ALL NOVEL 9: Protect the kingdom – Part 2
The sunlight frames the silhouettes of the summoned.
The four walk forward in a line, finally revealing themselves to the bewildered expressions of the dark elves. Shadowkiss' gaze sweeps over the four.
"That's the ugliest human I've ever seen!" declares the young elf, covering her face with both hands, as if bad looks were a sin for her.
From left to right: A flimsy skeleton with a stone axe; A human man with one eyebrow and an outgoing forehead, dressed in rudimentary furs; A goblin with a long nose and a loincloth, this being the most normal of the group; And finally on the right a kind of hairless rat nibbling under its wing.
«What are those things?!»
Jimbo is just as perplexed as the dark elves. He didn't expect to summon the most powerful creatures in the world, but this....
«This is pathetic!»
Jimbo doubts that his four summonings will ever gather twenty neurons between them. The human though it looks large and muscular, has an air of unflappable stupidity in its distant eyes.
«At least the skeleton looks more normal...»
At the same time Jimbo mutters that, the undead steps forward as if pointing that he will do something useful like saving the father and the girl. But instead kneels down, opens his mouth and turns into a ash mound.
«What the...?»
Tip: Low-level undead are very vulnerable to sunlight.
«You should have told me sooner!»
As Jimbo pulls his ethereal hair, Shadowkiss looks at her troopers and points at the caveman with one hand.
"Eliminate that thing before I can't forget its face!"
The dark elves advance smiling, as if they enjoy the murderous act.
«Anyway, let's make this worthwhile»
Unlike a PC where you have to use the mouse or keyboard to dictate orders, here Jim just needs to think to execute.
«Full attack!»
As thought he flicked a switch in the summons' head, all three change from placidity to hostility, and hurl themselves at the elves.
The imp primal is pierced in mid-air by the spearhead. The goblin is split from the waist by a slash from the second soldier. The third elf plunges the plenilunium sword into the caveman's belly confident that it will kill the man. But the primitive version of humans proves to be much tougher than expected.
Even with the sword embedded, the caveman catches the elf's head and headbutts him. Something cracks. The elf falls backwards, nose broken and bleeding. The human with gritted teeth and eyes imbued with animal fury, grabs the plenilunium sword and pulls it out of his gut, then attacks the spearman.
The spearman blocks the downward slash with the grip of the spear. The cutting force is enough to cause sparks fly from the metal. The caveman continues to swing the sword like a club. The spearman takes a step back for each new blocked cut, his handsome face soon bathed in sweat, not knowing how act in front a human acting like a beast.
A light body sits on the caveman's shoulders. Shadowkiss, with a plenilunium dagger in each hand, licks her lips and whistles both blades. The blades cut through flesh and bone like butter.
Pieces of the caveman's head fall to the ground, followed by the body.
Shadowkiss stands up from the corpse and steps back, contemplating the body for a few seconds before kicking it in the side.
"I had everything under control..." Says the spearman with wounded pride.
"No, maggot. I had everything under control" Shadowkiss assures with a mocking twinkle. She twirls the plenilunium daggers between her fingers before returning them to the holsters on her belt. The girl turns and sees one soldier helping the elf with the broken nose. In a more normal situation Shadowkiss would scoff at that show of empathy and weakness, but she continues to think about what happened.
Where did those four come from and why were they together? The human wasn't normal, and the Imp looked even more brutish than usual. Maybe they were circus freaks? Could be, though that didn't explain the undead's apparition.
"Oh crap!" Shadowkiss' eyes go wide as she remembers someone forgot, and when she turns to see, discovers that the father and the girl are gone.
In a nearby alley, a second undead, protected from the sun by the shadows cast from the walls, places the unconscious man in a corner, and the girl, who came behind the skeleton, does not delay in kneeling beside her father to make sure he is okay. The young peasant girl contemplates the skeleton and swallows saliva.
"T-Thank you for everything..." The girl stammers, barely containing the instinctive fear that the dead provoke in the living. But after everything that happened, the girl fears dark elves more than skeletons.
The undead does not respond, simply retreats out of the alley to the street, getting under the sunlight, and turning into dust, thus fulfilling the last orders determined by the Dungeon Core.
Note: All units were eliminated.
As soon as the teenage elf prepared to execute the caveman, Jim understood that none of his summons would be able to deal with the enemy's elite units. Besides, he still felt a severe revulsion at the bloody images of the battle, and turned away to avoid watching the man die.
«All units were eliminated...»
Jim repeats the message in the corner of his eye.
«It feels different...»
In video games losing generic units is natural, even inevitable. But now, in this fantasy world, where his summonings seem to carry nearly the same weight as those born and raised by parents, causes Jim a strange lump in his ethereal throat.
«Never mind»
Jim decides not to think too much about it.
As he moves away, summons a skeleton in an alley to test whether staying in the shadows avoids being vaporized. The experiment proves positive, so Jim orders the undead to rescue the father and the girl, then disappear.
Jimbo once again peeks over the outer wall's edge. The horsemen are two minutes away. 120 seconds to the end of the kingdom he was entrusted to protect.
«If attacking isn't optimal, then...»
Quickly moving to the construction session, he wields a half smile as confirms having the repair option, however when he tries to fix, the system where he floats denies the possibility.
Note: The structure does not match the Dungeon Core Age.
Age? What does that mean? Jimbo was about to complain loudly, but a new message pops up.
Note: Do you wish to replace the structure with one that matches your Age?