Bonded Summoner

BS8 - Chapter 8: Rifts and Recovery

It was now several days later of clearing Rifts out in the wilderness, and they were about to head back into the city to start the PvP event. The party was now fighting through an established orc base, a place that if left alone, might actually establish a Fortress Assault event. The Rifts in the area were all building it up and reinforcing it, so it had to be cleared.

There were hundreds of orcs at this base, having numerous watchtowers and huts filled with troops. The melee forces had gathered, taking on Avalara, who was buffed up and had grown to her maximum size.

It was like an orc army versus the dangerous, living jungle of Highlands, and a primal, giant monster crushing them in the middle of it. With them focused on taking on Avalara and fighting through the jungle, the Ravenwolf Clan and the rest of the family just picked off orcs with ease, and focused on destroying buildings and killing off the archers and casters.

Berri laughed, and shouted, “Timberrrr!” She then cut through the leg of an orc watchtower, causing it to fall to the ground and crash into the central stone and wood hut.

Bree was in her dinodog form, grown to a massive size with her auril and Jake and Tanda’s buffs. Her claw cut through another watchtower’s legs, causing the same to occur as she howled. It crashed into the building, causing a part of it to crumble.

A powerful orc commander and his retinue came out of the building, a Boss-level creature meant to lead the hundreds of orcs spawning. Jake’s spell completed, a giant mire of thick mud covering a wide area around them and slowing them all down. Tanda, Sati, Fhesiah, Nessa, and the entire Ravenwolf Clan of nine, continued hunting down the remaining archers on the outskirts with arrows and deadly spells, and Jake had just given them a little more time to clean up.

Bloodberri’s snake body surged forward in a zig zag pattern, then bowled into a large grouping of orcs with a large loop of their tail. The orcs were flung into the air, and their nethril debuffs and Twilight Monarch aura washed over them, making them even weaker and draining their strength into the snake girl.

Berri cut down two orcs with quick, deadly swings, and smiled. “It’s just like old times, isn’t it? It’s been so long since we closed all those Rifts and saved Highlands!”

Tanda was evading several orc archer’s shots as she flew through the air. “It really is! But it feels even easier now, even though Rifts have way more enemies and stages now.”

Her bow continued to shoot out, tagging the archers and invading their bodies with deathly flames. She added a swarm of ravens into the mix, joining her father’s as they attacked anything in range. Dahlia and Bree’s summoned wolves and dinodogs were on the hunt, and so were Avalara’s stags and Ophelia’s Hearth Guardian. Even without Jake’s summoned templates, the group of twenty felt like a veritable army of their own. If Tanda and Fhesiah were unsealed, the spriggons and sprites would add even more to the mix.

And Jake had summoned a few more. Jasmina sang her song, protecting all the beastkin present and enhancing their auril and nethril available and protecting allies with her water. Zephyr hunted through the enemy lines, its mobility and deadliness with its wing blade surprising. It had gotten a qualitative upgrade when Jake hit the second Tier, unlocking much more of its power as he grew in level. Its divine nature had grown, and was shown and felt with any of its attacks, its special winds having unique properties.

Most substantial were the defensive winds that surrounded its feathery, winged humanoid form. Combined with its shield made of feathers and deadly wing blade, the creature was more formidable than ever. Whether it was protecting allies or cutting through enemies, it was yet another excellent, mobile warrior on Hearthtribe’s team.

With the Battlegroup’s many strengths, they eventually defeated the horde of orcs, and were able to focus on the Boss and its team. The large orc commander was supported by several elite orcs that were nearly at his level: two shamans, two archers, and two shield warriors, working with the coordination of a balanced party–for orcs, anyway.

But they were no match for Jake’s boss monsters. Bree and Avalara stomped through with their huge forms, crushing the warriors and tearing them apart. Nessa and Sati sent Fhesiah their flames, and she used her Breath of Celestial Alchemy to create a massive blast of golden frost and flame, washing over the enemy Boss and its party. The group attack from the three girls likely could be considered a third tier spell, and was an absolutely devastating attack that caused them to be both frozen and scorched by the golden flames, melting their armors and freezing their bodies.

Ophelia’s Vajrafire Blast combined with her Consecration washed over the targets, her charge on Valora having a deadly momentum behind it and piercing into one of the shamans as others were finished off by the Ravenwolf Clan, Timone and Dahlia swooping in and striking them hard.

Bloodberri’s chimeric axe cut deeply into the orc commander, and an explosion of light and dark severed the enemy in two. Twilight Divide shredded the target with its bronze fragmenting explosion, the monster ripped apart by the turbulent energies.

[Rift Closed. 15,232 CP Earned across Battlegroup.]

Rifts at this level were worth more than ten times what they were worth on Highlands, but they found they took longer. The enemies flowed out of them more frequently, and constructions like what they encountered here were much more common.

A normal Battlegroup of forty to fifty might have taken much of the day to work through the many spawns in the surrounding area before moving into the orc war camp. Then, it would have taken quite a bit of time to work on the hundreds of enemies within, slowly whittling them away from this camp before taking on the final army of orcs.

