Things would probably work out for his eventual victory assuming the sky gnome did not give the assault force too big of a break. They should only have 3 more floors to go, whereas Temperance’s forces still had 5 more after the current floor. That being said, Peter was fielding about half the units than the other core, so was heavily dependent on having units able to fall back with the battle. Otherwise the floors would only be lightly manned if at all.. However she was pushing forward with everything she had. Most of her A tiers were either on the fifth floor or on their way.
The yellow salamander mage sent her yellow ball of energy forward. It arced up and across the room, but it was met by a white ball of energy from Glenda. The two balls of energy met, sending a flash of light through the room, but the attacks had not been even. The yellow energy was scattered, while the white ball still mostly together, slammed down on the shaman who erected a barrier with a few seconds to spare. The A tier mage’s shield fractured, and the ball of energy slammed into the ground right at its feet. The yellow salamander was flung into the wall 30 feet away, but little dart frogs with healing power immediately moved in to heal any damage.
On the right path, a yellow dragon with emerald eyes was advancing, crushing dark mauler elves who had been fighting the lesser reptiles but could only try to get out of the dragon’s way. A ten-foot-tall A tier clockwork with a wooden mallet rushed forward with a six armed B tier to stop it. They were the other two he had summoned before getting gearhead.
Advancing up the middle and the left side were five A tiers a piece, which were being countered by the three ember A tiers and 3 others summoned from equestrian, earth, cosmic originals. Turtle had already been pulled off to the side of the main path as he and the dark mauler A tier fought 3 other A tiers. Each side was also sending in their B tiers as well, where the disparity between the defenders and attackers was even more apparent.
Most of the ballista of course were being swung around to target the most dangerous looking units, the yellow emerald eye dragon and a few of the other A tiers. Peter watched as one bolt landed short of the giant dragon, then a second happened to go right between its legs. Another sailed over hitting an enemy B tier on the far side knocking it into a magma pit. Then two in a row slammed into the dragon’s side, the force allowed them to puncture right through the hard scale armor, but if anything, they looked only slightly more cumbersome to a single arrow hit on a regular sized unit, which most units could tank quite a few before being brought down.
However, the dragon definitely felt them since it roared in protest. Seconds later the two clockworks were on it. The mallet met the dragon’s head slamming it to the side, but the dragon quickly recovered and attacked with its fangs. The A tier clockwork was far too slow to dodge, his mallet that had been in mid swing hit the dragon’s neck with only half the power, before the mallet was dropped as the clockwork was whipped back and forth caught by the creatures teeth. The B tier moved in and bashed the dragon’s left front knee joint. The leg snapped, and the clockwork A tier was sent flying as the dragon roared in pain, right before shifting its focus to the B tier that it then quickly savaged into bent metal by slamming the front of its body down.
The A tier clockwork recovered but found itself in a melee with several enemy B tiers, which soon took its entire focus. The clockwork did not even have its mallet but had been able to find the body of a dead gnome turtle warrior which it was using as a makeshift flail. The dragon however continued forward with a very noticeable limp on its front left.
Glenda was once again developing a sky worth of stars or balls of white above her head. The salamander shaman had recovered but the unit was not her target. She once again targeted the entire first platform that was being swarmed with enemy units. The platform exploded in white light. Only a few locations that had been shielded like around the yellow salamander were not blanketed in the energy. A S tier attack was at a truly frightening level. Glenda had likely just killed a good 100 units, mostly C tiers but there had been a few B tiers present. The light faded a second later showing a field of carnage, with only a few survivors who had not been behind a protective shield, and most were horribly mangled.
The yellow salamander reengaged for another 5 minutes before Glenda along with the remainder were forced to retreat through the floor entrance. The ten ballista were left to be destroyed as hundreds of units hurriedly made their way through the seventh floor behind a fresh line of defenders. Temperance’s forces hardly paused despite several of her A tiers being spent. The dragon had been heavily wounded by at least 5 more bolts. It would not die, but it had slowed to a shuffle.
However, the salamander core’s forces pushed on, perhaps aware of the dire circumstances in their own dungeon. Not impossible since there were plenty of lesser units that had not been killed in the early floors. It had even been noted that some had later come into his dungeon to join the assault, instead of allowing the unreachable air forces to continue to kill them.
