Day 90 Nehemiah Rourk
Nehemiah was only a bit surprised when the alarm came. In an instant he brought up his tactical screen and slewed over to the single red dot that was driving in towards his dungeon. A cockroach? Nehemiah opened the creature’s status. A 1.0 power rating was hardly something for him to be concerned about, but the fact that it belonged to another dungeon meant he could not dismiss it entirely.
Why did Amelia have a cockroach all the way out here? She has been more active in the area lately. His scouts had run across quite a few decent sized groups of goblins, North of his dungeon. He had not paid much attention since the groups only had 37 goblins. It made sense since had been eliminating the four goblin teams that had tried to scout the area, but he had not seen a trace of them for over a month.
Nehemiah zoomed out and moved to the edge of the territory and did his best to study the surrounding forest. It was actually a nice sunny day for a change, so visibility was good, but there was no evidence of an army, from where the creature had entered. Nehemiah would have been surprised if there was. He had scouts posted on all of the surrounding bluffs. They would see any major force approaching. Nehemiah did not have them all linked but they could send up a smoke signal in less than a minute despite the damp conditions. On top of that he had roving teams patrolling the nearby valleys. It was unlikely an entire army could get through.
Was the cockroach just a scout, out by itself. Nehemiah sent some units to intercept. Regardless of whether it was alone, he would kill it. Perhaps this was an intentional move by Amelia to get good luck at his dungeon. The cockroach was likely linked, so killing it quickly would give Amelia less time to spy on him. To play it safe, Nehemiah quickly scanned all around the edges of his territory. It was a quick scan, but he did not see anything.
It only took a minute for his forces to engage the cockroach, but much to Nehemiah’s dismay the little bug did not engage his forces. Instead it started skittering away as soon as it caught sight of them. The giant cockroach was quick, far quicker than the kobolds or lizardman he had sent out. Nehemiah sighed before giving orders through the pedestal to send two dozen more kobolds to intercept the enemy. The kobolds were far quicker than the lizardmen and should be able to deal with it as long as a couple of them engaged it at once.
Honestly, Nehemiah was more concerned that Amelia had unlocked a branch from the beast tree. By this point, Nehemiah had scouted nearly 80 percent of the battle map. He had located every single one of the other dungeons including the top ranked contender, Daniel Hale. He had even watched as Hale’s beast army relentlessly slaughtered the poor contender from Philomon. It was right before the first rankings had been posted, far too early for Hale to have unlocked much from level 2. His beasts had been so overpowered. Nehemiah knew from the encyclopedia that beasts did not use classes or skills, so how had he gotten beasts to push into the 4.0 power ratings.
Since Nehemiah had found another prior dungeon site, soon after the battle, Nehemiah could guess that it was not the first dungeon that Hale had conquered, and likely was not the last since another dungeon in the area had fallen just after. Nehemiah could only be happy that there were no real powerhouses in the Northwest dungeon grouping. He had confirmed that the 35 contenders had been divided into groups of seven. He was probably the first to have located all the survivors due to already having the mapping tech. It was an advantage he would soon lose, as other dungeons leveled up.
Hale was in the Northern group of dungeons. Well, the group was being generous since there were only two of them left. The other dungeon belonged to Simon Heath, the lowest ranked contender from Magnum, but he was still currently sitting in seventh place.
The other group to the south of them was just as concerning for Nehemiah. There were still five dungeons in that group, but that was only because Nick Holt was focusing on developing his dungeon for now. He was focused on the other top contenders, taking out the dungeons surrounding him would happen at his leisure. He was the only contender from a major faction left in his group.
The worst group to be in was the one to the Northeast of the map. Three contenders in the top ten were in that group including the number two, Richard Lambert from the Republic. Jack Wynham, from Magnum, was also in that group, as was Derrick Blackwell from the Atlin Federation. They were currently sitting in 4th and 6th place respectively. The fourth unlucky contender in the group was Wren Wright. Understandably, she was ranked twentieth right now. Surrounded by three powerhouses. No one expected her to last long.
The Southeast group also had three contenders from the top ten. The group was led by Avary Kingston, the model princess from Magnum. She was currently sitting in 5th place. The other contender from the Republic was in the group, along with the contender in 8th place.
Fortunately, Crassius had knocked out Rebekkah Clark on day 9 of the battle. She had been projected to reach 5th place in the succession battle. Without her the Northwest grouping had been relatively safe since the only other contender from a major faction was hunkering down in the swamp.
Nehemiah had thought that Mareth, Amelia, and himself were near equivalent in strength. Which the first set of rankings had shown, but Amelia had overtaken him by the second set of rankings. She had always been an oddity. She had chosen to start with goblins, and a social class since she was working with neutral entities like the gnomes. Something Nehemiah could not replicate, but until now Nehemiah had not noted a hint of her having a second branch.
