Bonded Summoner

The elite in Tanda’s lane showed up with the wave of automatons. Their large party had already backed away from the attacking tower to take them on, when they spotted its approach in the distance.

It zipped through the air at impressive speeds, its agility as it moved about the air surprising. It was a humanoid hornet, with a floating green gem following it. As the ranks of automatons met the auril heroes, it sent a cyclone of wind at Seamus, who was closest to the edge of the formation.

Jasmina’s song echoed out as Seamus shielded himself with his shimmering yellow auril. The attack wasn’t overly powerful, and the shield held, but it was reminiscent of a weaker version of the Garuda’s cyclonic strike attack.

Tanda and Rookard both attempted to snipe the creature out of the sky, but its agility and speed was impressive, dodging their shots with ease. It changed direction on a dime, and was even more agile than Ophelia when using her [Ride of the Valkyries] by herself.

Its top speed was seemingly much less, but short of lightning or a beam of light, it was easy to imagine it being next to impossible for them to strike with their bows.

The creature was mostly just annoying, dipping in and out of range as the automatons fought the auril heroes. Its strange gem and itself drew in air and wind for its very attacks, and it was as if it could continue fighting forever.

Seamus attempted to blast it with his sunlight beam, but it simply blocked the beam with a shield of wind, as it strafed away from his attack. Bedwyr chased after it on his mount, but he just got countered by cutting winds, and even a shot of the hornet’s stinger like a ranged attack. This attack was shorter range than the creature usually kept, and another thing to look out for.

Still, they defeated the wave of monsters, and pushed forward on the tower with their large entourage. Bree would take the blows of the tower once again, her able to quickly replenish her vine shield and take the blows with her hearty body.

The auril running through her was of a substantial quality and quantity when enhanced by Jasmina’s song, and made her capable of taking the attacks safely.

The auril heroes, Bedrywr and Morwen, all did their best to attack the tower while also discouraging the hornet’s harassment. Beams of light from Seamus, splashes of water from Darris, and a cold aura coming from Bedwyr and Morwen kept the creature somewhat at bay.

It shot tornados and odd wind bullets at the Battlegroup. Auril barriers flickered into place, or bones from Morwen’s Bone Shields protected the various members.

Despite its harassment, Tanda and the auril heroes were able to make extreme headway on the tower itself. Her ballista bolt-like arrows pierced heavily into the tower, packing quite the punch when combined with her auril.

They planned for taking out the creature, as it looked like it would require intense coordination to catch it.

Meanwhile, Jake’s party was making decent headway against their tower. Drysander’s wives focused on repairing his vines as he blocked the tower’s shots and attacked with his tree club, and Timone, Dahlia, Jake and Ophelia added their powerful blows as well.

Jake’s hearthblade especially did a fair amount of work, each swing of his weapon taking off a noticeable chunk of the tower’s health. Having already defeated the elites in the left lane, Fhesiah and Bloodberri too wailed on their tower with Longwei and Yiming.

It was when the next wave of enemies was in view that Aisling’s eyes shifted to all white. “Look out, Drysander!”

Ira cried out in alarm, finally detecting the enemy. Jake hastily gathered his hearth flames around Drysander using [Sacrificial Barrier] once more, as a massive creature erupted from the ground, smashing into him.

It looked like a giant, ugly man covered in stone armor, some sort of earthen hill troll wielding a stone club. As the shield shattered, the immense momentum behind its odd uppercut from the ground was slowed drastically.

Still, its stone club slammed into Drysander, sending him and his dryads tumbling through the air. They were strapped into his boughs, however, so they had no issues continuing with their regrowth of his vines.

Jake was going to lay into the creature further, but Ira’s alarm was not from this monster. It was from another, which had still not presented itself. It was the reason Ira couldn’t warn them sooner.

Timone’s ravens rapidly began hitting the stone troll, which caused the tower to switch over to him, before his mates joined him attacking the stone troll with their bows.

Attacking these elites grabbed the ire of the tower over the first that entered its range, and Timone and Dahlia were ready with their auril. Timone activated his Templar skill, which granted a black barrier, as he dived in to take on the troll with his mate.

Dahlia’s spear filled with light then met the troll’s club, and Jake prepared his hearth flames, compressing them as Timone’s own charge pierced into the troll’s stone-like leg with his spear.

Ophelia’s hearth guardian pierced the troll with its spear as well, while Drysander recovered and began stomping toward the enemy with his tree club. The next wave of automatons arrived and swarmed the party, Ophelia releasing a [Vajrafire Consecration] and taking them on with the help of Valora.

Righteous flames and lightning covered the ten melee automatons and the troll, and even washed over and damaged the tower from Jake’s echo released. As if waiting for this singular moment, a creature from the void appeared, swinging at Drysander’s boughs.

