Bonded Summoner

Book 4. Chapter 6: Ophelia / Tanda - Boss Battles

Ophelia entered the challenge along with Fhesiah, Vesuvius, Rookard and Darris.

This was the party they came up with after considering the many possibilities of what they might face, keeping both parties as powerful as they could.

Thanks to Jake’s [Aura of Heavenly Flames], him going with the battlegroup simply made the most sense. From there, separating Ophelia and him felt superior, as she could influence both battles thanks to her chosen specialization that way.

That left the most contention between whether it should be Bloodberri or Fhesiah that enter this challenge. With Darris the turtle beastkin on either side, they had confidence for him to be able to, with support, take the brunt of the damage put out by whatever target.

He was not a viable replacement for the damage that Bloodberri would be able to put out, but that was something Fhesiah had in spades. She just accomplished it differently.

Thanks to Aegis, Ophelia was more than sufficient as the group’s healer. Renewal empowered by Aegis would be nearly as powerful as Bloodberri’s [Divine Intervention], and she would have no problems casting it several times. It only took a tiny bit more time to cast.

She had also recently gained [Intervene]. It was a small thing, but it was a big deal to her. Her speed was already amazing, so her ability to protect others in the battlegroup, or Jake, had just skyrocketed. It also increased her offensive ability, as her lance just became that much more deadly, being able to flank enemies attacking her allies as she blitzed to their aid.

They took in the room, finding there to be a large death knight and a bone dragon. The death knight was nearly five meters tall, a little larger than Vesuvius would become during the fight. The bone dragon was a little taller, when crawling on all fours, as it was.

Fhesiah said, “I would say that we are lucky there is a dragon, but…”

Ophelia noticed what she was getting at. The death knight and dragon appeared to be protected by a barrier of sorts, as she could feel with her magical senses.

Jake’s voice sounded in her mind, [It looks like this is how the two encounters are linked. In the plaza with the tower in it, there are three smaller towers. The large tower is protected by them, and there appears to be an order for which they must be taken out, as two of them look to be protected in some way as well. Creatures are about to spawn, too. The encounter is beginning.]

Ophelia said, “For now, I want you to defend against the knight, Darris. Fhesiah and I will do our best to contain the bone dragon.”

Darris said, “Our hearts beat in harmony, the life of the world in our chests. We will prevail.”

Rookard laughed. “Very true, my new friend. This perversion of life must be destroyed.”

The bone dragon crawled towards their party. The death knight used some sort of grasping motion, pulling Rookard toward it and causing him to roar in defiance, dropping his bow and trying to meet the knight’s fist with one of his axes.

Ophelia activated [Ride of the Valkyries] and [Intervene], blurring toward the knight. It was near-teleportation level speeds, with the shield popping up around Rookard instantly, but it quickly shattered around the knight’s fist before Rookard’s counter met with it.

Ophelia lanced and slammed into the death knight, her spear entering the armored creature, then her shield knocking it back several paces. This ripped out her lance, but she saw the creature was quickly healed by a nearby fixture that almost looked like a torch on the wall, in a beam of red light. The armor’s hole from her lance was even repaired.

Rookard retreated, having been knocked away from the knight’s grasp, retrieving his bow.

Ophelia shouted, “It seems these creatures might have unlimited health. Do your best to slow it down or knock it off balance, rather than taking blows in order to give them.”

Darris was filled with his auril as he slammed his own shield into the death knight now, and Vesuvius was growing as he took loping strides toward the enemy.

Ophelia then blurred towards the bone dragon, ready to knock it out of position. Fhesiah had been building up her flames in her dance, but was holding onto them for now.

This bone dragon appeared to have wings, and had a whitish flame inside its chest and head that appeared to be powering it, instead of the green color of the previous. The dragon started what appeared to be a breath attack, releasing a breath of frost. Fhesiah started to suck in the whitish flames.

Ophelia was ready for a barrier, but it appeared that once again this battle would be made easier by–

“Ah!” Fhesiah shouted in pain, and Ophelia quickly cast a sacrificial flaming barrier on her and got behind it with her, to weather out the remaining breath attack.

The bone dragon then tried to pound on it with its claws, but it was stopped for the time being.

“What is it? You can’t consume this flame?”

Ophelia could see that her throat and face were now covered in frost, but it was being removed rapidly.

“No, I can. It’s just that since the element is so opposed to mine and so strong, that I’m harmed while I consume it. I just need to be more careful; it will not be free, exactly. I’ll be more prepared for it, next time.”

“You’re sure?”

“Yes, I just have to consume some of my own flames along with it. It should be fine.”

