Chapter 22: Sitting Duck

Attack! Attack! We're under attack!

Mustering my minions for war, pandemonium broke out, my slimes, spiders, and two skeletons vs the horde clambering through my traps and fortifications.

Monster against monster, my upgraded cleaning slimes attacking and melting creatures stuck in silk traps, clambering over bone walls, or trying to use the green water below to attack me.

Fortunately, I had planned for such a contingency and had created a nicely pattern web of silk to catch any lurkers of the sludge.

Still, their numbers were amassing, growing in size while I, on the other hand, had limited defenders.

Oh man, I shouldn't have sent Slimey off to clean!

“LORD HIRO!?! HOW DARE YOU UNWORTHY SCUM TREAD UPON HIS SACRED GROUND! I WILL DISSOLVE YOUR FLESH AND FEED YOUR CARCASS TO THE SEWERS BELOW!!!!!!”

Ah. There's Slimey.

Go! Get them! DEFEND ME MINIONS!!

Slimey entered the fray like an angry blue tidal wave, a holy water nymph displaying her fury to the intruders who dared to step foot onto my domain.

The mass of enemy skeletons were immediately dissolved, purged from the floor with holy energy whilst anything else that dared be in the way of Slimey was caught in her body and turned into bubbling cleaning solution.

At least from one front, the other two sides were swarming with creatures, their numbers including monsters I didn’t even know existed on this floor!

Dave! DAVE! DAVE GET UP YOU DAMN LAZY OVERGROWN GATOR! GET UP! WE'RE BEING INVADED!

The large croc-girl lazily rose out of bed with its hair a mess. Scratching its back, the monster’s green eyes darted over to me, looking at me for a moment before it yawned and rolled back over.

OH COME ON! DO I NOT HAVE ENOUGH GYM BADGES?! WAKE UP!

I began to squeak angrily, pinging Dave over and over again with my squeakerlocation until it began to groan and huff.

Sensing my frustrations, or perhaps having had enough of Dave’s behavior, Slimy suddenly broke away from the conflict, moving to encircle me before reforming her body and reaching out, picking up Dave’s bed along with the croc herself.

“LORD HIRO GAVE YOU AN ORDER!” Slimy screamed, throwing the lizard-girl towards a horde of skeletons climbing over one of my bone fences.

Dave landed in a heap, rolling, and knocking over several monsters with the lizard girl letting out a confused and bewildered whine that vibrated my body before it began to get attacked by our enemies.

Fortunately, Dave wasn’t a complete dunce, the ten-foot tall monster girl stood up, shrugging off the attacks with ease before unleashing a roar of fury.

About time!

With one tunnel occupied, I turned my attention to the other fronts, watching as my traps worked to entrap, snare, and slow the enemy advance.

An ounce of prevention was worth a pound of cure!

But there was still a problem of their numbers…

Oooooh I should have moved into that catacomb chamber!

Suddenly, Slimy began to bubble, shift, its HP pool rapidly shrinking much to my alarm only to have my concern changed to astonishment.

Slimey split into three smaller versions of herself, one wearing the nun outfit that was now oversized on her and the other two naked.

The naked ones took off, racing towards the other tunnels to lead my defenders as Slimey took me into her arms and held me close with her oversized sleeves draped over me like a blanket.

“Be not afraid, Lord Darling. None shall hurt you whilst your most loyal servant still stands.” Slimey sent, cuddling me close to its miniaturized form.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Oddly, instead of comfort, I felt a strange sense of danger. Not from the monsters no, but rather from my champion itself, it's voice sending a tingle down my metaphysical spine.

Clink

Huh?

Suddenly something black was around my rubber neck, a band of some kind that clicked audibly into place.

Slimey… What is this? I sent to my minion, observing the shackle around my neck that ended with it attached to Slimey’s wrist.

“A symbol of our ironclad bond Lord Hiro. I even cleaned it for you.”

That's… besides the point. Slimy… these are handcuffs. Where did you get handcuffs from?

“Oh I found them whilst cleaning! Humans apparently give circles to their companions to represent their bonds! And it fits so well around your neck darling!” Slimy laughed, brandishing a wicked smile as the death rattles of various creatures echoed through my territory.

Around Slimey and I, the invaders were being eviscerated, Slimy’s copies making short work of the under-leveled hordes with Dave thrashing around with its large tail smashing everything nearby.

It made for an odd scene to say the least, one made no less peculiar by the Slime with menacing eyes holding me close to its body as it laughed maniacally.

