Red dot scouts started entering their territory a good half hour in front of the main force. Just a bunch of tier 1’s that scattered around looking for any units waiting in ambush. Even more were scanning the area all around their territory looking for secret forces lying in wait. They did not appear to have found anything, despite the fact that hundreds of beasts were indeed waiting in the caverns below, but smell and sound did not pass through the enchanted rock walls covering half a dozen small crevice openings.
The goblin forces were already arrayed in waiting on top of the walls and in the towers. Goblin spearmen and legionnaires would propel assaulters trying to mount the wall while the sunflowers and archers assailed them behind. It was gearing up to be one of the first proper battles in a while. For Gale’s assault, Mark had hardly manned the wall, knowing the giants would easily just smash through. But as of yesterday, the full scope of the wall was finally protected with a magic barrier. The giant earth dragons could still likely make their way over, but Mark had several dozen ballistas and other means to keep them from quickly securing an entrance to the inside of the fortress like they had with Gale.
A smaller secondary wall had been made from earth shaper enchantments right above the divot in the earth created by the collapsing earth several months earlier. Mark called it the ditch, and this wall the outer wall. Tens of thousands of spikes of wood and metal were firmly embedded in the earth from the outer wall to the main wall. It would be quite dangerous for the earth dragons to just plow through them. There were also plenty of pit traps scattered throughout. In theory it would all be far more of a detriment for Daniel’s beast forces then the swamp had been for them.
None of it would matter if one champion dragon could not be dealt with. Just as he had stationed some goblins to impede reinforcements from Gale’s other main settlement, the battle here would begin far off from their territory. Likely, it would be the succession battle’s first air battle. Sixty bat goblins were winging their way toward the red dragon who had been resting on a plateau miles to the north. Through whatever means the dragon noticed them when they were still miles out. The dragon leapt off the edge, and moments later it started to climb furiously.
The dragon was incredibly quick despite its size. In a straight up contest of speed, Mark guessed the dragon would be a good 50% faster than even the bat goblins, meaning that he was about to lose a bunch of costly air units all in one go, but it would be worth it if they were able to accomplish their mission. Their mission was the dragon’s wings. A successful mission would see the red barn sized beast plummeting toward the ground. Then even if it survived it would either have to get its wings healed, or proceed on the ground. However, seeing the giant dragon quickly closing on their air forces, Mark was far less sure of their chances of success than he had been when concocting the idea.
The bat goblins scattered in all directions as the dragon aimed at their center. Seconds later the dragon confirmed that it could indeed breathe flame as a plume of fire lanced out. The flames passed over two orange specs, who seconds later turned into two charred remains smoldering as they plummeted toward the earth, but the dragon was not done. It twisted in pursuit of others, snapping up another in its sedan sized maw in a matter of seconds. It quickly honed in on a fourth who was retreating. In only took a couple of seconds to overtake and snap it up as well. Although this time, Mark saw the dragon's mouth explode moments later.
The dragon had caught one of the bat goblins carrying an enriched gunpowder satchel, and the goblin had apparently decided on a last act of defiance, setting off the payload as the dragon chomped down. However, the dragon did little more than roar in rage. Seconds later it reoriented on another bat goblin, although Mark could see that one side of the creature's serpent-like snout was covered in garish wounds. At several points the jaw and teeth were just gone, and one could see straight through into the mouth.
For the fifth goblin the dragon passed right by it with its head, choosing to bat the smaller unit with one of its trailing paws. It was as good as hitting a fly midair with a flyswatter. The goblin was killed instantly. Bones were crushed and another orange form was sent rocketing toward the earth.
However, it was the last death that was uncontested. The other goblins had wheeled about as the dragon swiveled in pursuit. Some goblins moved to a hover and shot arrows that duplicated a dozen times over. They had a lot more luck than the ones that were trying to close in with swords to cut the wings directly. The dragon had remarkable awareness of its surroundings, and whipped its wings clear from the slower aerial units, but projectiles simply moved too fast. Half had been miss aimed, but still dozens of arrows flared up in flame as they slammed into the outstretched webbing of its wings and it's back.
The dragon did little more than roar in defiance as it batted a sixth goblin, one who had tried to cut through its wing with a sword, out of the air. Moments later the dragon was racing away out of range of the swarm of goblins. The goblins could not hope to catch it so they once again formed a widespread clump for the dragon to target. One pass, and the champion had killed 10% of its attackers.
