Bonded Summoner

Book 4. Chapter 7: Final Battle for Life's Haven, Pt. 1

Ophelia had defeated her side of the encounter, and from the flash of light, came a massive scorpion creature. Some smaller beetles spawned, and the beastkin already knew the drill: stay out of the way of the big invulnerable creature, and fight off the smaller ones.

Tanda’s thornlash plants swiped and attacked the beetles, providing a strong deterrent for many beastkin to flee to.

Jake ‘requested’ Oran toward the giant scorpion, to be a general nuisance and test out the creature’s defenses with vines, and Kevin the Naga joined with is shield.

Berri smashed a beetle that spawned nearby Jake with her Maul.

She said, “Yuck, why’s it gotta be bugs again? The worst is when you can’t even squish it! That medium-sized one shouldn’t exist! That’s an abomination.”

Jake cast a small barrier to protect a nearby beastkin from the scorpion’s stinger, and he laughed at her once again, calling a massive creature something much smaller than it was to everyone else.

“Well, you never know. Why not give it a shot? Maybe it will be crushed right away this time.”

Blood said, “You’ll have to do more than that to trick her, milord. We can both feel the barrier on it.”

Jake did what he could to understand what was happening on the other side of the battle, and found that Ophelia’s party were dealing with a bone dragon, as the knight was inactive this time. Fhesiah dragged the dragon around the room, as Ophelia and the rest worked on an odd obelisk structure that floated away from them.

There was an army of skeletons getting in their way. Overall, not that different from the knight encounter, only that the dragon was faster and could use a breath or claw attack that could harm the party before Fhesiah could suck all the frost flames in.

Thus, she was the one kiting the invulnerable creature around the room, periodically absorbing the icy breath. She danced around the dragon with ease, the lumbering creature too slow compared to her to land a successful blow.

Rookard, his wolves, and Ophelia led the charge, chasing after the floating obelisk as it fled around the room, and they destroyed skeletons.

Back in the plaza, the scorpion’s stinger was harder to dodge or keep out of range than Jake had anticipated, as it reached much further than most would imagine. It stretched over a dozen meters. It could attack beastkin in almost half the plaza from nearly anywhere, it appeared.

Thankfully, combined with Jake watching out for them and his aura, shielding them, none got hurt in the first few attacks. But the creature appeared to be improving with its aim on nearby targets, giving him much less leeway to block.

Jake had Kevin and Oran distracting it, but it still went after random beastkin periodically.

Berri asked, “This thing is really gross, Jake. Can’t you do something about it?”

Jake had tried making the previous encounters easier with control spells, but found that his efforts were mostly wasted. Not only was his capability lower with Aegis, but the odd barrier the creature had, appeared to help the first creature walk through the ice he had tried covering it in.

For the golem creature, earth knocked away from it would just float right through ice or any impairment to rejoin it, such as beastkin trying to grab chunks of rock. Jake had thought it was still worth a shot when they tried it.

He thought he saw a way that he could maybe keep the creature busy for a short time. He sent Ophelia and Bloodberri his intentions, as he sent Oran and Kevin after it, and started disabling Aegis. She would take advantage of being less limited for the time period as well.

As Oran got close, the scorpion’s stinger attacks began to focus on it. It was only sending them about every 5 seconds or so, and many of the beastkin were in fact able to move out of the way without getting hit. Each time the stinger attacked, Oran would block by moving its auril-infused antlers to meet it.

It certainly looked deadly if it landed its attack, as it was causing his enhanced runic barriers to crumble each attack when he used them to protect the beastkin.

Aegis finished disabling, allowing Jake to switch to his [Unbound State]. Oran was now close enough for the creature to try lashing out with its claws now, which were met with a hard slap of Oran’s sharp antlers. Jake prepared his runes, and Bloodberri struck the creature from behind.

Rather than striking downward, her attack was more similar to an uppercut. She struck the carapace from underneath, and despite the barrier seemingly blocking any of the direct damage from the blow, the force was transferred. The scorpion lifted into the air in an arc, the butt of the arachnid rolling forward as the creature was flipped upside-down.

As the creature’s tail pushed against the ground and the creature twisted trying to find purchase to right itself, Jake’s spell was released.

He released an empowered runic ring of frost, aiming heavily on the creature’s back, trying to merge it with the ground. Its feet and claws reached out ineffectually, the latter too far off the ground to reach anything. The tail was nearly flattened, but it looked like it was going to wriggle through some ice eventually.

Jake then had Oran capture the stinger with his mouth, Kevin grabbing onto it as well with two of his arms, locking it in place. Oran grew plants around it, and Tanda added some vines too. The creature wriggled in anger, but it appeared their effort was worthwhile for now, unless he lost Oran.

“Stupid bug! That’s what you get! Just you wait, this maul will eventually squish you. Nasty thing.”

