Dungeon Master (Karma System)

Nethren transformed the captured barrier instead of advancing immediately.

Dark fungal plates covered the broken earth. Thick caps rose along the front and angled themselves toward Hizon’s archers. Carriers moved through the captured ground, repairing burned cords and planting new junctions beneath layers of damp growth.

The enemy had created a fortress inside the valley.

Brannik observed the work from the second line. "He is protecting his route back to the entrance."

The goblin king stood beside him with one hand resting on the hilt of a heavy blade. "Then we should burn it before he finishes."

"He wants us to leave the second line." Brannik said. "The moths are waiting above the mist, and the large creature has not moved far from the breach."

The king studied the enemy position before nodding. "We make him come to us."

Hizon listened through the command channel without interfering. Brannik had learned to judge more than tracks during the scouting missions. The goblin king had learned that his strength did not make every direct attack wise.

Their decision matched Hizon’s own.

Nethren finished establishing the captured position. The cords running back to the dungeon entrance thickened until several disappeared beneath protective plates. The network now possessed enough overlapping routes that destroying one junction would cause only brief confusion.

The first siege creature moved forward.

It approached the second line alone.

The stone and dead wood attached to its shell protected it from arrows. Shelf-like growths absorbed fire until steam rose around its body. Its six legs sank deep into the valley soil, but cords tightened behind it and pulled each limb free.

Brannik waited until the creature entered the marked ground.

"Release the riders."

Two side gates opened behind the second line. Goblins riding giant bullet ants emerged in separate groups and circled around the siege creature. They did not approach its head. The riders passed along both sides and threw hooked chains around its rear legs.

The bullet ants pulled in opposite directions.

The creature resisted. Its cords stretched toward the captured barrier, drawing strength from the network. More strands emerged from the soil to anchor its feet.

That placed the supporting growth exactly where Brannik wanted it.

Bombardier Beetles sprayed heated chemicals across the exposed cords. The network contracted, but the chains held the siege creature in place. Goblin Trappers activated a buried mechanism beneath its front legs.

Stone stakes rose from the ground.

The creature’s own weight drove it onto them. Its armored head continued forward while its body stopped. Plates of wood and stone tore free from the fungal mass holding them together.

The bullet-ant riders released their chains before the creature could pull them into the trap. They returned through the side gates as the second burn strip ignited.

Flame surrounded the trapped animal.

Nethren responded before the fire reached its central body. Every cord connected to the creature detached. The fungal plates lost their strength, and the entire siege animal collapsed into an unmoving heap.

The fire consumed the remains.

The goblin king watched the remains collapse. "The creature gave him the trap’s location, but he lost a siege weapon to obtain it."

"Assume he brought enough to sacrifice more." Brannik said. "We have not seen the entire attacking force."

Nethren’s next advance proved Brannik correct.

Three more siege creatures emerged through the archway. Two resembled the first, though their shells carried wet clay instead of dead wood. The third was longer and lower, with a wedge-shaped head protected by layers of black fungus.

They did not approach the second line together.

The wedge-headed creature moved through the center while the others remained near the captured barrier. Carriers followed inside the trenches left by its body. Moths filled the air above it, releasing damp spores across the ground before the defenders could ignite another strip.

Nethren had no reason to guess where the trap waited. The burned corpse marked its location.

The creature changed direction before reaching it.

It struck the valley wall.

The first impact broke stone. The second opened a narrow passage around the trapped ground. Fungal guards entered the breach and tore loose rock away while carriers spread cords across the new route.

Hizon contacted the Trapper responsible for the central controls. "Can the third strip reach the wall?"

"No. It ends four paces short."

"Do not extend it. He will see anyone carrying fuel."

The defense valley had been designed to confront armies advancing through it, not prevent an enemy from excavating a new passage. Hizon could alter the terrain during ordinary operation. The spending freeze prevented him from changing the dungeon now.

Nethren had found the edge of the prepared defense.

Brannik shifted archers toward the wall. Their arrows killed several guards, but the wet clay shields absorbed most of the fire sent after them. Moths descended around the breach and forced the goblins to shoot through clouds of spores.

The first fungal creatures reached the side of the second line.

Brannik ordered the nearest defenders back before they could be surrounded. The goblin king moved into the opening with his reserve. His aura strengthened every goblin within reach, and the narrow approach denied the fungal guards enough room to overwhelm them.

"Hold them away from the streambed." Brannik said. "If their cords reach the water crossing behind us, we withdraw."

The goblin king did not answer. His shield struck the first fungal guard hard enough to break the growth across its chest. The goblins around him advanced together, forcing the enemy back toward the breach.

Nethren sent more.

The fight at the wall became an exchange of bodies. Fungal guards pushed into the narrow route, while goblins replaced anyone too injured to maintain the line. The dungeon’s revival rules would restore every defeated creature after the battle, but no one removed from the fighting could return before it ended. Hizon could not waste defenders merely because their deaths were temporary.

