Violet was starting to panic as she got closer to the wildflower meadow. What had been four zombies and two skeletons was now six zombies and two skeletons, not to mention the necromancer behind it all. To make it worse, it wasn't exactly as if the intruders had remained in one room the whole time. It would seem the necromancer had opened the doors for the zombies and skeletons before making more [Monsters]. Violet was starting to have doubts that her dungeon could handle this invasion.
When she got to the meadow, her fears were confirmed by the lack of the doors having been broken down. Violet had killed three zombies just outside of the roundabout who had been trying to break down the rainbow ball maze and floodplains meadow entrances. However, there were only a few [Monsters] in the wildflower meadow room alongside the necromancer. It would seem that three of the zombies had been sent through to the other side while the two skeletons had been given iron swords and were now acting as guards.
Hoping that the other intruders would get stuck in the slime parkour or pond rooms, Violet decided to focus on the enemies in front of her. Since her sword wouldn't be very effective on the skeletons, she kept it sheathed and just removed her scabbard from her belt. The blunt damage was more likely to be effective on the skeletons, even if she had concerns about whether she'd actually be able to overpower the necromancer.
The skeletons wasted no time engaging her in combat and immediately moved in, swinging their swords this way and that. They were clumsy, much clumsier than David was, and they didn't seem to have even as much intelligence as the goblins had. However, it was still a lot for a beginner like Violet to handle two of them at once. She winced as she dodged one strike only to be struck by another.
Feeling anxious, Violet glanced at the necromancer who appeared rather smug, but was also perfectly content staying out of the battle. This cost her yet another injury as one of the skeletons clumsily swung its sword into her side, leaving a shallow, but painful and bleeding wound just above her hip. Violet cried out in pain this time and she began to have flashbacks of the times when David had first trained her.
She had died painfully time after time without any chance to rest or recover from it. As yet another strike hit, her vision grew hazy and she felt like passing out both from the shock of the pain and the paralyzing fear she felt. If this continued, she was likely to end up dying.
The necromancer bellowed out a laugh, taking great pleasure in Violet's pain as she continued to struggle to fend off the skeletons. Boasting, he questioned
"Don't you see? You should have chosen to embrace the god of death! I went to all this trouble to show you just how persistent they are and just how strong they can be in groups. Yet you still chose to go with such a pathetic excuse for a goddess!"
Violet didn't hear anything more from the necromancer as her wounds and trauma began to become too much and she ended up blacking out. When she came to, she was once more in the dungeon core room.
For a while, she just laid down on the cool stone platform and cried, both from frustration and as a result of her past trauma. It was so pathetic to die to a couple of skeletons after so much time training! Maybe if she had kept a clearer head she might have been able to handle it, but she had very clearly lost that fight. While she was lucky that death was no longer the end for her, she knew she needed to get her head on straight if she wanted to attempt to go back out there and fend off the intruders.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
However, that was easier said than done and it took a while for Violet's shoulders to stop trembling and for her to sit back up. As her head started to clear, she took a moment to take stock of what was happening downstairs. She watched as the necromancer summoned another two zombies, but was surprised when he stopped at that.
Perhaps he was limited much in the same way that she was? It would make sense for him to be limited by mana since Violet had heard something along those lines from David and Elivyre before. Of course, video game logic from her old life would also suggest that was how things worked, but it was dangerous to draw conclusions based on that sort of thing. Still, that raised other questions. How did he summon or create so many undead [Monsters] before this if his mana limits him so much? Did he drink a mana potion? If so, how many did he have left? If it was just a matter of him running out of his natural mana and having to wait for his mana to naturally regenerate, that would certainly make things easier.
However, all of these questions weren't that helpful. What did more for Violet's emotional state was finding out that most of the zombies who had been making their way around the long way had disappeared. That meant they had likely died already, which was a good thing. That left only Samael, two zombies, and two skeletons who were steadily making their way towards the boss room. The fact that they were a more consolidated group meant that Violet wouldn't have to chase any of them down and she could try to end things all at once.
Violet got up, dusting herself off, before making her way downstairs. She planned to try and cut them off in the boss room. With her emperor rock slime to back her up, it would be more difficult for them to progress forward and it wouldn't be too late for her to respawn one last time and protect the dungeon core. Violet had the feeling this guy was so unhinged that he'd happily destroy her dungeon core, consequences be damned.
Violet arrived in the boss room before the intruders did. That was only to be expected given she had a shorter distance to travel than the others did. Walking up to her boss [Monster], she said
"I'm going to have to depend on you, this time. We've got intruders and I need you to help me ensure that none of them make it past you. I'll stand guard behind you so that I don't get in your way, but don't worry, I'll watch your back."
If the emperor rock slime's best abilities were shooting stone projectiles, it wouldn't be a very good idea if it had to avoid shooting in a particular direction due to worrying about her. However, Violet wasn't confident that her enemy wouldn't try to pull some shenanigans to take out her [Monster] either. After all, surely he would have come to her dungeon prepared, right?
As it would turn out, that was not the case. Violet watched as her emperor rock slime completely decimated her enemies. Neither zombies nor skeletons were a match for her boss [Monster]. Even the necromancer seemed to be in pretty rough shape by the time he had the sense to try and run away. However, that was a fruitless endeavor.
As Violet walked towards the man, she felt conflicting emotions. She didn't want to have to kill a man in cold blood. It felt wrong and entirely unlike her. However, she couldn't exactly just let him go and leaving the doors to the boss room locked until he starved to death, or worse, seemed even more cruel. However, the dungeon core clearly felt differently as the dungeon energy began to pulse, slowly causing Violet's mindset to change.
Violet could feel as her head cleared and a sense of calm came over her. Then, a more sinister feeling started to creep up inside her. This one was far more dangerous and her natural instincts demanded she fight against it. However, even if it was just this once, she wanted to give in. She let the feelings of blood lust and protectiveness for her dungeon overcome her. By the time she reached the now cowering necromancer's side, she had no problem at all slashing out with her sword and decapitating his head.