Bonded Summoner-Chapter 12BS7 - : Uniting with Hearthtribe

The party quickly joined the battle, once again using their Second Tier Runic Spells. The monsters were already busy trying to gather and scale the fifty-foot tall stone walls, so the large orbs of flames and lightning washed over large clusters of them, damaging and destroying dozens of enemies in a single moment.

The monsters seemed to be a mixture of the same that they had faced before: giant insects and beasts, exuding the qualities of life or death. While Clan Hart’s spells were devastating, it wasn’t as though their grouping of powerful orb or wave spells changed the battlefield by that much.

There were over five hundred defenders within the walls or in the air, and what appeared to be thousands of enemies swarming the Outpost.

Several boss-level enemies had neared the gates of the outpost, where Vesuvius had grown to meet a giant scaled bear-like creature in melee, working in tandem with Darris, the turtle reptile beastkin.

Drysander, Nadessa’s war oak father and Paladin of Guan Yu, held off a giant angry scorpion with dozens of vines and roots, and Bulldozer the giant death scarab, met a different giant beetle with his large pincers, fending it off. Roxo spun with his talon-like blades, cutting into many of the enemies surrounding him.

The avian beastkin launched attacks from the air, and swooped in with deadly spear attacks. There were some flying enemies as well, but they were far less numerous and easily defeated by the ranged attackers.

Takoda the capybara beastkin and Missy the brachiosaurus fought side by side, along with numerous other beast tamers and their auril beasts, and even spriggons riding dinosaurs. Jake was surprised to see that there were actually those that had reached the second Tier, but he recalled Fhesiah mentioning that they benefited quite heavily from the pills she had made for the beastkin.

Since they also supplied much of the resources for them in the first place, it was only right that they enjoyed plenty of them as well.

Drawing in and desummoning Zephyr, Jake gathered his Hearth Flames. He could feel that Bree wanted to be summoned badly, and it was the same for Avalara. If he summoned one, the other would undoubtedly be unhappy. He nearly groaned at his difficulties.

Was his summons having a will actually better? He remembered the game where he was a summoner, and his choices were exclusively based on whether a summon was better for the job or not.

Fhesiah chuckled. [That’s a silly thought, Jake. How could you even have it after seeing Bree’s ass? And why, drinking Ava’s milk from the source alone…] She trailed off, and Jake dutifully ignored the tirade of the best parts about his newer permanent summons.

Jake was merely playing around. Whether he cast a giant fireball to defeat the enemy, or cast a dinodog shaped fireball mattered very little in the big scheme of things to him. He wouldn’t have as much mana to cast large spells or manifest other templates, but he wouldn’t really need to, thanks to his Mana Control and his powerful hearth.

Because he was in a defensive battle where they were trying to push enemies away from the walls, he found resonance with his Monarch, Blood. The runes on his armor, Ophelia’s through her chosen technique trait, and Bloodberri’s shifted to take on a dark-gold hue, empowering all three of them, and limiting Jake and Ophelia where appropriate.

Then he began drawing as much mana in from the surrounding area and his wives’ regeneration, to establish his two large summons.

Enhanced by Jake’s resonance with Blood, Ophelia dashed in on Valora. Within a large cluster of the enemies, she sent out an immense wave of vajrafire flames in Consecration, as she blitzed through and sliced through the wounded creatures.

The fiery lightning shocked and purified the monsters, as well as set them aflame, and damaged those with deathly energies significantly.

Jake’s Champion Hearthian Presence already added offensive and defensive explosions of flame by default, as well as reinvigorated allies and aided them with the restoration of unique resources, such as auril and mana.

Having taken on the Resonance State of the Monarch, the offensive explosions now carried an additional heaviness that would knock enemies back. Then, it also slowed all enemies down within the range of Jake’s Aura, allowing Hearthtribe superior control of the battlefield.

The effect of his Aura covering his allies was seen almost immediately. Arrows and javelins being shot and thrown over the wall started exploding and knocking enemies back, causing even the large monsters to stumble and knock into others. The damage the auril manifestations of beasts accomplished was significantly increased, in addition to stopping the larger creatures in their tracks.

Even spells made of ice from the Priestesses of Arawn carried the flames of Hestia and Jake, the icicles piercing into enemies and then exploding inside of them. Everything would be enhanced every few seconds, only those with far more rapid attacks not experiencing the effect with every blow.