The dragon wheeled around for another pass. This time the majority of the goblins knocked arrows to fire on it directly as it streaked toward them. A good 40 arrows became 300 in flight as they duplicated and burst in flame. However right before they made it to the dragon the dragon snapped its wings back against its body. It reduced the area the arrows could hit, and caused the dragon to instantly plummet. It worked as only a few arrows hit seemingly ineffectually against its main body. Mark sighed upon watching so many double exceptional quality enchanted arrows sail past it into open air, but anything less would not do much against this guy.
On the second pass, the dragon only caught two goblins. The brief second loss of lift had caused it to drop too much altitude. Only one was caught in a gout of flames, and the second was run down as the other goblins fired upon the dragon from all directions. Like this the dragon continued to fly down the elusive goblins as they buzzed about him.
The main bulk of Daniel’s forces had entered the territory from the North, they quickly swept down so that they could approach the wall from all sides. Mark sidelined the air battle to his personal interface as he swapped the main interface display to an overhead view from above their dungeon. While Amelia gave them a view from the opposing side on her own. Trees had been removed for nearly well over a thousand feet by this point in time. Hundreds of their trunks still lay in piles along cliff face inside their walls, fuel for their forges furnace or any other purpose. Half of the bat goblins were dead by the time the beast forces reached the open land.
The dragon had plenty of small holes, and even one large slit tear midwing, but it was still winging around now in a full dogfight with the bat goblins who died one by one. It was slightly reminiscent of when their goblins had attacked the behir in a cavern underground. The two fights were a lot alike. One giant being beset from all directions. Now it was laughable that Mark had named the behir Dragon. The actual dragon before them was ten times its size at least. However just like the behir, it did seem that the dragon was wearing down, if only a little. Each tear in its wing caused the red dragon to have to work harder for less gain as lift was lost.
In another 10 minutes things would be over, one way or another.
The main assault would begin well before that. Girallons led the charge storming across the open field, making right for the small outer wall. The ballistas all fired, they were only using exceptional quality dual enchantments for now. Wooden shafts with steel heads, streaked out, becoming a hundred as each one duplicated into eight others. However, there was a lot of open ground, so there were only two hits. Neither instantly fatal, a gut shot and one stuck through one’s shoulder. The giant apes took the hits in stride, as they lumbered forward.
Moments later the ape vanguard reached the safety of the earthen ditch The ballistas had only gotten one shot at them as they crossed half the open area before the walls, but other beasts were already storming behind them. It was a test waive filled with mostly tier 1’s. When they hit the halfway point from the tree line to the large ditch, a thousand black arrows streaked out into the air. They rained down amidst the weaker beasts taking the first toll of the battle.
A second volley rained down on the beasts as they entered the ditch, claiming more before the archers shifted to the slower apes, approaching from behind. The ballistas recharged shifted to scattershot bolts. Bolts with only one exceptional quality enchantment. Each bolt became fifteen before they rained into the primate ranks. Most wore armor and held a shield overhead to catch projectiles, but they did little good against the four foot bolts. Mark watched a tier 2 gorilla king take a bold through the shield straight into its chest. The tier 2 gorilla was sent tumbling backwards from the force. Some bolts took out two or three units a piece as they whizzed through the enemy ranks. A few went down due to the smaller arrows as well, despite the armor and shields, but it was only a handful. Then the primates reached the ditch as well, but that would not protect them. The archers fired lob shots that took a more oval trajectory before raining almost straight down on them and the lower tier beasts.
Right behind the wall offered some safety, but the ditch was all open from above. However, 30 girallon’s started pulling rocks from the ground and hurling them forward. Each weighed a hundred pounds, and each flew far enough to crash against the wall at the very least. Others soared right over. A pair of them crashed into the top of the wall sending goblins off the back and shards out in all directions. Ten seconds later, the girallons did it again. Seemingly the only holdup was the time it took for them to magically pull rock from the ground and form it into giant bowling balls.
Tier 2’s and 3’s started streaking across the open field the same time that the lesser beasts started jumping over the outer wall. Dinosaurs, cave bears, tigers, and more. Some archers and ballistas targeted the closer beasts, some tilted up to fire at the stronger units.
Mark gave the order to spring their ambush. A quick flash of his tactical screen, showed that his order was being complied with. Hundreds of spiders and a handful of centipedes started pouring from a half dozen crevices in the hillside. More than a thousand had been bred from the proliferate ability, the earliest would still have some 25 minutes before they would collapse and shrivel. Others had nearly another full 2 hours, before their bodies rapidly broke down. It was an expiration time limit, many were not likely to ever reach since they would likely die well before then. They started streaming toward the rear of the beast forces.
