Dungeon Master (Karma System)

The creatures climbing through the opening were unlike the guards defending the upper dungeon.

Their legs merged with the walls whenever they stopped moving. Hardened plates grew across their arms, then dissolved when they climbed again. They carried no separate weapons because the passage itself supplied whatever their bodies required.

Hizon’s archers fired through the broken wall. The first shafts struck armor and remained there. Acid bulbs softened the growth, but new layers formed beneath the damage.

The defenders were connected directly to the passage.

Hizon ordered the Trappers forward. "Pull the first one through the opening. Do not waste ammunition on anything still touching the wall."

Trappers caught the nearest defender with two hooked chains. Bullet ants dragged it upward while its legs fused with the surrounding growth. Sections of the wall tore free with it.

The moment the creature crossed the opening, its armor stopped repairing.

Goblin spears destroyed it before the passage could reconnect.

The remaining defenders withdrew down the slope.

Hizon sent Brannik’s trackers after them. The rest of the force followed in a narrow column with Bombardier Beetles spaced between the units. Trappers left metal wedges inside openings along the route so the living walls could not close completely behind them.

The descent entered a region built from hardened fungus rather than stone.

Curved ribs supported the ceiling. Pale cords ran beneath translucent surfaces on every side. When goblins stepped onto the floor, nearby strands contracted and carried the disturbance ahead of them.

There were no separate junctions to destroy.

The entire passage was part of one structure.

Hizon ordered the Bombardier Beetles to conserve their chemicals. Burning or dissolving the walls would consume their supplies without isolating the network. The force advanced by preventing the dungeon from dividing them.

The first attempt came at a wide bend.

The floor rose between Hizon’s vanguard and the goblin king’s central units. At the same time, the ceiling descended behind the Bombardier Beetles. Two barriers formed from the passage itself.

Trappers drove locking braces into the first before it hardened. The goblin king reached the second and held the narrowing gap long enough for workers to wedge it open. His aura extended through both barriers, strengthening the separated goblins while they cut connecting growth away from the braces.

Rooted guardians attacked from alcoves that opened along the walls.

Each stood twice the height of a goblin. Their lower bodies remained buried inside the floor, while layered arms reached across most of the passage. Cutting one arm caused another to grow from the damaged joint.

The goblins could not withdraw while the living barriers remained behind them.

Hizon examined the nearest guardian as it repaired a split across its chest. The new growth did not spread evenly. It rose from beneath the creature and moved upward.

Hizon redirected the attack toward the floor. "The roots beneath them are replacing the damage. Expose the connections under the floor and sever them before attacking the bodies."

Trappers moved inside the reach of the strengthened front line. They drove hooked tools beneath the guardians and pulled. Thick roots emerged from the floor, each protected by several layers of fibrous growth.

Bombardier Beetles used acid instead of heat. The roots softened and separated.

The guardians remained alive, but wounds no longer closed. The goblin king’s units destroyed the first two and forced enough room for the column to reform.

Hizon divided command without dividing the force.

Brannik led the trackers and Trappers at the front, identifying changes in the living structure before they closed. The goblin king held the center where his aura could reach in both directions. Mounted units guarded the rear and carried replacement braces forward when the earlier ones broke. Bombardier Beetles attacked only exposed roots or growth preventing the column from moving.

The arrangement allowed the goblins to continue, but it did not prevent losses.

Spore sacs opened inside the walls and released clouds too concentrated for ordinary filters. Goblins wearing damaged masks collapsed before reaching clean air. Rooted guardians broke through side passages and dragged defenders into openings that sealed around them. One Bombardier Beetle disappeared when the floor folded over its body.

Every loss reduced the force Hizon could use at the core.

Retreat remained possible. The metal braces preserved a broken route behind them, and the stream crossing remained secured. Hizon checked the battle time and the manpower still available.

They had passed the strongest resistance found inside Fungal Hollow. Withdrawing now would give the surviving network time to reinforce the route before another attempt. The battle could end by system judgment if the time expired, but Hizon had not defended the Goblin Depths to leave victory to an unknown score.

He continued.

The living passage opened into a chamber supported by columns as wide as the Foundry furnaces. Rooted guardians surrounded every exit. Smaller fungal creatures moved between them, carrying moisture from pools along the walls and spreading it over damaged growth.

The central floor reacted as soon as the goblins entered.

Ridges rose beneath the front ranks. Openings formed behind them. The chamber tried to scatter the invading force among the guardians.

Brannik directed the trackers onto the nearest raised ridge before it hardened into a wall. Trappers fixed ropes between the columns and gave separated units paths that did not depend on the moving floor. The goblin king advanced into the center so his aura reached every group still inside the chamber.

Hizon used the network’s dependence on the moisture carriers.

Archers stopped firing at the guardians and killed the smaller creatures moving between the pools. Bombardier Beetles contaminated the water nearest the damaged columns. When the remaining carriers spread it, acid traveled into the growth they were trying to repair.

