Bonded Summoner-Chapter 13BS7 - : Battlefield Skirmish

Because of just how busy the floor was, Jake knew it was a good idea to build up some additional defenses. The second Tier druids brought out their own prepared seeds, combined with Tanda’s special seeds, added living plants in a layer behind the walls.

When Jake had chosen the Elysians for their Mass Migration, he knew that they would be excellent defenders. But he had no idea that they would also be an amazing engineering corp, capable of building defenses rapidly on the fly. With the numerous hostile plants of Highlands, they were able to make deadly fields capable of attack or defense.

The treants and druids built up walls of plants, which would aid in any threat Tartarus tried to throw at them. The only reason they hadn’t much used them or grown up the defenses further prior to this moment was that the Outpost system wouldn’t allow for permanent constructions for very long.

They would get worn away and absorbed into the Outpost in time, if the Outpost system wasn’t used to create them in the first place. Since the bolstered defenses were only needed for the next day or so, Jake felt that was good enough for their purposes. The stone walls were now reinforced by a secondary wall of plants and rapidly grown trees, providing a second layer of defenses. Around the Node, some vine spitters and thick woven vines would provide a place of retreat as well.

The five hundred on the floor were far from all the Hearthtribe in the dungeon. Because of how the paths split into many destinations, just two or three floors deep already had dozens of potential floors, and they had presences on all of them. Not only that, but many Hearthtribe were traveling and aiding others throughout their holdings–their owned worlds, which were recently at war. Thousands were busy with their humanitarian efforts and personal training, as a Hearthtribe member should be.

It was more or less a requirement for them to have a token presence on every one of the floors in the dungeon, farming resources and protecting the Outposts within the various events. It required substantial organization and investment, and Jake could see why many Guilds did not spend as much effort in the dungeon as they did on Contested Worlds.

When they received word that a small number of reinforcements had arrived from the nearest floors to bolster their defenses if the worst came to pass, they began to move out. They didn’t want more on this floor unless it was truly needed, as certain events scaled on the number of participants. Having them just a quick call away, in the mana stone floor or at the entry to the dungeon, was for the best.

They organized their parties, making sure they had the strongest hundred in battle power among them to assault the event. They marched to the gate, though it wasn’t very far–clearly in view from the Outpost walls, only about twenty miles away. For people in the second Tier, they could run or fly over in mere minutes.

As they neared the gate, it looked similar to the others that had unlocked a floor. However, it did appear a little different. The depictions of horror on the pillars of the gate looked more ominous, and the gate had a dark red hue as opposed to others which had ambiguous darker, almost black hues.

It was on a hill between the two hills and a distance off center. Across from the hill that held their Outpost, there was one that looked suspiciously similar to the hill their Outpost sat on.

Brock spoke up, “This one seems a little different from the other gates we’ve found?”

Morwen spoke from the back of Bedwyr’s mount. “This challenge. What it unlocks will not be a simple floor. You could see the purpose of these challenges for the gates as being two-fold. The first, is the Framework making sure that we are ready. By opening the gate, the threat within the overall dungeon, all floors beneath it, will have increased. If left unchecked, the other side of the gate would become a place for monsters to pool up and eventually come through, potentially cascading through the floors until they reach Highlands should we lose it.”

She let that sink in for a moment, and then continued, “The second is for us to earn a major benefit. What’s in this special event will be valuable, but it will likely be difficult to defend.”

What Morwen said was true, and the Framework scripts on the gate matched that. It said little more than that this was a Pandora’s Box, and only Guilds or Worlds that were ready for the overall dungeon difficulty to increase should continue. Whether this opened a new path to another floor of the dungeon, or opened a weekly mini-boss event, things would get more difficult.

Even with the danger, the dungeon was like a natural resource of great value. The Outposts were not merely a useless village in the middle of the dungeon, that had no meaning beyond the enemy attacks or threat of Monster Tides for the natives of the world. Even if they didn’t develop them into what they eventually became.

