Eli had timed things well. His ally-ending armies were nearing the end of their prospective dungeons right as their own forces prepared for the attack on Bonefiend’s tenth floor. The fighting had been crazy intense on the ninth, but they hardly had occasion to rest. The 500 or so surviving crustaceans were already moving onto the tenth. The rest of the allies had taken extensive losses.

  Glenda and Krista might have been willing to just let them die, while they recouped their strength if not for the arrival of his messenger. They had a tentative cooperative agreement between all the allies, but they all immediately marched, when Glenda read the message out loud.

  Peter had 1,831 gnomes along with a few others that worked his forges in the engineering college that were ready to put a stop to Eli’s betrayal on the eighth floor. It sucked to lose so much experience, but all the knowledge was already recorded. New C tier one offs would get nearly as skilled in a matter of months. These were the ones he felt he could easily afford to lose.

  On the ninth floor were units that would hurt a little more, including Khan, Greg, Gearhead, and the Saint flame dragon. The S tier dragon had both a fully disabled wing and front leg. It was the reason why it had not been sent on to attack Bonefiend. Peter had hoped to be able to restore it over the oncoming year. Now it looked like he would likely just be resurrecting it. Peter considered for a moment whether he should resurrect it. He already had 4 maelstroms for the thing, which was one of his main reasons for keeping S tier units.

  Merlin was also on the ninth floor, but he was only there to set off one trap to hopefully save the other elites. Then they would all try to retreat back to the tenth. Saint flame dragon would have to stay since it could never hobble fast enough to escape. Earth trotter and its 100 one offs would be the final defense. They would be positioned as far from the heat as possible, right in front of the core room entrance.

  Peter finally decided he would have to if it died. Its flame attack had been effective against the demons, but it should utterly devastate undead who had no resistance against flame attacks. That was probably a pretty far alligator from his current boat since the undead rookies were essentially over with. Cobra had challenged the Putrefy core, so he would probably be eliminated after today. The closest alligator were the insects… A 45 second SS(+) rank saint flame attack would likely do pretty well against any of them. It was probably the only match up where the saint flame dragon would be better than the armageddon dragon that he had lost.

  Peter monitored both battles. Bonefiend had thrown a lot at them on floor nine, but he still had a sizable force and a handful of elites on the tenth. Nothing that would normally be concerning, but they were against the clock. Because of Eli’s betrayal the units had not even rested after fighting through two heavily defended floors. Peter ground his teeth. It meant they would take far more losses than they would have if proceeding carefully.

  Krista tried to end things early, attacking the core room directly, but a host of imp mages sprung up a large magic shield over the whole area. Krista had to wing off. She would get cut down from behind before she could break through. Glenda and the other mages did not have the fire power to break through. They would use what they had left in the tank to support the others.

  Peter watched as his gnomes that had never expected to fight buckled back under the onslaught of hundreds of crustacean based units. Upright shrimps which were apparently one the humanoid variants for the core type, served as mages. They blasted the groups of gnomes, who could only hunker behind their shields to survive. Ballista bolts whizzed over their heads, but each could only claim a single C tier, maybe two. It was not too long before several A tiers moved in to break the gnomes formation. Once they were scattered they would not last too long.

  Hundreds of crows winged through the fiends cutting into as many as they could with their poison talons. Every little bit counted. The poison would wear them down, even as all the individual crows served as minor distractions. The ritual summoner fairies were as worn out as the mages. The A tier only had the time to spawn a few B tiers to aid with the attack due to low mana and time considerations.

  The guardian spirit had been lost on the ninth floor as it cut through a knot of A and B tiers. Ideally, Glenda would have been able to wait for it to inhabit the spare body, but it was just one more consequence of having a reduced timeline. Krista and the other two ally S tiers were still up and fighting as were a dozen other elites among their forces. Slowly but steadily they pushed Bonefiend’s forces back.

  All 1,800 plus gnomes had only delayed the crustaceans by about 10 minutes. Pretty soon the crustaceans were pouring onto the ninth floor. The Saint flame dragon allowed the fore front of the crustaceans through, but when they started pouring through without space between them it started breathing its flames on the entrance and did not stop. Khan, Greg, and Gearhead fought off the ones that had gotten through to protect the dragon.

  They continued to pour through the entrance so the dragon continued to breathe flame at least until about 45 seconds later. Then the flames spurted before going out entirely. Fresh crustaceans skittered right over the charred floor and remains. Merlin activated the trap covering the edge of the floor’s entrance platform with a purple wall of energy. It was basically an energy shield that would not last for long. It would burn out over time by itself. It would break far faster if attacked.