Somehow, Amelia had repelled multiple attacks from Crassius, Mareth, and a gnoll army. From what Nehemiah could tell the goblins were similar to his kobold branch, so it was a bit surprising that Amelia had managed to survive until now. It was unlikely to be all due to enchanted equipment, although he knew she was ahead of him in that regard.
It was only a month and a half ago that he had managed to almost assassinate her, but now she had overtaken and surpassed him. Was it due to opening a beast branch, or was the cockroach a part of a support package and she had done something else. Maybe she only had a strong dungeon, and nobody expected her to be taken out anytime soon. It was not like Mareth, Gale, or himself were gearing up to make any big moves.
The wonder soon turned to frustration as the cockroach, true to its name survived. At the half hour point, Nehemiah sent out additional units to pin in the damn bug, but even then the bug evaded his forces. It was not till the call came through the pedestal that Nehemiah began to panic. “Bosssss, we ave, sssmokeee fffffrommm pppooint oneee.”
Nehemiah linked the appropriate scout. It only took a moment for him to find the approaching force. There were about 250 goblins. Nehemiah sat there for a moment confused. There had been plenty of goblin groups over the last week. Had he lost track or missed some of them, and now they had joined back together? Did not matter, it clearly would be far from enough to assault his dungeon, but he had a sinking feeling. He had over 642 units on the surface, and had over 80,000 MP for which to summon more, which would be plenty to crush 250 goblins. Unless, there were more of them on their way. It would be stupid for her to attempt this otherwise. Did Amelia really split up her armies to attack his dungeon?
Regardless, he now knew the purpose for why the cockroach was skittering around his territory. He should have realized it sooner. The bug had basically been arcing around his dungeon for a while now, doing all it could to avoid his forces… and survive. The cockroach was there to prevent him from using his MP. Nehemiah immediately gave orders for two hundred more units to intercept the giant bug. It would take three hours for the goblin army to reach his territory. He would have the little bug dead well before then. Joke was on Amelia.
Almost immediately after giving the order, Nehemiah was informed of a second army two hours out approaching from the east. It was not unexpected, but it was surprising that a force had managed to get so close. They would have had to go through the swamp. Which was wide open, his kobold on the nearby plateau should have been able to see them far before they got this close. That was until he linked the nearby scout.
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An army of frogmen, 200 strong? He had known she had tight relations with the frogman village. His scouts noted frogman units entering or leaving their territory many times, but it was surprising to see them coming to aid in her attack, especially after Gale had wiped out the bullywog village. He glanced at their status. Nope, these ones belonged to her. He did not know how she had managed that. Had some joined her dungeon after their village was destroyed or had she gotten access to what clearly must be a unique humanoid branch. Nehemiah had opened the humanoid tree himself, so knew the bullywogs were not offered… At least not initially.
Still 200 frogmen would not be able to change the outcome. Amelia would have to have another force approaching. Nehemiah scanned the valley surrounding his dungeon. The goblin force and the frogman force had taken the approaches that would get them closest to his dungeon. The frogmen were pretty slow, so they would actually hit near to around the same as the goblins did. Another force coming from another direction would likely take an additional hour or two.
Nehemiah shifted his view back to the ongoing struggle of his forces to pin down the lone cockroach. They were now able to encircle the bug, but the bug jumped up and glided a couple hundred feet away every time before they could entrap it completely. A half a dozen arrows stuck out of the soft carapace, but true to its nature the cockroach seemed to be hardly affected. It would take a decisive blow to end the bug, or a whole lot of arrows and a margin of luck.
Still it was just a single unit, and he had hundreds of units working together. Almost an hour had passed since the bug first encroached into his territory before the bug was caught on two spears as it tried to glide through two defenders. The bug was still alive, but would not be able to escape. Nehemiah had already decided on what to summon. He was just waiting for the creature’s end, but much to his chagrin another red dot appeared in his territory just before the cockroach's life was extinguished.
Nehemiah was not surprised to find a second cockroach moving closer to his dungeon but away from his forces. His heart started beating faster. How many of these bloody things did Amelia have? It was not as if he could send out forces to locate other units outside of his territory right now. It would take a third of them just to catch the one. Nehemiah gave new orders. He would continue his efforts to catch this cockroach, but would also station a bunch of large groups around his territory to quickly engage and track down another should it come.
The second cockroach was brought down in fifteen minutes, but once again Nehemiah could not summon additional units. This time two cockroaches had entered his territory.This time from the North and the west. They of course headed in opposite directions. Nehemiah only had a few seconds to curse before he was notified of a third approaching force. He did not hesitate to link the appropriate scout. This time his heart sank. There were 300 approaching figures, but he quickly doubled that number. Hundreds of more cockroaches, ants, and spiders were headed his way. Each carried a rider.
No wonder Amelia had overtaken him in the rankings. She had insect mounts. They were moving fast, so would likely arrive around the same time as the other two forces. It was a three pronged coordinated attack. Nehemiah cursed his stupidity. He should have bolstered his forces when he noticed a bunch of goblins rummaging around to the north, but there had not really been too many of them. Certainly, not enough for him to worry about.
