Bonded Summoner

Book 4. Chapter 20: Nature’s Crossroads Assault Begins

Jake looked at the strange city they would be assaulting in the next hour. He stood on a ridge over the valley, blimps arriving and dropping off beastkin, followed by being deconstructed for the return flights. Others arrived on foot, using gondolas, and zip lines, moving people from plateau to plateau rapidly.

When Jake had learned about Natures Crossroads, he hadnt been overly surprised about why it had fallen first. Unlike the other major cities he learned about, this was the only one that resided within a valley itself.

The homes built mostly in trees, there was still a city on the ground that reminded him of elvish cities in fantasy stories. Built into the base of large trees or above, it appeared that the main deterrent from beasts was tamed auril beasts.

There had been a staked palisade around the city proper, that was actually several layers deep.

It formed nearly a maze around the city. Three palisades where the entrances would cause you to have to wander around the city in a spiral, with watch towers overlooking the entrances that lead deeper into the city.

Smaller auril beasts would be deterred by arrows from the watch towers, and larger would get bored before seeing anything of interest. Jake thought it was a pretty good setup.

Tanda said, It did work well. We didnt repeat this style of city often, as it was still dangerous. There are auril beasts that will climb over the trees or swing on vines, and even the bird types may try to break into the houses up there. Then, these types of cities would frequently result in more beasts killed in defense. The beast tamers were the main deterrent and draw to living here.

Once again, the beastkin had made a choice where they chose their impact on the surrounding environment over themselves. By living there, more auril beasts would die, so they frequently picked the safer plateaus which were almost designed for themselves to flourish on.

Here, they would tame auril beasts, the valley connected to a massive swath of jungle nearby. They had built a large gate at a natural choke point, and were able to mostly control what entered and exited the valley, limiting their impact to the surrounding environment.

That was, until it was destroyed by the undead.

The three palisades were overrun with ease, and half of Jakes work this past week was both cleaning up blight in the surrounding area and reducing the blighted dinosaurs. Beyond the valley and into the massive jungle, the blight had been spreading, and the number of monster dens was excessive.

It was thanks to Morwen, Vesuvius, Rookard, Seamus, [Warriors Brotherhood] and the many newly initiated adventurers flooding Highlands that they could even be ready for this assault. The undead in the city were powerful, and they were backed up by armies worth of undead dinosaurs and other creatures that would arrive during their assault.

Hearthtribe reduced their numbers and closed Rifts in the surrounding areas, preparing for this assault.

Several of the Tribal Elders of Kenwodi were participating, a few of them joining Hearthtribe. Morwen, Bedwyr, Yiming, Longwei and their people were all present.

Hows the area looking, Tanda?

Tanda called over her earpiece, giving Jake a thumbs up.

It looks good. No undead for miles, and no enemies spotted. Weve scoured the area in every direction, the blight reduced to just this area.

What about you, Ira, Fhesiah?

Ira sent Jake calm reassurance over their bond. There was nothing beneath the surrounding mountains, only this undead tree city arrayed in front of them.

Fhesiah said, There are three exceedingly monstrous undead trees along the outside, along with a horrible swamp tree in the center.

Morwen said, This is the work of Blighters. A type of undead tree people, they spread blight and cover a forest with their perversion. Blighters twist many trees together with themselves, forming even more massive, horrible visages of the unliving. They work together with all forms of undead.

Longwei said, So today we get to be lumberjacks, then? My glaive will cleave them in two, living or dead!

Jake asked, How do your people fair against the undead, Morwen? I understand that the Emberborn are powered by death.

Morwen nodded underneath her veil. We are powered by all forms of death, even being here near the blight makes us feel more at home. It empowers us. We will grow stronger as friends or foes die near us, the flame of the unliving burning brighter.

Bedwyr continued, Our powers over deathly energies give us a unique advantage against undead, reducing the damage we take from the enemys deathly attacks. At the same time, our attacks against them will be reduced.

Morwen added, We can prevent the enemy from resurrecting their undead, or taking control of them for our own. Combined with what priestesses, druids, and clerics can do, we can make the undead much easier to manage.

Seamus barked out a laugh. Very true! You made them pay for every inch they took.

The elephant beastkin elder, Dhruva, looked at the forest in dismay. What has been done to our forest, our people, is terrible. Killing the undead will not bring our forest back to life. But they must be destroyed, so the balance can be restored.

