A thousand copies of a ghostly spider and this time C tier moths were the first to appear before quickly disappearing into alternate dimension. The dark elf archers took their toll on both sides of the dimensional boundary, but there were just too many. The spectral spiders slammed into the wall formed by the spectral armors and ghastly soldiers while the dragons fought the moths. The moths were far weaker, but by the looks of it they outnumbered them by at least 3 or 4 times. It was hard to tell as the alternate realm airspace became a chaotic flutter of wings. The spiders on the other hand were in general stronger than the spectral armors they slammed into although they proved far less capable at killing their opponents. Still it was only the interunit cooperation of the infantry that kept them from being overrun.
Delilah commanded from the rear utilizing her bow for now. It was clear that their opponents' presence in the alternate realm depended on thousands of copies of the same 2 units that Agatha was spamming. However it also became clear what specialization the long leg spider was utilizing because there were multiple tiers of the exact same unit. Agatha was an infest dungeon.
After thousands of units had poured through the dimensional boundary the assault in the physical realm began. The charge was led by an army of ants, even as moths and wasps poured through the entrance above them. The ants separated into three arrows of hundreds of ranks each targeting one of the various paths through the pools of lava and awaiting infantry. Arrows and spells cut into them, but they marched right over the dead or twitching bodies of their fallen.
Glenda performed another massive attack against the entrance area, but this time most of the white energy detonated against hundreds of small bubble like shields that had somewhat formed a foam like dome of protection. Peter saw the mages. B tier humanoid ants that stood upright each seemed exhausted from the effort, but Peter could see that there were a good number of these mages. Glenda would run out of energy long before she could exhaust 50 plus B tier mages working in tandem.
On the three defensive fronts, the shield walls buckled backwards, but each held. B tier ants streamed forward like bull dozers to break the stalemate, but they were heavily targeted by arrows and fire spells making the tough and durable B tiers smoldering bulldozers still closing on the wall. Moments later catapults started to launch piles of enriched magnesium that scattered through the air. Rocks shot out like flaming comets. They streaked through the wasps first, punching right through their relatively fragile bodies. Many of which started plummeting to the ground along with the rocks that rained down on the ants below.
The ant mages had tried to block the projectiles, perhaps thinking they were magical in nature, but the rocks went right through the magic barriers. Many of the ants began to steam as the rocks that had only slightly punctured their tough carapace began to eat through the exoskeleton and descend down to eventually burn their way out through the bottom. Even the fairly resilient ants could not endure.
For the most part it was a resounding success. Agatha had lost hundreds of B and C tier units in a single volley. Successive volleys would kill even more. Still Peter could not help but to focus on some of the issues created by flaming rocks that had fallen short. Most of them were fine since the rocks bounced off the armor, but there were a few cases where the rock became lodged in a gap.
Greg had done what he could, but there was nothing he could do when a bunch of rocks were flung so imprecisely. Sometimes pieces bounced off each other causing pieces to land short. In less than half a minute, a clockwork delivered the data. Eleven of his C tiers had fallen to his own artillery barrage. It did not sound too bad, but a good five times that had been wounded. A few points of the formation had gaps as the units moved away from larger concentrations of the flaming rock. That was saying something since the whole room was sweltering even in normal conditions. Something that for the first time was providing a good advantage. The insectoid armies were clearly having trouble dealing with the heat.
Things were looking good on both fronts for several minutes. The only chaos were the wasps that were continually getting through due to the large amount of airspace, but the Gnther and his modest air forces could keep them from becoming too big of an issue while staying outside the trajectory of the catapults.
Then it happened. All of a sudden his forces started buckling as they seemingly struggled to even stand on their feet. Peter zoomed in to find his infantry puking a black like substance, even while they tried to continue fighting. Was it blood? One of the clock work units brought up another screen up front. Glenda was also bent over puking up black blood. An energy shield was flared around her, produced by her canine familiar but it did not seem to be helping.
Another clock work brought up a new screen showing a whole line of large white A tier spiders on the far side. All of them were identical and white. Each of them waved their front legs as they emitted some purplish black energy that seemingly evaporated into the still air. Obviously, Agatha had replicated this dungeon unit. The count soon came in. She had 23 of them, each was casting this deadly…curse! Peter finally recalled something mentioned briefly with Emma and Fellette. It was not magic so could not be blocked even by magic shields or barriers. As far as he knew, he did not have any defense against something like this.
One of Glenda’s clockwork aids had apparently decided to summon the armageddon dragon despite not getting the order from Glenda who was clearly unable to do so. The armageddon dragon appeared releasing its void blast at the line of A tier spiders. Several dozen magic barriers formed a new foam-like bubble of defense, including one large bubble formed by the A tier ant mage. The dragon’s void blast burnt through any it touched, continuing on sweeping through the ranks of white spider A tiers.
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A few seconds later the energy winked out. The S tier dragon had expended everything in one attack. What was left was a large swath of broken magic defenses and the spider chunks that had not been hit by the obliteration. Four A tier spiders were just gone, leaving behind legs and other various pieces of their body that had escaped the devastation. A fifth A tier had only caught the beam for a fraction of a second. Several of its legs were gone and its right sides had a crater. Somehow the unit was still alive, although likely would not be too effective in battle even if it was healed. Not with only two legs remaining on its right side.
