Bonded Summoner

Rookard and his wolves charged the undead mixed with some betrayers, their hearts, and blood singing for righteous retribution. The ghouls swarmed the battlefield along with various undead auril beasts, the enemy’s attack sudden and furious.

Morwen had been guiding them on the retreat for days, as they harassed the betrayers and cleared various Rifts, while protecting refugees and villages.

It turned out there were thousands of betrayers now, and the undead had been gathering for much longer underground than initially estimated. Then, many of them were bathed in special deathly energies, their bones and undead flesh blackened.

This made them stronger, and better able to withstand the high vitality within the air of Highlands. Still, Rookard could tell that whatever they gained was being stripped away with each passing moment.

Why the undead had remained hidden seemed obvious to Rookard. He knew that with a single spell from Chief Jake, Hestia would be called and destroy their entire army. That they moved now was proof that something had changed.

With Timone’s Ravenwolf Tribe and Rookard’s Wolves, they could rapidly assault behind enemy lines as Morwen’s Priestesses and Warrior Brotherhood captured more betrayers.

Their hit-and-run tactics had likely driven the enemy crazy, but it looked like Tartarus had finally had enough. A massive bone monstrosity, a legion of bone, several undead land dragons, and necromancers were now after them. Rookard’s wolves were being slowed so that they could be surrounded by the superior enemies.

Combined with the army of betrayers, it seemed the enemy was making its final push. Rookard’s wolves sung for blood, as another warrior became an Auril Hero. Howls rose from the surroundings, the auril stirring as another joined their choir.

His people sung for blood, to purge the taint from the world. Chief Jake had cleansed hundreds of years worth of it at once. It was time to purge the rest, once and for all.

The Alliance’s army was now cut off. If they wanted to continue protecting the refugee’s escape, they would be forced to fight. The refugees didn’t just contain people of the Framework, but also uninitiated Tartarus planned on using for sacrifices.

While the beastkin were fierce and zealous to protect the balance, not everyone would join the eternal battle. Even if they could remove themselves from its protection when the war was won, their traditions and beliefs were still difficult to break.

Then, to join but not participate would harm the war as well–taking up slots that Adventurers could no longer fill. Only the children could be protected with minimal detriment to the effort.

Seeing Rookard’s goal, he called out his orders. They would have to break through the enemy ahead, to meet up with [Warrior Brotherhood].

With a howl, the auril in the area stirred and converged around him. Rookard’s muscles filled with power, as he activated his Technique, [On the Hunt]. A pulse ran through his wolf manifestations, a total of six of them now that his will was stronger.

As Rookard drew back an arrow and filled it with auril, a wolf leaped for his target unbidden. The arrow converged with the wolf in midair, the wolf combining with it as it pierced the skeletal knight powerfully.

His wolves moved in tandem with his shots, a coordinated hunt of fierce enhanced attacks. As they continued to strike down his enemies, they rematerialized near him, to go on the hunt once more.

A handful of ghouls neared Rookard, changing their focus to him. Stowing his bow, he drew his axes. His wolves met and bit into the ghouls, slowing their attack but otherwise not causing significant damage.

But as he swung his axe, the nearest wolf would merge into the attack, creating a powerful axe head overfilled with auril. He cleaved right through a ghoul with every swing, his wolves leaping into his axe as he continued his onslaught.

Rookard was a storm of vengeance, cutting powerfully into each ghoul.

His wolves continued their coordinated attack, Rookard moving toward the powerful Death Knight, his bones blackened and enhanced by terrible energies. It was cutting through his people with ease, their shields shattering with nearly every blow.

With a howl, his blue auril stirred around him once more. Rookard leaped through the air at his target, his wolves leaping with him

The Death Knight swung to meet him with its great sword, and Rookard swung his axe overhead. Rather than join his axe, his wolf became a sharp blade of auril that moved parallel to his.

When his axe met the Death Knight’s sword, the wolf blade continued over the monster’s guard, slicing into its chest. The knight was knocked back by the blow, and Rookard continued on, stepping forward with a swing of his other axe.

The nearby wolf merged with his blade, as he cut into the monster again powerfully.

Javelins and arrows struck the larger creature, whittling away at its defenses further. The Death Knight instead attacked Rookard with its large weapon, and four wolves converged on it. Two merged into his weapons as he met the powerful blow with a resounding clang, and the other four bit into the creature’s legs.

Rookard then became a storm of blows, as his wolves worked in tandem to take down the target. Every attack was focused on dealing damage, even if his axe was blocked, one of his wolves would land a vicious cut on the Death Knight.

A skilled opponent could block both or dematerialize a wolf and go on the offensive themselves, but this creature was anything but that. The undead won by wearing you down and overwhelming strength.

The Death Knight eventually crumbled, his many allies joining him in his hunt. They pierced through the enemy’s ranks, the many refugees following within the formation. Even among them, many of them had ultimately leveled up and became armed with any weapons they could find.