Whether it be farming monsters for experience or their drops, to mining the blue stones from the walls, each and every floor had immense utility. Some of the Outposts even had special ways to convert resources into refined materials, making them like money producing factories.

And the experience–many worlds were stuck early in the Second Tier. By fighting and living deep in the dungeon, the residents could transcend the world’s limitations–even if they never joined the Framework, thanks to the energy density. Not only that, but entire worlds could be earned, and improvements to the world they were fighting for could also be claimed.

Of course, there was a different, very important danger regarding fighting in the dungeon.

If you were doing that, then who was defending and winning back Contested Worlds? Thankfully, if a world or guild wanted to retreat from the dungeon, it was possible to close the gates to reduce their investment in the dungeon–it just required its own time and resource investment.

Tanda noted, “I wish we knew what we were trying to earn here, so we could focus our efforts on only the best stuff. Or maybe the best fights!”

Vesuvius grinned. “Our people enjoyed this floor the most because it resonated with us. Why not go further down the path? If it was a mistake, we’ll have learned our lesson and focus our efforts everywhere next time.”

Roxo, the raptor parentage beastkin said, “My wives couldn’t see much of what happened today in their dreams. But they felt…what happened today was a good thing.”

Fhesiah and Ira both scanned the surrounding area, and there were numerous avian beastkin flying around the Outpost, looking for threats. They checked within dozens of miles, but they didn’t find anything significant for an enemy plot. The floor was now quiet, now that the waves had been dealt with.

As they entered the portal, it turned red. It gave them a period to enter, before the event would begin, even without the recommended number of participants. Eventually, the maximum entered, Jake’s party taking over twenty members, despite having sealed most of his wives.

It was because Champions were worth even more in this Tier than the five they were worth in the first Tier, at seven. The reasons were numerous, but the difference between an average warrior and a Champion only got larger and larger as they went up in Tier.

Very few could overcome this difference. The closest he had heard of, was that with enough time, the most devout clergy of a god or goddess could build up enough faith energy in their vessel that they could certainly come close. But it was usually by fighting downward in Tier, from the fourth to the third, and similar.

Then, even sealed, Fhesiah, Tanda, and Bloodberri each still took more than one. The reason appeared to be related to their third Tier Race rather than their sealed status, but it was unclear. On the other hand, spriggons took less than one, at a half. There were only a small number of these that had reached the second Tier, and a majority of them traveled with the Ravenwolf clan or with their monster tamers.

They had brought a number of extra warriors on their trip to the gate, but not a large percentage of their forces. Whatever threat would come, the truth was that Hearthtribe’s elites were a part of this roughly seventy participants.

If they needed help due to some Tartarus plot, then it was much better for the large number at the Outpost to come flank the enemy instead once they came out, rather than get hit and defeated while the elites were inside.

Arriving on the other side of the portal, the battlefield they found themselves placed in was much like the jungle of the floor they were in, just in a giant clearing.

They all received a prompt the moment they arrived.

[Battle will begin shortly. You have a period of one minute to prepare for battle.]

All of their buffs, and Jake’s summons were cancelled upon entry, so he had to buff everyone up again with his Divine Reinforcement. Bloodberri couldn’t use her Twilight Monarch aura, so she used her old Armor of Faith ability on Jake and herself, like usual.

Once again, Jake worked to bring out Avalara and Bree, as he read over the prompt.

[Event: Battlefield Skirmish]

[Defeat the Bloodwrought army for victory. Alliance Defeat will result in a Monster Tide and lose rights to earn Gate contents, closing forever. Victory will provide Tailored Potential Improvement Reward and begin the Resource War Battleground.]

[2 Champions Present. In addition to reduced Alliance Battlegroup participant numbers, difficulty has been increased. Bloodwrought Abominations have been added to the enemy army, and the Personal Rewards have been increased.]

