Book 5. Chapter 36: Tower Crashing

Book 5. Chapter 36: Tower Crashing

Dealing with the elites the second time was much easier than the first. Tanda had waited at the edge of the towers bubble, and immediately began sniping the two ranged elites.

She kept the dark elemental busy blocking her attacks, the arrows sending out showers of seeds which grew and tried to wrap around both the elemental and the duck reptile. She kept both monsters busy, until Bloodberri lined up a hit of a cannonball-sized baseball after exiting the barrier of the tower. Berri had filled it with auril and her will, along with her immense hatred of the duck-reptile, before hitting it.

The deathly baseball struck the creature and exploded in a shower of gore. Deathly energies seeped into the monster as a result of her auril attack, and the next hit of her baseball caused the creature to explode like it had before.

The explosion actually knocked the dark elemental aside, and then Tanda empowered her large arrow with her flaming auril and launched it. Despite the dark elemental shielding itself with orbs, her arrow pierced through and exploded in a fiery bite of the deathly wolf, nearly killing the monster as the vines wrapped around it and pierced into the creature.

Berri then hit another baseball, shattering the golems torso and allowing Tanda to finish it off with her next attack.

Berri dusted her hands in satisfaction. Thats what you get, duck! Screw you!

Easily dealt with, they continued their work on the second tower.

In Fhesiahs lane, she worked with Jasmina and Nadessa to defeat the hornets wind shielding with the sonic vibrations and lightning, then hit the creature with her Sun and Moon Hex. It could not douse the flames, and it eventually succumbed to them as it was nearly ignored, its harassment pathetic.

In the center lane, Ira picked up on the enemys approach much sooner, knowing what to look for. Jake had prepared several runic shackles in his hearth bubbles, ready for the void creature and the troll.

The troll had moved to explode out and attack Morwen and her priestesses, but she and her priestesses were prepared as well. Bone Shields floated around the priestesses, the four of them prepared to be targeted.

At Jakes warning, Morwen slammed the ground with her staff, sending out a wave of frost and catching the troll underground. Timone was tanking the tower, while Bedwyr and Dahlia took on the automatons.nove(l)bi(n.)com

The trolls underground rush was stopped, causing him to erupt from the ground a distance away. Ophelia met the troll on Valora, ready to take on this foe.

The trolls swings were powerful, but the lack of skill made it easy to deflect the attacks and counter it with devastating efficiency. Her Hearth Guardian met the trolls swings, while she slashed and stabbed into its flesh, sending vajrafire into it.

When the void creature appeared, it swung at one of the priestesses with its arm blade. A wave of bones blocked the attack despite its sharpness, and Jake saw the monster was covered in its blue barrier.

Sending a wave of telekinetic force first, the shield absorbed his spell before he released two of his stored shackle spells onto it.

This time, he was in the state of the Monarch, and the shackles lined with golden hue pushed harshly to restrict the void monster. Ira spent some more of their combined void energy to really lock it down, and Jakes hearthblade arrived to pierce into the creature just a moment later.

It roared with anger as Jake sent more hearth flames into the monster, and Ophelias [Vajra Strike] struck the troll and sent fiery lightning into the void monster. Ravens from Timone arrived to send deathly energies inside, and his mates arrows pierced it as well.

The troll and the void creature didnt use their special abilities before they died. Perhaps whatever enabled them to cast the pillar of stone or for the void monster to become enraged and hit much harder was still on cooldown.

Jake wasnt sure what the special ability of the hornet or the two ranged-focused creatures in the left lane were, which worried him. However, their second spawn was easily dealt with.

The three parties worked to finish off the second tower. It was not stronger than the first, and they managed to destroy it not long before the elites could spawn again. Each party did their best to recuperate, taking turns taking on the tower.

The right lane was well-off, as Bree had done her job efficiently. Jasmina could sing and heal Brees vines nearly forever, and Drysanders wives aided her vines even further. They increased the speed of the vines growth as well as hardening them, amplifying the effectiveness of the auril altogether.

The towers red orb shots only struck and melted away a portion of her vines, the heroic beast extremely sturdy.

With the second towers down, a final path opened up deep in the lane. The three lanes got close to one another, enabling movement between the three locations. Riding Valora, Ophelia could now move between the lanes within just a few seconds.

However, on the final tower, the elites could also move between lanes in defense. This led Jake to gather all allies to the center lane, to push the middle. The towers could tank the automatons for a time, while Jakes party could roam if required.

Pushing on the middle tower, its blows were more significant than the others. But Bree once again took on the challenge, Jakes Aura of Heavenly Flames combining with Jasminas song to completely deflect blows every few seconds. As before, Drysanders wives aided her, and even some talismans from Yiming and Longweis wives landed on her back, blanketing her with a thin layer of shielding energy.

