Bonded Summoner

Vesuvius’s glaive sliced through a Carnex’s thorax from the side, the polearm cutting deeply into its bug flesh. With a grunt and a heave, he picked the monster off the ground and shoved it into an oncoming insectoid.

Roxo spun and flipped across the cavern, his blades cleaving limbs and taking lives with his talon swords. The two dealt with the spawned adds, preventing their allies from being flanked as they focused on the boss.

A mandible latched onto Vesuvius’s armored shoulder, biting down fiercely into his protected flesh. Bolts of lightning and balls of fire crashed into the monster as it chittered, a wave of spells launched from Lissandra from her gem magic.

Vesuvius reached up with his free hand as it Sublimated into a maw of its own. Biting down onto the monster’s head capsule, he tore off its head. The monster went still and fell to the ground, and he shifted his hand back and brought it to his polearm, just in time to swing it powerfully into the next mantis insectoid.

He sent a small amount of auril to boost his shoulder’s regeneration, but an aura from a Brigid Paladin quickly suffused his wound, like holding it under a pleasant stream of water. The pain washed away, the bruising from the intense pressure and slight puncture from the bite gone.

The auras were not as great as their Chief’s, but their effectiveness could not be ignored. The beastkin clergy of various Divine each brought something interesting to the battle. Thanks to their alliance’s equipment, training, diversity, and unique advantages, they had been able to manage each boss’s special makeup.

Vesuvius shot a look over his shoulder at the treant warrior tanking the Carnex Elite. His bark skin scattered with every blow of the enemy, and plant flesh regrew and hardened in its place nearly as fast as the insect’s bladed limbs could cut into him.

This was the third boss they were facing, and each one was truly terrifying. They appeared to be engineered to have incredible capabilities, each one more deadly than the last.

This one was seemingly strong against all the base elements, its prismatic carapace rejecting fire, ice, earth, wind, and lightning. It even did well against physical attacks and compound elements containing those, which left them struggling to make a significant dent.

They had fought through the Carnex Dungeon Raid, enemies spawning frequently as they moved from boss battle to boss battle in the winding caverns. It was a frustrating dungeon dive due to never being given a moment of rest. The monsters continuously spawned and constantly attacked their raid group even as they pushed toward the queen’s lair. The Carnex were even more vicious within their lair, and the evolved elite bosses were… a little concerning to Vesuvius.

The monsters were engineered to defeat them, to have every advantage that one could have against his raid group. Each one was stronger than the last, and even the common Carnex soldier was not only strong against the Vouivre anymore. They still had their gems, but now they could oddly resonate better with one another, reducing the effectiveness of the beastkin’s spiritual attacks by resisting as a group, it seemed.

Having dealt with the spawned monsters, Vesuvius and Roxo rejoined their allies in wailing on the giant scorpion-like boss. The monster’s health meter fell below ten percent, and now it covered itself in a dangerous red aura. Its claws lashed out twice as fast, and its stinger slammed into allies, sending them flying from its immense strength and injecting them with deadly venom.

The beastkin’s hearts sang the songs of battle, various Celtic Runes lighting up as they drew upon the auril in the room. Empowered manifestations struck hard as giant claws and maws latched onto the giant insectoid, taking large chunks out of its scales at once. Dozens of stored talismans from their Warrior Brotherhood allies latched onto the boss, then exploded with eroding energy as Vexana unleashed a powerful hex mixed with her unique poison.

Vesuvius unleashed a gout of his goddess's stored chaotic flames onto the monster’s back, but what he saw strike perhaps the hardest was a nethril warrior’s manifestation as Bulldozer divebombed and crashed into it from above.

The necrotic energies released from the rattlesnake nethril warrior’s bite caused the prismatic scales to go completely dull on its side. It was just in time for Bulldozer’s aerial attack to land and pierce deeply into the monster’s back and pin its body into the ground.

Roxo’s shredding blade then removed the tail, and with over fifty people wailing on the large monster at once, it was dismantled and fell apart.

The beastkin roared with victory as they received the notification, and a chest with loot spawned. Despite their win, they remained alert, as scouts immediately began to move into the adjacent hallway as they established a perimeter.

Once it was clear the battle was truly over, many began to celebrate once more, healing and recovering for the next battle. But while most were jubilant, Lissandra looked more worried than ever. Vesuvius walked over to speak with her.

“What’s the matter, Lissandra? This was another tremendous victory, and we are one step closer to killing the queen. Instead, you only look more worried.”

