Mark watched as the last of the enemy army entered their territory. In total they numbered 1,244, with 1,177 gnolls and 67 orcs. There appeared to be four types of gnoll units: whelps, gnoll regulars, witch doctors, and jackals. There was nearly an equivalent amount of whelps and gnoll regulars at 565 and 535 respectively. These were the two unit types that they had seen in the camp they had attacked near the end of the first week of the succession battle. Their power ratings ranged from just below 1.0 all the way up to about 1.4.
Thankfully there were far fewer witch doctors and jackals, with only 30 and 47 respectively. The witch doctors looked to be mages with a power rating in the mid 1’s. They were the only ones not carrying the standard stone spears and knives. The jackals looked to be the peak unit of the gnoll branch. The spots covering the hides of the rest were near non-existent, the black spots barely peeking through the coarse dark brown hide. Their power rating ranged all the way from the mid 1’s to the mid 2’s. The large disparity was likely due to ranks and experience.
However there was one jackal that was easily identifiable as the leader. The dark brown of the others had faded to a dull gray color, seemingly a sign of age. However, the gnoll was not old and decrepit with age. Instead he boasted a 3.8 power rating. Unfortunately, there was one other powerful unit in the military. One of Crassius' old brute orcs rocked a 3.6. The two of them could likely weave a trail of destruction all on their own.
All together it was a formidable army. Mark was not at all sure he should not have spent the rest of their MP to buy whatever they could have to bolster their forces. They were currently sitting over 35,000 after all. The opposing force had both quantity and quality on their side. Still Mark felt good about their prospect. They had the defensive advantage and the enchanted items. Hopefully, they were as effective as Mark thought they would be.
The army took its sweet time setting up for their assault. If Mark did not know better he would have thought the army was hesitant to do battle. After all, they had only camped a couple of hours away last night, yet they had not reached the dungeon till nearly 1700. However, Mark knew that both the orcs and gnolls were highly aggressive and loved to fight. In that respect the two species were two peas in a pod. One look at any of their faces and you could tell. They were itching to be let off their leash and attack. However, their commanders were able to keep them reigned in.
The leaders regrouped their army at the tree line. They seemed to be forming into two different waves. Mark was less than surprised to see each and every whelp brought to the front of the army. The first wave would be composed almost exclusively of the weakest of the units to soften the defenses. The second wave would bring the rest.
The orc warband on the other hand set up to the side. They would seemingly charge in from the side. They might make up less than 10% of the opposing force, but they were the most frustrating part of this attack. He had no way of knowing how it came about that the two forces joined, but Mark suspected succession battle creator tampering. They wanted to give Crassius’ early game rampage one last final hoorah!.
One high pitch ‘yelp’ came from the gnoll leader’s throat. A tide of gnoll whelps surged forward, 500 voices answering with their own ‘yelps’. The battle had begun.
Over 600 hundred gnolls surged forward. They reached the edge of Mark's landscaping and were soon broken in half by a large mound of earth. A few whelps elected to scamper up the sides or over the top of the soft earth mound, but the going was far slower and they quickly fell behind. The soft earth mound successfully disrupted and divided the army.
Mark’s landscaping projects were very compact with only about five to six hundred feet of distance lying between the edges and the earthen walls of their main fortification, and the last couple hundred feet was wide open ground. The gnoll army quickly ran into more obstacles that further broke them up. Some found themselves on a narrow road with a few feet drop off on either side lined with spikes. Few had fallen, and even those that had been able to dodge the spikes, but it served its purpose. It kept them coming forwards and tightly packed.
Then all at once a good half of the gnolls were funneled back together. They turbulently slammed together into a mixing ground several hundred feet in front of the earthen wall, perfectly in range for a high volley of goblin arrows. Most of the other gnolls got funneled to the sides on slightly longer routes. Overall Mark was quite pleased. The army would not slam into their wall at full speed as one solid mass. Instead they got spread out and their forward momentum was disrupted. A handful of gnolls had even fallen victim to the pitfall traps scattered throughout. They were not really concealed very well, but what could the gnolls do when an army pushed them from behind.
