Things around the entrance and in the air seemed quite grim. More and more insectoids found their way through and into the Katydid core’s first floor. All of the B tier archangels had already been forced to land due to having bottomed their holy energy. They chose to keep themselves separated from the battle as they slowly recovered their energy. That left the battle to Krista and all the dragons.
Krista had already burnt through her holy energy, and had already been forced to use supplements to replenish her pool. She would soon have to drop out entirely. The A tier dragons now carried the bulk of the work, along with hundreds of dragons that had abandoned the alternate realm fight which was going nowhere. They were heavily outnumbered, but then each was also quite a bit stronger than any of the enemies they encountered that were of the same tier. Bodies from both sides fell from the sky all across the floor.
The only part of the battle going in his favor was the ground battle. The katydid core was pouring in reinforcements, but it most of elites had already fallen or were fighting on another front. Even the B tiers were more few and far between at this point. It must have been quite expensive for the core to bear much of the burden for the alternate realms across every front.
There had been thousands of copies of the same beetle on the floor which had proven difficult for even his units of the same tier, but their numbers had been reduced grievously leaving only a few pockets that still fought on. The rest were generally weaker for their tier and went down easily.
Peter had 3 agents of destruction keeping the far more numerical katydid force on the backfoot despite hundreds of reinforcements pouring through every minute. The least of which was the berserker ape. The S tier was riddled with wounds, but just would not go down. A dozen sigil masters rode mounts just outside of the action, and were healing the beast as much as possible to keep it going. The ape was pulping insects or ripping them apart, each taking only a few seconds if that long.
The second elite was the collapsing star fiend. The SS tier had drained off the plasma it had recovered long ago, but its physical attack was also SS tier which was more than enough, despite the fiend being a third the size of the larger ape. Both the fiend and ape were crucial to the balance since they were both apt to challenge the elites that were now dwindling.
The most destructive of course was the fairy and her following. The sanguine rose fairies seemingly had no limit as long as they could continually top off their blood reserves. In a way they were a great counter to the waves of insects, as long as they had enough support to kill on their behalf.
It was apparent they could not infinitely proceed by themselves, since their attacks and defenses would take far more energy than they would get in return. However they were the perfect compliment to a difficult to exhaust beast assault force. The beasts killed or wounded, and the fairies supported, while feeding off the beast’s effort.
All together his assault force was grinding down the katydid’s forces despite the constant flow of reinforcements. Peter just needed the other sides of the battle to continue to hold, which was seeming more unlikely by the minute. Peter was forced to quickly explain the situation, and ask for aid from his allies as the battery crystals ran out of juice.
All the battlefronts were extremely intense right now. Whereas Peter’s defenders had not done more than to slow the enemy with traps and quick ambushes after the first floor, the others were fighting tooth and nail over every chunk of ground. Gnther had reached the battle in Elyra’s dungeon and was helping to keep the air forces at bay. Despite his efforts the fight was already back on her fifth floor. It was the deepest the insect forces had pushed in any of their dungeons.
By appearances Gretchen was doing the best. She had thousands of pikeman infantry, protecting a hundred ballista, each of which fired purple energy beams. She had half a dozen various bird based units that protected the skies including an S tier crow. Thousands of weaker mages worked together to send powerful waves of magic at enemy elites. Thousands of dark elves fought on the sides of the wall. They stood on small fortified platforms using long ranged hooked firing contraptions to first pierce the enemy wall crawlers, before jerking them of the wall, leaving them to fall. Insects that tried to assail the platforms found themselves savagely rebuffed with multiple spears.
Gabriel had managed to keep the battle on his third floor. Of all the battle fronts, this looked like a fight of epic proportions. Thousands of close knit flying insects swarmed in small formations fighting hundreds of demons and fallen angels, as woodlouse and cricket forces attempted to work their way across the ground. A semicircle golden shield surrounded the last foothold that Gabriel had managed to hold on the floor, but crickets were hoping right over the top. The wood louses were smashing right into the barrier. Gabriel had to be burning through a lot of energy to maintain the shield which prevented his forces from being overrun.
It was actually Gretchen who answered his call for aid. Soon every 30 seconds a new batch 42 black B tier crows arrived. They quickly detangled themselves before taking flight. Peter could only watch in disbelief, since she also had hundreds of them fighting in her own dungeon. She likely had well over a thousand of the unit’s, which cost her at least ten million essence. Then again she only had 3 S tiers to spam B tiers off of. She could also have maelstroms or the common summon one off cards. In this battle the flying units were extremely valuable. Only his dragons which breathed fire, or Krista herself were better in the air.
His forces were on the brink of pushing the katydid’s off the floor when it happened. Peter’s line exploded. It had happened several times before, but not to this extent. More worrisome were the accompanying reports.
“Nightmarish creation is dead,” one clockwork shouted. Peter had someone monitoring the status of all his elites at all times to ensure he did not miss one’s death in the mess. A shame, the nightmarish creation seemed to really like adding bug parts to itself. Now it would not only not get the chance, but it would lose the stone armor pieces it had grabbed from the prior battle.
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More worrisome however was the other report. “Enemy S tier!” a clockwork shouted. Peter’s eyes immediately hone in on the black bombardier beetle.
“Those damn older cores! That is a restricted type,” Khan said angrily.
Peter could not agree more. This definitely stunk of outside aid. Accompanying the S tier beetle was a fresh wave of A tier spiders and more B tier bombardier beetles. The real question was how the insect cores had gotten it up to the S tier. Surely the older cores would not have traded one of them with an S tier type card. Perhaps there was something like his development pond?
