Chapter 60: Book 2 Chapter 14 – Ambush

The inner gates of the ramparts had opened up, and many kobolds, jackal people, and reptilians emerged to man the inner battlements, while Jake’s battlegroup entered the courtyard. This would cause this to be a repeat of the previous stage if it weren’t for the fact Jake was nearly certain spiders would show up from their rear soon enough.

Jake was going to do his best to flip the script, though, as he worked out what he wanted the battlegroup to do: they would not be assaulting the inner gate at all, at first. Instead, Jake picked the right inner rampart and sent the girls at it. The battlegroup would then make their way to the same side, to have their backs up against the wall to defend against the other attackers.

Jake formed the runes with the fire of his hearth and pushed them through his staff’s function for casting runic spears. Jake knew that this was not really the limit of Hearth Runic Magic, but a small benefit was using his hearth fire instead of mana to form the runes was that the result would be slightly more powerful. Jake hoped he could figure out the true differences between his [Hearth Runic Magic] soon, as he was having a hard time progressing the skill beyond the second level.

The large magical spear that was much larger than himself took on the element of stone, and he flung it halfway toward the top of the inner ramparts. It smashed into and stuck inside the wall, nearly a dozen feet of stone protruding from the stone walls. This would be Bloodberri’s ‘foothold’ for being able to reach the top with ease. Jake sighed. The spell took a fair portion of his mana and using the same method to make a dozen more stairs would take more than he was willing to part with.

Jake took a moment to watch Bloodberri climb to the top, her body easily snaking up and around the one point in the middle that he had added, then repeating the process to reach the top and quickly bowled into the enemies up on the ramparts, and Jake couldn’t help but be impressed with how easily she and the other three girls slayed the creatures.

With one swing of her mace, she flung a half dozen enemies away from her, knocking many more enemies over in the process. Jake got out his conjure stone spell-rod and started constructing two pillars. The first only reached about half of the way to the spike but to the side of it, while the other reached halfway above it. He then did his best to connect them with a ramp of thin stone, connecting even the spike, which should be strong enough for armored humanoids to cross.

This took Jake several minutes, and he was able to complete the ramp to the top just as the girls finished clearing the first rampart. It was just then, that a gigantic crash was heard, and a rumbling began. Jake urged the battlegroup up his makeshift ramp, one that was quite steep and spanned nearly five stories in height, and the rough uneven surface of his conjured stone might have been the only reason that he thought people would have enough traction to make it up. He tried to find the source of the rumbling with his [Arcane Eye], with Ira nudging him in the right direction he was able to find that a hole had been blown through a nearby cliff-face.

Hundreds of horse-sized spiders emerged, some with kobold riders of various kinds, from archers to spellcasters. The swarm of enemies spread out, and from what Jake could tell, their goal was to attack from all sides. If Jake’s battlegroup was in the center keep bashing on the door, spiders would come through the gates and from above them on all sides, while the upper ramparts rained attacks down on them. Instead, Jake’s battlegroup could use the ramparts to defend, being able to rain down attacks on the courtyard and the other ramparts.

Because of the distance and the angle to the other ramparts, it looked like most of the opposite ramparts attacks would be mostly ineffectual. With little time remaining before the spiders arrived, they would have to leave that section to its own devices, while they worked on taking out these spiders and their riders.

The casters and archers began raining down attacks on the oncoming spiders, which were quite numerous. Because of how the spiders and their riders had spread out, Jake had decided against raining attacks of his own down, opting to wait until they were more bunched up for better usage of his mana.

Despite them being killed by the dozen, spiders eventually reached the keep walls and began climbing, the battlegroup’s archers and casters backing off from the edges, to continue raining attacks down onto the oncoming swarm. Antonius and the other melee classes moved in formation to meet the oncoming riders as they came over the wall, and Jake felt that he could leave that side to the battlegroup. He had requested Alisara join the battlegroup on the ramparts, as they planned on using area-of-effect spells liberally.

