Bonded Summoner

Having activated her Valkyrie Champion ability, Ophelia once again tanked the boss. Jake received his miniature version of the ability, receiving wings of his own. Valora now neared Jake’s side, a little unhappy about the situation.

She didn’t enjoy that Ophelia became too big to ride her, limiting her ability to contribute to the battle. In her original form, she would be capable of using her own lightning attacks, and perhaps able to increase her own size if it benefitted her.

Jake patted Valora, even as he began moving his mana, preparing for his next spells. “Don’t worry, Valora. You’re going to be able to help protect Morwen and her priestesses soon. We appreciate your help.”

She gave a happy whinny, as Tanda sprinkled some seeds on her, triggering [Rampant Growth]. Vines grew out, allowing the priestesses to later hold on to her.

The armor which protected the boss was hardening by the intense cold being beamed into it, and Fhesiah’s Sun and Moon Hex was erased by the immense cold.

The energy kept filling its staff, the king’s health gradually decreasing as the energies were pushed inside.

Bedwyr retreated from the boss, as Morwen’s priestesses, along with Nadessa and her mothers, finally completed their group cast, releasing their spell: Deathly Hunt. Bedwyr landed next to her on his horse, as he raised his war scythe, saying a prayer to Arawn and filling himself with his faith energy.

An apparition of Arawn overlay itself over Bedwyr, the Lord of Annwyn appearing with his deathly hounds holding a massive war scythe. The hounds became a wave of black fog filled with death and congealed around the boss, before the scythe was swung downward.

The boss was struck by the scythe, slashing through and cutting deeply. This staggered the frost giant king, its armor not regrowing rapidly like it had done before. The health had decreased by over five percent in the one attack, and it appeared the frost instead filled the giant’s new wound.

Their powerful spell released, the priestesses and dryads happily climbed on Valora using the vines. What happened next would require a bit of mobility. While the boss mechanic was something that running on the ground would work, riding on Valora would allow them more freedom to cast spells.

The energy in the Frost Giant King’s staff finally peaked, and he roared as he pierced it into the ground next to him. The parties quickly spread themselves out around him in a circle, prepared for his attack. Creating a club made of frost, the king looked at Jake. He could feel his focus or hatred was toward him.

Ira confirmed this with its warning, so he took flight with the wings from Ophelia’s Valkyrie Champion ability along with Tanda. Jasmina went the other direction from them, her speed enough to keep her from being hit.

He was just in time. A beam of powerful frost was fired from the staff toward where Jake had been standing, striking the wall behind him. The beam started circling the room in a counter-clockwise pattern from the floor to well beyond the height where anyone could jump, chasing after Jake.

It moved slowly enough that the more physically focused war maidens could run as they shot their bows, or Yiming’s priestess wife could keep ahead of it. Still, it quickly became dangerous even for them as more golems fell from the ceiling.

Tanda and Bree helped protect them, while everyone else kept ahead of the beam and worked on killing the boss.

Fhesiah drew heavily on her bloodline flames, and breathed out flames of the dragon. Her Dao manifested, a dragon’s visage appearing and breathing flames, engulfing the boss with the fires of creation. She gathered some additional flames of creation from her spell into an orb, and began her Dance of the Moon.

Ophelia wailed on the boss with her large halberd, piercing deeply into its flesh with her large spike. Retribution’s power had built from allies taking damage from the boss’s icy explosions, so she was able to mix powerful [Vajra Strikes] with her swings.

Bloodberri’s axe and her tail weaved and sliced into the enemy, cutting deeply into its armor and restoring allies nearby. Holy light and dark emanated from her body, empowering herself and weakening the boss. Her immense body’s momentum made each strike count heavily.

Yiming and Longwei were both covered in their valorous energy, the former racing around the battlefield and cutting down golems. The latter had now reached the peak of his Tiger’s Fury, his glaive also doing respectable damage against the boss or nearby golems.

Dahlia and Timone’s resonance reached their peak, and they released their powerful golden attacks. The two beams of golden light pierced into the boss’s chest, shattering its armor and cutting into its flesh. While one beam clearly went through the boss’s heart, the magical frost seemed to fill in the gap, restoring this vital organ.