At the same time, hobgoblins, legionnaires, and reds started launching the golem balls. The golem balls only made it a few hundred feet at most, but wherever they landed earthen forms started rising. They formed as the beasts weaved around spikes toward them. Well over a thousand were fully formed before the foremost cats weaved around them as well. However Long horn rams smashed right through the earthen constructs and the mastiffs set upon them ripping earthen arms and legs from the torsos. The weakest constructs were torn apart with ease by even the weakest of beasts. The mid range of constructs could keep one of the lesser beasts engaged, while the few top tier constructs from good quality enchantments could take on multiple weaker beasts at once.
They were not overly lethal, but the constructs fared far better than when they had been paired against tier 2 orcs in Derrick Blackwell’s dungeon. Still they were really only a wave break to keep a horde of beasts from reaching the walls with full force. Mark had been unsure what a bunch of small beasts could do even if they reached the wall, but that question would be answered in the coming minutes. Several caval cats scrambled right up the side and onto the wall as soon as they made it. A few goblins were killed with little resistance, before the others set upon the fairly fragile cats. The other beasts just stopped and waited. Oddly enough there was a whole section in the middle that was left open. Then 25 earth dragons led by the large primordial lizard and accompanied by the other two unique title units as well as a handful of girillons and other tier 2’s formed up at the tree line.
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“Uh oh,” Mark remarked.
Nearly instantly they saw what was happening. A large swirl of orange energy started to form in line with the uncontested wall. Mark looked at Amelia’s personal interface as she zoomed in. A group of 30 red furred orangutans were performing some sort of group magic ritual, and orange energy was pouring out from each of them to make the projection forming above them. A minute later the energy started to take the shape of a giant orange incorporeal rhinoceros That was on par with the red dragon in terms of size.
Seconds after that the form solidified. The rhinoceros started forward, its hooves smashing down on the outer wall which was obliterated underfoot. Apparently it was not quite as incorporeal as it looked. With that the giant orange rhino started toward the wall. The rhino charged forward quickly building speed. Wooden and iron spikes each caused small whiffs of orange energy to be torn from the beast, even as they were ripped from the ground, but the rhinoceros had the energy to spare. Any beast or earthen golem caught in the way were smashed out of the way or trampled underfoot. Nothing was stopping this beast, and a clear path of earth left it its wake.
Technically the front of the wall also had protection enchantments. Something Mark had added in case Nick decided to attack with his force of undead that included specters, but the goblins ahead of the charging rhinoceros did not trust them or the magic barrier. They were scrambling to clear out of the path. Ten seconds after the rhinoceros began its charge they were proven right. A blue barrier flared in front of the wall, even as the white barrier flared on top, but they did nothing to stop the rhinoceros from impacting the wall. The wall exploded inward, with rocks flying high and far in all directions like pins after being hit by a bowling ball. The orange rhinoceros specter roared in triumph amidst the smoke and falling debris before the energy dispersed all at once leaving a U shaped hole moments clearly seen through the new dust haze. It was only around 30 feet wide and was cluttered with debris, but that would not be an issue for the beast army outside that would traverse the rubble almost as easily as flat earth.
Only seconds after the last of the rubble slammed back down to the earth did the tier 1 beasts start flowing in through the opening. Henry and a patrol’s worth of bugbears were already leading the legionnaires held in reserve to fill the breach, even as the inside ballistas were being wheeled to cover the breach. Mark shifted the view back up. The earth dragons were charging forward, the palanquins full of ape warriors on their backs bounced precariously with each stride.
Bolts that caused the very air to crackle streaked out. The ballistas had all shifted toward the obvious biggest baddest enemies approaching in force. Each bolt was masterwork quality, some were single enchanted, many had dual enchantments, but neither helped them penetrate the magical barriers that flared up to protect the giant beasts. Each earth dragon wore armor on their front shoulders and head, and evidently it was all magic armor.
Mark noticed out of the corner of his eye that his personal interface had flicked back to the home dungeon. The last of the bat goblins had fallen. A bit quicker than he had anticipated. They had failed, having delayed and wounded the giant champion, but the dragon would be joining the battle after all. The dragon had slowed noticeably. Mark was unsure whether it was from a long period of overexertion or due to the tears in the webbing of its wings, however he was sure the brute would be here in minutes. He shifted his interface to the top of the plateau even as he gave a warning to the contingent of goblins up there. The goblins had maintained a lookout for the dragon, but had joined in firing bolts down toward the open plain in front of the walls.
