Bonded Summoner - Book 5. Chapter 15: Terrible Tactics

After progressing Conquest at the South Base of the bottom of the hill to about fifty percent, Jake urged Bloodberri ahead.

Tanda and Bree would finish capturing the point, then join the battle with either his [Call Summon] or by rushing over.

While Bree could not capture a point by herself, she could protect it and aid in progressing a capture.

Depending on what happened at the center point, he may just have her defend the base. It was clear the enemy had rogues within their team, and their goal might be to sneak a capture.

Jake was all-too-familiar with these sorts of tactics, playing battlegrounds within various MMO games.

As Bloodberri approached the odd stone keep by heading up the hill, the Garuda met the wraith in combat. Ophelia’s test struck the wraith and if anything empowered it, leaving Jake to worry about the creature.

However, as the Garuda’s wing blade met the wraith, nothing was drained. The two creatures fought above the battlefield, the wraith with its claws and the Garuda with its wing sword and shield.

Watching the fight with his [Arcane Eye], he thought they were decently matched. He wasn’t sure what the outcome would be if he did nothing, but Ira favored the Garuda, which had Jake’s Divine Reinforcement.

As his party arrived within the keep, the capture began immediately. The circle encompassed almost the entire large keep’s courtyard. The keep was eerily like Jake’s constructed keep on Ariminum.

There were battlements up above overlooking the large courtyard, but with pillars meant to hold up a second floor that was now gone. Parts of the keep had collapsed as if destroyed by some epic battle.

The circle he stood within had additional functions. Jake could not use conjuration to build or create anything within it. It would erase anything he conjured, and even partial spell effects like growing vines and things would be eliminated within it.

Thanks to Ira and his Arcane Eye, Jake knew the enemies were about to arrive. In the state of the Monarch, he would be forced to use crowd control abilities.

Jake would set them up, and Bloodberri would knock them down. He gathered his Divine Hearth mana, and coalesced a group of runes. Blood and Berri followed, adding theirs onto his.

The runes floated and Jake held onto them, until the two parties entered the room from the opposite side.

While it appeared nine had approached to attack, only seven showed up. Two were climbing the keep walls, and one was capturing their Base just like Tanda.

Jake released their spell, [Group Runic Magic: Frost Nova].

An apparition of an ice elemental appeared, and it released a frost nova like what they used during the Nature’s Crossroads assault. Ice filled with flecks of dark gold encompassed the enemy party, freezing them in place at the entrance.

Bloodberri surged forward, as Blood cast [Drain Strength] from the group of enemies. She approached rapidly, activating [Maul of Hestia-Echidna].

But just as she almost landed her devastating blow on the lead figure, several things happened at once. Strange glyphs glowed underneath one of the figures, allowing them to run freely around.

A powerful barrier was released by the warrior, and as Jake viewed the odd light, he realized the man was some kind of paladin. He paid some sort of price to enact this barrier, though Jake couldn’t understand what.

While Bloodberri’s black and white maul colliding with the barrier did not harm the person she struck, the holy light and dark exploded out and slammed into the frozen figures. They groaned in pain as the holy energies harmed and debuffed them.

The person moving around cast a spell by touching another ally, freeing them from their frozen prison. Jake immediately gathered his runes, and hit the enemy with a wave of force. He was flung out of the keep.

Berri giggled at the guy being flung from the tower, weaving back and forth with her Technique. The barrier covered man came after her with his weapon, but she ignored the invulnerable man.

Others frozen in their prisons fought against them as they attempted to break free, but Jake held them tightly with his will. While Bloodberri smashed one with her maul, Jake leaned forward and plunged his spear deeply into another’s chest.

Their home Base was now captured, so Jake had Tanda take to the sky. Calling Bree to himself, He couldn’t help but feel this was a little too easy. She wrapped her vines around targets, and Blood even wrapped her tail around another.

The invulnerability shield broke off of the paladin, and Blood was there to quickly end the target. The man Jake flung from the keep returned, only to be killed a moment later.

Bree looked over her dead targets with derision.

“Sorry, Bree. That was a little too easy.”