  Crustaceans started slamming into the shield. The ones following either scattered more to the side or climbed right on top of the ones before them. They might not need to destroy the shield. After four layers, a fifth or sixth might go right over the top. To think he had survived so much in his dungeon prior to this, only to have to blow his ninth floor defenses like this. This energy shield would burn through something like 2,000 dark crystals. Insects of the sea, indeed Peter thought watching the display.

  True enough the shield stopped the advance far less than Peter had expected, crabs were soon crawling over four or five units stacked below them, only to fall 20 feet to the floor as they flailed. The saint flame dragon immediately started killing them. The dragon had hobbled over to the first area where they had overflowed, but soon enough they started to overflow from another area, and then another. Soon they were covering over the entire front sector of the shield. The shield flickered underneath before collapsing entirely sending a literal wave of crustaceans forwards. Some unlucky ones even got forced into lava pools due ot the momentum.

  “Hahaha…” Peter could not help but to laugh. This was just bizarre, as serious as it was.

  The Saint flame dragon found itself an island amidst a sea of enemies. All low tier units that would have to really work to hurt it. The dragon started crushing as many as it could. The dragon was in no position to avoid the A tier. The A tier’s claws glowed blue, before sending the vice-like projection forward cutting deeply into the dragon’s neck. Only the spinal column had resisted the blow, but it only held for a few more seconds. The dragon slumped over, dead.

  Peter gave one look at his battle with Bonefiend. He had only one resurrect left. If it came down to it, he would choose to use it on Krista over the S tier dragon, but by all appearances she would be fine. She was busy fighting off a swarm of flying units with Gnther’s support. It would likely be the ground forces that made it first.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  Gabriel’s trashcan looking S tier was mowing down weak units with an energy shot every few seconds. All the while it moved forward steadily, daring enemy units to try and take it down. Unfortunately, Gabriel had lost all the B tier one offs he had of this guy earlier in the battle. The first change happened less than half a minute after the dragon fell.

  “It's been real good, guys. Wish I could have lasted till the end with you guys.” The voice was Predator’s. A moment later they all got the notice.

  [Predator has been eliminated.]

  The few beasts that remained just disappeared from the field of battle just as their core vanished from existence. Predator had not just been eliminated from the battle, but was eliminated for good. Peter felt his heart wretch. Not as serious as it had for Delilah, but the guy had been an ally for years. Other than Gabriel, he was the most likeable. Next it was Elyra’s turn.

  “I can’t wait to muder Eli. See you guys on the other side," she was still clearly agitated, but had clearly accepted what was going to happen for now at least.

  [Elyra (Phase core) has been eliminated from the dungeon battle.]

  This time, the change was noticeable, her S tier healing butterfly vanished from the battle. Still not detrimental to their eventual victory. No, that did not happen until…

  “Sorry guys, hopefully you guys can finish things on your own… So help me if this ruins my win str…” Gabreil’s voice cut off.

  [Gabriel (Fallen core) has been eliminated from the dungeon battle.]

  That one hurt their war effort. The S tier mobile turret was gone as were the majority of their other remaining elites. Now it was just Gretchen and himself left. Gretchen’s forces were decent, but most of them were either low tier archers or mages. Similar to most of what he had left. Still Bonefiend’s forces were practically on their last legs. Thankfully, Gabriel’s S tier had at least taken care of many of the remaining elites.

  Now their greatest fighter… was Glenda who had picked up a sword. She was not exactly skilled, but she was relying on her A ranked physical attributes to carry her through. It was somewhat working out for her. Luckily the fiends were using their own claws, meaning that Glenda usually had them with reach.

  Merlin and all the others had made it back to the tenth floor, Merlin activated the energy shield only letting a handful of enemies through which Khan and Greg dealt with. An A tier shell covered quadruped popped right over the wall smashing gearhead aside. Khan engaged but was quickly knocked aside as well, but before the A tier could move on its target, Merlin, a stone javelin the size of a small column slammed into it. The A tier was not killed but it had been grievously wounded as well as pinned to the floor. A second stone column came to finish it off, but the elite nicked it aside with its carapace encrusted leg almost casually. The column still slammed down broadside along its shell, but only caused cracks. Several ballista bolts also struck it, but they were unable to piece the shell. Only the stone javelin launched by the earth trotter dryad could break through.

