Bonded Summoner

Jake was just about to have his party move forward, but Morwen’s voice interrupted him.

“Not to worry, Lord Jake. Allow us to show our strength.” Her magic circle lit up, and she finished her spell: Winter’s Embrace.

It was like a portal were opened in the middle of the enemy formation to another world. It was one of frost and ice, and it rapidly replaced the jungle in a wave, converting it into a winter land of ice and snow.

Empowered by Morwen and seven priestesses of Arawn, the freezing cold spread from the middle of the enemy army, freezing the grass instantly and covering every enemy in its circular path. The cold wave struck the battle lines of the tainted fighting the beastkin, and it covered the abominations with intense cold.

It was stronger than previous castings by a fair margin, and with even fewer priestesses contributing their efforts. And not only that, he realized that they had completed the casting even faster.

Everything was nearly frozen over, but the veins within their bodies lit up inside their icy prisons, still pulsing. Some of the larger one tainted beastkin continued to move, but slowly.

The abominations weren’t completely frozen over, but they had been slowed by a thick layer of frost, their movements slowing to a crawl.

The casters in Hearthtribe’s army were not done. Nadessa and her mothers, along with druids riding in Rootivian’s boughs, added their elemental magics to the storm clouds above.

The storm had been randomly striking out occasionally. This build up was completely different by how the clouds rumbled and how there was a sort of polarity shift he could feel. If not for the protection of his armor and magic running through him, he was sure his hairs all over his body would be standing on end. Thanks to his Umbral Gaze, he saw the immense amount of magical energy that entered the cloud.

With the enemies controlled, the beastkin cut through their frozen hearts, and Jake’s Aura often caused the icy statues to explode into useless chunks. The abominations lost several of their legs and numerous of their tentacles from the thunderstorm, and the beastkin and Elysians quickly cleaned up the frozen tainted beastkin.

Fhesiah laughed. “Maybe we should have gone with two seals? They kicked the enemy’s ass.”

As Jake watched them more or less dominate this fight without his family’s aid, he saw the true superiority of the elites of Hearthtribe.

Sure, a big part of them defeating the enemy so easily and without losses was in part thanks to the effectiveness of his amazing Champion Hearthian Presence, his summons, and how much impact his other wives had even without going all out.

He helped them maintain their resources, which in a long fight, had a substantial impact. And it was the same with Avalara and Tanda being present, their Sublimations enhancing every single one of the beastkin’s attacks and abilities. While a couple of others in their Battlegroup had this similar connection, they simply were not as substantial as theirs.

It also helped that part of the reward for the event was merely the right to fight in another one, Jake imagined. It was hard to make a one-to-one comparison, but this appeared to be at the level of Nature’s Crossroads–a secondary Alliance HQ reclamation, or perhaps, a Fortress Assault involving only two enemy Champions.

And Jake knew this wasn’t their true strength on the battlefield. Their numbers had been limited in this event, but his people would truly shine when they had much more of them together.

The fight wasn’t yet over, but Grayson and the nymphs in the army gathered their waters of purity, creating a decent-sized wave. Darris aided them in controlling it and adding onto it, and it washed over the enemy ranks, and crashed into the abominations that were still recovering from the ice covering them.

The pulsing veins of the giant abominations had already removed much of the ice, and the monsters had sped up as they stomped toward the beastkin. But now, the army of tainted beastkin was completely destroyed, and their corpses and tainted blood purified by the holy waters.

Which meant Hearthtribe were ready to receive the enemy, and they could focus on the abominations. Jake found resonance with Tanda, switching to the state of the Avenger. With the beastkin’s hearts singing the song of nature’s vengeance, the flames of his Aura took on a more offensive quality, ready to purify and destroy these defilers of life.

As a result of Jake finding resonance with her and entering her state, Tanda’s Cyclic Avenging Flames burned even more brightly, causing her arrows to become even more explosive and devastating. If she was unsealed, her Avenging Strike and Cyclic Resonance would certainly be enhanced as well, and even her spriggon summons would take on a more offensive quality.

The javelins were brought out again by the melee, and the many archers started launching their attacks onto the giant creatures. Flesh was torn and exploded away as the taint within them was purified, the monsters shrinking with every strike.

While they were massive, they weren’t invincible. However, it was only after a large chunk of the flesh was burned away, that Jake noticed something with his Umbral Gaze. The monster’s veins and flesh were starting to grow back, and the flames were losing some of their impact.