[The Bloodwrought are a race of beastkin with a cursed vitality, survivors of an ancient war that went too far. Drinking from a tainted well of a deceased god, they perverted their blood and their minds. Losing their sanity, they were forced into an endless cycle of mutation and slaughter. Fueled by their rage and corrupted regeneration, they fight and mutate endlessly during battle.]

Jake was not surprised at the prompt, as it was almost exactly what he had predicted. However, he was still a bit shocked by the specifics.

It was an evil enemy race, and the part that surprised him was what they were.

As the enemy army appeared some distance away, he realized they almost looked like beastkin, but their bodies were covered in eerie, pulsing veins that glowed either red or violet. Their eyes were crimson, and they did not wield weapons.

Instead, jagged serrated bone blades or spines protruded from their skin or fur all over, making them like living weapons. Each had a bestial, feral look in their expressions, and many had fur or scales and muzzled faces like different animals, much like the Highlands beastkin with heavy beast blood.

They were like a twisted version of the beastkin, that had been cursed or tainted. Some of them were quite large, bigger than Vesuvius after he enlarged himself, while others were smaller humanoids.

And while they had feral looks, some of the smaller peoples’ eyes shone with evil intelligence. The smaller ones held staves covered with skulls and other bones, making Jake think that they were some form of shaman or witch doctor.

The Bloodwrought Abominations towered over the rear of the enemy army, reminding Jake of the many bone monstrosities they had faced on Highlands. They were massive six-legged creatures, stomping forward like giant lizards with grotesque heads with several mouths with too many teeth. They had tails in the back of them, which also…had several mouths and spikes and more.

Their torsos were like a mound of grotesque blood and flesh, pulsing to the beat of their many hearts. Fleshy tentacles filled with the nasty veins and serrated or bladed bones undulated from the torso area as the monsters moved. Thankfully, the creatures appeared to be relatively slow.

There appeared to be almost exactly a hundred of the Bloodwrought, making this like a PvP battle or war. Combined with their battlefield, it felt like a preview for what they would see shortly–the enemies they would face in the Resource War Battleground. Thanks to them appearing a distance away, they had time to prepare beyond the initial minute they were given.

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Jake’s Aura pulsed as he raised his staff in the air. His desire was sent out to the beastkin, speaking aloud only so the Elysians and Emberborn could hear.

“Spread out and form battle lines. Buff, entrench, and control.”

The Elysians had always been experts in defense of their home. With Avalara and Tanda’s Sublimation, this became effective even without them being next to the World Tree. The Highlands jungle appeared and started to grow, grass, bushes and trees rising from the fertile ground around them, joining the floor’s jungle and taking it over.

Drysander and a second treant stomped forward, and began rooting themselves into the ground–entrenching twenty meters away from each other at the edge.

Even though the larger, giant-like Bloodwrought approached in the front of the enemy’s army, Jake was confident in their sturdiness. When the treants had their roots in the ground, especially fertile ground like the jungle on Highlands or the special floor they were now in, they would heal on their own rapidly, making them powerful undying tanks.

Of course, Avalara, Bree, Darris, and a giant Vesuvius would help take on the enemy’s charge, and they took their places between the treants. Even Darris grew now as well, just not as much as Vesuvius did.

Beastkin and Servants of Arawn with shields lined the front of the battle line they formed, and warriors with polearms stood behind them. Around thirty warriors stood in the front, ready to take the army’s charge.

A few standouts Jake noticed were some nethril warriors, ex beastkin betrayers finding penitence, and one true nethril beastkin–a large mammoth that he knew Timone and Dahlia had faced.

It seemed that the nethril beastkin betrayers kept their intelligence thanks to the ritual, and the non-betrayers seemed to regain some of it once they reached the second Tier. The mammoth beastkin had some of his memories restored, and there were new nethril beastkin appearing all across Highlands. It would take a few more years, but he assumed eventually he may have a lot more nethril beastkin in Hearthtribe that helped maintain the balance and punish evil alike.