Jake did his best to recover, monitoring the other side of the encounter for a minute. Fhesiah had really mastered the consuming the icy breath of the bone dragon, now restoring a large portion of her energy reserves.

Ophelia destroyed the last tower on their side, and that allowed the tower on this side to be targeted. The knight and dragon went back into hibernation at this point, allowing their smaller party to recuperate.

Bloodberri started sending her solid spheres with her maul at the top of an obelisk-like tower in the plaza, which appeared to be its weak point.

While it took on damage even at the base, the ranged attackers hitting the top area caused it to crumble much more for the power they had put out. Thus, Bloodberri’s baseballs did massive amounts of work with each blow.

The tower eventually crumbled, and she blurred towards the locked down scorpion from the side. Her body and maul were lit with the runes of light and dark, and she charged up her [Maul of Hestia-Echidna] attack. The vines were being worn away with Oran having backed off, and the ice was really starting to crumble.

She approached with a vicious smile, Blood wanting to destroy the disgusting creature just as much if not more than Berri, despite not saying a word about it.

Jake empowered her further with Einherjar, just as she landed her powerful blow on the creature’s underside, near where the head was. Beastkin started landing their ranged attacks on it, and while there was a large crunch and explosion of energies when she landed her powerful blow, caving in the creature’s hard chitin, it was not dead.

A majority of the battlegroup worked to defeat spawns all over the plaza, but many added their auril-infused attacks to the scorpion as well.

Kevin was piercing the creature all over with his trident, and Bloodberri continued hammering on it with her maul, as bug ichor flew and chitin was crushed. Oran formed massive spikes out of rope-like vines and pierced it, until eventually, the creature stopped moving, and dissipated into motes of light.

The power of the encounter stirred, and Ophelia’s party along with the death knight and dragon appeared, the two enemies in a resting position.

[2 Alliance Champions and 1 Potential Champion Detected, with 0 Tartarus Champions Present on World. Final Encounter difficulty increased. +5 Levels added to final boss, the Death Knight and Bone Dragon. Difficulty Rating for Alliance Present: S]

The difficulty level rating being at its highest he was aware of was more than a little ominous. They had nearly 1,000 beastkin in the large plaza in front of the tower, but nearly 99% of them were under level 5, the encounter geared towards those above level 20. It was good news that no Tartarus champions were on the world at this moment, but they still needed to defeat this difficult challenge.

The tower had a large ring of paved road around it, making it a massive plaza. The encounter was focused on the area downhill from it, the three towers they had to destroy on in front of buildings nearby.

The tower’s massive red gem gleamed and rose once again, and a beam shot from it and into the two creatures.

It empowered them, increasing their size by almost fifty percent, making the death knight absolutely massive. While the death knight was only a meter or so taller than Vesuvius might get, it was very wide and thick with its armor.

The frost dragon was enormous now, as well. The dragon took to the air while the knight remained kneeling, but both had a barrier around them for the moment.

Jake drank a mana potion and switched to his aegis state, as he infused mana into Oran and Kevin. Jake knew that Ophelia would be the best to tank the boss using her [Valkyrie Ascension] ability later, but he should have time to deactivate Aegis if the encounter changed. Aegis both improved [Aura of Heavenly Flames], and the girl’s [Divine Reinforcement].

The two boss creatures were still invulnerable from the power of the encounter.

Ophelia looked at Kevin. “I like that Kevin is much more martial than your other beasts. That he can use a weapon and shield is very helpful. If we have to face creatures in the water, we will be especially happy to have him with us.”

With Ophelia being limited by the same covenant, it was questionable that it would be worth the time it took to deactivate the covenant. But he had some confidence with aegis, as it wasn’t as restrictive. His and her offensive spells were merely reduced, not eliminated as possibilities.

He was still able to boost the hundreds of beastkin as they attacked their targets with his Aura, as well as protect them. The efficiency was stellar, and he once again thanked Hestia for her foresight. The idea that it helped him guide the beastkin in battle was another amazing thing.

They felt the encounter start to change, and Jake positioned Kevin in front of the death knight. Ophelia stayed back with Jake’s party at what he considered a safe distance, prepared to go where she was most needed in an instant, using [Intervene].

Jake really couldn’t help but feel this was a massive raid battle, just like the ones he played in the game, [The Labyrinth]. The dragon was above, circling around the plaza higher up in the air, while the knight had been kneeling in the center. He wondered what was the [Raid] going to be like.

The knight stood, and a health bar appeared as its barrier was removed. For now, there was still one on the dragon, and it appeared to be protected. It continued to circle slowly and lazily around the plaza, high in the air.

With his arcane eye, Jake saw that a beam was shooting from the large tower’s orb to the death knight.