The seventh floor was a world of fire like the sixth, but both sides of the level was pure magma with paths that crossed back and forth in-between. Having learned from the prior floor the defenders were set up at the midpoint of the level allowing the ballista affixed at the far platform to kick things off. Peter had 14 batteries here and they all immediately started firing.
Peter only had about 30 fresh B tiers who had not fought on the prior floor, and no new A tiers. He had counted on being able to pull some out. However Glenda and pyro flinger were the only ones that made it back. The rest including turtle and the dark mauler elf had gone down on the sixth floor where they had been fighting the opposing A tiers.
Not necessarily a waste since a good number of the enemy A tiers had also been killed and several more wounded to the point where they would likely not be able to play much of a role. By Peter’s count he was down 9 A tiers and had killed 14, but there was at least 1 other like the dragon who was too wounded to contribute much in the near term. The other side still had 7 A tiers in battle ready conditio, and still outnumbered their B tiers by at least 2 to 1.
Reptilian beasts slammed into the fresh line of gnome turtle warriors who had just closed ranks after allowing friendlies to retreat through. The C tier opponents were stopped in their tracks. Most of the dark elf archers had survived the sixth floor and they joined those on the seventh in punishing the weaker beasts trying to push through. As B tiers approached they concentrated fire on them which was enough to either bring them down or force them back.
Glenda’s hair was plastered to her face and she was visibly exhausted. She seemed content to walk toward the back of the room now that she was safe and allow her allies to take up the mantle. By herself she had likely killed several hundred enemies as well as hold off the enemies most powerful mage, but apparently she did not have some vast reserves. It was no wonder that more advanced dungeons sent in power houses to devastate before quickly pulling them back.
The battle for the seventh raged on, with Glenda eventually having to step back in to counter the yellow salamander shaman. It was just getting to the point where Peter was about to start summoning more A tiers using the various A tier originals he had in his possession, when the sky gnome made the call. After about a good 25 minute pause, his assault force would once again move forward to hopefully finish things off.
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It was just one more thing to consider. In the future he would need multiple waves of assaulters to take up the mantle as the previous wave rested. Even powerful units like Glenda and the lightning shrike could only do so much. Delilah and her forces in the alternate dimension were still well behind on the fifth floor. They were still tying down a small harassment forces, so it was not to say that their presence was pointless, but it likely would not have much affect on the battle’s result.
The air division continued on with all the force and speed as it had previously. Once again Temperance just did not have enough of the right forces to stop them. She had a handful of flying units, but they could not make much of a difference when outnumbered 100 to 1 in the air. Then her units with ranged attacks only made up less than a third of her forces on all the levels they had passed, and none had been at the level of the yellow salamander. Peter was lucky he had gotten the lightning shrike and decided to make an air assault. Otherwise his assault force would have been proceeding at a quarter of the speed they currently were. Peter would not say he would lose either way, he had 30 plus original A tiers not counting the moon elf ones if he got backed into a corner.
The eighth and ninth floors fell in rapid succession as the sky gnome elected to push forward instead of wiping them out completely. It was a good thing since the ninth floor was Temperance’s final floor. She had at least 15 A tiers and 50 B tiers among hundreds of others. It was clear that she had done just what he had been considering . She had used up every bit of essence and original cards she may have been holding back. Plenty of these new units had ranged attacks. One A tier crocodile like unit was even picking up C tiers to throw at the large flock.
Immediately the defense began as the assault force spread out through the large cavernous room. Technically they only needed to get 1 unit through to destroy the core, but although they were dungeon units most would not just dive behind enemy lines hoping to get to the core before they died. Unless Peter was directly enforcing his will they had relative autonomy which was not at the level of natural beasts but they had some sense of self preservation.
It was as if a lightning and fire storm erupted toward the defenders from all directions as the flock attacked from all sides at once. Some magic barriers went up, most cracked and shattered quite quickly. Only one A tier mage protecting the floor exit stood strong. Which meant they would really have to work to push through. Every melee only A tier was standing guard duty with the gray salamander mage, but instead of attacking them the sky gnome was directing his forces to attack the outer rings of weaker defenders to slowly whittle down the forces
Things on their own seventh floor were really picking up. The defensive line had been pushed back toward the floor exit and was on the verge of breaking, but they were still functionally holding the assaulting army at bay. A and B tiers had not waited a moment, but the 30 plus B tier holy other type units were helping to hold the line and engage the A tiers. Most of the holy B tiers put on this floor were either mages or healing support which was enough to make up some of the difference.
