Leonard’s forces were well prepared to meet the incoming armies, when the agreed day came. Bat goblins winged overhead all around the area, giving Mark and Amelia the best vantage on the developing battle. Nothing was out of view since the terrain was basically a prairie with gently sloping tall grass fields with the occasional cluster of trees. Of course there were still plenty of plateaus that jutted throughout, but they were just as open. There would be no surprises here.

  Nick had unsurprisingly brought a large army of undead. They marched forward in a loose formations hundreds of units abreast, obviously aware how quick Leonard’s forces could deploy for an attack. The undead force had a shocking number of units considering the other armies he had on the map. It was unsettling how many units Nick had at his disposal. Likely all his forces outnumbered all of Leonard’s and their own put together. Marching through the prairie grass was a massive army led by a skeletal dragon champion, but there was a second army equally as large guarding his home dungeon. Mark’s best guess was ten thousand plus for each of the two forces. But then there was the third force.

  The third force was a bit of a hodgepodge of units. Sure, half of them were still undead, but then there was more than 1,000 units of various other branches. There were fiends, constructs, stone golems, slimes, and even a handful of small wyverns capable of flight for short distances. The army had formed from a dozen different smaller groups a couple days march to the west of their dungeon. Despite Nick’s attempts they had not gone unnoticed. Their scouts had already been tracking a few of the groups. What had came as a surprise was the 1,000 undead units that had already been lying in wait a cave. Now this smaller third army was marching on their own dungeon.

  Nick had the same idea as they had. The difference was the timeline. Nick’s forces had been set to arrive mere hours after the failure or success of their attack on Leonard’s dungeon. Of course their scouts had noticed Nick’s forces for the better part of a week, and thanks to force marching their southern army through the first night, their own attack on Nick’s dungeon would arrive at near the same time. They were already marching this morning to arrive early this afternoon to begin their assault on Nick’s dungeon. Undoubtedly, Nick had noticed or soon would notice their Southern army.

  Not that it would change things for any of them. Likely all three dungeons had drained every last drop of available resources for today, and all three dungeons would be under threat of extinction, with the potential for the battle to end by the end of the day. Little could be done but to let the cards fall and see who had enough trump cards to overwhelm the others, and Mark and Amelia would be able to watch it all with their over watch.

  Things would kick off between their own forces and Leonard. Leonard had chosen a battlefield a good hour away to start the confrontation. A field where their armies would have to fight an uphill battle. There was no way around it without marching their armies around for hours to access another pass through the surrounding plateaus. Not an option at least for the bulk of their forces. Mark had the breeder division skirting around the battle to the east. They would make their way around the plateau ahead to come in from the east. The waves of spiderlings would be able to join the attack against the dungeon proper to help Nick take on the far superior defensive force stationed there.

  For their main army, well… it might be difficult for them to make it to the dungeon proper. Before them was arrayed an army that numbered at least two thousand. Not really that many considering their own force was at least twice that, but the defending army had quality on their side and the field advantage. Leonard also had his own champion, a nightmare stallion.

  The nightmare stallion was a giant horse with pure black skin and a mane of fire. The power rating was only mid tier for a champion at 24.2, but that still made it stronger than Dale, their own champion on this field of battle. Behind the nightmare was fifty centaurs decked in heavy plated armor, all of it obviously enchanted or embued with obvious gems. A half dozen level 6 orc chieftain mages that looked to be decked out in magical gear accompanied them from behind on slightly smaller wargs. It was not a big force, but they were all elites and Leonard had aligned them directly on their left flank, to match Dale.

  The rest of Leonard's forces would seemingly focus on the goblins. Leonard had 1,000 gnoll and orc infantry that stood on the crest of the hill, bows at the ready. Behind the infantry were 800 tier 2 wargs. Only Two thirds of the wargs were mounted by gnoll or orc warriors. The rest were formed in small teams, each led by a mounted… beast tamer? Mounted or not, each warg had leather armor saddles or armor with a heavy metal breast plate and secondary plates to guard their sides.

  Mark had arranged their own forces behind a slowly advancing tangle of blood roses that formed a chevron. Behind the left slanted wall of vines was Dale and the rest of the plant forces. Fifty sunflowers, several midnight lotuses, and a small host of the lesser snapdragons, daisy, and wild lily units. On the right side was Lucein and the rest of the goblins that comprised the bulk of the force They marched in tight formations just outside of the now ever present brown haze fog emanating from Dale. Their formations were covered for the most part by Lucien's black aura. For now Lucien’s aura was far smaller than the big brown stink cloud, but once the battle started and units started to convert it would swell and perhaps easily overtake the brown fog in the total area encompassed. If they survived long enough that was.

  The battle started with hundreds of arrows streaking from the hilltop in high arcs. Every single one of Leonard’s infantry carried a bow, despite looking like they were decked out to be in the thick of it. Assumptively they would discard the bows after a few volleys, but for now they could fire on attacking army ascending the hill with impunity.

