Nick’s assault on Leonard’s dungeon was still well underway a hour later as the final confrontations started to take shape. Mark and Amelia’s southern army would initiate contact with Nick’s defenses well before Nick’s assault force arrived at their own dungeon. The battle would begin at the pass leading into the valley with Nick’s dungeon, and would likely continue all the way till the dungeon’s entrance. Henry led the goblin force at a fast march. Time was perhaps the most serious factor in the upcoming battles, since Nick’s own assault force was nearing their own dungeon.
Mark and Amelia were staging their defense around their dungeon to make the most use of their defenses. Nick on the other hand was preparing to engage their forces the entire way. Ten thousand undead and sponsorship units stood between their southern army and the dungeon entrance. Hundreds of crude pits and earthen walls littered the otherwise desolate and empty desert like land. The fortifications really only existed on this one vector, meaning the southern army would basically be running through a line of hastily constructed fortifications. If they had time, Mark would just have the southern army skirt around, but how much more time would that add on.
Even adding half an hour might be too much at this point, Mark did not think they could afford it. Not when every minute might be precious. Their own dungeon only had 12 floors including the dungeon guardian floor. Nick might have all 15 possible floors. No, their army would have to just crush on through all opposition as they raced against the army attacking their own dungeon.
The southern army would face down elite units from the get go. Stationed at the pass were over 1,000 plus units from various sponsorship packages. The vanguard consisted of about 400 flesh golem units in heavy plate called sentinels. The sentinels each had a power rating of 5.6. Considering both their armor that was more sci-fi than fantasy in nature and the fact they were golems, they would be bloody hard to kill. Behind them were the fiends. Unlike the sentinels, not one of the fiends looked the same, horns, skin color, size, they were all different. Their power rating varied just as much ranging anywhere from 4.5 to 7.
For support, Nick had hundreds of undead necromancers raising undead that streamed forward to join the battle. Nick had well over a thousand necromancers. Each would likely raise ten plus tier 1’s or a handful of tier 2’s to join the battle. If nothing was done the southern army would likely face a constant torrent of these spawned undead on the hour plus death march to the dungeon entrance. The only limit would be the dark mages manna reserves, but if not dealt with they would have to deal an extra ten thousand plus undead in this battle. The spawned undead were not very powerful, but it would take more time to deal with them and increase casualties.
It all seemed a bit unfair, but then they had their own advantages. They had complete air superiority at least until the skeletal dragon made it on the scene. Then they also aerial units and perhaps gunpowder. Up to this point, Mark had not seen a trace of the substance used by the other dungeons. The southern army planned to showcase both of these from the start.
Goblin grenadiers advanced at the front, each with several rockets under arm. The rockets had been improved quite a bit since the last major war. They now almost always shot out straight, although their aim still left much to be desired. Still they should all make it into the canyon and cause devastation wherever they hit. Overhead, bat goblins and weevils flew carrying bomb satchels and other ordinance.
The goblin grenadiers ran forward before they each shoved their ordinance into the earth hundreds of feet out of range of the fiend mages. Pyromancers worked their flames to light them nearly all around the same time. The air forces dropped their ordinance also on cue. The rockets all shot forward leaving plumes of dark gray smoke. The canyon shook from the explosions. Rock fell from the walls, fiends were shredded and the sentinels were thrown like ragdolls.
The main force of the southern army caught up and passed the goblin grenadiers. In another minute they would fight with the survivors. How many survivors was difficult to determine through the smoke from their aerial view. Mark shifted the main interface screen to that of the advancing goblins. He immediately saw the hulking shapes of sentinels slowly climbing back to their feet. Each was a good 7 or 8 feet tall, making them literal giants compared to the goblins who were nearly half their size.
From his personal interface, still set to the aerial view Mark saw blue flashes through the smoke answered by red flares. The weevils were engaging the units on the ridgeline, which seemed to be mages. Mark was not really worried about losing the valuable weevils since they were all only the bred spawn.
The sentinels quickly reformed to create a flesh and steel wall. It was clear that far fewer of them had succumbed to the explosive payloads than Mark would have expected since they had been the main target of all the dropped explosive satchels which should have been far more accurate than the rockets. Goblin grenadiers started lobbying their black powder bombs at the sentinels causing a new wave of explosions. Goblin mages and pyromancers started shooting gouts of flame and blue lightning. A new wave of dust and debris was kicked up, Mark almost did not see the black shapes soaring through the air.