The barrier was removed, and they both charged the creature. Ophelia lanced the creature in the chest by dodging a claw’s swipe after strafing around it in midair.

Fhesiah had gone to the other side, sending small waves of flames over the cold creature’s body as she danced around it, continuing to still build her orb of flame. Ophelia’s lance entered the creature again as she stabbed it, and it roared, but once again a fixture healed the creature.

They continued their fight for some time, and Ophelia used [Intervene] to rejoin Rookard, Darris and Vesuvius.

The wolves bit and dragged down the creature, while Rookard filled it with auril infused arrows, aiming for its legs. Darris and Vesuvius took turns knocking the creature off balance, or blocking its blows.

She then heard Berri’s voice over their bond, [Home Run! Woohoo!]

The fixture that just healed the creatures fluctuated, and winked out whatever magic was protecting them. Ophelia noticed that now when she looked at the creature, she could see a red bar labeled health. It was a lot like several of the games they played, like the fighting ones.

“Jake, what’s going on over there?”

[We had to clear a wave of enemies, and destroy a tower. There are two more to take out, but an enemy was just released that appears to be invulnerable for now, along with what appears to be some miniature versions of it released periodically: a golem thing. Perhaps you have to do something on your side, now? The other two towers besides the main one are seemingly invulnerable as well, for now.]

She sent her thoughts about how the encounter had gone thus far, and that perhaps they had to eliminate these health bars of one or both creatures before Jake’s battlegroup could continue. They were in some sort of alternating battle, where both teams must succeed in order to have a path to victory.

Fhesiah released her large fireball attack that she had been saving up for, and flung it at the undead frost dragon. The creature was engulfed with flames as it wailed in agony, and Ophelia saw the health bar had decreased by almost half, the orb being one similar to what destroyed the Necromancer.

She charged in and stabbed it with her spear, her powerful speed and momentum reaching near the creature’s frozen core. She continued stabbing it as it wailed in agony, and blocked a return blow with her [Aegis]-empowered shield. Less than a tenth of its health declined from her efforts.

Fhesiah said, “I’ll take care of this one here. I think the beastkin need some help with that guy.”

Ophelia nodded, and used [Intervene] once more as she blazed towards Darris.

Vesuvius was now at full height, but the death knight had used some sort of weakness ability, that was sapping much of the beastkin’s strength.

Ophelia lanced the death knight on entry, taking the creature from the near 85 percent that it was at down to 80, and knocked it off balance with her shield slamming into it shortly after. It had stumbled down to its knees as a result.

Vesuvius then landed a powerful swing of his glaive to the creature’s shoulder, his auril sending a burst of flames into the creature; his heat finally having built up to where he could accomplish this.

While it would have been more with Jake present, it was still respectable, bringing the creature’s health even lower.

Rookard fired arrows from afar and the auril wolves bit into the legs trying to pull and keep the creature down. Their powerful jaws pierced the armor and reduced the health bar in order for the armor to be restored.

Darris slashed one of the death knight’s legs with his axe as it was kneeling, stumbling to get up, when it roared and life energy was drained from the nearby party members, even striking Rookard. Rookard roared, and covered himself in blue auril, but Ophelia healed him using empowered runic healing.

The drain move raised the creature’s health by nearly ten percent as it stood. Ophelia and Vesuvius landed more blows on it, causing the creature’s health to quickly drop once more.

Darris defended the creature’s two-handed sword with his steady blue auril and water added to his shield, making the creature almost look weak. But Ophelia could tell even she would have difficulty blocking the large creature’s blows, without diverting some of the creature’s mass or momentum; she couldn’t block the blows dead on, without being sent flying.

The creature got beneath half of its health, and Ophelia saw Fhesiah absorbing more frost flames from the undead ice dragon, apparently using her own flames to counteract the effect.

Ophelia summoned her Hearth of Hestia just in case, several fiery spears firing and gouging into the death knight. It made a grasping motion for Rookard once again, and Ophelia once again used [Intervene] to shield him, before it could get its hand around him.

Ophelia jabbed her lance into its hand and then into its chest, and Vesuvius landed a powerful blow onto its back, blasting his fiery auril into it once again. It went down onto its knee, and became invulnerable with a shield covering it, its health bar reaching zero.

Nothing changed on Jake’s side yet, so she placed the hearth in her shield and flew over to Fhesiah, where she was sending a large gout of flames into the creature. Ophelia lanced it right into the skull moving at her full speed, and the creature collapsed down.

This exposed the healing fixture on their side, which she wailed on with her spear until it shattered.