Over half of the swarm of spiders was coming through the gate or up the other walls, so Jake would handle that with his own party. Fhesiah spoke, “My, half the challenge feels like it's babysitting. Half of those caster types needed help to make it up to the top of the ramp without falling down.”

Jake said, “I know. Still, I think we’d have run out of energy before accomplishing the goal without their help. Hopefully, they will see what they are lacking and improve themselves accordingly. If I were alone, I probably would have ended up similarly. I guess they all don’t have women driving them to be the best possible.”

Ophelia gave him a smile, but her eyes flashed and she took on a challenging look. “That’s true. Come to think of it, you haven’t even thrust your spear today, have you? Your spear and shield work is falling behind. I think I might have been too lax in your training lately.”

Jake began to sweat, just imagining the type of training she’d force him into from now on. Fhesiah saved him from discussing it further when she said, “I’m sure he’ll get plenty of opportunity to thrust his spear later. After all, once we win this Fortress Assault, I will want to celebrate.”

While Jake and Ophelia groaned, Bloodberri had a strange combination of a blush and a grin on her face, her two personalities having different reactions. 

All of Jake’s plans for helping out his girls and himself accomplish common tasks were completely destroyed by the fact that some of those in the battlegroup were worse than peak humans, as he was used to only compensating for his own capabilities or Bloodberri’s size. He would have to go back to the drawing board, but he couldn’t help but feel this could be a good preparation for similar events in the future.

Tier 2 entities shouldn’t have that sort of problem, being well beyond superhuman in just a few levels even as a caster and flight should be more than possible. Fhesiah had even explained to Jake that all Tier 2, [Cultivator Core] Cultivators could fly using heavenly energy alone. Jake didn’t think that mana could accomplish this on its own without a spell at just Tier 2, but if any human could do it, it would be him with his massive stores of mana and high mana control skill.

Of course, that was a long way away from now, as they could be considered not even one-third of the way to level 25. The enemy spiders started arriving in the courtyard, and Jake decided to join his girls in the melee to conserve mana, activating his [Runebound: Unbound] technique. He leaped down using a runic feather-fall type spell and found himself having a hard time keeping up with Ophelia any longer. He focused his technique towards making himself move much faster, but it still wasn’t enough.

She moved and fought like she was riding on an invisible mount, and rarely stopped for more than a brief moment to block or attack. Still, she cleared a path and Jake found it was easy enough to follow in her wake, striking enemies that had already been knocked down or bowled over, finishing them off. Fhesiah was not good for him to follow around either, as she would cover enemies in flames, and his efforts with the spear were often wasted as they would succumb to the flames eventually.

Jake fighting side by side with Bloodberri was out of the question, as standing near her was like a storm of blades and chaos as her tail waved and weaved, cutting through enemies and she smashed them left and right. It was now like she had eyes on the back of her head, where her tail would wrap around and throw the enemy into another one, or she would switch to a single-handed grip with her mace to cast a spell, either darkness or holy related. Fighting next to her was possible, but it would subtract from her own ability to cut enemies down.

Jake was surprised when Bloodberri clearly healed someone up on the ramparts, her body and theirs being wrapped in a flash of holy light, using her new spell: [Divine Intervention]. This spell was nearly instant, but could heal someone from nearly the brink of death to near full health. She would only be able to use it once every few minutes, the cost of her holy mana high.

She must have been utilizing the Battlegroup menu to monitor their health, Jake realized. Jake smiled, as he understood that she must have really changed. He hadn’t even asked her to heal anyone, her having done it completely on her own. If someone in the battlegroup died, there’s no way he would have blamed her, as he hadn’t even noticed someone was low on health himself.

Jake kept working to clear spiders. While they were fast, he was used to facing foes who were much faster than them. A quick stab into their head, sometimes after a shield bash to arrest their momentum with his shield’s inertia enchantment, and they were taken down without issue. They started bunching up significantly, as with each they killed, several came to take their place.