How could he have expected two more forces to be able to close on his dungeon without warning. The frogman had easily been able to move through the swamp undetected, and the insects were likely just outrunning any scouts that had noticed them. If it were not for the posted sentries on the bluff he would have likely never known about them before they hit him. Amelia had hidden so many secrets, and he had been overconfident in his ability to have forewarning on an impending attack.
Nehemiah did what he could to focus his efforts to hunt down the cockroaches. It was all he could do. If he was able to use his MP. The attack would still fail. Amelia’s whole attack was based on her ability to keep him from doing so. However, she was not even waiting for Nehemiah to fully take down one of the cockroaches. Anytime it looked certain that the last remaining roach could be taken down another roach or two would enter, each time from slightly different directions. It was clear his enemy was pretty good at estimating the range of his territory. Nehemiah had been hoping for them to misjudge, but they never did.
Two hours and just over twenty cockroaches later, Nehemiah had a unit blow a horn to recall the troops. He had failed. The armies were too close now. It would be better to get his defenses in place, and give his units a bit of rest. Nehemiah looked for what he could do to improve his odds. All he came up with was paying a premium to outfit more units with better weapons. Regardless, of the outcome of the battle he would take a serious loss, spending tens of thousands of his MP to buy metal weapons at a premium, but right now survival was more important. Iron weapons would make a world of difference in the upcoming battle.
Nehemiah had finished two level 2 techs, Dungeon features II and magic Energy production II and was currently working on metal casting. He knew what a difference metal weapons could make, but had been more worried about securing his dungeon. Five floors might not be enough against all enemies. He had yet to be attacked from an alternate entrance by one of the true powerhouses, and the prospect frightened him although not quite to the extent he was now.
Day 90: Mark
Mark smiled when the enemy forces started to retreat back to their defenses. Amelia was practically dancing in excitement. Her repeated ‘Yes’s’ came at an octave higher than her normal tone. “Alright, alright settle down.” Mark said before snapping new orders to his units.
He currently had one of the goblin patrols, a patrol of green goblins riding roaches, and the frogman linked. The coordination had worked out pretty well. He had always planned for the cavalry to reach the valley last, but had lost direct contact with them when his linked roach patrol snuck toward the dungeon the night before. Now they were linking back up, 22 of the green goblins now mountless. They would have to join the other 370 goblins on foot.
Mark had put in a lot of work over the last week to make this attack possible. He had generously bribed harpies to heavily scout the area, and to continue to scout the area and report back to his two goblin forces. Despite his efforts, Nehemiah likely had seen the goblin army, or at least part of them. Mark had them split into their 10 smaller patrols and move into position. A harpy helped coordinate between his linked patrol and the rest.
Luckily, it seemed Nehemiah had not gauged Mark’s true intent, and even if he had he likely would not have made any moves immediately. Afterall the frogman could pop up out of the swamp practically on his doorstep and the calvary had covered an alarming amount of distance two nights ago. Rested for a full 24 hours and then emerged and quickly started their march this morning.
Still his forces would likely not be enough if Nehemiah was able to bolster his ranks prior to the actual battle. There was no telling how much MP the guy was sitting on. Mark had not wanted to overly delay the attack, so had only given himself five days to build an army. It had cost just about 80,000 MP to build 5 additional patrols, 10 red hobgoblin spiritualists, 200 roach calvary, 50 fire ants, and 25 spiders. The spiders and ants all had legionnaire warriors as riders, 50 of which he had already built a couple weeks ago.
Mark had not been able to get everything accomplished that he wanted. He had chosen not to use the mount class to save cost. Otherwise he would have had to wait an additional day, and he had wanted to unlock the second level of mage class, so that his spiritualist could be more powerful. But doing that would have required two more days. His spiritualists would have to make do at level 1. He could always have them train at the barracks later, once he had unlocked the second level of mage class.
Regardless, Mark had fielded an impressive army using about seven days worth of MP. He already had some units, and had eaten into their reserve a bit. But they should be fine Already they were back up to 38,581 MP, and Mark had summoned five new patrols to take the place of the ones he had taken.
Nehemiah had a defensive advantage and who knows how many floors in his dungeon, but Mark liked their chances. All of the stronger goblins were outfitted in enchanted items, and archers had a whole lot of enchanted arrows. Not to mention they had the numerical advantage… At least on the surface.
Mark took his time to arrange his forces. The spiders and ants had carried extra provisions including a handful of extra goblins. While they had eaten through most of their food they still had enough for the day. There might be a few things that Nehemiah could do during that time, but giving his units a rest and allowing them to eat a little would be far more beneficial than any detriment the pause could bring. The rest of the food and provisions would be set aside. Hopefully, his forces would succeed and they could recover them. The pause turned into an hour, as Mark decided exactly what he wanted to do.