They had finished on their side for now, and now it was time for the battlegroup to move forward on theirs. Ophelia and Fhesiah would do their best to recover for as long as the encounter would allow.

***

Tanda dove from the sky as she slashed with her polearm, slicing the small creature of stone in half. Her heart soared, beating the song of the successful hunt. She watched as her warriors did similarly, aiding her potential mate with his strategy.

A massive rock creature, Jake called a golem, appeared when Bloodberri destroyed the tower using their absurd weapon. When people hit the creature, stone would be dislodged and slow it down, but it would heal rapidly. The stone removed rose to merge once again with the creature.josei

The center, the creature’s core, was protected by the towers that they could not attack.

By attacking the creature, this would slow it down as it chased people across the battlefield, and Tanda was surprised at how easily it was dealt with. Jake’s heavenly aura made their javelins and arrows easily knock off the rock as the stone creature healed, slowing it, as the reptile and wolf beastkin people made sure to stay out of its way.

He called this behavior ‘kiting,’ and she was dying to see what this ‘kite’ thing actually was.

She slashed through another golem that was spawned by one of the invulnerable towers. Every few seconds, several of the same creatures were created with a flash of light.

In the first wave, it was instead some sort of insect creatures being spawned periodically, with a massive beetle that had to be killed before the barrier was removed. This allowed Bloodberri and the hundreds of ranged beastkin to aim for the raised tower and destroy it.

Because the enemy liked their ‘towers’ so much, perhaps she could make her own? She had a seed for that. She retrieved her thornlash seed, and infused it with [Rampant Growth], a portion of her auril energy.

A large plant grew, barely being able to anchor itself into the stone ground. A carnivorous plant, it grew large vines full of thorns. It would now attack enemies that came near. An interesting creature, but she supposed a little weak to accomplish much.

She was still considered Tier 0, and thus her creations were at most around her strength, but much lower in actuality. She created several of them, hoping that she could use them to help protect her allies.

Tanda put her musings on hold, as Jake shouted over the battlegroup, “The barrier has been removed. Aim for the golem’s core!”

His song as he spoke was now much more harmonious to her wolfen ears. In the last week, he had really come far with his speech. He was still learning his song, but it no longer grading, and instead filled her heart with warmth.

Tanda heard a loud crack, and a sphere was once again launched by the massive snake warrior, her new clan mate. The sphere slammed into the golem’s chest with such force, the massive creature was nearly knocked off its lumbering feet.

Rock was being shed from the creature at a shocking pace now, and she could see the core itself had cracks in it. She filled her bow and arrow with the finality of death, and launched it along with her new reptile beastkin brethren, adding on to the wounds of the creature.

Once again, she was surprised at the efficacy of the spinal bones of the auril beasts. That their tradition of burying the remaining bones after all meat, hide, and trophies were collected contributed to missing out on learning about this viable weapon was frustrating.

A massive lance of flames then slammed into the core from Jake, along with a spear of divine flames powered by the Goddess from Ophelia’s Chosen Hearth. The core shattered, lowering the defenses of the next tower.

Jake then shouted, “Now, those with ranged attacks destroy the tower, the rest, clean up the enemy spawns!”

Many miniature golems all spawned at once, causing her people to rush around the field to clean them up. Her people had formed orderly formations of shield users to protect the ranged attackers, and the many flyers and wolf people with fast movement charged around spearing enemies.

Her new plants attacked various golems, wrapping it up in their tendrils and allowing allies both reprieve and easy targets to finish off. She fired her bow at the tower, focusing on it like Jake requested.

One cracking sound after another sent spheres slamming into the raised tower; some sort of obelisk.

Jake sent more flames, and the larger reptile beastkin, including Jarrix, wailed at the base of the tower with their polearms. The tower eventually crumbled, and the power of the encounter stirred.

They now had a minor reprieve, as the fight likely continued on the other side. She helped clean up one of the last golems, and she looked over at her potential mate once again. He now drank from a canteen and smiled as Berri smiled and cheered, raising her massive maul in the air in victory.

Tanda flew near, as Jake spoke to the battlegroup.

“Great work, everyone. It appears we have a small reprieve, the other side facing a similar encounter. A large knight is invulnerable while the dragon sleeps, and skeletal warriors spawn around the room. An obelisk floats around the room, requiring them to chase it and deal damage to it at the same time, as they fight through the horde of enemies and flee from the knight.”

Tanda could almost picture Ophelia fighting through the enemies along with Fhesiah and the beastkin, and thought that she might be excellent for chasing after the tower, as fast as she was.

“I’m going to swap out the Kobold Acolyte for my new summon,” Jake said.

