Peter only had 3 million essence with which to work with. Half the year's essence had been used summoning A and S tier unit elites and creating 6 maelstroms, 5 crusader C tier and 1 holy armor dragon B tier. The maelstroms could be said to be future prep, but the rest of the A tiers, even those he would love to have a maelstrom of would be forced to be in the thick of it. Hopefully, some of them would survive.
He would gain a lot of attention today showcasing potentially 2 S tiers. Even if he was able to keep the units themselves out of the fight, dungeons would know since he had a good 300 B tiers based on the two different dragons from both maelstrom and extra one offs, he had spent an additional million on.
Peter had also spent nearly 2 million on crusaders to hold the line in his dungeon as well as an additional 2.5 million spent to augment his C tier spectral armor and ghastly soldiers. Along with the 9 A tiers elites, he hoped he could hold down the alternate dimension. Despite having taken out ghost, there were other undead core types. Sure they would all be older dungeons and were a step lower than ghost, but Peter still expected the fighting on the other side to be fierce.
That left him with only 3 million essence which he would use to basically form his assault force. He would have a small air division led by ‘the great Gunther’. He still had the electric shrike and flame sparrow that he could summon one offs for, but having shown that hand last year he would not make the exact same move. Peter immediately sanctioned 1 million essence to be used to use up 50 B tier Holy stock options. He had 201 of them, so he would still have some for the future. Peter then used another 1.5 million essence to summon 3,000 C tier dragon one offs. Having used up 12 dragon original cards he had 10 C tier options to pick from. He filled Gunther's force with the 3 that were not capable of traversing to the other side.
Peter then used 200,000 essence to increase Gunther’s sky units. The C tier dragons would basically be powerful meatshields for the electric shrikes to hide safely behind. The last 300,000 essence would be used to make some fodder to defend their first few floors.
As far as strategy, Delilah would lead the alternate realm defense, while Glenda would lead the physical realm defense. N’tuma the dean of combat would lead the assault along with Gunther and his air force and a few other elites. Eight of Peter’s 12 A tier alternate realm elites would lead their own offensive accompanied by hundreds of their own one offs. Both S tiers would remain in his own dungeon. Peter wanted victory, but keeping his core safe was the primary concern. Plus as soon as he defeated the assault force he could send them forward.
Peter watched the last few seconds tick down from his chair at the top of headquarters. The rest of the room remained quiet waiting for the various screens to snap into life. The last few moments before a battle were always the same. The anticipation was like an electric current in the air. When the timer hit zero all hell would break loose.
The first units to make the move were a dozen D tier iron glider flies that burst through the enemies entrance. The units were extremely fast and nimble making them ideal scouts. Their metal skin provided some measure of protection against aerial area attacks which was a common countermeasure to air units. The D tiers quickly whipped out into open air and Peter got his first look at his opponents dungeon. The enemy was in his own dungeon only moments later, but Peter was far from concerned. The first few floors were filled with only fodder to get a measure of what they were dealing with.
The opponents dungeon however seemed to be taking the battle serious from the start. His scouts whipped through the open foggy air. The screen showed a wide open room although the outer ranges were obscured by fog. Thousands of skeletons and other undead units were hunkered behind palisades and other earthen bulwarks.
It looked like Tombstone wanted a standard battle from the get go. Peter quickly sized up the units. All the melee fighters were at least C tiers with the occasional B tier captain. There were a few A or even B tier mage types at the back of the chamber, but the majority of the ranged fighters behind the defenses were D or even E tier skeletons. Each carried a bow and a quiver of arrows.
Only ten seconds passed before the main forces started entering the floor. Crusaders with heavy iron shields led the way. A second later they were beset by a hail of arrows that mostly slammed harmlessly either into their shields or into the ground around them. The light crusaders expanded out into the room as new ranks came in behind them. Pyro flinger was the first A tier to enter. The unit had survived 2 battles and had a host of kills, including a half dozen A tiers. Immediately the A tier started exchanging fire with the A tiers that were already blasting spells there way.
Most of the crusaders were surviving the barrage despite facing A and B tier attacks. Then again it looked like the mages were not using extremely powerful spells for now. Just green and black balls of energy that slammed into the crusaders shields as they moved judiciously forward. Perhaps it was also due to the holy armor dragons spread across their ranks. Perhaps the holy aura was providing some protection against the sinister looking spells. Four alternate dimension A tier dragons led a charge out of the gate followed by hundreds of spectral armors and ghastly soldiers. A few hundred feet out they started to open tears and enter the alternate dimension plane even as corporeal friendlies streamed past.
The 4 A tiers immediately found themselves in the thick of it in the alternate dimension, but their opponents were mostly B and C tiers so they ripped their way in. Seconds later their own C and D tier support started trickling in and aiding their effort. It only took half a minute before his opponent brought 3 of his own A tiers and a handful of B tier support to stop the offensive, but N’tuma had already sent the remaining 4 A tiers in. The eight dragons rampaged.
