Book 5. Chapter 38: Twin Demons

Book 5. Chapter 38: Twin Demons

The two demons stood near the middle of the room, and the Battlegroup was able to gather in front of each of the portals. They would take the first few orbs before moving to their designated places, to begin their assault on the boss.

Ophelia could just barely reach the boss in the center of the arena from her portal. She prepared her spell, gathering her righteous lightning.

Berri shouted her battle cry, Lets do this! Well kill this guy, and make babies! Hitting a baseball, Berri and Ophelia launched their attacks at the same moment.

Each boss was struck by their respective attacks, and ran toward their attacker. Orbs began to spill out each portal, several per second, with a wide spread. The portals were five meters high and wide, making it nearly impossible to block the entire thing to prevent all orbs.

Standing close to the portal, several touched Ophelia before the hulking boss arrived. Her body was slightly enhanced by the odd life energy, but it felt empty. It would really only enhance her attacks, or attune them for harming the boss.

Bloodberri happily absorbed nearly a dozen death orbs before the life boss arrived, thanks to covering nearly the entire portal. But they moved their tail after the boss arrived, allowing some orbs to reach their allies.

Deflecting the large demon's swing of its greatsword, Bloodberri immediately activated [Maul of Hestia-Echidna]. Howling, the maul slammed into the demon and sent out a deathly-tinged explosion of holy light and dark, debuffing and harming the life boss.

The maul then morphed into an axe as she began her dance, light and dark energy emanating from her as she took the bosss primary attention.

Meanwhile, Ophelia got her first blows into the death boss, the allies waiting as she built the bosss aggression toward her. Boss battles with the Framework did have this aspect that was considered, but the enemy would often lash out at targets that were available nearby. It was important any melee attacker was capable of taking a hit.

While they were doing that, Jake did his tests. He placed a hearth in his shield, and found that he could collect orbs for himself using it. When his hearth flames were placed there, it was like it was an extension of himself. He would have to be careful, but he could potentially take advantage of this for himself.

Ophelias was different, and only appeared to be able to gather an orb while it was attached to her arm or floating in her immediate vicinity, like it did without her hearth placed in it. Using this, Jake could gather many more orbs when he was ready to make his own attack.

He had read it in the scripts before, but the Garuda and Bree were both able to collect orbs on their own, and were not influenced by Jakes stacks. If Bree was a normal mana construct, she would be unable toit appeared that in some way, the Framework considered her different than all the other beasts and humanoids he could summon.

Later, demons of various types would spawn. These would be useful for Morwen and her priestesses to create undead with, but the scripts detailed that they would be unable to collect orbs. For that reason, they would not be worthwhile mana expenditures.

The melee now joined the attack, surrounding the boss and angling their polearms. The boss was heavily focused on their respective tanks, Ophelia countering with her halberd and shield. The demons attacks were vicious, sending waves of cutting deathly energy with each swing of its greatsword.

Ophelia had more or less mastered cladding her armor and weapon with mana, and filling her body with auril to strengthen it. The runes within her armor lit up as they were filled, and a cycle was accomplished where the mana empowerment of the armor was refilled between Tandas heart beats.

This made her particularly sturdy, her defenses high against both physical and magical attacks. Despite the demons energy crashing into her, she took little damage with each passing moment. A rejuvenation spell which healed over time arrived from Nadessas dryad mothers, the same being added to Bloodberri to keep them healthy throughout the fight.

The demons tails swung and tried smacking into the surrounding melee, creating difficulty in harming the demons from behind.

Bloodberris swaying back and forth while releasing her light and dark energies kept the boss from bringing forth its blade with significant leverage. Blood also used telekinesis and her tail to throw off the boss monsters timing, while Berri used the auril and holy light-enhanced strength to counter and cut deeply into the enemy with her morphed axe.

The life energy cut into her as the demon swung its weapon, but her powerful constitution and control over the mana and auril energies too kept her from taking significant damage.

The basketball-sized orbs moved about the room a little faster than an easy pass, and it appeared it was entirely possible for the more physically capable targets to dodge them. Despite their group gathering near the portal, a few of the orbs had gotten away from them.

Those now bounced around the room. They appeared to gravitate to the ground somewhat to hit someone at standing height, but some were bouncing where they may hit a flyer in the air.

Having gathered a number of the orbs, the numerous life or death casters were now filled with the special energies. They began their march out to the center, and Jake set down his Mana Font.

The large metal box was the maximum size the raid would allow for an object, resembling a smaller fridge. Hitting the release button, the four walls cascaded downward, unfolding like complex origami. The metal walls were thin like cardboard in five layers in total, flipping as they unfolded almost like a brochure to reach nearly ten meters in length in each direction.

The final stack unfolded again in each direction at the final distance, creating something close to a circle. The tile-like objects had Jakes runes and scripts contained within, and a pedestal stood at the center once again.The source of this content nov(el)bi((n))

This time, however, Jake had created a powerful hearth to be what drew the energies inside. The flame lit up as Jake activated it, and it was as if he created a safe haven or home. The mana font felt special even as he stood inside it.

Knowing hed need to share it with various casters, this version was definitely the Raid edition. It only drew in mana and no other special energies from the large room, condensing it and allowing casters to use it. Immediately, the hearth burned to life, the runes and scripts lighting up on the tiles on the ground.

The mana density inside increased, and the two groups spread out near the outside, taking their positions.

Aisling chuckled. This is quite the tool, clan son. I will protect you and these little ladies from the black orbs.

Im counting on you, clan mother.

