Losing one of his two SS tiers on only the fifth floor was far from ideal. The kill count was also a bit underwhelming. In the end the collapsing star fiend only killed the 2 S tiers and a handful of A tiers in addition to the weaker units that had just happened to get in its way. Still those S tiers were probably the stone golem core’s trump card for his defense. Peter on the other hand had other elites that could carry on.
Peter had decided on a few things. It was clear that the stone golem had either taken the tripplification specialization, or had traded for a bunch of combination cards. There were just far too many combination units than could have been gotten normally with the uncommon card. It was also the only way for the other to have likely gotten S tiers at all. Apparently, the stone golem had likely sent 2 on attack and kept to for defense. Well that was what Peter was hoping because otherwise the other core had even more trump cards.
Peter’s fifth floor had fallen after taking a devastating toll from the straight forward advance of the powerful enemy elite. On the sixth floor the assault began with the emergence of the giant S tier landslide slime. The tidal wave of gravel and sand squeezed itself through the opening before becoming a slug-like existence on the other side. The slime was at least 50 feet tall and 3 times as long. It moved forward like a slug down the central path. It was relatively slow for its size, but it was still faster than a human sized unit could outrun unless they were in a dead sprint.
Quick on their feet, the commander of the infantry in the center gave the order for a full retreat. A full power star fall slammed into the wave of gravel, but besides sending cascades of debris down its flanks the slime was not otherwise affected. Soon enough a pair of Black discs opened well above Glenda’s forces. The black vortexes immediately started sucking with such force that lighter units were immediately pulled up off their feet including Glenda herself.
A moment later most of them came crashing back to the stone. Einstein had both arms raised and was clearly straining to freeze the space against the vacuum. A few of the nearby flying units were not so lucky. They were pulled into the center of the discs. The lucky ones were simply pulled inside of one of them. Others found themselves ripped apart due to the competing strain of the two discs. What could make an S tier mage struggle, the answer was an opposing S tier mage.
One of the clockworks finally caught sight of the mage from the vantage of the infantry on one of the sides. It was a stone golem with lichen growing down off the face to form a beard. It was also the first unit Peter had seen that wore a legit pointed wizard or witch. In both hands were wooden staffs with gleaming pearl like gems encased at their ends.
Standard golem infantry were pouring around the black hole wizard and to the sides to engage the infantry guarding the other passes. Peter could hardly be worried about them, as could any of the commanders on the field. It was likely too late to even recall them since the slime would likely reach the opposing platform before they could retreat.
Once again, Peter saw the genius behind the combination. The whip wielding statue and medusa rock cat had also worked extremely well together. The statue could keep normal opponents away, while the stone cat rained petrification rays down on its enemies with impunity. It took an SS tier to get through. Something he did not have back here unless he was willing to send the abyssal crystal construct in. He definitely needed to consider doing so since this combination looked difficult to take down.
This landslide slime could tank its way through the remaining floors, while the mage supported it from behind. The two black discs were even throwing off magic attacks and the exploding boulders thrown from the catapults, which were likely the only way to bring the giant S tier slime. Even a full power star fall was sent wide sending geysers of lava wherever they splashed down.
The slime continued to advance on the well defended platform. Glenda was already having units retreat through the portal. The infantry trapped on the flank paths would just have to fight on till the end. Peter felt a sinking feeling. The sixth floor had fallen so easily, but that was because he had forgotten the ability of one of his key players. Merlin had basically been relegated to auxiliary purposes and traps, but the causality wizard could also manipulate manna and effect other’s spells. The normal problem was that it took time and most spells usually did not last that long, so he had to wait until he saw it repeatedly and could understand it well enough. These ones however were just hanging there.
Apparently, Merlin had long ago figured these ones out. He had just been waiting for an opportune time, to spring perhaps his deadliest trap. All at once both black discs reversed the direction they were sucking from , and even exponentially increased their pull. The landslide slime that was already drawing close was right in their path. A steady stream of gravel and glops of sand immediately started flying forward. Two diagonal dirt devils formed as the landslide’s very substance was pulled from its mass.
It took a good five seconds for the black hole wizard to realize there was an issue, but the golem could do nothing about it when he had. Later Merlin would tell them precisely what he did. He had reversed the spell's direction and power, increasing the mana pulled from the wizard, in addition to adding a nefarious trap. As soon as the wizard tried to retake control of the spell or cancel it, the black holes became even more unstable. Their pull increased several fold, ripping even more of the landslide into themselves. It was brief, because without the supply of mana it caused the two black holes to condense before exploding outward all at once.
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Merlin had warned their side, but the magic shields still only barely held. The S tier giant Landslide slime however was further ripped to pieces. Too much for the unit to survive. The remaining half of sand and gravel collapsed into a dune at the end of the central path.
Was losing a floor and leaving a good 1,500 infantry behind worth killing one S tier giant slime? Peter thought so as did Khan and the other non clockworks present in headquarters. There was an audible cheer in the room. It quieted soon enough. Perhaps everyone was thinking the same thing as him. Where were the other giant units?