  Mark had already known that Leonard shared the duplicate enchantment from watching the previous battles. Hundreds of arrows became thousands. But the second enchantment was new. The arrows burst into a blue aurora during the descent. Like they had just ignited a rocket thruster they shot down. Dale sent a condensed wave of dark brown energy that intercepted a large number of the projectiles, but the rest slammed down like mini meteors. The intercepted arrows basically dissolved into a mud like goo, but the third that made it through hit with devastating force.

  Most of the goblins had shields, but only the heavier legionnaire shields were of much use. The simple enchanted wooden shields splintered as the blued streaks continued right through. More than a hundred goblins went down. Not a terribly big loss. It could have been far worse if Dale had not intercepted a large portion of them, but the higher elevation would allow the gnolls and orcs to fire several more volleys before the goblins were even in range to return fire. Mark could only watch on as more goblins dropped with every fresh wave of arrows despite Dale’s efforts.

  Whatever this blue aurora enchantment was, it was quite effective. The arrows sped up and hit with far more force. Perhaps they would not penetrate as far as a same quality piercing enchantment would allow, but this enchantment was far more effective against heavily armored units. Shields and armor were being blasted into pieces, effectively being turned to shrapnel against their owner. More than half of the low vitality goblins died from the resultant damage. The healers would recover the rest, given time.

  The second round of attacks were flaming lances of magic that streaked toward the moving briar wall of vines. Mark had at least been ready for this obvious tactic. On the left Dale was able to use a mass dispel, whereas void embued equipment prevented a majority of the damage on the right. More arrows and lances of fire streaked out from the hilltop with the same results. Hundreds of goblin wounded and dead littered the earth behind the ever advancing force.

  At near the same point where the goblin archers in the front could start returning fire, the defending forces started discarding their bows. They just threw down their bows and quivers. Seconds later they were pulling out weapons for melee as they began to charge down hill. The Nightmare champion started streaking downhill, outpacing them all with the heavy cavalry centaurs stampeding right behind it. Right over the flame hoof prints, the champion left as it moved.

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  The wargs surged to either side, likely intending to come streak down the hill and back in and around the advancing wall of blood roses. The infantry came straight forward, led by a 7.2 orc warmonger that dual wielded two scimitars. The warmonger was a named unit like Henry, but did not have a unique title. He was just a maxed out tier 2.

  Goblin drums started beating wildly as the goblins prepared to receive them. Goblin archers and mages let loose. Despite the armor and shields, plenty of piercing arrows found vulnerable spots on the wargs passing hundreds of feet abreast. The blood roses stopped moving forward and closed together to form an impenetrable wall. The other units reformed behind them to get in their own positions.

  Dale launched balls of acid at the nightmare who nimbly dodged weaving between them before slamming into the tangle of vines on the left flank. The blood roses on either side of where the nightmare had crashed into the vine wall went up in flames. They were not quite dead yet, but likely were near not long for this world just by being near the stallion’s passing. The nightmare burst through lightning and aflame any flower unit that came too close. Then dozens of sunburst skills streaked forth. Most toward the fifty centaur elites, but at least a dozen converged on the nightmare, impossible even for it to dodge.

  The centaur elites on the other hand took the blasts head on. Their armor was charred, but not a single one went down, likely thanks to their magical equipment. The nightmare was…. Nowhere to be found. Mark's eyes whirred across the area. There was no way the champion had been taken out from just that, but the champion was nowhere he could see.

  Elsewhere the infantry waded through a hail of arrows before slamming into the wall of vines. Whereas the centaurs had for the most part crashed right through having hit the wall with such force, only a few had been caught up in the tangle and were forced to try and cut their way free.

  Seconds later a loud whinny echoed throughout the battlefield. Seconds later, Mark saw Dale jump back as a mound of dirt quickly formed near him, before exploding upwards. The black nightmare clawed its way out of the earth. In mere seconds it had transversed several hundred yards, seemingly underground before emerging right at Dale’s feet.

  It only took a second before the stallion was free and bearing down on the goblin champion. For its efforts it received a stream of brown sludge straight across its body, but the nightmare emerged, its skin seemingly steaming. Its horse mouth opened seemingly several times bigger than a horse mouth should be capable of before snapping shut right into what was now a brown fog outline of the goblin champion.

  The fog outline was basically an afterimage left behind as Dale displaced himself from his prior position. Given enough time it would disperse in a matter of seconds, but this after image had been obliterated by the nightmare. Dale appeared several hundred feet away from another portion of the fog that had condensed to form his body. Inside his fumigation area, Dale was a difficult unit to take down, but each use of the fog decreased the area of his surrounding sphere of influence and Dale could only replenish it so fast. Dale shot a condensed black dart at the nightmare’s flank.

  This time Mark saw what happened. The nightmare, like a mirage, just sort of faded away. The black dart passed harmlessly through. Dale was already moving when once again the nightmare burst from the ground underneath his feet. This time the nightmare shot gouts of flame after the goblin. Dale intercepted the flame with a wall of fog, but the flame quickly burnt right through and once again Dale was forced to displace.

