Bonded Summoner

Book 4. Chapter 8: Final Battle for Life's Haven, Pt. 2

It appeared that it would still be some time before the creature would start its fight, so Jake urged Ophelia and Fhesiah to speed up their attacks on the dragon, and shifted the ranged beastkin to the dragon.

This now became a damage race, and Jake was glad that Fhesiah had lowered its health significantly already.

Ophelia activated her Valkyrie Champion ability, and she grew to be four meters tall, as she was filled with the flames of Hestia. Jake grew wings, and he flew himself toward the dragon, as well. He added Einherjar to Ophelia, her being engulfed in runic light, but stayed in his [Unbound State] for now. He did his best to stab at the creature in the air while still holding his shield, his strength now being quite respectable.

Ophelia gave powerful thrusts with her now-large lance, stabbing the frost bone dragon and removing large swaths of the creature’s health with each stab. The creature tried to swipe at her with its claw, but Ophelia easily interposed her floating shield and continued with her assault.

The knight stood, and immediately drained the life of many beastkin, and began its assault with unholy might. The knight swung its sword, and Jake’s old shield held by Kevin completely shattered, and the knight glowed green and followed it up with a supernaturally fast second blow as if a skill was activated, cleaving Kevin in half.

Kevin disappeared in motes of light, and Darris the turtle beasktin increased his water shield of auril and now got in the way of the large creature. Bloodberri surged forward and smashed her maul into the creature’s knee with all her force that she could bring to bear, causing the knight to stumble.

The death knight quickly recovered, but Ophelia switched back to it and had gotten her shield pushed into its body, making it hard for it to swing its blade. She cut into the creature, the death knight pushing against the shield with its might.

The bone dragon started its breath attack once more as its health got low, and Fhesiah sucked in the flames again. She continued drawing in the frost flames, her orb being diminished more and more as she went.

The breath attack continued, and Jake cast his [Sacrificial Barrier] near her, to allow her to repurpose his flames. She continued to draw the flames in, as the creature’s health bar finally reached zero. She continued drawing on something, until Jake thought he saw something different fly out of the bone dragon, the light leaving its eyes.

A majority of her saved orb of flame and torch flames entered her mouth with the dragon soul, and she smiled. Once again, she had found profit from the outsiders.

[I was mad when I didn’t get one from the other encounters, but those were just reanimated corpses of dragon descendants. This really had the soul of one in it, some kind of evil undead frost dragon. It will take some time for me to purify, and I’m really low on energy now, husband. I will have to spoil my surprise, and I’m not sure how these reptile beastkin will react, besides.]

Jake wasn’t sure how they would react either, having some idea on what her surprise was. But he could feel how fervent their attacks had become once they saw her golden sun attack. He felt that she had willed her sun to set and her moon to rise, whatever that meant.

The invulnerability was removed, and a new health bar appeared. The creature’s movement slowed, its empowerment somewhat removed.

Despite being close to the death knight, Ophelia used [Intervene] on Darris, blitzing her large body into the enraged knight from behind. Her spear entered deep, and she pushed the flames of Hestia through her spear and into the creature’s body.

It roared and used the area drain life again, and a malevolent aura was released, weakening and slowing the entire battlegroup. At the same time, several of the creatures from earlier in the encounter spawned as twisted, undead versions of themselves.

The giant scorpion, beetle, and golem appeared, and everyone received a prompt.

[All additional Bosses and Tower must be defeated before Death Knight can die.]

Jake took note of the prompt, before lightning struck and hundreds of ghouls spawned as well. He quickly willed the beastkin back into ranks to address this new threat.

For now, it appeared the tower was unable to be damaged. Many immediately leaped and attacked beastkin nearby. The rest, started releasing blighted smoke onto the ground. Even the three undead versions of the scorpion, beetle, and golem had a blighted aura.

Jake sent Bloodberri after the scorpion, and Fhesiah to handle kiting around the golem, and he sent Darris, Jarrix, Vesuvius, and Roxo after the giant beetle and additional enemies.

