According to the game plan the assault on the volcano was supposed to occur around 0900. Mark was already up and around well before then. He was up when he got the voice report from Henry.
“Boss, one of my bugbears is reporting something unusual at the giant camp.”
It only took Mark a moment to locate the bugbear and transfer a contact to him. Technically he was one of Henry’s connected squad, but he was away from the squad leader so was currently considered an individual.
“What is going on?” Mark asked as soon as the connection was established.
“Boss…? At dawn I moved to check up on the giant camp with a few lil bits. I’ve been watching them for a few minutes now… Something just doesn’t seem right. The few that are up and around keep repeating the same motions,” the bugbear said hesitantly.
Mark studied the camp. Over the last 3 days they had kept constant visuals on the enemy camp through multiple scouting teams. Mark wanted to verify that Gale’s army was proceeding in parallel to their own. However, sure enough Mark recognized the tell tale signs of multiple lizardmen, trolls, or giants stuck in a time loop. Some stood deathly still, others were making the same movement every 30 seconds or so. There was even a case where one troll scratched his ass every half minute or so.
“Make a lot of noise and see if anything changes,” Mark ordered the bugbear.
The bugbear and green goblins immediately started hooping and hollering. There were some changes from the camp. Dozens of lizardmen interspersed throughout the camp immediately rose and oriented in their direction. A handful had been on watch, but many had just been asleep. However, Mark noticed that they were few and far between. Not to mention not a single unit from the trolls or giants stirred.
Mark switched to the connection with Henry. “Henry, break down the camp. The giant army is not there. They left a small contingent with some kind of ability to make a mirage. I think they might be marching back toward our dungeon. You will have to catch up to them,” Mark shouted through the connection.
His mind was already playing through the worst scenario. Clearly if Gale’s army was not where it was camped then it could only mean she was playing them. There was no doubt that Nicholas Holt already knew the two armies were there, so having a fake army would not be for him. Mark cursed as his mind scrambled. There was a good chance that they had marched all night.
His mind calmed down a bit. They should still be several days out. It was unlikely that Henry and his army could make it back in time, but Mark was sure that their home dungeon could fend them off even without them. Unfortunately, it would mean playing cards that he had hoped would not have to be played, but there was nothing he could do about it now.
However, minutes later Mark realized that there was an even worse case scenario that he had not considered. His interface alarm went off. Red dots were already entering their territory. His heart sank. In the seconds it took for him to shift his view to that edge of the territory, dozens had already crossed the boundary. It only took Mark one look. The very trees were being affected as giants and large trolls moved between them. Mark could already see a few of the lumbering shapes.
Either Gale had a second army or he had just found the missing one. Who was to say that the army marching south for the past few days had not been a mirage for their scouts to report back on the entire time. It was not overly surprising that goblin scouts could be fooled for so long.
Henry came over the link reporting that multiple armies were closing in on their location, but that was the least of his concerns when their very house was on fire. Mark noted it, but did not even feign to answer.
“Nasal!” Mark shouted. “prepare for battle against lizardmen, giants, and trolls”
Nasal sputtered awake for a moment, so Mark repeated the order adding, “Sound the alarm in the mines, crafters, and researchers. We will need everyone.”
“Yes, boss,” Nasal said after he gave the order for the second time. Mark shifted his interface back to the camp. In only seconds the camp was stirring. Nasal was shouting and rousing the sleeping goblins. Thankfully, for them Gale’s army had entered the territory from the far side. Since they had moved their dungeon entrance to the complete other side, Gale’s forces still had to travel two full leagues. It should take them at least twenty minutes… Well assuming Gale wanted the lizardmen to be a part of the attack. The larger giants and trolls could probably cross that distance in half the time.
Mark’s mind was already blazing, as he considered what else he could do. Amelia started swearing from inside their hut, but he had to disregard her for now as well. Gale was already inside their territory, so they could not summon more units. Luckily, he had bolstered their defenses slightly by adding more sunflower units in the last few days, but maxing out the sunflowers was not a lot of additional units since they would be facing a full army. Besides, the sun was just now coming up. Their special sunburst ability would only be at half charge.