It seemed the two creatures were mutating. Evolving. As time went on, he saw that there were limits though. While the monsters became more resilient, it couldn’t become invincible against the purifying flames.

Not only that, but their blood energies were not limitless. Before the monsters could reach Drysander and Root, the flesh and overall size had decreased by well over thirty percent. Then, the legs, tail and head were almost completely crippled from how many chunks were missing, and unable to grow back.

Avalara and Bree rushed forward, and started tearing into the fleshy abominations with their weapons. The lightning from the storm clouds above once again picked up from the druid’s efforts, and the Priestesses of Arawn were channeling their faith into their paladin.

Bedwyr struck one of the bosses with his Icy Death attack, swinging his war scythe down and shredding and freezing a large chunk of one of the abominations with a stream of frost and death that advanced in a straight line.

Numerous hearts were destroyed in that singular attack by deathly ice, and icicles were launched next that pierced the abominations. The fleshy tentacles reached out and tried to grab the beastkin, but they were answered by powerful attacks and a stalwart defense–shields and polearms ready to deflect them.

Eventually, Avalara released her flames of Conflict, a powerful blast of golden flames that seared deeply into the blob of a monster, burning toward its core where many hearts were. And Bree used her fiery might to pierce deeply into the other abomination with her claw, a blast of immense heat reaching inside and destroying more of its hearts.

While Jake and his wives did help, they never let their resources go below eighty percent, wanting to keep themselves mostly topped off for the future battle. With one Abomination destroyed, the other was quickly surrounded and taken out as well.

The fight ended without Jake and his wives needing to do much more than shield or heal allies, only casually assisting and watching over them.

As the two abominations were killed, with Jake’s Umbral Gaze, he watched the special faith energy from the kills drift into not only Jake’s party, but all the clergy and warriors present. Like a white haze, spiritual energy landed on those present. Purified from the dungeon by the Framework, all present gained something, though Jake’s party gained more.

While non-clergy couldn’t use the special energy directly, it still influenced their vessel in subtle ways. Ultimately, it was the Framework guiding their development. Jake imagined a warrior might have their body improved similar to how his Divine Hearth had done to him, and a mage could have their mind or soul improved as a result of being influenced by the superior spiritual energy.

Of course, those who were clergy would ultimately gain the most from this, as they could actually directly use the enemy. For the average warrior, it would only add a small weight to each of their attacks and a small amount of sturdiness to their bodies. It might take a few major wins like this one, to see a noticeable result from this.

[Battle Skirmish Victory! Overall Rating: A]

[Personalized Reward: Elixir of Boundless Life]

[Consuming this item will improve your affinity for life energy, and increase the vitality within you, increasing your constitution and wisdom. Can synergize with Life-related or adjacent Origins to produce improved results.]

Each of his wives won similar items, with Tanda and Bloodberri each receiving a death related item. These appeared to be superior to what had been earned previously, as they were merely [Vials of Shimmering Vitality].The fact that this improved their life affinity on its own meant that it was an exceptional item.

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Only Fhesiah got an item related to Qi, receiving a Source energy treasure, which she was quite happy with. This would help her improve the strength of her Dao.

For every single person at the event to receive something like this was substantial. And when they looted the beastkin and the Abominations, they received tainted blood as well as special bones, and perhaps grosser, their special hearts.

[Providing enhanced recovery period for ten minutes prior to ejection from event. When ten minutes are up, the Battleground will commence.]

The energy within the jungle clearing shifted, and now it was like they were standing in the special recovery areas of the raids or the Battlegrounds. Jake found his mana rapidly being restored, and he was sure that, combined with some pills which he saw several of the beastkin popping, they would be at a hundred percent and ready for the next battle.

The family settled in to recover, and prepare. While this should have been all they were expecting, they would have to fight yet another difficult challenge. And they knew Tartarus never played fair.

***

As Hearthtribe arrived outside of the event, he had been prepared and expecting some kind of ambush once again. That wasn’t what happened, but what he saw was just as much of a shock.

One of the giant trees had fallen onto their Outpost, the magical barrier and outer wall completely crushed by this single action. From what Jake could see, Tartarus had caused this in a ridiculous way.

Dominos.

The monsters had knocked one large tree over, and then that knocked into another, and then another. Given that they were miles tall…he imagined that more than a dozen were used to accomplish this. And that was why they did not detect such a thing in their checks.

