Actual Bonefiend type demons led the way onto the seventh floor, skull headed demons, fiends with enamel like external carapaces, and even full undead-like bone demons. The demon core had taken serious losses on the prior floor, so it was not too surprising to see the assault begin anew carried by thousands of C tiers with a smaller higher tier presence.
The C tier bonefiends were actually fairly resilient to the waves of arrows due to their high defense. Coupled with mostly drained mages most of the losses occurred in the front melee. A shield wall covered both sides of the central passage through the floor, funneling demons into the wide section in the middle left open for the E’wuni Guard to use their maces. The guard did exceedingly well against the hard defenses, with their maces and holy power. However the original E’wuni guard was only a A (-) rank, so they were not the strongest C tiers on the field. Peter had kept the A tier guard back from the fight on the sixth floor, but it was fighting front and center now. He did not expect it to survive this battle, since his infantry elites rarely did.
Peter got his second chance to use a resurrect card while the lower tiers fought on the seventh floor. The nightmarish creation had caught hundreds of units along with its supporting B tiers, but they were just overwhelmed by sheer volume. It was ripped apart through pure melee attacks as it attempted to stall the enemy advance.
Peter’s assault forces were still on the seventh floor. With the need of another break or two there would be no way Krista could finish things prior to getting hit from behind. Peter lost sight of the first floor as several metal glider flies zoomed forward to relay the message of the coming enemy reinforcements.
“Does anyone have any forces to occupy the reinforcements in the pit fiend dungeon, so my assault force has time to finish things?” Peter asked, but he only got negatives in return.
“I’m retaking my first floor right now, probably too late to help you, but I should have access to no man's land shortly. Perhaps I can once again try to retake your dungeon’s entrance,” Eli offered.
Peter grimaced. Of all the allies, he expected the least from that guy. The guy had not even been able to threaten the frozen gate forces inside his dungeon. Peter heavily suspected that the crustacean was keeping a large amount of units and resources in reserve. He should probably have more than any of them in raw essence to spend. Since he should have mostly crustacean cards due to lack of trading, he would likely have few if any combinations meaning he was likely using mainly one card to summon. He should have a ridiculous amount of resources to spam large armies like an insect dungeon. Peter guessed there was only so much one could expect from someone pressganged into battle. It was clearly better to have him then not, even if he was trying to hoard his resources, but he was far from reliable.
Peter chose to use his resurrect card on the S tier tar monster, before refocusing on the seventh floor battle. It still looked like attrition warfare among C tiers for the most part, with a few tier B and A elites mixed in. The E’wuni brute A tier went down to a B tier and pure numbers. Nothing surprising there, however the loss meant the C tier versions were soon pushed back. Ideally, the mages or rifle platoons would be blunting the enemy assault, but Glenda was using this as an opportunity for them to all rest.
They had manna potions, but Glenda likely felt their use would be more beneficial later on in the battle. Likewise the enemy S tier and other powerful mages were staying out of the battle. Still it looked like his defenders were doing far better despite being the ones losing ground, likely due to the fact that 80% of his dungeon’s infantry were holy unit types of one sort or another. In conjunction with the normal benefits of being on the defensive and the support of vigil masters the demons and fiends were clearly dying at a far faster rate.
Eli announced the elimination of his forces that were already inside Peter’s dungeon, meaning Frozen gate’s forces pincering them had met in the middle. Now any of the other demon core forces could directly reinforce the assault on Peter’s dungeon. Predator’s own forces had reclaimed Elyra’s first 3 floors before running out of steam. His entrance guard he had stationed at the beginning of Elyra’s dungeon were already being attacked by flame whelp reinforcements, so he would soon be in the same predicament as Eli.
The problem was that they would not have many other forces to break the reinforcement potential any time soon. The hope was on the success of one of their assaults. Besides for his own, Gabriel’s attack on Rock demon was the closest. Elyra’s had stalled, unsurprisingly due to logistical reasons. Gretchen’s mages who were supporting her attack luckily had the ability to create water to keep it from failing completely, but it meant they were advancing far more slowly.
Krista and Delilah soon got word that enemy reinforcements were coming. Gnomes on tempest fowl mounts flew back regularly to start keeping tabs. As an army of fairly standard fiends the demon core commanding them was indeterminable. Their numbers however numbered in the thousands. Krista and Delilah had resolved to continue with the assault on the eighth floor. At the very least taking another floor or two would mean fewer units that could be sent to pincer them when the reinforcements arriving from behind.
Delilah now had free reign in the alternate dimension so as soon the standard beast assault forces took the focus, she quickly moved her forces to the back of the floor before hitting the demon mages directly. The floor started to fall rapidly, but it was clear they would not have time to finish off both the remaining two floors. Krista and Delilah quickly decided to at least take the ninth even as they prepared to receive the reinforcements on the eighth.
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This time the pit fiend had spread out his mages and other elites to prevent them from easily being targeted. Delilah just spent a few extra minutes to get forces in place all across the floor, before having them hit all at once. The ninth floor was set to fall a good 5 to 10 minutes before the reinforcements arrived.
Peter however turned his attention back toward his own dungeon. Glenda had ceded the seventh floor maximizing the amount of enemy units that were killed while preserving her own forces. Bonefiend had clearly had enough waiting. He would hit the eighth floor with everything he had.