That left the dungeon. Mark could not help but make a quick sarcastic laugh when he saw they were right at 100 DP. Mark instantly spent it, creating the ninth floor that he had long ago designed. He also immediately paid the 10% penalty to convert MP to RP to finish unlocking the giant centipede. The black funnel spider had finished days ago, the same day their army had departed. Fortunately, Mark had built a few evolved samples. However, for the centipede, he would have to pick essences blind. He did not know how much time he would have.
They only had enough stone essence on hand for a handful of evolutions. Mark made a stone essence evolved giant centipede as the floor guardian. Nine other giant centipedes got brimstone essence evolved. Mark evolved 5 black funnel web spiders with stone essence, and gave the other 10 toxic essence. The guardian had a power rating of 8.8. The other giant centipedes had a power rating that rounded up to 8.0. All of the spiders were at 6.3. However, Mark did not even note them. He was already onto the next thing. They did not have enough MP to make the maelstroms on both the 8th and 9th floors, so Mark had to settle on one just for the 8th floor.
It was a good thing, he had gotten it all done within about a minute of the giants entering their territory. Amelia stormed out repeatedly shouting ‘that bitch,’ but then she froze in place as a new alarm rang. Adventurers had entered their dungeon. Mark flipped his personal interface screen to the first floor entrance. Twenty bulky green skinned orcs had entered their dungeon, Seventeen tier 2 Orc Warmongers and 3 tier 3 Orc Chieftains. All of them had a power rating of 4.5 up to 5.3, and all had muscles that far surpassed what a human bodybuilder on steroids could manage. All of the warmongers wore heavy armor. All of the chieftains wore robes and carried gnarled staff. They looked every bit as strong as the warmongers, but it was clear the 3 were mages.
Regardless, Mark felt furry in the pit of his stomach. The orcs belonged to Leonard Boulevic. Gale was moving on to their home dungeon, and Nicholas had his armies surrounding the army they had sent his way, and now Leonard was locking down their dungeon and potentially paving the way for Gale through the first few floors. Based on the time of the three attacks it was clear that they had coordinated with each other. Shouldn’t they worry about one another? Why were they all working together against the last ranked dungeon?
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Mark only allowed himself to be sidetracked for a half a minute. He sent a quick message to Henry that he would have to manage things on his own, while Mark focused on the upcoming fight on the surface. If the surface fell, their dungeon would likely follow. There was a fair chance that adventuring parties would not be able to take the dungeon at this point, but if Gale was able to attack with even a quarter of her army, then the dungeon likely would not hold up. It would certainly be true, if Leonard cleared many of the floors for her.
Mark spent the next several key minutes fine tuning orders to Nasal to carry out. He directed for various arrows, pots of poison, and other consumables to be distributed. The trolls had a regenerative ability, so Mark made certain that necrotic arrows and weapons were one of the main priorities. The various archer towers carried a small assortment of various types, but Mark needed to ensure they all had the best tool for the job.
The alarm had sounded in the mine, but less than half of the thousand miners had made it out, although more trickled out every few seconds. Mark elected to have them form up as a second line of defense right before the pagoda tower. Manning the walls, likely would not do any good when a giant would go right over or smash it to pieces. The gnomes were retreating so they would not get involved in the battle. Amelia reappeared from the hut. She had noticed that he was too busy to engage with her, so had taken the opportunity to go to the bathroom.
“What exactly is going on? How did Gale get her army back here?” Amelia asked, looking back up at the large interface screen. Trolls and giants were marching through the large clearing where the original dungeon had been. Counters had appeared on the side and were ticking up as more and more emerged from the trees.
All of the lizardmen unit types were represented from Hatchling to the tier 2 dominators. All four types of trolls were also present including the tier 3 hill and cave trolls. However, the five giants were the only unit types that were completely new. There were five different types. The Ogres were the only tier 2 unit. The hill giant, Ettin, Cyclops, and cloud giants on the other hand were all tier 3 units.
The hill giants were slightly taller than the ogres, standing about 12 feet in height. They were sturdy looking. Each wore heavy plate armor that covered their frame except for the cavemen-like features of their face. The ettins were the same height as the cave trolls, standing about 15 feet in height. They only wore vest like plate allowing more freedom of movement for their muscular tanned arms. The cyclops were about the same height. They differed in that their skin had a pink hue and they more resembled sumo wrestlers. Like the cloud giants, they only wore hides across their massive frame. The cloud giants were the tallest, at around 18 feet. They were extremely slender in comparison to the other giants, with blue skin and blue hair. They were the only giants that were not welding tree trunk sized clubs, so Mark guessed they were more of mage types.