Nick did not have the power of flight. The skeletal dragon only could do it since it was a hero that defied the normal expectations, and likely Nick had to have spent extra resources to give the hero even that. The fiends could not fly despite having wings, but it did not mean they could not glide since many of them had wings. Several hundred had launched off the cliff face. They quickly went right over the front lines right at the goblin mages. Immediately goblin pyromancers started dousing them in flames, but none of them immediately succumbed to the attacks. Perhaps as fiends they had some resistance to flame attacks.
The goblin mages and pyromancers started dying by the scores. The power rating difference between them and the weakest of fiends was at least three or more. If left alone that would have been the end of things, their attack prospect might just have been strangled while it was still in the cradle, but almost as soon as the fiends had become a problem even more dark shapes in the sky appeared behind them. The bat goblins had all wheeled around to follow the fiends as soon as they had dropped their satchels. Actually capable of flight the bat goblins were far faster than the gliding fiends.
Dozens of friends had their wings shredded before they had even made it, causing them to plummet hitting the earth hard. The fiends that had already landed found themselves attacked from above by raking claws. There was still the power disparity so not too many actually were killed or grievously injured, but the distraction had allowed a lot more mages and pyromancers to escape to safety as the wave of melee goblin units moved in. The sentinels started advancing further out of the pass to aid the fiends against the wave of goblins headed their way.
But Marks’ attention shifted to another front. Both hero units, the bombardier spider and the corpse flower were now in the valley. With power ratings in the 20’s there was no reason they could not go behind the front lines and wreak havoc. If things went according to plan the two hero units could pave the way for their army while killing as many necromancers as possible. Each necromancer killed would mean the main army had several fewer undead to confront during their assault. Nick had a seemingly limitless undead army that rivaled or surpassed their own breeding feature. If not checked early instead of fighting just a ten thousand undead army they would have to fight through tens of thousands.
So Mark sent 14 units behind enemy lines. The bombardier spider advanced with the fern like corpse flower on its back. Flanking the hero spider were a dozen smaller incarnates bred off the hero only fifteen minutes before. The spiders moved quickly.
The undead forces amassed on the inside of the pass got ready to meet the quickly approaching threat. A hundred streams of black energy streaked in high arcs before they rained toward the spiders. Each would cause flesh to rot resulting in a power rating debuff. The corpse flower caught many of them with its green tentacles that extended out from under its fern like appendages. Many wrapped around the bombardier spider to keep it rooted on the spider’s back, but just as many were able to wringle back and forth freely. Blue dandelion flowers stuck into the air line antenna from the plant's center. The corpse flower could move by itself, but it was far to slow.
The corpse flower was not adversely affected by the rot debuffs in the slightest. It actually would be able to repurpose the energy if its manna pool was not already maxed out. Only seconds after rot debuffs, spectral chain curses shot out on a more leveled trajectory. The corpse flower did not have an answer to these. The bombardier spider as well as many of the spiderlings were snagged. It all happened in the course of seconds.
Seconds later the spiders were ripping through the undead with spectral chains stretching out behind them from the point where they had impacted. Like firecrackers small waves of explosions started radiating off the bombardier spider and its spiderlings shredding any undead that came too close. The corpse flower started snagging up undead that had made it in between the spiders.
The skeletons, mummies, and zombies caught by the corpse flower started to dissolve as their energy was drained. They struggled, but most were far too weak to escape even the individual tendrils that held them aloft. Upon completion, the undead would collapse into a black/brown goo onto the earth behind the constantly advancing spider charge. The goo would seep into the earth. After a few minutes the corpse flower creations would claw their way out of the earth and start fighting for them.
Most of the undead the spiders were wading through were of the weaker variety, and already a few spiderlings had been left behind. Not because they were dead, but because they had been bogged down by too many spectral chains for the weaker spiderlings to continue on. The rest along with the heros was already fighting through a stream of undead toward Nick’s fortress. A large mass of undead was forming at the half way point to oppose the two heroes.
If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.
The skeletal dragon was not here, but Nick had a second hero that stood with an amassing number of tier 3 undead halfway between the plateaus and the dungeon proper. Nick’s second champion was a mummy tyrant. The hero only had a power rating of 21.7, but the ten foot tall mummy looked far from being a pushover. Like the standard mummies it was a body of undead flesh wrapped in linen cloth, but the tyrant sported a golden hawk headpiece. In one hand it held a golden scepter with a large ruby like gem. In the other it carried a curved sickle. The hero had a very Egyptian feel to it.