At the same time, the enemies on the upper ramparts tried raining down attacks on his party, them having moved within their range to fight the spiders. Jake decided that they would need to deal with them, as the beams of necrotic energy had struck his party. These had a low impact on his party because of their protections of [Divine Reinforcement] and [Purifying Flames] quickly removed the effect from their bodies, but it was still taxing their resources.

If the enemy’s shields would stop a half-hearted attack, they would have to give them a full-hearted one. They left Bloodberri to handle the enemies at the gate, and Jake and Ophelia began casting the largest runic fire-spear spells they could without using a spell-rod, and Fhesiah built up her own ball of flames using the demonic runes on her fan, her flames echoing her truths of the Dao. They fired their attacks at the same time, and Fhesiah merged them into a giant single attack, a ball of flames the size of a car at the battlements.

The enemy casters all worked together to build a shield and send attacks of their own at the ball of flames, but it was as if they were trying to stop a mountain. Their barrier shattered, and as it was about to land, several of the kobolds even leaped off the battlements to the ground as it exploded, sending stone and humanoids in all directions. The explosion left a giant crater on the ramparts, and nearly a quarter of the near one hundred enemies on the battlements died from the initial explosion alone, with many engulfed in flames. Fhesiah and Ophelia rushed to the top to finish the rest, and Jake rejoined Bloodberri to support her with cones of flames and lightning.

Antonius reported the numbers of spiders were dwindling, and so they had weathered the storm. They could now move to the gate and work on smashing through, to clear this stage of the assault. Jake and the girls did their best to recover, having won plenty of time to focus on assaulting the door, as the battlegroup moved the battering ram to the second door. Fhesiah had tons of kill energy to absorb and worked on it in earnest. Alisara rejoined them, recovering from assisting the battlegroup.

Jake noticed that at some point, he had reached the next level. He reviewed his status and skills.

 

 

Jake was happy that his purifying flames had finally reached the next tier, having removed plenty of Tier 1 status effects. Fhesiah had finally been able to produce some poisons that they were able to use to train the skill now that they were in the greater multiverse, and her skill reaching the first tier.

[Advanced Purifying Flames Lv. 1

Can now purge higher tier effects, flames are also added to all healing effects.]

Jake looked over at his attributes, and he gaped. He now had nearly double the attributes he had when he hit level 10 and picked his class. His Divine Hearth Core reaching Level 2, providing an additional 6 to all his attributes, combined with his class giving 3 to each for five levels, and Fhesiah and Ophelia’s bonds giving approximately 15 to each, is how he ended up being so strong. Ophelia had 81 strength now, but she had an increase of 30% to her strength effectiveness from her class, making her still stronger than him. Not only that, she also had her valkyrie’s fervor, making her even stronger than that.

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Once Bloodberri had gotten enough rest, she added her blows to the gate, taking only a few more minutes to smash through. They had plenty of time left, Jake guessing that Bloodberri bashing the gate, along with Jake’s enchantments to the battering ram, made things take less than a quarter of the time things were supposed to in regards to damaging the gate.

The gate eventually folded in on itself with a crash, and Bloodberri wrenched it open with her strength. Behind the gate was a blue transparent barrier, similar to the one they saw when they entered the challenge for the Fortress Assault. Beyond, it looked like a reception hall.

 

Jake saw that the dome that had covered the fortress when they entered the Challenge was now gone, and the rest of the battlegroup could now leave, their role completed.

Antonius approached Jake’s party and spoke, “That went better than we could have hoped. There have been some reports of rifts spawning throughout the world, perhaps to take advantage of our focus here. There was also news that one of our battlegroups meant to clear the nearby rifts had a near-wipe, but could retreat to your fortifications before being overwhelmed. They regrouped and then eliminated their designated rift, so your efforts eventually paid off. My guild is looking forward to purchasing some of those spell-rods from you, so take care and don’t get done in by the enemy, you hear?