The damage done to the creature or its armor itself would be healed or restored immediately, reducing its health bar. Weapons pushed into the creature’s flesh or armor would automatically be pushed out by the beam as it restored the creature’s structure. This was what happened in Ophelia’s encounter.

Only once they caused enough damage to deplete the health bar, would they be able to finish off the boss, or move on to the next stage in the encounter.

The death knight reached its arm toward Jake, and he felt a pulling on his chest. His body began to fly toward the death knight, but Jake released a runic wave of force as he got close, knocking its hand away.

The knight moved to swing its blade at Jake, but Ophelia arrived an instant after, shielding him in the process with [Intervene]. The knight’s blade skid off the barrier, and she lanced the large knight’s body with her momentum, finding a gap in the large creature’s armor. She continued to circle around it as her lance was pushed out.

Only a small sliver of the health bar was removed from that blitz, and Bloodberri and Fhesiah now charged near, as Jake retreated.

Bloodberri smashed into the creature, knocking it off balance with her powerful blow, and Fhesiah hit it with a lick of flame with a wave of her fan. The flame licked at the creature, but the beam somewhat began putting out the flame, limiting her ability to spread it and engulf the knight to be damaged continuously. She began to build up a large ball of flame near her since she couldn’t take advantage of this, instead.

It seemed that some damage over time abilities would function, but they were somewhat limited. The auril-infused attacks of the beastkin such as the cobra’s venom were treated similarly. Black and purple auril corroded the death knight’s body, but the beam removed the effects unless additional investment from the beastkin happened.

Kevin the naga with a pulsing blue auril placed himself between Jake and the knight, and Oran grew vines in a protective barrier. Jake knew it was forming a defensive structure that would allow people reprieve if they fled to it near the center of the plaza where the death knight was being engaged.

Oran also grew tendrils out from it, and Jake could tell that the tendrils could heal.

Jake was happy that Oran would reduce some burden of healing from Jake, as many of the other healers in the battlegroup were the out of combat sorts, until they reached the auril hero level. Oran would draw in auril from the area, and use that to heal the beastkin.

The reptile beastkin charged in now, the large ones positioning themselves to flank the large knight, and Bloodberri and Fhesiah too moved to participate in the fight. The death knight roared, and Jake saw a wave of weakness erupt from it, which washed over the entire battlegroup.

It then cast a disease on Jarrix, the lizard beastkin.

The skin on his body started to boil and fester, and Jake couldn’t help but feel disgusted as he quickly tried to cast [Cure Wounds], infused with [Purifying Flames]. He felt the disease struggle against his effect, but it was purged before the healing and purifying power of the cure wounds spell was expended.

Jake saw that the boiling of the skin was really infectious, likely if any of Jarrix’s diseased skin and body touched anyone else, they likely would have been infected as well.

Jake did his best to push his desires for the beastkin to spread out, to make it easier to mitigate this effect if it was cast again. To his surprise, it wasn’t long before many of them did. They sort of had to spread out a bit anyway, otherwise they would get in each other’s way as they hammered on the creature’s sides.josei

Ghouls were crawling out of the ground all over the plaza. Beastkin formed ranks to attack the spawning creatures, Jake making that their primary task. Only a few people could actually attack the boss at once, without getting in each other’s way.

Many threw javelins or shot arrows at the openings in the armor of the death knight, and Jake could see the reptile beastkin’s venomous auril entering into it. The health was dropping rapidly now, as Ophelia had found a rhythm of causing a lot of damage with her two-handed lance, keeping her momentum and focusing on her holy might.

Tanda fired her bow, her arrows going for unarmored points on the knight’s body. They did not do significant damage individually, but her attacks were consistent, and they added up.

She spread some seeds around Oran, and they increased the vitality of life in the area, the auril increasing. She sang a wordless song, and Jake thought he saw the beastkin shifting and changing their attacks across the battlefield to match her. A golden light began to form inside her, her activating her [Cyclic Resonance].

Kevin stayed in the death knight’s face, stabbing with his trident and blocking with his shield. The death knight was powerful, but Kevin too was sturdy. Darris positioned himself close to the front of the massive creature, and did his best to position himself to aid in blocking the creature if necessary. He was now covered in a layer of water, his shield having a denser layer of it.

Bloodberri continued slamming her massive maul into the creature’s side, nearly knocking it off its feet with every swing. She danced and swayed her body, and releasing a weakness spell of her own onto the death knight in addition to her technique, adding power to her blows.

The death knight roared once more, and used its area of effect life drain ability against the beastkin and melee nearby. The beastkin all shouted with pain as they were covered in magical darkness, and many of the lower leveled awakened warriors were on their last legs as a result. Their auril hearts beat fervently releasing life energy, keeping them from succumbing to the loss of life force.