The automatons spawned in front of them, as well as the down the other lanes, while Jakes larger party easily killed the ones present.

Based on their strength, Jake guessed three, maybe four waves of them would be enough to defeat one of the towers if his party did not interfere with them.

Because they were nearing the end of the battle, Jake switched to the state of the Guardian, and added Giants Growth to Bloodberri. Her immense size took off chunks of the tower with every swing, Tandas avenging flames and Fhesiahs draconic empowerment too dealing significant damage.

Jakes aura boosted the auril heroes and Warrior Brotherhood as well, increasing their damage to be even more ample. Ophelia added Einherjar to herself, her swings blurring with speed and power.

As both the next wave of automatons and the elites spawned in the back of the enemys base, they managed to destroy the tower in the center. To Jakes surprise, the automatons meant for the center lane split between the two remaining lanes, joining the two waves on their march out of the enemys base.

However, defeating the tower had revealed a fixture. Defeating it would stop future spawns, and would even prevent the elites in that lane from respawning. They quickly destroyed this fixture, Bloodberri taking it out with a satisfying Maul of Hestia-Echidna.

There were two even larger towers in the center of the base, that appeared more than powerful enough to be alarming. The artillery focused elites began raining attacks down on Jakes Battlegroup from underneath their protective barriers, forcing them to back away from the lane.

Ophelia rode up next to Jake, as she surveyed the battlefield. What now, Jake? We took out that tower fast enough, that maybe we should threaten another in the same way. The elites will be forced to act.

Jake saw a few ways that this final confrontation could go. He was worried about their increased strength, combined with their more powerful abilitieswhich they hadnt yet seen them all. However, taking them on with the largest group was certainly the safest and strongest method he could see.

The Battlegroup moved through the back path through the trees to the left lane, and began tanking the tower once again. As Fhesiah floated high in the forest, she spotted a surprise.

The hornet is moving to the right lane, and it looks like thatduck lizard is about to launch some attacks from the safety of that next ring of towers. No signs of the other creatures.

Clearly, it appeared the dark elemental, void creature, and the stone troll were setting up an ambush. If they left the hornet alone, it would destroy their tower and make the final encounter more challenging.

Ophelia chuckled at her sister, but Fhesiah groaned. Dibs, really? She smirked, as she looked lower on Jake. Well, not to worry. Theres more than enough daddy Jake to go around. Right, Lord Husband?

Jake chuckled. Thats right, my dear wives. Once we wrap these battles up, there will be plenty of time for enjoyment, Ill make sure of it.

Ophelia summoned Valora once more, her appearing with a sad whinny. [We hateweak.]

Smiling, Ophelia patted Valoras snout. It wont be much longer, then youll be able to be strong like your true self. Lets win this!

Jake and Fhesiah hopped onto the back of Valora behind Ophelia, and cleared the right lane of all the automatons as the left lanes tower and respawning fixture were destroyed. The annoying duck lizard remained alive, trying to rain powerful shots of gross spit onto the Battlegroup. Each attack was met with waves of water enhanced by Jasminas song, vines, or bone shields, the annoying creature whittling away at their resources.

Berri fumed with rage at the monster hiding behind its tower and shield. Grrr, okay, so maybe Bill isnt that bad. I want that thing dead! Surprisingly, her axe growled with anger as well.

Tanda chuckled. Ill kill it as soon as its wide open, Berri. Well get em.

Marching to the right lane, the Battlegroup rejoined Jake, and the large party was able to push through and destroy the tower and respawning fixture before the hornet could rejoin the fray.

As the final fixture fell, the barriers on the last set of towers were removed, and they actually collapsed into the ground. The duck lizard was running away, but Tanda was ready with a powerful arrow. Her long-distance shot exploded with a fiery wolf, biting off a leg and much of its lower torso.

But the creature still lived, so Berri hit an arcing baseball the long distance. The ball was about to strike, when a creature appeared in motes of light, blocking the attack. A tail wrapped around the duck lizard and lifted it into the air, as the Boss appeared.

Youve got to be kidding me! Berri shouted.

It was a two-headed hydra which was absolutely massive, one head billowing fire and one ice. It had a large lizard-like body, the two snake-heads curving up and backwards from where a lizards head would be on its shoulders. The creatures body was a mix of red and blue, matching the heads.

The body stood a little shorter than the frost giant king had, but its two snake heads rose taller than that. The monster aimed the duck lizard as if it were a gun with its tail, a loud quacking sound echoing as it shot at the Battlegroup. The hydras two heads roared and shot fire and ice breath at the large group of allies.

Jake and Ophelia blocked the hydra heads ranged attack with Sacrificial Barriers, while Berri hastily erected a barrier to block the ducks spit at her. But now, some magical quality was added by the empowered creature, where it shattered the barrier and the caustic substance splattered all over her.