Dhruva had joined Hearthtribe, after the Framework had restored his health back to fighting levels. He was large and strong, though not an auril hero yet.

Tanda said, I bet the spriggons and others will make restoring this much faster. Our home will be healed, in time.

Berri smiled. Those little guys are lots of fun! Theyll fix this up real quick.

Jake thought that their best plan of action was to burn the whole jungle down. The valley was shaped like a giant bowl, a single exit through the canyon. It was already blighted to the core.

Some diseased crops and trees could be restored by the blight being removed, but this area had been blighted for far too long. When the blight gets removed, the undead plants and trees would now crumble to dust.

Jake brought up his ideas for how to assault, and Morwen and Yiming just shook their heads.

It was Yiming that spoke. The formation of this city is somewhat common. The center tree is capable of reviving and protecting the surrounding ones, in addition to their armies. When you attack with your godly flames, they will all release a noxious gas. You may be able to overpower this, and overpower one tree, but the whole forest? I find it doubtful.

Morwen nodded. Even if you destroy a tree with your flames despite their defenses, they will twist together a new one, drawing energy from the area. I propose we split our efforts.

Jake frowned, but thought he understood her idea. By taking out all three trees at once, they will be unable to support resurrecting each other. Then we push through to defeat the final tree?

Bedwyr nodded. By allowing our people to act separately, your people can use that censer you had talked about. The gases or fumes will empower our people instead, and we can protect the [Warrior Brotherhood].

Longwei said, We did work together well. Our blades would cut the undead down, and your people help them stay down.

Jake asked Morwen, Who else will you take? If Kenwodis Hearthtribe assaults one, and the remains of my party take the other with the auril heroes and the top warriors of Highlands, that leaves your side the lightest in numbers.

Morwen said, I believe among the beastkins numbers, there are many that manifest death, is that not true?

Tanda said, It is rarer, but it is so. I think Vesuvius people have many snake parentage that carry death manifestations.

Jake said, I do think that would help balance the forces out, if Vesuvius and his people go along with the Emberborn and [Warrior Brotherhood]. Rookards wolves, Tandas flock, Fhesiah and Ophelia at the other. Finally, the large force of Kenwodis Hearthtribe, Seamus people, me, Tanda, and Bloodberri at the last. Well defeat the three undead trees and meet at the center.

Jakes army would have the largest number, but the overall lowest level. Over a thousand of Kenwodis Hearthtribe along with Lifes Haven would be participating, their levels between 3 and 6, or nearly level 4 average.

His army would be attacking from the Southwest, while Ophelia, Fhesiah, and Rookard and the flock would take the Southeast. Morwen, Bedwyr, Yiming and Longwei, Vesuvius, Darris, Roxo and Jarrixs army would be approaching from the Northeast to strike at the North tree.

The forces finished arriving, and they all lowered themselves into the blighted valley. The ground almost felt alive, a form of undead creep. The ground was a strange mixture of plants and flesh; disgusting.

Jake was mounted on Bloodberris back, the many beastkin groaning as their feet touched the unliving ground.

Jake saw Brock arrive with his party; his mates. Brock said to Jake, This feels awful, like its draining us.

You can take out the censers, as they will help. It will likely take a long time to have any massive effect on the creep. It is connected to the tree itself, as we kill it with the holy smoke, it just grows back.

Jake would like to do more, but until they defeated the large trees, it would be nearly impossible to overcome the power of the unliving anywhere but at the furthest reaches of the valley.

He did burn away a large area for their people to operate from. Combined with the holy smoke from the many censers, the creep was pushed back toward the tree. They tried to push the effect, but eventually, they reached a point where it would just grow back without him continuously burning it.

Ophelia was similarly able to use consecration on her end, and the Emberborn had no problem with the creep at all. Bedwyr kept his allies protected with a deathly aura. A deathly paladin, he had the ability to protect allies against death energy, as well as amplify attacks of the same.

Jake summoned the last of the heroic beasts, Lughs guardian lion. From the motes of light, a large lioness appeared. She was gold with orange and red leaves, the color of gold in areas of her fur not covered with leaves. Nearly the size of a smaller pick-up truck, Jake knew she would be a formidable ally.

Like the other heroic beasts, she looked incredibly proud. Maybe he should switch to the stag?

The lioness eyes narrowed on Jake, almost like she heard his thoughts. She turned her nose up at him, turned and walked away, but toward the battle lines being formed. She laid down lazily, yawning.

