my staff at the creature and created a high-density laser that sliced clean through the surface foliage before burrowing a few meters into the… skin of the creature. The thing showed no reaction that anything had hit it.

The others released their attacks as well, but much the same happened. I felt we were giving the creature a haircut as we removed dense patches of the forest and foliage from its body. The ground started to shake before a shockwave rolled over us as the creature roared. The nearby trees that weren’t attached to the creature were flattened or blown apart from the force of the wave.

With the sound of thunder, the mountain lifted its arm and started to bring it around creating a canyon as it did so. I teleported everyone to a safe distance, but it used a fair amount of mana. The dungeon host still had plenty of mana to brute force his way to achieving some things. Reducing my capacity to teleport was one of the more annoying ones.

Soon, line of sight teleportation became the only method I could still do. It meant that we would have to retreat like mortals if it came down to it. Not that I planned to let it get to that point. I held out my palm and focused on a point partially up the creature’s leg. With a pinpoint of black, a clear sphere appeared around it that was close to three hundred meters in diameter. With a pulse everything in the radius was crushed then sucked toward the central point.

Large chunks were ripped from the creature’s leg. After almost twenty or thirty meters of what looked like rock or some similar material, there was finally a splash of blood as I injured the creature for the first time since the start of the fight. Using the spell in the dungeon was rough, but for a dungeon avatar, I could probably use it a few hundred more times before my internal reserves of mana ran out.

I looked the creature over, but while it was injured, it was just so large that it barely bothered it. Anubis rushed in with his scythe, aiming for the spot that was already hurt. In a surprising burst of speed, the creature brought its arm around and was about to crush Anubis when another sphere identical to mine appeared in the arms path. Instead of sucking everything in, it expelled everything with great force. The arm was sent flying back around violently.

I looked at Alara on my shoulders. “Was that you?” She shook her head and pointed to a spot nearby. I stared and found a spot cloaked in mana. With a wave of my hand, I sent a pulse and someone I least expected appeared. “Sophia?! What the hell are you doing in here?” I demanded with more than a little shock.

She was techinally a ward of the dungeon. I admit that I hadn’t given her as much attention as a girl her age likely needed, but Anna and Ignea both said they kept the girl occupied. It had been almost half a year since she bound herself to the dungeon, and as befitting former royalty, she hadn’t wasted the time. She was End tier three with some of the densest mana I’d ever felt, and that was saying a lot.

The girl flew over. It felt odd, like I was a parent scolding a child. Espically since there was a battle raging in the background. “I was bored,” she mumbled.

“And you decided to come to one of the most dangerous places on the planet?” I asked folding my arms.

“I saved Big Brother Anubis…” she replied indignation clear on her voice, but she was doing her best to suppress it.

I sighed rubbing the brigde of my nose. I wanted to say one right doesn’t fix a wrong but I simply didn’t have time for it. The monster was growing faster as his mass was reduced. We needed to finish it off soon. “Alright. You’re here now nothing I can do about that. Stay with us and help protect the others like you just did.”

The fight raged for another two hours before we managed to peel off enough of the creature’s stone armor, hide, skin, or whatever it was to deal a fatal blow. The landscape was dramatically altered as well with the surrounding forest more of a crater or wasteland now. The other two mountainous creatures remained where they were and didn’t show any indication that they were going to move to engage with us.

“Whew. One down. Five more floors to go,” Duilin groaned as he shouldered his hammer.

“In this dungeon. We still have another five dungeons to deal with and they will each be harder than the last if we give them too much time to awaken,” I commented looking over the destruction. I could see the harm this creature could have done if it had been released on the surface. It was plenty large enough to make it through the ocean, whether it could get pass the maelstrom was another matter.

“Sophia. What are you doing here?” Anubis asked the floating girl though he never dropped his grin. I felt something was up.

“Helping.”

“Helping is it!” he repeated with a loud laugh. He patted her back sending the girl flying a few meters.

“Yes. Yes, let’s bring the young girl into the dangerous dungeon that wants to kill everything,” I said with narrowed eyes at Anubis. Alara patted my head and I sighed before deflating a bit. “Let’s move on.”

The rest of the floor and even the next four floors were back to easy mode. While the creatures and monsters would certainly be a threat to anyone on a more normal scale, for us it was a walk in the park. Each of us were a monster in their own category. Even the one mortal among us was leagues above her own kind.