Of course, Jake’s elite party was different. It had only taken them a little over thirty minutes to clear the surrounding area of all the enemies and clear the war camp. They’d cleared about twenty Rifts per day as they waited for the event to take place, thanks to their mobility and power. With the distance between each one, he’d be surprised if each of these fifty person Battlegroups would clear much more than one per day. Certainly, only the Ravenwolf Tribe would be able to reach more than one in terms of travel per day.

Timone laughed as he landed next to Jake. “You and your Clan have truly gotten stronger. It feels like the difference between us has only grown since the last Tier, Clan-son.”

Jake nodded. “The difference between a Champion and a most warriors has grown quite a bit, and the Framework and Tartarus both recognize this. Each of us count for seven now.”

Dahlia grinned as she landed next to her husband and joined them. “I don’t think that’s quite it, Clan-son, but we should have a chance to close the gap if that’s the case. If we perform well in another Prime Instance, Cernunnos and Lugh will make Timmy and I Champions.”

Tanda beamed as she landed next to her mother, and grabbed her hands. “That’s big news, Mom! You’ll make an awesome Champion!”

Timone’s smile faltered. “What about me, your dear old dad?”

ic flames rather than his hands, but all enjoyed being pampered by their husband and father.

The other kids had begun to play with the other mothers not busy with Jake, now that they were done showing off their schoolwork and things they were working on. Even Yona, Bree, Ruby and Sati got dragged into their play, the older women joining the teen-like kids in various activities.

Ophelia smiled at Jake, “Thanks for taking care of us again. You’ve always got the busy brushes.” She kissed his cheek, and snuggled closer to him, her wings fluttering as he brushed her hair.

“Of course. I need all my warrior wives, girls, and boys in tip-top shape.”

Jake noticed that the tension had decreased as he had brushed, hugged, and kissed his wives, and they spent their time with him and the kids, so he considered this choice for relaxing a success. Their bodies weren’t overly worn from just a few days of Rifts, but they were a little mentally exhausted. The Hearth of the Refuge helped them recover, just a few hours were easily better than a night’s sleep for their magical Tier 3 bodies and minds.

Tanda’s tail was wagging as he brushed the hair on her head as well. “Hehe, the brushes and kisses are great, but just spending some time feeling your flame, your Presence is why everyone is calm. We can all feel that you’re confident, so we are too.”

Bloodberri was playing catch with her many daughters, and Blood said to them, “It also helps that many are battle maniacs. They can just focus on their excitement rather than their concerns. The thrill of the fight ahead gets their blood pumping, and their mind off those other things.”

Ruby was joining a game of badminton nearby, while Sati, along with Fhesiah’s sprites and Tanda’s spriggons chased around the many snake girls trying to hide in an epic game of cops and robbers.

Fhesiah played with her kitsune children, teaching them their usage of Qi with a bit of a game. Showing them illusions, the two did their best to copy their mother.

Bree and Avalara had each given the treant children rides with their large bodies, their vines wrapping around and making them feel rooted to the ground.

The family enjoyed their time together, preparing themselves mentally for the many battles to come.

***

Rested and recovered from their days of Rift closing, Jake and his combat Battlegroup entered the event through the portal in their Refuge, arriving at a waiting area for the Battleground. The large room was like many that they had experienced. A large, carpeted and well-lit room with various furniture and even cots for resting.

They had over a thousand Hearthtribe arriving in total, at varying levels of skill. The Ravenwolves had increased in number even as they rose to the second Tier. They were now a much more varied group than before, just like what was seen in the dungeon recently. The Ravenwolf Tribe Clan heads had taken Elysian mates or added spriggons to their teams, and allowed many others to join their numbers, whether avian beastkin or mammalian so long as they could operate the crafted wings for flight.

Of course, having a bunch of smaller spriggon passengers was not an issue for a powerful raven or hawk beastkin to carry, so thankfully, they would not lose much mobility from this. The treants and tamed beasts were largely kept out of the specialized groups, unless they could be stored or otherwise didn’t slow their teams down.

For the PvP event, several instances of the same fifty-person event would be taking place, but the battle would largely be decided by the Prime Instance, just like the Dungeon Raid–the top elites of each Guild.

With Jake and his party having three unsealed Champions, they took up a lot of the fifty party slots. Nessa and Bree didn’t quite take up the same number as a Champion, but it was close. Thankfully, they knew that Cassius was also a child of a Divine, and if Avaron or Calix had made it into the Battleground, the enemy wouldn’t have fifty people either. Probably just over forty compared to their twenty.

Baron Calix, the Hermes descendant’s whereabouts, were currently unknown. If he was present on this world, nobody had seen him yet, nor had they seen many of the races of Grecian Origin that he favored for his fighting teams. Talari were a human-adjacent race he used significantly, that had wings on their ankles and often wore magical winged helmets, enabling them to glide and fly earlier and easier than most humans.

Berri was excited, swaying her body in place. “I wonder which challenge it’s going to be!”

Of course, Jake and his party were as prepared for this challenge as they could be, and most of Hearthtribe should be, too. Valtor and Amara had compiled popular strategies for most of the Battlegrounds, and so whatever came up, his people would be familiar with them, and able to act accordingly. There were about eight common ones, and a bunch of variations for each in terms of landscape or environmental factors that provided a bit of randomness to the equation.