Jake felt like his movements were sluggish, and the effects of his spells were all reduced. Ophelia even shrunk slightly as she removed her spear from the body of her target, and continued her assault, a near one on one against the boss.

Jake and Tanda were both aiding people around the battlefield. Jake was both piercing through ghouls with his spear, but also casting barriers and heals throughout the battlegroup.

Oran’s plants it was growing now looked like a wreath. It now grew, as it was pulling in the blight. It now had a sanctuary, where beastkin could escape for reprieve from the creatures. Ghouls attempted to attack, but they were rebuffed by the strong feeling of life, and Tanda’s vinelasher plants.

Jake realized that the blight was doing more than just weakening the beastkin. Whenever they died while covered in blight, they quickly transformed into ghouls. He thought that eliminating the blight took priority, and had Bloodberri pull out the epic censer he had crafted.

She infused it with holy energy, the holy smoke and wave of energy spreading out in a nova of holy light. This struck all ghouls and removed the blight near her, and even restored the beastkin that had been harmed by the blight.

The various beastkin rushed around in teams together, killing the creatures and protecting one another, either with melee or ranged attacks. The proficient hunters with shields formed battle lines, and were able to take on the ghouls somewhat safely, despite their low level. Jake’s aura caused explosions all over the battlefield, hundreds of beastkin attacking or defending each second.

Despite all efforts, periodically beastkin would die. The enemy density in the encounter was high, and even a casual swipe from one of the four bosses would kill one of them. The death knight would move around, and occasionally its life drain would hit a target unprepared.

Bloodberri was smashing her maul into the scorpion with fervor one-handed, her face filled with anger at fighting the arachnid once more. The censer pulsed, pushing holy energy and smoke out in waves, protecting the beastkin by pushing away the blight and harming the ghouls slightly.

She had already smashed one of the pincers open, as it limply hung off the creature’s body. It appeared that these elements were destructible components, the beam not healing them right away, unlike other damage.

Blood and Berri had danced out of the way of pincer attacks and blocked the stinger with her maul, but eventually the stinger struck her in the tail. Another nova echoed out from the censer, the holy domain spreading and counteracting the three sub-boss’s blight.

She hissed as she was injected with harmful venom, but she used her [Maul of Hestia-Echidna] to smash into the creature. This purged the wound and venom, and debuffed the creature further than her dance accomplished.

Fhesiah faced off against the giant golem, having switched to being a Dark Kitsune to use her bloodline energy. It now took under ten seconds to switch, and she had merely lowered herself to the ground and covered herself with her large fan as she did.

She now burned away at the creature with ruinous flames, the golem chasing after her fruitlessly as its bone body broke down, covered in the dark purple flames. She spun and summoned foxfires with waves of her fan and torch, creating minor illusions to protect the beastkin against the other roaming creatures or burning them away.

Jake hadn’t caught on to her change just yet, but it was inevitable as they fought around the large plaza. He rushed around with his enhanced strength, piercing through enemies and casting barriers and heals to protect and guard the beastkin.

The death knight swung its two-handed sword with increased speed and precision, but it was matched with Ophelia’s superior skill. She was smaller and not as strong as the knight after having been weakened by its deathly aura, but she deflected the blows and countered with better technique.

The battlegroup switched to the various opponents, spreading their attacks to creatures nearby, doing their best to work together and stay safe. Taking damage with only Jake healing in combat was quite difficult for him to keep up with. Jake wanted them to finish their nearby targets, and join against the nearest boss creature.

He would want them to all focus on one, but the reality was that this was not like an MMORPG, where characters phased through one another and dozens of people could stand on top of each other and attack the same target. People could get in each other’s way in melee, and projectiles could potentially hit your allies.

Viable attack angles were needed, and there was a limit to the number of people that could attack even a large creature in melee effectively at once. The plaza was large, and even moving between targets took time. Many just attacked the enemy nearest them, their battle formations moving across the plaza.