The second volley of arrows met the gnolls a hundred feet before they reached the wall. A third volley would be able to hit the later half of the main group and some of the smaller groups that were coming in from the side. Magic bolts and a couple fireballs surged toward the gnolls moments before they made it to the walls. Dozens had perished, all before the enemy army could retaliate in the slightest.
That would change soon, as the whelps threw themselves at the wall. They did not have ladders or other equipment, so were having to climb up from the muddy wooden spike studded ditch. Which after a week of rain had effectively become a moat, surrounding the wall. It left them quite vulnerable to the awaiting goblin spears. They would have to pay steeply to gain purchase to gain any sort of foothold.
However, Mark could hardly celebrate. The second wave of the enemy army was already approaching. The first wave’s purpose was pretty much to keep the goblins preoccupied and soften the defenses, while the stronger units approached unchallenged. The second wave had surged forward only about a minute after the first had left, although they approached far more slowly and deliberately. Their commander was somehow able to keep the almost frantic battle enthused gnolls from charging recklessly forward.
The three patrols and the 26 frogmen that Mark had left out of the main fortifications were in a pitched battle. Mark had stationed them on a mound to the sides of the dungeon entrance. A good 80 whelps had been funneled straight into them. Mark had mainly done so to lessen the overcrowding, but they would also be able to challenge forces assaulting the dungeon entrance directly. The whelps did not stand a chance. The three red mages hurled fireballs into the center scattering them, and throngs of arrows swept their ranks.
The skirmish ended when the frogman used their high jump ability to leap into their midst, smashing units to the ground. From there it would just take another minute to mop up the rest. If they had time. The second wave was approaching, and enemies outside of the walls made enticing targets. Soon hundreds of gnolls were headed their way. The frogman and three patrols would not last long against the new force.
The earthen wall had easily stalled the first wave, with the enemy army taking heavy casualties. The defenders on the other hand had hardly lost a unit, not counting those fighting outside the walls. The moat was already filled with the dead and dying. Then there were the gnolls still alive stepping on and over them to climb the wall. Nearly two hundred of the whelps were already out of the fight and it had only been a couple of minutes.
The second wave only received two full volleys from the goblin archers during their approach. Many in the second wave had poorly made self-constructed shields that they raised to receive the arrows. Few if any of the arrows should have made it through, but arrows were punching through the poorly made shields and gnoll bodies. The green goblin archers had been ordered to shift to the piercing arrows for the second wave, and they were proving to be highly effective, as entire lines of gnolls were dropped.
The second wave almost immediately faced another wave of destruction as several dozen fireballs streaked out slamming into the front line creating a wall of fire, obliterating the units underneath. In the span of a few seconds they had culled well over a hundred enemy combatants. Up to this point the battle was looking very one sided, but things were already poised for change.
A good 50 gnoll archers posted out from the wall and were pouring arrows inside of the fort. It did not matter where they landed, most would be able to find a goblin due to the cramped quarters. Moments later, the gnoll witch doctors sent magic bolts in a concentrated wave directly into a section of the wall. More than a dozen different goblin heads rocked back with blood spurting into the air. A whole section of goblins had been thinned almost instantaneously. That part of the wall was immediately targeted by a squad of jackals that had been lying in wait for the opening. They charged in to establish the foothold.
They leapt down into the ditch lily padding off their fallen brethren pushing them further down into the mud and scrambled up the walls in seconds. They were over the wall just in time to meet goblins incoming to reinforce the area. The two forces were pulled into a brutal melee.
A loud ‘bark’ resonated from the leader. His outstretched arm indicated that section of the wall. Soon dozens of gnoll regulars were moving in to the squad of jackals aid. The jackals and their reinforcements took heavy casualties as they sought to establish the foothold. New gnoll units popping up from behind the wall became prime targets for the goblin archers and mages. Most of the gnolls that popped up over the lip never made it in to join the battle, and the gnolls inside the fort were actually decreasing. If nothing had changed the breach would have been closed in a couple of minutes.