Many of them had already been taken Fhesiah’s pills, Awakening using the serum or within the terrible battles that lead to their escape from the vicious enemy. The Alliance aided in their protection, but they also aided themselves.

Rookard continued his hunt, until two men in a red and green warrior outfit could be seen. The laughter of the big one could be heard from quite the distance away, the glowing polearm slicing left and right.

Howling in victory at their reinforcements, his warriors dashed to pierce the final lines, to meet with their allies. Yiming and Longwei’s forces pushed just as hard, to join with Rookard’s forces.

Yiming cut through a ghoul, arriving in front of Rookard. Arrows flashed and talismans flew, magical spells and warriors fighting fervently around them as the battle was joined and the enemy routed.

“Is this everyone? Things are not looking great on our side, but we are happy to rejoin our allies and brothers.”

Rookard’s warriors who came West had been reduced to nearly half, but more had joined his numbers than were lost. Many packs had formed and Clans grew, as many refugees joined his ranks. They were low in level, but they were quickly brought up to speed with how his people fought.

He nodded to Yiming. “This is all my warriors. We had taken losses to protect the refugees, but kept all the uninitiated alive at all costs. That they seek to capture them helps, but the Awakened Warriors fight hard to defend their brethren despite their low levels.”

Longwei cleaved through a final skeletal knight with his large glaive, then looked at the incoming warriors with approval. “Your people are true warriors, Rookard. A glorious battle against evil awaits! Morwen and Timone now struggle against forces of betrayers and undead, as well. They now retreat as they protect other refugees, but it’s clear we’re being driven on all sides.”

Yiming nodded. “The net is closing. We must pierce a hole, if we’re to allow the refugees to escape. The enemy is losing a lot here, but it appears they have prepared much for their machinations.”

Rookard shouted, “We hunt! Warriors, with me! We move to aid our brethren, for tainted beastkin are killing our people. There must be blood, the taint cleansed from our world once and for all!”

Howls rose from the warriors around them, Yiming and Longwei looking on in satisfaction. They would fight through the enemy’s net, and overcome this challenge Tartarus laid out for them.

***

Nadessa walked through the Cascadia plaza, her vine dress now shimmering with a golden hue. She had recently become a Druid of Lugh, the god’s mastery over the storm and elements matching her perfectly.

It was her skill in elemental magic she most prided herself for, her control over nature’s elements that had brought her victory time and again.

Looking over the plaza, she saw a few of the arrivals blending in with the beastkin people. Dryads, treants, fauns, satyrs, and even some spriggons mingled, the beastkin quickly finding harmony with her people.

There was even a fountain installed, where naiads would visit from the lake above Cascadia.

Many of them had begun taking on the clergy classes, becoming druids, paladins, priestesses, and clerics of the Celtic Divine.

However, there were certainly people among them also taking on Hestia, Bastet, Athena, and Echidna. There was even a treant who took on Guan Yu in particular.

The Elysian Glade might be destroyed, but their people had found a new home. The Elysians had finally helped complete the wall, or at least close enough. Having grown the trees into the wall, there were no longer any gaps.

Valtor and Jake wanted the trees to grow taller and their roots to grow deeper as well as make the wall thicker and taller, but Cascadia was now protected on all sides. Each tree had ledges high above, with siege equipment installed.

Then, the trees had living vines that could be controlled by the Elysians, and even some beastkin. If an undead army showed up, she was confident her people would be able to rebuff them. That is, combined with the many beastkin.contemporary romance

New Auril Heroes appeared almost daily, an occurrence previously so rare that a village might only see one in a hundred years. The auril in the air was getting thicker by the day after the curse had been lifted.

[Final Elysians Have Arrived, the Mass Migration is now complete. Restrictions on Nadessa have been removed.]

Nadessa was filled with pride and joy. She began to jog toward the Alliance HQ so that she could welcome the final people! She would trigger them to arrive in Harmony Peaks, to protect the World Tree.

Just as she arrived in front, a group of distressed spriggons got in her way.

Jabbering, they pointed to the Southeast. Their expressions were in turmoil, angry, even fearful as they shoved each other, and even pushed her back. What was going on?

They waved their arms, and jabbered incessantly at Nadessa trying to tell her something. She was confused for a moment, until one holding a homemade baseball bat smacked his palm with it.

Suddenly coordinated, several spriggons joined in a circle around Nadessa.

Finally, a spriggon that was a little more coherent and outside the circle, pointed at one of her naiads in the fountain, or perhaps, it was pointing at the water itself.

Weaving its hand like water flowing, Nadessa thought it was pantomiming a river. It walked around from the Southeast side, then crashed into the circle of spriggons, even making splashing sounds with its mouth.

It then growled, making a menacing face that was somehow cute as it opened its clawed hands. The spriggon that got struck by the river then fell over, and the growling spriggon roamed inside, looking like it was going after Nadessa.

Nadessa frowned, she thought she understood what they were trying to tell her, but how was that possible? She gathered her storm magic, creating localized air pressure.