Blood floated several baseballs into the air, and Berri groaned as she removed the caustic substance with a clever wave of auril before using the cleaning spell form. Youll pay for that!

Her weapon morphed into the baseball bat, where she began hitting the balls at the duck lizard, but the tail swung and moved its implement around, evading their attacks.

The bosss lizard-like body was engaged in melee with the many members of the Battlegroup. Drysander and the Auril Heroes attacked it with their various polearms, and Yiming and Longwei cut into it with valorous blades. The creature was large, but it did not have a health bar to restore itself.

Instead, it shed scales and flesh restored rapidly, but not as rapidly as the Battlegroup was able to harm it. Bolts of frost from Morwens priestesses pierced into its flesh, Fhesiahs flames from her Sun and Moon Hex, Tandas arrows and more struck the boss, as everyone laid into the creature.

It snapped with its large jaws with its two heads, and sent waves of flame and ice out as they did. Bedwyr was ready with his aura of frost protection, and Jakes Aura of Heavenly Flames enhanced by Jasminas song rejected much of the flames. Ophelia with her Valkyrie Champion ability enlarging her blocked one, and Vesuvius and Darris worked together to block the other as Jake, the war maidens, and Drysanders wives healed the damage caused.

Angry at the difficulty of killing their hated enemy, Bloodberri blurred to the rear of the immense creature, both girls requesting Jake make them bigger once more.

Chuckling, Jake found resonance with Ophelia and took on the state of the Guardian, and sent over the Giants Growth buff. Her axe roared as it enlarged, and they leaped and wrapped their spiked body around the back of the large creature.

Their weight even made the creature stumble, as the many warriors efforts crashed and slashed into the creature from the front. Chopping into the base of the creatures tail, they worked to eliminate the monsters control over their hated enemy, even as it shot its caustic substance at them.

But they used their Maul of Hestia-Echidna ability, cutting deeply and sending out a wave of light and dark, rejecting some of the creatures attacks. Then, dropping [Between Heaven and Hell], they debuffed the boss as it was wrapped in darkness, and additionally, sent out a wave of holy light energy.

The girls also used their dance as they swayed side to side and struck the creature, moving holy light and dark through their bodies, and even auril. The magically enhanced caustic spittle from the annoying creature was ignored, as she cleaved into the monster with her large axe.

The two heads turned to try to breathe frost and fire at her and bite into her, but Ophelias Hearth Guardian arrived, along with Jakes Hearth flames, to block and rebuff them. With a final chop, the tail was disconnected from the rest of the monsters body, the duck lizard being dropped.

It nearly fell to the ground, but Blood grabbed it with her telekinesis, lifting it into the air and bringing it toward them. The chimeral axe shifted into a spear, its length being nearly eight meters.

Spearing the hated monster in its chest, its color began to change immediately. Blood and Berri were both expecting this, so they flung it at the monsters neck of frost at the base. Blood also aided its trajectory with her telekinesis, so it hit its mark and exploded.

The explosion easily severed the Bosss spine, nearly destroying its neck and disconnecting it from its body. The head hung limply, unable to move. The Battlegroup capitalized on this, Tandas arrow striking with a powerful golden wolf and several others sending their ranged attacks at this target.

The head was removed, and while the neck stump appeared to be regrowing, the caustic substance kept it in check. Fhesiahs flames were spreading along with Timones fiery ravens, and wounds could not heal over fast enough.

Ophelias halberd sliced off large chunks of the beast, and now that she only had to defend against one head, it was easy to deal with. Bloodberri cleaved into the creatures body from the rear, the back of its body now slumping as she wrapped her tail and crushed and sliced into its back legs with her large axe.

Having not lost any towers in the challenge, this boss was not empowered and relatively easy to deal with. It still fought back with its flames and lashing out with its front body, but as it was taken to the ground, it became easy pickings.

The creature eventually died, and the Battlegroup roared in victory.

[Alliance Victory! You have 15 Minutes to Loot the boss and chest, before being moved to the Rest Area.]

As the monster slumped over dead, Bloodberris axe began eating chunks of the enemy with glee.

Berri gave a relieved sigh, finally having killed their hated enemy. Oh! It looks like this one was special. I wish we could cook and eat that duck lizard. Its the ultimate revenge.

Blood nodded. Yes, that would do quite nicely. I feel a strong desire to have some roasted duck. Then some fried auril beast? They are like a lizard.

They collected the loot, the treasure not all that dissimilar from the last one. It took the axe a few minutes, but eventually the monster had eaten enough of the monsters flesh. They triggered loot on the immense creature, receiving a large number of scales perfect for crafting, and various other portions of the creatures body.

Blood and Berri would later use Essence Extraction on much of it, to craft resistance equipment and similar. They eventually arrived at the Rest Area, receiving the same prompt as last time. They would have six hours to rest, before their final challenge.