The four reptile auril heroes and Rookard were taking on the large beetle, the other nearby melee beastkin aiding them. They cut and slashed into it, as Darris interposed what was now boiling water from Jake’s Aura to push into the creature and keep in its way and keep it focused on him.

Vesuvius and Jarrix both rocked the creature back with their auril-enhanced attacks, Vesuvius occasionally blasting the creature with his flames in addition to Jake’s aura.

Rookard’s wolves rushed around, helping to kill the additional creatures that spawned and protect fellow beastkin. His auril-infused arrows pierced into the creature, the beetle taking significant damage from the five auril heroes combined.

After finishing off the additional creatures, many wailed on and attacked the knight, the venomous auril really adding up to reduce the health rapidly. Blows struck the knight from various reptiles, including many with their large glaives, spears, javelins, and arrows from all types of beastkin.

Other beastkin targeted weak points with ferocious auril and miniature explosions of holy flame erupting all over their respective creatures thanks to their attacks combined with Jake’s heavenly aura.

Tanda’s golden light was near a fever pitch now, and she now switched from her bow to the crescent moon spear. Jake had her blaze after the beetle as it looked to be going down first, and Jake was more than impressed with her capability as he joined her.

Her attacks didn’t yet have the power of his own, but they were quite close, with each piercing thrust taking out large chunks of the massive beetle.

Jake was doing his best to stab into the creature with all his enhanced strength. His Champion’s spear dug deep into the creature’s carapace repeatedly along with the large reptile beastkin wailing on it, and the creature eventually was the first to die.

It was just in time, as diseases cast from the death knight started cropping up all over the battlegroup, requiring Jake and Berri to focus on utilizing purifying flames. Berri also used the censer to eliminate the blight and weaken all the undead on the battlefield.

Ophelia was focused on defending against the knight, using most of her mana and focus to prolong her [Valkyrie Champion] ability as she kept the deadly enemy busy.

The beastkin involved with killing the beetle once again split up among the different boss monsters, many ranged attackers joining Fhesiah as she kited the giant undead golem, and melee attackers joining against the scorpion.

The auril heroes joined Ophelia against the knight so that she could have some respite, her mostly maintaining herself against the main boss that was capable of cleaving most level twenties in a single attack.

When the death knight glowed green, its additional attack was difficult to counter, but not for her. She would interpose the shield and counter with her lance, continuing to tank the creature effectively.

Jake and Tanda both joined Fhesiah, the golem near death at this point. He hardly had time to be surprised when he saw Fhesiah, her face like that of a dark purple fox as she sent flames into the creature. It was easy for him to ignore, them being so busy.

He knew she wanted it to be a fun surprise, but it ended up not quite working out. It simply took too long for her to finish her transformation before she needed the energy from her other form. He could tell she was going for making her form much more like the beastkin, having only the ‘cosplay’ furry features that she was sure he would enjoy.

Bloodberri had trouble finishing the scorpion, as she had been maintaining the lives of those in the battlegroup, and only fighting one-handed with her maul, the censer in the other. Berri was focused on healing, while Blood was using her dance to land powerful blows to crush the scorpion. The other pincer was now mostly crushed too, but the stinger was a lot more than a mere annoyance to her.

The golem eventually died, leaving the scorpion and the death knight. It was at this point, that the tower lit up, and began shooting its mortars periodically. Beastkin could move out of the way, but only if they were paying attention amongst all the other danger in the plaza.

Many were busy cleaning up the additional monsters that periodically spawned, and sometimes were unable to get out of the way before being struck and killed. Jake did his best to will people out of the radius, or block the spells with his runic shields.

The tower was now targetable, having a health bar of its own. Many ranged beastkin switched to it, their colored javelins and arrows striking the orb of the tower.

Jake’s mana had been heavily strained keeping up this fight. He had mostly been in melee because he couldn’t afford to sit still, adding either damage, healing, or clearing diseases.

