Chapter Thirteen

Under City

The dragon and Wraith began to send our soldiers after each other as our minions battled in the tight confines of the tunnels, alleys, and streets of the World Below. The dragon outnumbered his troops ten to one, however, the loss of his troops didn’t diminish Wraith, he simply absorbed their bodies and used the mana to make them a new body. On the other hand, every one of casualties they inflicted on the dragon was adding more to Wraith’s troops. In one-week Ember would finish the process of imprinting the new soul sparks and they would more than double their numbers.

Wraiths first plan had been to make another dragon to fight with, but Ember had quickly shot down that plan.

“Haven’t you ever wondered why I’ve never had you make something so massive?” Ember asked.

I figured it was because it would be so bulky and clumsy in the tight confines of the hall, he replied.

“Well there is that, but the main reason is that none of the sparks you have can operate a body at that size. It’s the entire reason you kill high ranked adventurers instead of just forever killing kobolds. The soul spark from a kobold will never be able to operate something much bigger than a kobold. A Lord Spark, such as I, can eventually operate something at that size but the size of creature we operate is proportionate to the number of soul sparks in our colony. By the time we gathered enough kobold souls, so I could operate a dragon size creature we will have killed all the kobolds and it will be just us and the dragon, so we probably won’t even need me,” Ember explained putting a damper on Wraith’s mood. “but once we kill the dragon, you’ll be able to use its soul to power a creature that large.

Very convenient that it’s right under us then, Wraith replied a bit grumpily.

Wraith was forced to come up with more clever ways to fight, he was nervous about just giving his minions mithril and adamantine armor and weapons there was no sense in funding his own demise by equipping his enemies with better equipment after they looted his minions. Fighting in the city was problematic, whenever they got a block or two into the streets the kobolds would bombard them arrows and if they pressed on the dragon swooped down and attacked them instantly shredding Wraith’s minions. They retreated to the tunnels trying not to kill kobolds until they had entered Wraith’s territory and I could easily capture their souls. Wraith could sometimes snatch a soul spark from a kobold that died within sixty yards of his territory, but the farther away they were the harder it became to successfully capture their souls, and many were slipping through his soul net.

I’m losing too many souls. How can I get more territory in the city? Every time I try to push my mana into a new area the dragon moves in and we must retreat or get squashed, Wraith complained to Ember.

“Well,” Ember said after thinking for a while, “why don’t you try taking territory under the city?”

Under the city? He asked, his interest peeked.

“Yeah, a lot of creatures, yourself included don’t bother extending their territory down into stone because there isn’t anything there. It makes sense because you’re wasting mana for no return, but it also makes it easier for things to tunnel up and surprise you,” Ember explained a bit smug at always knowing more than me.

Someday I’m going to make you write down all you know so you can’t keep lording it all over me, Wraith growled at him.

“Ha! When would you have time? You have been pouring over that book on elvish and still can’t read it,” he reminded his dungeon.

Wraith scowled mentally, elvish it turned out was very hard to learn for a non-native speaker to even learn how to read he had no interest in learning how to speak it. He shuddered inwardly at the thought.

Ok back to go under the city, how will that help? He asked.

“Well you will be able to get within range of using your soul net all over the city and if we dig tunnels, we will be able to launch surprise attacks all over the city!” Ember exclaimed.

Excellent I shall divert all resources to digging the tunnels, he said.

“No!” Ember shouted, “If we do that, they’ll think something up and come looking the dragon might even come.

He can’t fit through the tunnels, Wraith argued.

Ember rolled his body through the air, “He’s a steel dragon the chromatic counterpart of a brown dragon they are excellent tunnellers, it’s where they get all that rock for their breath weapon. Trust me, it might take it a while but if it wanted to the dragon could get here and even with your mithril walls, it will probably find you. It won’t know what you are, but it will probably sense your magic and eat you or destroy you. Even if it doesn’t if the conclave finds out you were discovered both of us will die you saw what happened to the last dungeon who got caught.”

Wraith did remember, the red dungeon core blasted to pieces and his Lord Spark executed since it was useless afterward. Yes, I remember, he replied. He could easily imagine it being a black core being destroyed and Ember the one being killed while his minions were captured and stuffed in cages to be wiped of their memories and made to serve other dungeons. So, we need to distract them while we dig?