Remember, the Framework protects our souls, but it can only do so much to protect the mind, and the two are linked. There are fates worse than death, something evil gods are very familiar with. Once you enter, my party will remain nearby in case you need us when you get out, but the rest of the battlegroup will head over to your makeshift keep before heading back to town.”

Jake nodded, “Thanks for the warning, Antonius. We’ll do our best to make it out. Here, take this. If we don’t make it out, read it.”

Alisara looked concerned, but Jake felt like this was her acting her role. Jake had handed Antonius a message about Alisara, and their suspicions. If he didn’t make it out, then Antonius would need to spread the word about her and get the addon purchased that would be able to detect the ‘puppet master.’ Ophelia, Fhesiah, and Bloodberri’s faces were filled with resolve. They knew once they entered, they would be facing enemy champions in a short period, with a dubious party member in their midst.

Jake learned from reading about the challenge that when multiple Champions were involved, the amount of resources they could use to make additional monsters and traps were somewhat minimal. There was no way that the allotted difficulty could include tons of creatures in addition to them while remaining balanced, so adding some convoluted dungeon with many creatures was simply not going to happen.

Jake wouldn’t be surprised if at the end of the reception hall was a room that the three champions were waiting in, based on what he had learned. Of course, that could be after Alisara sprung her trap, whatever it might be.

Jake’s party entered, the barrier turning red and impassable, and the prompt was updated.

 

Jake and his [Arcane Eye] scoured the reception hall, finding nothing amiss. Jake could sense Ira’s unease over the bond, but he could tell they too were searching with their advanced senses as well. Jake held his runic bubble of [Runic Shackles] at the ready, ready to trap Alisara at a moment’s notice. Nudging the framework, she was still protected, even here, and the prompt had still read 0/3.

Jake had created the Runic Shackles spell just for this purpose. It took all of his runes for his bubble, but it should create some magic-inhibiting chains that he needed to hold in place with both his intent and his mana, to disrupt the shackled person’s efforts.

They moved down the hallway, and entered an empty throne room. Jake found the empty place to be quite eerie, but there were no enemies to be found. They found a stairwell out the back behind the throne, leading towards a cavern. It looked like this was meant to be an escape path out the mountain, and they had now entered it.

Bloodberri was in the lead, with the rest able to assist if anything should appear, being the most durable of the group. Jake warned Bloodberri to slow down, as the end of the cavern had some magical energies drawn out into many lines encompassing the rear. As she stopped, having gotten wary herself from what she could feel, the trap was sprung.

Hundreds of hand-sized spiders were released in a wave of darkness from Alisara, and Ira roared from the void as they stopped her shadow teleportation. Jake activated his runes held in his hearth, covering her in runic shackles, locking her in place and making it harder for her to activate magic, beyond that which she already activated. Ophelia and Fhesiah both sent their best flames at her, and Bloodberri sped towards her with the strike of a viper, glowing in blinding light.

Some spiders climbed up Alisara’s body and activated a magical barrier, blocking some of Ophelia and Fhesiah’s fire, but these quickly shattered and they engulfed her in flames, causing her to scream in pain. Bloodberri’s mace arrived, targeting the aberration in her body in the middle of her chest. Some of the released spider swarm headed towards the walls filled with magical energy, but Jake was stuck holding the shackles in place.

The mace caved in their chest, and they were engulfed in white light, before a wave of darkness and evil blasted Bloodberri and the rest of the party back and away from each other, separating them, and snuffing out the flames engulfing Alisara. A giant spider leg then burst out of her mangled chest, shocking Jake. Ophelia and Fhesiah sent more flames at her, and Bloodberri reeled back for another attack, when Jake spotted a spider carrying a small ball heading towards him. It launched it into the air at him, Ophelia, and Fhesiah that were near each other, and Jake knew it couldn’t be anything good. He had the girls prepare their barriers, and he scrambled to use his spell-form force push while keeping the runic shackles in place.

