Dungeon Annihilation 32

Evening everyone! How'd the weekend treat everyone! I hope my friends in the USA didn't party too hard. LOL. Anyway here you go!



 

Regan

Once we secured all the new prisoners, I moved through the dungeon to see if any changes had occurred while I was gone. I was aware of the dungeon while in my avatar body, but small things that didn’t threaten the dungeon seemed to go under my nose. Other than another party defeating Pride, nothing much had happened.

I knew as more people grew accustomed to how the dungeon operated, they would start being able to beat the boss more often. It still annoyed me to see my monsters lose. All the members had been in tier one so Pride had remained tier one. From his recounting, he thought it was a worthy battle.

With my check over, I moved back to the cell. Set waited for me with a pile of items. Normally, the dungeon would absorb everything instantly, but many of these things were enchanted to resist it. A lot of more outfitted parties had items that possessed this ability. If they left it alone, it took a few hours to absorb it.

“Anything interesting?” I asked appearing next to her.

“The bandits possessed nothing of too much value. The necromancer however, possessed a few items that I couldn’t understand. This for example has quite a bit of mana packed into it. Then there is a collar that has quite advanced slave magic packed into it.”

I studied the collar for a few minutes. I could replicate it easily enough. Actually, I would most definitely replicate it. It would make commanding the mortals much easier. I saw that willpower was a large part of it, but I felt I could reprogram it to bypass that. 

Next, I levitated the trinket into the air to get a better look at it. The sigil work was different from anything I had encountered so far. It also felt ancient. I had heard about artifacts a few times from the adventurers inside the dungeon. They mentioned that owning one could give a person a lot of power.

My dungeon magic was translating it much slower than I expected it to. I was about halfway through the inscription when it acted up. The ambient mana in the air around it started to stream towards it without stop. Soon, the mana around it broke my hold on it and it fell to the ground. 

“Set get back! I don’t know what is happening. Move to my core and protect it with your life,” I ordered my fairy in case this was some sort of delayed timed bomb.

I soon found that was not the case. A tear in the space above the trinket appeared and zombies and skeletons that looked freshly killed starter pouring from the tear. I mentally moved back to take in the entire picture. I wasn’t sure what exactly was going on, but I knew one thing. I was under attack.

Quite soon over two hundred undead were inside the dungeon. They were locked in the cell, but I knew that wouldn’t hold them for long. There might have been a mana dampening affect on the bubble of space, but there was so much unholy taint being generated by the undead that I couldn’t control it all.

I felt a large explosion on the outer wall of the dungeon which managed to blow a hole clean through. Moving my senses, I saw a few grey robed individuals standing next to another tear in space as undead walked through. Once the second tear sealed, I counted close to five hundred undead in and outside the dungeon.

I moved all my Hunters to just outside the cell. Next, I focused on the undead in the dungeon and attempted to take control over them. Unfortunately, I found that the spell work was rather solid. At least until I killed their current master. Likely, one of the necromancers outside the dungeon.

“This is just great,” I mumbled looking at the mess that was my dungeon. The undead were already clawing and hammering at a spot on the wall to get through while the undead outside were streaming in. My low tier goblins couldn’t possibly stop them. 

I moved to the Factory floor. Nazir and the other blacksmiths had been hard at work the last two days and had managed to make quite a few weapons. Nazir himself had created nearly ten rifles which was impressive. Even with the aid of the machines in the factory, that was quite a talent.

“Nazir. I hope you’re ready to test those.” 

“Kami. Yes. They are ready. I have fired a few shots and they performed to standards. As for the ammunition. That was a bit out of my expertise, but my assistant was able to make cartridges that would work with the chemicals,” he explained presenting the rifle to me. He appeared slightly annoyed that the assistant had to help to make the entire thing work.

“Very good. It is time for the oni to get some combat experience. Give the rifles to the other oni and gather when ready,” I ordered.