He watched the manpower totals fall.

Nethren was losing more creatures. He also possessed more creatures to lose.

The two siege animals near the captured barrier began moving.

They approached the second line from different directions while the wedge-headed creature kept the goblin king occupied. Moths divided above them. The enemy was forcing Brannik to defend the wall, the center, and the air at the same time.

Hizon opened the channel to the rear crews. "Bring the Stag Beetle forward."

The ground shook beneath the second line.

Hizon’s largest insect entered the valley from the passage leading toward the Ant Hill. The Stag Beetle stood taller than the earthen barriers and carried armor thick enough to turn ordinary weapons. Goblin handlers rode within a protected platform behind its head.

The fungal army slowed.

Nethren looked directly at the new defender.

Hizon had kept the Stag Beetle hidden because its appearance would change the enemy’s plan. That moment had arrived.

"Destroy the creature approaching the center." Hizon said. "Do not pursue anything beyond the second line."

The Stag Beetle charged.

Its antlers caught the first clay-armored siege creature and lifted its front legs from the ground. The fungal animal twisted, trying to wrap cords around the beetle’s horns. The handlers released a heated mixture through tubes mounted along the armor.

The cords blackened.

The Stag Beetle drove the enemy into the valley wall. Clay plates broke under the impact. Goblin archers concentrated their fire on the exposed growth beneath them.

Nethren ordered the second siege creature forward.

It struck the Stag Beetle from the side. The impact shifted Hizon’s creature several paces, but did not knock it down. The handlers turned the heated tubes toward the new attacker while the beetle used its horns to keep the first creature pinned.

The fight drew every defender’s attention.

Brannik looked away from it.

Small disturbances crossed the abandoned ground near the first line. They appeared one after another, moving beneath the soil rather than over it. Nethren had concealed another group behind the spectacle.

"Growth behind us." Brannik said. "Prepare to withdraw."

The Trappers checked the retreat lanes. The goblin king began pulling his reserve away from the wall in organized groups. Archers continued shooting so the change would not become an immediate rout.

The buried creatures surfaced beside the streambed behind the second line.

They were smaller than goblins and almost entirely mouth. Each bit into the soil and expelled a mass of white cords. The nearest defenders killed them quickly, but the cords had already entered the ground.

Caps rose on both sides of the prepared crossing.

The second withdrawal condition had been met. Enemy growth existed behind the defenders.

Hizon could order Brannik to remain. The Stag Beetle was winning against the two siege creatures, and the goblin king still held the wall. Another few minutes might destroy a large portion of Nethren’s army.

It might also allow the network to close the retreat route.

"Withdraw to the Ant Hill." Hizon said. "The Stag Beetle leaves last."

Brannik issued the order.

The goblins did not run. Units nearest the rear entered the passage first. Archers alternated volleys so part of the line always faced the enemy. Trappers activated barriers after the last defenders crossed each marked point.

The goblin king gave ground at the wall. Fungal guards tried to follow, but the narrow breach that had helped them attack now limited their pursuit. Goblins threw fire pots into the passage and sealed it behind a curtain of flame.

The Stag Beetle released the ruined siege creature pinned against the wall. It turned toward the Ant Hill while the second clung to its armored side. A blast from the mounted tubes forced the fungal animal away.

Nethren advanced across the captured valley.

The fungal Dungeon Master had remained outside every dangerous position until the retreat began. Now cords spread from his feet and connected the growth behind Hizon’s line. The ambush patches expanded, threatening to close the passage before the Stag Beetle reached it.

Brannik waited beside the entrance with the final mounted handlers.

"You are the last creature on foot." Hizon said. "Enter the Ant Hill."

"The beetle has not crossed." Brannik said.

"It will not fit through the gate while you stand beneath it."

Brannik obeyed.

The Stag Beetle reached the entrance as white cords crossed the path behind it. Its armor scraped both sides of the opening. Handlers folded the heated tubes against its shell, and the massive creature forced itself into the Ant Hill.

Trappers released the supports above the outer passage.

Packed earth and stone collapsed behind the beetle. The fall buried the first fungal guards and sealed the entrance before Nethren could cross.

For several seconds, the Ant Hill became quiet.

Hizon reviewed the surviving forces. The valley defenders had lost almost a quarter of their number. Nethren’s attacking force had lost more, including two siege creatures and one of the burrowing groups. The fungal army still possessed enough strength to continue.

The valley belonged to it now.

Growth spread across the abandoned barriers. Cords entered every trench and pit. Junctions formed behind captured cover while moths settled along the walls.

Nethren approached the collapsed entrance to the Ant Hill.

He placed both hands against the fallen earth.

White cords entered the smallest gaps between the stones.

Inside the Ant Hill, Brannik watched thin strands emerge from the wall.

He drew his knife and cut the first one.

More appeared beside it.