Wha

Berri giggled. Shes here to fight, and was already annoyed you called her early. I think shell do her job just fine, when the fighting starts.

Seamus said, That is Lughs guardian? How odd.

Jake just shook his head. Two of the three guardians appeared to feel they were above him, with the third not really having a chance to show it, considering that combat began moments after she arrived.

He said, Ill name her Ainora. A radiant queen or princess.

Ainoras tail and ear flicked, as if responding to the name.

Jake rolled his eyes, then summoned Kevin, the Naga.

Seamus was a paladin of Lugh, him now earning an aura of protection. His aura gave a small healing property, to go along with his auril that radiated warmth and burnt away enemies. Jake noticed that the creep was pushed back further from where anywhere he or Ainora, the guardian beast of Lugh were.

He rested to regenerate his mana. Hearthtribe now had a healthy balance of shield, javelin and bow users. They now had some training in fighting in formation, the warriors with slightly more experience aiding in training the others.

There were many avian beastkin now, not technically a part of Tandas flock. The lines were certainly getting blurred now, many joining Hearthtribe, but many would be returning to Harmony Peaks or their homes once the war on Highlands was over permanently.

As they were forming up, an undead army under the undead tree canopy was doing the same. Jake spotted thousands of ghouls, and thousands of undead skeletons. Many of them were the beastkin having been reanimated, and Jake did spot undead dinosaurs besides.

Similar scenes were playing out at the other armies. From what Jake could tell, the enemy had split its forces too. Jake had chosen Tandas flock, Rookards wolves, and Fhesiah, Ophelia to be at the middle location to be able to reach either Jake or Morwens army rapidly, if the enemy had flooded one side.

Hearthtribe lined up nearly a hundred abreast. Polearm users lined up behind the shield users, and they formed a box of several shield users behind them. A drum beat as their formations took shape, the many javelin and bow users protected by shield and polearm users.

Jake pushed out his heavenly aura, covering as much of the beastkin army as he could. Jake took on using his updated Runebound State: Guardian. It was a replacement of the Aegis state, but not overly different from it.

He had connected his state to Ophelia, and built his covenants around restricting the two and enhancing the two in different ways, together. Because he could take Ophelia into consideration and the demonic rune stood for what a guardian embodied, he found that his overall covenant could be a bit different from what it was before.

If Jake found synchronicity in his emotions or feelings with his hearthbonded wives, he could much more rapidly switch covenants without incurring as large of penalties. It had the drawback of forcing the state to switch if his emotions fluctuated too much, but Jake thought this would usually be an advantage.

With Jakes covenants, he had decided to split them up. He would restrict himself to being primarily a caster, with Ophelia a powerful melee combatant. The runes in his aperature had different guides or lines, allowing him to switch who was the melee combatant or who was the caster, though Jake had to keep in mind many thingsessentially, he had decided to restrict Ophelia as little as possible.

This meant that less power would be gained overall, but Jake much preferred this over complicated restrictions that would put them both in a bad spot. None of the covenants prevented Ophelia from using her Valkyrie spells or flames, only restricting her usage of runes. Because her capability there was powerful, something was still gained by the covenant, empowering them both.

Jake would lose his offensive capability entirely in this new Guardian state. This allowed him to increase Ophelias ability to absorb blows, with what was gained. She could continue to perform all her functions of being a tank or guardian, able to use her flames of Hestia for all her purposes. She wouldnt be able to cast any runic spells as a tradeoff, restricting herself to gain benefits from the covenant.

The many boxes of battle lines formed, they waited for the signal to begin their assault. The enemy had formed many lines as well. Skeletal knights and warriors in the front, with ghouls likely waiting to leap over the battle lines. Then skeletal mages, necromancers, and archers, and undead dinosaurs, golems, and bone monstrosities; large bone constructions that almost resembled a blob, sometimes with arms and undead flesh.

Jake looked up into the trees. There were various tree humanoids that looked undead, hanging from the branches. He could see that there were numerous enemies, vastly outnumbering his army.

Jake understood that if the skull of the undead wasnt crushed, the creatures would quickly reanimate on the creep. Even with the skull destroyed, the bone golems and monstrosities would draw in the bones to empower themselves, or the necromancers construct and recreate new allies.