Moving down, I called all the rakshasas to Greed’s location. Her pile of gold and other metals had grown quite a bit since the last time I was here. “Master.” Greed gave me a bow. 

“Time to work. We have guests and they don’t have any manners.”

“Wonderful!” She clapped her hands. “I was hungry for some new greed,” She said licking her lips. She moved over to her pile and picked up her minigun with one hand. Next she wrapped a few belts of what turned out to be gold coins around her. She still managed to show off her nudity.

“Good. I will move you and yours to Pride’s location and you will help him hold the bridge,” I said mentally waving my hand. Her and the close to a hundred rakshasas vanished, reappearing on the stairs past the bridge. 

The undead in the cell didn’t have any necromancers with them, so I wanted to deal with them first. I had close to two hundred hunters and my oni. This would be my first actual battle with the undead and I was interested to see how my minions would perform. 

I did have to admit that I was enjoying the amount of mana I was getting for them being in my dungeon. They were composed of pure tainted mana and my dungeon was soaking it up much faster than the man leaked by the mortals. I would have to consider capturing some from the north and imprisoning them in my dungeon.

What I really wanted to get my hands on were the necromancers attacking me. Not only would they have some valuable information, but they were worth close to twenty mortals of the same tier as them. It was delicious. 

The hunters formed a line outside the spot the undead were about to break through. The undead were also about to reach Pride’s boss room. As an afterthought, I moved Wrath down there as well. He was in the middle of a nap and didn’t like to be awaken like that. The undead burst into the room giving him a nice target to relieve his annoyance.

The two battles started nearly at exactly the same time. The undead breached the wall just as the undead from lower floors burst through the portal. Wrath and Pride moved forward while the rakshasas flanked them. Undead streamed through packed tight in the confined space.

The hunters also met their enemy before they could emerge from the tunnel. Black rotted blood sprayed as swords and axes came down removing heads. The undead used their sheer numbers to press against the hunters and push the line back. The oni which I placed on a nearby roof, fired into the horde scoring everything from headshots to misses.

The hunters were much more skilled than the undead and an added bonus. They were immune to the corpse poison having been created using partial necromantic methods. One hunter went so far as to shove his hand through the mouth of one zombie and crush its brain. 

The battle seemed rather one side until a large behemoth burst from the tunnel that had slowly been getting larger. It was twice the size of the other zombies. He brought his fist around and sent one of my hunters flying where he crashed through the wall of the nearby building. 

The gap began to grow as the behemoth cleared a path for the smaller undead. That was until a fireball smashed into its head and exploded. I glanced over and saw that Nazir stood with his rifle aimed at the spot. A magic construct in front of the barrel of the rifle. He fire again, and the bullet was enchanted as it exited the barrel. It formed a fireball which made the bullet pack the small punch as a cannonball.

The hunters quickly reclosed the hole with the behemoth dealt with. With the battle mostly under control, I turned to the bridge. They battle was at a standstill in the middle of the bridge. Pride and Wrath killed two or three undead with each swipe of their swords, but four or five moved to take their place.

As I watched, I saw the number of undead wasn’t going down. It appeared the necromancers could reanimate an undead even after it had been defeated. Pride and Wrath could last quite a long time, especially with the rakshasas helping. They had absorbed enough metal to turn large swaths of their body to the metal.

I glanced down at the first five floors. The necromancers had blown holes in several places in the dungeon walls. At first I thought they were doing it just to do it, but I found it was so they could escape if they couldn’t push further. That was quite smart of them and also told me whatever they used to teleport here was one way.

Looking outside, I was surprised to see another army assembling around the dungeon. I saw adventurers, the Golden Dawn, and a third force which I was sure belonged to the marquis. I was starting to get a headache with my dungeon turning into a warzone. I was supposed to be destroying them not them destroying me.

“Greed! Get to it or I’ll replace you,” I order angrily the boss as she was sitting there.

“Master! My apologizes. I couldn’t help waiting for the moment that would be worth the most,” she said with a sultry tone. 