Fhesiah had shifted to her dance of the moon, and her flames of the kitsune had reached their peak as the moon raised high in her spiritual temple. Taking the flames of creation from her stored orb, she drifted the flames together, trying to merge them.

But the two flames refused to merge. They were opposites, and they clashed, exploded against, and consumed one another. Infusing them with miniscule amounts of Divine Energy from her stores didn’t appear to help, if anything, making the merging of them more chaotic.

Her goal was a flame like Hestia’s–a flame that encompassed all things. She wanted to bring herself closer to accomplishing this with her cultivator core, a core that embodied her path.

This was a crucially important stage for a cultivator, even more important than foundation establishment. If she created a core that didn’t embody her complete path, it would be even more challenging to fix or change it than poor foundations. Trying to steer her path in another direction after creating her core would be like trying to turn a massive ship.

The cultivator core was where she would eventually build her Nascent Soul, so the closer she could get it to her path, the better. When forming the core, it was important that the energies within found and maintained a balance, while still embodying her path.

To achieve this, she needed to somehow merge them now. Merging yin and yang flames lead to chaotic fire, which was something that could not find a delicate balance or harmony on their own–they could not be controlled. But Fhesiah had added more than just the flames to her path–her dao of dragon claw.

The two flames of her bloodline floated together, forming an orb of red and gold flames of creation, that of the dragon, and black and purple flames of ruin and destruction, that of the kitsune. The two flames refused to merge, fighting and sparking as they swirled around one another as she tried to control them.

Despite this, she condensed a significant amount of flame within the orb. Filling her claw with the pride and power of dragons, her right claw wrapped around and compressed the flames. She leaped at the boss holding it, her orb and claw arriving next to the giant’s unprotected back.

Manifesting her will, she combined the three daos together, hoping to spark and create something new. Allies had moved away from her attack, made aware of what was coming.

An explosion of golden flame shredded Fhesiah’s arm, exploding outward and rippling into the boss. Several lines of chaotic flames, a prismatic array of colors, flew through the air like a burst of multicolored confetti and streamers.

Jake and Ophelia were forced to shield allies with their Sacrificial Barriers. Only the shield’s resilience to fire enabled them to protect against this powerful attack, as flames tore easily into the boss’s thick ice armor.

Jake grimaced at how Fhesiah’s hand was now nearly completely missing, only bits of flesh and scales remaining. This was not the first instance she tried this. Carrying out her attack in their Refuge, she had attempted this numerous times. The hope was that the thrill of combat combined with the need for advancement would push her closer to finding this balance.

Heals from various allies layered on top of Fhesiah’s wounds, restoring her flesh and blood. As a cultivator, this would normally be impossible. However, thanks to the Framework, it assisted with restoring her to how she was before the attack, her body somewhat behaving like a game character.

Jake and Ophelia’s healing, auril from Timone’s healer mate, and even Mend Bone from Morwen’s priestesses, quickly restored her arm to how it was.

Dismayed at the result, Fhesiah continued fighting with a frown. Repurposing the remains of Jake and Ophelia’s shields, she hit the boss with the rest of the flames. She only took this risk because she knew there was some leeway here, the fight nearing the end. They could have waited to heal her without issue.

Fhesiah now healed, Jake joined Tanda by switching over to the state of the avenger. Tanda’s avenging flames were focused into her halberd as she shifted her bow into it, swinging her deathly scythe down just like Arawn’s Death Hunt.

Jake was empowered by the beastkin releasing their vengeance, compressing the flames down into his staff. He pulled as much mana, qi, and auril and a small amount of divine energy into it, releasing an empowered scorching ray attack.

Tanda’s golden attack nearly cleaved the boss in two, her scythe piercing the ground beneath the frost giant king. Its flesh was being knit back together by the frost armor, when Jake’s scorching ray pierced its chest. The boss’s health reached 0, the king falling to its knees, before falling to the ground.

A large chest spawned in the center of the room.

[Alliance Victory! You have 15 Minutes to Loot the boss and chest, before being moved to the Rest Area.]

Cheers of victory echoed out, the beastkin roaring with pride. Their first battle was won, and they had just two left to go. There were no deaths, despite the increased difficulty of the Prime Instance.