However, that was 15 minutes ago. Most of the B tiers had been killed and Glenda had been forced to block multiple magic strikes on the line, but she was clearly worn out as was Pyro flinger. That was when his message finally made it. Out of the alternate realm appeared both the A tier spectral armor and the ghastly soldier. Following their appearance minor space rifts started opening as every alternate dimension unit that could be spared transferred over, but their progenitors were already at work keeping the line from breaking.
It was Temperance’s own fault. The fight in the alternate realm had faltered, with the front lines still well back on the sixth. The one A tier that had been sent as a part of her assault force had been double teamed by 2 A tier opponents, the few B tiers had long ago been dealt with. Which meant that, he only needed to slightly delay them with the remainder.
The ghastly soldier and spectral armor appeared at the entrance to the seventh floor and then quickly made their way through wading through the reptilian lower tiers. Ghastly soldier used his zoom ability immediately to cover the distance slamming right into the yellow salamander. A moment later the shaman’s body was hoisted off the ground impaled by the ghastly soldier's long sword. The spectral armor ignored the attacks from the C tiers around it as it charged 2 other A tier mages. They blasted the armor, but the reanimated armor continued seemingly unphased.
The skirmish did not last long. The ghastly soldier flicked the salamander off its blade into a magma pit a hundred feet away and continued on reaping the mage units that were quickly refocusing all their attacks on the two. Hundreds of C tier copies of the two were now out on the sixth floor exit and were doing what they could to stop the tide of units trying to push forward. It was enough, the ghastly soldier and spectral armor were among a host of enemy units, but few were equipped to deal with least the spectral armor. The mages could not build up enough power to bring it down and the ghastly soldier proved too mobile with its zoom ability.
Still the seventh floor was lost. The retreat was far less covered than on the prior floor as Glenda led what units she thought could be saved while the rest were left to fight to the death. The eighth floor was more like the seventh than the sixth, another magma floor with one central path broken up into a bunch of smaller paths that navigated around rocks and magma pits. Glenda led the retreating forces back toward the last line of defenders that Peter had. They had another third of their C tiers fresh and ready to go, but only 10 B tiers that had not been in the battle.
If this line broke, which was quite likely given enough time, he would be forced to use his A tier original cards to summon a force to stop them.. Hopefully it would not get to that point, his own assault force was battering the last line of defenders in Temperance’s dungeon.
The A tier earth spirit had assassinated several A tiers before it got caught and forced to stand its ground, which led to its eventual death, but just like his eighth floor defense would not hold it was clear that Temperance’s last line would not be able to stop them. The only question was if his defense could hold out long enough to prevent him from burning more cards.
Ten minutes later the question became how many of his defenders could last until his forces destroyed the enemy core, because Temperance’s defenders were clearly being overwhelmed now that the A tiers like the lightning shrike started their own attacks. Their air force was down to perhaps 600 units, but all the A tiers had survived until this point. Their continued existence was in question because a good ten enemy A tiers had been waiting for them to join.
The blue sky gnome aboard the lightning shrike sent out a gale of wind that slammed several magic attacks away as his mount attacked with lightning. The flame sparrow darted unbelievably quickly ethereal flame talons extended ripping at an enemy's throat. Peter watched for several more minutes. His defenders on the eighth floor had been scattered or were in full retreat. The ghastly soldier and spectral armor were still doing all right but were separated from all allies by hundreds of units. They had enough opponents that they did not feel the need to cross through them via the alternate dimension. Peter just hopped Glenda made it out. Right now she was clinging to Pyro flinger who was retreating back through the ninth although enemies were in hot pursuit.
However things were winding down in the other dungeon. After a few fierce minutes only the electric shrike, its rider, and the flame sparrow were left among his elites but they had killed a good number of the enemies elites with the help of the still existing 2 to 3 hundred C tiers whipping through the air.
It only took an opening, that looked far from being coordinated. The electric shrike and gnome struck out at the main mages barrier shattering it. In the brief second it was down before the mage shrugged off the damage, the flame sparrow was through. There were more weaker units in the core room, but they barely registered the flame sparrow who rocketed by like a missile right to and through their dungeon’s core.
A moment later Peter was back on the bottom floor of the banquet cavern.