Unfortunately, they had underestimated Tartarus and its plots or at least how it might achieve them once again. They had checked in an over thirty miles radius thoroughly, and even further than that a little less so. There had been a few boss-level monsters spotted outside of that range, and a few groupings of monsters. But they were not substantial enough to imagine that they could be a part of a plot.

Monsters were now attacking from the tree like some kind of several-miles-long ramp, and the four hundred Hearthtribe were now defending against them. The entourage of the Battlegroup had left the Gate to aid the Outpost, and had already arrived to reinforce them.

In addition to those attacking from on top of the tree, there were many monsters that had now swarmed the gate from the base of the hill as well. The earlier waves had weakened the gates. They had not yet fully recovered from the damage done to them, so he imagined it wouldn’t be long before they were destroyed.

If that was all, Jake didn’t think that was that big of a deal. The problem was that the Battleground challenge was now beginning.

[Resource War will begin momentarily. Shields around the shrines to be removed in five minutes.

Collect Resources by owning points and defending against waves of monsters. First to one thousand points wins.

Maximum Battlegroup Size for defending against waves of shrines: 50. Point earnings are more rapid with larger waves and more defenders.

Shrines toward the center of the battlefield are worth double or more, in the case of the center-most point. Resources must be returned to the Outpost to count, and those holding resources will glow blue in your sight. If those holding resources are slain, they can be recovered by the enemy team.

Respawn within this Battleground is allowed. Resurrection occurs within Outpost once per hour on the hour until victory is decided.

The Outpost can be attacked, and automatic resurrection can be disabled. Loss of the Outpost Node is an automatic loss of the event.

The enemy’s numbers have been based on the number of people present on the floor. New entries to the battlefield are allowed, and will be matched with reinforcements of the enemy force.]

New features had been added to the landscape. Special shrines drew in energies from the air. These structures were placed around the two Outposts in an almost figure eight pattern around them.

There were two on the far side of the Outposts, and three in between. This meant that two points were relatively safe to collect points at, being close to the Outposts, but the three points in the center were equidistant to both bases. Their actions would be completely visible to the enemy there.

The enemy’s army was much like they had seen in the event. Hundreds of tainted beastkin now marched down from their Outpost. Other than the large army, smaller groups appeared to be moving to claim the central points. Thankfully, Jake did not see any abominations. However, it did appear they were being led by several unique figures.

“Lia, rush ahead on Valora to the Outpost. I’ll send Ira with you to watch over you. Then we’ll teleport to you.”

Activating her Vajrafire Blitz, the two bolted in the direction of the Outpost. They accelerated in a blur, then leaped through the air, where they ran rapidly through the sky. At the speed she was going, it would not take her very long for her to arrive.

He considered retreating to the Outpost, and allowing them to just have the center points. He doubted ownership was actually a huge advantage. However, the enemy army was heading straight for his army, rather than only the center point. If they fled to the Outpost instead of facing them, that meant they would be able to join the monsters currently attacking the Outpost, which Jake thought was a lot worse than slowing them down.

Jake said to their Battlegroup, his volume enhanced by magic, “Clan Hart will assist with rescuing the Outpost. I want you to play interference with the enemy army in the center, taking care not to allow yourselves to fall. I want a fighting retreat, but don’t get caught out by the enemy. We will do our best to reinforce you after we’ve rescued the Outpost.”

This time, they didn’t have blimps, but those that fought in the West of the Highlands war, like Rookard’s wolves and the Emberborn against the beastkin betrayers and legions of undead, were quite familiar with kiting and delaying tactics. Not only that, but Jake would likely leave at least Bree and Avalara with them, unless he felt he truly required them to rescue the Outpost. From afar, things weren’t looking too good.

For the time being, Bloodberri, Jake, Tanda and Fhesiah traveled with their army. They headed toward the center, wanting to get in position to delay and weaken the enemy, and become quite the nuisance until Jake’s party could return, or they could be reinforced by some of the four hundred within the Outpost.

Looking at the devastation caused by the larger-than-a-skyscraper trees, Jake couldn’t help but feel a little stressed. After a vacation, they were immediately thrown into their enemy’s dangerous plots.

Jake said to his wives, “I gotta say, this is a bit…disheartening. The plots Tartarus has used against the many parties within the dungeon were not that big of a deal. We come to the dungeon unsealed one time, then all this happens?”

