The Dungeon Lord and the 1st true Dungeon defense.

"Ruyk, stop playing around! I need to know how many!"

"There are a lot! Like lots of lots! Like impossible to count all!"

This will not work, let's change the question.

"Are there more orcs on the entrance than elves on the cave?"

"Hmm....yes!"

I looked at Stone in the eyes, he looked back at me.

Love's in the air-NOT! We got a problem!

"I will call all able fighters!"

"OK, I will make the tunnel thinner to make shooting easier. Ruyk, stay here observing the orcs, come warn me as soon as they enter that door!"

"Yes, Master!"

Stone left the tunnel in a hurry while I stayed behind to adjust our defenses.

Making the corridor thinner was fairly easy for me, so it only took several minutes. After I was done, so I went back to the wall I made before than made sure it was as high as it could be. Unfortunately the highest it could be was not high enough and there was nothing I could do.

Hmm...what else can I do?

Time flies when we are busy and just as I stopped to scratch my head, trying to think on a plan, Stone arrived back with a group of elven soldiers who were helping organizing the camp.

"Welcome back."

"Hmm. How are things? Have they started moving?"

"Not yet. I left Ruyk watching, he should inform us as soon as they appear."

"So, did you tell Bia about the problem?"

"I did, but they were not ready for action. It's going to take them another ten, fifteen minutes to prepare, so I thought it was better to come back earlier."

"Fifteen minutes? Why do they need this much time?"

"They need to put armor and get their potions ready..."

"Sigh...I wish they took things a bit more serious..."

My talk with Stone was interrupted by Ruyk's scream from afar.

"MASTER!!!!!!!!!!!!"

"Well, it seems like they are finally moving out."

"Yeah."

Stone turned to his warriors and started a speech to rise the moral. I turned to Ruyk who just arrived and gave him new orders.

"Go to the skeletons guarding the next floor and bring them here. Also bring the kid's wolf, it should be able to help us out as well. And....no, that's it. Go!"

Fearing that if I ask any more Ruyk will forget one of the first orders, I let him go with only two tasks...

I turned to Stone again and saw him distributing glowing arrows to the archers.

"What are these?"

"These are magic arrows. They have increased penetration, dealing more damage and piercing common shields."

"You lost your castle even having things like this?!"

"They take time to prepare and have to be used in less than a week after being made or the spell starts losing it's effect. Actually because of the elders conservative decisions the arrows were not ready in time for that battle, or else the result would be different. To ensure the same mistake didn't happen again Geo ordered us to keep making them no matter if we were going to lose them or not."

"It seems I will have to thank Geo later."

"Yeah, but we have to survive first."

As we were talking, one of the archers suddenly called out.

"They are coming!"

Considering the extra mana I had stored I decided to cast my most destructive spell, Fireball.

Concentrating mana on my finger, I started drawing the magic circle in the air. It was a slow process but it was the best I could do now as I had no personal grimoire nor spell seals. On the bright side, because of the material constraints being lift I could overflow the circle with Mana and make my fireballs a lot stronger than the normal spell.

As I finished drawing the magic circle the enemies arrived at the other side of the corridor, so I released my magic at the same time the elves shot their arrows.

Boom!

Our attack catch the enemy unprepared and we killed them all at once and just as I wanted to commemorate a job well done another group of enemies appeared.

"Fuck! There are more of them!"

At my side Stone drew his bow again and shouted as he shot a new arrow.

"Don't panic! All we need to do is keep keep shooting! We got thousands of arrows left and they have nowhere to run!!"

He was right, it was no time to panic. I took a deep breath and started preparing magic again.

As they shot another one, two barrages of arrows the second group succumbed as well, but situation wasn't good at all. The third group, who was just after the second was already half way through the corridor and our archers arms were starting to tire from the repeated shooting.

Shoo!

Shoo!

Shoo!

BOOOM!

The third group was mostly killed, I finally finished charging my magic and exploded the fourth group who was midway through.

"Charge! Full speed! Go Go Go!!!"

On the other side I heard an orc shouting as soon as my explosion was over. The other orcs obeyed his command and started a reckless charge instead of the defensive march they were using up until now.

Our archers did what they could and reduced their numbers by half but there were just too many and soon they started to reach the wall that separated us. Our lancer started doing their job, piercing and hand or head that appeared climbing the walls or sometimes simply kicking them back.

The situation stabilized and I started thinking that if nothing changed the victory would be ours, unfortunately as the seventh and eighth groups of enemies were charging toward us something did change, we stated running out of arrows! With no arrows to shoot, the archers grabbed whatever dagger, sword or spear they could find and joined the melee.

