Bonded Summoner - Book 5. Chapter 34: Champion’s Rift

“This one of those games you’re familiar with, husband? The setup seems so strange.” Fhesiah looked on at the strange battlefield with interest. The three lanes were separated by trees, but also barriers. One could not simply just fly over the entire arena. Once again, scripts were nearby, detailing the rules.

Jake frowned. “It’s like a Multiplayer Online Battle Arena, or MOBA for short. It’s pretty similar, except we don’t earn gold from kills to buy special items, and we don’t get stronger throughout the match–only the enemy does. Then, it looks like we won’t have free allies spawning to fight for us.”

Looking over some of the rules, Jake couldn’t help but feel that if there were enemy Champions present on the world, this might be where they would appear. Thankfully, however, they had already killed them all on Highlands.

Valora whinnied with interest, while Bree also looked excited about the match. Ophelia looked at the battlefield with a stern gaze. “This match seems designed to target the individual. They can respawn, but we cannot. If they kill just a few of us, that will make the next Challenge all the more difficult.”

Jake nodded. It appeared that this challenge was more or less designed to whittle down the competition. Even if a Raid won by a near-landslide, these elite enemies may be able to assassinate or otherwise steal a kill. He wondered how the other instances would do with this challenge.

Looking over at Morwen’s Priestesses, thinking that they may be targeted. However, Jake understood the real truth. These unliving priestesses resembled more of a deathly ice wizard than they did some sort of defenseless healer. They were physically weak, but their bone shield or freezing attacks made them difficult to deal with.

For Nadessa and her mothers, riding along on Drysander would work well to keep them all protected. Yiming and Longwei’s wives were well-rounded, but they would need some additional protection as well, compared to their valorous husbands.

Tanda leaped into Bloodberri, hugging the much larger girl with a smile. “You mean it would, if not for Bloodberri’s Resurrection! With the effect of the Rest Area, they will be back at nearly full strength for the next battle.”

Berri hugged her back, smiling. “That’s right! It’s because I’m awesome!”

Blood groaned. “Yes, dear sister, it’s great that we have that ability. It does make us a target, however. Since we’re the only ones who cannot be resurrected.”

Berri and her axe both growled at the same time, though Berri’s was much cuter than the weapon’s. “Whatever. Let them come! We’ll cut and smash them to bits!”

Jake raised his brow at that. Berri was starting to be a little aggressive. Blood responded to his concerns, [Do not worry, Milord. She is just getting a little excited about what will happen when we’ve won. You know how badly she wants it–she’d fight just about anything to have your child. She’s…not alone in this.]

Jake groaned. “Berri, you wanted to complete the racial evolution first, right? We don’t know how long that will take. We need to be careful here, the enemy is looking for any advantage they can get. Just be patient and you will get what you desire, I promise.”

Berri froze, and coiled a bit of her tail around herself. “Y-Yeah, I know.” She blushed. “I’m just…getting excited.”

That taken care of, he called over the more experienced of his Battlegroup. Morwen and Bedwyr, Yiming and Longwei, Drysander and Nadessa came over. “Are any of you familiar with this challenge?”

Most shook their heads, but Drysander offered, “The obelisks were used in one of our challenges. These seem a little more ominous, but the tower will focus on the first person or object that enters its radius, until that person leaves it. Then, it will focus on someone at random.”

Nadessa added, “We were able to destroy them by having our sturdy War Treants enter the radius first, focusing our healing and shielding on them while the rest of us destroyed it.”

Longwei laughed. “I bet that was a sight to see! But this is also while these elite enemies try to sneak in and slay you. It’s while destroying the tower that they pose the greatest risk.”

Everyone stared at Longwei in surprise.

“W-What, why’s everyone looking at me. It must be!”

Yiming looked at his warrior brother. “No, that was surprisingly insightful for you, brother. What led you to that conclusion?”

“Because taking on the tower’s attacks is where all the glory is! Only a man,” He froze for a moment, noticing the many strong women’s piercing gazes, “or woman, of great courage can take the attacks of the tower, knowing the elite enemy’s assault could be forthcoming!”

Yiming patted Longwei’s back with a sigh. “Nice save. Of course, dear brother. So, you were looking at it from a glory seeker’s perspective. It also looks like if we attack one of these elite enemies within the radius of the tower, it will focus on us–just as it would focus on them, if we use our towers for defense.”

Jake chuckled. “So, with that in mind, I propose we decide on our lanes based on ensuring we have a viable tank in each group. Any of my party can manage, but I think we’re best suited for taking on the elite enemies. Of course, when we take down an elite enemy in that lane, we should push progress as much as possible.”