“I’m sorry, Vesuvius. My body and mind are weary. It’s been two days since we entered, and we’ve only rested the bare minimum after so many awful battles. I can’t sleep well in this place, even with your guard. Just knowing that our people outside may be attacked and a swarm of enemies come from behind us…” She shivered.

“Then you should rejoice. Because my brother Darris would never allow enemies to pass without a fight, and he will not fall. You’ve seen Roxo. For every bit that his talon blades are fast and deadly, Darris’s shield is unmoving, his body unbreakable. You can trust him to protect the rear.”

“That… does help. But… these monsters are truly terrifying. How can they change so much in such little time? I thought it was bad before, but this is even worse. I have only become more useless than ever before. And these elite monsters…they’ll be released to feast upon–”

Vesuvius interrupted, “You’re not useless–despite their resistances, they still bleed. Their bodies can still break. The elites are not actually that strong without the boss fight mechanics–if we see these monsters outside the hive, we will crush them just the same. We’re also ahead of schedule. I do believe the queen boss battle will be soon, judging by how far we’ve moved through these caverns. That means we should be granted an opportunity for true rest–a safe zone.”

Lissandra let out a small sigh of relief, closing her eyes. “Very well. I shall put my faith in you and your companions. If it’s just a little more, then I believe I can manage.”

Hearthtribe’s alliance didn’t wait long before they were moving to the next tunnel, fighting through waves of Carnex. The monsters were challenging, but their people learned what worked by learning more about their enemies. By directing their diverse allies to target the insectoids they were best against, they still cut them down as if they weren’t stronger at all.

After a couple more hours of fighting through constant ambushes and waves of insectoids spawning, they reached an antechamber, a room to rest. It was laid out like many rest areas, with cots and sofas for sitting–even having some oversized furniture for the larger beastkin and treants. The energy within the room was dense, greatly improving their recovery rates.

A timer of three hours was given, and a promise from the Framework that aside from additional enemies appearing in the boss room from reinforcements outside, they were safe in this room.

The large boss room could be seen through a metal grate, and Script detailed information about the boss encounter. From the look of things, the queen’s chamber involved facing a giant insect that healed constantly and dealing with spawned threats that she would constantly birth. They would have to keep up their damage to overcome the monster’s healing while also balancing it against the elite monsters that would spawn, or they would become overwhelmed.

Two elite insectoids were already present in the room, and while they looked deadly, they at least did not look as powerful as the three previous bosses they faced. Each looked like some kind of scorpion with a humanoid body at the front of it, holding polearm weapons.

In all, not that complicated compared to battles like the Life and Death Reflection that rescued Highlands from Tartarus’s grasp, but challenging just the same. And the elite bosses had varied enough abilities that they were not hinted at all in the Framework Script, which meant they had to overcome any ability grounded in the monster’s capabilities. At the very least, aside from the queen’s healing and health bar, they shouldn’t do anything game-like.

Vesuvius walked toward the grate to view what was inside. It was a giant cavern, with an immense insect inside–the queen. It was a giant beetle insectoid, with what looked like a giant umbilical cord leading to a massive crystal egg sac. Crystals lined the entire cavern, acting like spikes on the walls. Odds were, it would be dangerous for his people to be shoved into them by the enemy’s larger bulks.

The queen’s abdomen was huge and elongated, and the humanoid portion of her body was perched on the front of it. A crystal floated above its head, some kind of spell focus, Vesuvius guessed. Her arms were mantis scythe blades, the queen covered in gems and crystals just like the insectoids they had fought thus far.

He said to Lissandra, “Here it is. This will be the final battle, and with plenty of time to spare. We will rest just a while longer before we begin. That we haven’t had enemy reinforcements up to now is a good sign about the state outside, but we will prepare for the worst.”

Lissandra sighed. “It looks like a formidable challenge. But I’m glad that we’re finally here, and I can get a couple of hours of rest. The energy in the room is calming.”

Roxo grinned. “Do not worry. Boss battles are dangerous, but they are fair. There is always a path to victory.”

Lissandra muttered, “Fair when the enemy isn’t trying to cheat, you mean.”

The clan heads and party leaders worked together to come up with a viable plan and division of roles during their rest time. Because they were dealing with enemies that evolved, they needed several groups of people with unique skills and damage types ready to work together.