Surrounding it were spectral wraiths, zombie ghast’s, and skeletal grave rippers. Each was the peak tier 3 unit of their respective undead branches, and each had power ratings of at least 7 or more after upgrades were factored in. It might be two heroes against one, but Nick had far better support for his lone hero.
The tyrant shot out a streak of red energy to intercept them while they were still a good thousand feet out, but the corpse flower’s blue dandelion-like flowers exploded. The fuzzy blue aerial puffs streaked in between to form a blue shield. The red energy slammed into the shield causing a flash of purple. Mark saw the red streak continue through striking first into one of the corpse flowers' fern like appendages before continuing into the bombardier spider. The corpse flower had likely minimized the damage, but the tyrant’s attack had still gotten through, wounding both heroes. The corpse flower was already quickly regrowing its blue flowers, but they would not be ready to counter the tyrant’s next attack. His scepter was already flaring red for a second strike.
The bombardier spider responded in kind. Its mandible expanded as a blob of green energy formed. Seconds later the green blob streaked forward passing the tyrant's second strike in the air. This time the bombardier spider nimble dodged to the side leaving the red streak to plummet into the earth hundreds of feet behind it. Several spiderlings were sent rolling, but the attack had missed. The green blob exploded into a red shield that formed a bubble around the mummy tyrant. Tier 3 undead were sent away staggering from the shock waves.
The tyrant changed tactics. Multiple smaller and weaker red flares started streaking out from its scepter toward the opposing heroes. The flares came in a seemingly never ending stream. The corpse flower started forming smaller blue shields intercepting as many as it could, and the bombardier spider weaved. Neither tactic was enough. Many made it through and started opening flesh wounds on both champions. It was like they were wading through a meteor shower.
Mark made a snap decision. Seconds later the corpse flower detached, landing roughly in the dirt behind the bombardier spider. The bombardier spider was already fast, but after losing the dead weight it was a blue of movement. It only took a few unencumbered seconds for it to get close enough, before it launched. Like a jumping spider it flashed forward. Green balls of energy pooled around the tips of its legs. Just quick green flashes that appeared before the large spider slammed down on top of the mummy tyrant’s position.
The earth rocked from the explosion. Most of the tier 3’s had started to open a wide birth between themselves and their undead hero champion, but it was not wide enough to prevent many from being sent tumbling. The tyrant champion’s red shield collapsed instantly and the hero was pinned to the earth. Nearly immediately the spider sank its fangs into the mummy hero. Green pulsating explosions kept the tier 3 undead and their attacks at bay as it sought to end the greatest threat.
The mummy tyrant's sickle moved back and forth sending spray of black spider goo, but that was not what concerned Mark. The tyrant’s scepter was gathering more red energy than it ever had previously. It all only lasted seconds before a red lance of energy shot out and up. The bombardier spider had shifted its head last second so the red beam only cut through the left half of its head.
The bombardier spider staggered backward. The left side of its face had basically been scalped off and black good oozed down from the grevious wound. Tier 3 undead started getting in and savaging the spider’s flanks, including severing several legs and damaging several others in a matter of seconds. The delirium only lasted seconds before the bombardier spider launched itself back and out of the deadly situation. It landed roughly on its remaining legs and continued its retreat with only 6 of its original eight legs as the tier 3 undead surged after it. It was clear that they would overtake the hero in less than a minute, the bombardier dominance was all but lost with the grievous wound and loss of two of its legs. The four spiderlings that were left through themselves in front of the wave undead. But they did little more than buy their mother a moment of time.
In less than a minute the bombardier spider and undead forces would catch up and overtake the corpse flower that was already making its way back the way they had come. Mark made another call. Seconds later the next wave of weevils started routing away from the front lines to come support the heroes. Mark would say that they might have bit off more than they could chew. Both of their heroes would soon be under threat, but they still had a chance.
The same could not be said for the mummy tyrant. The ten foot mummy lay there nearly unmoving. The tyrant’s left shoulder was gone completely. The left arm that held the scepter lay a good ten feet away, the scepter still in hand, but that was not the extent of it. Small goblets of flesh were exploding from various locations all across the hero’s body. The bombardier spider had injected explosive venom into its enemy. Most had pooled near the site of injection blowing off the arm, but some was still cycling throughout the tyrant’s body causing havoc. Mark did not know if the enemy hero would die from the wound, but the tyrant would likely not be able to contribute to this battle.
The bombardier spider looked to be nearly as debilitated, but there was one big difference. The spider likely had a far better self healing ability than the undead hero, and it had a healer at a completely different level to the undead healers trying to save their hero. The two were no longer retreating. They would not be able to outrun the wave undead anyways.
