Book 4. Chapter 4: The Assault Continues

Book 4. Chapter 4: The Assault Continues

The group went outside, and they found that the barrier had in fact raised nearly 5 meters higher, making the buildings nearby accessible. This would make it much easier for the avian beastkin to fly above the buildings and attack back, and for all their projectiles to land much more reliably.

Jake had some avian beastkin retrieve the easy to collect ammunition while they could, being on the lookout for enemies. This would help maintain their ammunition stores, as this city had thousands upon thousands of enemies to defeat.

Jake observed the tower in his arcane eye, and found that the power to the beam weapon did in fact seem lower, as if this was some kind of power station supplying it with energy. Based on the energy in the floating gem or orb above the tower now, he guessed they did in fact decrease its output by almost a fifth or so.

Once they defeated the first three challenges, it would be around 40% of its output for their final fight against it.

The party rested up, and Jake looked over to Bree. The creature looked smug, and Jake did think she did a great job of protecting Vexana and defeating many enemies, performing much better than he imagined Bill might have.

The guardian beast was quite effective, him satisfied with her performance, but he would still prefer to use Bill, the stegosaurus, for following the battlegroup around.

Jake thought about his flicker of anger that he felt, trying to find a reason for this. He looked over his skills, and realized that perhaps, it was because of [Wrath]. He had named his abilities after what he thought the technique was supposed to accomplish, and he had thought it was an apt name for what he wanted.

Using [Wrath], he would destroy his enemies. But he had no idea that just the name alone could influence it, normally the runes spelling out a simple word rather than a runic phrase having no impact on a spell.

Perhaps, he would need to make a better plan on what he wanted each Technique to be called. Hed also make it follow a certain theme, of what he wanted to accomplish with all of them.

Overall, he was happy with how they enhanced what he wanted to accomplish, but with what he learned they could be empowered by emotions, or some other actions or intentions. Soon, he should reach level 3 in the skill, and he believed he could have at least one or two more [States] for [Runebound] eventually.

He needed to plan out the cohesive whole, as while he could change them now, he didnt think it would stay that way forever. Probably when the skill evolved or upgraded, he would be quite stuck with what he made.

Jake looked over at Bree, and smiled at her. Good job, Bree. You were amazing. Thank you for your help.

He thought the flowers grew a deeper red once again, before she disappeared into motes of light. He then worked on summoning Bill.

They discussed the battle, finding that the strategy mostly worked. Really, they had lucked out that the bone dragon was so easily countered by Fhesiah, and that they were able to mostly destroy the necromancer before it could raise any of the killed dinosaurs as undead.

That his party was able to put the caster on the defensive from the beginning was a big reason the plan went well without anyone being harmed significantly. Jake sort of thought things would have gone a little smoother if he was with Bree using the Aegis state, but it was hard to tell.

They were resting up near Bill, Jake, and his girls, when Dave approached Fhesiah with a steaming cup of a dark liquid, what Jake thought was a type of thermos dangling from his backpack.

Would you like some grokk, your eminence?

Jake could smell it from a few paces away, was that? Oh, no

Thank you, Dave. What is this, it smells bitter? She looked at Jake, Why are you distressed over this?

Jake laughed a little awkwardly as he tried to lock up his thoughts.

Uh, no reason, babe. Jake did his best to will her into somehow not liking it, and making sure Berri does not try some, at least.

Babe, really? You never use those terms for me. Now I really have to try it.

She took a sip of it. Bleh, it is really bitter!

Her face scrunched up cutely, but then she brightened, Oh, but it really picks you up! Wow, I could get used to this! Why didnt you tell me about this, Jake, as you seem to know about it?

Jakes eyes shifted around, looking for a good excuse. Uhh, well, you girls dont usually like bitter things?

Berri was interested, moving quickly to peer over Fhesiah drinking. Whats this grokk, is it good?

Ophelia said, It does smell weird, let me try?

Jakes world was crumbling around him. The thought of having to herd these cats while they were hopped up on caffeine in a fantasy world distressed him significantly. He needed a distraction.

Jake held out a storage bracelet to Berri. Berri, I got a surprise for you.

That was easy! Berri said, from atop the small hill of bones; the remains of the bone monstrosity.

