It was clearly Bonefiend’s own forces who took over the assault on Peter’s dungeon. The assault on his sixth floor began with 2 dozen demon A tier mages, who quickly formed an impenetrable magic barrier. Large pit Fiends with shields protected them from ballista bolts and other physical attacks. What made it clear that this was Bonefiend’s troops were the 2 S tiers that had immediately came alongside the mages.
The first was a humanoid Pit fiend with a black tri-point crown. It stood 10 feet tall with skin shades anywhere from black to aquamarine. It carried a trident in its hands. Described from the last battle with Elyra, this S tier was a mage, likely with power that would easily surpass Glenda’s own, even after it was bolstered with the familiar pup.
The second was a demon beast unit called a graveler. A gorilla-like monstrosity with powerful front arms with wicked claws. The face was smushed and flattened making it look like that of the dog breed, pug, but the head was a hundred times the size of the miniature dog. Its mouth would easily fit Peter’s torso inside. The reason that this unit upset him more than the other, was only due to the fact that it had not been present during Bonefiend’s battle with Elyra. It meant Bonefiend likely had at least 4 S tiers.
The demons quickly surged from their foothold out into the room. Glenda sent a literal hailstorm of arrows and bolts toward the demons, but a knot of A rank demons sent them all away with their own gusts of winds. Glenda quickly gave the order and the hundred B tier archangels took off to meet the demons in the air.
Seconds later dozens of black flares streaked out from his side into the enemy forces. Gearhead and his engineering staff had built hundreds of rifles. With slightly stronger sigil enchantments and using tier 5 black crystal the rounds could hit several times harder. The A tier demons who had kept the arrows at bay were cut to ribbons in an instant. The arrows and ballista resumed a moment later.
Demon warriors streaked forward to meet the awaiting shield walls. The S tier graveler by itself shot forward to take the middle. Glenda and the other mages worked to attack and counter the powerful S tier demon mage and the its own support mages.
The guardian spirit stepped forward to meet the graveler. The spirit currently inhabited a body made of tier 4 condensed stone. Besides for the mirror soldier it was the only melee unit ready to match the S tier, and the mirror soldier was needed in the alternate realm. Demon forces continued to pour into the room, even as the graveler and the golem inhabited by the guardian spirit slammed together.
The black aquamarine trident mage started slamming Glenda and the other mages' barriers unrelentingly as the demon forces continued to build. “We passed 100 A tiers,” a clockwork announced, even as more continued through the floor entrance. The B tiers were already swarming overhead in a cloud. They were more than ready to take on the archangels that were already fighting for air superiority
Glenda called for the other 50 archangels that had been held in reserve. They flew through the portal right as the demon forces blasted through their own magical barriers like an explosion of black. Black and purple flashes started streaking through the air as every rifle platoon opened up. B and even A tiers were torn to shreds by the high caliber projectiles.
Sigils started appearing all across the line to help ward off the demons who slammed into Peter’s forces like a tidal wave. The left shield wall immediately buckled. The right and center were pushed back. The graveler and guardian spirit soon fought amidst a horde of charging demons that passed by the two elites. An A tier demon tried to cut in from the flank but found itself swatted out of the battle, as the two S tiers slammed back together. Large arms started pummeling the golem’s shield and condensed stone body, as the other tried to hack the faster S tier with its sword. Both were basically tanks, but it was clear the graveler had the advantage.
Holding the two S tiers at bay, would at least allow his other forces to deal with the hundreds of A and B tiers demons threatening to take the floor. Glenda had already summoned a good number of b tiers along with the A tiers to deal with the threat. Both sides were about to lose a lot of their elites.
“How’s it going, Eli,” Peter asked through the link.
As soon as it was clear that the enemy was pursuing attacks on only a few dungeons while holding the first floor of the others the relief armies had been called up. Eli, was in charge of charging crustaceans into Peter’s dungeon. While Predator was providing relief to Elyra. They had scouts including his metal glider flies keeping forces in no mans land apprised of the situation, so the relief had begun 20 minutes ago.
“Hmmmmgh, My forces are still stalled on the first floor. The frozen gate core kept several thousand units back, including at least 20 A tiers.”
Peter sighed. It did not look like the crustaceans would be able to do much more than keep more demon reinforcements from coming through. The frozen gate core forces were a good defensive force regardless of environment and location. Predator soon vocalized that his relief forces were running into the same issue. Elyra and Peter would have to survive the assault through their own might.
His eyes shifted across the battlefield. A giant flaming demon had advanced steadily before face planting into the stone below even as its skin continued to blacken. Peter had a likely culprit for the cause. Merlin had designed fire siphon ballista bolts specifically for this fight. Instead of using emeralds to give fire potential from magnesium, these emerald tipped bolts siphon off fire energy ridiculously fast. They would not be much good against anything other than flame elementals or flame whelps and other flame demons. Against these targets however it was basically a one shot kill. Peter had witnessed several flaming units wink out in seconds. This was the first A tier case he had witnessed. One example of how his expanded arsenal and capabilities could take him far.
Then there was the tier 3 incense (prepared) that literally covered the whole floor in a dusty haze. Khan had finally come through in a big way. Bark from dark wood trees along with other various herbs had been used to make a tier 3 prepared material. Months of seeping the incense in holy energy made these balls especially effective against demons or undead. All Peter’s forces had had to do was to drop them into the many various lava pits. As soon as it became clear that the enemy would hit hard on this floor, Glenda had given the order and the air was soon filled with holy dust. Now instead of the environment being conducive to their enemies it was directly attacking them.
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The saint flame dragon and a hundred of its B tiers eventually came forward to stop the loss of the left flank. The fighting was fierce, but the various measures were enough to keep the more elite demon force from establishing dominance. Still his losses would be high. More than two thirds of his 2,200 B tiers were committed, as more and more enemy A and B tiers entered the floor, it became more and more evident that very few of his defenders, if any would remain after this fight.