Bloodberri worked to especially capitalize on the damage bonus, becoming the first person to reach maximum stacks.

Just before she did, Jake switched to the state of the Guardian, increasing his buffing capability. He once again gathered his mana to cast Giants Growth, followed by Einherjar on her.

The life demons flesh was already being weakened by Fhesiah, the Moon Hex and her withering kitsune flames gathering on it. Blood had also cast her Weakness spell and Absorb Strength, weakening the boss and strengthening herself.

Having grown to be almost the size of the boss, each swing of Bloodberris now massive axe cut deeply into the boss monster. Each attack of theirs was now empowered by immense strength and momentum, but also the power of death.

Each swing took off visible chunks of the twin demons health, as she blocked the demon with her giant tail or clever movements. Blood and Berri each released their spells as well, using the same holy smite and shadow bolt spells Jake had cast. He had learned the spells using their mana from their hard work, after all, the unique mana requiring much testing to determine which spells were possible.

The many other warriors were doing excellent work, even defending from the demons tails. Darris protected his allies with his water and shield, and Drysander blocked attacks with his vines. Others were able to focus their special energies as they dashed in and out of the melee, making best use of their resources to make powerful blows.

Meanwhile, they were mindful of the orbs bouncing around the battlefield. They spread themselves around the boss well, as it focused on the designated tank. Waves of life or death energy also cascaded around the boss periodically, cutting into the melee attackers periodically. But they defended with their auril or Valor, keeping the damage low and enabling the druids or maidens to keep up with healing.

They fought yet another round of the same demons spawning. This time, Jake had to use his force push ability to send one flying away as it had spawned close, before it could absorb the nearby life orbs from his allies.

Because of that, Bree easily pierced through the downed monster with glee, ripping and tearing into its flesh with her vines. Spewing flames from her mouth, Jake thought he saw her shifting in appearance. He moved on to aid the other allies with theirs.

They continued this cycle for a time, slowly whittling away at the boss. The Battlegroup got used to observing the battlefield, and maintaining their roles. They had practiced in the Life Haven arena similar boss battles, and thanks to this, moved like a well-oiled machine.

The other instances should be similar in this, that they had practiced significantly for the boss battle. While this battle was complicated, the Alliance and Hearthtribe were prepared thanks to using the Arenas constructs.

As the twin demons health reached 80%, the fight moved into the next phase. New demons spawned mixed with the others, and these were different. They drew in orbs that matched them, and if they received enough of them, they would cast heals on the boss.

These were clearly weaker to Jake, as they were smaller and holding staves. These needed to be targeted immediately, as when they healed, they also transferred one stack to the boss. If they werent interrupted, the encounter would become nearly impossible to find victory.

Fhesiah and Tanda joined Rookard and Jake, along with all other ranged attackers, in focusing on these targets first. They found that this was easy to deal with thanks to their high damage output, the healing demons having low health.

The Battlegroup had a large amount of burst damage, able to slay the monsters just as quickly as they spawned. There were still only six demons spawning, and the healing demons were even easier to defeat. Thanks to this, they kept whittling away at the twin demons health.

When Ophelia hit the maximum stacks, she too did her best to capitalize on her advantage. Jake used the same Giants Growth on Ophelia along with Einherjar, and she went all out. Pushing Ride of the Valkyries to its limits, she cycled her auril and mana to send fast and powerful thrusts and slashes using her halberd.

Allies had taken significant damage throughout the course of the fight, empowering her weapon to contain a powerful vajrafire blade. Flames and lightning coursed through her attacks, the magics empowered by the life energy blitzing through the boss monster.

Jake did his best to manage his resources, using the mana font to keep his mana levels high. His powerful Divine Hearth Core and his bonds drew in energy at a blistering pace, allowing him to control the battlefield.

Thanks to his efforts, the many Battlegroup casters could do the same, conserving their mana for the final phases of the battle.

As they brought the boss down below fifty percent, something started to shift.

The air suddenly became heavy, a shiver running down Jakes spine. A diabolical tension filled the room, a malevolent intent bearing down on them. Compared to his wives, Jake felt the intent especially on him.

Ira felt this change too, and Jake could feel Brees eyes narrowed at this. Valora whinnied next to Jake in concern, sensing something had changed. The Garuda felt something was wrong, its feathers ruffling as it fought. Most of the Battlegroup didnt appear to notice, continuing with their fight as if nothing were amiss.

Aisling looked around the room with a confused look, her prophetic energy going haywire. Through Tanda, Jake knew that Timone and Dahlias hearts stirred, beating with conviction as their songs shifted. Wicked was present, and it must be punished.

Morwen and Bedwyr frowned and too looked around, likely feeling the malicious intent weighing against their faith.

Jake could feel that Tartarus especially wanted him dead, for him to fail and be consumed. That to get just a fraction of his soul, it would pay a terrible price. It had created two Greater Rifts and sent an Enforcer to try to take him and his family down, but it had failed.

It only had this last chance here, to stop Jake and Hearthtribe from ascending and becoming a true threat.

The orbs within the room almost seemed to stir. Until now, they spawned out of the portals in a completely random fashion. But now, the innocuous creation of them from the portals sent them at odd angles, as if directing them as planned for a horrible purpose.

The Hart Clan stood at the ready, their hearths beating as one. Jake and his wives were all filled with purpose and conviction, their emotional connection strengthening and reinforcing each other through their hearths. Together, they would meet the challenge of Tartarus, protecting their new home.

Fighting alongside their allies, they would crush their enemy and ascend above it.