Two things instantly became clear. The fight in the physical realm was 100% going his way on both the assault and his defense, while the reverse was true in the alternate dimension. The second was that this battle would be over one way or another far quicker than either side likely expected. Like the intermediate battles two armies were colliding, but it was clear that his forces and his opponents lacked any sort of finesse to maintain lines. It was basically a full on chaotic brawl shifting as one side was beaten back.
The A tiers from both sides joined at roughly the same time. Peter could only watch as Delilah rode in holding the mane of white out the pure white furred tiger. They were in the alternate dimension and barely had a foothold established with the weaker rift rollers and white out tiger C tiers. White out sprinted forward alongside the rift roller, before immediately rearing back on its hind paws to slam its front paws down on a B tier that it soon ripped apart. Rift roller steamed right through a cluster of B and C tier enemies creating more space, before he collided with one of three giant spectorial A tiers.
The ghost core had a good 5 of these Dimensional A tier units, most likely having used a replicator card to copy the unit. The rift roller and white out with Delilah on its back were the first to engage the ones on this side. Peter could only make out 2 more as a part of Zorn’s assault force.
Delilah fought off the chains that worked to wrap around her and her mount with her knives as her supporting D tier elves poured into the realm with even more C tier rift rollers and white tigers.
Seconds later a ceaseless wave of dark wood arrows poured into the undead ranks. Peter would have liked to see the undead in the alternate dimension start to be pushed back, but the arrows effect was not as pronounced as he had hoped. The C tiers were clearly harmed with each hit, and even the B tiers shrunk under the weathering fire. In the end the arrows were just standard non enchanted projectiles made from tier 2 dark wood saplings, so it still took quite a few hits before even a C tier went down. The B tiers could tank ten times more. For the 3 A tiers the arrows were little more than an annoyance.
In the physical realm the naked orangutan absolutely dominated the A tier opponent that had stepped up to meet it with force slams strong enough to send out shockwaves. Its opponent, a large 4 armed mummy tried to stop or delay the onslaught with a moving sand cloud, but it was a bad match up. Sand was being blasted away in large amounts with each impact. Once it was gone, the naked orangutan could not be stopped despite the arm disparity between the two. Two other A tier’s were pushed back by the pyro flinger with the aid of all its C tier one offs supporting him. The flame attacks were dominating the field of battle.
The only concerning point was Delilah struggling to stay alive against chains that were whipping in and around her mount white out. She did what she could to keep the tiger safe but she could only guard a third of the tigers back due to its size. The tiger was ripping furrows with its claws, but the ghost in what was basically its home turf withstood the attacks resiliently.
The other A tier rift roller was also struggling trying to hold off two despite being a giant 20 feet tall. As for the support, hundreds of smaller C tier rift rollers and tigers were down. The dark elves had not taken too many losses yet, but it was clear as the other defenders went down they would soon become entangled in the melee. Then they would drop like flies, and Delilah and the A tiers would lose the supporting fire that might just be keeping them alive.
The alternate dimension in their home dungeon was under just as much pressure. The defenders had already gotten pushed out of the alternate dimension on the first floor. They were resetting up on the second floor, but it was clear they would not hold. His physical forces had been doing just fine, but had steadily fallen back due to ghosts popping up among their ranks. They were currently holding the door to the second floor since the alternate dimension units would have to reappear in the physical realm until they crossed over, but the numbers of units that could fight in the small area were not enough to hold off everything despite being well suited at fighting the undead.
Peter thought perhaps he might have picked his opponent poorly, but then his assault force was doing just fine the ghosts were performing sneak attacks admist their ranks, but their physical comrades were so overwhelmed there were plenty of apes awaiting the appearance of a spatial rift popping up behind their ranks, and thanks to his own alternate dimension forces, the stronger ghosts that could flash over much quicker could not be spared. The surviving dragonfly units from last year were far too fast to be caught and were quickly mapping out the path for the rampaging apes to follow.
The fast pace push was the only thing keeping Delilah and white out Tiger alive. Nearly half of the forces opposing her including one of the A tiers had retreated early on to attempt to stop the apes. Delilah and white out were bloodied and losing despite fighting only one A tier together. Rift roller was faring even worse, half his body was already mangled as the A tier crushed it slowly in on itself.
As their support shrank back it became clear that they were not even close to a match for the ghost A tiers, and it was too late to escape. White out was wrapped up by at least 2 or 3 chains with more whipping against him causing spacial tears that cut in deeply. Delilah was bleeding from her head, and had one arm hung limply. Peter could only watch, feeling his heart dropping. Only an hour and a half ago she had been vocalizing a near constant tirade of mocking insults against Elyra and occasionally others as they sat waiting.
Then she wasn’t there. She was knocked back out of the fight with a spray of blood. Undefended completely from behind now, white out was soon wrapped up with more chains. Peter was fairly certain that he would not get the chance to to make a maelstrom for the tiger. It would be dead soon. Although the chain totting spirit was losing even more support. The other A tier was still working its hardest to crush rift roller who had a A rank defense. Both the caught A tiers struggle on. Others were constantly being siphoned away to aid in the physical realm where Zorn’s forces were getting utterly trounced.
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Still Peter’s wounded interdimensional forces were not strong enough to press any sort of advantage. Peter almost jumped and pumped his fist as he saw several D tier dark elves break off to help Delilah stagger away from her doomed mount. Even she had seen that trying to rejoin the fight would not help even if she was in top condition. Less than a minute later, there was a sickening crunch as the chain wielder crushed the tigers spine. The elves were already in a full retreat out of the alternate dimension, realizing that all they could do was die if they stayed.