  Things were getting pretty critical. Greg, Khan, and Gearhead started running after Merlin. The A tier shelled quadruped was stuck, but the C tiers were piling up on top of each other again. They would start falling over the energy shield soon. When buying time was all they really needed, there was no sense in dying pointlessly. For all they knew the battle would end in the next few minutes.

  Glenda was clearly getting into the melee, her face had contorted into a manic smile as she cut down fiends while she approached the core room. Krista and several dozen dark elves fought alongside her. Krista had run out of holy power, forced to land and fight on foot, while Gnther tried to deal with the remaining flying fiends. Many of his D tier dark elves had run out of arrows to fire, so they had also picked up melee weapons and joined the two Likely the only reason Glenda was still alive since she would die quite quickly in a pitched melee battle. Gretchen’s archers continued to support as the force slogged its way forward. They were only a hundred feet from the energy shield.

  It was certainly going to be close. The four humanoids fell into place alongside the dryads. The crustacean army was already three quarters of the way across the floor after them. The earth trotter was targeting the only remaining A tier. Well at least the only one not currently stuck to the floor at the back of the room. It was the Blue aura claw crab. The A tier was forcing its way forward eager to end things. It had knocked several stone projectiles and ballista bolts away, getting close enough to use its energy attack.

  The crab charged its blue aura on one of its claws, but when it launched it exploded taking the whole claw with it. Merlin cheered with a manic laugh. Peter knew it was not easy for the casualty wizard to do something like that in a pitched battle. However, this battle was not so chaotic, assuming you could disregard the hundreds of crustaceans climbing over one another to end them all. Quite a two dimensional fight, at least until those C tier shrimp humanoids made it up front and started slinging spells.

  The energy shield broke. Glenda and the other low tiers immediately engaged the enemy mages in a melee as Krista, the only remaining real warrior advanced on the two A tier bonefiends guarding the entrance. The only other elites were Gnther, the tempest fowl, and the murder crow which should be back on one of the prior floors reconstituting itself.

  Hopefully, Krista was up to the challenge, grounded and without her holy power as she was. She steadily advanced forward, like the rest she knew what a time crunch they were under. She was easily as quick as her opponents although her movements were a bit awkward fighting on foot.. Most of her techniques were based on her maneuvering through the air. Still she was a tier above them, and possessed a far better weapon.

  She met one A tier strike with her celestial sword. It sheared right through the things wrist. The fiend was both surprised and enraged, but Krista’s blade was already moving to intercept the other bonefiend. For all their armor it did not do them much good. Not when confronting a sword made from an advanced metal they were vulnerable to.

  Krista was immediately moved on the defense due to being outnumbered, but every time she even blocked flakes of bone separated. If she had full use of her holy power she would probably carve right through these two. It was no wonder the demon and undead core hated the holy type.

  Peter was standing as things started to wind down. The earth trotter had moved out to stop the blue claw crab. The dryad was not exactly its match despite the crab missing one of its arms, but Greg was protecting the left flank against the remaining blue claw. The giant cobalt wardoor shield could keep them safe for now. Gearhead and Khan were fighting with the C tier dryads to keep the crustacean C tiers from advancing. Merlin hung back and was thus ignored.

  If that was the extent of things, Peter thought they could hold them for a decent amount of time. However several dozen shrimp mages had arrived. Instantly, water bullets and blades started cutting down dryads.

  Krista was whittling the two fiends away, but unlike with his home dungeon situation the progress seemed slow with no hint of changing. Until Krista received her own aid. Peter had forgotten Michael was there. A golden sigil appeared behind Krista’s back before the golden energy from it started streaking into her. It also streaked toward the fiends, who fell back a few steps in revulsion. The sigil did not last long, but its effect was apparent.

  It probably had only restored a fraction of her holy energy. It was so inefficient that Michael’s energy was better used for anything else, but It allowed Krista to flare once. Her sword sunk deep in a fiends chest as she burst forth. With a grunt, she slid it up and out the shoulder meeting a counter strike from the other fiend. Then she used the other fiend’s body to block her from the strike coming from the other arm flaring it again. It sped her up, but only enough to get a few steps ahead of the elite. It was enough.

  Several C tiers converged on her but she decided to just take the hits going for the core. Most of the claws simply slid off her armor, but slashed through her cheek while another down her back. She was already past them.

  [Bonefiend has been eliminated from the dungeon battle.]