Bonded Summoner

The two demons stood near the middle of the room, and the Battlegroup was able to gather in front of each of the portals. They would take the first few orbs before moving to their designated places, to begin their assault on the boss.

Ophelia could just barely reach the boss in the center of the arena from her portal. She prepared her spell, gathering her righteous lightning.

Berri shouted her battle cry, “Let’s do this! We’ll kill this guy, and make babies!” Hitting a baseball, Berri and Ophelia launched their attacks at the same moment.

Each boss was struck by their respective attacks, and ran toward their attacker. Orbs began to spill out each portal, several per second, with a wide spread. The portals were five meters high and wide, making it nearly impossible to block the entire thing to prevent all orbs.

Standing close to the portal, several touched Ophelia before the hulking boss arrived. Her body was slightly enhanced by the odd life energy, but it felt empty. It would really only enhance her attacks, or attune them for harming the boss.

Bloodberri happily absorbed nearly a dozen death orbs before the life boss arrived, thanks to covering nearly the entire portal. But they moved their tail after the boss arrived, allowing some orbs to reach their allies.

Deflecting the large demon's swing of its greatsword, Bloodberri immediately activated [Maul of Hestia-Echidna]. Howling, the maul slammed into the demon and sent out a deathly-tinged explosion of holy light and dark, debuffing and harming the life boss.

The maul then morphed into an axe as she began her dance, light and dark energy emanating from her as she took the boss’s primary attention.

Meanwhile, Ophelia got her first blows into the death boss, the allies waiting as she built the boss’s aggression toward her. Boss battles with the Framework did have this aspect that was considered, but the enemy would often lash out at targets that were available nearby. It was important any melee attacker was capable of taking a hit.

While they were doing that, Jake did his tests. He placed a hearth in his shield, and found that he could collect orbs for himself using it. When his hearth flames were placed there, it was like it was an extension of himself. He would have to be careful, but he could potentially take advantage of this for himself.

Ophelia’s was different, and only appeared to be able to gather an orb while it was attached to her arm or floating in her immediate vicinity, like it did without her hearth placed in it. Using this, Jake could gather many more orbs when he was ready to make his own attack.

He had read it in the scripts before, but the Garuda and Bree were both able to collect orbs on their own, and were not influenced by Jake’s stacks. If Bree was a normal mana construct, she would be unable to–it appeared that in some way, the Framework considered her different than all the other beasts and humanoids he could summon.

Later, demons of various types would spawn. These would be useful for Morwen and her priestesses to create undead with, but the scripts detailed that they would be unable to collect orbs. For that reason, they would not be worthwhile mana expenditures.

The melee now joined the attack, surrounding the boss and angling their polearms. The boss was heavily focused on their respective tanks, Ophelia countering with her halberd and shield. The demon’s attacks were vicious, sending waves of cutting deathly energy with each swing of its greatsword.

Ophelia had more or less mastered cladding her armor and weapon with mana, and filling her body with auril to strengthen it. The runes within her armor lit up as they were filled, and a cycle was accomplished where the mana empowerment of the armor was refilled between Tanda’s heart beats.

This made her particularly sturdy, her defenses high against both physical and magical attacks. Despite the demon’s energy crashing into her, she took little damage with each passing moment. A rejuvenation spell which healed over time arrived from Nadessa’s dryad mothers, the same being added to Bloodberri to keep them healthy throughout the fight.

The demon’s tails swung and tried smacking into the surrounding melee, creating difficulty in harming the demons from behind.

Bloodberri’s swaying back and forth while releasing her light and dark energies kept the boss from bringing forth its blade with significant leverage. Blood also used telekinesis and her tail to throw off the boss monster’s timing, while Berri used the auril and holy light-enhanced strength to counter and cut deeply into the enemy with her morphed axe.

The life energy cut into her as the demon swung its weapon, but her powerful constitution and control over the mana and auril energies too kept her from taking significant damage.

The basketball-sized orbs moved about the room a little faster than an easy pass, and it appeared it was entirely possible for the more physically capable targets to dodge them. Despite their group gathering near the portal, a few of the orbs had gotten away from them.