Now in his dungeon his defenders were fighting to hold the gate to the fourth floor. The fourth floor defense had only started in that final room. That tactic was working better than anything else had so far, as the alternate dimension forces struggled to break through the bottleneck along with their physical counterparts.
Peter’s assault army was still rampaging forward. The ghosts pulled back from the alternate dimension had to fight in the physical dimension and they were trounced quite quickly. The naked orangutan however was fighting as ethereal chains tried to pull it into the alternate dimension as the ape pulled against the things restraining it. It was a tug of war that did not seem to be going in either's favor. The Pyro flinger along with the rest of the forces had already continued onto the sixth floor.
Peter wondered if the other two A tiers would continue on to stop the army or would stop to quickly help its peer beat the naked orangutan. He was not sure which he would prefer. A minute later the question was answered. More ethereal chain encircled the A tier ape. He was struggling valiantly, but likely could not hold out against three other A tiers fighting from their place of power. However he was pleasantly surprised when the ape stubbornly kept itself from being dragged in for another 2 minutes. Then once pulled in, it savagely reversed tactics going on the attack. It’s wrinkled flags of skin steamed and flopped as it slammed into the nearest Spector knocking it back with a shockwave. The naked orangutan could likely survive for hours as dimension rejected it, but the A tier would be lucky to last a minute.
The ape army was charging forward as the dragon flies continued to lead the way. The flame flinger had taken out another A tier, making like 3 total for the unit. Now the way ahead seemed to be relatively clear. Only groups of apes were being stopped as the rest shouted and lumbered forward. They were already on the eighth floor. It was clear that his defenses would hold out long enough in his own dungeon. Now it just came to whether his own assault force would run out of steam before they made it to the core. A massive army of C tiers with interspersed B tiers stood in front of the floor exit, leading Peter to believe that the eight floor exit was the final stand.
Already the lower tier units that had stayed to fight his forces in the alternate dimension were trickling into the battle, although the 3 A tiers should be further behind. A quarter of the ape army had been sidetracked to fight them as they amassed behind the charging apes. The other half charged forward to what was likely their final hurdle. Flame flinger took 10 units out all at once with a massive flame attack, but the fiery wisps surrounding the chimp were beginning to flicker. It was out of power.
The apes charged forward slamming and cutting through walls of undead. Peter had thought that they would easily burst through, but it was clear they were all tired and running on fumes as well. Not to say that their fighting spirit disappeared, they were still fighting ferociously. Flame flinger out of powerful flame attacks charged in joining the melee.
Spectral chains shot into the physical dimension just as they broke the undead lines. Good ole pyro flinger was jerked back as were a number of others, but the A tier’s could not catch them all. Plenty of other C tiers were able to fight their way toward the core present only hundreds of feet ahead. Seconds later everything disappeared in a flash and Peter was deposited in a secluded cove on the first floor of the banquet.
“How’s Delilah?" he immediately shouted through his link with Borris.
“She is stabilized at the very least. Pyro flinger and necro chimp both survived as well, as did hundreds of C tiers.
“I hear we won,” Delilah finally said through their link.
“Are you okay?”
“I feel like some asshole pounded me with a bunch of chains,” she said, forcing a laugh. “I’ll be fine. You close out the congregation, meeting as many objectives as possible. I don’t want to hear you spent your time worrying about me.”
“Okay, take care,” Peter said before letting the link go. She was probably putting on a brave face, but was definitely fairly wounded. He sighed as he leaned his head back against the stone. Just for a moment before he checked the status of his surviving forces before he looked at his rewards.
Pyro flinger and necro chimp were indeed the only surviving A tiers from the battle. 322 of the thousand plus D tier dark elves had survived the battle, but only 61 of them had been from the assault force despite there being 600 on that side of the battle. It was daunting that nearly 800 human-like beings had just perished under his banner. He tried not to dwell on it.
Peter pushed forward. He had 286 surviving C tiers from the battle, but once again the majority were from his defenders. Rewarded for fighting valiantly with near total annihilation, Peter thought solemnly. If those three A tiers had arrived a minute earlier than they had… The life of a dungeon monster, I guess…
As far as his units from last year's raid, there were not too many left. Even the dragon flies had been halved after they began aiding the fight at the end. Peter would need to replace the fast scouts, although iron glider fly was still about. Would D tier dragonfly scouts be strong enough? Other than them, Malleable iron was the only other unit left since its movement was too slow it had stayed back on the defense. The pliable metal seemed to be nearly unkillable despite having to fight back to friendly lines after being left behind on several floors. It was a shame the unit was a C tier or it would be truly fearsome.
In overview he had been outnumbered in both the A and B tiers. He had killed at least 4 A tiers with his assault force, along with perhaps 50 B tiers. Then his defenders had killed at least 4 A tiers and faced another good 50 B tiers. There had been at least 5 surviving A tiers, meaning there had been 12 or 13 in total. Where he had brought only 8 A tiers to the fight and 22 B tiers. Perhaps the difference was that Peter had used triplifications and based all his C tiers of the result, meaning perhaps his troops had been higher quality. That and the fact that at least his C tiers had outnumbered their counterparts. Zorn had not really attempted to use the lower tiers like the Dart frog core had.
It had been enough. Honestly the battle was not as close as it might seem. The fact was Peter had kept well over half a million essence in reserve. Still he needed to continue to be vigilant. Zorn, the ghost core, was probably below average. However there were a few standouts from the faction that would not be too pleased with him. After all, Ghost was one of the best alternate dimension core types that Emma had seen. He had not just taken the candy from the baby undead cores, but had also stepped on the older cores in the faction's toes.
