The dungeon felt stagnant and in pain. We exchanged quick glances and rushed up the dune. I tossed the surveillance spider to the sky, closing one of my eyes. As the spider flew I saw when he saw. There were parmadillos in all directions lying dead in the sand. What is going on? I threw the spider in the direction of the oasis so I was able to see what was going on with the king. As the spider fell closer to the oasis I saw the cause of the issues. 12 goblins were in the oasis wreaking havoc. They had killed most of the paramdillos and were now standing on the king trying to peel open his shell.

“Goblins.” I hissed as we reached the top of the dune. We had very little time and a lot of sand to cover.

“Why are goblins here?” Ella asked, dashing faster than me pulling her bow off her back and notching an arrow.

“No idea, but run ahead and see if you can take out some of them from a distance.” She was faster than me in the sand and took off ahead of me. I gripped my hammer tighter wishing I had my shield. I sent a mental message back to my dungeon ordering the poison spiders and trap spider to come to me.

Ella came to the top of a dune closest to the oasis and let loose 4 arrows in quick succession. I saw them hit their targets dropping the goblins closest to the king. The other goblins saw their comrades fall and immediately headed our way. Luckily goblins aren't known for their intelligence and came at us individually. They were also slowed down by the sand and Ella was able to pick 3 more off before they were within my range. My hammer was more than enough to kill the goblins in one swing. Two jumped at me about the same time and were easily killed by my hammer. Ella took out a third coming at me from the side. The fourth got a little lucky and managed to cut my left shoulder before I was able to crush his skull. The last goblin was double-tapped with an arrow in the forehead in a midair lunge as my hammer caught the monster in the ribs breaking his ribcage.

We left the bodies and rushed over to the oasis and the parmadillo king. Even though the connection was weak being this far from my dungeon I was still able to call the poison spiders and the trap spider to come join us for extra defense as we reached the king. He unfolded and laid down his head. He was not in good health. There was bleeding from many open wounds across his body and some parts of his shell were torn up. I used my saliva to stop the bleeding, but from the way he was moving, or not moving, it was clear something else was wrong. I felt the spiders enter the dungeon and head our way.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“Where did the goblins come from?” Ella asked what I was thinking this whole time. I couldn't talk to Daisy with the weak connection but I did remember what she had told me in the beginning.

“While unlikely, there is a chance that two dungeons can connect to one. If there were no goblins in the dungeon before, this is the only possibility.”

“Where is the other gate?” I called the surveillance spider to me again and picked a direction and tossed him up into the air. I launched him with all my strength and closed my eyes. It was odd to see the picture of a flying spider but I was able to see to the far ends of the dungeon.

“Nothing that way,” I said and caught the falling spider, turned 90 degrees to the right, and threw him again. This time I was lucky enough to see the vortex off in the distance. It was closer to the oasis than my dungeon. “I was right. There is a dungeon that way.” I said pointing in the direction of the dungeon. Ella balled up her fists in anger. I understood her feelings, though it hadn't been much time, I did grow attached to them and the fact that they were all dead or dying was making me pissed.

The spiders made it to our position at an incredibly fast pace. I felt a sense of recognition from the poison spider as it approached the king's wounds. So the king was poisoned, he was probably not going to make it. Rage clouded my judgment. I know it was stupid but I really wanted to kill them. I felt that the poison spiders agreed with me and the look on Ella’s face let me know she felt the same. At my orders, we all headed toward the goblin's dungeon.

Many things could go wrong. But the biggest issue was the fact that if the king died before we could get back to my dungeon then it would collapse and possibly disconnect from mine, killing me.

“We will need to be as fast as physically possible. If we take too long we all will die.” I said as we reached the vortex. I knew it was a bad idea but I couldn't help but want to go in there and kill them all. I hoped that once they realized it was an easy dungeon they reported back and aren't on guard on the other side.

I held my breath as the surveillance spider ran through the vortex. After a moment I saw through its eyes. I smiled as I saw a similar setting to the first goblin dungeon, this time there were only two lazy-looking goblins on the other side of the gate.

“Let's go. There is one goblin to the right at 30 degrees and another to the left at 60. I'll take the one on the left, you kill the other as fast as possible.” Ella nodded as we stepped through the gate. I was the first to emerge and lunged forward flying toward the goblin on the left. Before he could even lift his spear I caved in his skull. Ella exited the vortex with her bow already drawn and hit. The goblin dropped dead a few seconds later.