Many of them were like newly born children at the moment, but as they listened to the song of the world, they would grow. The mammoth was especially old and had been a rare one that survived for a long time, and this was why he was one of the only ones present.

The beastkin clergy and Elysian druids all added their spells onto the beastkin and treants, empowering them. Morwen added her buffs of enhanced bone to the reptile beastkin, as well as her husband, Bedwyr, causing their bone armor to grow out from their special armors.

Celtic runes now lined nearly all their equipment, empowering them as they were enhanced with Auril. Jake, while working with many beastkin enchanters, had added many songs to the gear to accomplish numerous things. Their auril hide and bone armors were like extensions of their bodies, and their special woods and metals going into their weapons were the same.

And finally, the control began on the incoming enemies.

Turbulent winds started to blow, the elemental druids beginning to slow the enemy’s approach as they built up storm clouds above them. Vines grew out from the ground, the nature druids growing and wrapping entangling plants around the incoming enemy’s bodies, a field of dangerous thorns appearing between the two armies.

The tainted beastkin had little difficulty cutting through the vines and barely bled from the thorns as their bladed bodies passed through, but many had slowed their approach in trying to remove them.

Already, the enemy was becoming scattered as a result, only the biggest warriors nearing the front lines unimpeded. Compared to Hearthtribe with its well-formed battle lines, it was clear who would have the advantage.

The Priestesses of Arawn completed a magic circle, releasing several large novas of frost scattered throughout the enemy ranks, like giant rings of blue ice exploding outward among them. Morwen started building up toward her special spell enhanced by her faith in Arawn, her Winter’s Embrace. Many of the tainted beastkin were frozen or slowed from being struck by the waves of frost, but others continued unimpeded.

The shamanic casters in the back of the enemy ranks all began to gather magical energy, and the frozen tainted beastkin’s veins started to pulse together, to a beat of a twisted heart. This seemed to embolden them, making them rush a little faster or break from their fetters of ice, with a hungry ferocity.

As the other enemies neared, arrows and javelins were rained onto them, and explosions of flame knocked into them and tore flesh from their bodies. The manifestations of animal attacks enhanced by Jake’s flames from the Highlands beastkin were especially powerful, but the odd pulsing veins of the tainted beastkin produced some strange results.

Where a limb was torn off, the veins within them pulsed a deeper color, and another, somehow improved limb covered in blood grew to replace it. Thicker and sturdier, somehow.

Where flesh was pierced and blood splattered, new, gross flesh was replaced, sometimes with bone. The new limbs or flesh were twisted amalgamations of tissue, blood, and bone, as the monstrous people mutated through battle.

This all happened rapidly. It only took a few seconds for the lost limb or missing flesh to heal over, the monstrous people restoring themselves after taking damage.

Jake could feel the unease of the Highlands beastkin seeing these horrible enemies in action. This was similar to what they would have become had they lost to the death god. A twisted version of themselves, a perversion of the life they held as sacred.

He and his wives mostly held off from participating, for the moment. It was important to understand their enemy, as once they won, their people would be fighting them potentially frequently, and at least during the Battleground challenge, it seemed.

Then, even from the prompt, it was like the Abominations were their responsibility, a creature added by Jake and Ophelia’s participation in this battle alone. As the giant creatures were still stomping toward their army and lagging behind in the back of theirs, they left things as they were for now.

They did their own tests, however. Darts of Fhesiah’s draconic and kitsune flames smacked into the tainted beastkin, setting them alight. Ophelia sent her own vajrafire flames as well in the forms of spears, and Berri and Blood sent their holy light and dark flames, and Tanda fired her arrows using her cyclic avenging, deathly flames.

Jake held off with doing more than casting small spells with his regenerated mana, as much of it was reserved for Bree and Avalara. The two were protecting the treant’s and beastkin’s flanks, Bree with her dinodog auril summons, and Avalara had actually formed two of her own–stags that looked a lot like Oran the Stag.