The prompt appeared a moment later.

[PvP Event: Hearthtribe versus Obsidian Mercenaries]

[Battleground: War Swept Canyon. Teams of Fifty Battle Strength will face off against other teams in this competitive capture the flag event. Hearthtribe has bet the current maximum: 5M CP for Prime, 300,000 per instance.]

Dahlia grinned. “I love this one. I get to just slay them all while Timmy carries the flag.”

Timone groaned. “I hate this one. Being unable to fly is just unnatural, and just who loves taking a beating?”

“Dibs on carrying the flag first!” Berri said, swaying back and forth even faster and clapping, and then Timone let out a breath of relief. She added, “I was hoping for this one a little, it looks like fun! Who’s on defense?”

Nessa said, “If there are no objections, I would like to be on defense.”

Ophelia turned to her, “Are you sure? You’re not allowed to make or construct anything in the flag room. Doesn’t that include your lake?”

Nessa shook her head. “My lake is a part of me. It’d be the same as one of your treants growing a ton of vines out of themselves. There are limitations to this, meaning I cannot spread my lake out for dozens of meters and cover the entire floor of the flag room or something, the magic of the room will work against me. But none shall be able to grab the flag without me knowing and slowing them down first. Then, if you can leave Sati or Ruby with me, I think we can deal with any sneaking team of flag snatchers.”

Jake thought about their potential enemies, then eventually nodded. “That should work well–we’ll leave you Ruby, and she should be able to sense just about anyone on their team, based on the races among them. And we’ll go all in on the attack. With a five-minute respawn, it does make some sense to try to take them out in an initial clash. Just let me know if you need reinforcements.”

“Of course. My venom and freezing efforts will be my focus, so even if they manage to escape the room with the flag, they won’t get away unscathed, and won’t be too difficult to stop. My dao will not be easy to remove even with their special items, and I’ll follow them with my lake. Then, Ruby can hide in it, giving us more options for a counter ambush.”

Rogue or speed types stealing the flag was a common strategy to both capture flags but also prevent flag capture. It was important to protect the flag room, or an annoying situation where a flag turtling situation could end up occurring–each team hiding in their base with the opposing team’s flag, unable to turn it in for a point. They would alter their defense numbers based on how aggressive the enemy was or how they attempted to attack.

Jake looked over the waiting room, as it began to fill with more people. The truth was, Jake wasn’t that familiar with everyone here, at least by sight. A vast majority of them were Ravenwolf Tribe, and they were perhaps the busiest and spent the most time away from Highlands than any other group within Hearthtribe.

As their songs filled the room as their hearts beat and Avalara shared them, he remembered many more of them, having met some of them a few times, or heard their songs as he harmonized with Avalara and Tanda. Jake had participated in many of the changing of the seasons festivals with Tanda over the years, listening to his people’s stories through their songs.

While the Ravenwolf Tribe weren’t truly the elites of Hearthtribe, they were on average quite talented, and their mobility was unmatched. Not only that, but all of them had the most PvP experience, and many of them had likely encountered and experienced this Battleground already.

Another fifty warriors appeared in motes of light, and Fhesiah smiled at two newcomers and their team. There were a few spriggons that they saw, but were mainly a team of avian beastkin and a few reptilian and mammalian beastkin using flight suits.

They also had two beast tamers with Highlands flying dinosaurs much like pterodactyls, but they had evolved to include some plant growth along their bodies, and their tails looked even more deadly. Jake imagined they could swoop down and club a target with ease, or slash into them with their deadly rear claws.

“Davonius, Avina! Good to see you both. Are you ready for this battleground?”

Davonius grinned. “We are, Goddess. It’s a great pleasure for us to join you in this great battle!”

“Blood...Berri!” The two spriggons shouted, and then suddenly a bunch of them gathered around her, even from the other teams. The many Ravenwolf warriors were shocked that Bloodberri now had auril and nethril hearts, but were ecstatic to hear two new songs join the beastkin’s choir.

The two were still working on their Auril and Nethril Mastery their way up to Sublimation, taking pills and eating plenty of auril beast meat to increase the density of energy within them. The nethril energy would be a larger challenge to grow, but Fhesiah had made some excellent pills and salves, that they could direct the energy through their bones and scales.

Nethril was still relatively difficult to come by on Highlands, but the levels were rising rapidly. New Nethril warriors were reborn every day, along with countless nethril beasts and other creatures.

The many warriors eventually filled the room, the approximately one thousand joining the Battleground event over the course of a few hours as their Refuges landed on The Burning Steps. The family met with the many clan heads, discussing strategy and plans for once the event came to an end as well. It was already a part of their working orders, but they had more specific updates to the Conquest in the last few days and what they had learned.

The investigation into the human trafficking and potential betrayals was going to be a significant priority. They would spread themselves out across numerous cities and villages, and before closing Rifts they would question the locals. Of course, the details learned from the interrogations might change their priorities.

The time before the event was ticking down, and soon, the battle would begin.