Only seconds later the armageddon dragon staggered. Ten seconds after that the dragon started hacking out the same tar colored blood as many of the other units, although Peter noticed that some of his forces were now not afflicted as much since the attention had been shifted to the large dragon.
By this point things were looking pretty bad. Glenda was down, Peter could not tell if she was even conscious although after a quick check of his interface he could verify she was still alive. After a minute the armageddon dragon was similarly struggling despite having a higher S rank defense. Like Glenda the dragon seemed to be worse off far quicker than the swaths of units being affected by area based curses. The difference was that the large dragon was likely being targeted by quite a few of the A tiers versus how many had targeted Glenda.
The infantry affected by the swath curse attacks were a bit better off, if they had not been cut down by enemies while they were effectively operating at half strength. More than a few units were retreating, black blood evident on their chin and breastplate. The defenses were already broken and the retreat was in process despite no orders to do so. The floor was in danger of turning into a full rout. Peter still had units in reserve, but not so many that he could afford to lose everything on this one.
Then a magic amplified voice boomed out. Peter could not tell what was said exactly, but it was archaic and ended with the word protection which was enunciated clearly. A two story golden hook sigil appeared between the armageddon dragon and the white spiders. It flickered like a basement light bulb struggling to have enough electricity, struggling to not be extinguished. Michael the sigil master stood near the back of the room with one arm pointed toward the S tier. His second arm lifted in front of himself and Glenda forming a smaller hook symbol that also soon flickered, but both sigils held.
Then hundreds of mini hooks appeared across his retreating units as C tier sigil masters repeated the archaic words. Some flickered, others went out entirely, while some flared strongly. Up till now the sigil master and his subordinates had only used their healing ability, so had probably escaped anyone's notice. Now Michael was front and center. Dungeons would be sure to pay attention to such an unusual ability.
The protection sigils accomplished their job, the retreat stabilized, but the damage was already grave. If not for several hundred B tiers that had been in reserve stepping up to slow the enemy's advance they would have quickly been overrun. The white spiders continued to curse, keeping the sigil masters almost exclusively focused on stopping the nefarious attacks. It meant no more healing until the large white spiders were dealt with.
Glenda was weakly helped to her feet by a clockwork aid, but it looked like it would still be a while before she could really contribute. The ant and fire mages slung spells across the brutal melee as his forces fell back. The alternate realm defenders had joined in, as Delilah recognized that the floor was about to fall. She was hesitant to get caught behind enemy lines.
Peter started looking at the estimates. He had lost at least 800 infantry during a matter of a few minutes, and the losses were still occurring with a frightening pace. His B tier losses were still quite low, but that would change if the retreat faltered, but his worries were soon put to rest as the defenders got closer to the floor exit. The sigil masters could now easily cover the forces with their protection sigils. At the very end they even put up a line of sigils forming a physical barrier that bought his forces a full 5 seconds free from any harassment. They had successfully saved hundreds more than Peter had expected.
The retreating forces all forced themselves to continue at least through the next floor’s awaiting defenders. The ants had nearly caught up to the last of the stragglers, but shields slammed quickly into place, even as spells and arrows scored the insectoids. This set of infantry was fresh and ready to hold the line. New catapults already started launching flaming rock into the insect ranks.
But Agatha was clearly unwilling to give his units a break. In fact it looked like she wanted to end things here while his defenders were on the back foot. A tier after A tier started pouring through the seventh floor entrance. Glenda had not made it all the way back yet, but she did not need to. One of the clock work adjutants had made the call for her, and 47 of his own freshly summoned A tiers started pouring through the opposite portal. Hundreds of B tier dragons that had been for the most part kept in reserve surged forward with them.
“Send for the beasts,” Peter ordered.
“It’s too early,” Khan warned but a clockwork adjutant had already sent the dragonfly messenger off. This dragonfly was not headed toward Glenda’s command, but to the blink dragon’s handler near the front.
Elites from both sides slammed together in the middle along with powerful spells. It was utter chaos. It was armageddon. There were at least a hundred plus enemy A tiers along with their own B tiers. Not one of them paid any attention to the struggle of the C tiers or the line. The elites did not care. C tiers were trampled underneath or brushed aside as the A and B tiers fought for dominance. C tiers could kill A tiers and B tiers through pure numbers, but when a bunch of A tiers clashed they were a seemingly unwelcome presence or minor annoyance. Only the B tiers could somewhat compete, and it was a nasty brawl with units from both sides being ripped into pieces.
Glenda finally managed to regain her composure. She had the presence of mind to pull back as many C tiers as she could save. The opposing side instead took this as ground won and continued to advance their own C tiers forward to keep up the pressure. No one noticed an individual blink dragon that made it through the chaos. If any of the thousands of insectoids amassing on the fifth floor noticed it, they evidently did not get the message to their command. In less than a minute the blink dragon popped through the first floor entrance.
Peter did not want to go on the attack early on until he destroyed his opponents forces, but there was nothing preventing him from keeping units in no man’s land outside his dungeon. They initially had a predetermined time to start their attack unless sent for earlier. The blink dragon was the call for them to go early. Ten A tier beasts led thousands of their own one offs back into their own dungeon. Not a single one of them fell behind as they raced forward, covering a floor’s worth of distance in only a few minutes.
