Apparently their enemies agreed that they could not let things continue as they were once fire ant fell. They were now the outnumbered side in this battle. Unsurprisingly, it was Eli that would have to put forward the effort since the other two were far more spent. When the abyssal crystal construct entered Agatha’s dungeon with the intention of doing the same thing; it was beset by dozens of A tier attacks. Nearly all of them came from units that clearly belonged to Eli. What was most alarming was that some of them immediately took effect.
A green shelled shrimp mage was slinging what had to be rust spells on the construct. The green balls of energy easily ate into the metal. The progress of the damage was slow due to the tier difference between the attack and the construct’s SSS defense, but the attack was well suited against the metal like construct. Spines started to fall off as the corrosion reached them, and the construct’s main body started to turn from white to brown.
Ganon tried to stop the rust mage since its attacks were by far the most effective, but he was having to start over on forming an army. Then there were two blue A tier shrimp mages that intercepted his dark attacks along with the support of dozens of C tier one offs. The dark mage quickly shifted his focus to easier targets, as he began to build A tier guards. The construct would not roll through this dungeon like it had with fire ants. It would not even finish the floor at this rate.
Gabriel’s general was already calling out orders, readying the other units to take over the assault. The general belonged to the forsaken race, which was the most common humanoid race that could be summoned through the use of Gabriel’s Fallen type card. They did not really have any set look. The general was a green scaled humanoid and had several chin squid tentacles, but Peter had seen several other forsaken units that looked far different. The race apparently included anything that came from a certain plain of existence.
The general was a fierce fighter, with a special attribute that had to be SS tier. The fact that he wore gauntlets and was a pugilist was a clear misdirection since the guy did not need to close in to fight. Instead he shot out spectral fists that expanded a hundred times over and hit with all the force of a truck. A C tier insect would be turned to pulp with even a glancing blow, since the force would still be enough to send the unit crashing into a wall or another unit. Peter did not know exactly what Gabriel had used beside for his Fallen card, but he guessed that the Force type was likely included. Regardless, the guy was quick, smart, and seemingly full of energy. A perfect candidate to lead the attack from the front.
In less than a minute the forces were ready. The abyssal construct pulled in its spines resulting in it crashing down. Then it slowly started rolling itself back. More than two thirds of the spines were already gone, so it was more of a wobble. The SS tier was clearly in a bad way, worse than it had been after holding the line at the Katydid’s entrance, and it had taken 24 hours to get back into peak fighting condition from there, so he doubted it would be back in the fight for this battle. Which was fine. Fire ant’s dungeon had fallen entirely too easily helping Peter feel more confident in their chances. Peter was fine with pulling the unit out so that he did not have to expend a resurrect card.
With the construct’s retreat all hell broke loose. The ally elites that had been relegated to proceeding behind the core for hours during their last assault were in near perfect condition. They were ready to get back to it. Peter’s collapsing star fiend immediately rushed forward after the enemy elites. It went ballistic when it slammed into an energy shield. The shield lasted a mere second against the fiend’s plasma talons, only serving to enrage the fiend. However, a second shield sprang up and then a third as the blue shrimp mages did everything they could to keep the monster away.
The berserker ape sprang forward and slammed its paws against a crab that raised its claw to block the double handed strike. The claw was smashed away, but the A tier was able to move its second claw forward surprisingly quick to catch the follow-on blow. The berserker ape proceeded to smash down, the crab continued to block the blows, but the tough shell was already starting to splinter and crack.
Gretchen’s elites moved forward in a far more controlled manner. Just a simple squad of A tier dark elf soldiers wielding swords, but they had already proven how effective they could operate together. Their leader however was a different story. The baton twirling S tier wore a black tunic that continued onto pants that seemingly were tucked into soft ninja shoes. The guy had the look and honestly the moves of a jedi master. His circus master baton intercepted spells, sending them away. The movements were so graceful that it was almost like enemies were cooperating to hit him with attacks to give meaning to his movement instead of the opposite. The dark elf A tiers moved along supporting him perfectly. Perhaps the S tier was not the strongest out there, but the squad cohesiveness was on another level.
