The sunlight frames the silhouettes of the summoned.
The four advance walking in a single file, finally revealing themselves to the bewildered expressions of the dark elves. Shadowkiss's gaze sweeps over the four.
"That is the ugliest human I have ever seen!" the young elf declares, covering her face with both hands, as if bad looks were a sin to her.
From left to right: A frail skeleton with a stone ax; a human man with a unibrow and a protruding forehead, dressed in rudimentary pelts; a long-nosed goblin in a loincloth, this being the most normal of the group; and finally, on the right, some sort of hairless rat nibbling under its wing.
«What are those things?!»
Jimbo is just as bewildered as the dark elves. He didn't expect to summon the most powerful creatures in the world, but this...
«This is pathetic!»
He doubts his four summons could scrape together twenty neurons between them. The human, although large and muscular, has an air of imperturbable stupidity in his distant eyes, as if his skull were empty.
«At least the skeleton looks more normal...»
At the exact same time Jimbo mutters that, the undead takes a step forward, seemingly aiming to do something useful like saving the father and the girl. Instead, it drops to one knee, opens its mouth, and turns into a pile of ash.
«What...?»
Tip: Low-level undead are very vulnerable to sunlight.
«You could have told me that earlier!»
While Jimbo pulls his ethereal hair, Shadowkiss looks at her soldiers and points at the caveman with one hand.
"Eliminate that thing before I can't unsee it!"
The dark elves step forward smiling, as if they enjoy the act of murder.
«Anyway, let's make this count.»
Unlike a PC where he had to use a mouse or keyboard to issue orders, here Jim only needs to think to execute them.
«All-out attack!»
As if a switch had been flipped in the summons' heads, the three shift from placidity to hostility, throwing themselves at the elves.
The primitive imp is pierced mid-air by the tip of a spear. The goblin is cleaved in half at the waist by a slash from the second soldier. The third elf sinks his plenilunium sword into the caveman's belly, confident that will kill the man. But the primitive version of humans proves to be far more resilient than expected.
Even with the sword embedded in him, the caveman grabs the elf's head and delivers a headbutt. Something crunches. The elf falls flat on his back, his nose broken and bleeding. The human, teeth gritted and eyes imbued with animalistic fury, grabs the plenilunium sword and pulls it out of his guts, immediately throwing himself at the spearman.
The spearman blocks the downward slash with the shaft of his spear. The force of the strike is enough to send sparks flying from the metal. The caveman continues swinging the sword as if it were a club. The spearman takes a step back with each new blocked strike, his beautiful face soon bathed in sweat, unsure how to handle a human fighting like a beast.
A light body sits on the caveman's shoulders. Shadowkiss, holding a plenilunium dagger in each hand, licks her lips and makes both blades whistle. The leaves slice through flesh and bone as if it were butter.
The chunks of the caveman's head hit the ground, followed by the body. Shadowkiss stands up from the corpse and steps back, contemplating it for a few seconds before kicking it in the side. The young elf's gaze shifts to the spearman, who wears a displeased frown over how the combat played out.
"I had it completely under control..." the spearman says, his pride wounded.
"No. I had it under control," Shadowkiss asserts with a mocking lilt. She twirls the plenilunium daggers between her fingers before returning them to her belt sheaths. The girl turns and sees one of her soldiers helping the elf with the broken nose. In a more normal situation, Shadowkiss would mock that display of empathy and weakness, but she keeps thinking about what just happened.
Where did those four come from, and why were they together? The human wasn't normal, and the Imp looked even dumber than usual. Perhaps they were circus freaks? It was possible, though that didn't explain the appearance of the undead.
"Oh, damn it!" Shadowkiss's eyes widen as she remembers she forgot someone, and when she turns to look, she discovers the father and the girl are gone.
In a nearby alley, a second undead, protected from the sun by the shadows cast by the walls, places the unconscious man in a corner. The girl, who had followed behind the skeleton, wastes no time kneeling beside her father to make sure he is alright. The young peasant girl stares at the skeleton and swallows hard.
"Thank you for everything..." the girl says, stuttering, barely containing the instinctive fear the dead provoke in the living. But after everything that happened, the girl fears the dark elves more than the skeletons.
The undead does not respond; it simply steps back out of the alley into the street, stepping into the sunlight and turning to dust, thus fulfilling the final orders issued by the Dungeon Core.
Note: All units were eliminated.
As soon as the teenage elf prepared to execute the caveman, Jim understood that none of his summons would be able to deal with the enemy's elite units. Besides, he still felt a strong repulsion toward the bloody images of the battle, and he zoomed out to avoid seeing the man die.
«All units were eliminated...»
Jim repeats to himself the message appearing in the corner of his eye.
«It feels different...»
In video games, losing generic units is something natural, even inevitable. But now, in this fantasy world, where his summons seem to carry almost the same weight as those born and raised by their parents, it brings a strange lump to Jim's ethereal throat.
«It doesn't matter...»
He decides not to overthink it.
As he moves away, he summons a skeleton in an alley to verify if staying in the shadows prevents it from evaporating. The experiment proves positive, so Jim orders the undead to rescue the father and the girl, and then disappear.
Jimbo once again peeks over the edge of the outer wall. The riders are two minutes away. 120 seconds until the end of the kingdom he was entrusted to protect.
«If attacking isn't the optimal choice, then...»
He quickly navigates to the construction section and flashes a half-smile upon confirming he has the repair option. However, when he tries to fix it, the system in which he floats denies him the possibility.
Note: The structure does not match the Dungeon Core's Age.
Age? What does that mean? Jimbo was about to scream in complaint, but a new message pops up.
Note: Do you wish to replace the structure with one matching your Age?