Blood added, “It’s a shame we cannot know more about these elite enemies. If we could counter-pick them in their lane, this would be simple. It appears they can travel outside their lane, but only by crossing the middle river at the beginning. It’s the only thing keeping them from roaming in a group of five and wiping us out one by one, by spawn rushing us.”

The note was that paths through the forest would be revealed, allowing travel between lanes after a tower was destroyed, giving the elites or themselves more freedom.

Jake added, “Our goal should be to keep pushing forward, then, and not allow them the freedom to team up. If this happens, we’ll need to play defensive until we can take them out and recover. Losing a tower on our side makes the final boss more difficult, so it’s in our best interest to keep on the offensive.”

After a bit of discussion, the team layout was created.

Left Lane: Fhesiah and Bloodberri, Warrior Brotherhood.

Middle Lane: Jake and Ophelia, Elysian Team, Ravenwolf Clan.

Right Lane: Jake’s Summons and Tanda, Bedwyr and Morwen’s Team, Vesuvius, Roxo, Darris, Rookard, Seamus.

Jake realized that plans like this often don’t survive contact with the enemy, but it was as good as any.

Each team had a decent tank, while also having viable ranged combatants and healing. Bree or Darris and Vesuvius would be excellent tanks for the tower, while Rookard and Morwen’s Team rained attacks on the tower and enemies. Both Timone and Drysander could handle the tower in Jake’s lane, each family providing heals for them without issue.

With Ophelia and himself in the center, Jake was setting up a potential ambush of their own. Jake could [Call Summon] any of his girls or summons near-instantly, and Ophelia and the Ravenwolf Clan could reinforce either location in a hurry.

His goal was to reinforce any lane pushed back rapidly. They would be able to pick off one or more of these so-called elites, and push each lane further, before the elites were empowered. There were only going to be 5 elites, so Jake had given Tanda more allies to compensate for her being without a Champion.

Jake gave out a few more buffs this time around. Bolster and Reinforcement were both exceptional at improving his ally’s survivability, and he especially made sure Warrior Brotherhood was covered.

They were likely to be targeted, but wouldn’t be covered by the auras of Bedwyr, Seamus, Vesuvius, and Darris. It reduced his mana regeneration, but he would limit his spells to taking on the elites.

The barrier in front of their base lowered, and the match began. Jake rode behind Ophelia on Valora while the Ravenwolf Clan flew or glided beside them, and Drysander stomped with a haste that Jake found impressive for his shape and size. The old tree guy could really move.

They quickly arrived at the enemy’s edge tower, which would be the focus of their offense. The bubble-like barrier went out a little more than a football field, so its strike radius was decent. They waited for Drysander to arrive, before they did their test.

Berri was already told that you must be inside the tower’s bubble to attack it, but she still hit a cannonball at the tower for it to be deflected by the shield.

This also meant that attacking one of these elites hiding behind the tower would be quite challenging, requiring taking hits of the towers if they were within the radius. The bubble over the tower only reached the top of it, so shooting over the bubble could be possible.

Jake leaped off Valora, and the two girls dashed for the enemy tower with her Technique blazing. They saw the normal enemies in the distance, but no signs of the elites. Jake covered Ophelia and Valora with a Sacrificial Barrier, before she filled her shield with her Hearth Guardian.

As soon as she entered the radius, the tower powered up for a moment before firing. A large red ball formed near the top, and before it could even shoot, Ophelia’s lance struck the tower empowered by Vajra Strike. Flame and lightning exploded, and in a hurry, she stabbed and slashed into it with all her enhanced might repeatedly, cutting into the base of the tower.

The orb slammed into the barrier on her, but it held. Even as Ophelia continued her attack, every second, another red ball of energy slammed heavily into her barrier. Jake and Drysander moved to stand on the edge of the barrier, in case she needed to retreat.

After a few moments of her fighting with the tower, the incoming enemies were nearing, looking like strange automaton creatures with mixed combat roles. Jake realized these enemies would make Morwen’s people much less effective, being unable to raise their corpses and use them.

He doubted their ice magic could do much damage, but they could likely be slowed or frozen just the same. Jake tried to use [Call Summon] on Ophelia and Valora, but found he couldn’t cast it through the barrier. The girls retreated as the tower fired, crossing the distance of a football field in just a few shots of the tower.

Jake’s cast barrier faded at the end, and the Hearth Guardian blocked the last retreating shot as she left the radius. Overall, a decent test as they worked to receive the enemies. There were five shield users, five polearm users, five archers, and two mages holding a staff which shot red energy that matched the tower.