They entered the cavern through the gate, and the Battlegroup all drank their long-duration consumables. The raid group had used them sparingly to prevent the evolving enemy from being able to react in some way, because they knew they needed to make this battle count.

The clergy of various Divine added their buffs, filling their warriors with numerous effects. Not all of the effects stacked, but many of them did, and Vesuvius was filled with the strength and vitality of Echidna, his body growing even before he started building up his auril. His weapon took on a cold aura of Arawn, adding the element to his attacks. The replenishing waters of Brigid invigorated him, and Lugh’s light enveloped his armor, providing additional protection.

The consumable he chose was to strengthen his body’s ability to produce auril; enhancing his auril heart. In a long marathon fight like a boss battle, this had always served him well.

Songs of battle filled the room, the beastkin’s auril hearts beating in anticipation, and nethril hearts joined the chorus. Vesuvius and many of the reptile beastkin grew, while others took on a more bestial air. The two balanced parties of five each of Love and Justice, Warrior Brotherhood, and Sons of Rome took up thirty members.

They brought six of the Vouivre, getting a wide array of elemental casters and a singular male, the stone reptile showing his strength much like the treants. Unfortunately, the level of the Vouivre wasn’t that high, making their presence little better than a symbol.

The rest were the usual Hearthtribe mix: beastkin, Elysians, and Emberborn, with a blending of various races with only a couple each. Like Bulldozer, the undead scarab, or Falcor the Eternum unliving axe. There was even an orc beast tamer, with his auril beast that fought alongside him–a bonded raptor. The beastkin took up the lion’s share of the raid Battlegroup, with only a few nethril beastkin among them.

When the grate closed off the safe room exit, their force of 100 was ready for battle. Vesuvius rushed forward, leading the charge as he grew. Even though he was easily more than twenty feet tall, the Carnex Queen’s giant body loomed over him as he arrived.

Because the treants were the least mobile, it was decided that they would be the primary tanks for this battle. One rushed in front of the queen, who was already positioning its large body to strike those that moved to attack her elite children.

The large treant holding a shield and axe met her scything blade with his shield and struck the beetle’s chest with a dull thud. But bolts of lightning and blasts of cold came out of his boughs and struck the queen, causing her to screech in anger–dryad riders unleashing a torrent of magic.

Meanwhile, Vesuvius met an elite’s glaive with his own, a scorpion claw lashing out and attempting to grab him. He countered with a manifestation of a lava monitor’s claw of his own, and spun with his whipping tail, striking the other and knocking it aside. Following the spin, he brought his auril-infused glaive down, a giant edge glimmering with Celtic Runes. Even though the elite blocked, his might surpassed its guard and slashed deeply into the monster’s humanoid torso.

The warriors and ranged got in position as their deadly dance continued, damage being spread out across the three entities in the room. More focused on Vesuvius’s target, as he was the primary focus for marking the important enemies to be slain. Those with damage-over-time abilities, like his daughter Vexana, made sure to get their poisons and hexes on all the targets available.

The giant mound of insect flesh and crystal that was her birthing sac pulsed, moving at a dangerous pace. Even though they killed the two elite Carnex, Vesuvius could tell a new one was coming to replace it. Their Battlegroup wailed on the queen, inflicting as much punishment as they could on it to counteract and prevent its healing.

At first, the health bar barely budged as many attacks were hitting it. It felt like it would be a several-hour battle if they couldn’t drop it by a visible amount while focusing on it with no distractions. But then Vesuvius noticed something, his eyes narrowing.

The chitinous armor plating of the beetle broke from their blows, enabling them to get a few hits in before a pulse of magic ran through and repaired it. Vesuvius ordered, “Work together and strike the same locations when facing the queen!”

The beastkin were quick to shift their focus, moving like he had choreographed the plan before he even spoke the words, his song carrying his intentions. A rhino beastkin struck powerfully, breaking the chitin and exposing the weaker flesh. Then several arrows struck the same location, manifestations of beasts digging deeper and destroying more of its body. The health bar dropped quickly enough that he could visibly see it, losing a few percent before the spawn came.

The egg pulsed, and a formed elite monster rushed out as Vesuvius leaped to meet it with his glaive. This one actually looked like the first boss, but just a little different. Even as its numerous front-facing claws began to go after Vesuvius, its whip-like tails lashed outward and struck an unsuspecting Priestess of Arawn, shattering her bone shield and sending her into a servant’s arms.

