Chapter One-Hundred Ninety-Two
I wish I could survey the entire battlefield right now, but Rocky is my last scion standing over there. My zombie boxer is trying to get himself back under control as he stares at the smoldering remains of the Harbinger, and I cant really blame him.
That thing was a nasty piece of work, and I could actually feel its magic subtly influencing Leo and Honey both through their bonds with me. It couldnt control them, but it could give them little nudges, little suggestions, toy with their emotions. If anything that attack of Rockys was too nice of an end for that monster.
I just wish it was actually the end of it. Ill double check with the others, but I doubt ordinary wandering monsters get titles like that. If its not a random invader, its a scion, and if its a scion, itll respawn in its dungeon. Oh, speaking of spawns: theres still a big chunk of army for Rocky to deal with. At least he wont have to fully deal with it on his own.
When Leo ordered the denizens into the holes for protection, he also ordered the tunnelbores in there. With them, they can dig through the collapsed section and charge back out, if they need to. Rocky is their main target at the moment, as easily my strongest force on the field right now. Thankfully, their weakness to cold gives Rocky a pretty simple solution, and even the killing machines are starting to understand charging at him is maybe not the best idea.
I ask Rocky to keep an eye on the denizens and watch for any other tricks, but I think the battle is pretty much over, even if theres a lot of invaders still to clean up. Which gives me a chance to try to go over the battle in my head.
We won, but its easily the most costly victory since the battle with Neverrest. I wouldnt go so far as to call it a Pyrrhic victory, but weve definitely gotten a shiner or two. Leo and Honey are counting down to respawn, looks like itll be in the middle of the night for them to come back. Ive also lost a decent number of the denizens I sent, and I dont know if the mana from killing the invaders will offset the cost.
Worse than the possible loss of mana, though, is the simple fact this war has only just started. The other times Ive had to deal with hostile dungeons, Ive managed to make it nice and quick, settling it with a single battle, but its not going to be so simple with this one. For starters, I dont even know where it is!
Its under the surface somewhere, but I dont have much else to go on. Id wager its a pretty good distance away, though. Theres no way it only has those leech-headed things as denizens, not with the strength of that scion. That it only sent them suggests its far enough away it cant react quickly to the things I sent. It could even be far enough away that it couldnt even react in time to send something that just deals with cold better.
Lastly come the hands. They were a lot more effective than I was expecting, so I shouldnt underestimate the little guys. If further upgrades can pack even more magical might into small packages, they could be a great choice. But what to choose?
I think Ill actually wait for Leo to respawn before I spend anything, but I can still come up with a few options while I wait. If I build an army like a party, there are roles to fill: heavies, lights, supports, range. By that metric, Id say I have light attackers and range covered, at least to a point. The wolves, in basically all their forms, are great light attackers, able to get in, do a lot of damage, and get out before retaliation hits. The hands and birds are my range attacks, and I could probably swap the birds for bats as we get back under the ground.
I have some support denizens, but not as much as I might have expected. While I cant forget the healing ants and slimes, Id like to get a denizen that can put out some buffs or debuffs. With my current spawners, its probably the hands who will be most likely to be able to provide that kind of support, though a new wolf might manage something, too.
Im lacking in heavies right now. The twinsnakes are pretty heavy, but thanks to the winter, theyre pretty limited. They should do better once deeper into the earth, at least. I think if I want to get more heavies, Id expect the wyrms to be the ones to offer a new tanky denizen. The earth elemental spawner could definitely do it, too, but Id not only have to abandon the hope of focusing on resources, but Id probably have to kiss subtle elementals goodbye.
So probably the wyrm and hand spawners for the best chances at filling the gaps in my army. It looks like Ill have enough to get the dragon spawner to cough up something new, but itll be close. I might need to try to encourage more delver activity to cover the cost or try to figure out why I didnt get a boost from that battle. We did kill a lot of invaders, and Rocky even smoked the enemy scion, so wheres my mana?
It doesnt take long to figure that out, at least. I can see Rocky has a large pile of reserved mana sitting in his proverbial pocket that neither I nor he can access. Im pretty sure its because hes on expedition. Scouts dont get to keep the intel they gather if they dont come back to report in, research expeditions have to bring the interesting things back, so why wouldnt fighters have to bring back the mana they gain, too?
Ill have Teemo check with Leo, or maybe bug Poe while we wait for my wolf to respawn. Once hes back, we can talk about what upgrades to get, and rotate out the denizens on the front line so we can get at the mana Ill need to actually afford them.
I also need to talk to everyone about what to do, going forward. Aranya and Yvonne will want to know how the battle went, and Tarl will probably have advice for fighting the other dungeon. Ill also need to check in with Rezlar and see about his plans for encouraging more delving. This campaign is going to be longer than anyone was hoping for.nôvel binz was the first platform to present this chapter.
