Bonded Summoner

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. He’d 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 didn’t 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 didn’t you tell me about this, Jake, as you seem to know about it?”

Jake’s eyes shifted around, looking for a good excuse. “Uhh, well, you girls don’t usually like bitter things?”

Berri was interested, moving quickly to peer over Fhesiah drinking. “What’s this grokk, is it good?”

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

Jake’s 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.”

Her face brightened, and she ignored Ophelia trying out the grokk for now. “Oh, what is it, Jake?”

She probed the storage bracelet with her mana. “Oh! You brought more of my baseballs! Thank you so much, Jake!” Jake’s head was surrounded in a hug of hers.

“Now I won’t have to throw the toothpicks! You thought of me…” Jake received a kiss and a beaming smile.

He replied, “Of course, you girls are all always on my mind. Now, this time–”josei

Berri nodded. “Yes, Jake! I’ll pace myself this time.”

“More than that, I want you to only use less than one quarter of the ammunition for this next objective, leaving a majority for what’s coming up after that. I’m willing to wager the final building is going to be even more difficult, and we would really need your high-powered cannon shots for that.”

Berri said, “Got it! Aww, the grokk is gone now?”

Ophelia said, “It was really bitter, but different? I think I like it.”

Dave looked like he was about to say that there was more, and Jake surrounded him with his mana with a glare. The man shivered, and seemed to be able to tell that Jake was the cause somehow, looking at him, where Jake made a throat cutting motion.

Dave laughed, hiding the thermos behind his back. “N-No, sorry! There was just enough for her eminence to give it a try, I hope you enjoyed it, Goddess Fhesiah.”

He laughed a little more awkwardly, as he bowed and backed away.

Berri was downhearted. “Awww.”

Fhesiah noticed the exchange. She said to Dave, “Oh, you have no idea. I have quite a bit to enjoy here. Thank you, Dave.”

He gave her a smile, his eyes squinting in happiness. “You’re very welcome! I will, um, just go over here now.”

[Now, what was with that, ‘babe’?]

With that, Jake had to spill the beans. Even if he didn’t, she would figure it out anyway. He had already mostly come to terms that he would be with these girls forever. But the idea that forever would include a hyper-energized Berri scared him for various reasons.

[I guess I get it. Still, to think you can mix bitter and sweet like that. I look forward to what you will make for me, husband, that frappuccino seems like it will be delicious. For what it’s worth, I think the girl will mellow out a bit once you make her a mother. You shouldn’t be so concerned, it’ll only be for a short time. Personally, I want to see it, it should be a lot of fun!]

Fun for whom? Jake was the one who would have to pick up all the pieces!

Their force fought through another quadrant, slowly but surely, and Dave and Ophelia worked to take out another set of catapults. They spiraled in towards the center of the city, the height of the buildings now overcome by the shield. It was slow-going, but they eventually arrived at another arena with a red portal at the doorway.

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

Jake summoned Bree, and they went in with the same party, but this time, it was all undead. Instead of many dinosaurs in the front, it was a skeletal army.

There was a massive bone and undead flesh monstrosity in the rear, nearly the size of a three-story building, and two necromancers to go along with a large force of skeletal mages. Jake’s party went for the bone monstrosity and the casters in the back, while the rest of the group went after the army of skeletons, including archers and shield users.

Once again, they lead their attack with a large lance of flame attack, and Ophelia used her Hearth of Hestia with Jake besides. The skeletal mages and necromancers sent balls of flames and shards of ice, and beams of necrotic energy at them, but they easily avoided the brunt of the attacks.

The fiery lance struck the bone monstrosity, hitting a black barrier once again, but Ophelia and Jake’s hearths ravaged the necromancers and mages with the flames of Hestia, the creature unable to block both powerful attacks at once.

The four of them made quick work of the bone monstrosity that was now alone, and Bree stormed through the bone army like they weren’t even there.

Rookard’s wolves kept Vexana safe as they both rained ranged attacks against the army. Tanda released some seeds with her rampant growth, covering many of the skeletons in vines, as she shot her own bow against the archers.

She covered Rikka as she worked on the archers, swooping in. The two large reptile beastkin warriors were plenty strong with Jake’s buffs to fight through the undead in sweeping swings of their glaives, as well.

Vexana continued to pick off enemies with her javelins, and the acolyte kept the party healthy and safe with shields and heals.

Vesuvius’s glaive had an extra flaming effect from his lava monitor auril manifestation, sending large waves of heat out as he dispersed some of it every few swings. Jake’s aura of heavenly flames would enhance this effect, and the wave would instead release flames in a large cone, wiping out numerous skeleton warriors.

Jake and his girls helped the beastkin wrap up the remaining skeletons with ease, the challenge completed.

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

Fhesiah added, “They didn’t 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. It’s 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, “Don’t 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. Let’s 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 I’d 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 family’s 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 didn’t 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 tower’s mortars did not target those in the air, but they still needed to look out for them. Jake absorbed the mortar’s 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 didn’t 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 wouldn’t 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 wasn’t sure what they were going to do if this wasn’t 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.