His Divine Hearth, his upgraded weapon which rested in his chest was like a vacuum, and drew even more mana from the surrounding area. Even still, when he finished drawing in mana and let out both of the familiar figures of Avalara and Bree right next to the bosses, it had taken much of his reserves.

Bree appeared in her dinodog form, sensing her large size would be helpful here. Thanks to how she would be pushed into motes of light as Jake summoned her from the Refuge, she could choose exactly how she would be let out. Probably, she would only take on the form of a humanoid when facing others.

The two large figures immediately began attacking the surrounding enemies, their claws or giant tree mace smacking or cutting into boss-level monsters. Vines danced in the area around them, manifesting Highlands creatures and dangerous dinodog bites onto the monster’s flesh. Then, Avalara and Tanda began their Sublimation of turning the area around them into Highlands jungle.

And it seemed that this process went even more quickly, thanks to the high vitality in the area, and from a few of the beastkin within the walls having done the same. These sublimations connected, and the density of the auril energy of the area increased substantially.

This did more than just sprouted a jungle around them. As auril heroes, many of their attacks drew in auril from the surrounding area to enhance their abilities. Whether it be to improve the power of their attacks, or to create or keep their form for Rookard’s wolves, Timone’s ravens, or to empower something like Tanda’s Cyclic Resonance. By establishing a sort of portal or connection to Highlands, this enhanced everything that the nearby beastkin did.

Jake had been surprised to learn that warriors like Brock could also Sublimate on themselves, to form armor or bestial weapons. The bigger surprise was that Tanda and Avalara had many options for this, once they had mastered them. Tanda could now sublimate larger wings, cover her entire body with thick fur, and even grow slightly like the reptile beastkin often did. And now, when she wanted to, she could even create deathly ravens like her father.

It was that Tanda and Avalara’s connection to Highlands was far greater than the average beastkin, even among those who reached the Second Tier that they could create a connection to its jungle.

From what Jake could tell, those who were capable of doing this were often those that had an affinity for becoming a clergy of Cernnunos. It wasn’t always the case, but it felt like it was more often than not. Jake wasn’t sure if this was because that meant they were closest to Avalara, but it was clear that each and every single one that could accomplish this was talented with auril, and had awakened easily.

Several years of data was gathered by the meticulous Valtor. From that, it was learned that those that had affinity to become clergy outside of the Celtic gods often had difficulty awakening and required the serum Fhesiah helped create.

At first, there had seemed to be no real difference, but after hundreds had become clergy of other Divine and these data points were recorded, a commonality in the statistics had prevailed. Of course, not every beastkin could become a divine’s clergy, and that was one of the larger reasons why this was difficult to see.

As the jungle Avalara and Tanda created grew at the base of the gates, the many beastkin were quick to take advantage of their Sublimation. They leaped into their allied jungle and started taking on the enemies at the base of the gates, as well as surrounding the bosses at the gates to rain fiery attacks upon them.

While this dungeon floor felt somewhat like home, Avalara’s Sublimation of the jungle was home. Enemies that encroached the jungle were attacked by it as if every tree and bush were alive, and Tanda’s bow sang as she launched several Verdant Barrages, striking fierce blows and entangling enemies with deadly vines.

“Being sealed blows.” Berri said, switching to using her older spells as she was covered in white light. She surged forward with her Mace of Hestia ability, her weapon in the form of a big maul, and it crashed into a monster and exploded in white light.

Blood shook her head at the results. “Our twilight dance is stronger than that ability now. I guess we won’t be using that.”

Thanks to being sealed, Bloodberri could not use her Twilight Monarch ability, which granted allies nearby life and strength stealing abilities, as well as protection. Twilight Divide was also unavailable, which made her extra frustrated–Berri loved splitting enemies in two and creating a devastating explosion.

Sealed, Tanda couldn’t use Verdant Rebirth to summon her spriggons or other plant creatures, her Cyclic Resonance, or use her Avenging Strike. This still left most of her druidic and archery abilities, so she continued launching seed attacks with Verdant Barrage, and using her Rampant Growth and Plant Control to spread vines and both tear and crush enemies with them. Her cyclical auril hearth still drew in nethril from the deaths of her enemies, which she could still enhance herself and her ranged attacks using her Cyclic Avenging Flames.