He drank mana potions when he could, but his massive mana regeneration as a summoner and the bonds were the only reason that he hadn’t run out yet. Jake still had the orb in his champion’s armor, saving it for an emergency.

Tanda then landed where she could have a good shot at the death knight, as her resonance was getting close to its peak. Oran sung a loud bleating roar, the song of rebirth echoing amongst the beastkin. Its song meant to both punish the wicked for what the creature had done to their people, but also for them to be reborn to fight once more.

Many had died, and the beastkin along with Tanda were filled with righteous fury. Jake’s runes flickered red once more, his hearth taking on a song of vengeance, before he pushed it down. What was happening?

The death knight then glowed green after blocking a blow from Ophelia, and it turned around and slashed out at Darris. It cleaved his auril shield, shoved the physical one away, and cut deep into him as he grunted pain.

Ophelia’s shield was there to stop it before he could be cut fully through, pushing up against him, and she punished the back being exposed with some powerful stabs of her large spear.

Bloodberri used [Divine Intervention] on Darris before the death knight could finish him, and he was restored to fighting condition. Blood moved to finish off the scorpion, when a beastkin was blasted by a mortar from the tower and slammed into her back, disrupting her movement.

The scorpion then activated an ability, and its stinger blurred toward her chest. Just as it pierced through her chest piece and at her core, her necklace released a barrier. It crumbled, but it deflected the stinger away.

Blood and Berri were both filled with rage, as they dropped their censer and activated a final [Maul of Hestia-Echidna] two-handed. They surged toward the creature and slammed their maul into the creature’s head. The explosion echoed out, and the creature finally died. At Jake feeling this rage, his runes lit up slightly in red once more, despite him not even being in Wrath state.

The knight’s health was getting lower, as now the remaining melee battlegroup formed around it and attacked. Ophelia’s holy aura from her technique blazed, her body taking on an even holier light. Her blows came faster and faster, and she started deconstructing the Knight’s stance.

It was like she knew where the attacks were going to come from, and the knight’s superior strength or speed no longer mattered, as she pushed [Unbound] to its limits. Her shield deflected at superior angles, and her spear targeted weak points in the larger knight’s armor.

The tower’s ominous red gem lifted further into the air, and then began firing its deadly laser beam at random targets. It attacked once every five seconds, and each time it struck a weaker beastkin, they were killed, their body to rise up and attack their allies if they’d been covered in blight.

Bloodberri targeted the tower with her ranged attack, the tower’s health bar not having moved enough to kill it before the death knight would otherwise fall. Each of her balls she struck at the tower took off several percent health, but it looked like the damage wouldn’t be enough to make the death knight vulnerable in time.

Jake willed Tanda to change her target to the tower instead as well, for her empowered attack if she could. It just became an important priority to be defeated, as the knight couldn’t die until it did. Jake noticed she did, her golden power nearly rising out of her like a pillar of light. Auril surged from the various beastkin, a multicolored haze shifting to gold as it arrived at her.

There were various ghouls spawning from killed beastkin from the tower’s kills with the mortars and beams. They immediately rushed at their weaker brethren, forcing them to defend themselves. The undead were without auril, but they moved with undead haste and unnatural power. Ophelia signaled what she wanted from Jake, and he flew into the center of the creatures.

She released her [Consecration] ability, a mirror of the ability echoing out of Jake. The reanimated beastkin burned and were purified as a large portion of the battlefield was covered in her divine flames, and whatever blight was left on the battlefield was finally removed.

The knight burned and could no longer release its life drain ability, her purifying its weakening aura. Bloodberri even cast her [Between Heaven and Hell], blanketing the ground with her holy aura, and debuffing the death knight as it was covered in a pillar of holy dark.

Fhesiah added her torch with large portion of her flames to Ophelia’s shield, her able to release more consecration to keep the force as well covered with consecration as possible. Fhesiah was back to her dance of the moon, building up foxfires waving her fan.

