The large boss-level enemies were like walking tanks, giant scorpion-shaped creatures that fired blasts of green acidic bile the size of a car from their arcing stingers. It erased pieces of Avalara’s jungle like they weren't even there, the ooze-like substance pooling up on the ground.

  There were three of them, and they were the size of several semi-trucks, domineering figures on the battlefield that fired blasts of this ooze every few seconds. And the number of ants and their riding casters increased significantly, the enemy’s numbers surging rapidly. The burrowing enemies also made a reappearance, and Jake understood what this was.

  It was the final push. It would take nearly five whole minutes for the swarm to reach the keep and start damaging the walls and barrier, and probably several more to destroy them and get inside. With only fifteen minutes left, if something spawned five to ten minutes from now, unless it was insanely fast and powerful, there was no way it could actually cause their loss in time.

  It seemed the scorpion’s ranged attack couldn’t reach all the way to the top of the keep from the bottom, which meant they had some time to defeat it. They hadn’t taken much, if any, damage at all on the keep walls or barriers, so they had quite a bit of leeway to take them out.

  Bloodberri’s superball smashed into the one in the center, the creature screeching as the projectile shattered against its armored exoskeleton. It stopped the monster in its tracks, but then numerous ant casters turned to it and began covering it with black and green glyph-covered barriers.

  Her next superball was rejected by the barrier, and Tanda’s explosive arrow too. Jake was debating having them switch over to the now more numerous swarm of ants heading their way, but he realized that this was a good challenge for his state and Bree. This was a Framework-sanctioned challenge, so her taking damage and facing these attacks head-on would allow for her evolution.

  Up to now, she hadn’t taken what could be considered helpful damage. The scything ant mandibles did have some kind of corrosive bile on them. And she had intentionally allowed them to bite her, but the effects appeared to be too weak to challenge her current body’s makeup enough to trigger her Divine Trait.

  Berri started shifting her baseball bat into her usual form of the chimeric axe. “Guess it’s time for us to head down. Smashing baseballs was fun, but now we can join in the melee. Are you going to ride us, Jakey?”

  “I’ll stay in the jungle after I recover some mana. You go on ahead.”

  She rushed down, snaking down the hill to join Avalara and Bree. Jake had summoned several sets of the Heroic Beasts and sent them down to join their forward force as the two large beast girls stomped forward, but he had added another wave of them.

  Avalara began growing her swamp in front of the jungle, switching her Sublimation over to death. The upper reach of the jungle nearly reached the gates, only cutting off to allow for an empty area where they could easily target enemies if they got that far from the keep walls.

  With that, it was like they had several football fields worth of jungle and deadly swamp impeding the incoming enemies. Even if they let many ants through, they would die long before they could reach the keep walls.

  At the bottom of the hill, Ophelia was enjoying her fiery enhancement and growth fighting alongside Bree and Avalara. The swarm of giant ants was endless, but the storm of vines and pack of heroic beasts and summoned auril creatures from Bree and Avalara were a respectable army to match. Dinodogs and stags joined the pack to fight, and as Bloodberri’s Twilight Monarch Aura covered them, they became even more formidable in taking them down and lasting longer in battle.

  Bree took the brunt of the attacks, even taking a blast from the giant scorpion. Her shield of fiery vines was melted through, with some of the acidic bile landing on her shoulder. The flesh and vines regenerated as she pumped auril through them in defense, her fertility facing the destructive power.

  She was focused on what parts of her multi-layered defense worked best and how to counter the corrosive energies and physical elements alike, pushing her Divine Trait to its limits, as this time, it definitely triggered.

  Bree formed more shields of vines and took more attacks as they approached the giant scorpion to face it, Ophelia’s Hearth Guardian sending healing energy into her to assist in her regrowth of flesh.

  On the other paths, barriers were created by the talismancers and walls of vines established by the nature druids. The acidic bile was tearing through, and a rain of flames from the ant caster’s mortar-like arcing attacks was starting to become problematic. But now, the treants had already grown to ridiculous proportions. They were nearly the size of Avalara herself, bark and vines protecting them from this corrosive element.

  The cultivators from Love and Justice did their best to dump much of their stores of Qi and mental energy, their Daos, thinning the herd of casters and reducing the defenses available to the giant scorpions.