Fhesiah was the least restricted, only unable to use her Curse of the Sun and Moon, and her elemental summons. Dashing forward with Draconic Might and dangerous claws, she tore and shredded monsters apart with her immense strength, and charged her attacks with her torch of Hestia.

Riding on Bloodberri’s back, Jake stuck with her as his battle mount. They fought through the wave of monsters with the many beastkin, working together in tandem. Bloodberri swung her axe covered in their own hearth blade, and Jake stabbed out with his mounted weapon–his Divine Hearth weapon taking the shape of a glaive with its length and its balance perfect for mounted combat.

As he fought against what amounted to trash mobs to them, Jake was happy to see his many allies and friends, from Morwen and Bedrwyr joining each other in large frost-powered attacks, to seeing Brock and his wives.

To Jake’s surprise, Seamus the Paladin of Lugh and lion beastkin, now had several lioness wives in addition to his raven wife that fought near him. He even saw Grayson healing allies with his water, with a nymph–a water dryad, and three reptilian wives firing their bows and throwing javelins near him, and casting spells.

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He could tell they were together, as each wore Clan colors and liveries, promoting their honorable contributions and glory on the battlefield.

Rookard’s summoned pack of wolves were becoming even more impressive in size and number, and they now fought alongside Bree’s pack of dinodogs she created. The man had also picked up a few wolf parentage younger wives of his own that fought nearby, and included a dryad and a faun.

Noticing a commonality, Jake was starting to feel a little weird as he watched the many battle harems of the beastkin and Elysians fighting across the battlefield.

Of course, Jake knew that many of these strong male beastkin had several mates. However, while conquering Highlands, many of their mates were simply behind, and didn’t participate in the major battles and conquests.

At Life’s Haven, Nature’s Crossroads, the Greater Rifts, and the Dungeon Raid, it was nearly exclusively the male clan heads that participated. Only a few standout women had excelled enough to participate, mostly the avian beastkin that fought alongside Tanda, or the handfuls of reptile beastkin from Vesuvius’ Tribe.

Seeing them in battle now was a sign that they had finally caught up, and this filled both Avalara and Tanda with pride. There were many more out there at the other Outposts in the dungeon, or still participating in finishing up the final Conquests Hearthtribe invested heavily in.

Drysander was far from the only treant with many wives hanging from his boughs as he fought, and Jake certainly saw a number of beastkin with fauns and dryads for wives. There were even a few humans, trolls, and orcs mixed in, with their own battle harems that formed around them.

Many notable warriors who participated in the arena had started to join Hearthtribe, Jake had known. But seeing them here with their wives still felt strange. There were not many Lamias from Ganestra yet, but Berri mentally clapped at every single one she spotted.

Fhesiah laughed in his mind, as she sent fiery waves from her Claws of Celestial Fusion, cutting through numerous monsters and clearing them out rapidly. [See how good it’s working? They’re all kicking ass. They’re so well-coordinated, and their parties are so well-rounded.]

Tanda’s voice was filled with pride. [The beastkin seek harmony among their clans, and those that join Hearthtribe to punish the wicked and protect the weak will round out their parties for battle and adventure. Following their hearts, but also the guild doctrine.]

Fhesiah said, [As a fun side note, thanks to Ankhmar merging with Highlands, I do think we’re ready for another Mass Migration or two. The few we did were not quite enough.]

Blood said, [It is true. Our ratio of women to men within our guild is starting to get a little away from the desired, and while many new beastkin reach adulthood, those that reach the level range of our guild rapidly are few. They are joining the Tier 1 feeder Guilds, but those will take a long time to join Hearthtribe in truth–following the Guild Doctrines we left them, they will have their own Conquests and goals they want to accomplish. We need numbers to compete with our many enemies, and that means putting more and more warriors into the funnel.]

Jake had to admit, as he watched, that it appeared to be working very well. The beastkin were often amazingly coordinated thanks to their auril hearts, but that coordination persisted with the many Elysians that had joined their many families.

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He wasn’t sure, but he felt that their coordination or strength was even better than before, and a big part of that could be how well their parties now balanced out.

Many of the insect creatures had attacks that spat deathly or poisonous energies, but Jake’s Aura helped protect them, and his flames made all of their ally’s attacks deadly. Despite facing a vast wave of enemies, Hearthtribe cut a swath through the monsters with ease now that Jake and his party were there, and piercing the enemy’s formation.