****

After cleaning up the battlefield, it was time to inspect and repair the traps while analyzing my losses.

Three slimes and four spiders gone, with Chloe and Hector having nearly been destroyed, but thanks to the experience earned from defending the base, both had increased in level, repairing their white bodies.

Peace to the fallen.

My fighting force so far was strong, stronger than any monster I’d encountered thus far. But how long would that luck hold? I didn’t know. And it had only been thanks to my spider minions that we had managed to minimize the casualties.

Slimy and Dave’s actions aside, the spider silk now at my disposal played a pivotal part in our defense.

I wasn’t quite sure how I remembered to build the traps I did, only that the blueprints came to mind. Blueprints that were helpful in building web snares, spike traps, walls, and pits.

Speaking of pits, riding atop of a now reformed Slimey, I made my way to one such pit.

A large hole dug into the sewer ground with swords planted blade up at the bottom.

In it, a multitude of creatures I’d seen a few times in my past life but hadn’t encountered before as a rubber duck. Capruxas, they were called. Four legged monsters that were the size of a small dog mixed with a lizard. They were green, with bulbous eyes, their heads sprouting little black horns to crown their heads that featured a sharp and powerful beak.

A few of them were still squirming around, impaled but still alive, gravity having failed to do its job in piercing their strong hides fully.

Slimy quickly corrected that, earning a level in the process.

Not all pits however were murder holes, In other areas I had devised a snare system, created by using bricks for weights, bones, and spider silk. Not intended to capture anything like a slime or spider, but made to halt troop advances for the potential of drafting them into my army.

Or capturing the wayward human. If one could be so lucky.

I made my way to one such hole, eyeing the Capruxas within. My knowledge on the little green lizards weren’t the best, from my knowledge they were like snapping turtles, albeit ones that could grow to be upwards to ten to twenty feet and liked to consume minerals if my memory recalled correctly.

But that begged the question, where had they come from? Why hadn’t I seen them before?

Granted, a large portion of my floor still hadn’t been explored, but with all my monster slaying and collecting, I should have come across at least one or two…

In any case, another fine addition to my collection I suppose.

I reached out, my consciousness brushing against the minds of the capruxas trapped in the pit squirming around.

You. Are. Mine! I commanded, expecting the same result I got from dominating so many other monsters, yet oddly… this time it was different. There was resistance, like I was fighting against something. The same feeling I got when I dominated the spiders.

Could it be there was another dungeon core nearby? Were these its minions? Was that what had marked me? Was it angry that I had intruded on its domain?

I didn’t know, but it did warrant investigation.

I tried dominating the trio of capruxas again, this time putting a bit more of my will into it with their minds folding and adding three additional monsters into my army.

[You have laid claim to a minion!]

[What is this creature's name?]

Kappybara. Obviously with the other two named Cappy 1 and Cappy 2 respectively.

With their strong beaks, they would no doubt be useful in expanding my territory, breaking walls and excavating new paths, perhaps even opening the crumbled exit leading out of the catacombs.

Possibilities. Possibilities.

But first, I needed to replenish my army. Level them up and be prepared for the coming swarms. If there was another dungeon core nearby directing this attack, it would no doubt be hard at work gathering monsters for another go at me.

Which was fine. My minions could use the XP after all.

My only concern so far was if that dungeon core possessed a champion like I did, if it had monsters that were a step or two above the normal minions.

If so, it would be a losing situation if ever there was one. No. We needed to prepare.

I gave my order to Slimey who eagerly obliged, almost frantic to fulfill my orders.

If another dungeon core wanted war, so be it. After all, it had done a poor job of keeping the sewers clean, now it was my turn to take over, and I would be sure to take out the filth.

****

Observing the rubber duck, a large spider with yellow eyes hung at the far edge of the being’s “domain”, clinging to the shadows alongside a dozen red-eyed tarantuals that saw the bath toy directing its champion.

Rubbing its feelers together, the yellow-eyed spider gave a command that was emitted on a frequency unable to be picked up by the human ear, one that gave orders to be relayed back.

The Yellow-eyed was an evolved monster, two steps above the blind tarantuals the rubber duck had stolen from the matriarch, yet it wasn’t strong despite its size. On the contrary, it was quite weak, its abilities not for fighting, but probing, scouting, commanding.

The red-eyed spiders quickly scattered, moving through the shadows to give their report, ensuring that if they were attacked, at least one would make it back to their queen.