Unsurprisingly, the defenses crumbled under their onslaught as they expanded into the dungeon. However, this was in accordance with the standard insect faction playbook. The more ground the allied forces took, the more side tunnels the insects could ambush them from. Eventually there were just too many for their elites to cover them all, and the losses that had seemingly paused during their last assault started to occur with far more frequency. Without the unstoppable construct rolling freely down the main tunnel, the allied forces could not simply push forward huddles behind it until the end. They would have to slog it out floor to floor.
The insect faction had dealt with the abyssal crystal construct, but at least the allies had claimed nearly all of the elites that had been sent to complete the job, but the other cores were not finished. They had apparently decided that they could not just wait as their enemies took them down one dungeon at a time. They waited until the assault force was committed on Agatha’s fifth floor.
“They’re attacking me!” Elyra exclaimed, but there was no need for her to say anything. Already the feed from one of his iron glider flies was already pulled up at the front of his headquarters.
Hundreds of C tier crustaceans skittered forward with several dozen shrimp mages already setting up along the entrance wall. Overhead flew in tightly knit clusters of Hive insects. Elyra had only a token force ready to receive them. Only a handful of B tiers were left over, far too few to stop what was already inside, let alone the units that were continually pouring in. It was not a surprise. They had all already stripped a good portion of their defenders from their defenses to support the assault.
“Where do you want us to send them,” Gabriel asked.
“My sixth floor,” Elyra replied, quickly. Luckily they had already coordinated a plan for such an occasion. With all their defenses stripped to a minimum, all of them would have difficulty surviving a serious assault, but they were all ready to send units in response. They could only hope the insects would only conduct one such assault. At this point a C tier swarm on each of their dungeons might very well be enough to be game over.
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“Man I bet it was that traitor Eli, who made the call. Idiot, he’s been an idiot from the beginning…,” Elyra started prattling on. The others only cut in to coordinate their teleportations in. Elyra only had two teleportation ruins. One all the way back on her tenth floor and the one on the sixth. They all of course wanted to send their units directly to the required floor to save manna and prevent their units from having to travel. Mana would be the limiting factor.
Gnther and his mount as well as a few of their subordinates were already in Elyra’s dungeon. They were however engaged with the enemy using their magic to stall the hive units advance. Peter did not really have any options to pick from on who else to send. Already an E tier clockwork was waiting on the tenth floor ruin to carry a message to his forces waiting on the fourth floor. Glenda, Delilah, chilled glacier turtle, and the gravitron were the only elites left to send, so they would be the first sent over along with the rifle platoon. The rifle platoon were not very strong, but they would each be able to fire at least 3 shots at the B tier level before they had to recoup their mana.
Gretchen’s support was far more lackluster. She only had a few hundred C tiers that could make 8 defensive squads. Gabriel however, was sending over a real powerhouse that could easily match Delilah and Glenda if not surpass them. The hedge warrior was the first to arrive on the scene on the sixth floor along with a half dozen of his B tiers. Peter liked quite a few of his allies' units, but if he could copy only one, he would still likely pick this S tier.
The only downside of the unit was its low mobility. The metal barrel with stubby legs could maybe match Peter’s walking pace. It was the main reason that the unit had been left to support their defenses instead of being sent forward. The unit was also extremely durable and could mow down units with the steel cross held in its armored arms. It along with its one offs could easily match Delilah and the far weaker rifle platoon units.
The assault force was still on Agatha’s seventh floor when the enemy force reached Elyra’s sixth floor. Gnther zipped through the portal only seconds ahead of a formation of insects that had been trying to bring him down. The latter quickly wheeled around to retreat back through as magic attacks streaked toward them. Only a couple were brought down before they made it to safety. The shrimp scout that popped through about a minute later jumped back in before it could be brought down.
It was clear that Eli was heading things up for this assault. They were proceeding carefully and smartly. If he had led any one of the earlier assaults things could have been far more difficult since the crustacean type was far more devious and witty than the insect cores.
