The revitalization of the collapsing star fiend was not some turning point, guaranteeing that his defenses would triumph. The attack did not let up, and both sides continued to commit more and more resources to the fight on the sixth floor. Retreat did not seem like a good option anyways, so Glenda started pulling the fresh units awaiting on the seventh floor to throw into the fight. Elyra’s S tier healer stayed on, refreshing the collapsing star fiend multiple times through the next hour. All the while Peter’s defenses rested on a razor’s edge of whether they could hold out or would fall.
The assault on Peter’s dungeon was the only place that enemy B and A tiers were under use. For all the rest, C tiers were sent in swarms. Peter’s Sanguine fairies now supported all fronts of the battle. They were basically the perfect counter to the weak wave theory that the insect cores were going with since they did not weaken over time. The large number of weak dying insect units in fact kept them operating at full strength.
The assault on the Katydid core was still progressing smoothly. It would only take time at this point unless the katydid core had a bunch of elites in reserve. Peter suspected the core wouldn’t have much. Its best opportunity of saving itself had already come back on the first floor when Peter’s assault force had to struggle on both sides. The katydid core had likely already thrown most of what it had left. It took only 45 more minutes to verify the fact.
[Katydid has been eliminated. Rewards will be decided at the end of the dungeon battle.]
All at once thousands of alternate realm units blinked from existence across all fronts. There was hardly a break in the action, before Peter sent word to his assault force through the replicator book. It only took a few minutes before they started the assault on the second dungeon, which was the cricket core. The cricket core was the other core that had been assigned the job of holding down the allied alternate realm forces. He might as well deal with it next
The cricket core’s defenses were more standard to a normal insect dungeon. The ally scouts soon found themselves in a tunnel system where hundreds of smaller offshoots connected to a large main tunnel. At least at the start of the floor there was not a single insect in sight. Not the most suited for the core type in Peter’s opinion. Just like the katydids, crickets had powerful long legs that made them perfect special forces that could leap high into the air over standard battle lines. Most even had wings that could allow them to flutter and glide controlling when and where they would land. While the wide open floor had not worked for katydid, it was Peter’s opinion that the core had not really used them right. Regardless, the tunnel system floors would present their own challenges.
The confined spaces and constant bends in the tunnel kept mages and ranged units from being as effective, which worked against both forces. However, generally it was worse for the force with lower numbers since mages could deal more wide scale destruction. The tunnel would also force the assault army to be stretched into a long line that could be ambushed at any point through any one of the adjoining tunnels. Honestly, Peter would prefer the open floor concept, but he had anticipated this. The conquest would take far longer since his assault force would have to arduously have to clear each floor as they went. It also meant that the battle would likely occur on multiple floors at the same time as his vanguard continued to push forward.
The call went back through the dungeon entrance into no man’s land and soon the 64 surviving B tier nightmarish slimes were called up. They immediately started filtering into the adjoining tunnels as the beast vanguard pushed forward into the main tunnel. It was only after several bends in the tunnel that the vanguard ran into defenders. All at once they face a writhing mass of insects covering all surfaces of the tunnel ahead. Not a difficult feat since most insect types could cling to the walls and ceiling and fight perfectly well.
Peter’s beast horde slammed into the beetle insects manning the lower portion of the tunnel as the softer insects started scurrying forward and down to flank from the sides. However following the vanguard of beasts were the flame buggies. The flame turrets manned by C tier tinker gnomes started washing the walls in flame as the gnomes threw out obscenities.
Almost immediately after the initial contact the insects started pouring into the main tunnel from the hundreds of smaller offshoots along the way. The only section free from this was the beginning where the nightmarish creations easily could clear the tunnels as they went.
Once again it was an expected tactic. Most of the offshoots were easy to guard. The vertical ones from the ceiling or the floor proved the most difficult. Mandibles and stingers started popping out from everywhere to peirce or crunch down on the dungeon assaulters in both the alternate and physical dimensions. The allied forces were ready for it, but it was still difficult to counter. Forward progress started to stall as the entire line behind them was also attacked. After a few minutes, reinforcements still pouring through the gate were forced to start moving into the adjoining tunnels since there was nowhere forward for them to go.