Roxo cut off one of its tails and was forced to block another as it whipped in retaliation. The tail started to regrow rapidly, but other warriors showed up to pin the monster down from all sides, cutting into its flesh as arrows and javelins struck it from above. The frog beastkin warriors leaped from above, landing on its carapace and stabbing into them repeatedly and injecting their poisons.

They eventually took the elite monster down, and thankfully, the queen hadn’t healed more than the damage they had done, and they had time before the next spawn. He had noticed her spell gem had fired off a beam-like attack at their more vulnerable allies, which was difficult for them to intercept. Only the guardian classes could truly protect their allies from these kinds of attacks, and he was thankful they had some to take the blows for their more fragile allies.

So far, the fight was going smoothly, but he knew that boss battles like this one could turn quickly. If they lost enough allies, they wouldn’t be able to keep up with the healing the queen could put out. He hoped that Darris could send reinforcements if it came to that, and not the other way around.

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***

Darris looked over their forces with a satisfied grin. They now had thousands of warriors defending the canyon, from Vouivre natives to all their alliance members.

They had taken every precaution. Scouts roamed the tunnels, seeking to prevent any enemies from either sneaking in or armies from marching in from underground. Array flags were planted, which tracked magical phenomena and enemy movement alike. Cultivators even roamed the sky with their odd flying implements, ready to engage along with the blimps and avian beastkin.

A castle or fortress of stone was built, reinforcing the area around the entrance to the hive. The Framework prevented them from just covering the portal in a mountain of stone by eroding anything placed too close to it, but now the enemies had to come through a large, reinforced tunnel from the front.

The rules written in Framework Script allowed for this. As long as there was an open path to the portal, it wouldn’t erode their constructed fortifications.

Thanks to their efforts, even if the enemy made some kind of avalanche from above, getting in would not be so simple. The earth cultivators from Aetheris had already reinforced their tunnel to the portal with impregnable stone.

Blimps circled overhead, ready to take on any enemies that appeared. They closed any Rifts within a hundred miles with ease, preventing the enemy from building up any number of monster forces. But eventually, the enemy invaders, the Carnex, made their move.

A voice went over their communication network. “There’s movement in the tunnels! Scouts are sensing a rumbling, and the flag networks are detecting something big moving. It is burrowing right through the stone, and fast.”

Darris replied, “Something in the tunnels? Earth specialists, make your final preparations to counter the underground enemies. Water specialists, with me. The enemy will not take us unawares. We have surprises of our own.” He grinned as he signaled their water casters. Several Vouivre, naiads, and beastkin Brigid clergy drew upon their elemental strengths and created a large pond's worth of water.

Standing in the pool of water, it began to rise high into the air, climbing the canyon wall like a reverse waterfall. Arriving at the top, a large lake could be seen. He now overlooked the large courtyard area where the hive and portal stood underneath them.

Having two days of preparation, they had also carved a tunnel of their own, drawing water from an underground spring nearby. They had a lake’s worth of water here now, ready to drown out any enemy that appeared to attempt entering the portal.

“Paladin Darris! We’ve spotted a flying swarm of insectoids. At their current speed, they will arrive at the Crystal Citadel in less than thirty minutes.”

He looked to the sky, and he saw some of them in the great distance. Darris thanked his brethren and goddess that he had so many capable forces to work with.

Darris replied, “Aerial forces, engage the incoming enemy. We must prevent them from reaching the portal at all costs. Ground forces, scatter within the canyon and be ready for anything. Avalanches, tunnels, or unseen enemies. Our enemy wishes to tip the balance in the raid.”

Two treants rooted themselves near the entrance of the tunnel to the portal, preparing to block any number of enemies from having an easy entry. Their dryads and fauns were ready to support them, along with the less mobile beastkin staying by their side.

Several more reports followed, the total count of enemies well over a thousand. In all, not what Darris would consider a true threat to his forces, but worrisome. Their concerted attack at this time spoke of their desire to reinforce their allies within, and he wasn’t confident he could prevent all enemies from all sides from being able to enter.

“The monster is huge and so fast! It’ll breach any moment! From the west!”

An immense monster burst forth above the hive, scattering tons of stones toward the armies below, as the enemy snaked downward toward the treants blocking the tunnel. It was some kind of massive centipede, its maw large enough to swallow a beastkin whole. Not Darris or Vesuvius, but the monster was big nonetheless.

The two treants had been enlarged by the numerous druids and their powers, but they still looked like children trying to fight a giant centipede. Thankfully, they had more than enough weight behind their blows to stop its assault, smacking it aside with their tree mauls.

