Despite Allister’s forces on the tenth floor being relatively weak, Glenda still elected to rest his forces for nearly half an hour before finishing the assault. He lost another 1,000 D tiers, leaving him with just over 3,000 to assault the next dungeon with. Still despite the setbacks Peter smiled when his forces finally made it to the core room and destroyed that glowing orb.

  [You have destroyed an enemy's core. You have 8 double taps remaining. Would you like to use one to destroy an additional core Y/N 60]

  Peter had not been sure how the double tap worked exactly, but apparently he had only 60 seconds to decide. He only needed about 5 seconds to read the prompt and smile wickedly.

  [You have used double tap. Allister, tombstone type core, year 6 has been eliminated.]

  It had indeed been his last core. Peter’s muted joy turned to pure elation when Allister’s dungeon blinked from existence. Peter had assumed his forces would have to backtrack through 10 floors wasting more time and energy. Instead they had flashed back into no man’s land. He had nearly given up on being able to take out Bones as well, but saving a good hour and a half for a return journey kept it in the realm of possibility.

  Peter paused for a minute. He had already lost 1 S tier, this time for good. If he pressed the attack on Bones there was a decent chance he could lose more, or even them all. Losing more S tiers, Glenda, Michael, Merlin… Were the possible rewards with the risks. The conditions may not give S tier or epic level rewards, or if they did it might not even be enough to recover his losses. If he lost 2 or 3 more S tiers along with the core A tiers he could lose out big over the grand scheme of things.

  He took a deep breath. Then there was the other side of it. He had won 5 consecutive battles. He was not positive, but it was very likely he needed to win the battle completely to continue at least that streak. He was already going to get some rewards for taking out the tombstone core, but that… Those rewards would not be worth the cost that he had paid. Peter’s resolve firmed as he realized he had already committed himself. If he did not finish the battle it would already be a big loss. He might as well roll the dice on a prospective big haul.

  Glenda was already leading her forces back into his dungeon when he sent off the iron glider fly. Recovery for healing, stamina, manna, etcetera, did not happen in no man’s land. It was what kept core’s from doing hit and runs and retreating into no man’s land over and over again. The white witch knew this, so was of course getting his troops inside while she waited for orders.

  The orders arrived less than 15 minutes later. Peter had written simply, ‘destroy the enemy dungeon regardless of the cost. Take whatever auxiliary troops you need.’ Peter watched Glenda sigh deeply as she read. Delilah who was nearby scowled up at the ceiling. None of his forces seemed particularly enthused about continuing. Peter could not blame them. They were all weary.

  Other cores watching the feed likely thought he was a moron for continuing after having witnessed how battered his forces had been at the end of their latest conquest, but honestly he was putting near an even foot forward for his attack on Bones. He had the nightmarish creation that would advance with his forces this time along with over 300 C tier mages and warlocks who had done nothing but rest for over 4 hours. They might not be back to peak condition, but they have recovered enough. Then he still had 51 B tier mining apes. Hundreds of C tier gnomes, dryads, and clockworks along with their originals: earth trotter dryad, Gearhead, and Greg. Pretty much only the moon elves, the weaker clockworks, Boris, and Khan had not hiked their way to the front. He was literally sending everything else he had.

  Guardian spirit led the way into Bone’s dungeon. The S tier’s body had fallen on the ninth floor, and the spirit had already made it out and back into his dungeon when they finally destroyed the core. His S tier spirit was now on its fifth and likely final body. Peter could only hope Bones did not have one of those soul reaper wraiths. otherwise the spirit might be ripped clean out of its body as well.

  Bones dungeon was more standard to what a dungeon normally was assumed to be. He had apparently elected to double down on his namesake since the hall the guardian spirit found itself in appeared to be an underground catacomb tunnel lined with bones. The S tier continued forward into the empty tomb-like dungeon. There was not an enemy unit in sight. Peter almost jumped in his chair when the first trap sprang. Several iron darts had firmly embedded themselves into the golem’s side. The S tier continued springing even more traps. Some it dodged others it tanked.

  The floor was littered with physical traps. They did not seem too deadly, but Peter could only assume those darts and the floor spikes, and all the rest were likely coated with poison or something. Even C tiers would not be able to take more than a few poisoned hits. The guardian spirit’s golem triggered nearly them all without pause as it continued on. The rest of his forces followed well behind.

  Floor after floor passed, Peter began to feel more and more unsettled. They hit floor 5 and had not run into a single unit. Surely Bones had not sent them all into his dungeon or on the rescue attack, but the foreboding feeling continued to grow. He knew that was not the case. Like Allister, Bones had pulled back his forces to make a very strong final stand. Time was basically not a factor at this point. Either he would succeed or Bones would successfully defend.

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  The fighting began suddenly on the eighth floor. Several large undead swarmed out to strike the guardian spirit. They were followed by even more A tiers. The cobalt bodied golem fought without abandon. It carried a club that shattered and smashed bone. Peter’s 3 powerful mages had been ready for such an ambush however and they filled the enemy side of the tunnel with powerful attacks. Which were all countered. A Powerful magic lance struck the golem shattering a large hole in the S tier’s fifth physical body. The golem fell lifelessly even as the S tier spirit wriggled free before streaking back to safety.