The cloud giants and cyclops were the strongest units on the field. Mark guessed their base power rating was at the top of the tier at 3.8 or 3.9. The two headed Ettin was likely in the mid 3’s. The hill giant was likely in the low 3’s, and was not much more powerful than the ogres. Regardless, they were all powerful, and like the two giant troll units they would easily be able to get over the wall.
In total there were about 200 giant humanoids, including all of the giant unit types and the tier 3 troll units. There were over 800 lizardmen and lesser trolls with just over 250 being at the tier 2 level. There were 300 lizardmen regulars, 250 centurions, and about 200 lowland and regular trolls. There were a couple dozen hatchlings as well, but they were likely for auxiliary purposes such as scouting.
After a moment of sizing up Gale’s forces, Mark finally answered Amelia, “This morning our scouts figured out that Gale’s camp was basically all a mirage, and I guess they have been for the last few days. She never sent her army south, just a small contingent of lizardmen to keep up the ruse. Obviously Nick and Leonard were coordinating with her. I was able to build our ninth floor prior to them appearing in our dungeon, but that was it.”
“Oh…” Amelia said solemnly, staring at the screen. Giant humanoids were on their way to end their very existence.
The dungeon's tunnels and rooms had grown in size to accommodate larger units with every dungeon level, but even so the giant humanoids would have to stoop fairly low, and they would take up most of corridor width size as well. Likely, Gale had come to the same conclusion. It might be the lizardmen who carried out the main dungeon assault, after the giants took the surface. Of course they would likely enter the dungeon too for the bigger rooms. No they would have to stop them on the surface.
“How was that bitch able to fool us for multiple days?”
“I don’t know. Likely due to the goblins' poor observance abilities. As far as the giant holograms forming the army that traveled south. I would say it would have to be an essence ability, the same as the fog that surrounds her territories,” Mark stated shrugging.
“That bitch! I can’t believe she lured us to send our army south and then stabbed us in the back,” Amelia stated exasperated.
Mark heard her, but his attention was currently on his personal interface screen. He felt the same way, but they could not change anything now. Regardless, not too much would have changed had Gale just attacked out of the blue. If she was able to march an army through the night and into their territory without them knowing then it was likely Mark would not have had a bunch of additional units already summoned to deal with her. Having Henry would have been nice though.
Still if they were able to survive, he needed to observe what happened on all fronts. He directed Amelia to open her interface to the adventurers in their dungeon. They would monitor all three battles as they occurred. Still Mark could care less about the orcs for now. They would easily slaughter through several floors before even showing any of their true capabilities. He could watch them if they were still going, and they stopped Gale on the surface.
Nicholas’ forces of undead and fiends had been engaged with their army for a good 5 minutes now. At the start the forces were about evenly matched in size, and Mark had thought they might even stand a chance. Mark had started watching, right at the point where all of the spirit units were quickly and handily dealt with. The vitality bombs were outstanding, and the double enchanted shields that bore the defensive and protection enchantments had worked well.
However, once the specialized higher level undead started to get involved things started to turn. Mages were raising more skeletons and zombies from the earth, in addition to reviving their own and goblin dead. Then there were the coffin and gravestone bearing special moves. It was now clear that the goblins were fighting a losing battle. Henry had apparently come to the same conclusion. Mark watched him set out on a final charge.
Tethered chains and debuffs failed to take hold, as Henry used his newest spell, reversal. As far as Mark could tell the spell actually dealt with time. One of its biggest uses was to be a backup for his soak skill since wounds could just be reversed, and apparently so could things like debuffs.
Henry’s final charge was starting to wind down, when Gale’s forces started emerging from the trees. The trees had been cleared for hundreds of feet from the wall, but the space did not look like a lot, when the giants would cover so much ground with their long strides. Contrary to what he had expected the giants did stop. They were going to wait for the lizardmen to catch up.
“Nasal, as soon as they start forward again, have the archers fire. Concentrate fire on the giants and trolls. Necrotic and piercing arrows.” The dungeon proper was uphill, so the units were already at the edge of their range.
“Yes boss,” the defensive commander replied.
Mark watched the rest of the battle on his personnel interface. Henry went down mere moments before the charge began. In all the battle only lasted 15 to 20 minutes.