The beastkin were truly in their element in a fight, their hearts singing the song of battle. He could feel it as they all fought, and he directed them as they dismantled their enemies to his instruction.

Each of his wives had quite the kill count, from Fhesiah launching hundreds of darts of kitsune flames or her waves of Celestial Claws of Fusion being sent out, to Tanda launching hundreds of arrows and seeds from her bow. They led the charge, Hearthtribe fighting with both technique and coordination.

Bree and Avalara were truly forces of nature, their sizes allowing them to both soak up damage but also unleash devastating attacks with their bulk. They both enjoyed fighting among the beastkin immensely, shredding and crushing their enemies with each passing moment.

And Jake, despite having much of his mana reserved inside his two powerful creatures, still contributed significantly from Bloodberri’s back with his Hearthblade. Each swing cleaved through enemies like a hot knife through warm butter, and with their deadly dance, the two would always line him up for a swing while accomplishing their own. Their tail shredded through enemies as they weaved through the battlefield, their spikes causing explosions from Jake’s Aura.

Eventually, the boss monsters at the gate were defeated, and the swarm of insects and beasts were pushed back and destroyed. It took quite some time to clean up the many enemies, as not everyone had Auto-loot like Jake’s party. After the remaining monsters were looted with skills, the party met inside the Outpost with their allies.

The many Clan heads had joined up, with Vesuvius conversing with Rookard about the loot obtained from the bosses.

Jake leaped down from Bloodberri’s back, and arrived next to Ophelia, Fhesiah and Tanda. “How goes it, Vesuvius?”

The large lava monitor beastkin grinned. “It goes well, Chief–the loot was somewhat substantial. We’re deciding on who gets a life affinity-improving item we’d earned before. But we can all tell that danger lurks–something is stirring on the floor. It’s like it knows what we set out to do today. We have several reports of monsters gathering, and parties being assaulted on their way here.”

Rookard chuckled. “It appears like those in this wave, they got excellent loot when this happened. With great danger comes great reward.”

Drysander stomped over, and stopped just in front of him. Now that he was near, it was easy to see how he towered over Jake. Upon entering the second Tier, the many treants had grown even larger than they already were.

The large war oak covered in battle scars chuckled. “Of course it knows that our Champions are here. It is whispered on the wind, the forest itself speaks of it. Your people, the dungeon wants to eat the most.”

Nadessa was riding in her father’s boughs, and she spoke up from where she sat, peering down at Jake’s party. “It looks like you did decide on two. Jake and Ophelia, and the rest of you are sealed?”

Jake nodded. “We decided this was the best balance of risk and reward for our first delve. We may tune it depending on how this goes, but it’s better not to become greedy. We know how it likes to lure us into a false sense of security.”

It wasn’t just improved loot that they would gain on clearing these events as Champions. He had learned that while Life’s Haven had buffed up and they did not earn a Divine Spark, they had actually gained something, even beyond the special Epic+ Store and tons of CP.

Their faith energy levels and ability to understand Divine Energy was just so poor at that time, that they could hardly feel it–and they were so busy with Jake entering a rage from his Wrath State, besides.

Much like when they killed the Necromancer on Ankhmar, they got a small sliver of something, and it increased their total amount of faith and divine energy contained within their vessels. The distinction between the two energies was not something Jake fully understood still, and the reason for this was that they were so close.

When faith energy was particularly dense, converting it into the energies of the divine made the difference somewhat small. Looking at Morwen and Bedwyr with his Umbral Gaze, he could see faith energy throughout their whole bodies, while Jake and his party had the denser, more mysterious divine energy within them.

The primary reason they went with Jake and Ophelia unsealed was that they could use Fusion Ascension. Having access to both of their Divine Energy in this form would grant them a significant advantage, that they were sure would allow them to flip the table and overcome any threat.

At the same time, Jake hoped he wouldn’t have to use it. The dungeon didn’t seem to be aware of the overall strength of their hearth bonds for some reason, and enemy champions kept underestimating just how effective they were.

In the Fortress Assault, their enemy had expended significant effort to seal the rooms, but Jake could have summoned any of his wives except Bloodberri at that time if he had wanted, and just stomped the Champions one by one.

To add onto that, it seemed the enemy champions weren’t really aware of Ira his familiar, either. It was hard to read an anthropomorphic locust Champion of Greed’s expressions, but how he froze in place and seemed confused after Ira wrapped around his throat was interesting.