She grew out the leaves of her dress, forming close to a parachute with them. Leaping into the air, she aimed for the top of the HQ tower.

Floating rapidly upward until stopping in a slow float, she looked to the Southeast. At first, she hadn’t seen anything. The mountainous terrain near Cascadia already had quite the view, able to see for dozens of miles around them.

From on top of the HQ tower, she could see near a hundred miles. As far as she knew, she could almost see Life’s Haven from her location. Most likely, from the top of the Life’s Haven tower, they could see Cascadia’s Lake instead since it was at a higher elevation.

As she watched, a little more from the South East, she saw it. A giant black river or wave was heading their way! It was approaching faster than a river had any right to. It was already a lot closer than she would expect, too. Just how did their scouts not spot this?

Immediately sending Aisling and Valtor a message, she continued to try each tribal council member as well. She let herself fall near the ground rapidly, ending her air pressure and drifting to the ground.

Then, more and more motes of light were released, as warriors from Harmony Peaks and Life’s Haven arrived through the portal. Treants, dryads, fauns, and satyrs and Adventurers arrived.

There were certainly some beastkin arriving too, but they were minimal in their number. Nadessa was aware that a large majority had headed West, after all.

Nadessa just gawked at the immediate reaction, as she had only sent the message less than a minute ago. Then, Aisling walked out with a beaming smile–one that looked quite pleased with herself.

“Surprised to see me? Wow, it’s almost like someone knew this was going to happen? But how? How could they know?”

Nadessa frowned, and looked at her more than a little angrily. “If you knew this was going to happen, why didn’t you warn us? I know you have odd dreams of the future, but isn’t this a little much?”

Aisling shrugged. “I don’t make the rules. If you’d have been more ready here, they might have attacked there because they can do the same thing. I do the best I can, and let fate take care of the rest. My clan-mates are in great danger too, you know.”

Nadessa’s eyebrows rose in surprise. That was surprisingly more reasonable than she thought. She went ahead and triggered her final arrivals to arrive here instead of Harmony Peaks as planned.

It was just in time, too, as within moments, the area was marked as Contested, with Rifts spawning.

The plaza was now full of warriors, the Elysians and many Adventurers. Nadessa smiled with pride, as she saw nearly a hundred proud Treants, and even a handful of Hamadryads with their trees–in their mobile forms.

There were only a few of them, but just that any of them had managed to make it made her happy. When they reached the peak of the first Tier, the Hamadryads paired with their tree could act like a treant–for a time, anyway.

“Can you tell me anything more about the attack?”

Aisling pondered for a bit, her face going slack as she thought. “Uh, Nagas, including a super big one. Maybe…a big ship, made of undead, I think.”

“Made of undead? You mean with?”

“Maybe? Visions are weird. Also, some bugs. Grasshoppers, I think.”

Nadessa looked at all the warriors Aisling had brought. Even Seamus was present, his many warriors from Life’s Haven. They had been increasing their level, trying to catch up to the warriors of Hearthtribe.

Even the Hearthtribe warriors were present. Most of those that reached the Auril Hero level had headed out East with Jake, but some remained. The rest continued to take on their Incursions and level, while focused on their crafts and improving their skills.

Looking at her Elysian people, she was filled with pride at the number of treants that arrived. The many patriarchs gathered around, her many dryad sisters and faun brethren spread out among them.

Spotting a familiar figure, she smiled widely. Her father, Drysander, was a war oak treant, and responsible for leading the many warriors to battle. He spotted her not long after she spotted him, and began his ambling approach.

His stature was tall and wide, and his red leaves above his head formed a large canopy. Many scars adorned his figure, many slices, and deep cuts on his bark. While treants were full of vitality and could heal wounds rapidly with ease, the war oaks wore their cuts within their bark proudly.

Several of her mothers rode on his wide body, her faun-mother walking along his side.

His sonorous voice carried easily over the commotion. “Nessa-daughter, dear–what is happening? Were we not to arrive in Harmony Peaks? There is talk of battle among the many natives.”

“I am sorry, Father. There is a change of plans. The enemy is at the gates, so to speak. If we repel this attack, combined with what Lord Jake is doing, we should be close to ready for the Raid.”

He took a deep breath, and closed his eyes. Roots from his stump-like feet dug into the ground. The dryads, including her mother, cast spells, and all of them glowed green–the group of them casting nature magic.

Drysander retracted his roots before he laughed, a smile of pure joy reaching his eyes. “This place is truly wondrous. I can feel it in the air and soil itself, the world welcomes us! You said Harmony Peaks felt even better. The Patriarchs like a good scrap, and it’s been a few months now. Some of them would have preferred to set their roots for a while and enjoy their new home.”

He shook his head. “But Life, like branches in the wind, teaches us that we must adapt. For the storm cares not for our plans. We will fight once more, to defend our new home. We will not lose it again.”

The many elders, including Seamus started converging on Nadessa’s location. They would defend their new home against this terrible enemy, fighting alongside their new brethren.

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