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Two more enemy A tiers soon materialized and then several more, proving that battle in the alternate dimension would be extremely fierce. For now the eight dragons and their support could not be stopped. Tombstone likely had a decent alternate dimensional presence for their peer group, but he was clearly losing ground against the ghost types that Peter had basically stolen from them. Peter was thankful he had taken away their source 2 years ago before the ghost core likely had a chance to trade A tiers. Whatever spirit type Tombstone was using was clearly inferior against dragon and ghost.
Tombstone’s leader eventually pulled back the elites and most of their forces in the alternate realm abandoning the first floor to its fate. The eight ghostly dragons did their best to savage their enemies, but the retreat was extremely orderly. Once the alternate dimension forces started forming tears in space and attacking the physical realm defenders from the rear and flanks the floor fell quite quickly. However, once again Tombstone’s A tiers and the majority of B tiers had slipped out of the closing noose. Peter’s forces had extracted 30 or even 40 times the losses than they had suffered, but since for the most part they were C tier and below outside of a good 5 A tiers brought down in the alternate dimension. Thousands of E and D tiers stayed to fight the advancing crusaders who moved forward cutting them down.
The next floor had nearly the same layout. Things were just in slightly different positions. The enemy strategy was also apparently near the same. Although this time there were at least 12 A tier mages besieging his forces as they fought their way onto the floor. Peter’s own forces proceeded in the same manner. The alternate dimension fight went about the same way, with an initial bloodying and then a full scale retreat. Once again the enemy A tiers and most of the B tiers in the physical realm were able to retreat. The third floor promised to be just like the last two.
“He is whittling our forces down, while preserving his own,” Khan said in amazement. “But his troop movements are so graceful and coordinated, like he has practiced this over and over.”
“Likely that is precisely the case,” Boris chimed in. “It is also likely why his battle dungeon floor layouts are all similar. N’tuma will need to somehow interrupt this rhythm.”
The fight had begun in earnest on their own fifth floor several minutes prior. Unlike the salamander and dart frog cores, their opponent was heavily restricted by the floor. Large shield carrying B tiers were leading the way across the stone lily pads as ballista bolts whizzed past. Peter only had a handful of water units but they were swimming around unopposed and ambushing units near the edge. Peter had not relegated a lot of resources to the floor, but by its nature it appeared it would be able to weather on for quite a while. Delilah was also easily holding the line in the alternate dimension.
Then something changed. A large undead mummy used some scepter-like device to rend a tear in space. Not into the alternate dimension, but a black crevice, a large shark-like form descended through splashing into the water.
“B(+) tier reefer shark,” Boris informed from his side. A moment later he continued. “It's a summoning, Emma referred to it briefly during the year 2 congregation.”
“What they can just summon B tier units,” Peter watched in horror as the large mummy once again summoned another B tier unit into existence. This time it was a frog-like unit.”
“I don’t know. It was just an off hand comment, when she mentioned it. Presumably there are some restrictions or limitations.”
“Perhaps that scepter is a piece of unique equipment, masterwork or artifact, I should think,” Khan contemplated. Peter had unlocked the support card to summon something at the masterwork level although he had so far failed to draw one.
“I’ll be damned if this asshole got one of his faction members to trade him another rare or epic equipment card. Shouldn’t they be worried about their own progress or survival,” Peter said frustradely. A third aqueous beast splashed down into the water. A white streak of energy slammed into a before unseen barrier. Glenda had noticed and was targeting the unit, but her first fully charged attack had not even cracked the barrier. Energy visibly steamed off of more than 10 nearby undead C tier undead mages into the surrounding air. A second white light blasted against the barrier that once again flickered into existence, even as a fourth water unit dropped from a new spatial tear. Already the new aquatic B tiers were working rapidly to establish dominance.
Peter however could only wonder how many more the scepter could summon or if there were limits. The mummy did not appear to be weakened, but then it would perhaps be hard to tell either way due to the unit's featureless body. A fifth form fell into the water. Only then did the mummy lower the scepter. A third white blast slammed into the shield. Peter saw a closeup of glenda and she was clearly frustrated. Her magical attacks were S tier, and a bunch of C tiers working in tandem were holding her off, although several had collapsed after that last attack. The mummy slowly retreated across the platform through the floor’s entrance, effectively hiding on the prior floor.
Within minutes the B tier’s finished off the C and D tiers stocked in the water and started ambushing defenders on the platforms. The floor would be lost unless Glenda committed new resources, which she did not seem inclined to do. Right now Peter was effectively using his first five floors to test the enemy with only the fifth floor providing much resistance, but Glenda was conserving resources for the sixth floor and on where more powerful forces could stop the enemy.
So far Tombstone’s general had effectively hidden most of his forces' capabilities. The large mummy with the scepter being the only true standout. Peter would have to strengthen the first few floors enough so that they at least would not fall to some random fodder, but he knew he was unlikely to do so in the near term. His resources were already spread pretty thin.