This would be for their trial run. Depending on the difficulty, they would either reduce or increase their number of seals. He thought that even if this event went easily, they would at most only unseal one more of them for random dungeon exploration with their allies.

The truth was, the War Trial events might have challenges where they couldn’t even seal themselves. Wouldn’t it be smarter for them to run around unsealed all the time, to have the right expectations and possibilities for growth?

It may seem that way, but the battlefields would potentially be so large, they would often be forced to split their efforts up anyhow. It wasn’t as if the battles would be the same as if they all five were all together, like doing Incursions or exploring the dungeon as a party.

In addition, they wouldn’t actually be the only Champions or their near-equivalents on the battlefield, with many children of Divine and beast avatars present and more. So in that sense, their difficulty wouldn’t always be matched.

Morwen interrupted his thoughts, “This will be much like what was recorded in Life’s Haven, then. The Boss or event will become more challenging. Our brethren will get a better challenge this time.”

Vesuvius laughed. “We did call Clan Hart for the bigger ones, but we hardly needed them in truth. We appreciate the aid and the security, but we’d have managed.”

What Vesuvius said was true. The last several events, they were hardly needed. After the first major one, they had only brought several of Clan Hart members, rather than the whole party. It was more a break from their usual tasks than it was that their guild actually required their help.

Bedwyr sighed. “It is a shame the Ravenwolf Tribe are not here. Their strength and skill will be missed.”

Tanda nodded. “Dad and his Tribe are off helping Warrior Brotherhood and baiting the Obsidian Blades into fights, to help them win access to the Prime Instance. It seems Mother is having a grand time.”

Rookard laughed. “Dahlia did love a good hunt. I almost pity our enemies. That Timone and her have access to your Clan-mother Aisling is really not fair. Having her helps with some of the communication issues, as well.”

Jake couldn’t help but grin at that. Timone and Dahlia were already quite strong. Combined with exceptional mobility, and having someone who could somewhat see the future on your team, was really busted. As she had reached the Second Tier, she was more actively and reliably able to peer into the near-future, he had learned.

What Rookard was referring to about the communication issues was that their headsets they used on Ariminum and Highlands did not work within the dungeon, nor did many forms of magical communication.

Many other magical tools were simply not allowed, including many exclusive flying tools like Jake’s blimps and more. Even Storage Rings had certain limitations on what they could bring in, the items automatically being locked upon entry, unable to be removed.

It was yet another reason for them to be forced to rely on the Outposts, since messages could travel between them.

They organized their Battlegroup for the upcoming event, not really knowing what to expect other than that it recommended a maximum of 100 members levels 33 through 35 to assault. That the gate was more or less in view of the Outpost led them to believe the challenge was related.

Unlocking a new floor required defeating a boss-level challenge, though the size of the Battlegroup varied. For smaller, resource-oriented floors like the previous mana stone cavern, a smaller, twenty-five person Battlegroup could unlock it by defeating a challenging boss or sometimes a special environment–or both.

Those that led to massive floors like this one and the entry, they required whole Battlegroups of various sizes, and could have long events like the Dungeon Raid. This was definitely the largest one they had attempted, judging by the numbers involved.

While Hearthtribe had explored much of the floors and unlocked numerous paths or special events within, it wasn’t just that exploration took time or effort. Challenges had numbers and level ranges required, and thanks to the Outpost system, it seemed to require quite a bit of build up and effort to unlock the different sections. There were even gated items that only unlocked with enough resources collected.

There were also special timed events, that Hearthtribe had taken on without Jake’s party. They simply were unable to head back in time to get them to join, and it appeared that this was by design. The benefits in these cases were the best, but there also appeared to be a major danger–if they failed, the Outposts would come under attack.

As Jake looked over at the ominous gate in the distance, he couldn’t help but get a nagging feeling. That this looked a lot like something he’d seen in the MMO.

So Jake let his allies know his suspicions, and they made calls to the nearby Outposts. While it might just be a coincidence, it certainly didn’t hurt to take a few extra precautions.

Jake said, “It’s clear this Outpost might come under attack, whether from the challenge itself, or from Tartarus machinations. But we’re used to what it can try to pull off. We’ve prepared as much as we could, and are ready for a challenging battle. As always, we’ll remain vigilant and fight with our all.”