Unlike with the wolfbats, where the rankers waited until almost the very end of the fight to engage, the greens-skinned rankers began to act rather early. The melee orcs launched forward, the unarmored ones glowing with a slight, red-tinged aura. Dan knew they were enhancing, and he made sure to let his centibulkers know some actual resistance was coming. In response, the centibulkers unfurled, already having run over some of the green skins that had charged forward. Dan deciding it was best to do so now told the bulkers to unleash all the built-up poison before enhancing themselves and getting ready to engage the incoming orcs.
At the same time, Dan called for the rest of his monsters to act. The centiblades and centimentalists move forward, dodging attacks from the six ranked hobgoblins longbow users. They had to spread out somewhat as their numbers made them easy targets, and more than one centipede was pierced through, though thankful not killed right away.
While the hobgoblin archers did their thing, the caster hobgoblins began blasting at the trees with flames, setting the nearby area on fire and forcing his spiders to crawl away. That was acceptable to Dan since they had already spent their mana on the Web Blasts, so Dan would rather have them leave and charge up before returning.
The goblin-ranked casters were also beginning to engage as they shot elemental attacks at his incoming mass of centipedes. His centimentalists countered, and considering they outnumbered the goblins, it wasn’t long before said goblins were on the defensive. All that was really left was for the rogues to do their thing. Said rogues were standing there, seemingly waiting for something, but Dan wasn’t sure what.
Meanwhile, plenty of normal-ranked goblins were still left, and they were starting to break free of the webs with the remaining normal caster's assistance. Then, they were all throwing themselves at his ranked monsters. Wanting to get rid of them, Dan called forth his bats. The bats had been hanging around the canopy of the forest, which was now even darker thanks to all the smoke.
His bats swooped in and started blasting the area with their Sonic Boom abilities. Dan also ordered some to target the casters with their Silent abilities to stop some of their chants.
Everything was going well yet again, which meant shit was about to hit the fan yet again.
Sure enough, an aura spread outward from the boss, garbling the area around the fight, causing Dan to lose sight of the area.
“What the fuck! Since when is that a thing!” Dan shouted out loud as his mind got hit with a bit of mental confusion.
Looking at the area, he couldn’t see anything just like outside of his territory; it was a massive black hole in his senses. Thankfully, Eagle the Hawk was still spectating, so he switched over to her sight. Sight wasn’t the biggest issue; however, it was communication. He couldn't communicate with any of his monsters inside whatsoever. The only good thing about the entire endeavor was that his spiders and squirrels were out of it, so at the very least, he could tell them to go back in when they recovered.
Another problem, though not as big, was the rogues. Now, as the canopy burned, Dan saw them slink through the shadows, striking at his centimentalists. Somehow, their stealth shadow magic let them bypass the sentimentalist's mana detection capabilities.
Even so, the battle was still in Dan’s favor, and he hadn’t even brought the 101 Cardinal Squadron into the fight. And every second that passed, his monsters ripped apart the normal green skins, with the ranked ones being pushed back into the corner. Not even the hobgoblins joining the fray change much, even if Dan had already taken a few casualties. Looking at his numbers, he had lost around three of each of his centipedes but no squirrels, spiders, or porcupines. Sadly, the porcupines hadn’t retreated since Dan wanted them to stay in the very back and shoot another barrage of quills when they recovered enough mana.
Thinking about the quill barrage, Dan imagined it would be a little while before they could do so, and seeing as they were winning the fight, the porcupines wouldn’t retreat unless ordered to. That was a problem because things began to get a little weird as the boss unleashed a pink aura across the battlefield. The aura didn’t seem to do much at first other than send the unranked green skins running toward his monsters, which they were already doing, at least the melee combatants were. However, when Dan saw the casters running carefree toward his monsters, it was obvious something was about to happen. Especially when he saw the enemy rankers begin to attempt a retreat. Annoyed that he couldn’t call for a temporary retreat, he watched as some of his own monsters pulled back on their own while some still gave chase.
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Then the explosions started.
It began with one goblin who exploded in a blast of red and pink. The red its blood, and the pink being kinetic energy. The explosion sent one of his centibulkers tumbling. Then, more blasts started happening as the green skins ran into and around his monsters, trying to reach the backlines. Explosions rocked the forest as green skin after green skin exploded. Thankfully, his centiblades, centimentalists, and the earlier retreating centibulkers saw what was happening and were quick to escape. They still took casualties, but not as many as the porcupines would take. They were slow boys and girls, so the green skins were soon upon them, seemingly okay with ignoring the escaping centipedes. The explosions continued, and the only good thing was that they created enough dust, dirt, and general cover that the enemy couldn’t target his monsters too easily. Eventually, the explosions stopped and Dan saw that there was not a single common-ranked green skin left. However, all of his spiky boys were dead, and overall, his forces had taken quite a hit.
The fight had started with thirty of each of his centipede types, and now there were only ten centibulkers left, all with some minor injuries. The sentimentalists had lost eleven, leaving them with 19 left. Then finally, the centiblades, who had just lost five, having had greater agility. The only reason why the centimentalists had lost so many, even with their shields, was because of the rogue goblins who had been able to take more of them out during the explosions.
When the explosions ended, the fight restarted.
Centibulkers met orcs, and his monsters were put on the defensive, only able to hold on thanks to their resilience and regeneration, which would stop when their mana dropped to zero. And now that they were no longer in his claimed area, they couldn’t regenerate, which was a problem. On the other hand, the armored orcs clashed unbothered by the bulker's many slams, and their own weapons flashed with energy, striking relentlessly. Also fighting unworried were the barbarian orcs, with every hit they took seeming to strengthen them further. Thankfully, things were going better with the rest of his minions.
The enemy casters were on the defensive against his elemental centipedes, who no longer worried about the rogue goblins since they were too busy dealing with the centiblades. The hobgoblin longbow users had also joined the melee fray, knowing the fight was theirs if they took out the centiblades and bulkers.
As the battle continued, Dan went ahead and gave another order. He needed to eliminate as many rankers as he could before the boss acted. Surprisingly the damn thing had yet to actually engage in combat, even if its aura bull shit did change the fight. Luckily, Drax had been ordered not to engage directly until the green aberration began to fight, and had been watching the entire thing unfold, unphased even as porcupines rained around him.
It took some time for the effect of his order to be seen as a wave of flaming red birds went down towards the forest floor. As they flew, they added more smoke to the area already burning area that was also covered in dust from the fight and ensuing explosion. The squadron of cardinals engulfed the enemy casters, forcing them to put up their shields. The cardinals seeing the shields flew away, moving to engulf the orcs.
His birds were putting in some work and if the fight had stayed just like it had been, Dan would have easily won. Sadly, it wasn’t to be, and the three-headed monstrosity roared, its body giving off a red hue like the unarmored orcs did. The enhancement caused its already well-muscled body to strain as it bulged and seemed to grow an inch or two. The thing seeming happy with itself took one step, then another, and another until it was sprinting forward and it wasn’t long before it smashed through the orcs and into the centipedes, quickly crushing one with its four freakishly muscled arms.
Since the damn thing had acted, so had Drax, though he had been a bit slower. Right as the three-headed monster squished the centibulker, Drax slammed into it, making it stumble backward just a bit. Drax had his body enhanced, probably with just strength, so he didn’t see the fist coming before it was too late.
A blur of green slammed into the dragonkin, and the next thing he knew, the dragon knight was embedded into the dirt. Dan saw the knight was unharmed, though with a shocked expression on his face that quickly turned into a “this shit is about to be fun” draconic smile.