The tower targeted Fhesiah with its beam, but she interposed a foxfire as she created an illusion. Another beam followed, striking nothing but the ground. But then the gem formed an eye and turned toward her, despite her illusion, and released a mortar.

She blocked the mortar in time with her flames, but then the beam struck out at her– only for it to hit something else and explode. A mangled chameleon body landed next to her, the invisible shaman having taken the blow.

She scoffed, then used her healing torch on Davonius, as she gathered more of her fox flames in the way of the beam tower. She crushed many mana crystals in her hand, pushing mana into the torch to refill the healing charge.

Fhesiah said to Davonius, “I appreciate what you did, but I do not wish to use you and your people as living shields.”

He looked up at her with his pain-filled, strange eyes as he stood. “I am sorry. Thank you for healing me, goddess. I… didn’t know how to help. I am not good at fighting.”

“That should change. While you have lived a peaceful life, conflict is the truth of our reality. One must be prepared for when war has come, and it has. Sharpen your claws, both for your goddess and for yourself.”

Davonius looked at her fervently, then to the spear Jake gave him. “Thank you, goddess Fhesiah! I will do it! For the goddess!”

He immediately lashed out at a nearby ghoul, and Fhesiah went back to building up her flame, the tower having finally moved on to other targets. A both good and bad thing, as many beastkin would get harmed or killed with each moment that passed.

Ophelia continued to fight the towering death knight, her massive spear continuing to rock back the enemy. She was able to overwhelm the knight with her superior talent and holy might, her training, and skill pushing her to the limit of what one should be able to accomplish. When the knight hit 15%, it grew even further. Jake was running low on mana, and so was Ophelia.

Jake decided to activate [Juggernaut], as he realized this now became a damage race, with little more that he could squeeze out with large individual spells. The state was highly mana efficient, gaining a lot from the heavily restrictive covenant.

Ophelia’s runes shined with blinding white light. Her spear now moved faster than thought, piercing the body of the knight several times every second. The knight swung its blade, but she deflected it in the same movement her counter swung and stabbed it with powerful momentum.

Jake charged and joined in, the strength of his attacks filled with power that belied his size. His attacks reached deep into the knight’s armor and knocked the massive creature’s leg back, nearly knocking it off balance despite its size. The holes were restored by the tower and reducing the boss’s health bar with each pierce.

Jake could hardly reach the creature’s knee with his spear, as the creature was now nearly 6 meters tall. The knight glowed green after a slash Ophelia easily parried, and his unnatural speed follow-up was countered by her as well.

Pillars rose out of all the auril heroes present, and Oran, the stag. The entire battle, the creature had been building what looked like a large wreath that stood upright out of vines, while also healing the battlegroup. It was an odd construction, and Jake questioned its viability.

He saw how it protected the beastkin by providing a safe-haven for them to be restored. He had felt confidence from the creature, that what it was doing would be of some help even now.

Tanda’s cycle was completed, the power of resonance reaching the maximum. Her heart beat powerfully, sending an echo out into the world. The world itself appeared to respond, the haze from the auril approaching her surging even faster. This energy merged with her very being, her heart and soul becoming stronger with every beat.

The tower’s orb became black, the beam charging something malevolent. Like an eye of calamity, it turned toward Tanda with its gaze. Jake felt like this energy was similar, yet different from the champions calling their god.

Energy surged through the death knight, becoming black and filled with malevolent power as well. It turned toward Jake, its blade rising upward like a guillotine of death in its two-handed grip above its head.

Ophelia did not hesitate. She could feel something special was happening to Tanda, and knew she had to protect her from the malevolent attack of the tower, if she was going to make it. Jake was also a target, and there was no way she would allow her chosen to fall before her.

She quickly floated her shield with what remained of the Hearth and created a barrier in front of Tanda. She then moved her larger body in front of Jake, her [Ride of the Valkyries] enhanced by [Juggernaut] allowing her to move nearly instantly. Jake noticed that Berri’s [Armor of Faith] even switched to Ophelia, the two girls working in tandem.