The automatons were only a little bigger than a standard human, but Jake could tell they were filled with supernatural strength. While an auril hero could likely kill one easily in a duel, dealing with so many of them while facing the tower’s strong attacks felt risky.

They had to back off a bit from the tower to ensure the ranged attackers were no longer under the tower’s protection. Once the mages stepped past the barrier, they were immediately struck with arrows and ravens empowered by auril. Timone and Dahlia swooped down onto the archers, causing a few of the shield users to turn around and chase.

Ophelia and Valora lanced one from behind, triggering Vajra Strike. Lightning blasted over the shield and polearm users, shocking them. Valora kicked one powerfully, crumpling one’s head.

Jake released his own Runic Forked Lightning attack, scorching and melting their internal components. This allowed a few of them to be taken down easily, Jake and Ophelia cutting through them with their weapons.

In the other lanes, Tanda’s right lane filled with allies allowed them to easily overwhelm the nearly twenty creatures. Tanda sniped a mage with a charged enhanced arrow shot from her bow, and Morwen’s priestesses launched shards of ice at the archers. The auril heroes, Bree, and Bedwyr squared off against the melee automatons, and with Jake’s buffs had little trouble taking them out.

Yiming and Longwei were nearly overwhelmed in the left lane, but two cannonballs launched to start the fight from Bloodberri followed by her tail wielded aggressively, she knocked many of the automatons over like bowling pins and shredded others.

The two instead worked to play cleanup around her controlled chaos, while Fhesiah sent a fireballs and darts of black foxfire at the archers and mage. Leaping with draconic strength, she bypassed the warriors and cut down the remaining.

The automatons quickly cleaned up with low effort, all three parties were wondering the same thing. Just where were the elites?

The lane’s paths snaked, so there was a bend after the tower, making it difficult to see any approach. Fhesiah floated over the bubble and tried to use her Divine Sense, but couldn’t see the creature’s coming.

There was nothing for it. They would need to take out the towers eventually, while being exposed to the potential onslaught from the elites. Each lane would just have to be prepared for the eventuality.

Without a state for now, Jake covered Drysander with a Sacrificial Barrier, and he walked through the tower’s barrier to attack it, and receive its shots.

In the right lane, Bree formed a shield of vines as she charged the tower as well, and Bloodberri added a barrier to Longwei in the left lane. He was already covered in Valor, but various talismans had been triggered to provide him additional protection.

All three parties immediately began raining attacks down on the tower, while the tower struck their tank with its red orbs of energy. Jake had spells prepared in his hearth bubbles, ready to lock down any ambushing elite. Ophelia was quick on her charge, and Timone and Dahlia joined her at the base of the tower rapidly.

Fhesiah built up a large ball of flames using her torch and her Dance of the Sun, waiting to drop it on the tower–or the first enemy that appeared. Bloodberri’s maul smashed the tower heavily, taking out large chunks of its health.

Tanda’s right lane felt the safest. Their numbers were the greatest, and Bree was a creature that couldn’t truly die in the first place, being halfway between a permanent summon and a mana creation. She had already formed her heavy tail along with her shield, and was using it to smack into the tower like a flail, or a strange wrecking ball.

It was the left lane, Bloodberri and Fhesiah’s, that saw the sign of the first enemy, about twenty seconds into attacking the tower. They had already taken the tower down nearly twenty percent of its health in one go, when Fhesiah sensed the threat and launched part of her stored flaming orb up into the sky.

Some caustic substance and an orb of darkness slammed into the orb of flame, exploding. A moment later, what sounded like a quack and another salvo from the enemy arrived for Fhesiah to block, causing Bloodberri and Fhesiah to dash past the bubble.

Filling herself with some of her ball of flames and drawing the strength of her bloodline, Fhesiah launched herself after them, leaving Longwei and Yiming to continue with the tower.

Coming around the corner, they found the two elites, which were already retreating. Orbs of darkness gathered around a jet black elemental golem, while a smaller creature waddled away.

It looked like an odd large duck or chicken mixed with some sort of reptile. It turned around briefly with its large billed mouth, and spit a disgusting orb the size of a cannonball at Bloodberri, before it turned and ran away more rapidly.

Berri never produced a barrier more speedily, but her barrier of holy light was ready to receive the grotesque, mottled green ball. However, one of the orbs from the elemental fired like a beam of dark light, shattering her shield.

But Blood was somewhat ready, sending a wave of telekinetic force, which caused the orb to explode in the other direction. The ball exploded in a cone, and now the ground was covered in terrible goo, that both looked sticky and caustic as fumes drifted into the air above it.

Berri was now pissed, “I always get the grossest enemies!”