Those now bounced around the room. They appeared to gravitate to the ground somewhat to hit someone at standing height, but some were bouncing where they may hit a flyer in the air.

Having gathered a number of the orbs, the numerous life or death casters were now filled with the special energies. They began their march out to the center, and Jake set down his Mana Font.

The large metal box was the maximum size the raid would allow for an object, resembling a smaller fridge. Hitting the release button, the four walls cascaded downward, unfolding like complex origami. The metal walls were thin like cardboard in five layers in total, flipping as they unfolded almost like a brochure to reach nearly ten meters in length in each direction.

The final stack unfolded again in each direction at the final distance, creating something close to a circle. The tile-like objects had Jake’s runes and scripts contained within, and a pedestal stood at the center once again.

This time, however, Jake had created a powerful hearth to be what drew the energies inside. The flame lit up as Jake activated it, and it was as if he created a safe haven or home. The mana font felt special even as he stood inside it.

Knowing he’d need to share it with various casters, this version was definitely the Raid edition. It only drew in mana and no other special energies from the large room, condensing it and allowing casters to use it. Immediately, the hearth burned to life, the runes and scripts lighting up on the tiles on the ground.

The mana density inside increased, and the two groups spread out near the outside, taking their positions.

Aisling chuckled. “This is quite the tool, clan son. I will protect you and these little ladies from the black orbs.”

“I’m counting on you, clan mother.”

Aisling scoffed. “I’m too young for you to call me mother. That’s clan sister to you!”

Jake’s mind bent at that logic–she called him clan son first!

Having moved away from the second set of portals, the number of orbs scattered about the arena was becoming a little scary. It appeared to be random, but at a half-dozen per second per portal, they shot out at different angles as they then bounced around the round, reflecting off of nearby walls.

But Fhesiah, Tanda, Rookard and Aisling were focused on their jobs. Fhesiah gathered her two sets of flames as she danced, having already gathered the Sun and Moon Hex onto the life demon. She moved with both grace and speed, weaving about as she avoided any green orbs, but collected the black orbs headed toward their quadrant.

Tanda flew around with her bow, launching attacks at higher angles to avoid hitting allies. Her burst damage focus worked well here, to charge her powerful arrows as she flew around, collecting the incoming orbs in between shots.

Nearly a minute had passed, and they had gotten the two demon's shared health pool only a little over a sliver down. This was going to be a long battle, but the casters were only beginning to set up their magical circles for casting offensive abilities.

As the scripts formed on the ground for Morwen’s priestesses and Nadessa’s mothers, Jake could tell that they were tinged with this same life or death energy from the orbs. It would influence their attacks, and so they couldn’t be mixed into a singular magic circle.

Thankfully, this only influenced their offensive attacks on the boss. The healers did not have to restrict themselves on whom they healed, the druids and maidens able to focus on the entire raid.

Jake’s Aura of Heavenly Flames encompassed the entire raid, and was also unaffected by the mechanic. The explosions on attacks and defense were enhanced by the energy the person attacking or defending was using.

When the clock struck a minute of time passed, creatures began to spawn throughout the arena. Motes of light gathered, almost like Jake was summoning a creature, giving people a bit of time to move out of the way.

Six demons appeared, three of each color. They were scattered across the circular arena, nearly on the outside of it, in what appeared to be set locations. Knowing the gist from the scripts, Jake sent out his intentions to his wives, and also the beastkin with his aura.

Dahlia, the Garuda and Bree each broke off the melee and took on the different death targets, while Bedwyr, Yiming and Timone worked to take on the life targets. Their enhanced mobility allowed them to move across the battlefield rapidly, meeting these spawned demons in melee.

All ranged attackers focused on the new targets, but only after the melee attackers took their attention. The first spawn of demons was of the first type, that would siphon matching stacks from the Battlegroup, and empower themselves.

It was important to draw them away from the matching casters and other melee, or it would not only weaken them significantly, but they could become powerful enough to start killing people rapidly.

Jake took on the state of the Sage, empowering his offense and control with his hearth flames. Changing his rune prism configuration on his staff, he cast powerful spells one after another against the deathly enemies.