When the assault began it proceeded carefully. What came through first was an A tier unit that looked like a hermit crab. Golden barriers formed along both its front pincers as its smaller legs scrambled forward. The golden barriers intercepted attack after attack as more shrimp mages used the giant crustacean to shield themselves as they added their own blue shields to the mix completing the moving defense. It looked like the giant gold and blue tank of shields would survive through anything as the crustaceans pushed their way in against hundreds of attacks.
But then a dark flare of energy streaked right through, shattering multiple blue shields. The black energy scored a deep gash on the exposed shoulder of the hermit crab unit. The shot had come from Delilah of course. A legendary night crystal could easily pass through such weak defenses, but it looked like the slanted shields had still been enough to deflect the shot that had likely been aimed at the hermit’s head. Ten seconds later another dark streak smashed its way through. This time however it was sent even more off the mark. It left a smouldering black hole high up on the hermit’s shell.
The hermit crab continued forward as more and more enemy units poured in behind it. Large A tier crustaceans with mage support branched out, starting a wedge of protection for the hundreds of other shrimp mages to begin slinging their own spells from relative safety. It worked for a moment, before the allied alternate dimension forces made their move appearing right inside the protective wedge. Eli had crafted a solid assault, but it was lacking in that one aspect.
Most of the alternate dimension units belonged to Elyra herself. They quickly worked to slaughter the shrimp mages. Realizing the gap the rest of the insects started surging forward. Squadrons of insects started pouring up and over through the air. The carefully led crustacean attack was over for the accompanying insect core. Hive was back to the standard insect tactic.
Hundreds of crawling beetles surged forward out from between the larger crustaceans. Delilah’s platoons focused to bring them down, but most of the shots ricocheted off their hard shells. They quickly closed in before slamming into Gretchen’s infantry. Surprisingly the dark elves’ lines held despite the units being often more than twice their size. Spearmen in the back pierced through gaps in their own shield wall with surprising ease. It was clear that Gretchen was using intermediate weapons even for her C tiers which blew Peter’s mind. Even he did not have enough resources at that level to outfit the weakest of his units.
The swarm formations started crashing into the defensive backlines. Gnther and his small band were all they had left of the defensive flyers left on the defensive since Krista had tagged along with the assault force. He was far from enough to keep the formations at bay. Soon Peter’s Rifle platoons were being ripped apart. Delilah had already shifted to using her knives. The strongest units were only B tier which she could easily take on now that she was an S tier.
Glenda and the mages however could only hunker behind barriers. The hedge warriors just weathered the assaults while they mowed the small formations of insects down like anti aircraft guns. The hedge warriors were seemingly impervious to attacks at that level. Still without the support from behind, Gretchen’s lines started buckling as B tier crustaceans arrived on the scene.
It took only a few minutes for the defenders lines to break entirely. Delilah was struggling to fight her way out of the swarm that had taken out the rest of the nearby rifle platoon. She was an S tier, but had only spent the bare minimum of the development pond energy on her physical stats, so it was still a life and death struggle for her even against mainly C tiers. Still she showed the presence of mind to swing by to help pull Glenda and as many mages out as possible.
The swarms followed hot on the retreating defenders' heels, but there was one last surprise awaiting for them. The chilled glacier turtle’s and the gravitron's domains were already in effect from just outside the floor entrance platform. Allied defenders immediately skirted to the sides to try and avoid the worst of the two S tier domains. The hive formations all had continued forward most immediately touching the edge of the heart of the domains. To a unit they all crashed down to the ground due to the combined effects of the gravity and sub zero domains. as they went right into the heart of the domain. Some of the weaker agility based ones died outright, others were simply sent crashing down to the floor.
Lesser crustaceans and insects continued to pour onto the seventh floor, but they quickly found themselves just as restrained. It was not until the A tiers made it that enemies were able to break out of the containment. One large crawdad bulldozed both S tiers away from the entrance. It was not overly difficult since the gravitron was all but a warped piece of metal from the acidic attacks it had suffered earlier in the battle, and the turtle was pretty weak physically although the physical contact did immediately start freezing the A tier. The push however, allowed the enemies a foothold. Once the shrimp mages made it safely on the floor the full scale brawl really began. The allied defenders would have to fight to the death here. There was only a skeleton crew of defenders near Elyra’s core room after this.
