Dungeon Builders Harem Book 05 Ch 40

Chapter Forty

The wildhounds took the lead into the dungeon. Halia held her sword, the blade humming slightly. She and the dwarves followed the wildhounds, the three werewolves surrounding them, all transformed into shaggy she-bitches fiercer than any dog. The quetzalcoatls and Baaghi took the rear.

Halia flicked her gaze around as the wildhounds moved down the stone hallway slowly. The only lights came from the lanterns the dwarves had dangling on their belts and the glow from Halia's sword, shining in the darkness.

The walls were so much like Leo's dungeon. The same texture. The same pattern. This could be her Lord's dungeon, but it felt so much colder. She wasn't welcomed here. The place hated her. Loathed her. Wanted to crush her.

"Trap," Hela said, crouched low. She glanced up. "Earth trap. Ceiling tile falls."

"Useful," Vargi said as the party skirted around the trapped tile.

"Never thought I'd do it this way," muttered Sarkz.

"Doesn't feel right," Hagza added, the mage walking behind Halia. "Not right at all."

Halia bit back her retort. This was the prejudice she was here to overcome. Adventurers and monster girls working together to take down something dangerous. A rogue builder. A terrible calamity. A natural disaster, really.

Something that the world had to come together to tackle.

Bhediya growled low at Halia's left, the werewolf stopping.

"What?" Halia asked. Her eyes flicked ahead. The wildhounds were all sniffing at the ground, moving in staggered pairs of two, their tails swishing back and forth as they padded along on all fours.

"Something," she growled. "A whiff of a scent. Bright."

Halia's gaze slid around when the walls on either side of them melted away like the shimmer of a mirage. On either side of the group stood a pair of enemy monster girls. Two were glowing women with white, angelic wings. Choirs. Level 1 Light monster girls. The other two were made of gray stone with strias of white and black, imposing and busty women.

Rock elementals. Level 1 Earth monster girls.

The two choirs sang, light dancing around them then beams of light burst from them. Halia ducked one. It flashed over her head, leaving a blur of blue across her vision. The other struck Sarkz's ax. He used his weapon to block it and broke into a charge.

"Fractured stone!" he roared.

The rock elemental guarding that choir moved to block Sarkz only for Vargi to be on his hills. Her mighty warhammer slammed into the rock elemental's arm. Stone cracked. The enemy monster girl recoiled in pain, shards of her limb flying through the air.

Sarkz closed the distance on the choir. Her melodic voice sang again, the light coalescing into another beam. His ax flashed.

He hewed her body in half from shoulder to hip. She screamed then vanished in a dance of motes that rained across the ground. Vargi swung her warhammer again before the sparkles all melted into the shadows, her hammer crashing into the rock elemental and throwing her back.

"Na-Nir Uzu!"

Hagza chanted, her skin becoming as gray as granite.

"Usu Durah!"

She threw a punch as she chanted a third spell, thrusting her fist at the other choir. A stone hurtled across the distance and smashed into the choir's head. Her face crumpled. She flew back from the blow, feathers bursting from her white wing before she vanished.

Halia leaped into action, rushing at the rock elemental, Bhediya at her side. A blast of lightning flashed from the back of the party, spat by one of the quetzalcoatl. It struck the rock elemental and rippled uselessly across her flesh.

Bhediya leaped before Halia. The werewolf snarled and bit into the rock elemental's arm. Teeth scraped on stone, yanking back the rock elemental's limb and throwing her off-balance. Halia lifted her sword. It hummed louder as she slashed.

She cut the rock elemental in half.

Motes bursting from the dead monster girl, she grunted around to see Sarkz trip the other rock elemental with his ax, hooking her knee and yanking. She crashed down. Vargi raised her warhammer and crashed it down on the rock elemental's head.

Stone shattered.

"Illusionary walls," Sarkz said. "Clever use."

"We're in a trap room," Halia said, looking around. "I didn't even realize it."

"We didn't smell them," Hela whimpered. "Sorry, Halia. Sorry!"

"Hardly caught a whiff of anything," said Bhediya.

Cheekha inhaled. "Reeks of stone. Too much earth in here. Covered the scent."

"Clever," Baaghi said. "But still weak. Level 1 monster girls. This builder should not have offended Lord Leo."

Halia nodded. "Be wary. Hela, keep searching for traps."

The wildhounds yipped their agreement and found more traps as the party entered the labyrinth. Pit traps. Light beams. Falling ceiling tiles. Crushing walls. The wildhounds marked them all as the party navigated the maze, sometimes finding dead ends.

Sometimes not.

"I know why I hate this," Hagza muttered. She nodded ahead to the wildhounds just on the edge of the light, the Darkness monster girls able to see without it. "If they die, they just go back to Leo, yes?"

Halia nodded to the mage.

"They risk nothing," Hagza said. "Without risk, how can they care about the outcome? How can they be invested in protecting this world."

"It's a coward's way," Sarkz added. He spat on the ground.

"I'm risking my life," Halia said. "So are you three. Nothing for us is safe. And Leo... He can die, too. The monster girls care because he cares. Don't forget that, adventurers. He risked his life to capture you three. To spare you. If the monster girls were just trying to kill you three, you never would have gotten so deep."

Sarkz glanced at Halia, his face bleak. He opened his mouth.

"Choirs!" Hela barked ahead. "Two of them!"

Light burst in the darkness ahead, illuminating Hela and Du leaping forward. The beams narrowly missed them then black engulfed the battle. Songs cut off in shrieks. The other wildhounds surged forward before Halia could act.

"They're dead!" Hela cried.

"No need for us here," Bhediya growled. The wolf shook her head. "We should have—"

Stone ground on stone above. A ceiling tile moved out of the way as a song echoed. A beam of light shot down at Hagza. Bhediya acted before anyone else could move. Halia's stomach just lurched when Bhediya slammed into the mage, throwing her to the side. Light smote the werewolf, her fur singeing. A second beam shot down and struck Bhediya in the head.

The werewolf collapsed and vanished in a burst of motes.

"Urudu Hum!"

cried Hagza from where she lay on her back. A bar of steel flew from her and vanished into the hole in the ceiling.

A sickening crunch of flesh cut off the singing. A few motes of a dying monster girl drifted down from the hole. She panted, staring at where Bhediya had stood. Where Hagza herself had stood moments ago. She flexed her hands.

"Fractured stone and brittle granite," she growled, Vargi thrusting out a hand to help her stand. "She saved me."

"Lord Leo wants you protected," snarled Cheekha.

"Guarded," added Chaandi. A wolfish smile crossed her muzzle. "If you die, you'll never experience his big dick."

Hagza burst into laughter.

A sound of pure mirth. The other two dwarves picked it up then the werewolves bayed. Halia grinned, the tension bursting in her and bubbling out of her as laughter. The quetzalcoatl, slithering at the back of the party, hissed. Baaghi roared and the wildhounds yipped.

Halia hoped that Berg heard them.