But a minute later a second foothold was established with the aid of the mages and another squad of jackals. The pressure lessened on the first foothold, allowing them to just hold on. However, it was not until the third foothold was established by the orc warband, that the invaders really started making headway within the fort. The three areas all began to slowly grow. Within 10 minutes of the battle beginning, the three footholds were firmly established and had become the focal points of the entire attack, as all the remaining enemies outside of the walls climbed over their dying and dead to enter on the three established routes.
The goblins were fighting hard, but they were unable to push the invaders out. The footholds gradually started to grow, as enemy reinforcement overtook the amount of units being steadily dropped. Still the enemy's progress was slow. All of the archers had at least six piercing arrows, and the mages still had manna to expend.
It was the dungeon entrance that was in dire straits. Fifteen minutes into the battle the entrance was already buckling under the pressure. The frogmen and the 3 patrols had fallen within minutes of the second wave reinforcements. Even the scant few that had retreated back had been rundown, leaving two hundred uncontested gnolls to assault the smaller fortification. Mark had stationed two reserve squads and 5 legionnaires as reserves inside the entrance, but they were falling fast. There were only five red mages and zero archers to provide support for the fighters. The legionnaires could match the gnoll regulars in strength, but they were severely outnumbered. Only the limited space for enemies to approach allowed them to hold on. With a couple witch doctors and jackals thrown into the mix they were getting overwhelmed.
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At the twenty minute mark into the battle the entrance fell completely, and over a hundred gnolls poured into the dungeon. It was not too concerning for Mark, after all the gnolls would have to get through two floors to get to the core. Unless they were further reinforced by the remaining forces they would not stand a chance. In fact Mark was a bit happy that they had chosen to enter instead of joining the attack on the main fortification. For one, a fourth foothold would threaten to disrupt the balance the goblins were fighting to maintain. Second, they did still need a spawner for their second floor.
It took 15 minutes for the gnolls to reach the other side of the first floor. Traps had slowed them down and claimed more than just a few. All the while the battle raged outside. At 35 minutes, it was their longest battle to date, but it was also true that the armies were three and four times larger than any of the previous attacks. Both sides were extremely bloodied, but it was evident that the enemy army was going to come out on top, wiping out the goblins to the man.
The fight had broken off momentarily as the goblins reset at the far side of the fort. The orcs had let them go, regrouping themselves. There were about 50 left in both groups. However it was far more lopsided than the numbers would indicate. The mages had run out of manna a long time ago. They had either died or fallen unconscious, and almost all of the legionnaires had fallen by this point. Whereas more than half of the opposing force consisted of their very best.
The pause only lasted half a minute, before the gnolls and orcs surged forward ready to put things to an end. Eight arrows whizzed out from behind the goblin ranks. Each of them either sunk deeply into an enemy or passed right on through. A couple even stuck into a second enemy. Likely they were some of the last of the piercing arrows left, but it was the last trick the goblins had to play. The forces slammed together and the goblins were thoroughly exterminated.
Only 32 units were left of the opposing army. They were definitely bloodied and weary, but it did not stop them from immediately proceeding toward the dungeon. Something innate to the dungeon seemed to call them forward despite assaulting the dungeon in their current state perhaps not being their best move. Unfortunately, the caliber of the remnants was quite high. Both the gnoll and orc leaders remained. Then there were 13 jackals and 2 more brute orcs. One of the brute orcs was heavily disfigured with old burn scars from the last time they had attacked the dungeon.
“We’re actually going to cut this quite close,” Mark said. He was now a bit regretful that he had not spent just a little more of their MP. Keeping the insect units secret what he had been thinking. It was a bit too close for comfort.
The gnoll army streamed into the amphitheater about the same time as the battle on the outside concluded. Five goblin archers poured arrows from the back as the gnolls surged up the incline. Seconds later the hobgoblin shieldmen dashed to the side, revealing the studded rolling pin to those ascending. Those in the forefront could not do much as the pin dropped. The medal studs clinked as it rolled. It easily claimed 15 or so from the front ranks. The rest quickly scrambled out of the way.