The beastkin scattered to loot the cores of the frost golems and frost giant’s bodies, and Bloodberri triggered Looting the large boss. A significant amount of mana was expended, filling her storage bracelet and leaving various materials on the ground to be looted. Of course, the biggest object of interest from the frost giant king was his magical stave.

Opening the chest, numerous tokens and a handful of items were contained within. They had received similar tokens from the other chests on the floor, but none were good enough for Jake’s party. This time, there were two [Mythic Tier 1 Upgrade Tokens].

In total, Jake’s party now had scaling Mythic equipment for 8 items, but Ophelia’s halberd and Bloodberri’s axe were already Tier 2 and wouldn’t require upgrading. There were other means for upgrading the equipment, but the tokens were definitely the simplest.

Nobody else had Mythic equipment, so these defaulted to Jake’s party. After all, they were not sellable or tradable outside the members of the raid.

Several accessories dropped, including a coveted Storage Ring. This was valuable, as it stored a household’s worth of objects, and required no skill to use. Additionally, it would be possible to change their equipment nearly on the fly. No more painstakingly removing their armor or putting it on to get ready.

There was a useful frost resistance bracelet, which would help those that teamed up with the emberborn. Many of the token’s purpose were to be exchanged at the end of the raid at any node, for Tier 2 equipment or treasure. Only a few items were possible to aid anyone during the raid itself, such as the frost resistance item.

The items were quickly divided up and tracked, on a need before greed basis. While there were some weapons and armor, few were much better than Jake and the rest of Hearthtribe had crafted–especially considering the requirements for auril usage and otherwise.

Morwen received a helpful pair of robes, that would activate a life-saving barrier once per day. Warrior Brotherhood made out well here, the shrine priestess and war maidens each receiving something of interest.

Their fifteen minutes up, they were transferred to a shared rest area. The area reminded Jake of a large barracks, with many cots laid out and various couches, chairs, and other furniture meant for meeting with others. The mana in the air was thick, a soothing feeling welling up inside them.

[Rest Period: 6 hours. Within the Rest Area, recuperation is enhanced.]

This was the reason that, aside from summoning the Divine with Divine Energy, the Battlegroup hadn’t held back on abilities like Ophelia’s Valkyrie Champion ability, or Bedwyr’s Faith Channeling, which manifested Arawn with all the priestesses’ efforts. It would be available for their next battle.

The room was massive, having thousands of cots inside. This was a shared Rest Area, made for all of the Alliance participating in the Dungeon Raid.

There was an exit portal, a place for the Battlegroup to leave and call it quits. Their loot rewards would be kept, but the impact on their Trial or class upgrades for Tier Up would be lesser. For Jake’s Raid Group, the portal was a shimmering black, indicating that they could not leave. They could only succeed, or die trying.

Jake conversed with Morwen, Yiming, and Timone. Everything went as they expected, their teamwork and planning were effective against the boss.

They went over splitting up the rest of the loot for the rest of the raid, before Jake and his lovers sat on or around the couches with coffee tables laid out. They switched to their more casual tribal clothing, to have a better rest. Their initial Raid only took a few hours, but they were filled with difficult combat.

“That was easy! We’ll have this raid beat in no time!” Berri swayed side to side, clapping in happiness from her place next to the couch.

Ophelia sat next to Jake, with Fhesiah on the other side. “The first stage wasn’t all that challenging, but that’s often how it is. The success rate of the first is high, to lure you into the next for further rewards.” The battle angel was confident, despite her words.

To Jake, Tanda looked a little down with her ears flat on her head where she sat on the other side of Fhesiah. “What’s the matter, Tanda?”

She looked over at Fhesiah worriedly. “It’s just, Fhesiah got hurt again, and… I just wish there was some way I could help…”

Fhesiah chuckled. “But you have helped, dear sister. Your help with finding resonance and harmony has surely helped me with getting better at my own control. Still, this energy must originate from me, or I will not be able to create a working template. I am to flavor my core matching my spirit, my path. If they cannot find balance on their own, it means when I make to form my core, everything will fall apart.”

