“Ah, I do not remember. Possibly. He had a hideous scar crossing his right eye. That’s all I know.”
“Gavin,” Bertha said with a nod. “It has to be. I attempted to hide our tracks, but he is an expert hunter who worked with the Sand Pirates. He will have no trouble finding us here.”
“Then we’ll prepare our dungeon for its first diver,” I said with a smile.
I could hardly wait.
Chapter Fourteen
“Master, I am unable to express my sorrow for having vexed you,” Puck said as he flew above my jewel.
“Well, I’m not angry,” I said. “I probably should be since you ought to have mentioned Gavin as soon as you returned. Honestly, I’m too damned excited to be mad with you.”
“Excited? Oh, yes! You are a dungeon, so you’ll be wanting to destroy anyone who enters your gates. Well, you don’t yet have gates, of course, but I am speaking in a metaphor, you understand?”
“I understand.”
Puck was starting to get on my nerves, and I was wondering whether it might have been a good idea to sacrifice him to the soul forge. Maybe he’d become less annoying after he evolved into a stronger creature.
“You’ve found a soul forge!” the imp yelled. “You can overwhelm him with sheer numbers. We won’t even have to fight him.”
I gritted my teeth, and my fangs curled against my skin. The soul forge wasn’t working yet, and unless I missed my guess, it needed something other than Infernal Essence, something more than I currently had to even start it up. Sure, it was a glowing monstrosity that looked a little intimidating, but I doubted Gavin would be deterred by a hunk of metal that didn’t do much except shine brightly.
The way Bertha now gripped her poleaxe like she was trying her damnedest to strangle it wasn’t encouraging either. Chances were, Gavin had all the intelligence of Bertha’s mother, and was far more dangerous than Jeff had been. He was the patriarch of the troll’s family, and a Sand Pirate to boot. I hadn’t encountered the band of pirates before, but the way Bertha said their name suggested they were hardened warriors.
I reached out with my consciousness to the jewel. In a second, I felt my being whirl back inside the now-familiar jewelled surface. But I was more than that, now. I was every inch of this dungeon. I was every step, every curve of the ceiling, every inch of the floor. I was a living, breathing, Infernal death-trap. Except—I hadn’t actually made any traps yet.
My elvish avatar had only spent a little over ten minutes outside my jewel, so he had fifty minutes to deal with the troll. I planned on using the most efficient method of taking care of Gavin, which meant enthralling him. I could probably force him to throw himself into a trap, but I had yet to design one. Quickly, I cast my mind over ideas, instantly settling upon the best option, the only ability I’d seen when Lilith had infused my soul with this jewel.
The humble Spring Trap.
Its structure and its composition were already in my mind. The trap was a simple, reflex-based mechanism built into a flat surface. Razor-sharp points would spring reflexively out of the upper layer, puncturing any creature unfortunate enough to trigger it. I hadn’t seen Gavin, but if he was anything like I’d come to expect from Jeff or Bertha’s mother, he was a stony mass of Infernal Essence. He probably wielded a weapon the size of a skyscraper or something.
Before I jumped straight into building a Spring Trap, I needed a backup plan in case the first failed. If I was somehow unable to enthrall Gavin, then a second tactic would have to come into play. I glanced around my dungeon to assess what else might be useful. Keeping the entrance tunnel sensitive to any disturbances in the air around it, I cast my mind over my dungeon. There wasn’t a single object here that would help against an intruder.
Something occurred to me when my senses drifted over the soul forge, and I realized I could use it as a distraction. As my senses washed over Bertha, I also realized she’d be incredibly useful. She was the one who could most closely match Gavin in close combat. Puck, with mobility and shadow-spheres, could slow him down and distract him. Then Bertha could either kill him or draw him to my trap, and that would probably enough to bring the huge troll down.
It had to be. I couldn’t let the troll walk out of here with my core.
The form of the trap was relatively simple; spikes shot out from holes drilled into the floor with a pressure-trigger beneath the floor to activate it. The trigger required the firm bread-rock for its structure and the spikes needed obsidian because of its brittle sharpness. There was no electric cabling, no moving gears, or anything of the sort. The name made me think there’d be a kind of spring mechanism, but it worked reflexively, just like a leg kicking when you tapped its knee with a hammer.
Where to put it?
Hell, where was better than the center of the antechamber?
I focused on the newly-formed trap and felt my will warm up the device. I vibrated the rock beneath until the stone liquified and became malleable, and then slotted the spikes underneath. The effect was instantaneous. All it needed now was for someone to step on it.
Zagorath built Floor Spike Trap (Obsidian + Bread-rock)
Cost: 300 Physical Essence
“Wish I’d brought a whetstone,” Bertha muttered as she glanced over her weapon’s keen edge.
“We’ll have to make do,” I relayed back.
I explained my plan to her and Puck, and their mouths set into firm lines of determination.
“I’ll make you proud,” Bertha said.
“What can I do?” Puck asked, whipping around the half-troll’s head.
I fixated on him, sending a silent answer. “What you do best, Puck.” My jewel glowed with an evil
