We stand in solitude in Gene's shadow. Demons die by the dozens just outside of her realm. Despite all of Lana's power, the demons have come in droves. Most wait to fight Lana. The rest bypass the light princess and enter our town. Houses are raided and destroyed as they reach the glass dome.
"You're not alone, Gene," I say as she pulls back and regains her composure. "We are not alone. You don't have to hold on by yourself. Not anymore. And I promise you never will be." A gleam of light peers from the mountains as a thunder of footsteps from the east race down the hillside. In the distance, a goblin rides on the back of a massive spider, covering miles in minutes. The absence of Bones' bond in my soul also ends. With a thought, I summon my companion.
Bones doesn't arrive in a theatrical appearance this time. He just arrives, acknowledges the situation, and calls forth his dungeon. One by one, our people are called back. First, Fury quickly moves to Gene's side, sensing her tension. Then Nette, Gavin, Colby, and the rest of them, excluding the children. All of them look fresh in power. Even some of the aged veterans seem more full of life.
I follow the tendril of mana that connects me to Bones and his dungeon. The dungeon upgraded and changed while the boss and his people were gone. Colby and Gavin have been officially granted the boss status, and more power has been shared between them and Bones, Nette, and Fury. Even now, Bones' wings extend, and he is covered in an aura of fire.
Sub-bosses have also been promoted, including the ruling court I hand-picked, with the addition of Glimmer and Noth being promoted under Colby. Gavin has his own party under him as well. More than a party. He practically has the entire town as his sub-boss. Maybe only a quarter is more accurate. That just doesn't sound as impressive.
"Can you turn them away?" Bones asks Roxi as soon as she is summoned. Despite the upgrades to the dungeon, Roxi is as dead as she was the day before. Which isn't saying much since the Golden Mana tree gives her bones plenty of life — more so than even Bones. The tree dryad takes an assessment of the battlefield.
The demons show up in numbers, lured in by power. Unlike previous coordinated assaults, this attack has no organization. No commanders standing back, tactics or plans, nor a cohesion of an army working together. This raid is a mindless grab at power. For a moment, I'm back in the Greater Shadow Realm, where I faced a similar chaotic battleground. Only then were the fighters constrained by their fear of death. Here, now, there is no fear.
"The only voice they will listen to in this state," says Roxi as she observes the thousands of demons. "Is the voice of power, and that is not spoken as much as it is displayed."
"Wolvs," Bones addresses his dungeon. "This is our home." He emphasizes each of the for words, raising his volume until he’s nearly shouting. His fist is a tight ball at his side shakes with the tempo of his short speech.
Gene releases us from shadow and like a rogue wave we crash upon the unsuspecting demons daring to step foot into our home. Our opening attack is a slaughter. Over a thousand demons are swallowed by earth, fire, and water, allowing us to position ourselves strategically inside our fortification. Gene takes her place next to Lana. The two exchange a look and then annihilate all the demons foolish enough to face them with shadow and light. Now that she is no longer alone or facing a mage, Lana's aura has returned to the ranking of a high-templar borderline sage. However, her power is still tremendous, and so is her destruction.
Our Wolvs, though outnumbered, are no strangers to adversity. Most of the Anvileers have decades of experience fighting side by side in defense of their home. Teams of eight form together, keeping each other well-protected and supported.
Guardians, shields-warriors, paladins, and warriors lead the attack. Clad in heavy armor and wielding massive shields and thick barriers of stone, air, fire, and ice, they absorb the brunt of the demon's attack. Many defensive fighters have ways of pulling attention onto themselves through a chant, battle cry, charge, or grouping ability.
The demons' zealous focus on the heavily clad fighters allows more nimble and aggressive fighters to deliver death efficiently. Assassins, rogues, wizards, rangers, archers, and warriors fight with mana and weapons of all types.
Healers adorned in lighter armor weave spells to mend wounds. Less experienced fighters add what support they need, countering spells cast by demons with their own. Ice shards are melted. Golems are dispelled from their demon lancers. Fire blasts are pushed back into the enemy by gusts of wind. When the earth tries to split, it is mended back together. I find myself staying close to the support groups, killing any demons looking for easier targets. Only a few slip past our tanks and fighters. The few that do die to my sword or by the hand of my recruited dead.
The demons surge forward, a writhing mass of claws, blades, and fangs. Their only desire is to pillage and destroy. Their roars fill the air, drowning out the clash of weapons and the incantations of lancers.
Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.
Still, our small group of over two hundred cultivators plunges deep into the demons like a spear. In minutes, we carve a pathway of death to our guild hall. The glass dome has been as big of a beacon to the demons as Lana and Gene. Though our guild hall doesn't beam with mana, the allure of such an exquisite building drags attention to itself with the promise of bounties inside. Indeed, it does store a bounty; our food supplies, cores, and weapons are stored in the basement of the guild hall even now while the insides are being remodeled.