Blood tapped her lips. “But how does your Hearth fall into this? This is not something a cultivator usually has, is it? Perhaps it, along with the new heavens, will aid you.”

Fhesiah looked thoughtful, but she smiled. “That’s right. I haven’t given up hope. I am not entirely alone in this, the energies that make up my Hearth contain the flames of our family. Even now, as I use my draconic flames and kitsune flames, other energies are seeping in from the hearth.”

She continued, “Originally I thought the lack of purity to be the problem, but separating the energies only worsened it. I think a bigger issue is that I am much further ahead of my understanding of my draconic flames over my dragon claw or kitsune flames. They were not a focus of my first life, as it were, so I have been playing catch up. I am much more unbalanced than the flames of our family.”

Jake frowned. “How can you make up for that? Certainly, you’ve focused a lot on the dragon claws in combat, but a few months is nothing compared to a century of study and merging with the heavens. Then, you gained a lot from Hestia and her flames.”

“That’s what I hoped to obtain from the Battleground as a prize: Dao Treasures. Exceedingly rare at our Tier, these items should briefly harmonize my spirit with the heavens, allowing me to take on the truths of the universe and make them my own.”

Ophelia was concerned. “But doesn’t that mean you need two of them, one for the claws and one for Bastet’s flames? What are the odds of that? Then you mentioned special treasures necessary for core formation, which sounded an awful lot like these Dao Treasures, but specialized for creating the foundation for your core.”

Jake hugged Fhesiah to himself tightly from the side. “I’m sure she’ll have a shot at one or two of the things she requires at the end of the Raid, but Bastet already aligned her for the Battleground itself. We’ll do whatever it takes to make sure she’s as ready before she goes as we can.”

Nods and murmurs of agreement came from all the girls, the family ready to aid Fhesiah with her path. She was not alone, both with her need to obtain rare treasures, but also to find the inspiration she required.

Another Battlegroup arrived in the center of the Rest Area, the large group of varied forces appearing in motes of light. Jake was unsurprised that it was Takoda’s–the Battlegroup a bit heavier focused on tamed auril beasts than other Raid groups.

The large auril beasts would make excellent tanks against the giants, while the rest of the Battlegroup whittled away at them safely.

Jake went over to meet with Takoda. “How did it go?”

Takoda smiled, as he pet Missy’s large snout and fed the beast an auril-rich plant with a laugh. “Missy and the other tamed beasts did wonderfully. They barely took on wounds facing the giants in the caverns, their auril healing them easily. When we got to the boss, there sure were a lot of them, but the dryads and fauns were able to restrict them for a time as our many warriors took them on.”

Jake nodded. “That’s great news. How large were the giants?”

Takoda frowned. “I’d say just a bit under five meters? The king was larger, but Missy here was able to withstand his blows well enough with her auril and the clergy’s buffs, at least until he powered up at the end. She needed a lot of healing then–same with the rest of us. Luckily, we auril heroes could heal ourselves from the waves of cutting ice.” He smiled with pride.

Jake could see that the giants being around thirty percent smaller or less massive could make a significant difference in their strength, and thus the difficulty of the encounter. Odds were, their resilience, their ability to cast magic, and their strength, were all decreased, making them easier for the Battlegroup to manage.

Then, their raid groups would have fifty actual members, compared to Jake’s thirty. It would be easier for them to assign several people to each giant at the end encounter, to keep them busy as they focused them down with ranged attackers.

More groups began to arrive, their outcomes good. Even Brock’s Raid group filled with the youngest and least experienced warriors, and even a few spriggons around level 20, were fully successful with no deaths. Jake learned that their giants could hardly be called that, being only a little over four meters tall.

When a reptile beastkin like Jarrix could grow to match their large size, they didn’t feel all that difficult to deal with. With proper equipment, coordination, and a well-rounded party, Jake thought the success rate was high.

Only a few of the pick-up groups filled with a majority of Adventurers from outside Highlands were backing down at this stage, and Jake was happy to see them following the rules laid out. There were very few that were reported to have failed, Valtor having an accounting of those that were joining.

The second Challenge should be more difficult than the first, leading to an increased likelihood of deaths. But Hearthtribe was confident they would defeat this challenge just like the first.