Fhesiah hummed. “I don’t know, I think it’s better this way. If it’s exciting like this, it feels less like a job, doesn’t it? What did you want to do?” She looked around at the dungeon, looking at the monster spawns and caves dotting the vast jungle landscape. “Adventure in here fighting monsters like in a game, farming loot and levels in a sort of…endless grind? Then when we’re done for the day, we go home each night to have fun, without much risk at all?”

Jake arched his brow. “That sounds pretty great? That’s how it used to be, for a few months. I wish we could go back to those times.”

Bloodberri, Fhesiah, and Tanda all turned to look at him like he was crazy.

Berri said, “That sounds boring.”

Blood added, “And that’s coming from someone that sings at eggs for hours.”

Ophelia chuckled over their bond. [If you wanted that Jake, you probably shouldn’t have become the Champion of a Goddess.]

Jake had to agree with that point. That was the single decision that increased their stakes in their adventuring life. Now, wherever they went, Tartarus would try desperately hard to try to get a piece of them.

However, thanks to that choice, they now had the ability to influence the battlefield at a higher level. Like they were about to.

As Ophelia and Valora neared the Outpost, Jake watched through her eyes to see everything. He was surprised at how well their people were defending.

While the enemy had used the tree to smash a huge hole in the wall and destroy the helpful barrier that blocked ranged attacks, their people, the defenders of the Outpost, excelled in defense.

Several treants entrenched themselves near the hole, and numerous druids grew various vines and roots to plug the holes, and emboldened them.

In addition, they used the tree to grow more plants defensively, linking into their numerous preparations Jake had previously had them make. It became a wall of its own, making it a challenge for the wave of monsters to proceed and much easier for those within the Outpost to defend.

The tree had smashed through the opposite end of the Outpost too, and that was plugged with ice instead. The water nymphs and many reptile beastkin with water and ice magics or abilities likely froze it, along with some clergy of Arawn. The enemy was less concentrated in this section, as the attack was primarily hitting from the other side and trying to destroy the gate, since their plot to create a hole had failed.

Perhaps, the Outpost was already under attack when the tree fell.

There were many flying enemies, raining attacks down on the defending Hearthtribe. The avian beastkin rallied to defend against them, but there weren’t enough of them to fully counter and protect the Outpost Node.

It appeared the majority of the flying creatures of the dungeon floor had arrived all at once, perhaps, those that were up in the boughs. There were numerous giant flying monsters, that were the size of bosses, spitting noxious poisons, acids, and other hazards onto the Outpost. It seemed the preparations in the center to protect the Node weren’t quite enough. At the same time, perhaps the Node would have already fell if they hadn’t done what they did.

This was a much larger assault than the one they saw when they had arrived, and Jake’s Battlegroup had taken much of the elites for the event, they were barely holding on. Thanks to their preparations with the plants, they were barely managing. The challenge was certainly the flying enemies.

The Node, which was a tower at the center, had already taken some damage from what he could see. If the Node was destroyed, then the challenge would be lost. There was now a new building in the corner of the Outpost too, a shrine that was where Alliance would be resurrected every hour.

Jake was somewhat tempted to use his Divine Energy to help clear the waves of enemies in a hurry, but his people had handled things well enough that now he wouldn’t have to. Nevertheless, he was in the state of the Avenger at the end of the Gate Event, and he decided to stay in it.

He could feel the songs of the nearby beastkin, and even those at the Outpost thanks to Avalara. They all sought vengeance, the enemy once again destroying what was theirs. And while they had defended well, it wasn’t as if there weren’t losses. Numerous had died from the furious assault, likely moments after Jake’s party had entered the event.

As Jake charged his mana for his Reverse Summon to arrive at Ophelia’s side, he watched the Bloodwrought enemy forces on the move from their Outpost. They had a massive force moving to the center shrine, and Jake imagined it was close to a full four hundred or more.

Only a dozen or two were heading to the three points in the center each, and it seemed their intent was to claim the entire center and those at their base in one fell swoop, while they attacked Jake’s army.

Since a majority of his people were busy defending their Outpost currently, things were off to a bad start for team Alliance.

But Jake was sure that his people were superior, thanks to the skirmish. The dungeon needed its plots to even lightly compete with his Hearthtribe veterans and elites, and they were about to flip the board on the enemy.