Tanda shouted a wordless scream as her spirit increased its link to the world. Strengthening and empowering both her and the world itself. A black beam from the orb fired at her, Ophelia’s shield intercepting the blow and pushing it back.

The shield was knocked back toward her while absorbing the blow with Hestia’s flames as a barrier. The flames sputtered as they decreased.josei

Just as the shield’s flames winked out and the shield was about to get blasted away, Oran stomped the ground and the large wreath raised up and wrapped around the shield, reinforcing it for just another moment.

The wreath was destroyed, and the shield was sent careening away, but Tanda was given the extra moment she needed. Tanda released her golden spear of light at the tower. It pierced what remained of the malevolent beam of energy, then the gem, shattering the large eye into thousands of pieces.

A massive amount of purplish black flames slammed into the knight, Fhesiah’s moon full. Dozens of foxfires continued to slam into the creature, her releasing a large portion of her Kitsune flames all at once. The armor crumbled and was rapidly repaired, reducing the knight’s health.

Bloodberri blurred toward the knight using [Maul of Hestia-Echidna], landing it on the creature’s back, the explosions of energies hitting it powerfully. Combined with all other attacks landed on the knight, the health was finally near zero, but it wasn’t enough.

The guillotine in the shape of a sword came down at Jake, and Ophelia blocked it with a powerful upward swing of her spear. She and her spear both were enhanced by both her and Jake’s technique, as she slammed it into the oncoming attack. Darkness was released in a wave, but she had matched the blow with her might.

So much magical energy was infused into the spear and blade, from her and Jake’s technique, far exceeding the amount of energy meant to be used within the materials. Her spearhead then cracked and shattered, and the sword continued. She interposed her hardened wing, but it cut through that as well, scattering large white feathers. The sword cleaved off her right shoulder and arm, releasing a large amount of malevolent energy inside her as she shouted in pain.

The blade continued down to slam into Jake’s shield, which he had empowered with Juggernaut to nullify the large amount of weight the creature had. His body was pushed down, the ground cracking under the sheer weight. Jake’s bones creaked, but he was otherwise was unharmed.

The knight then glowed green again, and despite Ophelia’s body nearly sheared in half, she raised her other wing and moved her body in the way of Jake once more. Darris’ shield of water was moved in front of her, and the sword cleaved through again.

Feathers scattered in front of Jake, the sword being stopped inside the middle of her body. Her body disappeared in motes of light, being sucked into his Hearth as she died.

Ira was filled with anger, at being unable to do a single thing to protect its family and serve its purpose, and this too, passed along to Jake.

Jake’s family and himself were filled with anger, of wrath for their lover and sister being killed. Jake’s armor was covered in red, and he was filled with [Wrath].

His eyes went red, and his mind went blank, as the flames of his hearth burned brightly through the gem in his chest. His body dropped its shield, and the Champion’s Staff lit up powerfully. Energy was drawn from Oran, him disappearing in motes of light.

Energy was pulled over their bond, and a small amount of divine energy stored from the last week was inserted.

The girls were shocked at what they were feeling over their bond. Jake’s body drew mana and Qi from each of the girls. Bloodberri and Tanda too were filled with anger. Even the beastkin’s songs changed, seeking vengeance.

Only Fhesiah and Rookard could feel something was wrong, the two fighting against the effect. Fhesiah gathered her foxfires, preparing a final attack Even though what was happening to Jake was a problem, they had to defeat the enemy first.

Tanda was far too weak to aid in the fight, but she stumbled over to the plants she and Oran had created, which were still giving off a light healing effect despite him now being gone.

Bloodberri’s monster instincts took over, and coiled her tail around the large knight, and slammed her maul strongly into it. The knight stumbled as her tail pierced several spots in her attempt to shred the creature’s armor.