She leveled her minigun towards the horde on the other side of the bridge. With a whirling noise, streaks of gold soon made their way across the space. They might be golden coins, but they packed quite the punch. Not only did the undead usually lose whatever was hit, but it burst into pieces in most cases.

I counted half a dozen necromancers in my halls not counting the one I captured earlier. I wanted to capture at least two of them. I looked around and found Raven and Sikara hanging back from the fight in the Gothic city. With no necromancers to assist, their numbers were dwindling quickly. That front should be done with in only a few minutes.

I grabbed the two ladies and moved them to the fourth floor. I had to be a decent distance from the necromancers as I could interact with anything near them. I created three collars each, I ran into a problem with the metal but was able to substitute it with electrum. The original metal required a couple virgins and a magic ritual. Not something I had on hand at the moment.

I was about to hand them over when I thought of a third person who was much more likely to succeed. With a snap, Zombie appeared in front of us. She had risen to tier two from being in the dungeon and working the mines. I handed each of them two collars. 

“Capture the necromancers. I have some… questions for our guests.”

Sikara sank into the shadows, while Raven masked herself with darkness, and Zombie just moved forward. She soon hit the rear of the undead line and they didn’t react to her at all. She was heading toward the only necromancers that were working in a pair. It appeared they were recreating the undead as they fell.

Zombie approached much like well a zombie, with a limp and a few groans. The two necromancers were in the middle of casting and must have trusted their defense to the undead around them. When Zombie got next to them, her movements got much nimbler as she brought her arms around as if to grab them by the neck as a friend would. With two loud clinks, she clasped the collars on without a hitch. 

With a boom, the spell they were working on backfired and blew another section of my wall out. The two collapsed to the ground as blood leaked from their orifices. The undead in the around the two instantly became mine to control. I teleported them behind the remaining undead in the cell to help finish off the threat.

Raven’s necromancer didn’t quite go as she hoped. Her darkness magic allowed her to get within a few meters of the man, but an undead noticed her at the last second. When it attempted to bite at her, she was forced to defend herself. Her steel blades easily cut through the undead flesh and bone.

The necromancer noticed her as she sliced the head off of a zombie. He send a bolt of unholy mana at her which she countered with her sword. The spell blasted her back through the horde until she impacted a pillar. The man stalked forward with two green pulsing flames on each hand. 

He only got a few meters when a blade exited his stomach from his back. I blinked as I wasn’t sure what had happened. I looked towards her body and found it melting into shadows. I recongized the illusion magic as the sort that Set made. With a quick glance, I found the fairy hovering close to the ceiling above Raven.

Unholy mana flowed along the wound as Raven pulled her sword free. With a roar of anger, the man turned on her flooding the area of with unholy mana. The undead hit by the spell roared in response and charged Raven. Set waved her hand and the girl vanished right before their eyes.

The necromancer jerked his head around looking for Raven. Now that I knew what to look for, I was able to keep track of her. She walked right up to the man and swung her sword across his neck. His head went flying still with a grimace on his face.

Raven’s other target had noticed the conflict and ran out the opening in the side of the floor disappointing me that I wouldn’t add another to my collection. Even more disappointing, Sikara’s targets were more in tuned with their dark mana and had detected her before she could clamp the collars on them.

They had managed to injure her before they also retreated out the wall. They didn’t get far, as her crossbow placed two well aimed shot directly between their shoulder blades. They fell to the ground were the adventurers were engaging with the last of the undead outside. With their magical support, the undead quickly collapsed to my Bosses.

I was about to transport the rest of the undead to the sealed area, but the adventurers had already started rushing into the dungeon. I decided to turn the undead on them and let them feel like they saved the day. Of the six necromancers, only one got away, with the two that Sikara had hit being killed by the adventurers.

I heard the little lord call for me as the battle was starting to wind down. I glanced in her direction and found her party off to the side for some privacy. Everything looked to be in good hands so I decided to humor her.