RD: Chapter Seven - War with the Wyverns

Dolli panted, sending whisps of white Spark into the dusky sky. They’d made dungeon improvements all through the afternoon, getting several of the dungeonfolk—Rufus and Greg included—to level ten for their first transformation. At Dolli’s behest, Greg selected Bronzite, the bigger, taller, tankier of the transformations.

It was going to be his job to take any of the hits the wyverns dished out. Being able to turn his skin into solid metal gave him a significant advantage against the wyverns claws and teeth, making him ideal to be the team’s shield.

“Do you need me to carry you?” Rufus asked quietly. He had chosen Stagarth, the more animal transformation to the Oakenheart’s tree-like form. Stagarth offered him good piercing abilities with his massive, razor-sharp rack—piercing they would need to get through the wyverns hides.

Dolli took another deep breath and closed her eyes. “No, I can make it.”

She couldn’t justify using up any Spark to take a more human shape that gave her more Hit Points and Stamina. She needed all of her firepower for this battle. Then again, she likely needed all her Stamina for the battle, too.

“On second thought,” Dolli said, then reached up for Rufus like a child stretching up toward their mother. Rufus picked her up and plopped her on his shoulder. The view was much clearer from here. Dolli could also hear father than from on the ground where the crunching twigs and leaves dampened other distant sounds.

Her army of Dungeonfolk had spread out a few paces through the forest, ensuring that the frontline fighters were higher level tanks, but there were several rows of them. Fifty had leveled enough to come on the journey, while the two children in town and ten guardians remained behind to protect the city.

They had only twenty minutes until the first exhaustion debuff appeared, and Dolli had no idea what to expect. She’d seen some pitiful debuffs, and some powerful ones. This seemed as though it could be the latter, and she wasn’t going to chance it.

“Are you scared?” Rufus asked in a quiet voice.

Dolli felt the fear of the dungeonfolk around her, but that wasn’t her. She closed her eyes and quieted the noise, seeking her own thoughts. She was terrified. What if they all died without retaking the seat of power? The potential answers were all too horrible to think.

“No,” she finally answered. “I’m confident at least one of us will survive to be the ruling faction at the seat, and then I’ll be able to use the Lifewell.”

Rufus scoffed. “At least one? That’s a low bar.”

“I like to manage expectations with realism, not optimism,” Dolli said snarkily.

Rufus laughed. “Well, consider my expectations managed.”

Without having to watch where she wiggled, Dolli was free to open her character menu. There had been some difficult choices to make when she hit level seven, but she was happy with all of them.

Zeal, the fourth spell she hadn’t been able to read in time when she was battling heroes, happened to be the best level one ability—at least for group events such as this.

[Wispelle Ability: ZEAL]

Spell type: Active

Cost: 50 Spark

Cast time: Instant

Cooldown: 10 minutes

Duration: 1 minute

Range: 15 feet

Target: Self or Friendly / Single Target

Spark Alignment: Divine

Description: Empower your target with the essence of Spark to do great things.

Effects:

- Increase target’s Agility, Constitution, Stamina, and Strength by 50%

- Increase target’s Mental Prowess and Magic Affinity by 200%

- Increase target’s Armor Rating by 100%

- Instantly heal the target by 25% of their total health

Debuff Disclaimer: When Zeal’s duration ends, the target is debuffed with the inverse of all the beneficial stat improvement effects for 30 seconds.

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The debuff was brutal, but hopefully it would all be over by then. With that buff on Greg, his chances of survival shot way up—at least for 45 seconds, which was hopefully long enough for the dungeonfolk to kill the wyverns. He could respawn if they were successful, but if he went down too soon, it would be over for them all.

The next skill she knew would be essential was Mend Wounds, but it wasn’t for Dolli. She had the other two Wispelle get that spell, so she could get Starfire.

[Wispelle Ability: STARFIRE]

Spell type: Active

Cost: 25 Spark

Cast time: 1 second

Cooldown: 5 minutes

Duration: 20 seconds

Range: 50 feet

Radius: 20 feet

Target: Area of Effect

Spark Alignment: Celestial

Description: Rain stars down from on high, punishing all in the area.

Effects:

- Rain down [15]-[22] Spark Stars. Each explode on impact (indiscriminate) and deal between [6]-[13] +10% of your Mental Prowess in damage

- Each Spark Star that strikes a living target has a 15% chance to stun the target for 3 seconds.

Disclaimer: Beware of Friendly Fire!

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An area effect ability was just what she would need to keep the damage pressure on both wyverns at once. The male would be hellbent on protecting his roosting female, so any damage done to her would pull his attention—which was exactly what they were going to do. But she would have to be careful not to cast it where it could strike Greg, or any of the frontline fighters.

She was beginning to notice the numbers in brackets would change based on her stats, and her level. There was certainly some kind of “behind the scenes” math happening she couldn’t see that was affecting those numbers. She’d have to delve deeper into that later.

Her third pick, Gravity Sink, was harder to decide on, but she was satisfied in the end.

[Wispelle Ability: GRAVITY SINK]

Spell type: Active

Cost: 50 Spark

Cast time: 2 seconds

Cooldown: 3 minutes

Duration: 15 seconds

Range: 50 feet

Radius: 10 feet

Target: Area of Effect – Discriminatory

Spark Alignment: Nether

Description: Foes within the field are affected by gravity more severely while friends are less affected.

Effects:

- Foes within the Gravity Sink will experience reduced Agility, Stamina, Strength, and Movement Speed by 15%

- Friends within the Gravity Sink will experience increased Agility, Stamina, Strength, and Movement speed by 5%

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Another important area of effect that could make or break the coming battle. This would tucker the enraged male out faster, making it that much easier to take him down. Or, that was the hope with that part of the kiting plan.