Watching closely with his Umbral Gaze, Jake could see the tainted veins being burned away by their flames. Where this occurred, the flesh didn’t grow back. It seemed that in order for it to regrow something, a tainted vein needed to be at least near that portion of their flesh.

He could see this was the case with the attacks blessed by the many clergy, their holy nature purifying the taint within them. When many limbs or bones were lost, they did not grow back. Thanks to Jake’s explosive aura, which didn’t apply to a hundred percent of a person’s attacks, some of the Bloodwrought fell and did not get back up after just a few hits.

Nearly two dozen–a quarter of them had already been taken down by the ranged attacks, and none of them had even made it to melee yet.

That was until a malicious wave of red and violet pulsed out from the witch doctors, the skulls on their demented staves shaking and their blackened teeth chattering. The tainted hearts of the downed and damaged beastkin pulsed as they were revitalized, and veins regrew throughout the flesh of the bodies.

Limbs and bones then burst forth through their flesh as the previously dead beastkin stood, even those that appeared to be missing a head. They continued with a single-minded purpose, to rush toward Jake’s army. The only ones that remained dead appeared to be the ones that lost their hearts.

Valora whinnied, and Ophelia snorted. “You got that right, Val. Totally gross. Guess we have our target now, huh?”

Jake signaled his intent to the beastkin with his will, and said, “Target the casters. Make this the first priority for all ranged to take them all down. Do your best to target the Bloodwrought’s hearts.”

The army of tainted beastkin reached the Highlands jungle area, a domain that now took up a good portion of the battlefield. The two treants were rooted near the edge of it, their bodies ready to take on the large incoming tainted enemies. They had grown from all the magic infused into them, and Jake knew they also had skills to absorb the plants near them or merge with them and control them.

A large tainted bearlike beastkin was quickly met with Drysander’s giant axe, the blade cutting deeply into the monster. One of Jake and Tanda’s enchanted works, even being near Avalara’s Sublimation caused the Celtic runes to light up with the energy, making the weapon sharp and fierce.

Rootivian the Third hit the incoming Bloodwrought with a powerful downward stroke of his large maul that sent the large rhinoceros-like tainted beastkin crashing to the ground, ending its charge and digging its face deep into the ground. Many of its protective bones had shattered by the blow, and now the many beastkin leaped to attack, cutting and piercing into the downed, larger monster’s flesh.

Berri pumped her fist as Blood prepared one of her super baseballs, and infused the runes with her hearth mana. “Yes! Get him Root! You are Root!”

Rootivian laughed at Berri’s enthusiasm, and seemed to get pumped up too as he fought the large monster in front of him. “Hahaha, yes. I am Root! Taste nature’s fury, heathens!”

With a loud crack, Berri’s swung living weapon sent the super baseball like it was fired from a canon. It struck one of the witch doctors right in the chest, and the ball exploded into flaming shrapnel, shredding through the caster’s body and setting it and the nearby enemies aflame.

Tanda and Rookard, among the other beastkin archers, were now on the hunt, sending powerful sniping shots toward the shamans and witch doctors in the back. It seemed that avian beastkin and the smaller reptile beastkin often chose archery as their specialty, so they now worked to take down the enemy effectively.

Nadessa and a few of the elemental druids sent dark clouds pushing through the winds, a large thunderstorm now brewing above the enemy army. Lightning occasionally blasted downward, shredding and scorching the taller beastkin’s flesh.

Among the enemy Bloodwrought were smaller warriors compared to their larger counterparts. They roared, and covered themselves with blood from their fallen allies. They then fought with unnatural haste, and their bone blades now had a sickly red or violet glowing edge. It seemed their powers were truly varied, the Bloodwrought capable of numerous things–much like the Highlands beastkin.

Fhesiah hummed. “It seems if Ruby were here, she’d be quite effective against these people. It’s too bad she’s busy on Aetheris.”