She leaped over the gross fluid, using her slow-fall spell to enable her to get just a bit more distance in her leap.

The next wave of automatons were getting close, but the elite enemies were now also nearing the next barrier. The girls needed to slay the creatures before the monsters reached it, or they would need to turn back–this barrier would not allow them to enter, until the first tower was destroyed.

Odds were, the annoying artillery-like creatures would punish them as they were forced to retreat. When they hit a baseball at the retreating creatures, the darkness elemental didn’t even slow as it countered the attack with one of its darkness orbs, and another one spawned next to it, so they continued their hasty pursuit.

Blood cast her dark shackles spell around the gross creature, also wanting to focus on killing it. It tripped and fell, making both Blood and Berri excited that they would catch the gross one, at least.

From what Fhesiah could tell, these creatures were similar in some way to the Garuda, in that they were high-Tier creatures brought down to the level of the encounter.

At their original level, they may not be as special as the Garuda, and they would be fodder easily slain by Jake’s party when they reached that strength. But limited to the first Tier, they had significant capabilities beyond what a creature could normally be capable of. They were not champions, but could compete with them in certain ways.

Several of the dark elemental’s orbs gathered into a larger one over its head, while others gathered around the shackles, erasing them. The gross duck creature stood and began to escape once more. Bloodberri was steadily gaining on them, but the large orb rocketed at her.

Once again, they attempted to block with a barrier, this one jointly created and empowered by the two girls instead. The shield held against the attack, but the odd spell rooted itself in the air, tendrils pulling toward it. Dust and rocks from the ground floated toward it, and Blood quickly realized it was some sort of gravity well.

Gathering light and dark, they wailed on the gravity well with [Maul of Hestia-Echidna]. The explosion of the two energies managed to erase it, but the two creatures continued their escape and were getting away.

However, Fhesiah landed between the enemy and their destination, holding an immense ball of flames and wearing a hungry smile. Fox flames flickered into existence behind her, her being ready for their retreat.

Bloodberri blurred toward the enemy, as Blood shouted, “I could kiss you, Fhesiah!”

Fhesiah’s smile grew wider, before filling the ball of flames with the strength of her path, and flinging it between the two enemies. It exploded in front of them, and should have sent them flying back, but once again the darkness elemental did something and seemed to suck the flames into it.

This was not without cost, as the flames tore into the monster. The flames of creation ripped and scorched into what made up the creature, but the duck reptile was now free to escape from the elemental’s sacrifice.

The gross creature shifted to a yellow color, and dashed even faster toward its goal. However, it started veering off to the side, as Fhesiah’s flickering flames took over the creature’s eyesight.

What it saw was not reality, and its perception was gradually shifted as it began running in a wide circle, rather than straight to its safety. Fhesiah’s claws were filled with the strength of her path, as she followed up on the approaching darkness elemental.

Cutting into the creature’s body, she cleaved through the golem’s exposed core. Her stored flames mixed with her Dao seemed to mostly counter this creature, at least when it wasted most of its resources on slowing down Bloodberri.

Having just a little more time, Bloodberri happily cleaved into the duck-shaped reptile’s skull. The creature easily collapsed, and the girls were a little disappointed at how easily it died. It started shifting to a purple and reddish color.

“Look out!” Fhesiah shouted in alarm.

Blood quickly shoved the corpse away toward the barrier and away from them with Telekinesis, where it exploded. Despite getting it a few meters away, the explosion still rocked their larger body back, the impact of the explosion causing the girls to hiss in pain.

Bits of the caustic creature managed to splatter on their body, and began eating through their armor and flesh painfully.

They were surprised to find Warrior Brotherhood arriving behind them, talismans landing on them and adding some healing. Fhesiah’s torch provided additional healing, a few holes in their armor remaining.

Yiming responded to their questioning looks, “We figured we needed to retreat from the tower’s blows soon anyway, but we weren’t going to leave you in a bad spot. You two managed those creatures surprisingly well, but that sure was a rough explosion.”

Blood cleaned themselves of the gross fluid with the Clean spellform with a grimace. “What a terrible creature. We will need to be careful with that thing.”

Berri growled with rage. “That thing is so dead, it’s going to pay for that! I’ll kill it over and over again, as many times as I must!”

Fhesiah chuckled. “What a strange, nasty creature. Still, now that we know what to expect, I have much more confidence for dealing with it next time.”

The oncoming wave of automatons was arriving, and they would take them on between the towers before retreating.

They had gotten the tower down over thirty percent in their first wave, and killed their elites. Aside from the annoying enemy, the challenge in the left lane appeared simple. However, they would get stronger throughout the match, and there would be other elites to worry about.