It was a strange creature, that almost looked like the umbral envoy of Jake’s bloodline. However, this was a true Tier 3 creature, brought down to this one. Like a living shadow or gas, this creature was in a vague shape of a humanoid.

Jake immediately released his runic shackles from his hearth bubbles for the runes to wrap around the void monster, but they only seemed to inhibit the creature slightly.

A little fear was coming from his void familiar, but also determination for taking on this superior foe. Ira was filled with purpose, at wanting to help Jake defeat this enemy.

The void creature had a metallic sheen in some parts from what looked like armor, wearing bracers with large wicked blades on them. The monster laughed horrifically as it sliced at Nadessa, but despite looking like an almost defenseless little girl, she was anything but that.

A blast of Lugh’s lightning slammed into the living shadow’s arm blade even as vines grew to protect Drysander’s daughter, and Drysander managed to meet the creature’s other arm blade with his tree maul. Vines whipped around him to latch on to the monster, but it teleported behind him and swung after one of Nadessa’s mothers.

The hearth guardian arrived with its shield to block, and Ira roared as it gathered its void energy and wrapped it around the enemy. The creature froze for a brief instant, and that was all Jake needed. Jake’s [Scorching Ray] blazed through the creature, the divine flames of his hearth able to pierce through and harm even this unique monster’s shadowy flesh.

The living shadows burned away somewhat as the creature screamed, but it shoved away Ira’s restrictions and doused much of the flames, before teleporting toward Jake and Ira. It covered itself in an odd blue magical barrier, as it slashed at Jake.

But Jake was not an easy target as well. Ophelia was still focused on taking down the automatons, but she had confidence in him taking on this enemy.

He blocked its sharp blade with his shield, and countered with powerful underhanded thrusts of his Champion’s spear staff. The creature dodged like slippery shadows, moving its body slightly, but his hearthblade’s flames left small cuts on the creature’s shadowy body.

Jake simultaneously built up more runic shackles in his runic bubbles, and waited for Ira as he took deep breaths. He drew in energy from the void, and this appeared to disrupt the creature’s hold on reality even further.

Ira had sensed the nature of the magical shield–it would consume whatever spell landed on it as fuel, empowering itself. Ira was about to roar and remove the shield with Jake’s void energy, when one of Nadessa’s mothers cast entangling vines on it.

The energy from the spell was instead absorbed by the shield as it dissipated, and the creature laughed as it sped up significantly. Its swings came rapidly, and Jake had difficulty blocking and parrying its blade as he retreated.

Each block shoved his shield into his body, bruising him and his bones, or threatened to knock the spear out of his hand. But its barrier was gone, so he released his runic shackles spell.

He lined up another, as the creature only barely slowed down as the glowing runes wrapped around it. Its strange body was only lightly inhibited by them, and Jake received a cut on his shield shoulder in return for gashing the creature on its body with his spear.

It became angry, its eyes turning red and filled with rage. The creature grew, and each swing knocked Jake back even further despite his inertia-dampening shield. Only his increased sturdiness and constitution from his hearth bonds, and his recent bloodline tempering, kept him from being significantly injured as the creature continued its murderous assault.

The stone troll roared, and a pillar of stone rose from the ground, separating the troll from Timone and Dahlia.

The pillar emanated a slowing effect, which didn’t appear to affect the troll at all as it leaped toward Jake. It was covered in wounds from Timone’s fiery ravens burning into its flesh, Dahlia’s spears of light, and the many arrows from his clan mates, but the troll was sturdy and able to take significant punishment.

However, Ophelia wasn’t going to allow it to crush her chosen, so she used [Intervene] on Jake.

The automatons were only half destroyed at this point, but she blazed toward Jake in a near beam of light and speared the troll in its midsection in midair, riding Valora.

The troll was large and heavy, but Ophelia and Valora’s momentum from traveling so fast was more than enough to knock the creature widely off course.

Gathering the flames of his hearth, Jake used Hearth Control to send out a wave of flames in the shape of a barrier at the void monster.

The angry void creature teleported behind Jake to swing at his unprotected back, so he shifted the barrier into spears of flames and shot them at his enemy’s new location. Jake was ready for its teleport and shifted his body to interpose his shield to block the creature’s blade, as his spears made of hearth flames pierced the enemy deeply as it roared in anger.

Even as he was controlling the hearth flames, he added another set of runic shackles onto the void creature. The piercing flames consumed the shadows around the monster, and combined with the shackles gathering around it, it shrunk and finally slowed somewhat.

Deflecting the creature’s attack, Jake managed to stab past the creature’s arm blades and reach its chest with his hearthblade. The monster shook and tried to teleport away in fear, but Ira roared and held it in place, commanding its own void energy along with Jake’s.

His flaming blade blazed in intensity as it pierced further, but the monster’s arm seemed to twist and extend as it lashed out in an overhead arc and pierced into Jake’s shield shoulder.