  And Tanda’s mother and father were preparing their Cyclic Resonance. Auril had been building in the area over time, and so they were ready to release their devastating attacks. Waves of multicolored light surrounded them, their bodies glimmering gold as pillars of condensed auril empowered them.

  Jake gave them the go-ahead to unleash their attacks. There was a chance that there might be some additional spawn that might be even more dangerous in the time remaining. But he was confident in his reasoning and that his family could shoulder the burden if that happened.

  A giant crescent moon halberd formed, reminiscent of that very first play Jake saw on Highlands. It likely wasn’t at the same level, but it was large enough to cut a much smaller mountain in half.

  They swung it downward, cleaving the giant scorpion in two. The ground in a straight line was pierced and shattered, an explosion of destructive light tearing the surrounding enemies apart. The turbulent energies nearly erased the ant army, destroying shields and casters alike, and even cut through the ground and slew even the burrowing enemies.

  And the Dharmapalas and his cadre also created a giant attack. The devil burned hot with fiery rage, his body enlarging as he flew above the enemy forces. Fiery streamers and wind joined from his party, a giant fist the size of a small mountain forming above his head. He then punched downward, smashing into the massive scorpion and the surrounding army alike. The flames exploded outward and spread like wildfire, covering the ants and burning them rapidly to dust as they screeched.

  Jake’s lane held back their more ultimate attacks, not needing to go beyond what they could use every several minutes, beyond expending some mental energy. Avalara released her flames of conflict, the beam of golden flames washing over the front of the enemy army. Ruby had been storing the bug’s ichor in a large orb, and much of it separated off before forming into a large volley of blades before firing it off. The blades cut into the scorpion and the surrounding ant mages, cutting them down and weakening their barriers.

  Nessa and Nana sent out several large serpents of frost from her lake, heading toward the large scorpion, and Bree roared as she breathed out a large amount of flames containing her Nascent Divinity from just in front of the monster.

  Fhesiah and Sati had remained in the keep to protect it in case of any odd, sneaking enemies, and they sent large orbs of flames they had stored, including a joint attack of Fhesiah’s flames of Celestial Alchemy. They flew over like a shower of meteors, exploding over the scorpion and the surrounding enemies.

  Tanda had stayed inside the top reaches of the jungle. She was preparing her Bloom Burst, her seeds having bloomed long ago. Dense auril mixed with the pollen drifted into Tanda’s bow and arrow, her Avenging Flames igniting it with intense power.

  The giant flaming wolf crashed into the scorpion, the shield finally shattering as many of the casters were killed and the damage had been exceeded on it.

  This allowed Bree and Avalara’s towering forms to reach the scorpion, along with their small army of Jake’s templates and their own auril creations. It sent a large amount of acidic bile spraying toward their forms, but Bloodberri wasn’t having it. A wall of telekinetic force crashed into the incoming acid, causing it to spill onto the monster’s back instead.

  The golden-bronze energy covered her as she swung her axe with the Twilight Divide. The light and dark explosion shredded its pincer right off, opening its face to further attacks. On the other side, Ophelia struck powerfully with her hearthblade and Vajrafire Blast, cleaving off the other pincer with a jet of fiery lightning blasting into it.

  Vines quickly wrapped around the target along with gouts of flame, ice, and beams of light. And Avalara, Bree, and Bloodberri really began wailing on the nearly defenseless foe until it was finally dead. With the vines, they dug into the ground to kill the annoying burrowing enemies, killing them with their numbers more than anything else.

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  With the giant scorpions killed, his family retreated toward the swamp, doing their best to keep the enemy’s spawn counts low. Jake had summoned even more heroic beast templates to replace the ones he lost in the fighting and was overall happy with his new state’s performance.

  New enemies continued to spawn, but there were now under ten minutes left, and none of the enemies had made it through their jungle or ledge defenses or even harmed the castle walls or barrier.

  Jake switched over to the state of the Avenger, planning to prepare another sacrificial attack, for a test more than anything else. He infused it with his hearth mana over several minutes, filling the meandering Greek key pattern with the many flames of his family. He also injected some of his void flames, making sure he made as good of a balance as he could.

  At seven minutes remaining, three more elites spawned. They were like the hornet champion of Loviatar that Ophelia had fought, wielding large polearms and covered in a miasmic aura.

