The digging operation was simple enough. I already knew the rough direction of the wolf den, and also had the wall crack that leads to it. Soon I sent miners and began expanding my aura to it.

That’s when the problems began, expected problems. Just as I knew the path to the wolves, so did the wolves knew that an enemy was burrowing its way to them. They would come from the crack in quick waves, mostly looking to attack and retreat quickly, disrupting the digging process, and sometimes killing a few miners.

Sometimes they would hide in small cracks along the walls, and when the miners approached or dug near the area they would unleash surprise attacks. Some of them had the ability to become intangible for a little while, even to magic attacks.

Sometimes they would send waves of pale silver energy through the cracks, or sonic attacks. Above all else they were quick and smart. They would plan their attacks well and show impressive teamwork, their attacks and bodies weaving a deadly storm of silvery light.

Silvery light which is quite effective against my undead, since it seems to be a form of holy damage, yet did I stumble and surrender?

Nope, I doubled down. I sent more miners, and undead as guards. I told them to work as fast as possible.

I even sent Merlin and a few new minions. Merlin was using the new abilities he learned from the magic books.

I focus my attention on an attack happening right now.

The wolves come out, their bodies twisting from a crack in the stone a human child would find impossible to squeeze into.

18 wolves come out, a small number compared to my undead. At the same time, a high number from the wolves, the highest amount until now has been 20.

Regardless of the small number, they are deadly. They tend to divide into attacking types, six of them will howl, six will shoot projectiles and the last six will bite and claw my undead. According to my predictions based on the last attacks, though I imagine this time they won’t do much other than dying.

Merlin’s body vibrates, his crystal skin trembles and shines, a high pitched sound shrills from him expanding into the tunnel. It passes through the miners without harming them, yet each miner has an addition to their helmets: A large black quartz spike.

The quartz trembles and also produces a terrible sound, the ambience of the cave becomes heavier and colder as the resonating sound produces a large amount of necrotic energy.

The wolves howl, usually it would produce a powerful and subtle wave of moonlight energy, now it does nothing as their howling is drowned by the crystals.

Moonlight projectiles in the forms of spheres and crescent blades would rain down on my undead, yet now they are weakened by the heavy necrotic environment. The weaker ones fizzle out in the air, while the stronger ones barely damage anything they touch.

The last batch, the ones that attack with their fang and claw, seem to be the smartest and immediately run with their tail between their legs. They are not cowards however, and either push or pull the other wolves with them.

They will come back, probably with a bigger gang. Yet it doesn’t really matter. This is all part of the plan.

The wolf den is up, so I am also sending teams up the hollow tube, in the hopes that they can also open a way, hopefully giving me the possibility of a pincer attack.

Without the interference they are making advances even faster than my bigger excitation team.

The second team also has the new grave elementals, who are breaking and absorbing the rocks to help the digging, and the ash elementals who are grinding the stone down. They are surprisingly effective together.

That is not to say the first team is lacking in new additions. The plan is to divert attention from the enemy, so besides Merlin the first excavation team also has a special addition.

It is a nerveling, inside a fleshling inside a blood elemental. It’s a fairly new idea I had from seeing the water elementals, together they become slightly stronger. Hopefully they will gain a symbiotic skill or class.

Merlin senses something, a movement in the ambient mana, he can feel the attack coming.

He gathers his power and shoots it forwards in a purple ephemeral wave. As the wave passes through the miners it gains color and speed, each time becoming more physical, before finally gaining an appearance like glass.

Just in time, as a large bright wave explodes out of the cracks in the wall.

The two forces meet and the wave does not lose. Merlin increases his mana expenditure to strengthen the wall, yet the wave of moonlight does not stop or even slow.

The wall is one of the new techniques he learned, it behaves somewhat weirdly. Not like a true glass wall, instead of cracking or breaking it simply becomes more and more transparent as it loses power.

The wolves appear and… surf on the light, greatly increasing their speed as they bombard the wall with their projectiles and bodies.

I focus and push my domain forwards with all my power, necrotic energy and my will surge and empower the necrotic mana of the area.

I feel it now, the aura of this dungeon, I can tell it’s very close now, that is probably why the wolves are attacking with such ferocity.

That is…somewhat of a bad timing.

I should be pretty close with the second team too. The main team has a lot of firepower, some of the miners are actual Grimbeards, the larger beard clad evolution of my dwarf miners.

All right, let’s do this.

Merlin, who has been acting mostly by himself till now, is joined by his mage entourage. Many who have crystal exoskeletons too, and who have some capacity to use the sonic attacks.

They all tremble in concert, their own necrotic mana syncs with the ambient mana and rises in power.

I myself send a plume of death energy to them, all of these combine into one fearsome attack.

Merlin opens his mouth and says the name of the spell.

“Strident Ruin!“ His voice and mana come forth in a wave of necrotic sound, vibrating all the way and creating echoes as it goes. The attack meets the shield and is empowered by it.

Immediately all the wolves near the shield die, their bodies rent asunder, the wave keeps moving and destroying the wolves before it finally meets the wall.

The wall loses, the sound the impact creates is that is incredibly grating, like chainsaws being thrown into a woodchipper. Merlin takes control of the wave and causes it to spin, further increasing its digging power.

Clouds of dust and chips of stone fly all over the tunnel as the spell bores into it, and soon the other side is revealed.

The silver lines on the walls and the beautiful pale white stones are either fragmented into dust, or corrupted by my necrotic energy.

I feel the two mana types battling, the holy moonlight clashing with my dark necromancy. The moonlight is dense and strong, yet it is too little.

My necrotic energy is vaster and just as pure with the help of Merlin, and much more focused.

The wave enters the room fully, and expands becoming a roaring maelstrom and destroying everything around it. My second team is still digging.

The pincer attack will be a little out of sync it seems.