Once we reached the entrance to the last floor, we spent what felt like an hour just descending the sloping tunnel. It was large enough for creatures of considerable size to make use of, making me wonder if giants or something of equal size might have been a race of mortals like the humans and elves.

A light appeared after another bend in the downward slope and we soon found ourselves emerging into a jungled ruin. Buildings that looked ancient even by that word’s standard dotted the area. It was the first hint of civilization, but it looked like a poor imitation if I was being honest. The host must have seen or had been decided what a city looked like and he attempted to copy it. Looking it over, I was definitely getting Aztec vibes.

The ground started to shake until there was an explosion in the distance as a snake that had to be five or six kilometers emerged from the ground. Black with sections of colored scales here and there, it was practically brimming with mana. It hissed causing the air to vibrate from the pressure.

Everyone readied themselves as we waited to see what the monster would do. Being a snaked we all had a good idea what sort of physical attacks it had at its disposal, but it was the magical variety that I was on guard against. I heard a cheer and spotted both Anubis and Vetur looking excitedly at the monster.

“Battle brained idiots,” I mumbled as they both charged at the monster.

“Now. Now,” Alara said gently tapping the top of my head.

Kicking off, I joined the two as did Soza and Nova. Julie was playing the role of support and was flying slightly back from the party. Though she was essentially Sophia’s babysitter. I fired my cannon a few times into the giant snake, and while it did some damage, the monster had rapid regeneration allowing it to heal almost before the next round hit it.

“This is going to be annoying,” Duilin shouted as we reached the snake. He brought his hammer around and delivered a heavy blow that sent waves of lightning along the surface of the snake. Vetur began sending large chunks of ice to hinder the snake’s movement as well as crush sections.

If we had to keep damaging it until it ran out of mana, then this battle was going to take forever. Dungeons could send mana into their boss monsters. Given that a lot of the rules don’t appear to apply to these ancient dungeons then I wouldn’t be surprised if the monster had the entire dungeon’s mana pool at its beck and call.

A rapid movement prompted me to raise my shield. With a heavy blow, the tail of the snake came to a stop as I countered it. I pulled myself from the crater I had formed and took in the battle. Everyone was dealing damage, but it wasn’t doing any good. The wounds were healing before it started to accumulate.

One thing I could do was create a black hole to pull the entire creature into at once but given its size it would likely manage to fight it for a long time. That was a lot of mana to commit to something that might fail. I would hold off until for the moment.

Anubis suddenly pulled back rising high into the air above the battle. There were some rapid fluctuations of mana around him as his form shifted. A black cloak much like that the reaper of death might wear formed around him. His scythe also grew several times bigger.

“I! AM! DEATH!” Anubis shouted before he shot down toward the snake monster. With an impact that formed a crater under the creature, the rest of the party backed off so as not to be drawn into the fight. Anubis was moving his scythe at a speed that was hard for even my eyes to keep up. Each strike was passing through the snake without leaving a wound, but when I looked at the snake’s soul, I saw hundreds of lines that leaked the energy that made up souls.

This went on for maybe four minutes. The snake tried everything it could to stop Anubis, and the fact that it lasted four minutes gave credit to its age. But in the end, it couldn’t stop death personified. I almost felt a sort of pity for the beast.

The snake dropped to the ground, the wounds from Anubis’s death mode having ripped the very soul from the monster. With the final obstacle dealt with, we made our way over to the temple that was at the back of the cavern. Obolus’s core floated in the center. A presence in the room told me that he was very much there with us. I just couldn’t understand why he didn’t create an avatar.

“I told you to just listen to me,” I said shaking my head.

I hated having to do this, but it needed to be done for the protection of this continent as well as the people of the world. I held out my hand and bands of special alloy began to wrap around his core. It was a nice version of the control spells that once held Alara. If forced domination can be considered nice in any fashion.

Either way, it would allow me full control to his core and mana, while allowing him to keep his free will. He wouldn’t be able to harm anything outside his dungeon unless otherwise specified by ours truly. Wouldn’t exactly do against an invasion if he couldn’t help.

As I bound him, I got flashes of beings made from light sealing him in his core. The tree that I had inadvertently destroy being the key to the lock. I took in all the details, likely my first glimpse of the Arcarins, but didn’t let it distract me from the task at hand. When his core was fully locked down, I backed away.

“And its done.”

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