  A sort of stalemate was forming between the two with neither able to catch the other, but Mark suspected that Dale’s strength would fade before the stallion’s. Each time he displaced or attacked he was pulling from the fog cloud around him. Whereas who knew where the nightmare’s limit lay. Regardless, it was a bad matchup. The nightmare was seemingly impervious to the fog cloud around it. It was killing plenty of other units just by passing near them. By itself it could quite possibly kill the whole left flank. The centaur elite force had seemingly already come to the same conclusion, or had always planned to sweep in from that side upon the goblins.

  The goblins were assailed on all sides as the infantry advanced on them from the front, wargs came from the right and behind, and now the centaurs from the left. Not to say that they were not prepared. Earth shaping enchantments had already been used across the perimeter to raise walls and create ditches, making passage more difficult. Legionnaires and their support met the charges largely stopping them in place. Even the left goblin flank had legionnaires ready to intercept the centaurs, although they were being routed quite easily by the elites.

  The front and right flanks easily held as the surviving blood roses were in full blood frenzy. Their engorged vines were sweeping out, making it impossible to ignore them and concentrate on the goblins on the other side of the small walls. The wargs had also been halted initially, but that would likely change soon with the centaur elite reaping havoc in the center of their force. The goblins might have been overwhelmed quite quickly with a bunch of elites wreaking havoc in their center, if the other flower units had not converged right behind the elite centaurs. Even the left side of the chevron blood rose wall was collapsing leaving the two champions to fight by themselves.

  Still many of the goblin mages and archers were reorienting to the threat towards themselves, decreasing the pressure on the wargs. The southern flank started to buckle in multiple locations. It would not be long before it was an open melee. The goblin leader Lucien was not a fighter, so had retreated deeper to the right flank supporting with debuffs and spells. If he survived long enough his aura would complete the work for him despite how many of his allies fell. Already the black aura was starting to expand as goblins brought down enemies within its midst. Soon the fallen would rise and start fighting on their side.

  It was the witch doctors who broke the centaurs concentrated efforts, as shrunken head curses started pulling off individual elites into swarms of goblins even they could not help to overcome. The blood roses had also started to congregate in the center forming a tough barrier for opponents without forward momentum to break through. The drums had all faded as their owners were similarly silenced. Now there were just the sounds of battle.

  A battle that was not going in their favor. The wargs had now broken through and streams of them were now flowing through the goblin ranks. In another minute the battlefield would just be a tangled melee.

  Only about half of the goblins were still alive when undead orc, gnolls, and wargs finally started rising and attacking their former comrades from behind. What had started to become a one sided rout, started to even out. But it could not possibly last for long. The goblin army had been fractured, and now there were only a dozen different goblin clusters fighting enemies from all sides. The risen undead were scattered more randomly attacking whatever enemy was closest. Lucien was running out of groups of friendlies to take cover with. What remained of the centaur elite continued to hone honing right for him. He had been their target from the start.

  It was a real shame, if he could hold out for another minute or two the battle would likely start to completely turn in their favor as more undead started to rise, but the armored centaurs were relentless. Only about fifteen minutes into the battle Lucien was caught out in the open by a level 6 orc mage as he tried to flee from a collapsing group of goblins he had been taking sanctuary with to move to a larger clump of goblins still able to resist. A magic lance brought him down. The witch doctor rose to his feet to continue towards safety but was hit again. Moments later a centaur broke free from the goblins that had previously protected Lucien and rode the goblin leader down. The black aura winked out, and across the field several hundred undead collapsed into heaps.

  There were still hundreds of goblins and flower units fighting in various clusters, but they did not stand much of a chance.

  “Dale, if you can escape, you should make your escape now,” Mark said in a calm voice.

  “Roger that,” Dale replied. A moment later the fog that now covered an area a third of its original size, condensed before it rocketed off toward the southeast. The nightmare’s mouth snapped shut on the contrails a second to late.

  “Hopefully, the nightmare can not run him down,” Mark said glumly. Dale could move as long as he had fog to expand. He should be able to move multiple leagues before he ran out and was forced to land, but who could say whether it would be enough to escape the nightmare that dissolved into thin air.

  “If the nightmare does catch up to him, Dale will be as helpless as the rest of our army is,” Amelia stated. “Looks like we took out about half of Leonard’s army here. Do you think it will be enough? I’m not sure that Nick would agree we did our part. The force at the dungeon is more than double this one, and now 1,000 units will be on their way back on top of a champion.”

  “Yah…. Well the spiderlings should be quite helpful, and Dale if he can escape. Let's hope Nick did not skimp as much as we ended up doing.

  Mark had decreased the number of legionnaires by 150 from what they had originally planned, and the number of blood roses had been reduced by 40%. Originally a wall of brambles would also have been ready to guard the rear flank as well. Not to mention, all of their mages were only yellow hobgoblins at level 3 or 4. Mark had placed the best of everything in their southern army.