  It was not a quick hit and run however. The fight in the catacomb tunnels continued. Even when Peter brought forward his nightmarish creation and armageddon dragon to tank and destroy all opposition the progress was slow. Peter started to once again consider that time might still be a factor. Bones had just consolidated his forces on his last 3 floors.

  However it did not appear that Bones had kept too many A tiers in reserve, the fighting might have been bitter, taking nearly 30 minutes to take the 8th floor, but Peter had only seen a handful of A tiers. Even the B tiers seemed lacking. Peter had over 2 hours to take the final 2 floors, but the fighting proved to be just as fierce as it had been on the eighth. Still there were not that many elites, so it only took another 40 minutes to take the ninth.

  Peter found the elites on the tenth. It soon became clear that he had a good 20 A tiers along with maybe 100 B tiers on that one floor alone, but after the initial bloody ambush things became quite easy for Peter. The floors all were quite favorable for his nightmarish creation. It could nearly occupy the full width of the largest tunnels, and quickly could form itself back together to grab at or attack any enemies that tried to make it through.

  Glenda found a fool proof strategy. The nightmarish creation advanced, while she along with the other 2 elite mages and hundreds of C tiers supported with their magic. Like a battering ram it advanced forward slowly but surely. Michael and the mages protected the tar from enemy mages while at the same time they launched spells over and into the undead ranks. His mages were literally running on fumes, but the enemy did not appear to have enough mages to counter.

  Bones seemingly had no way of stopping it. Then the tar reached the opening to a far larger room. Peter frowned. The tunnel led out to the bottom of an amphitheatre. Hundreds of enemy units from nearly all sides could attack down on to his forces as they exited the tunnel. It was a kill zone. The only good point was that this was the final room. His forces just had to move uphill taking down entrenched foes.

  Glenda paused for several minutes as she resituated her forces. Five minutes later magic barriers sprang up as hundreds of D tiers started pouring into the room. Dozens of spells descended smashing into the barrier. Hundreds of arrows actually made it through turning the area and dozens of D tiers into pincushions. Peter would not be surprised if a good 500 D tiers died before they even made it to the first defenders. The barriers collapsed as first the warlock than the cologne mage, and finally Glenda’s reserves gave out entirely. The entry became even more of a death zone as hundreds of D tiers died every few seconds.

  The pressure only moderately abated as they finally started making it to the enemy defenders and enemies refocused on those higher on the slope. The B tier apes poured through with the last of the D tiers. Less than 10% fell to the attacks slamming into the area. They quickly bounded over piles of bodies, overtaking D tiers still struggling their way up. The mining apes tore into the defenders. Nearly all the fire refocused on them.

  Then the armageddon dragon appeared suddenly. A void beam blasted a cluster of higher tier undead. A barrier was not even thrown up in time, so the high tier undead just died obliterated into nothingness. The nightmarish creation had been making its way up since the beginning of the charge. It had ignored the front defenders, going right for the line of more powerful B tiers several lines back. Once again the undead did not seem to have an answer for the S tier since their mages were focused on more attractive threats, than the slime that for the most part stayed close to the ground.. Apparently Bones had sent all his powerful mages in his army. The elites and few C tiers that were left in his own dungeon were too weak

  Peter’s C tier mages however appeared at the bottom and immediately started lobbing spells up and over their ascending comrades. An a tier beast summoned by, Pip, the A tier fairy stormed up the slope. It actually proved to be one of the last pieces of the puzzle, clearing a knot of A tiers, opening the way for the nightmarish creation to continue forward unimpeded.

  The rest of the attention was on the armageddon dragon that had been rampaging through the undead elite. Michael was actively healing it from further down the slope, but the giant reptile was being shredded. For the third and this time the final time, the armageddon dragon fell. Peter felt nearly sick to his stomach. That dragon probably had 50 plus A tier kills. It could fry through barriers and take out several A tiers with each shot of its void beam. Winning this battle had better be worth it, he had just lost his greatest killer dragon along with the more survivable one he had lost earlier. Two S tiers were gone for good. He would only have 240 B tier annual armageddon dragons and 120 for the holy armor dragon from here on.

  The fact that his nightmarish creation was slinking toward the core room was of little comfort. Two A tier zombies carrying a war door shield tried to stop it. Peter checked the S tier’s status. No effective counter to it or not, the S tier had lost two thirds of its health as tar got lopped away, unable to make its way back. However the amount left proved too difficult for the two undead elites to stop. A blue energy pulsed out of the turquoise weevil head creating a gap. A second later the helmet had wedged itself between the 2 shields as tar below oozed by. More tar started wrapping around the two A tiers.

  The S tier was down to about 15% health when it finally won the tug of war, ripping the two out of its path. The tar slunk down the core room even as more undead tried to stop it. It was too late. Peter immediately said yes, when given the option to double tap the undead core.

  Peter blinked back into the bottom floor of the banquet room. He had lost 2 S tiers, one with an SS attribute in the battle, the other a perfect tank. It was time to see if it was all worth it.