Chapter 42

Note: Thanks to Alex for beta reading this!

I gripped my spear as Terra collapsed. She landed with a thud. It was no longer a body that lay there, but a lump of clay in the shape of a person. A heartbeat later, she melted away. Stepping where she had just been was the booted foot of a dwarf. There were more of them flowing out of the hole.

Anger surged through me. I recognized these dwarves. And then, pouring in from behind them came two monster girls I knew. The valkyrie and the fairy. Led’s two companions. In the back, I saw him. Sunlight spilled around him. He had tunneled into the mountain to breach my dungeon. We were close to the surface, high above the rest of the dungeon layout.

Led smiled at me, winked, and then vanished.

I had no traps. All my monster girls were scattered through the bowels of the dungeon. He had bypassed every last bit of defense I had. Worst, he was sending in his dwarves to fight me and die. These must have been the ones who had rebelled. This was their punishment.

“Asshole!” I snarled as the dwarves flooded through my bedroom. “Ocean’s fury crashes into the beach, let the passion of Lord Enki flow!”

A wave of water swept from me and crashed into the dwarves rushing for the door to my Vault. My Void Crystal lay beyond there. It would be all over if Led reached it. He would take all my power, kill all my monster girls.

I threw myself into battle, feeling sick. These dwarves were victims. They were not my enemy. I could see it in their eyes as I rushed at the nearest one.

I thought I hated Led’s twin, but I found myself despising him even more.

“Don’t kill them!” Leo shouted as he thrust his spear at one of the dwarves. “Spare them if you can!”

Maya threw herself towards the door to the Void Crystal. Leo had battered back one group, but others were heading to the Vault. Fear rippled through Maya and anger. Terra was already dead. She had no idea the stresses of battle. It was her first time. Her first day in this world.

We were enjoying something beautiful! screamed through Maya’s thoughts.

She threw herself at the next group heading for the door. She grabbed one dwarf in her watery grip and threw him to the ground, but five more reached the door. They raised their pickaxes and slammed them down on the portal.

How long would it hold?

Hagane pushed up her metal spectacles. It was chaos in the room. Water washed around her feet only to vanish. Leo had magic. Hagane should have seen that. There were dwarves, a woman who looked like a Viking, and another with fairy wings who fired a blast of light across the room from a wand.

This was all so insane. Hagane smiled.

What can I do? she thought. She was made of metal. Living metal. An animated statue. She felt almost like the T-1000. Could she reshape herself? She held out her arm and found it naturally turning into a sword, her fingers elongating and forming the point. She conserved her mass but by making a thinner blade, she had more reach.

A dwarf appeared before her and swung a pickax. She blocked him with her arm, metal ringing on metal. She felt it, but it didn’t hurt. Her arm was a weapon now. Her instincts were to stab it into his throat, but...

Leo doesn’t want us to hurt the dwarves? Why?

He is a good man.

She kicked the dwarf in the balls. He groaned and doubled over, falling to his knees.

“The door!” Maya shouted. She was grappling with another dwarf while five of them were raising pickaxes to break it. Hagane was close. She threw herself past Maya and slammed her shoulder into one of the dwarves, a beam of light sizzling behind her. The dwarf gasped and struck a second, throwing his blow off. The other three slammed down.

Hagane thrust out her sword arm and caught the three pickaxes.

This was her new home. Her new family. She would fight to protect it. Hagane had never fought to protect much, but she could be like her heroine, Jane Dangerous. After all, Lady Fulmine was filing the air with sizzling bolts of lightning.

I’m fighting with Jane Dangerous and Leo, thought Hagane, this thrill rushing through the nerdy girl’s metallic body.

She threw back the three pickaxes she had blocked and moved before the door to the Vault. “None shall pass!” she shouted and then flushed. She was no Gandalf. But, still, she was ready to fight.

Hagane stood before five dwarves who were threatening the Vault.

“Fuck,” I growled and parried a blow from a dwarf. I swung the haft of my spear into his leg and swept it out from beneath him. He gasped and fell on his back. “Ocean’s fury crashes into the beach, let the passion of Lord Enki flow!”