Spells and arrows rained down on the monster from all sides, causing its screech to send more tremors throughout the area.

Insectoids were not far behind the creature, ready to leap out of the created hole to head toward the edge of the portal entrance. An army had been following the monster through the tunnels it made, and thankfully, the earth mages were ready.

The cultivators floated upward and then collapsed the tunnel’s edge to slow them down. Even within the tunnel, the walls and ceiling crumbled, bringing tons of earth down on their heads and squashing hundreds of bug people.

There was some resistance to their efforts, some Carnex having control over the earth that fought and prevented them from defeating the invaders in one trap, but Darris was happy with the results. Their assault was slowed, and they would have time to deal with the monster centipede.

The treants fought valiantly against the centipede, the monster taking wounds from all sides. Legs were lost from their attacks thanks to dozens of powerful beastkin. It was losing momentum, screeching, and trying to send stone and rock tumbling down onto members of their guild.

Darris continued to watch their flag sensors and listened to scout reports before he made his move. The invaders had moved down to another one of the main tunnels and reinforced it, preventing collapse. The enemy’s main forces were about to emerge.

“There are too many aerial invaders! More swarms appeared, and they are not stopping to fight us. We’re chasing and have killed most, but some are going to reach the canyon!”

The centipede retreated from the entry area, its reinforcements stalled, and too many beastkin were damaging it all at once. It climbed the cliff face off to the side, wounded but still alive.

The insectoids rushed out, and their numbers were significant. Hundreds ran and flew out of the tunnel entrance at the same time, surging toward the portal entrance. Several commanders moved quickly, and then they did something that was a bit of a surprise–their gems on their chitinous bodies began to vibrate, and both their flyers and ground insectoids stopped and did the same.

And so did the giant centipede. The entire canyon began to tremble, with immense cracks running up the canyon wall and through the ground, disrupting the alliance forces and slowing them from interfering with them.

Many beastkin simply leaped into the air with their wingsuits, but Darris didn’t like where this was going. It was time to move.

“Come! Let us stem the tide of the enemy with our own current!”

The lake was drawn up into an immense orb before becoming a giant river that flowed across the canyon like a living snake, Darris and the rest of the casters and manipulators riding the wave. The river moved fast as it went downward, ready to crash into the front of the enemies.

However, the vibrations continued until it was clear a giant slab was going to fall. Something the centipede did was like tugging a falling tree with a rope to choose its direction as it came along with it. A long, tall chunk began tumbling down toward the entrance, which meant a mountain was going to slowly fall onto the defending treants and numerous warriors out front–over a hundred or more allies would die all at once.

While blocking off the entrance should be beneficial to the alliance’s goal, with so many defenders dead, they may be able to dig themselves through. After all, the portal itself would eat away at the stone when there was no path to reach it.

Darris ordered, “Divert half the flow to redirect the stone! The rest, hit the army and slow them down!”

They made it in time. Half of their river crashed into the falling stone, tipping it to fall away from the entrance. Still, it fell, the large crash shaking the ground with an immense blast of sound and dirt, killing dozens as it landed and splitting the battlefield in two. The giant centipede surged back toward the portal entrance in the confusion, unaffected by the giant tremor it just created.

The rest of the river struck the insectoid army from the front, largely washing those on the ground away, as the beastkin and Elysians got back into position and started picking them off. Many of the flying insectoids were unaffected, however, and reinforcements came from above the canyon–those that had spread out and evaded the Hearthtribe alliance’s aerial forces.

With their bows and javelins, the hundreds of insectoids were being picked off in short order. Their bodies were weak and not all that resilient, merely fast, their bodies long and wiry like mosquitos. Darris threw his bone javelins as he rode a wave of water toward the entrance, each item covered in Celtic Runes and packing a powerful punch.

The centipede dragged one of the treants to the side, shredding the plant flesh as it surrounded him in a rather constrictive embrace. With this done, there was a small gap for flyers to force their way through, even as numerous druids grew vines out to try to stop the incoming enemies.

Darris himself created a shield of water to fill the gap, but he couldn’t quite block it all as he slashed at the centipede powerfully with his axe. Spells and manifestations of beasts crashed and struck into the giant insect, the monster screeching from the pain. It didn’t have much fight left in it, the damage piling up from before.