The glass dome is entirely surrounded by demons. All sides are being hammered by heavy weaponry, bull charges, explosions, and every manner of attack the demons can conjure. Intruders try to crack the dome from above while others try to burrow. As a testament to the strength of the guild hall, it doesn't crack. Not even in the slightest. I'm convinced an entire mountain can be dropped upon it, and it still wouldn't break. Our progress slows as we work to clear the demons away from the building and protect our backs.
Trixie, a knight-ranked tamer attuned to life mana, supports Fury in the aerial defense with her giant silver-feathered eagle and two stick insectoids with scythe-like forelimbs and a double pair of wings. The eagle dances acrobatically in the sky, shooting feather razors that shred through wings and ground several demons. Protected by the black flames of Fury, the eagle begins clearing the sky. Likewise, the sword-legged insects dissect and devour demons atop the guild hall. The razor bugs' grippy legs and wings give them an uncanny advantage on top of the dome.
Fighting along the summoned beasts are Nette, her sister spiders, and Bones, who's trying to balance fighting, flying, and commanding. The wings and combat spectacle is mesmerizing. I'll grant my boss that. He dips in and out of the sky and commands a scale blade of death to cut the demons before him. Life erases before him, and the dead rise to his cause.
Nette plunges into the minds of the demons, urging them to fight each other. Most give in to the enticings. Fen unloads dozens of crossbow bolts under the cover of a bone shield. Apper, under the cover of an earthen bunker, fires from six crossbows at once. The enchanted crossbows reset their tension, which Apper feeds with stone bolts. Cher dips in and out of shadow targeting the mentally resilient demons. Noth adds to Nette's spell by commanding five demons her mana has a grip over.
Before we can clear the entrance to the guild hall, Nette has claimed the high grounds. Bones turns his focus from aerial combat to defending the newly gained grounds. Bone and rock walls are raised, and a small fortification takes shape on top of the guild hall.
It's a cluster fest at the entrance of our guild hall. Demons are packed ridiculously tight to get in. Those who manage to get in find little to no grounds to move. When we clear the entrance, the order is given through Nette that we need to clear the demons inside. More orders are given, and I enter the dimly lit guild hall with Colby, the Synth Sisters, Scotty, four veterans, and one of Gavin's squadmates, Bosun.
Bosun is twice as thick as me in muscles and a good head shorter. He has a pair of tusks sticking up from his bottom teeth past his lip. Unlike most defenders, the battle-smith favors thick, hardened leather lined with enhanced metal runes. What would be a stiff outfit for any other person looks like a comfortable cloth on Bosun. The orc takes the lead, throwing a glowing stone at the entrance. "Heads down," he shouts in a gruff voice. Bright lights flash with an intense, searing pain. I have to close my eyes for relief, and even then, I still see daylight. I hear a slurry of taunts as my vision clears, and I see Bosun charging the entrance, his warhammer swinging madly.
Demons blinded by bright stone are smashed to pieces. The battle-smith continues to create waves of death as his hammer expands with each swing, creating more space for us to assist him. We don't get the chance.
"Light damned mountaineers," growls our second tank that’s supposed to fight beside Bosun. The veteran with a braided beard, no longer gray, holds the rest of us at the door while Bosun drops eight more glowing stones and throws his hammer into the midst of demons. Like Bosun, Rurik is an orc. He's as bulky as the mountaineer, much taller, and his tusks are more prominent. His olive-toned skin is mainly covered in iron armor. He looks like he weighs as much as a mountain. His presence is no less daunting.
"To be fair," says Silva, covering her yellow-tinted eyes. "He did call out the play before he began." The dual silver blade-wielding demon hunter is the youngest-looking veteran of the ten. Even her youth seems unphased by the recent upgrades, though her skin might have more color than being dead white.
"He called the play while he was executing it. I still can't see right." Rurik shakes his head and grins as the guild hall flares in sunshine bright light. The ground rumbles, the roars of demons deafened by a loud explosion in an enclosed space. Energy whips out the doorway. The blast of air strong enough to crumble buildings doesn't budge the battle-master. Rurik readies his lightning-crackling ax and charges. The demons' attempt to fill the air with roars falls silent as the battle-master unleashes his own cry.
Lightning cracks inside the glass dome, light flashes accompanied by explosions, and a taunting dirge can be heard above. Silva moves faster than the eye can see. Her swords emit energy as she fights, and she cuts through dozens before they know they are being attacked. Elara and Seraphina are just as crazy as Rurik and Bosun. Instead of light and air, they add fire and ice. Both favor range attacks, usually combining their elements to create explosions. Together, their rhythm of movement looks like a pair dancing to the song of death.
Colby throws some of his own punches. The king doesn't have many targets. For the most part, the rest of us handle the lucky ones who escape the veterans and Bosun attacks. The Synth Sisters watch more than they fight. I can't even blame them. It turns out these people never needed our help from their own demon invasion. The Anvileers are every bit the monsters we feared were coming, and now they belong to The Rising Fist.