Fhesiah added, They didnt even have a land dragon for me to eat this time.

Ophelia said, The dinosaurs were a bit more challenging, our powers granted by the goddesses are much better suited for defeating the undead. Its odd how that first encounter was so stacked, even with the undead beastkin.

Jake was surprised that the encounter was so simple, with the previous being so difficult. Perhaps, Tartarus had front-loaded the encounter with pillaged resources from the nearby area, somehow.

Tanda said, I think at that first arena, they had those dinosaurs as part of their arena challenges. That might be why Tartarus was able to eventually take control over them.

The uninitiated or a weaker battlegroup would easily get defeated by the challenge, and either choose to push on despite being unable to beat it, or retreat and take the loss.

Jake reminded, Dont get complacent, girls. We all know that Tartarus is going to try to flip the script on us, potentially luring us into a false sense of security. Lets remain vigilant, being ready to go all out for a rush to the finish line.

Ophelia said, The second time I covered for Dave, the damage on my sacrificial barrier was much more manageable. Now, I could probably rush the tower in a pinch.

Jake said, We may need to, but there may be an encounter just like this associated with it. If we can get one more challenge completed, then Id feel a lot better about the need to rush forward.

Only one more special building was left, then what might be a final challenge at the ominous tower in the center. While Jake was confident in his familys ability to fight, he would have to be able to win while keeping the loss of life minimal to really consider it a win.

They continued down the path, fighting through the various undead on the path and the buildings above. Things were going normally, when the orb on the tower shifted.

Like an angry eye of god, it turned toward the people on the ground. It created a fireball, and arced rapidly toward where it was looking.

Jake pushed his Hearthfire through his staff, adding his runes to the ones contained in it; his function. These in turn were empowered by the covenant of his technique, the Aegis state. The runic barrier coalesced above the battlegroup, intercepting the large magical mortar launched by the tower.

He could feel, from the stress it put on his barrier, that it was a powerful attack.

After some time, it attacked again, Jake being forced to block it or several beastkin would have been injured in its blast radius.

After numerous more of the attacks, It appeared to target wherever there was the largest congregation of targets, as far as Jake could tell.

An attack came around every twenty seconds, and if it landed a direct hit unimpeded, he bet that only some of the most powerful awakened warriors could even survive by flaring their auril defensively or using a shield.

Spreading out to dodge the large attacks which came a little too fast didnt really seem to help, and made it more of a challenge to make forward progress against the archers and mages on the rooftops.

Because of that, Jake had the non-flyers congregate around Bill even more tightly than before.

Luckily, the towers mortars did not target those in the air, but they still needed to look out for them. Jake absorbed the mortars attacks with his efficient barriers, while Ophelia, Tanda, and Fhesiah went ahead and took out the rooftops filled with mages, and destroyed catapults.

Jake had even tried having the reptile beastkin climb up the buildings and march across, but it appeared that didnt cause them to be unable to be targeted by the magical mortars.

Still, they were making mostly safe progress, on the last long leg of the trip. When they completed the third arena, they would have gone to through the third quadrant, and the majority of the city.

The fourth quadrant had them cutting much more inward in their spiral around the city, the distance they must travel nearly half the amount, with fewer buildings. They would even begin heading downhill.

When they neared the final challenge, it was mostly a straight shot to the tower in the center, where a huge circular plaza surrounding it was.

Jake was only barely able to keep his mana at decent levels throughout the trip. He was resting riding Berri, her being incessant upon him riding on her backpack instead of Bill for a while.

She accepted that he wouldnt always ride on her in combat, but while they were just riding through the city, her odd carriage on her back did have more protection and was safer.

He was able to drink his mana water, and keep himself mostly topped off. They continued working through the city until, finally, the last building was near.

They finally arrived at the second to last boss challenge. Jake sighed in relief when he saw the prompt.

[Challenge Balanced on party of 10. Defeat challenge to raise height of projectile and detection shield on all quadrants. Periodic tower attacks stopped during challenge.]

Jake wasnt sure what they were going to do if this wasnt the case, as he would debate staying outside while his girls and the rest of the group faced the challenge, or Ophelia would. They rested up and finished their preparations, Jake recasting Bree, and once again using [Wrath]. He had decided to try experimenting with his anger to see what might happen.