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After another 15 minutes, there were hundreds of small fronts alongside the main battle occurring in the main tunnel. Peter had expected this. His forces had pushed through Agatha’s dungeon which was similar. Plus he had seen plenty of insect core battles in the higher divisions. Still it was different now when he was experiencing a full powered defense of this type for himself. Agatha had basically drained all of her defenders dry during their last battle. If all of cricket’s floors were similar this assault would take a long time. If the other insect cores were similar this rookie division battle could take several days to finish.
Peter’s interest soon faded from the slogfest and back to the battle in his own dungeon. The battle was clearly less energetic than it had been an hour ago, both sides were clearly weary. The bombardier beetles had run out of their deadly acidic fluid and had been pulled back. Peter’s mages and rifle platoons had also run dry. It was pretty much just the ballista, elf archers, and weak C tier mages firing off anything anywhere.
The insects had apparently run out of flying reinforcements across all fronts, because they had cut off quite a while ago. A good thing too since the allied forces had started to struggle to be able to manage them. Peter still had some C tier dragons left over, but they had been pulled back when they became too tired to fly. They were not the only ones so weary to continue. Glenda had pretty much pulled forward all of his reinforcements by this point. Now they fought all over the cavern as well as the main battlefronts. Spiders climbed over and down the walls from all directions, leaving Glenda with far too few units to rotate out of the battle for rest.
The insect tide seemed endless. The only positive was that they no longer seemed to have any elites to send. They were trying to win through pure exhaustion at this point, which might work as long as they could keep up the endless waves. The sanguine fairies could last, but they needed units to continue to kill for them. Even the SS tier collapsing star fiend seemed weary. It slowly moved from battle to battle, wherever it was needed. The fact that the fiend was being so compliant instead of running wild was telling enough.
It was a real shame that they were prevented from receiving essence in this battle. It was clear things would go over 24 hours at this point. If Peter could receive the essence from units killed in his dungeon it would result in a small but steady stream of reinforcements that would easily help him counter the endless waves of insects, assuming they could make it to the 24 hour point. His troops were flagging, already Peter was forced to make the call that had typically come closer to the end of battles like this.
Thousands of mining apes, gnomes and other auxiliaries were already marching forward. Peter would have to use them to replace weary defenders sooner than later. Hopefully, he could preserve his strength since there would literally not be anything left in the tank after they joined the fight. Elyra, Gretchen, and Gabriel were all a little better off, but not as much as Peter would have hoped. Not enough since they had sent dedicated far fewer units to the assault force or to the aid of other allies like he had.
Then the call came from Elyra. “Eli has joined the attack. I got A and B tiers. Far more than I am ready to handle,” she said with a frantic voice.
Perhaps the insects at the end of their own ropes had finally decided to goad their newest member to join the fight, or just as likely the crustacean had come to the conclusion on his own. The allies were all worn out from a long continuous battle. It was time to make his move after the insects had taken the brunt of things. Of course he had chosen to attack Elyra since the two probably hated each other the most. Perhaps not the best decision on his part.
“Get word to my Ether tearing dragons. Use them now,” Peter instructed. The ethereal dragons had at most regained about two thirds of their energy, but they were needed now to blunt Eli’s assault. Already through his units on the frontlines Peter could observe things.
Powerful A tier crustacean mages were already releasing havoc. Several hundred other A and B tier melee fighters were slinking their way forward along with their own C tier crustaceans as well as the insects all around them. Elyra needed some serious help to survive the powerful hit that was coming. It only took a minute to get instructions down to the seventh floor. Immediately some of the B tier mining apes were rerouted to the teleportation ruin on Elyra’s eight floor. Luckily, there had been little need of teleportation over the last hour, so his mages standing by should be ready to send a good 3 or 4 runs across. Gabriel and Gretchen also made preparations to send in some aid from what they could spare.
Directions were sent to the rescue force stationed in no man’s land. The force was composed of the units from the other allied dungeons. They immediately set off to attack Elyra’s first floor. It was a good sign that they were able to immediately gain control of the dungeon entrance. Peter would have given up the ghost, if they were still able to continually send in reinforcements at this point to lock down all their entrances. Not that it was a good sign that they couldn’t. With the battlefront currently residing on the seventh floor, there could be six floors full of insects. There would hopefully not be that many, but they had definitely left a strong welcome at Elyra’s dungeon entrance. There were several dozen B tiers leading the efforts to repel the rescue force. All savagely engaged the rescue force. Unless the floors were empty after the initial defense it was clear that the rescue force would be bogged down far too long to be of much more use than to keep the insects from sending anything else.