Peter had a feeling they would all be used as defenders. Only the landslide slime could contort its body to fit through the doors leading from floor to floor. Hopefully, they were all A tiers, but would it make much of a difference. Even if they were A tiers they might still be as dangerous as some S tiers.
Glenda had plenty of time to get the defenses on the seventh floor ready. With the giant slime defeated, it even became possible for a good 20% of the infantry on the two side paths to make it back through. The rest fought to the death as best as they could.
Peter’s own assault force reached the enemy sixth floor first. It was just like the previous floors. Thousands of defenders blasted down as his forces sought to establish a foothold. Space cessation mages led the way forming spatial barriers cutting off the flight path of the uphill units. Allowing his forces to pour in unmolested.
Instead of the clay terracotta-like warriors there were now hundreds of stone golems and dozens of B tier one offs of the whip statue. Sprinkled in their midst were B tier stone cats firing petrification rays, and finally several versions of stone golem warriors that hit harder than expected. On the infantry the petrification rays had about the same effect as they had on Collapsing star fiend. They would cause a patch to dry and harden, but it would take multiple good hits to really slow or harm them. Since they were moving quite quickly it would be hard to target the same ones. It was the same for the archangels. They would only need perhaps a bit more holy energy to hold themselves aloft or propel forward.
However it was a different story for the tempest fowls. Air units generally had weaker natural defenses. One hit apparently was enough to make a flying unit flounder as it tried to keep itself airborne if not bring it down outright. The C tier tempest fowls soon became the primary target. The birds fell from the sky sending their sky gnome riders tumbling once they hit the ground. The grounded sky gnomes were not a match for much.
Of course the focus only lasted until the S tier berserker ape rampaged its way forward. It pounded right through B tier statues with its gauntletted fist. After getting hit by a petrification ray it soon focused solely on hunting down the stone cats, smashing anything that came in between it and them. It easily caught up to the ones it chased, crushing them into rubble with ease.
It was on the seventh floor, where Peter finally got to show off the ordinance specifically prepared for the stone golem army. Large boulders were launched from the catapults. Nimble units easily avoided them. There were few direct hits, but they would explode usually within a few seconds of losing all momentum. Enriched magnesium packed into the middle, resulted in a concussive force. Each could kill or seriously wound most C and B tiers within 10 or 15 feet of where they went off. With 24 catapults firing 3 times every 2 minutes or so, it was pretty effective.
The S tier black hole mage and others started blasting them out of the air, but they were soon all attacked by blink dragons and the rifle plattoons. With the alternate realm being relatively benign, Delilah had left the mirror soldier to hold the line. She had a standard rifle and half a dozen single use rifles set up at the far side of the room. The single use rifles each had night crystal built inside of them. No reason to make them reloadable since they had not found a rifle that could withstand firing the tier 7 resource. Delilah was the only one with them. As a near peak A tier she could fire them all if given enough time. They were for A tier targets or above only due to how little of the legendary resource they had found.
Delilah eventually used the first focusing on a clockwork with an energy repeating crossbow. The armor of the enemy A tier flared out an energy barrier to stop the black energy, but it was insufficient. The clockwork’s chest exploded, sending gears and pistons through the air. The rifle barrel had warped far beyond use. Delilah was shaking her hand where the siding had exploded, cutting deeply into her hand. They were made from tier 4 Dark steel, but apparently they needed something stronger to fire legendary projectiles. That or they needed better dark steel alloys to use.
Soon Delilah wrapped her wounded hand with a piece of cloth and prepared to fire the second single-use rifle. Hopefully, she would not have to go back to wearing an eyepatch due to her own weapon. Rifle after a rifle she fired, each time killing or seriously wounding an enemy A tier.
To compete against the heavy defenses, the assault force had brought forth a large number of A and B tiers, which meant Glenda had done the same. All 240 armageddon dragons and the freshly summoned A tiers rushed in to do battle. The guardian spirit led the charge. It’s current cobalt body was formed to be a total brute. It swung a large hammer with such power that it would easily turn enemies to rubble. With the rifle platoons targeting all the softer targets, Peter did not anticipate this battle not falling in their favor.
Then the blue diamond gravitron’s attacked from the other side of the stone golem’s forces on floor six. Now it was simple enough to teleport behind enemy lines as long as the rune circles were not deactivated. The stone golem forces had deactivated all the runes on floors 5 and down, but had not bothered to ferry units to the large island in between two lines of lava. The S tier appeared along with 16 of its one offs. Seconds later they threw into place the expansion bridges they had been carrying.
Before the second wave of B tiers arrived, they were already battling their way into the stone golem’s flank. Their gravity domains made it difficult for the already heavy units to move fast, and their gauntleted fists smashed down like hammers. With the elites and mages all committed on the seventh floor it looked like they would find it difficult to resist them. For all intensive purposes the stone golem assault force was through.