  Tanda, Nessa, and Ruby went to help Timone and Dahlia’s lane, and the rest of his wives focused on the center, aside from Fhesiah and Sati.

  The hornets were fast, and they attempted to bypass much of the fighting, flying straight toward the keep. But Blood wrenched it with her telekinetic grip, dragging it downward as Runic Shackles wrapped around it.

  “Not so fast, vile insect. You will face my dear sisters here.”

  It broke free rapidly, but by then, Ophelia on Valora already had a bead on it, her lance piercing into its body and sending vajrafire into its form, the lightning causing its body to lock up. It tumbled the rest of the way toward the ground.

  Whipping vines with auril manifestations crashed into it, tearing into its body and damaging its wings and grounding it. The creature was nearly as large as Avalara and durable, they could tell. But it was certainly outnumbered, even with the numerous ants heading their way.

  Jake targeted the elite on the side of the Baron Jantaka’s lane because he knew that side had expended much of their resources, not having enough time to recover. Fhesiah and Sati were largely saving up for another large volley like the one they used to help take out the scorpion from before, but they were ready to assist Jake in slowing the creature.

  Dozens of flaming darts were fired, the hits causing small explosions and slowing it down. And Jake sent a few spells from his hearth bubbles, waves of telekinetic force crashing into it.

  He once again pushed his sacrificial flames and his faith into the spell, causing him to grunt from the pain of it. He hurled it at the opponent, and while he didn’t hit the creature dead-on as it tried to move out of the way, it didn’t matter.

  The massive explosion washed over the monster, engulfing it in the powerful flames beyond their current Tier. Its fiery blast was even more significant, the State of the Avenger having empowered his offense a bit more than the State of the Sage had. The flames even destroyed a large number of monsters beneath the hornet, the fires raining downward like living napalm.

  Ruby and Nessa pushed hard to take on the third elite hornet, Ruby’s swarm of blades wounding it and Nessa’s poison weakening it even further. Tanda’s Bloom Burst provided the final finisher for the monster, as Timone and Dahlia both still managed to strike it several times with their sniping bow attacks as well.

  And of course, Bree, Bloodberri, and Avalara had no trouble at all with the downed creature. In fact, Jake was confident any of his wives could defeat the creatures as individuals, the swarm of enemies nearby the only difficulty in allowing them to do so.

  With the three elite enemies slain, the final spawning enemies couldn’t make it to the keep through their various defenses in time. They continued to kill the spawned monsters, harvesting experience and various loot.

  Eventually, Jake received the victory prompt, and they were teleported to a recovery area for ten minutes before exit. The usual carpeted lounging area appeared, with furniture for resting and recovery. Their allies were all across the lounge area, but Clan Hart was all together.

  [Greater Rift Victory: Alliance] [Difficulty: B] [Rating: A]

  [Battlegroup Reward: 12.3 Million CP, 8 T3 Credits, Merit Granted. Rewards granted based on individual contribution.]

  [Merit threshold has been reached. New Contribution Store items are now available.]

  Berri danced, swaying in place. “We did it! Now we can get something good!”

  Tanda pumped her fist, her tail wagging. “Yes!” She tilted her head at that message. “Why’s the Contribution Store only available to those who earn enough Merit? If you earn enough CP to spend it, why should it matter?”

  Nessa answered, “It’s because Merit is only earned in the bigger, more important challenges. It is a simple fact that someone that farms Monster Dens for years to get millions of CP simply hasn’t impacted the war as much as someone who participated in a Greater Rift or Fortress Assault for example.”

  Ophelia hummed. “I see. So it’s only because it’s been walled off that it can allow people to purchase potential improving items with such an easy-to-obtain currency.”

  In all, the scale of the rewards was about half as much as the Fortress Assault. It was because enemy Aspects were not involved with the event this time, and it had been kept to a smaller scale at only a hundred battle power.

  As before, the numerous people outside involved with clearing the Rifts and monitoring the enemy movements had been rewarded too, which meant Hearthtribe and its allies will have received millions of extra CP beyond the prompt.

  Jake and his wives all received a potential improving item, which meant they could potentially all trade for items they wanted or use them. The Fortress Assault had granted similar, and this new Contribution Store likely allowed them to purchase some more directly with points they earned.

