Chapter 29

Note: Thanks to Alex for beta reading this!

My static aura spell zapped Garnet.

She screamed in pain as she knocked me to the side. Something whizzed past me and struck into Garnet. I stumbled and whirled to see a thick arrow had crashed into her chest. It was the size of my fist.

She stared at me with a huge smile on her face, her skin blackened in spots from the magical protection on me. “Gonna take a nap. You better wake me up with a kiss!”

“Garnet!” I shouted and reached for her, dismissing my protection spell.

But she fell back and then her body melted away into darkness. The last to go with that smile on her face. Despite the pain, she had joy. She had saved my life. That ballista bolt would have rammed through me.

I trembled as her cute face dissolved away, the smile gone. My hands shook. This powerful blow struck my stomach. I wanted to throw up. But she was alive. I knew that. She would come back. I just had to win the day. She slept in the Void Crystal.

“She is in there, right, Souleen?” I demanded, clutching my spear.

“Yes, she is,” Souleen said. Concern in her voice. “They all are. Don’t you worry. Their souls are fine. I’m watching over them.”

“Good.” I swallowed. My little sister had taken a blow for me. I should have protected her. “If you can make her feel relaxed or something.”

“Or something,” Souleen said, sounding amused. “I’ll take care of them. You just take care of yourself.”

“Little sis,” Hela whimpered at where Garnet fell.

“She’s fine,” I croaked. I glanced down the hallway. I could see the ballista at the end of the corridor. It had not reloaded.

“Vicious trap,” said Halia. “We need a thief.”

“You need to let me go first,” Hela said. “I’m your scout. I can take it. You’ll bring me back.”

“I don’t want you monster girls suffering for me,” I protested.

“I know.” She smiled at me, her ears twitching. Then she grabbed my shoulders and licked my cheek. “And that’s why we love you.”

“You love me because you were made to love me,” I muttered.

“I don’t think so.” She wiggled against me. “Do you think the monster girls of dungeon builders love them when they’re forced to do dumb things like raid villagers? Do you think they don’t know when their master has no regard for their lives? You love us all, Lord Leo.”

“Yes,” Zaibas said. “So don’t worry about us. If we die, you’ll revive us.”

“So just let us protect you and Halia,” Hela said and then scampered down the hallway. She paused and sniffed at the ground. “Trap!”

“Your monster girls are something else,” said Halia. “I never thought of them as anything more than wild beasts. Things to be killed. But they have feelings, don’t they?”

“Doesn’t everyone?” I asked. “That’s the problem. Humans, even dungeon builders, can do such harm by being selfish. The dungeon builders just have more power to cause more harm.”

I headed down the hallway, stomach tight with caution. We moved deeper into the dungeon. If we were about on the same power level, then we must be nearing the end of this dungeon. Hela padded before us, her cute rump thrust up in the air, tail wagging. Halia walked at my side, Lana Fulmine behind us with Zaibas taking up the rear.

I glanced up at the ceiling. There were holes in it. I swallowed. Was there another level to this dungeon? I realized they were ooze holes. That was how they had gotten the drop on us, dealing the damage that they had.

Hela hit a T intersection. She stepped into it and turned to the right. Then she gasped. She leaped to her feet and stumbled back. She held the horns of a satyr who had tried to gore her. The satyr pushed her back across the floor. Hela strained against the monster girl.

I charged forward and thrust my spear at the satyr. Hela growled, fighting to stop being pushed down the left branch. My weapon rammed in the side of the satyr. She bleated out in pain, blood spurted.

With a mighty heave, she threw Hela back. The wildhound stumbled to fight her balance, her feet dancing. She stepped on a tile. A click echoed. Then the floor opened up and she vanished from sight, falling down a pit trap.

“No!” I screamed.

The satyr fell dead at my feet before she vanished, returning to her owner’s Void Crystal. My hands clenched in fury. My heart pounded with such rage. Another one of my monster girls hurt and dead. I hated this. It was so barbaric.

“It’s okay,” Zaibas whispered. “I’ll take the lead.”

“Wait,” I gasped. “What about you? You’ll just get killed.”

“But you’ll save me.” She smiled at me. “We love you, Lord Leo. We’re all willing to die for you. Garnet. Big Sis Lana. All of us.”

I swallowed against the emotion and nodded. I felt terrible, but they were right. They were magical creatures. Their souls were never gone. I could always rebuild their flesh. I hated how this made me think of them as disposable.

No one should ever be disposable.

I gripped my spear and we pressed on. The tunnels wound and twisted and turned. Zaibas took steps with caution. She braced herself for the traps that she expected to fall on her. The holes in the ceiling made my skin crawl. There had to be few monster girls left. What if an ooze fell on us. Just engulfed one of us and suffocated us in gel.

Zaibas reached a door. She grabbed the handle, her back set. Then she flung it open. Steam billowed around her. For a moment, I expected her to scream, but then it cleared to show a bridge out over the water. It was a warm room. Tendrils of vapor rose from the water.

“What’s the trap?” I muttered. “Rooms this big have traps.”

“Always,” Halia said. “Never trust a room that you can’t touch both walls at once. Monsters or traps are there.”

Zaibas ventured into the room. It was a square, the bridge going out to the other side. It ended at a wall. I frowned as we stepped out with her. I glanced down the side. The water was about ten feet below. A single pillar supported the bridge right in the middle. It had a ladder running down the side to climb out of the water. The pool was a deep blue. The depth was impossible to say. The only door out was to our left. Ten feet above the water, no way to climb up it. the walls were a smooth blue. Everything was wet. Water dripped from the ceiling, condensing from the steam.