Unfortunately, despite their best efforts, some flyers entered the tunnel through the gap. Darris doubted their strength, as they were killed so easily. But he understood that raid battles were often a delicate balance. For the enemy to receive reinforcements could be catastrophic.

Looking over his shoulder as he drew water toward him, he saw that the invaders were quickly being surrounded. Their odd vibration and rockslide ploy appeared to be something they could not do again, and after being scattered by their water river were easily defeated by Hearthtribe’s superior numbers and capabilities.

Darris then ejected water from his back to propel him forward, following the insectoids through the tunnel as fast as he could. He threw a javelin at their backs, striking and taking one out with a manifestation of a snapping turtle’s maw. A few entered the portal, no more than six or seven bypassing them. He rushed to the entrance to read the system prompt.

[Final Battle: Carnex Queen Boss Battle in progress. Boss health: 35%

Alliance combatants alive: 88/100. Reinforcement possible. Enter Boss Battle? Note that your entry will grant Carnex additional reinforcements.]

It was concerning that several had died, but Darris knew that the Vouivre brought inside were a small liability, their strength not quite up to par with the rest of Hearthtribe. He guessed that Vesuvius and Roxo had been unable to protect them all, and others might have fallen while trying. With only the boss’s health percentage and allies remaining as an indicator, it was impossible to tell whether things were going well or not.

Darris asked for an update. “Scouts, report. Any new enemies on route?”

“That seems to be the last of them. It was one strong push all at once–if they had more forces, they would have used them. Multiple scouts have reported nothing else is seen. We still have our flags, and nothing new is shown. Short of stealth invaders, there shouldn’t be anything else within fifty miles.”

“I need five elites to join me–I’m going in. Grayson, you are in charge of the defense from here on out. Protect the portal and monitor the reinforcement count. Be ready to reinforce with a balanced mix of roles and damage types if it falls under seventy-five, and order them to focus on countering the enemy reinforcements before joining against the boss if at all possible.”

“Consider it done. May Brigid bless you with her fertile might, Brother.”

Darris grinned. The enemy’s attack had failed, thousands of enemies attacking at once only to add a handful of reinforcements, and the alliance forces hardly took a dent as a result. While they lost a hundred or so to the rockslide and dozens more to the battle that ensued, those warriors could and would be revived.

He would show these invaders that Hearthtribe’s elites were worth a whole lot more than their trash.

***

“Keep the queen’s rear facing the wall!” Vesuvius shouted, his glaive swinging in a storm of attacks against the queen’s side, with one of his beastkin brethren stabbing the same location.

Bulldozer’s horn rammed into the queen, shoving her into the wall. Now that she was in the corner, it was difficult for her to use her spray attack.

Unfortunately, the queen showed a new ability when one of the elites did, showing a powerful combo attack. The insectoid released a deadly acidic fog, which corroded everyone nearby’s armor and flesh. Then the queen turned, and fired deadly barbs mixed with her own noxious fluids from her rear, which pierced right into their weakened bodies and killed them before they could be healed.

They lost several of their more fragile allies, from the weaker Vouivre to a talismancer and a runic priest who wasn’t ready for that kind of damage all at once. Lissandra herself likely would have gone down too, but she was lucky to be standing out of the area of effect.

After that moment when they lost many allies all at once, they were able to counter the fog with blasts of wind and a defensive mist, which weakened the corrosive effect. They focused the monster down, but the number they lost in one cycle was surprising.

Since then, they learned the value of pinning the queen and preventing her from being able to spin its abdomen and spray her explosive, corrosive, piercing, and noxious vile mixture all over their raid Battlegroup.

A flash of light and a shift in the cavern wall revealed a tunnel, along with a prompt that enemy reinforcements had arrived. A half-dozen flying insectoids appeared, rushing toward members of the raid party.

But they were met with arrows and fierce attacks, Roxo flying toward two and cleaving them in half before they could react. The enemies were quickly dealt with, but not before one had managed to stab and shove a healer into a spiked wall at full speed. They attempted to heal them, but they expired before they could be saved.

Lissandra was crestfallen. “Oh no…the enemy has broken through… That means–”

“It means nothing more than a handful of weak infiltrators snuck through or rushed past. Trust our brethren and keep fighting. The boss is at one-third; just a little more and victory will be ours!”

The beastkin roared, their hearts singing the song of battle–numerous songs and runes filled the cavern, creating various effects all at once. Vesuvius could feel the auril and nethril getting denser as time went on, the four seasons fully on display. It now felt like he was standing on Highlands, and he was getting stronger as the fight went on.