Sections of the living chamber contracted.

Rooted guardians pulled away from the damaged columns and exposed the passages behind them. Brannik’s trackers reached the first opening and found that it curved upward toward another defensive chamber.

The second contained air moving toward them.

Brannik stopped beside its entrance. "The other passages breathe with the walls. This current comes from somewhere beyond them."

The statement gave Hizon a route the changing floor could not disguise. A sealed chamber needed airflow if Nethren or his creatures entered it regularly. The dungeon could close the opening, but it could not eliminate every trace of moving air.

Hizon gave Brannik responsibility for preserving the route. "Mark the current and keep it between us. We follow it even if the passage changes."

The trackers released small pieces of ash and watched their drift. When growth sealed one opening, the air moved through another. The goblins changed direction with it.

Fungal Hollow concentrated its remaining defenders along the route.

Rooted guardians emerged before their connections could be exposed. Spore sacs ruptured across the ceiling. The walls produced hooks that caught shields and pulled goblins out of formation. Hizon’s force advanced by holding short sections instead of trying to clear entire chambers.

The goblin king lost nearly half the units surrounding him. His aura weakened as the distance between survivors increased, forcing him toward the front. Brannik abandoned two damaged supply carts when the living floor began absorbing their wheels.

The last Bombardier Beetles had enough acid for one concentrated attack.

The moving air ended at another wall.

Unlike the barrier above, this surface pulsed with light passing through cords beneath it. Fungal defenders gathered around the chamber, but none stood directly in front of the wall.

Hizon had found what they were protecting.

He sent the Bombardier Beetles toward the center of the chamber. The fungal defenders shifted to stop them. Goblins carrying empty chemical tanks moved beside the insects, making it impossible to identify which still held acid until they attacked.

Two Beetles released harmless heated vapor. The defenders closed around them.

The remaining Beetle turned toward the wall.

Its acid struck the glowing cords beneath the surface. Trappers fixed hooks into the softened growth, while mounted bullet ants pulled the wall in opposite directions. The living barrier tried to close around the chains. Goblins drove the last metal braces into it and held the opening apart.

The core chamber waited beyond it.

Nethren’s core floated inside a massive fungal structure rising from the floor to the ceiling. Amber light traveled through countless cords spreading into the surrounding dungeon. Thick petals of hardened growth enclosed most of the crystal, opening only when pulses of energy passed through them.

The surviving fungal defenders retreated into the chamber.

They pressed themselves against the central structure and merged with it. Damage across their bodies disappeared. New armor formed over them as energy moved outward from the core.

Hizon’s first units attacked the defenders and watched every wound close.

The central structure absorbed their damaged tissue and returned it in repaired layers. Killing them while they remained connected would feed everything back into the same defense.

Hizon stopped the attacks against the defenders’ bodies. "Sever the cords and push them away from the structure. Do not destroy anything until it can no longer return to the core."

Trappers moved along both chamber walls. Archers targeted the cords above the defenders instead of their bodies. The final Bombardier Beetle spent its remaining acid across the thickest roots.

The goblin king held the entrance.

Rooted guardians followed from the previous chamber and struck the rear of the formation. The king’s remaining units formed around him, protecting the Trappers long enough to cut the first defenders away from the central structure.

Disconnected fungal creatures continued fighting, but their armor stopped repairing. Goblins drove them away from the core and destroyed them near the chamber walls.

The hardened petals began closing.

Hizon entered the chamber with Brannik and the nearest Trappers. Cords descended from the ceiling and tried to connect with fallen fungal bodies. Brannik cut them before they reached the floor. The Trappers fixed chains around the closing petals and anchored them to the metal braces still holding the entrance open.

The central structure pulled against them.

One chain snapped. A petal closed far enough to cover half the core.

Hizon climbed onto the exposed roots. The surface moved beneath his feet and formed hooks around his legs. Brannik cut the first away. A Trapper drove a blade between two petals and prevented them from meeting.

The goblin king’s line broke behind them.

Rooted guardians entered the core chamber. The remaining goblins could not hold them for long, but the narrow entrance prevented more than two from attacking at once.

Hizon reached the central structure.

The core’s light passed through the hardened growth surrounding it. He forced both hands between the petals and pulled. The structure tightened around his arms. Fibrous edges cut through his armor and pressed against the bone beneath it.

Brannik reached him and drove a heated blade into the nearest cord. The light inside it went dark. Two Trappers added their strength to the remaining chain.

The petals opened far enough for Hizon to touch the core.

The chamber stopped moving.

Every cord connected to the central structure became rigid. Rooted guardians froze inside the entrance. The pressure around Hizon’s arms vanished as the system took control of the contested dungeon.

[Fungal Hollow’s dungeon core has been claimed.]

[Dungeon Battle concluded.]

[Determining ownership.]