She snorted, but went to the edge of the keep to watch over the enemy’s approach and respawn. There was one enemy unaccounted for; the one that captured the enemy’s home base, the North Base.

Despite Jake looking for them with his Arcane Eye, he could not find them.

“Ira, see if you can find the missing enemy.”

With a mental nod, Ira traveled through the void to find the enemy with a special means of stealth. Jake had an idea of where the target headed or what his goal would be, but didn’t want to be surprised.

The capture of Jake’s team was rapid, his party quickly owning three points. The Garuda still dueled with the Wraith, but it looked like it would win shortly. It continued to draw on his mana, but with the enemies dead, Jake would be able to recover.

The center took longer to take. After aiding both Ophelia and Fhesiah, Tanda aided the Garuda in killing the wraith, her deathly attacks strangely effective against the unliving monster.

When the keep was finally conquered, a large, metallic golem spawned in the middle. It immediately charged at Bloodberri. Bree and Bloodberri worked on it in tandem, as Jake recovered his mana.

He ended up needing to heal the Garuda, and some cursed energy entering the creature’s features purged using [Purifying Flames]. It cost him a fair amount of his mana, but the creature was thankful for it. Apparently, desummoning it would purify it over time, but it wouldn’t be pleasant.

The golem was a little bit of a joke for Jake’s party. It blasted arcane energies into them in a sort of arcane explosion periodically, but the damage when Bloodberri’s [Maul of Hestia-Echidna] sent out healing energy was completely counteracted.

Tanda even returned to the center, firing arrows into the target. Once the golem was defeated, their conquest progress had increased by a hundred. Now that they owned four locations, they were gaining eight every 5 seconds.

The enemy’s single base was only earning one every five seconds.

If nothing changed, they would win in about twenty minutes, or about four respawns. Jake had Ophelia and Valora fly over to capture the enemy’s base, in an effort to bring the enemy out of hiding, but also to decide on whether they should capture it.

Ophelia didn’t have enough time to capture the point entirely by herself, nor did Jake’s party, even if they rushed there. However, she managed to remove ownership.

Some time passed as his party recovered, and it was getting close to the time the enemy would respawn.

Ira found the missing enemy heading toward Jake’s home base, using a special means of stealth.

Fhesiah hummed in his mind, having followed Ira’s feelings to eventually find the culprit herself. [Interesting, so he’s using a special artifact. It causes some kind of dimensional ripple, phasing him out of normal space. He is within the fighting arena, but only barely. He is burning life force to remain invisible to us. I may have found him eventually, but only if he stood still for long enough.]

Jake’s eyebrows rose in surprise. It seemed Ira was uniquely suited for discovering this enemy once more.

Ira was filled with pride, at being able to accomplish its purpose.

At the end of the day, the artifact was still only Tier 1. It had limitations, and Fhesiah was able to pierce those with her powerful soul once she knew where to look. A strong enough target could power through the protection.

He had guessed that the missing enemy would in fact assault one of the locations at an inopportune moment, but Ira was able to deal with this.

Tanda took to the sky with her bow, and through Fhesiah and Ira, she charged up a powerful auril attack aiming at the invisible enemy. Waiting for the respawn, the gatehouse was eventually filled with white light.

Filling her arrow with her manifestation, she shot it at the demon’s hiding spot.

She took off the target’s head, the man unable to put up any fight. Despite intending to avoid the artifact breaking, it shattered the moment the target died.

Fhesiah shrugged. [It seemed useful, but burning life force is like burning potential. Our fighting style is not stealth, but Champions that lead armies of people we care about into battle. I doubt you’d want to load up a subordinate with such a self-harming item, too.]

Jake wondered what the enemy was going to do. He had decided against pushing immediately to their final base to claim it quickly and win faster, but decided he would only risk that if they won this fight. Fighting slow and steady would ultimately win the race.

[Uh, hold onto that thought, husband. You might want to Reverse Summon yourself to Ophelia immediately, to capture that point.]

Without questioning it, Jake began his spell, and Ira joined him. The spell progressed rapidly, only taking a little over 5 seconds.

Appearing next to Ophelia, he called Fhesiah, Bloodberri, and Tanda; leaving Bree to face off against the golem if it spawned. They pushed the capture as rapidly as they could.