It did not matter now. Luckily the explosion and following explosions had gotten the attention of his elites that were finding it more difficult to find a worthwhile opponent. The only S tiers that did not respond were the guardian spirit which was in the process of fusing to a second body and Krista who was resting across the field.
The sanguine fairy, berserker ape, and collapsing star fiend were more than eager to answer the call although it would take them several minutes to get back over there. It was not enough, Peter immediately sent an order to send in some aid. It would take a bit over a minute. A runner had to be teleported from his tenth floor to the sixth floor, and then they would have to be teleported over to the other dungeon.
The S tier bombardier beetle and A tier spiders started cleaning up Peter’s containment circle. Hundreds of B and C tier spiders flowed in behind them. Only the SS tier construct would be safe, but as energy depleted as it was it would not be able to do much. Luckily the S tier bombardier beetle and several Powerful A tier spiders wasted their time to try and kill the SS tier. Wasted, because the attacks barely left cracks on the actual construct’s body. Only more spines were broken off. They would need a large amount of time to crack that nut. Time they could only have if they defeated Peter’s assault force.
A minute later the saint flame dragon arrived with 32 B tier armageddon dragons and the S tier mirror soldier. The S tier dragon had recovered its flame and had been kept in reserve for something like this. The B tier armageddon dragons were brought since even A tiers could not disregard their void beams. They might each only get a few shots, but 3 or 4 hits could kill the average A tier. They also were pretty good in the melee.
Spiders had already been moving toward the ruins in force. Taking out the only way Peter or his allies could bring in reinforcements was an obvious move. Unfortunately, for them it would not work even if they succeeded. The mages were already scribing a second ruin further into the floor. The ruin would be complete very soon. However it was still a big assumption on whether they could even destroy the first. The saint flame dragon immediately began a scorched earth policy. It had enough flames to keep the teleportation ruin free for at least another run to get successfully through. Several A tier spiders raised a barrier. The flames washed off of them, but the spiders were only able to keep themselves safe. Other spiders and B tier beetles had to weather the flames and void beams on their own.
The fairies were the first to arrive. Only a few of the B tiers had stayed back. The rest passed over the already drained husks along the field for the promise of a bounty on the other side of the wasteland. The dungeon had likely broken many of the insects that had died near the entrance down to prevent the entrance from being blocked by the bodies alone, but there were still hundreds or even thousands all around. Streams of bug pulps started flowing through the air.
The bombardier beetle fired two rapid fire orange blasts at the S tier fairy, but both were caught and snuffed out in the fluids. In return the sanguine rose fairy S tier sent a blackish rose into the beetle's side. The beetle chittered angrily, but otherwise looked unaffected as it increased its barrage to fire another blast every few seconds. The fairy expertly caught them all, but each consumed a large amount of her collected fluid. The bombardier beetle seemed to have a far less limited supply.
A second teleportation run arrived. This time it was half B tier armageddon dragons, and half B tier plasma bathers. The latter of which immediately began running wild into the enemy ranks as their skin started to glow. Going into enemy lines would likely get them all killed and quite quickly at that, but it was where they were most effective. Even A tier spiders found themselves scorched when slammed with the B tier wrecking balls. Peter watched as two of the legs on one buckled from just a brief moment of contact.
Peter’s eyes quickly focused back on the fairy as blast after blast consumed the fluids. Enemies were just not dying fast enough for her to replenish it. That and there were too many fairies there competing over what was there. It quickly became apparent that spamming the fairies by the thousands would likely not work, but the 400 he had already summoned should be useful on all the fronts. Peter had already used up 4 million essence to send 100 fairies to each of the allied battle fronts including his own. If he had done so sooner they would already be there aiding all the battles. As it was now, they were all flying across the floors to arrive on scene.
However his S tier fairy would be just fine. The other two elites on the floor were running full tilt. Both were aimed at the enemy S tier. It might have been a close race, if each of the berserker ape’s lumbering gaits did not take it twice as far. The beetle was forced to shift its aim on the approaching foe. The ape used the back of its hand to slap the first ball of explosive acid aside. The ape stumbled a few steps, roaring in pain as its hand started to dissolve, but instead of focusing on the ongoing agony the ape continued forward at its query.
The berserker ape launched itself airborne to avoid the second ball of acid. Which also served to carry it over two A tier spiders that had stepped forward to protect the S tier elite. The ape came crashing down taking the beetle's final acid ball right to the stomach before its fists started pummeling.
One of the A tier guardian spiders with needle-like legs pierced the ape through the back a few seconds later. It pierced all the way through critically wounding the ape again, but all the spider got in response was the ape snapping off the needle like appendage before it went back to pummeling the S tier into a sulfurous goo. The berserker ape was pierced again, before it wheeled around on the new opponent. The front of the ape’s lower chest was steaming, and already a few entrails were hanging free, but the ape continued to fight. It was clear however that it would not even be able to beat this A tier let alone any more. Peter prepared to use his second resurrect in a matter of only a few minutes, the third for the battle.
The other guardian spider was already fighting the SS tier fiend. It was one sided. The only reason it was not dead yet was because the fiend was out of plasma and the spider was much bigger. It took more time to rip the spider to pieces with its small natural weapons. The fiend’s momentum only stalled when the needle leg spider joined in. The needle legs stabbed forward lightning quick, but they could not touch the fiend. They could only delay the inevitable outcome against a far superior foe, by hampering its movements. Without aid the two A tier spiders would not be able to match it.