  In all, not much appeared to stick out to them among those granted. Ruby was the only one that got something that seemed particularly interesting, something that was related to blood refinement.

  Jake had heard about the special store and that only middling-quality or lesser items were available, in addition to some knowledge-related purchases becoming available. However, he was sure that Fhesiah and Nessa combined could refine various items and make something just as good–and Source Energy treasures would be included as well. They would plan out their purchases as a team.

  So now Jake had some choices to make.

  Should he try to make an Auril and Nethril heart, like Bloodberri did? It had worked out well for them, of course. They were just now reaching the levels of skill that most auril heroes had, and the power was real. It hadn’t impacted the battle all that much, but primarily because the battle was not that hard. He would only guess that his family had fought at maybe 70% of their maximum capacity, not even counting on using their Divine Energy.

  But now he was questioning if this was the right path for him, exactly. The Auril and hearthflame mixture was powerful; there was no doubt about this. However, up to now, he had not been able to use the qualitative improvement from mixing the energies into his Runic Spells.

  He had now learned how to use the power of sacrifice and faith to boost the strength of his spells. Jake also used the covenant and the power of the runes and their rules thanks to his Technique, which even the divine had been satisfied with its performance. But was there more? Could he squeeze out even more power from this system?

  Jake sighed. The Nameless Monk, despite their victory over him, had shaken his resolve in their methods. It had shown him that while they won, there were enemies out there that were beyond their understanding. He now had a renewed desire to shore up his strength, to push beyond the limits. And this was with his time with Sati recently, which supernaturally improved his resolve.

  If not for that, Jake just might have already locked himself up in his lab and refused to come out until he mastered something. And figuring out this sacrificial and faith thing had him nearly wanting to slap himself. Had he become complacent? How had he missed something so simple?

  Fhesiah and Ophelia both wrapped their bodies around him.

  Ophelia looked at him with a bit of worry. “You’re not alone, Jake. We… all feel the same way.”

  Jake looked at the girls and saw various looks of determination and concern in their eyes. It seemed many of them were a bit shaken, wanting to become stronger or to be of some use to him.

  Fhesiah said, “Don’t beat yourself up, Husband. Conflict and struggle are the drivers of progress and personal momentum; need is the mother of innovation and invention. You trained hard, and you researched and invented meticulously, true. And none can fault you for your choices or look down on your efforts. But you did not struggle, did not need–until now. It is only natural that your mind seeks new paths now that there is danger.”

  Blood nodded. “And there is no way that your previous time was wasted. Your research has fed into the rest of the guild, empowering and enabling countless others. Knowledge is the bedrock on which the true spark of invention is built. I have no doubts that you worked hard and walked so that once you learned the secrets, you could run.”

  Nessa added, “And Faith-based spells and abilities take a lot of time to reach a certain threshold in power. We gain much from defeating evil divine entities and destroying their idols and so on, but there are limits. Our recent victories, in addition to all the time passing, may be what pushed you to the next level. I’d wager your success today could not have been done in the past.”

  It was certainly true that Jake’s tests in the past were not significant enough to matter. “Thanks, girls. I can feel how fired up you all are. Of course, I’m not alone. I do think we still need to work hard to save these other worlds, but it seems spending some time to push ourselves a bit harder in our training and research is what’s next for us.”

  Berri nodded fervently. “Yup yup! I really want to spend some time mastering this one!” Her face scrunched up, and auril gathered before it formed into a small snake that immediately began slithering around her armored body. “It’s tougher than it looks. How does Tanda do so many ravens? I want to make a thousand snakes and drown them in danger noodles!”

  Tanda grimaced, her ears going flat on her head. “That…reminds me of that crazy Apophis Champion woman I fought…”

  “No, that is totally different. Those were worms, not snakes.”

  Tanda giggled, her tail wagging. “Hehe, you’re right! I’ll help you practice, and I’ll show you how.”

  The girls all started chatting, and they began to decide on what they wanted to work on. Each had a list that involved both crafting and someone else’s help. And Jake’s time was a hot commodity, each of the girls wanting his help, all having ideas on ways they wanted to advance.

  He was grateful. His path to strength had always been through them anyhow, and it was likely working with them might spark some other understanding.