The corpse flower healed the spider as the two readied themselves to fight side by side. Still the two looked like cornered animals. The wraiths and banshees were easily able to get through the two hero’s guard, but the damage they could do seemed to be nearly topical, not a good matchup for the wraiths. Still they were facing little repercussions from the heroes who were focused on the more dangerous threats. They weaved in and out slicing and shrieking as they passed.
More concerning were the spells and the debuffs. Spells were opening pock marks on flesh and plant, and each of them had dozens of spectral chains starting to lock down their movements. The battle would look like a forgone conclusion, but aid was already on its way. The weevils still would take some time to get here, but more and more of the corpse flower spawn were arriving.
The spawn looked much like units from the myconid branch. They were a strange cross of roots and flesh or bone depending on the unit they had been created from. Already several hundred had risen and they were trickling into the battle. In another minute far more would join as the ones killed in that location began to rise. Right now they were not making much of a difference, but they were taking away some of the focus.
It was clear that some were wielding magic as roots sprang from the earth to ensnare their enemies. Other undead had plants started to sprout from their bodies. The mage spawn were far more effective and dangerous than the purely melee ones, but then again there was a strong power rating difference between the spawn and their current foes. Luckily nearly half of the spawn were mages.
If Mark had to guess it would be that the mage spawn had been formed from mage units, since Nick had a lot of them, most could wield nature magic which was an effective counter against undead.
A good fifty weevils arrived at the scene and started raining down lighting attacks. The banshees streaked into the air after them, letting out their wails only a couple hundred feet off, but once again they seemed to have little effect against the bugs hovering high in the air. Some undead started shifting their spells toward the beatles, but there seemed to be little effect. The spectral chains failed to form. The bugs were just too high up for the chains to find and tether into the ground. The chains swayed as they grew downward from the weevils, swinging in the air, but faded from view before they made it to the earth.
Still with all the aid the two heroes were getting absolutely savaged. Logically Mark knew things were not as bad as they appeared. They had dealt with the enemy hero and were embattling hundreds of tier 3’s, or most of the elite undead on the surface. On their way to this final stand location they had killed several thousand undead, including a large portion of the enemy's necromancers. The vanguard of Nicks forces, his sponsorship units, had all but been abandoned, with only a trickle of undead now coming to their support, but Mark still felt a sinking feeling at the pit of his stomach.
The bombardier spider’s body had become immobilized by hundreds of chains. It still swept several free legs around delivering explosive shockwaves to all that approached, but it was clear that the hero’s strength was fading.
The corpse flower was in a far more favorable position, but it had come at the cost of no longer healing or supporting the bombardier spider. It was losing fern leaf limbs and vine tendrils left all around its body and was using the bulk of its energy to regrow them to keep itself in the fight. The spawn grown from tier 3 units had started to rise and were helping to guard the corpse flower’s flanks, but their numbers were just about holding steady, as the corpse flower struggled to grow the number of spawn aiding it. It took longer to drain a tier 3 undead, and the undead were actively fighting to prevent their brethren from being completely drained.
Still the corpse flower was far stronger and had a seemingly endless pool of vitality and manna now that it was rooted in the earth as it fought. Balls of goo fell from its tendrils to the earth at a steady pace. More than a few wraiths and banshees had been caught at the beginning, before they had learned to stay away. Without actual physical substance their energy was consumed in seconds. Now dozens of green fog elementals fought all around the battlefield.
The bombardier spider died a few minutes later, leaving the corpse flower to fend for itself, but at near the same moment that the main southern army broke through Nick’s units at the pass. More than a thousand goblins had died to deal with the units that Nick had basically gotten for free, but the task was was finished, and other than the mages and pyromancers that had died when the fiends had glided past the front line, they had not lost units too consequential to continue on the attack.
Still it would be a good 20 minutes until the goblin army was able to reach their embattled hero. They would only encounter minor resistance until then Taking the pass also had a steep price mainly in mages and resources, but there were benefits. Mark had exactly 60 witch doctors and each with mana potions could reanimate several of the fire resistant fiends creating a new elite division of units. In another hour they would be able to do so again. They could not raise the undead or the sentinel golems, but the fiends were all fair game.
They would be added to the main dungeon assault force with all of the surviving mages, and the 400 some elite bugbears and gnarled wood goblins led by Henry. They just had to get their assault force inside before the skeleton dragon made it back.