Finally, though she knew she should’ve reinforced another spell rather than spend the point, she got Symbiosis.

[Wispelle Ability: SYMBIOSIS]

Spell type: Passive

Range: 10 feet

Spark Alignment: None

Description: Wispelle are emboldened by the presence of their kin!

Effects:

- Increase Magical Affinity and Mental Prowess by 5% if another Wispelle, or Wispelle Transformation, is within 10 feet of you

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The first level of the spell had only given a bonus for being near a single Wispelle, but Dolli noticed the level two version gave a 1% bonus for every other Wispelle in range.

“Any Wispelle with a point left, put it in Symbiosis. If you have two points, put both in there,” she said without closing her menu. She did the same. There were ten additional Wispelle in the raiding party, and +10% damage—or wound mending—was nothing to bat an eye at.

Dolli knew they could never take the wyverns in a fair fight. They would have to put them in the worst situation they could, and gang up on them with their full force. Dolli was grateful that when she transformed into a dungeon the open challenge for her seat of power had disappeared. If Dolli had still been in a challenge with the male… well, it would’ve been a short fight.

The sounds of distant shouts and a wyvern wail pulled Dolli out of the screens.

“Was that what I think it was?” Rufus asked.

“Yes,” Dolli said, fear roiling in her.

She opened the Overlord menu and opened a new message to the raiding party: Hold. There may be heroes in the clearing. Two Wendigos with stealth scout ahead southeast, two more to the southwest.

The troops came to an almost instantaneous halt. Dolli knew the Dungeon Alert ability would come in handy and was glad she’d put a point in it when the dungeon leveled to three. She’d told everyone to keep a keen eye out for notifications, which most of the dungeonfolk had learned to ignore over the years.

Four of the twelve Wendigo broke off and moved off into the woods. Within seconds, they disappeared from sight and sound, enveloped in green camouflage. Dolli waited impatiently as the sounds of distant battle raged on.

Finally, two Wendigo returned: Brene and Walden. Brene snuck up to Rufus’ side and whispered in a smoky voice. “Party of heroes twenty-five strong with two dead, likely two more by this report.”

Brene was the only town guard that hadn’t been recalled to the greater Kingdom of Edelbrent back when they were a village of citizens. She hadn’t lost her touch in the slightest with her monstrous transformation.

Dolli nodded to the efficient woman. “Distribution of classes?”

“At least five tanks, several mixed casters, few rangers and fighters. They brought a ranged party,” she said with a grin and Dolli knew exactly what she was thinking.

The tanks would be in close to the wyverns and healers would be sandwiched between ranged damage dealers at max range to avoid AOEs. There would be few melee capable heroes within range, giving Dolli and the dungeonfolk an almost cruel advantage.

Dolli opened her message system: Change of plans, compact in and move with haste. We want to sneak up behind the heroes and take them out when the wyverns are nearly dead. Healers first, then the ranged damage dealers. Three to a hero, watch your friendly fire.

When the message system closed, Dolli watched all her dungeonfolk go glossy-eyed. Then, they converged on Dolli. They moved quickly through the trees, the sounds of battle growing louder with every step. It was fortunate the battle was loud, for they wouldn’t hear anything coming from behind.

The dense forest thinned and in the orange dusk of the night, Dolli could see the male wyvern fighting for his life, his health bar almost drained to zero. A pile of bodies lay at his feet. Several more smears of blood from heroes already sent to respawn covered the smashed yard that had once been Dolli’s garden. She quickly counted the hero party: sixteen remained.

Two tanks were battling each wyvern, and while the female was better off than the male on hit points, it was obvious she couldn’t withstand their carnage…

Sixteen heroes, even hurting heroes, may be too much for Dolli and her dungeonfolk, but two critically injured wyverns wouldn’t stand a chance. They had to strike now while the wyverns still had a chance to do some damage.

Dolli opened her menu: Go now!

All at once, the front line fighters, all Belgrus broke through the trees. Their claws rended the soft flesh of the unguarded heroes, two going down before the group knew what was happening.

“Ambush! Behind, behind!” A bow touting Ranger screamed to her party of heroes.

Chaos ensued as the casting began. Dolli threw out Gravity Sink, slowing the back row of heroes from retreating toward their tanks for safety. When Rufus came too close to combat, Dolli dropped off and fell back to the group of Wispelle clustered beside two hulking Golems.

Symbioses activated as she came in range, and power surged through her. She cast Starfire at the cluster of confused heroes. Brilliant blue and pink spears of pure Spark shot from the sky and landed in the decimated garden with tiny explosions. Not every star hit a good mark, but enough of them landed true that Dolli’s vision came alight with red damage numbers.

“Run, run little heroes!” one Wispelle taunted beside Dolli.

“Who’s the weakling now?” a Golem growled as he tore a robed hero in half.

The health bar on the male wyvern dropped to zero and it dropped to the ground with a heavy thud, A burst of bright yellow lightning shot from one of the heroes into the male wyvern, then bounced into Dolli’s advancing dungeonfolk.

The collective scream of agony as the spell rippled through them broke Dolli’s concentration, and the Starfire spell ended. She gritted her teeth against the pain and closed her eyes. When she looked up, the male wyvern wobbled on its feet. The tank hero thrust her sword up into the creature’s neck and a spray of blood coated her armor.

Dolli’s troops stood in shocked, looking at the five front fighter’s who’d gone down from the lightning attack, Greg among them. Half of the heroes turned back, staring down the stunned dungeonfolk. Dolli wondered how she could’ve ever thought they could take on a raiding party of high-level heroes, an ache growing in her chest as the futility of their fight sank in.

This was the end for the village of Little Crossroad.