He used Berri’s holy light mana to cast an empowered holy smite. Holy energy empowered by his hearth flames struck from above almost like lightning, slamming powerfully into Bree’s creature.

Using the molded lance on her head, she stabbed and parried into the demon, shoving with her large body and piercing it with her vines. Spewing and shooting flames from both her mouth and her vines, she had done significant work toward killing the creature on her own.

Jake’s prisms switched once more, then he gathered Blood’s holy dark mana and cast a powerful runic shadow bolt spell. The shadows coalesced into a large black beach ball, before being shot at the enemy as if fired from a cannon.

The large shadow bolt struck and exploded, shredding flesh off the creature. Combined with the other ranged attacks, this creature went down not long after.

He moved on to the next, gathering Ophelia’s lightning mana within his hearth. Once again, he created an empowered Tier 1 spell that bordered Tier 2, shooting it off.

The powerful bolt of magic struck Dahlia’s target, who was committed to her hunt. Pushing her strength with Cyclic Resonance as the golden energy built slowly, she slashed and thrust with her spear, twirling and twisting as she manifested bites of wolves filled with light.

Empowered by many life orbs, chunks of the creature were quickly removed as it fought back with its axe.

Timone too had begun his resonance, and he was being aided by Morwen’s priestesses. They all focused their deathly attacks, sending floating skulls and bolts of ice filled with the power of death against the smaller life demon. Swirls of ravens protected him, attacking and defending at the same time as he slashed and stabbed with his halberd.

They moved down the line, aiding Yiming and then Bedwyr in killing their melee demons.

Drawing mana from the font, Jake continuously cast spells until the deathly creatures were killed. Jake was like a magic artillery, rapidly casting empowered spells that pushed the boundaries of what a Tier 1 caster should be able to accomplish.

Morwen’s people were effective with their script magic, but they would still take more than five times the amount of time to cast a spell. Jake did nearly twice the work as the four of them combined, and he was pacing himself to maintain his mana over a long period. The fight was definitely focused on endurance, and Jake was specialized in this.

This allowed him to focus his attention back to the boss, which had now lost nearly ten percent of its shared health. Despite the loss of attention from the ranged attackers, the speed of the twins losing their health was only increasing.

The melee attackers were reaching near their maximum stacks on their orb collection, enabling them to hit much harder and deal more damage. The casters near the middle would only end up with a few orbs occasionally, as the orbs randomly arrived.

Aisling and Rookard were moving rapidly, running around the battlefield and preventing any errant orbs from arriving and harming them.

Bloodberri worked to especially capitalize on the damage bonus, becoming the first person to reach maximum stacks.

Just before she did, Jake switched to the state of the Guardian, increasing his buffing capability. He once again gathered his mana to cast Giant’s Growth, followed by Einherjar on her.

The life demon’s flesh was already being weakened by Fhesiah, the Moon Hex and her withering kitsune flames gathering on it. Blood had also cast her Weakness spell and Absorb Strength, weakening the boss and strengthening herself.

Having grown to be almost the size of the boss, each swing of Bloodberri’s now massive axe cut deeply into the boss monster. Each attack of theirs was now empowered by immense strength and momentum, but also the power of death.

Each swing took off visible chunks of the twin demon’s health, as she blocked the demon with her giant tail or clever movements. Blood and Berri each released their spells as well, using the same holy smite and shadow bolt spells Jake had cast. He had learned the spells using their mana from their hard work, after all, the unique mana requiring much testing to determine which spells were possible.

The many other warriors were doing excellent work, even defending from the demon’s tails. Darris protected his allies with his water and shield, and Drysander blocked attacks with his vines. Others were able to focus their special energies as they dashed in and out of the melee, making best use of their resources to make powerful blows.

Meanwhile, they were mindful of the orbs bouncing around the battlefield. They spread themselves around the boss well, as it focused on the designated tank. Waves of life or death energy also cascaded around the boss periodically, cutting into the melee attackers periodically. But they defended with their auril or Valor, keeping the damage low and enabling the druids or maidens to keep up with healing.