Now however they started wenching the gears to increase the tension. The high quality bolts that rippled the very air around them like some sort of heat mirage were brought out and notched. Mark only had about a dozen of the dual artifact level bolts. By the time they had found a design that worked they had already been low on materials, and they still had a fairly low success rate. Most had been completed successfully, but their quality was only masterwork or even exceptional. For the six ballistas, it meant each would get two shots of the artifact bolts. Probably all they would have time for, given how quickly the dragon could probably destroy the small fortification above the plateau.
However, Mark's attention went back to the main battle as the weevils on top of the plateau lifted off. Their wings beat furiously as they slowly built speed. There were several dozen of them, each carried various payloads. Only ten of them were real, the others were proliferated young with power ratings just under 2.0. They were still powerful units, but each beetle only spawned 2 or 3 young when the breeder ability was used. It was in line with how many carnivorous centipedes were spawned. A limit to keep balance, since these beetles and the centipedes could likely take on most tier 2’s with a reasonable chance of success of overcoming them.
Seconds later the beetles started unfurling their clawed feet allowing their payloads to fall. There were a few gunpowder satchels among them, but most were the dual enchanted stones. They plummeted and duplicated, filling the air with missiles. Most slammed down successfully between the main and outer walls. Hundreds of units died in a flash as tier 1 beast’s and the golems they fought were instantly turned to paste under the carpet bombing.
The forefront of the earth dragons were caught in the barrage and also went down. Most of the remaining golems had also been crushed, but many of the unit counters for Daniel’s forces plummeted down in a matter of seconds. It had to be a hard hit for Daniel, but after a brief lapse in the battle the beasts surged forward toward the gap in the wall. They had lost hundreds, but the losses were negligible for an army nearly 3,000 units in size.
The ballistas inside of the walls had all been moved over within a minute to point toward the open section. One after the other they fired raking the invading hordes. Scattershots' for hordes of units, single artifact piercing enchantments for the earth dragons. Several more earth dragons went down, but those following just scrambled over. The defensive forces scattered to the sides as the giant lizards poured in through the gap, since any who did not would just be crushed underneath. At most the inside ballistas would get one more shot before they were overrun as well. Then the melee would happen all over inside of the walls. Girallons once again led the charge leading other tier 2’s from the ditch toward the breach.
The unique units were the next to make their presence known; the primordial earth dragon came right on over to the side of the gap in the wall with relative ease. Off its back jumped a small feline that instantly leapt on top of the wall, running along the wall, killing everything in its path. The primordial earth dragon continued forward, its gaze set on the double pagoda tower in the center. The treant ‘World tree’ flowed in through the gap in the wall right behind the earth dragons, but before the following tier 2 horde.
Roots shot out from its arms impaling fleeing goblins. However the wooden giant soon found itself a primary target of hundreds of flame arrows. The unique unit powered through them and crushed the nearest archer tower to the left of the breach, but then it took a flaming four foot bolt right to its face. The goblins manning the ballista on the outer wall only a few hundred feet away started leaping and hollering from their success, however an angry treant with a new Pinocchio like nose angrily moved towards them seconds later.
Seconds later the siege weapons were splintered as the goblins jumped away. However the unique titled unit was once again beset by waves of flame from several fireballs that encompassed its body, but instead of burning out the flames whirled around the treant like a tornado. It was just a side note of the full ongoing melee that was spreading into the fort, but a unique titled unit falling in battle to some mages and flame jugglers was not unnoteworthy.
By all appearances the beast army was on the verge of success, sweeping the goblin defenders and defenses aside despite holdouts like Henry. Henry was currently flaring with electricity as he battered an oncoming earth dragon with his hammer, but none of the current picture took into account a literal 1,500 spiders and centipedes that were now running across the open field closing in on Daniel’s forces from behind. The weevils were also wheeling around to provide mage support from the air.
Mark’s attention swapped back to the goblin contingent on the plateau. Their ballistas were all being furiously reoriented to the west. Approaching in the air from behind the spider wave was the red dragon champion. The bolts fired as the dragon swooped down toward the spiders. Artifact quality bolts became four blue needles shooting toward the giant red dragon. The first few shots were too far off, but the third was dead on forcing the dragon to abort its approach run on the spiders below. The dragon roared in annoyance before it started winging toward the North even as it climbed in altitude. More blue needles streaked towards it, but the dragon nimbly dodged.