“Exactly, any ideas? Our current strategy hasn’t really been working for us,” Ember said.

The skeleton Wraith was possessing clamped its jaw shut in a grin. Actually, I think I do have one.

Wraith’s kobolds rolled the long carts down the tunnel and onto the cliff. After so much fighting in the tunnels the dragon had cleared out a section where its minions could easily fight Wraith’s but today, he would be using the clifftop against the dragon.

The minions unfolded the cloth over the carts and quickly fit together the catapults. Then other minions began rolling glass balls filled with black liquid and red slime filled with eyes and teeth. The dragon’s kobolds were running up the earth embankment they had made to stop the death wave they had experienced trying to go single file up the stairs that led up the cliff face.

The catapults fired and only a few unlucky kobolds were hit by the glass vials the size of boulders, unfortunately, the slimes released from the boulders were another story. Kobolds were dissolved alive others were paralyzed by the insane screeches and murmuring of the mad slimes and were devoured by their semi-acidic body and snapping teeth. Wraith’s minions continued to reload and fire the catapults as a stream of Improved Boulders were rolled down the tunnel and carefully lifted into the catapults before being fired.

Ember oversaw the operation along with his two lieutenants, Hob and Mob. Mob was the soul spark that had come from the second-ranked cleric and so was my second most powerful minion. All three of them were clad in full mithril plate armor and were currently using dark wood heavy crossbows to pick off the few kobolds who managed to charge through the barrage of shattering glass boulders and the hundred slimes that were wreaking havoc.

There was a roar and the steel dragon flapped its wings flying towards the catapults Ember, Hob and Mob both retreated but the rest of the minions continued the attack focusing the catapults on the dragon. The dragon ducked and spun in the air and only one of the fifty shots aimed at it struck the rest going wild and smashing in the city and the battlefield.

The dragon’s breath of stone shrapnel decimated the catapults and minions operating them. The dragon landed and began piling boulders over the mouth of the tunnel to keep anyone from leaving. Wraith, however, was not concerned with a pile of boulders, he had just added one-hundred soul-sparks to his dungeon and only twenty-five had gotten away. In addition to this, he had discovered something, about thirty yards under the ruined city was a network of sewer tunnels none of which seemed to be bound by mana to the dragon’s territory.

Wraith sent his top three minions, Ember, Hob and Mob to explore the sewers. For backup, each of them was astride another minion in the body of a drake which was also equipped with mithril plate armor. Wraith’s hope was that group would be able to power through rogue monsters or at the very least run and endure any attacks with their mithril plate.

The first rogue monster they came across was a gigantic female rat with six limbs. She was bigger than Gnarl and had obviously mutated far past him as well. She squealed when she saw the intruder’s in her territory and cracked her tail like a whip. Ember gave an exhale excluding a cloud of spores, the rat sneezed but her body seemed to extremely resilient and she attacked without pause.

The rat leaped at Ember whose drake barely managed to get him out of the way, her tail whipped forward and hit all three of them knocking them off their drake’s and into the wall. She leaped onto the ceiling and then down onto Hob. Hob got a dagger in under her armpit, but the length of the blade couldn’t get past the layers of muscle she had over her body.

Mob swung a chain and it wrapped around her neck, she twisted to the side and he went after her keeping ahold of the chain. He spotted a wall sconce in the wall where once a torch might have been set down.

“Ember grab the chain and help me tie her to the wall,” Mob shouted.

Ember rolled forward ducking a strike from her tail and grabbed the chain and heaved. The rat glared at them and began to advance. “Hob distract her!” Ember yelled.

Hob grabbed a spear and stabbed at the rat, his thrust missed as she jumped back pulling Ember and Mob with her but she no longer advanced on the two and glared at Hob instead. “Shit,” He muttered and dodged a tail strike from her.

Ember and Mob, at last, managed to affix the chain to the wall scone and then jumped back. The rat tried to leap at them but was pulled short by the chain around her neck. The three of them rushed at her with spears and at last, she fell over and rolled onto her back, surrendering control of her territory.

The air grew noticeably thicker as Wraith’s dark mana moved into his new territory. He surveyed the newly acquired asset and gave her a mental command. The rat sat up and shook its neck after a few minutes the chain loosened and fell off and she ran up the tunnel the way Ember and the other two had come.