Avalara and Bree were crushing the enemies and their vines were piercing enemy’s hearts, and the beastkin worked in harmony to slay the incoming horde of beastkin. Because the enemy were now in melee, the warriors had stopped throwing javelins and joined the fray, and only the avian beastkin avoided this.

The enemy’s extra bladed, mutated limbs and serrated bones were dangerous, but the beastkin were experts at melee combat. Despite their enemies often being larger, they were met with rune-covered shields and polearms, magical manifestations of defensive animals like turtle shells, thick scales, or deadly claws.

The Highlands beastkin and the Elysians dismantled the Bloodwrought with superior skill, training and equipment, and Jake was proud to see it. And for where these things were found lacking, or their enemy overwhelmed their flank, their Chief Jake protected them with his mere Champion Presence.

The melee had appeared to be an easy victory at first, because Hearthtribe was outmatching their enemies in ranged attacks and control. But Jake had noticed something with his Umbral Gaze. The blood which splattered onto his ally’s flesh or even bark in the case of the treants, were starting to taint those that were injured.

It was happening rapidly, and their bodies were starting to become unresponsive. Jake was forced to create a barrier for Rootivian, and Ophelia triggered Sentinel on Drysander, shielding them and coming to their aid on Valora.

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Just before the tainted blood could take over their hearts, Jake and Ophelia cast Renewal on them. Ophelia with her skill with the flames of Hestia, and Jake with his flames of Hestia from his Hearth, their Purifying Flames clearing the tainted blood from them.

Having spent weeks and months practicing with his 2nd Tier Hearth Control, he could now reproduce this spell in its entirety, using his own flames, or Hestia’s.

There was not a significant difference between the two flames, only that hers were more holy. Because his also had a divine quality, his could accomplish many of the same things. He could convert his hearth mana into Hestia’s flames at a decent rate, but it wasn’t like it was one to one.

Typically, he still found it worthwhile to do anytime where there was something to purify, otherwise his flames more than sufficed for the job.

He spoke his thoughts, enhancing his voice with mana. “The enemy taints us with their blood. Clergy, purify those who have been wounded. Warriors, protect yourselves from their blood wherever possible.”

Of course, that wasn’t something easy to accomplish. Not only because striking the enemy was required, and blood would often erupt as a result, but the enemy was also attacking with their blood somewhat.

Their blood was lining their bone weapons, almost like a venom applied, or strange fleshlike blood as part of their mutated limbs. So Jake’s request was similar to asking them to, ‘try not to get hurt guys,’ an impossible request on a battlefield. Still, he hoped they would try to fight a little more defensively. And by how the beastkin and servants of Arawn tightened their formations, he saw they were doing their best.

Grayson chuckled. “Right away, Chief.” An orb of water formed as he and his nymph wife manifested, gathered and then sent a wave of water washing over their allies on the front lines, with the purification and healing powers of Brigid contained within.

To Jake’s surprise, this also harmed the tainted beastkin, the enemy beastkin roaring out in pain. It was like they were dunked in boiling water, and their pulsing veins started to recede within them. He wished they had more nymphs along with them now, but their numbers were too few. There was much more back at the Outpost, so he would remember the water’s effectiveness.

The enemies started to fall rapidly, but the abominations were now nearing the battle lines. The enemy casters were the ones at the furthest back who had died, and tentacles now picked up what remained of their corpses.

The casters Bloodberri, Tanda, or Fhesiah had focused on slaying, there was very little left, their bodies completely purified by the flames. But the ones their archers sniped and took out, much of their corpse was remaining.

The tentacles were reaching out and grabbing the corpses, and bringing them to one of their many, horrifying maws before they crunched and chewed on what was left. The blood entered their bloodstreams, and veins bulged and empowered them as their twisted hearts beat within them. The monster’s bodies pulsed with terrible energy, and started to grow slightly as a result.

Jake groaned. “Looks like we’re up, girls. We have abominations to kill.”