The wave of force nearly reached the ball, when it opened and a wave of light struck Jake, Ophelia and Fhesiah, and Jake could feel himself being teleported away. Jake could feel Ira’s regret and shame that it couldn’t influence this effect, as its focus had been on keeping the enemy from escaping. It let go and let itself be moved by the same effect. Jake saw with his [Arcane Eye] that the spiders reached the back of the cave and triggered another trap, some form of chains. Ophelia shielded Fhesiah, latching the barrier onto her person to be taken with the teleportation, and Jake through her chosen specialization. Jake quickly shielded Ophelia, in kind.

That only left Bloodberri, who he could now see chains wrapping around, with more on the way. Jake knew she was the most durable and not shielding her when she had her [Armor of Faith] active was logical, but he still was filled with determination that he do at least one thing for her. It may not matter, or it might be the difference between victory or defeat. He furiously moved his hearth, forming a path from his core to his arm of hearth-fire moving mostly by instinct, and began channeling [Sacrificial Barrier] through it, holding onto his consciousness by sheer force of will, and the flames of a goddess. He placed it between her and the final two chains that shot out of the cavern walls and were heading her way. Just as his consciousness was whisked away, he thought he might have been successful.

Ira roared once again when they arrived at their destination of the teleportation. From the looks of where he landed, there was a trap even here where they would land, but Ira had moved his destination slightly so that it would not be triggered. They were in a room that was similar to the throne room that they had entered previously, with the enemy champion standing at the rear of the room, raised on a dais. He was a Jackal humanoid, and he was holding a staff and wearing black robes lined with green.

 

Jake found in his menu that the quest had now been updated to show that they must defeat four champions as well.

Jake did his best to get his bearings, but immediately probed his connections to his girls. Fhesiah and Ophelia’s were present, but Bloodberri’s was cut off. His [Divine Reinforcement] spell persisted, its divine nature perhaps allowing it to continue, but the [Stamina Regeneration] spell was canceled. His buff spells on Alisara were automatically canceled by the Framework at some point during the furious assault on her, the Framework no longer seeing her as a viable target for his framework-cast buffing spells.

Jake looked over the walls, and found them to be those that would seal the room and prevent most means of teleportation. It even blocked his bonds, only those hearth-bonded able to persist. Jake still thought he could use [Call Summon] on them, maybe even without Ira’s help. Jake would have to do his best to get reconnected to Bloodberri, in case she needed him.

It was Fhesiah’s voice he heard in his mind first. [Don’t worry, Jake. I will kill this drakan and you can call me quickly. We’ll kill that caster and then we can practice that spear thrust we talked about.]

Ophelia was next saying, [I’m ready when you need me, Jake.]. He sent her a mental nod, and a feeling of pride knowing that no matter what, she would have his back in this fight.

The enemy champion spoke from the raised dais at the back of the room, where Jake could see a door leading somewhere else. “I don’t know how you managed to avoid the teleportation trap, but you will die in this room. You’re all alone, now.”

Jake couldn’t help it: he laughed. Part of the humor to Jake was that Ophelia had barely finished her sentence when he spoke, and the other part was that he could hardly remember the last time he was alone. Not a minute would go by without him hearing a thought or feeling an emotion from one of his girls or Ira, and he wouldn’t have it any other way.

He decided to voice his thoughts and taunt the enemy champion, “Thank you for that. Thanks to you, I know that I’ll never be alone again. Even a Champion like yourself isn’t qualified to make that so. My girls will crush the other Champions, and whether or not I beat you by myself, we will stomp you together.”

The Jackal-man became furious, his eyes flashing with red light and his words coming out in a growl, “Even if they defeat their Champions, you will be long dead before they arrive, the path to this room winding and perilous. Now die!”

The Jackal began casting, and Jake was surprised by the weaves of the spell he both felt with his magical senses and saw with his [Arcane Eye]: this man was a summoner, like him. 

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