They fought yet another round of the same demons spawning. This time, Jake had to use his force push ability to send one flying away as it had spawned close, before it could absorb the nearby life orbs from his allies.

Because of that, Bree easily pierced through the downed monster with glee, ripping and tearing into its flesh with her vines. Spewing flames from her mouth, Jake thought he saw her shifting in appearance. He moved on to aid the other allies with theirs.

They continued this cycle for a time, slowly whittling away at the boss. The Battlegroup got used to observing the battlefield, and maintaining their roles. They had practiced in the Life Haven arena similar boss battles, and thanks to this, moved like a well-oiled machine.

The other instances should be similar in this, that they had practiced significantly for the boss battle. While this battle was complicated, the Alliance and Hearthtribe were prepared thanks to using the Arena’s constructs.

As the twin demon’s health reached 80%, the fight moved into the next phase. New demons spawned mixed with the others, and these were different. They drew in orbs that matched them, and if they received enough of them, they would cast heals on the boss.

These were clearly weaker to Jake, as they were smaller and holding staves. These needed to be targeted immediately, as when they healed, they also transferred one stack to the boss. If they weren’t interrupted, the encounter would become nearly impossible to find victory.

Fhesiah and Tanda joined Rookard and Jake, along with all other ranged attackers, in focusing on these targets first. They found that this was easy to deal with thanks to their high damage output, the healing demon’s having low health.

The Battlegroup had a large amount of burst damage, able to slay the monsters just as quickly as they spawned. There were still only six demons spawning, and the healing demons were even easier to defeat. Thanks to this, they kept whittling away at the twin demon’s health.

When Ophelia hit the maximum stacks, she too did her best to capitalize on her advantage. Jake used the same Giant’s Growth on Ophelia along with Einherjar, and she went all out. Pushing Ride of the Valkyries to its limits, she cycled her auril and mana to send fast and powerful thrusts and slashes using her halberd.

Allies had taken significant damage throughout the course of the fight, empowering her weapon to contain a powerful vajrafire blade. Flames and lightning coursed through her attacks, the magics empowered by the life energy blitzing through the boss monster.

Jake did his best to manage his resources, using the mana font to keep his mana levels high. His powerful Divine Hearth Core and his bonds drew in energy at a blistering pace, allowing him to control the battlefield.

Thanks to his efforts, the many Battlegroup casters could do the same, conserving their mana for the final phases of the battle.

As they brought the boss down below fifty percent, something started to shift.

The air suddenly became heavy, a shiver running down Jake’s spine. A diabolical tension filled the room, a malevolent intent bearing down on them. Compared to his wives, Jake felt the intent especially on him.

Ira felt this change too, and Jake could feel Bree’s eyes narrowed at this. Valora whinnied next to Jake in concern, sensing something had changed. The Garuda felt something was wrong, its feathers ruffling as it fought. Most of the Battlegroup didn’t appear to notice, continuing with their fight as if nothing were amiss.

Aisling looked around the room with a confused look, her prophetic energy going haywire. Through Tanda, Jake knew that Timone and Dahlia’s hearts stirred, beating with conviction as their songs shifted. Wicked was present, and it must be punished.

Morwen and Bedwyr frowned and too looked around, likely feeling the malicious intent weighing against their faith.

Jake could feel that Tartarus especially wanted him dead, for him to fail and be consumed. That to get just a fraction of his soul, it would pay a terrible price. It had created two Greater Rifts and sent an Enforcer to try to take him and his family down, but it had failed.

It only had this last chance here, to stop Jake and Hearthtribe from ascending and becoming a true threat.

The orbs within the room almost seemed to stir. Until now, they spawned out of the portals in a completely random fashion. But now, the innocuous creation of them from the portals sent them at odd angles, as if directing them as planned for a horrible purpose.

The Hart Clan stood at the ready, their hearths beating as one. Jake and his wives were all filled with purpose and conviction, their emotional connection strengthening and reinforcing each other through their hearths. Together, they would meet the challenge of Tartarus, protecting their new home.

Fighting alongside their allies, they would crush their enemy and ascend above it.