“What’s happening?”

Fhesiah was alarmed. “They are killing themselves, summoning something terrible! Much worse than the wraith. I think they saw this as a losing battle, and this was their best shot at either a victory, or weakening us enough for when we get outside.”

Jake frowned. If his team captured this point before the enemy arrived, he thought there was really no way for them to lose. They would gain points so rapidly that they would be able to whittle away at it until they won.

For a single enemy, anyway. It would simply take it too long to move between the points and overcome them.

Blood said, “We don’t know that. It might capture twenty times as fast or similar. Still, kiting the enemy may be a good strategy.”

Fhesiah nodded, and began shifting into her Dark Kitsune form with Bloodline Transformation.

His team captured the point, just as a massive demon barreled out of the enemy gatehouse. It was massive, much larger than any creature they’d faced up to now.

The monster was nearly completely black, like its skin was made of shadows or smoke. It stomped right toward them, taking massive strides.

Jake considered simply reverse summoning himself to Bree and summoning his party, but dismissed it. They would win faster if they kept this point, which would reduce the amount of time they needed to face the enemy.

It was necessary to start damaging and weakening or slowing the enemy as soon as possible.

Signaling his girls on the spell he wanted to cast, they each began forming their runes at his command. He was still in the state of the Monarch from the previous fights, and figured it was most appropriate against the current goal of controlling the massive monster.

As they coalesced their runes, the demon roared as it skidded to a stop, and began charging a breath attack. Energy started gathering near its demonic mouth, a terrible energy converging into the air in front of it.

But Jake’s wives were fast, the runes forming his spell: [Group Runic Magic: Hexing Bindings]. He leaped into the air, using his boots to stand on a runic platform.

Ophelia riding Valora and Berri each surged toward the enemy, ready to shield the party or land a devastating blow. Tanda fired several arrows at the target’s face, where it was gathering its dark energy.

Fhesiah reinforced her kitsune runes with her Dao, and Blood added her holy dark mana runes, meant to debuff and restrict. Jake added the runes for a powerful binding, enhanced by his covenant.

Black-golden chains filled with kitsune flames wrapped around the demon’s body, starting from the ground. As the chains climbed up the monster, the charging attack appeared to weaken.

Tanda’s arrows struck the creature, her deathly wolves taking chunks out of its smoky flesh.

It still released its attack toward Jake and Bloodberri, but Ophelia was ready with her Guardian Hearth of Hestia in her shield. The powerful beam attack crashed into her shield, which emitted a crackling golden flame.

Ophelia went to the left of the attack and Bloodberri to the right, the two blazing toward the enemy. They each struck into the creature with their powerful attacks–Ophelia with her Vajra Strike first, and Bloodberri with her [Maul of Hestia-Echidna] not long after.

However, they found the creature to be somewhat less tangible.

Their blows still harmed the creature with their powerful divine-empowered attacks, but the physical component was severely reduced.

The demon then roared as its beam attack finished, and it drained energy from Bloodberri and Ophelia. Thankfully, she had [Ride of the Valkyries] covering Valora, or she would have been dispelled from that one attack.

It was as if they were burned by a black flame and drank it into its breath.

It was like everything was drained–mana, stamina, and health. The creature healed a large percentage of the damage done to it, its smoky flesh returning.

Jake said, “Get back! We’ll kite it.”

The chains finished wrapping around it, and Jake restrained the creature by shoving his mana into the construct. It burned into its ethereal flesh, and ruinous hexes began being added onto its skin.

Fhesiah used her new [Sun and Moon Hex] on the target. The hexing curse of the moon was added like a magical stamp on its flesh, her bloodline flames of destruction now burning into the creature. Demonic runes of her blackish-purple flames began burning into its skin and spreading from the moon’s position, weakening and destroying it.

Her foxfires began being formed up behind her, and the dark kitsune flames started slamming into the target like arrows, and Tanda continuing firing on it as Jake called Ophelia and Bloodberri back to him using [Call Summon]. He jumped onto her battlements, to ride her as they retreated.

Berri took out a baseball, and immediately slammed it right into the beast–but it had nearly no effect, only being affected by Jake’s Heavenly Aura to cause a minor explosion.