The knight raised its weapon to slash into her, when Jake’s staff released a condensed version of his Hearth like a beam of light.

A scorching ray of powerful energy blazed through the edge of Bloodberri’s tail and through the knight, taking no heed to her snake body being in the way. She hissed in pain, but the flame burst through her armor and entered the knight, bringing its health down to zero.

The flame engulfed the creature as it roared, the divine flames of Jake’s hearth burning it. Even the flames on Bloodberri’s tail burned and scorched her, beginning to spread.

Fhesiah’s dark flames added onto the knight, and she wrestled control of all the flames to harm the knight further, and was just barely able to dispel Jake’s flames on Bloodberri.

The beastkin all rained anger-filled attacks onto the creature, the armor no longer being repaired and the creature’s body no longer being healed.

The death knight fell to the ground before it could get off another attack, and Bloodberri landed one last hit to the skull of it, the creature finally dying. Its skeletal structure shattered, and the large armor fell with a thud on the ground, as the bones scattered into dust.

The tower released a wave of blue light in a sphere, expanding rapidly for miles as the conquest was completed.

But the flames in Jake’s body only built further, as it looked for a way to release its wrath. It turned to the giant monster in front of him– Vesuvius. Even Bloodberri looked at him and started to prepare their maul, but then they snapped out of it.

Vesuvius could feel the desire coming from Jake’s body. The desire to release his wrath on him. Even some beastkin turned their weapons toward him.

“W-What’s wrong, Chief Jake?”

Fhesiah then created an illusion of Ophelia over herself, and hugged Jake from the side. Thankfully, she had finished her vocal cords, even in this form. She did her best impression of Ophelia, which was quite good.

“I’m fine, Jake! Everything will be okay. I’m not gone. I’m right here.” She touched his chest, and pushed feelings of confidence and reassurance over their bond. This seemed to snap Jake out of it, his body slumping, the mana and various energies gathering for his powerful spell dissipating.

Fhesiah caught him as he fell, his body passing out. She sighed. “That was very close.” She then activated her Torch of Hestia, the single charge healing Bloodberri’s heavily burnt tail.

Vesuvius looked over at Fhesiah and Jake in question, though it was mostly worry. “Goddess… What happened? Are you two okay?”

Fhesiah smiled with her vulpine face, as she picked up Jake’s head to rest it on her lap. “Rest assured, your goddess is fine and will be back to her visage shortly.”

Vesuvius gave a nod, and she continued, “Regarding Jake, we have a lot to learn about what happened, but I have a guess. Even he had suspicions earlier.”

He said, “It was a challenging battle. Many died, but Chief Jake protected everyone with his aura. To turn on me… From the moment I met him and heard his song, I didn’t think it was possible.”

She nodded. “It wasn’t him, in a way.” She looked over to Bloodberri. “Are you able to resurrect Ophelia before he wakes up?”

Berri closed her eyes to feel over their bond. She gave a weak, but tired smile. “I think so. I just need…more mana. That fight really pushed us to our limits. To think we,” she looked down at the remnants of her shattered necklace, and even her scorched tail, “almost died.”

Tanda’s ears were flat, her filled with weakness from releasing her attack. She looked over at the dead, and was filled with sadness at all those killed.

She ordered the beastkin, “Everyone, gather the dead. We need to… loot the creatures, and see how many Berri can resurrect.”

The auril heroes including Vesuvius began directing the beastkin around, and aiding their people in organizing the dead, and the dismantling and looting operation. While Jake and Ophelia could loot many creatures rapidly, it still cost mana. Mana that they required for resurrections. It appeared many that became ghouls didn’t have a body left to be resurrected. Not all were, depending on if they had blight covering them when they died.

The beastkin were all exhausted from all the fighting through the city, but they pushed through to gather the bodies of the dead. Berri rested while drinking mana water, and even Fhesiah did as well. That energy was still pulled into Jake’s Hearth with him unconscious, and Berri was able to draw from it.