But Bloodberri charged up her [Maul of Hestia-Echidna] attack, and slammed into the creature. Light and dark exploded, healing the nearby beastkin of their wounds, and bringing the death knight down nearly five percent in one attack. The battlegroup had been wailing on the creature for maybe thirty seconds in total now, and it was now at eighty percent.

It was then, that the dragon roared, and spit a ball of icy flames at a group of beastkin on the outskirts of the battlegroup. Fhesiah had been charging up an attack of her own, and she immediately sucked the flames toward her, instead.

Jake watched as some flames from her own orb that she had been gathering entered into her mouth along with the frost flames, he guessed to offset their coldness.

[This one is even stronger than before. It will take a lot of my resources to absorb the attack, rather than me gaining much. Still, it appears to be worth it compared to you using a barrier to protect everyone. This appears to be a marathon of a fight.]

The battlegroup continued to attack the death knight, as it was turning and trying to land attacks on other members in the nearby melee. Darris interposed himself in front of his brethren, shielding the attacks when Kevin couldn’t make it. Ophelia and Bloodberri were on opposite sides, attacking with their weapons, slamming into the large knight.

Jake monitored the health in the battlegroup menu, and made sure people remained healthy. Still, he realized that Aegis was likely not needed. He would like to be able to switch as the fight dictated for Ophelia to capitalize, so he deactivated his covenant.

The dragon continued to spew its flames every few seconds, and Fhesiah had risen into the air to absorb them earlier.

[What do you think, husband? Save the flames I’ve built up, or dump it on this knight? I think my flames may be better against the dragon, it might become vulnerable at some point?]

Jake was thinking the same thing, that she should save it. Currently, this was not a damage race. Each time the death knight used its area of effect drain attack, Bloodberri would counter it both with her [Dark Siphon], and her [Maul of Hestia-Echidna].

The death knight continued to try to weaken the beastkin, but their auril did eventually overcome it, along with Ophelia and Bloodberri able to remove the effect on themselves with purifying flames.

Jake worked to purge the diseases as they were used, only once having to cast twice one time due to multiple becoming infected. Ophelia was ready with [Intervene] for any avian beastkin that were grabbed.

This happened two more times as they continued their assault, and the creature was eventually at 25% health.

The dragon roared, and a health bar appeared on it, as well. It landed on the ground, and Jake had Ophelia head over to meet it. She immediately used her hearth of Hestia putting it into her shield, and Fhesiah raised her golden sun over her head, the draconic flames echoing the truth of her path.

The reptile beastkin gasped in awe, their hearts thundering a song of glory in their chests. If there was any doubt in their minds that she was a goddess up to this point, those doubts were erased by their hearts. Her majestic yang flames raised the temperature of the entire plaza, and the power of it was shocking.

Even Tanda’s golden light increased at this, her song reaching the next stage. Her bow was empowered, her auril-infused attacks hitting with the power of death. Her body became stronger, making her hit well above her level with each attack.

Fhesiah released her flames at the dragon, and it almost felt like it was floating lazily towards it. She continued her dance, building up another. The dragon had tried to get closer to the battlegroup, but Ophelia with her shield and lance shoved and stabbed the creature, keeping it from bypassing her.

It was presumably trying to get into position to breathe its frost breath or use its massive claws on the larger part of the battlegroup.

The golden sun arrived, and it engulfed the larger creature, with Ophelia adding her own spears of Hestia into the attack from her hearth stored in her shield. It roared in anger, as the frost-flames built in its chest. But Fhesiah’s flames were alive, concentrating on that same area, increasing the temperature instead, stopping it.

The creature’s health bar rapidly decreased, and she had managed to eliminate nearly thirty percent of its health in one go. The fact that the creature was weak against its polar opposite made Fhesiah’s accumulated attack devastating.

Jake had been focused on primarily being a guardian for the battlegroup, few being able to heal at all besides him and Bloodberri. As Aegis finished deactivating, he switched to his [Unbound State]. This lit up runes on his armor and enhanced them, and did the same for Ophelia. Her blows and movement became even more powerfully, shaving health off the large dragon.

Avina and other healing beastkin had helped a few along, a few of the weaker awakened moving towards the outskirts of the battle to avoid being consumed by the knight’s life drain attack. Beastkin fought ghouls all over the plaza, Jake’s heavenly aura aiding them in destroying them.

The stag’s tendrils also saved many on the edge of death, its song of life echoing within their soul, enhancing their own auril.

Jake guessed without his aura protecting them, the weakest would in fact have died in just a single usage of the life drain ability. He felt that if it weren’t for the beastkin having such a high vitality or constitution, this still wouldn’t have been enough.

The knight reached 0%, and then kneeled on the ground and became invulnerable once more. But Jake could tell the encounter was shifting, and a beam was shot to the death knight, causing them to become red. He received a prompt.

[Death Knight empowered and invulnerable. Kill dragon to remove invulnerability.]

The encounter just kept getting more challenging.