Blood said, The undead are truly insidious. Destroy the skull, and the bones will be used to enhance the bone golems. Dont destroy the skulls, they will be revived. It is like we must fight every enemy several times, and they have thousands.

Berri said, Its fine. We just have to smash em a few times!

The army was instructed to even strike downed skeletons and ghouls, crushing the bones further and their skulls. The censers would eventually pass through, hopefully eliminating the creatures for good.

Jakes army of Hearthtribe marched forward, the other armies beginning their assault at the other locations. Jake marched in the middle of the army on foot, wanting his aura to cover everyone.

The enemy army waited beneath their trees, the creep getting thicker as they neared. A mist or fog was lingering over it, the fumes nearly enough to cause harm on their own. They could not even see the massive tree that was to be their target, it hid more than one layer of trees further back in their entrenchment.

Designated beastkin used censers, spreading holy smoke among the Battlegroup to reduce this effect. They stirred their auril as well, pushing the effect out of their bodies. Jake could have Bloodberri use the epic censer he crafted, but wanted to save her energy for when they were facing the massive tree.

It consumed a massive amount of mana, and Bloodberri would be useless for much else after using it.

As they reached about two football fields distance away, or two hundred meters, his archers were able to begin taking shots at the enemy. Arrows filled with auril surged toward the undead, enhanced by Jakes heavenly aura.

Explosions rocked back many of the skeletal warriors and knights, and it was like a starter pistol was fired. The army of undead began to charge.

Jake halted the march, his people digging in and getting ready to receive the undead. They moved with unnatural quickness, as if hastened by the mist and creep itself.

The many blighters, the tree humanoids, began casting spells. They emitted a noxious cloud of yellow-green gas, that covered the many charging undead.

Arrows were fired by the dozen per second, and javelins were being thrown as the undead got closer. Kevin the Naga and Bloodberri moved to the side of the boxes, Kevin on the far left and Bloodberri on the far right. Seamus joined Kevin, and Ainora the lioness formed up in the center of the formation.

Jake spotted Omar, the rhino beastkin with a massive bow. His arrows were large, and the auril that he saw appeared to represent his horn. It pierced through enemies with ease, shattering their bones when it struck them in a line, deep through the enemy.

Visibility was low now, only now being able to spot the many enemies surging toward his army as they got close. Hundreds of small explosions of flame erupted every moment now, his aura doing a lot of work.

As the ghouls, skeletal warriors, and knights met the battle lines, arrows began to rain down on Jakes army from opposing skeletal archers. The empowered beastkin made short work of the arriving ghouls and warriors, the knights being much larger than the average beastkin.

His people worked together with practiced skill, the training of Ophelia, Valtor, and the Framework drilled into them. They fought with fervor in an effort to reclaim back the nature that was taken, as the battle drums and Jakes heavenly aura set the pace.

Bloodberri bowled into the undead, keeping them from surrounding the box formations of the beastkin. The many ghouls tried to leap at her with their claws out, but her tail coiled and spun as she danced, swinging her maul at the knights in view.

She released the dark haze that was her [Dark Siphon], healing the wounds of those near her as she destroyed her enemies.

Seamus and Kevin both cut through undead with ease, their larger bodies making quick work of them. A bright light was released from Seamus, burning any undead that came near him, that also healed allies.

Jake watched as Brock and Bria fought through the battle lines. Brock had taken on to using a shield along with a sword, a glaive strapped to his back. Bria spun with her poleaxe, a furious red auril spreading in waves as she did. Her poleaxe became like a giant claw, cleaving through nearby ghouls.

Mindy stayed near with a shield and spiked mace, looking like a cleric. She watched their flanks, doing her best to join her shield to Brocks or keep Bria from being surrounded.

Serena supported them with her bow, the four staying relatively close to one another in the formation. Her arrows struck vitals, her attacks supernaturally accurate. Her arrows easily threaded through allys guards to strike at the enemy, despite them being in motion.

Ainora the lioness glowed like a beacon, her vines covered in bright light. Her deft claws swiped through enemies as she flanked them, her speed greatly contradicting her size.

Jake was thinking the fight was going well, when the gass density increased. It began rolling over the Battlegroup, the many people being poisoned and coming to harm. Jake leaped toward the front and center of the formation, and Ophelia had done similar on her side of the Battlegroup in her assault. As he reached it, a large consecration echoing from Jake was released.

Things were heating up all over the battlefield, but the fight continued.