As the five dwarves all swung their pickaxes at Hagane, my wave struck them and washed them away. They flowed into the bed. The entire structure groaned. A moment later, a beam of light sliced through the center of it, splitting it in half. Fire sizzled along the mattress. Lightning flashed through the air, striking the ceiling.

It was pandemonium.

“Kill the builder!” the dwarf at my feet roared.

The ones I had washed away were now struggling to stand, their beards matted. They were glaring at me. I was defenseless. I had no time to don my armor. The one I tripped swung his pickax for my feet.

I jumped back. Three more dwarves were rushing at me, one scrambling over the ruined bed.

“Lightning crackle and hiss, gird me in the love of Lady Uttu!”

My body crackled with electricity as I erected my shield to defend myself. One pickax swung at my side. The spell discharged. Lightning burst with sparks, driving back the attack. The dwarf cursed, shaking his hands.

The others were swarming around me as I shifted my grip on my spear.

Garnet didn’t know what to do. It was chaos. Her mother grew her toe-roots to grab the dwarves. Maya and Hagane fought to defend the door. There were dwarves everywhere. Innocent men that didn’t deserve to die. Not like the fairy firing blasts of light around the room and the valkyrie baring orders to the dwarves.

Leo doesn’t want them to be hurt, Garnet thought.

But how could they keep fighting with kid gloves on? The succubus’s tail swished behind her, a streak of crimson. If they didn’t start taking this seriously, they would be overwhelmed. The dwarves were out to kill them.

Their families must be held hostage or something. Anger burned through Garnet. Her cheeks puffed out in fury and she stamped her hand. Led is such a poopy head! Ooh! If he didn’t have all these dwarves around, we would kick his ass. AGAIN!

Then it clicked in her mind. She knew what to do. “Kweh, heh, heh!”

I couldn’t kill these dwarves. While my defensive spell had the dwarves reeling back, it was already fading. I had to disable them. I thrust out a hand at one dwarf, chanting, “Sizzling touch, the spark of pain, let the prowess of Lord Enlil stun!”

Lightning sizzled from my hand and he collapsed, unconscious. It wasn’t a lethal spell like the other ones I had. I swept my spear before me, battering back others, but they were strong. They shrugged off the blows. They were all corded muscles.

They worked day after day doing heavy labor. Mining, stone-carving, metal-smithing. They were all in superb shape. They pressed in on me. Swinging their pickaxes. Something had to be done. The valkyrie was pointing at me.

“Flank him!” she hissed. “Overwhelm his defenses. He can’t keep it up. Whoever kills him, will be rewarded! But if I see any cowardice! Any weakness! You know what will happen!”

The dwarves roared, such fear in their eyes as they pressed me from all sides.

“Darkness hides and shadows conceal, let the curse of Lord Zuen fall!”

A dwarf stumbled to the right, unable to see. He swung his ax wildly, striking another dwarf. Fury beat in me at what Led had done to these dwarves. It was sick. I looked for him, but the fucker was invisible.

Again!

Mrs. Zoe Baldwin sent her roots out towards two dwarves rushing at Hagane and Maya as they fought to protect the door to the Vault. Hagane swung her metal arm, blocking the pickaxes. Maya just let them hit her body and then punched them in the face, her watery flesh unharmed by being penetrated by the weapons.

Mrs. Baldwin’s roots snaked across the ground. More lightning sizzled to her right. Lana cursed as the fairy managed to flit out of the way. The room should be too small for her to maneuver like that, but there was just enough ceiling height for the butterfly-winged fairy to dance and dodge the attacks coming from Lana.

The dryad’s roots grabbed two of the dwarves. She sent her tendrils working up their legs. They cursed. One swung his pickax, breaking her roots. She gasped at the pain shooting down her growing toes. She clenched her fists and kept them growing despite the injury.

“Mrs. Baldwin!” Maya gasped and grabbed the dwarf’s pickax in a watery grip, keeping him from swinging and breaking more of them.