Jake summoned the large naga, the creature appearing in motes of light. It had four arms with a blue-green body, the wide snake-like tail much shorter than Bloodberri’s slimmer design. It had coral all over its body, matching the color of its skin.

“I think I’ll name you…Kevin.”

Kevin was essentially the same size and strength as the creature was when Jake originally faced the naga, at almost the same height and size as Berri. Jake then handed the large creature a shield, which it accepted in two of its arms on one side. It also had a trident in the other pair of hands.

Berri said, “Yay, Kevin! I like him, he feels strong.”

Tanda said, “His auril isn’t tainted, so this is good to know, that it doesn’t follow your summons.”

Jake smiled at her, and Tanda knew that it set her tail wagging. “Your [Rampant Growth] ability seems useful. Can you use any plant?”

Tanda nodded. “As far as I know, I should be able to use any plants that will thrive from life energy.”

Jake chuckled. “That should be most, but the multiverse is vast, after all. How can you use this [Cyclic Resonance]?”

Tanda smiled. “Remember the play, and how all the songs lined up? My heart beats with my brethren, forming our song. As I find resonance with them, we form a song that encompasses the cycle of life and death, of transformation and rebirth.”

Jake quirked his brow. “That… sounds complicated? Do you have all the songs you need here, to form this cycle?”

Tanda was surprised at the question, and looked over the rest of the beastkin. Many of her brethren were here, but most of the Auril Heroes besides Roxo and Jarrix were on the other side.

She knew her recently awakened brethren didn’t amount to much, but with many of them combined, their songs should be enough. She looked over at the boar, Bree. The boar filled with vitality and warmth represented spring, of fertility and the abundance of life, making her song the same as Brigid’s.

Vesuvius was strong and filled with power and skill, his song filled with warmth, making him similar to Lugh.

Rookard represented the great hunt, bringing death to his enemies, but also protecting the balance. His song was closest to Arawn’s. Many of the other auril heroes could add different elements to enhance these songs, and Tanda thought that the turtle and the naga could fall between Arawn and Brigid. That left Tanda to sing the song of rebirth.

“It might be better if you can replace Bree with the stag, but I should be able to make it work. We have many of my brethren here.”

Jake nodded. “I wanted to see the stag or the lion, as I haven’t had a chance yet.” He thanked Bree once more, and then he unsummoned her, her disappearing into motes of light.

Jake then summoned the stag. The large creature appeared before her, and its powerful auril heart began to beat. Tanda smiled at the creature, and many of her brethren noticed their guardian.

“Wow, this summon took a little more than the others. And it’s a male, like you would expect. I name you Oran.”

“I like that. He’ll help my people with our song.”

Jake smiled at her, then he turned to Berri, “Great work, Berri. It’s a good thing you saved enough ammunition.”

She blushed, “I wanted to make sure we had enough! I didn’t want to mess it up and make you disappointed again…”

Once again, Tanda was amazed at her voice. From the very first sentence she heard from her, Tanda felt that Berri’s voice sounded like a calming melody.

That the word’s meaning instead were often about excitement and anticipation was an odd duality.

The other woman’s voice, Blood, was more confident and her tones precise. Her voice was almost mechanically correct, producing the proper notes right on the beat.

Jake said, “Still, I can’t help but feel the beastkin are so well coordinated. I have seen many of the melee reptile beastkin ignore a golem approaching their back, for it to be cut down by an avian one. It’s like they have fought together for months, working well in tandem and as if they knew their back was covered. Yet I know these people have been apart for hundreds of years, until today. Perhaps even unusual to me, is that the beastkin move before I can direct them sometimes.”

Tanda was stricken. He didn’t know what he was doing? Jake’s aura was more like auril than he knew. When an auril hero was present on the battlefield, their powerful heart beat drove the song, their desires being present on the battlefield.

Like a conductor of an orchestra, their will itself changes the music, and guides their brethren’s own songs. They command the battle with their heart, no words necessary. Jake’s aura was doing the same thing, changing their song.

Tanda decided to illuminate Jake, “It’s because our hearts beat in harmony. Every beat a note, every heart with its own song. As our desires and struggles align, as we work to fight and protect our choir, they begin to sing the same song. When our hearts beat in cadence with the world, our song becomes a powerful weapon to protect the balance.”

Jake looked over at her brethren, and looked thoughtful. He smiled, and she could feel his awe over their new bond. “Wow, you’re right. I hadn’t even noticed. That’s really cool.”

Tanda looked at him with surprise. “You can hear our song now?”

He laughed, “No, unfortunately. But I can see it, if I look hard enough. I just needed to know where to look.”

Tanda looked over at his eyes curiously. Can he really somehow see their hearts beating?