However at the very least the bolts had kept the dragon from burning hundreds of spiders all at once. Mark watched as the spider wave approached the rear of the beast horde which happened to be a clump of slow moving ankylosaurs. Earlier Mark had seen a ballista bolt bounce right off the turtle shell hard like armor on these slow moving dinosaurs, The spiders did not have much more luck.
They overtook and swept over them. Several spiders became paste with each swing of one of their spiked tails, but more went up and over. The black funnel web spider young clung to the ankylosaurs back as they tried to pierce the creature’s armor as the majority of the spiders continued on like an unstoppable wave. Seconds later they were met with flames as orangutan and chimp mages defended the outside of the breach from the reinforcements. Armored gorilla kings met the oncoming spiders with spiked maces and war hammers. It was a line of devastation the spiders would never be able to get past, if it was not for the amber cloud that started to spread.
Once the gorilla kings started to wheeze and cough the line started to falter. Once spiders got inside their defensive line could do little to stop the tide of spiders, except to kill as many as they could before one finally was able to latch on. The spiders had no sense of self preservation and proceeded even as their comrades died by the droves. It was clear they would sweep right through the primates. The centipedes on the other hand scrambled right up to the wall and over, without faltering a step. Hundreds of pincer like legs made the feat relatively easy.
Then came the ultimate match up of beasts. One of the centipede adults met with a girallon. The centipede quickly wrapped around the apes torso, stabbing into flesh with dozens of its pincers. The girallon grabbed the exoskeleton just behind the head to keep the centipede from sinking its fangs into it. The other arms worked hard grabbing and ripping out legs. Finally the two lower arms grabbed a legless section and strained. Moments later the centipede was ripped in two. However, the upper half continued to fight undeterred. It looked like the girallon would come out on top, despite having dozens of stab wounds across its body.
Mark’s gaze was drawn back to the plateau contingent. The red dragon was on another approach toward the goblin contingent on the edge of the cliffside. It was moving down from high above. Blue needles streaked out one by one from the various ballista. The dragon corkscrewed and avoided seemingly with ease as it continued to close. Then two bolts launched near simultaneously. The dragon twisted out of the way of the first set, and found itself in the path of another set. The dragon continued to corkscrew. Even then Mark had thought the beast had successfully dodged both until the dragon started plummeting. A few seconds later it recovered enough to spread its wings to avoid slamming into the rock at full speed. It still tumbled over once after slamming down on top of the bluff a couple hundred yards away.
The goblin contingent cheered. The situation had Mark’s full interest. Killing the dungeon champion would be a huge boon for them. However the dragon began to collect itself only seconds later. The cheering goblins went silent as they worked to get another bolt loaded. After another ten seconds of confusion, the red dragon’s eyes focused on the goblin encampment. It started lumbering their way. Arrows and bolts started pouring towards it as it crashed through the small outer wall encircling the small encampment and started slaughtering them wholesale. It was enraged and determined to wipe every one of them out. From the look of things, it would likely succeed although it was also taking bolts and arrows from close range and was clearly not in a good state.
The sound of a huge crash took Mark's attention back to the main battle. The ‘first primordial had just brought down the double pagoda archer tower in one go. The apes were still fighting in an attempt to hold off the spiders, but hundreds of spiders had already bypassed right through striking at the rear and flanks of the beasts. The battle was now a full melee inside of the walls. One that the goblins were clearly losing, even with the spider aid. That being said the beast army had taken heavy casualties, so much so that Mark felt fairly sure that their dungeon would be safe even if they took the surface.
As far as tier 3 enemies only a handful of the earth dragons still rampaged. Most of the girallons had been brought down through concentrated fire from the archers and ballista as they rampaged along the walls destroying tower after tower. Most of the ballista on the edges of the fort were still operational. A couple times every half minute they shot another bolt into the mess that was the battle, unconcerned about friendly fire.
After this battle they would have to once again start from scratch, but that was hardly a problem at this point. Their surface army had been wiped out down to the last goblin a half dozen times by this point. The real loss was the high level equipment and their few named units. Nasal had once again died after the multi-layer tower collapsed. Henry on the other hand had successfully killed the earth dragon he had been fighting, but had fallen at some point afterwards. Ezekiel was in his giant set of armor shooting electricity wildly at a group of flame raptors that had encircled him. He would follow suit soon enough.