The cut didn’t go too deep thanks to Ophelia’s Eternal Oath ability, since the wound was split between her, but the damage still made it a challenge for Jake to raise his shield. Instead, he pushed his hearth flames harder, shoving into the creature’s core and killing it.

Jake stumbled forward as the creature’s odd armor fell to the ground and disappeared into motes of light.

The troll lashed out at Ophelia with its massive club, knocking her back, but glowed green and spun at Jake. Its large stone club loomed over him, but Drysander’s vines wrapped around the troll’s arm, and he blocked the attack with his tree club. More vines grew around the troll from his dryad wives, and Nadessa sent out another bolt of lightning.

Timone and his many ravens caught up to and pierced into the restricted troll, as it fought its bindings. Ophelia’s Hearth Guardian sent the healing flames of renewal into Jake, revitalizing the damage done to his arm as she stabbed and slashed into the troll from behind.

A fierce leap from Dahlia pierced deeply into the troll’s skull, finally causing the creature to collapse in a heap. As Timone’s deathly ravens continued to consume its flesh, it disbursed into motes of light a moment later.

The tower still fired at Timone, but he built up ravens and Jake’s Aura of Heavenly Flames aided in blocking the tower’s shots. The party now laid into the tower, knowing that elites could no longer show up. Only the hornet was left alive, and alone, it was little more than a nuisance.

Jake had taken some wounds, but the main difficulty in dealing with the enemy was the surprise attack, not knowing what they were capable of. Now that they knew what they were dealing with, even if the creatures grew a little stronger, the next fights would be much easier for them to manage.

The party moved to take on the tower, finishing off the wave of automatons. Recharging the Hearth Guardian, it helped Timone take the blows of the tower. It only took a little over a minute of Timone taking the orb-like shots of the tower, before the tower was destroyed.

Bloodberri and Fhesiah’s tower fell only a moment before, and as Tanda’s got low, they moved in on their plan to kill the hornet.

Vesuvius had grown to his maximum height, becoming nearly five meters tall, and nearly as wide. Holding out his glaive, Roxo jumped onto it.

As Vesuvius swung his glaive, Roxo leaped and flipped, holding his swords. Spinning vertically like a top, his red blades sent waves of slashing energy as he flew at the hornet.

The monster countered with a tornado from its gem and made to move away, but Seamus fired a beam of light, and Rookard sent several auril-enhanced shots with his bow, his wolves flying through the air at the enemy.

Seamus’s beam seared the hornet’s carapace, and even managed to clip one of the four wings, since its ability to defend itself was busy with stopping the flying raptor.

It managed to dodge Rookard’s shots, but he kept the creature from changing its course overly much as it evaded his spread-out attacks. Tanda managed to clip another of its wings and damage much of its torso with a bite of the wolf, and it moved to a full retreat. Roxo sailed harmlessly to the ground, the creature having already dodged his attack.

The creature was slower now, and Tanda chased after it, trying to cut off its retreat.

The tower was destroyed not long after. A new path had opened up between the first and second towers, connecting the lanes and allowing movement for the elite monsters.

From what Jake could tell, this path was not overly useful for the enemy–as long as the Alliance kept up its assault and didn’t retreat. If they retreated from a lane to regroup, the elites could gather–something this hornet was trying to do right now.

Tanda’s efforts forced it down the new path, the creature only barely being able to deflect and dodge her attacks.

Ophelia smiled, then activated her [Ride of the Valkyries]. Valora’s wings grew out, as she blazed forward and headed to the other side of the forest opening, between the towers.

She was just in time. The hornet was heading their way, likely to try to join the other elites when they respawned, as well as heal from the damage it took.

Seeing a powerful enemy coming, its gem moved in front of it and created a barrier. Ophelia’s vajrafire lightning slammed into the turbulent winds from the gem, and the hornet took some evasive movements.

Ophelia then pushed her effect even further by increasing the lightning firing from her core, as Valora charged closer to the hornet and the lightning pierced toward the hornet.

Her halberd at the ready, she unleashed a [Vajra Strike] at the shield of wind. Lightning directly struck and stunned the monster through it, allowing Ophelia to then pierce into the creature, her hunt easily completed.

The path opened, and Jake called for a changing of the lanes. Drysander and the dryads would switch with Morwen and Bedwyr’s team in the middle lane. Nadessa’s lightning combined with Seamus’s light and Drysander’s vines should make dealing with the hornet even easier.

Jake was a bit worried about Morwen and her priestesses against the void creature, but Ophelia would make the creature work for it. Then, Tanda switched with Fhesiah to face off against the artillery focused foes.

He used Call Summon to move Fhesiah to the middle, allowing them to get to the other lanes quickly. The elites would respawn every few minutes, just enough time for them to make a bit of progress on the second ring of towers.

When the elites came this time, they would be ready for them.