I saw another two groups arriving and hastened my fireball, destroying one of them, as for the other, they joined the meele and started putting pressure on us and winning space over our walls.

At this time Ruyk arrived back, bringing with him the thunder wolf and the skeletons. With their strength added to our side balance was once again recovered but it was just a matter of time until our defense collapse as our warriors moves were getting slower and slower due to fatigue.

And then it happened. The first elf fell, and then the second and a third.

Stone was with them, doing his best to help out, when he was pieced hi the back by an orc who just climbed the wall. He cried out in one last move tackling the orc who cut him and pushing him out of the wall.

But the orcs didn't stop, they kept climbing over one after another and soon the only thing between me and them was the young thunder wolf. As for Ryuk and the skeletons, I had lost sight of them.

The young wolf bravely fought, taking one orc after another. While his fur was unable to generate deadly thunder, the lower voltage it could generate already proved useful as most of the orcs who touched it's fur were temporarily paralyzed. Unfortunately war was no game and the orcs soon joined together and assaulted the young wolf all at once, killing him.

Seeing them succeed in destroying my last defense, I gave up casting my magic and took out my war hammer. Instead of waiting them to attack me, I charged at the closest and hit toward his head with all my strength. The orc who laughed at me, thinking I was just a skinny mage, got the last surprise of his life as his weapon broke and moments later so did his head.

The orcs around me got surprised at my strength and couldn't react in time as I attacked again and again, taking our another three orcs with exactly the same brute strength strategy. Finally they woke up from their day dream and started taking actions to surround me. As for me, I started slowly retreating again and again until my back hit against the wall.

Fuck! Is this it? My life is over?

I saw their weapons approaching me in slow motion as I covered my body with Mana, trying to protect myself.

Bang, the first weapon clashed against my war hammer, sending my body in direction of the wall. I closed my eyes waiting for the collision...

.

..

...

??

I opened my eyes again and discovered I was inside the walls.

FUCK! I FORGOT TO TURN OFF BUILDING MODE!

Luckily that was what saved me.

I Activated Mana sight and saw the orcs confused close to the wall.

Directing my Mana to cover my war hammer, I did a full swing and killed the curious orc with a single smash.

How was that saying? Curiosity killed the cat? Well, more like curiosity killed the orc!

Unfortunately the kittens(orcs) got scared and stepped away from the walls.

With me out of danger, I took the time to take a look around and decide on what to do.

I couldn't let situation keep scaling like this, I had to turn it over right now.

Then I remember how much trouble they had to kill a single thunder wolf.

If one gives them this much trouble, what about ten?

Maybe ten is wishful thinking-Wait! No! Maybe I can do it!

I had a lot of topaz and silver, the only problem was Mana. But as the battle progressed, the orcs were killed and the Dungeon started absorbing more and more Mana. Right now the last thing I was lacking was Mana! As I looked over the menu, it was over eight thousand units!

OK, I can do this!

I swam through the walls until I reached the other side of the tunnels where the orcs were coming from.

Then I made a little closed room and started summoning.

"Summon! Ten Thunder Wolves babies!"

[Understood!]

The light from the summoning circle illuminated the room and soon the wolves appeared in front of me. I opened the passage and shouted.

"Attack!!!"

The puppies followed their instincts and pounced over the orc's backs, biting their necks.

The surprise attack was super effective but soon the orcs started to respond.

This is not enough, I need more!

"Summon! Ten Thunder Wolves babies!"

[Understood!]

...

"Attack!"

One more time!

"Summon! Ten Thunder Wolves babies!"

[Understood!]

...

"Attack!"

Good! This seems to be enough!

I took out my war hammer and charged at the confused orcs, killing them one by one as I led my puppies army to counter attack the orcs.

As we entered the corridor the orcs got confused, not understand what was going on. The one who commanded them was nowhere to be found and their reinforcements had turned into wolves who were attacking them from behind. Seeing their confusion I didn't let the chance slide, and ordered the wolves to attack.

The battle ended fairly fast as there was only a few groups of orcs left. Our numbers were the same but that's where the similarities ended. My wolves were energetic and ready while the orcs where either tired or confused.

Finally, as the last group fell below the wall, I saw over the wall a few familiar faces looking down. There was the Mad Dog, the Twins, the Berserker and Bia's boyfriend along a dozen or so of surviving elves whose name I don't know.

Stone was not there...neither was the skeletons, nor Ruyk...

.

..

...

Sigh...

And so, I collapsed.