After several minutes of recovery, she was ready. She latched onto Ophelia’s soul in Jake’s hearth through their bond, and cast [Resurrection]. Her spell worked with the Framework, to reconstitute her body. Her heavily damaged equipment was drawn through Jake’s storage bracelet and placed on her, as she appeared covered in white light.

Ophelia sucked in a breath, and looked around in confusion. “Everything okay?” She spotted Jake lying on Fhesiah’s lap. “What happened to Jake!?”

Fhesiah said, “We’ll talk about it later, but he’s fine now, for the most part. Don’t worry, sister, he shall recover.”

Fhesiah’s body began shifting, her covering her body with her fan once more, providing some level of privacy.

Berri’s face was filled with regret. “Oh, sister. I’m so sorry… I wasn’t in position to block or take the blow, attacking the tower!”

Ophelia had a proud, but weak smile on her face. She was sick from being resurrected. Since her body was recreated and attached to her spirit, it would suffer severely reduced parameters called resurrection sickness.

For several minutes, she would be at nearly 10% of her normal attributes, rising to under 50% for the next day within the hour. It would take an entire day for her to be near 100% again, with some time spent in their Refuge.

She said, “I’m just glad that Jake’s okay.” She looked at her broken spear on the ground, and to the two large rents in her armor. Half her body was now unarmored, being cut in half as it was.

Ophelia added, “I was more than strong enough to beat that knight, but my weapon gave out. Even after all my hard work, my weapon wasn’t enough…”

Fhesiah smiled as she finished shifting, her dragon wings, horns, and tail returned.

“Don’t feel down. We all know that Jake can always count on you, as you’ve proven. If your weapon wasn’t enough, then his shield wouldn’t have been, either. You were really Clan Hart’s shield, protecting both Jake and Tanda at the same time.”

Tanda was beyond weak, but she stumbled over to Ophelia and hugged her. “Ophelia, oh, I’m so glad you’re okay… You only… died because of me, being too weak still. Thanks to you, I was able to finish becoming an auril hero…”

Ophelia hugged her weakly. “I’m just glad you’re okay, new sister. That malevolent energy… I felt like if it killed you or Jake, it would take your spark. I had to protect you both. Besides, you took out that tower.”

Jake groaned as he awakened. He received a prompt that the conquest was complete among a flurry of others, but Jake’s worry about Ophelia caused him to hardly process this. He woke to see Fhesiah’s normal face rather than that of a fox. Jake realized his head was on her lap.

“Thanks, Fhesiah.”

Fhesiah helped him up, and Ophelia hugged him.

“I… You’re okay? But I remember… and I got so mad…”

“Berri resurrected me already. I’m fine, just weak for the next day. But my spear…”

Jake chuckled. “It’s just like you to worry about that. I’m so glad you’re okay. I suppose I should have thought of that, but the anger overwhelmed all thought.” Jake grimaced as he looked over all the dead.

“It looks like we have a lot of work to do, but we did it, girls. We won.”

Rookard came over, looking worriedly at Jake. “You okay there, Chief Jake? I was worried when I felt…”

Jake nodded. “I am fine now, Rookard. I don’t think that’ll be happening again, so don’t worry.”

Rookard’s face changed from worry to a tired smile, just at hearing Jake’s voice and song.

“I’m happy to hear it. While it’s true we’re somber from losing so many of our brethren, you should still call the victory. We won, and our spirits should be emboldened by this. Some of us will be resurrected today, but the rest of us will be alive within the week. It is cause for celebration.”

Jake nodded and recovered for a few more minutes. His entire body ached, and his hearth core actually felt hurt and strained.

When he was ready, he leaped up on a runic platform, and his girls arranged themselves near him.

“Hearthtribe and people of Highlands, we faced Tartarus to reclaim our home. We took back Life’s Haven, and won the first major victory of this war!”

The many beastkin cheered and roared, their people landing an immense victory against the invaders. Their counter-attack had been successful.