For the first time, their spawner had spawned a brute orc. He led the charge of the right side wildly hacking through the gnolls with his hatchets. Three regulars and two imps supported its flanks. The other four imps manned the cranks to rewind the rolling pin. The hobgoblins formed a sort of shield wall on the left side. They would focus on occupying and holding their side. Except for the one, living enemies were exactly what Stein wanted. He would lunge out and grab an enemy before dragging them back behind the goblin shield wall that would reform behind him. It was actually working fairly smoothly. As soon as he sapped the life from one he would move to another. Stein was run through on each attempt, but he was difficult to kill and his already fast recovery only increased when he sapped the life from his victims.
Mark kept Winnie back till after the 3 witch doctors expended their attacks on the orcs. Several rounds of magic bolts took their toll on the orcs. Only one of the regulars and two of the imps still stood. They backed up as they tried to hold against a tide of gnolls. Luckily the witch doctors had expended most of their remaining manna to bring down the brute orc and several of the others. It was a bit sad to see their long awaited brute orc be slain so quickly. He had maybe been in the fight for half a minute, but since the orcs had drained the mages they had served their purpose.
They might still have a magic bolt or two, but they clearly would not be able to cast fireballs. It was the only thing that would easily stop Winnie. The gleeful ‘yelps’ of the gnolls became more guttural cries of warning as a several ton bear beared down on them. The gnolls were scattered. The half that split to the left, soon found themselves facing the second drop of the rolling pin. Winnie kept on the heels of the ones on the right.
The 4 imps manning the crank soon moved to join the fight. The gnolls had pinned the rolling pin in at the bottom with several spears making it impossible to withdraw. The hobgoblin shield wall had been fractured by this point. All that was left was a melee with a steady stream of five arrows raining into their midst. The hobgoblins would not last for long.
The fight was pretty much over before the second band of combatants reached the amphitheater. The jackal that had led the first group had been the only one able to hold off Winnie for long. He had scored a few good hits, but mainly dodged around for a couple minutes before he was finally cut down. The reinforcements arrived to find Winnie surrounded and heavily wounded. For the last five minutes they had only poked and prodded at the bear, who seldom was able to catch a gnoll before they scrambled away.
“Do you think they will continue on?” Amelia asked. Mark only nodded in response. The creators probably wrote it into the neutral faction code to go all out in wiping out dungeons. This force, which still retained their two powerhouse leaders, would not retreat. Mark did not even know if it was possible. Could attackers or adventurers choose to leave a dungeon after entering? Regardless, their second floor should be fine.
Bruce the drone wasp was more formidable than Winnie, and the other 24 defenders were more than twice as dangerous as the hobgoblins were. The 18 legionnaires should have a power rating of about 1.45 due to being level 2 warriors, although the system rounded it up to 1.5. Then there were 6 red mages for support instead of the goblin archers. Only thing the floor lacked was a spawner, and what do you know they would have a new option to get one soon.
The gray haired jackal was able to make quick work of Winnie with the help of the orc leader. It was slightly reminiscent of when two of Crassius’ orcs had been able to manage to fight Winnie to a stalemate. Their increased mobility allowed them to dismantle the corpse bear, as one dashed in and cut at the bear while the other dodged out avoiding Winnie’s counter strike.
However, it was Stein who had the last laugh. The reanimated goblin had gone unnoticed among a pile of bodies. He had been able to rise up and latch onto one of the jackals while their attention was drawn to the fight. He was cut to ribbons soon after but he had claimed one more powerful enemy.
The last units the gnolls had to chase down were the hobgoblin archers whose quivers were empty. Mark had honestly forgotten about them and failed to maneuver them into combat when they might have a chance to do some good. The five hobgoblins did a final charge with knives before being promptly cut down, and 34 gnolls and 3 brute orcs continued onto the next floor.