Peter had gotten that feeling, and had 30 fresh A tiers ready to meet the sudden attack. He had used all 15 of the tombstone and bone cards he had won during the last battle. He had also drained the remaining 2.5 million essence to summon 250 new archangels. Greg had quickly outfitted with ready spare equipment and got them to the front. Still things seemed a bit overwhelming since B tiers continually poured onto the floor along with well over 50 A tiers.
Peter’s mages were instantly put on alert with the appearance of the S tier and other high tier demon mages. The S tier graveler demon fiend had lumbered onto the floor seemingly completely healed, but the spirit guardian was ready to go for a second round.
Where the war of attrition had gone on for nearly an hour and a half on the floor prior this battle looked like it would be over in 10 minutes since all units were immediately going full tilt from the beginning. The mages were all firing spells with abandon. The S tier enemy mage however could not be stopped by any of them since the other mages pulled focus. Glenda and the rest could only work together to protect themselves, but the S tier seemed content to just kill the undead A tiers Peter was using as fodder. It was clear the S tier mage was operating at full capacity for the first time.
The situation on his eighth floor would be dire, if he did not have complete control of the alternate dimension. While most of the C tiers could only take on B tiers, their numbers could strike from unusual locations. The C tier blink dragons could even do so with little to no forewarning. The B tiers including the spirit catcher dragons, mirror soldiers, and phase units were reinforcing key locations keeping his physical realm forces from being quickly overwhelmed.
The S tier spirit dragon would pop into existence and savagely wound an A tier before popping back into the alternate dimension. The S tier mage had tried unsuccessfully to kill it twice, but its black blobs of energy that honed in on targets could not pass the dimensional boundary.
Every moment units from both sides were falling in an accelerated attrition. Eventually Glenda had to send the Saint flame dragon forward out of the protective bubble. The demon mage had been waiting for this and instantly slang a black blob of energy before the S tier dragon was even able to expel a third of its fire. A golden protection sigil appeared intercepting the blob. It was Michael himself supported by a pair of C tier vigil masters, but their combined efforts were not enough. The sigil collapsed seemingly instantly, as did the second line of defense. A barrier formed by a dozen C tiers was little more than tissue paper for the spell to streak right through. The black blob took the S tier dragon right above one of its front legs.
Peter instantly pulled up the dragon’s status. The dragon’s health had immediately dropped by two thirds, and it was still falling due to undetermined status effects. The dragon retreated back towards safety even as its health descended. Without the sigil and barrier as lacking as they were, it was possible that the dragon would have been one shotted just like the S rank mirror soldier. That mage was something else.
“That mage has to have a SS rank attribute for it to one shot S tiers,” Boris voiced from his side.
“Yeah it's certainly frightening being on the other side of things. That attack might just be as powerful as Armageddon dragon’s void beam to be able to one shot the mirror soldier who had a SS (-) rank defense,” Peter sighed. A good portion of mirror soldier’s defense attribute was likely due to its speed, but it’s ability to survive hits should still be pretty formidable.
“That is the mages, sixth ball of death during this attack. Surely, he cannot keep it up,” Khan said, also frustrated.
They were all clearly frustrated. The mage was able to do its special attack in addition to its normal spells. For the first time, Peter felt extremely frustrated that he had not taken the design steal epic card last year. He would have loved to copy this guy. Assuming he survived this battle, he needed to make getting a full S tier mage with potentially a SS rank magic attribute a priority.
Then again high rank attacks were not all equal. His saint flame dragon already had a SS (+) rank fire attack, but it was clearly weaker than this guys or the armageddon dragon. It seemingly gave up raw power for a greater duration. Ideally, a good 45 seconds of flames that likely hit with the force somewhere in the A ranks should still be enough to deal with most units. It should be especially true for the demons who were weak to any kind of divine energy, but apparently the delivery system of flames allowed the demons high fire resistance to keep many from succumbing given that they were strong enough.
The saint flame dragon made it back to safety and soon was under the care of Michael. Hopefully the sigil master could stop the health decline, since the dragon now had less than 10% left. The rest of the red HP bar was still dropping steadily. The first round of healing boosted the HP, but the drop rate had only been minorly affected. Michael gave the dragon a second dose, but met with the same results. Dozens of C tier sigil masters took their own shot at it, but there was no notable change as far as he could see.
A new A tier along with several hundred C tiers passed them by ready to join the battle. The A tier fairy had to be approaching the double digits for A tiers summoned this battle. The C tier fairies were only able to keep C tiers in existence for less than a minute, but with this battle most of them could likely still die in that time frame since they were throwing themselves in the thick of it.
The S tier graveler roared in triumph after once again ripping the spirit guardian’s golem to pieces. The S tier's cry was short lived since the spirit catcher dragon appeared behind its jaws instantly clamping down on the back of the demon beast's neck. The dragon ripped furiously. It took a few seconds of struggle, but the demon’s tough hide eventually yielded and a large section of the back of the demon’s neck ripped free. A vital section since the graveler collapsed near instantly afterward. Unlike the graveler, the S tier dragon sought to escape rather than roar in triumph. It beat its wings even as a crack in space formed ahead of it. However the extended duration in the physical realm had been too much and its escape route too predictable, another black blob of energy struck the dragon in the back. Unlike the Saint flame dragon the spirit catcher dragon’s health bottomed out instantly, an instant kill.