Filled with anger, she manifested her will, filling a test ball Jake had made of amberwood. Her death ball was then smacked at the demon with a crack, the ball exploding into the monster’s chest. It groaned and was slowed, picking up speed again after a moment.

The monster still barreled toward Jake, but its speed was much reduced. Bloodberri undulated away, and every five seconds, their team would gain twenty points.

At this pace, they would win in just a few minutes. They just had to hold their points and keep the enemy away long enough.

Jake had wanted to use a wave of force, but it appeared that it would be useless against the ethereal creature. Teaming up with Blood and Berri, he quickly cast a powerful nova of frost.

The dark-golden-flecked ice stuck to the creature, but the ice sloughed off as it moved forward; the ethereal skin not being greatly inhibited by it.

Still, the creature was slowed a little further by the golden-flecked ice, and each of his girls launched attacks against it, now having more time to land their attacks.

Ophelia gathered some vajrafire flames, and struck out at the creature at range. Her powerful thunder slammed into the creature, burning it with righteous fury.

Knocking it back and slowing it down again, Jake’s party backed off as they continued raining attacks upon it.

Fhesiah’s ruinous flames enhanced by Bastet continued to add up on the creature, its smoky skin being consumed by her flames. She did her best to remain efficient, expending her mana to cast them as she regenerated it.

The party all fled in different directions, the beast coming after Jake riding Bloodberri or Tanda mainly. It even leaped one time despite everything holding it down and slowing it, but Ophelia was able to rebuff it with her shield guardian.

Despite all their attacks, the creature still did not go down. The Garuda had joined Bree back in the center keep, unable to kite without expending significant mana, and they finished off the golem as it spawned.

Jake had to let go of the hexing bindings, but by then so many scripts had been burned onto its strange skin, that it was still severely hampered by them. It tried to roar and absorb the life force of his team, but they had kept far enough away from the creature.

The rogue which used the stealth artifact respawned after his five minutes was up, and the timer for victory was nearly complete. It appeared to sacrifice itself to the same ritual, empowering the demon slightly.

It made one last dash toward Jake, but each of his girls released their attacks at the same time.

Tanda’s explosive wolf, Bloodberri’s deathly ball, Fhesiah’s gathered moon flames from her dance, and Ophielia’s vajrafire bolt all struck it at the same time, knocking it off its feet.

It crashed onto the ground, sliding into the dirt.

[Greater Rift Victory! Winner: Hearthtribe.]

[Reward: 50,000 CP per party member. Additional Merit for Tier Up.]

[Exit in five minutes.]

Jake and his party were transported to the gatehouse, where he somewhat sighed in relief. Recovery was enhanced here, though he didn’t think they would be a hundred percent when the time was up.

Certainly, if they had dumped everything, it would not be long enough to fully recover. Jake guessed in five minutes they would only recover about a quarter of their resources from empty.

Combined with drinking some mana water and potions, he thought they would be close enough.

Fhesiah sighed. “I really expended too much of my Kitsune Bloodline flames. I will try to restore some, but it will be well beneath the 30%. I will have to fight as a dragon, which, for how they like to counter-pick…”

Jake nodded. “An ambush is waiting for us. I do worry about Vesuvius and them, could they really have brought an army to defeat his in such a short time?”

Ophelia patted down Valora in thanks for her efforts, who was excited about the battle to come. “The odd grasshoppers might have hidden their approach somehow. The Champions with an army seems likely. We’re not the only ones with mobility, the naga could use the rivers above or underground, too.”

Jake looked over his girls. All warriors, they were prepared for battle against the evil enemy. While they couldn’t die permanently in this battle, their spirits could become harmed, their potential decreased forever.

They all wanted to win. He desired to protect and support them from this potential ambush. If Vesuvius and his people were fighting, many people would require healing just outside the portal. He found resonance with Ophelia quickly, switching to the state of the Guardian.

Huddling together, Jake and his girls would be ready. He knew once they exited the portal, barriers would be cast, and most likely he would call on Hestia–as soon as he was sure enemies were present.

It would be a challenging battle, but he was sure Clan Hart would come out on top.