New spawns came in, another prompt–only this one spoke of allied reinforcements. Insectoids began to rush out of the enemy’s tunnel, and Vesuvius rushed to take them on.

The queen screeched in pain as the large turtle shield smashed into its side, releasing a powerful manifestation of a turtle’s maw latching onto it. The queen wailed in agony despite its protections, Darris’s weight of his spirit combined with his physical blow damaging its flesh and knocking it aside.

His axe then bit deeply into the crushed chitin, his sharp blows carrying the turtle’s weight, and with the speed of pressurized water enhancing his attacks. The monster turned and swung its scything blades at him, but a wall of water in front of his shield meant that it was nothing more than a tantrum.

Darris chuckled. “Figured you could use some help, Brother. Everything is fine outside now. Let us slay this abomination and sing the song of victory.”

Some reinforcements for the enemy had rushed out of the side, but they were met by a new treant, an enlarged lion beastkin, and a frog beastkin leaping across the battlefield and piercing downward. The final addition was Darris’s turtle wife, a strong priestess of Brigid much like Grayson. Water flowed across the battlefield like rivers, sending pulses of healing through its currents.

The number of enemies was greater than those who joined, and by a significant margin. For their six allies, nearly fifty insectoids rushed out, and Vesuvius could see that reinforcements were not always welcome. Since those outside could not see the situation inside, they could come at a tenuous time that could cause more harm than good.

But their six warriors were of a much higher quality. The fifty enemies were quickly dealt with safely, the enemies no stronger than random Carnex outside. There was only one commander-level enemy among them, and it was no match for Vesuvius with the auril so dense. His glaive and body had grown even larger, his blows striking with heavy weight.

Darris was even able to defend against the queen’s beam-like attacks, allowing more people to focus on adding damage to the boss. With his help in tanking the elites, Vesuvius could focus more on damage, whittling them away faster.

The queen had no more tricks, aside from blasting out her corrosive element from her rear as more of a gas. Darris and his wife quickly countered this by diluting the gas, and they finished the queen off and received the victory prompt. It seemed everyone would get personalized Potential Improvement Items based on their excellent pace and performance in the raid, along with the contents of the raid chest full of various treasures and artifacts.

He selected the option to erase the hive, restoring a percentage of the Crystal Citadel to its former glory, but not converting it to an HQ. In his opinion, this was not a good idea at this time, adding yet another point they would need to defend when they needed to be on the attack.

Unfortunately, it would not restore much of it, and they would need to repair much of the gems and structure themselves. They had fifteen minutes to loot whatever they could from the cavern, and the support classes rushed about, collecting what they could from the cave.

Vesuvius raised his glaive. “We did it! The Crystal Citadel is ours!”

The Hearthtribe alliance roared in victory, the numerous warriors and casters raising their staves in mirror to his action. They looted the chest, then they began discussing what was next. An assault on the second HQ. Vesuvius and Darris discussed what it was like outside, and it was decided they would board airships nearly the moment they exited, after a brief rally.

Lissandra was baffled. “We’re leaving? Aren’t we going to rest? Regroup? We just reclaimed it!”

Roxo laughed. “Rest? Now is the time to strike! They wasted their forces in hopes to stop us here, but we won. The sooner we hit the next HQ, the fewer spawns they will have, and the less of a fight they will be able to put up. We push them off this world here and now.”

Vesuvius entreated Lissandra, “I understand this is your home, and you just got it back. But right now, there are still invaders endangering this world. I will help you rebuild your great city; this I promise to you–but there are others out there that need our help.”

“I know, and I thank you so much for what you’ve accomplished so far. I just…was hoping for a bit more rest after we fought so fiercely. It’s been weeks of fighting almost non-stop.”

Vesuvius grinned. “You’ll get plenty of rest in the airship, Lissandra. We will make a stop at the current HQ and allow you to become clergy if you find one you are compatible with. The same will be done for the rest of your brethren, along with a rally to invite more allies. Then, we’ll head to the next.”

Lissandra let out a steadying breath. “Very well. I’ve survived this much, and I received an interesting reward that should actually boost the power of my gems. I am excited to take more back from these vicious enemies.”

“That’s the spirit. We must make them bleed.”

As far as Vesuvius was concerned, they had accomplished the most difficult part of the challenge. But he wasn’t about to let the enemy recover and regroup.