Bonded Summoner

The descent through the middle layers of the Tartarus Prime Instance had been an absolute meat grinder, and not just because of the monsters.

Over the next day and a half, the Battlegroup pushed through miles of jagged, corrupted tunnels as they killed waves of Carnex, collected valuable gems, and looted tons of chests. They cleared the second and third Major Encounters with a methodical, ruthless efficiency.

As they pushed deeper, the ambient corruption of the Carnex actively compounded. It wasn't just a dampening field anymore. It had become a localized, radioactive timer that clung to their auras. Every hour they spent fighting or lingering allowed the corrupted energy to build.

Jake realized with a chilling clarity just how lethal those earlier greed traps truly were. A standard raid group would only be able to rely on paladins or standard clergy to protect against or cleanse the taint, and faith energy could only go so far. A Hearthian’s Aura was just qualitatively superior, and he was thankful for just how effective this was for them.

If the other Raid Instances had stopped to open every chest or mine every geode, the ambient corruption would have permanently crippled their mana channels before they even reached the halfway mark. Instead of getting any rest at the cleansed geode after a boss, they would be forced to clear their channels or lose vitality, or worse, be unable to cast any spells at all as they faced the boss.

Only the overwhelming, overlapping protection of the Clan Hart’s Champion Auras allowed them to purge and prevent the building miasma and maintain their marathon pace. Lissandra and Jasmina helped as well. Out of curiosity, Jake had tested Darris and Grayson’s capabilities with their water-based auras; while they worked, the beastkin simply could not keep up their protection forever.

Though Jake certainly understood the danger would be scaled down for the other groups. Perhaps their protection would have been enough for much longer. He’d have to wait to hear from Morwen and others.

Then, the mechanics of those intermediate bosses had been grueling, and Jake had learned why they were called ‘Major Encounters’ instead of mere Boss Battles. The second was a towering crystalline arachnid that flooded the arena with localized gravity and web traps and seeded the shadows with cursed, stealth-oriented assassins called Carnex Stalkers. They could vibrate themselves in a corrupted frequency to obscure themselves from view and even pass through walls and geodes.

The environment was deadly enough all on its own. In fact, the boss was a pushover in comparison once they finally reached the end of the lair and could actually face it.