“Where are you sending her,” Ember asked.

The swamp, I’m going to start a breeding program between her and Gnarl. Their young would be useful cannon fodder as well as provide me with extra mana on their death’s, Wraith explained.

“You can’t just order two monsters under your control to breed. You might be able to give them orders, but they still have control over their bodies…” Ember began.

They are already humping like there is no tomorrow. These are just rodent’s Ember, it's not like I’m making them do something that isn’t in their nature, Wraith said.

“Oh,” Ember said getting a sudden mental image and was glad he wasn’t on the main floor of the dungeon. “Well, I guess we carry on.”

The group of six moved on encountering a few more monsters, a few surrendered, a giant spider and her brood, a creature that looked like a stalagmite but fell from the ceiling to attack them. The other monsters lacked the sense or were too terrified to surrender and were killed. They still gave Wraith the patterns on how to make them. There were another otyugh and a few swarms of insects that Ember was able to deal with using a fire spell.

The party of minions made their way at last to a door set in the wall. It was the first door they had seen, and it was very curious. Ember hesitantly tried the latch and found it unlocked, he pushed the door open with his spear and looked inside. His dark-vision allowed him too to see the rows of books in the total darkness, papers lay strewn across tables covered in book and dust. Codex and giant tomes lay on the tables or scattered on the floor. Ember examined the ceiling, but nothing hung from the arched ceiling.

The group dismounted and stepped into the hidden library, there was a cleared circle on the floor inscribed with a pentagram that was marred with deep scratched in the stone. Either someone had never wanted it to be used again or something terrible had broken out. They moved in and the door squealed as it shut causing all of them to jump. Finding nothing to fight Ember walked over to the shelves to see if there was anything Wraith might want, which was silly, Wraith would want all of it.

A rustle of paper was all that alerted Ember, he ducked as a slimy red tongue snapped where his head been. It snatched hold of a book and yanked back. Ember turned to see a book its pages wide open with a bloodshot eye the size of a melon with no iris only a giant black pupil. Teeth pointed out from either side of the book as it partially opened and shut shredding the book it had grabbed by accident. Ember had no idea how it planned to eat him since he could see no throat, but he didn’t think that was going to stop the creature from killing him.

He jumped aside as the tongue shot out again and the creature lunged its jaws snapping at him. Ember heard a cry and looked over to see Hob sticking halfway out of the mouth of another of the creatures, his mithril armor keeping him from being chomped in half. Mob was busy with his own creature and Ember looked away from the distraction which had nearly killed him as the creature leaped at him again on its two long stilt legs that hopped along like a frog. Ember drew his mithril scimitar and ducked a tongue strike and slashed with his scimitar the tongue falling to the floor where it flopped around. The creature, a type of mimic he realized, roared and rushed him. He swung his blade at it but the thick book cover that made up the mimic’s body was strong and springy, and his blade bounced back leaving only a scratch.

The creature snapped at him again and this time caught his left arm in its teeth. Ember’s mithril bracer kept his hand from being bitten off but he was stuck, and the mimic began thrashing around with him trying to shake him to death. Ember pulled his body into a ball and then stabbed the mimic its one eye. The mimic howled and released him, Ember rolled away and got to his feet, he rushed his blinded opponent kicked out its legs from under it and then took his scimitar in both hands and stabbed down through the mimic. Black ichor like ink spilled forth staining the loose pages on the ground.

Ember turned to help his companions. He kicked out the legs of the mimic that was shaking Hob around as if that would somehow help it bite through mithril plate. It began coughing like it was chocking and Hob rolled out of its mouth trying to stand up but toppling over his head spinning after being shaken like that. Ember wasted no time and dispatched the mimic and went to help Mob with the third. Mob had seen how Ember handled the other two mimics and had already taken care of the mimic he’d cut of its legs and then pushed a giant tome on top of the mimic. The mimics tongue lashed about blindly but eventually, it receded back inside its cover as if it could avoid danger by pretending to be a book again.

“What do you say we chain this thing shut and bring it back to the boss to study?” Mob asked flashing Ember a cruel smile.

“I think Wraith would very much enjoy that,” Ember said with an equally cruel smile.