In contrast, his own assault forces were easily pushing forward. Delilah had stalled behind the physical realm push, but pit fiend alternate realm defenders could not just abandon the fight to help their brethren in the physical realm due to Delilah’s steady pressure on the fifth floor. Krista on the other hand was already pushing onto the seventh floor. The female angel had likely killed more than a dozen A tiers herself. Along with the B and C tiers easily killed by her celestial steel blade, the archangel was racking up more notches than any unit on the battlefield. The fight might last quite a bit longer due to the need for another couple extended water breaks, but it was clearly going in his favor.
Predator was the first to sound the warning. “They are beginning a fresh assault on Elyra’s dungeon.”
A moment later Eli echoed the call, but this time it was about his dungeon. It looked like the demon cores were doubling down on destroying the top cores from the concept group. Subsequent calls made it clear that a rock demon core was sending its forces into Elyra’s dungeon. The frozen gate core had sent another assault force to pincer the crustaceans between themselves and the other frozen gate units that were now serving as defenders to keep the crustaceans from advancing. The crustaceans had pushed them back half way through the second floor, but it looked like they would not be going any further.
Another enemy assault began to retake the pit fiend dungeon entrance. A last minute rescue effort to save the demon core who was in the most trouble under one of the allied assaults. However, the nightmarish creation and supporting B tiers were lying there waiting. It easily snatched units out of the air as they entered. Fifty archangels and dark elf arrows worked to intercept the rest. It was not an overwhelming defensive force, but with the nightmarish creation working right by the dungeon’s entrance the assault was having difficulty getting off the ground.
Peter felt stretched thin. His forces were fighting and dying all over the place. Even if his forces prevailed on the sixth floor it seemed another army would just come to finish him off.The fighting had only intensified on the sixth floor as the numbers on both sides decreased. The S tier graveler had eventually won its match with the condensed stone golem inhabited by the guardian spirit. Severely wounded the graveler had retreated back near the entrance and the other S tier mage to get healed. The guardian spirit had a 30 minute cooldown before it could fuse itself to the next condensed stone body. Likely not in time for a rematch since the graveler would heal far quicker.
The good news was that his forces had blunted the attack, killing well over 100 A tiers and ten times the number of B tiers by this point. The bad news was that his own elites were nearly nonexistent. A good 1,400 B tiers and 45 A tiers had fallen. The other side had even kept a good 30 A tiers in reserve.
There was only one thing that kept the demon forces cautious, his forces utter dominance of the alternate realm. Peter had summoned the 100 phase B tiers he had traded for last year. On top of all his other maelstrom units, including 480 other B tiers which had mainly stayed to defend his dungeon, Bonefiend’s forces just could not compete. Already hundreds of frozen gate demons had joined the battle in the alternate dimension to try to at least force a stalemate, but they clearly were not enough. Anything they tried to get going got immediately put down by Peter’s 2 alternate dimension S tiers.
The spirit catcher dragon was not a terribly impressive S tier, but it was better than any A tier the demons could throw its way. It was also the perfect counter for several incorporeal frozen gate A tiers that had tried to get things going. The mirror soldier on the other hand was a shimmering mercury warrior of death. The two demon core’s did not have enough alternate dimension A tiers to even begin to challenge the S rank warrior. The thousands of spammed C tiers were lucky to stall it. Which led to the present circumstances.
The demon cores had to be wary of 2 S tiers as well as hundreds of B tiers that could pop into place anywhere on the floor. If his physical realm defenses were not in such bad straits it would be a mighty trump card. As it was, Peter had already given the order to cede the sixth floor. The incense had all burnt out, so there was little reason to keep the enemies here. If more frozen gate units arrived, it would only work to his benefit to increase the amount of heat and lava filled floors between them.
It only took a few minutes for the iron glider fly messenger to arrive. The retreat began in moments. Some demon elites surged forward to try and take out Glenda and other elites, but they quickly found themselves in trouble when the mirror soldier. Rippling metal blades formed at the ends of its arms before scything into enemies. B tier copies appeared to the flanks to stop the rest of the demon advance.
The mirror soldier cut down 3 A tiers in fairly quick succession. Along with the B tier mirror soldiers it had blunted the counter attack. Then a black blob of energy streaked across the floor. The mirror soldier launched itself into the air in a massive jump, easily clearing 20 feet in height, but the black blob course corrected, striking it dead center.
“You’re kidding me,” Peter said, jaw hanging. The mirror soldier’s body had lost all cohesion separating in midair into piles of goop. “Really one attack!”
It was clear who the culprit had been. The tri point black crowned S tier demon mage was the only unit that could one shot another S tier. Until now the S tier had mainly kept his 3 A tier mages busy, but apparently it had just been waiting for a good opportunity.
The other B tier mirror soldiers fought to the death along with hundreds of remaining C tiers. Peter had an entirely fresh force of C tiers waiting on the next floor. Merlin was one of the last of the retreating units to leave the sixth floor. He used the opportunity to activate a magical trap. Most of the remaining defenders were already dead when it went off. It exploded killing dozens, but more importantly it sent up a barrier of blue energy in between the demon forces and the entrance. An extra minute would help Glenda get things situated.
Peter wavered back and forth over the choice on whether to use a Resurrect on the S rank mirror soldier, but eventually he pulled the trigger. He might only have 5 of them, but the mirror soldier had proved itself pretty dominant in the alternate dimension. He had half expected to get the choice for the saint flame dragon several times now, but somehow the golden dragon had found its way back to the seventh floor. Less than 20 of the 300 B tier copies of it however had made it back with the S tier.