Ten minutes later they made it to the last room. Mark had not spent any DP to stock this floor with traps yet. No, it was all being saved to buy a third floor, which seemed far more beneficial. Other than the rolling pin, the traps had not really proven to be terribly effective. Unfortunately, the rolling pin was a one and done trap. The dungeon would not let him build a second, even on another floor. Mark guessed the creators did not want contenders to spam use the real effective stuff. He could not even make another of the amphitheater type of rooms. Despite having designed it himself.
The second floor final room was simple. Attackers would find themselves looking up to a raised floor 40 feet above upon exiting a hallway. Two sets of stairs with one cut back led to the top at exactly the same location. The stairs were symmetrical with their entrances next to each other and their cutbacks in opposite directions. The stairs were separated from the wall held up by arch supports, making it easy for the 6 mages to hit them from any point. Three mages manned the two castle-like towers that sat on opposing sides of the room.
The gnolls only studied the defenses for a moment before they charged forward. The attack did not prove to test the second floor's defenses very well. Mark had instructed Bruce to take down either the silver jackal or the orc brute leader if the opportunity presented itself. The drone had chosen the gnoll leader. The jackal had lingered behind as all of the other units started climbing the steps.
The drone wasp sailed right over the stairs and the other enemies. its wings buzzed as the drone glided down crashing into the leader. The wings were heavily damaged, so Bruce could not fly but it could somewhat manage a glide. The enemy units continued on, leaving Bruce had the jackal to fight a one on one duel.
The two were nearly equal power rating wise, but Bruce had size and was an undead. It would be difficult for the jackal to fight the monstrosity with stone weapons, still the fight went back and forth for a while for a minute. The jackal ducked and dodged in ramping two stone long knives deep into wasp, before pulling out, but Bruce’s reactions were far faster than Winnie’s had been. Once Bruce bore the jackal to the ground it was over. Bruce’s abdomen swung down piercing the jackal through in the blink of an eye. Whatever venomous concoction got injected into the jackal leader almost immediately took effect. The leader seemed to have difficulty moving. A second sting ended the fight.
Meanwhile the battle raged at the top of the stairs. The legionnaires held off the forces with their shields as the mages picked off enemies from behind. The legionnaires were not overly outmatched and they had the high ground. The brute orc leader was able to force a hole briefly before taking three magic bolts in the back. The stairs near the top led away from the mage towers, so the orc leader never saw the attacks coming. At least one hit something vital, causing the orc leader to slump forward.
It was a reminder that even a powerful unit could be brought down by a unit far weaker than itself. If the orc warrior had seen the attack, he could have at least moved his body enough to prevent the fatal wound. If he had any semblance of armor he likely would have been able to continue to shrug off the wound completely, but instead he fell seemingly effortlessly. The rest struggled with difficulty to gain ground, but more mage bolts and fireballs consumed their ranks. Mark almost laughed when the orc with severe burn scars got incinerated by a fireball. It had survived the last time it attacked after using a potion, only to return and fall to the same attack.
Once the drone wasp finished the gnoll leader the fight was truly over. Bruce quickly skittered across the ground crawling under the arches holding up the stairs. He began to use his legs like sickles scooping enemies from the steps. A 30 feet fall might not be deadly, but it likely would lead to broken bones. The drone kept going till there were no attackers left on the steps, before skittering down the wall to finish the wounded.
“Creepy,” Amelia remarked. “Bruce is far more terrifying than Winnie is. Another couple floors like this and I can’t imagine the type of force it would take to bring us down.”
“For now maybe so…” Mark said, watching as Bruce finished things up. “But a year from now who can say. The gnoll leader would have fared far better if he had a steel sword or even a magical sword. Possibly he could have even won, if he had the right equipment. With the stone weapons our enemies have been using, they have to do several times the hacking. You could say it is making them a lot less effective for their power rating, whereas beasts like Winnie and Bruce are already fighting at their true power rating. The enemies will only improve going forward.”
“Can you just let me have my moment,” Amelia said, elbowing him in the side. “You don’t have to constantly analyze everything. Would a geez Amelia, I think we have a real shot at it, be too much to ask for?”