Berri said, “And I can feel it! The little lizards are like, du-gun, du-gun, du-gun! And then the tiny birdies are like, do do, du-gun, do do!”

Tanda looked over to the large lizard man, Jarrix. He was nearly three meters tall. Little? Despite her words being so ridiculous, Tanda couldn’t help but feel that somehow Bloodberri could in fact ‘feel’ her people’s melodies, her words following a proper cadence.

Even before her people awakened, they could somewhat feel the beat of their brethren. Once their heart awakened and connected to their will, their soul, they could hear the song of their people from nearly a hundred paces away, in addition to being able to feel the song of the world itself.

Still, it was clear he was unaware he was driving the song with his Aura.

“As to the reason us beastkin react to your orders before you give them, you’re already giving them in another way.”

Jake’s eyebrows rose in surprise, and his expression even showed doubt.

“Your aura. You don’t know what you’re doing? It merges with our own auril, and changes the beat of our songs. I can feel what you want, particularly in battle. But it’s not an order, thankfully. It feels more like a desire, or suggestion.”

“Really? Huh. I guess I kind of was thinking like that? When I direct Bill, I do mostly impose my will, or order the creature. But with Berri here, I kind of think more along the lines of, ‘It sure would be nice if Berri smashed that.’ I was kind of doing the same thing in my thoughts with the beastkin, especially with when I wanted one to protect another. It was more a wish or a hope, but then my words were definitely an order.”

Jake looked over at Tanda with a smile. He asked, “So, how is it? The Framework’s guidance. You took the burst damage specialization, right?”

Tanda pondered for a moment, thinking about the last week since she had gained the Framework’s guidance, to think about how to answer. Not including the assault to recapture the Alliance HQ today, she had already been in over a dozen fights or skirmishes, including facing the Champion.

Overall, she was overjoyed at how quickly it helped her improve her skill at using auril. When he was alive, she had excellent guidance from her father. Just by being around him, she could feel the right way to move or manifest her will, and it was why she was so great at it; he had even called her a prodigy.

And yet, according to the Framework, she had only been at level two of [Auril Manifestation]. She knew her father was much better than her at it, but she couldn’t help but imagine he was not that much better than her to reach the advanced stage. He simply had more of the energy to use, and able to grab the will from the immediate surrounding area and use it.

She could tell that within this week and these many fights, she had already made exceptional strides in using it, reaching level four. She realized that she mostly had her new enhanced heart to thank for this.

Tanda couldn’t help but imagine that within a week or two, she should achieve level five in all the auril skills and be exceptional in using her people’s auril energy, making her a much more powerful predator and protector.

“The guidance is superb. In the end, it does feel that it helps me find harmony all that much easier, and to manifest my will. My claws have become sharper in such a short time. I… really feel that following on this path, I might be even better at finding and protecting the balance.”

Jake said, “I can understand it might help you with protecting the balance, but finding it? What do you mean by that?”

“When my people awaken, our hearts can better hear the song of the world. When we go to an area, we can feel the balance of the land. We tune the song with our hunts, to improve the balance. Through balance, life strives and grows. By the Framework improving my ability to use and sense auril, it makes me better at finding the right balance; finding the right plants to collect or plant, the right beast to hunt in the area.”

Jake replied, “I see, thank you for sharing that with me. That was sort of in the play, but I didn’t have the context to understand what was being said. You mentioned plants or beasts, but your ravenwolf tribe, seems to do its best to keep the balance within the beastkin themselves too, huh?”

He smiled at her, and Tanda couldn’t help but smile back as she nodded.

He continued, “Well, I can see that the balance is certainly important for your people, so that means it’s important to me. I’ll do my best to make sure Hearthtribe doesn’t disrupt this balance any more than it has to, in order to kick Tartarus off this world.”

Tanda smiled, and did her best to will her damned tail to not wag behind her, but she knew she was only partially successful, her tail having a mind of its own.

Jake was surprisingly both insightful and considerate, truly appearing interested in learning everything he could about her people. The cadence of his song kept improving, and she could feel his desire to become a part of her people’s community.

The man had turned what was clearly a losing war, to one that she had some level of confidence that they would start to win. He had already saved thousands of her brethren, rallying many warriors to fight.

Jake even discovered her people’s long-lost brethren, their songs rejoining her people after a thousand years. It had only been one week, what will things be like in a month? She looked forward to what would happen next.

She was proud he was now her courting mate, and couldn’t wait to enjoy their courtship in full.

Tanda now had a number of the thornlash plants built up, building them near Oran’s own plants and vines near the center of the plaza.