"Do not falter!" the Flood Dragon champion roared, trying to rally his stunned and reeling troops. Or what remained of them after the massacre by the siege towers, anyway. "There is no retreat for us! We can only go forward! And their siege towers are on cooldown! We still have a chance! As long as we can get into close combat, we will prevail!"
"Not with our numbers this reduced," one of the Flood Dragon soldiers protested, only for the champion to cuff him.
"What's with the defeatist attitude? Besides, it's not like we have a choice! You want to turn your backs on them? You've seen what they're capable of! If we turn and run now, they'll just rout us! Better to go down dying than be shot in the back while fleeing like a coward!"
That appeared to spur them, and the tattered remnants of the vanguard strike force finally mustered their courage to charge. The Flood Dragon priests continued to provide cover against the bombarding spells from the spirit arrays, their coven having been largely untouched by the siege attacks. They were the lucky ones, having stood in the rear while their comrades bore the full brunt of the counteroffensive.
Not that the spells had much of an effect on the champion and the two Flood Dragon Behemoths. They charged through the violent volley, providing cover for the few remaining foot soldiers. A dozen or so fell on the way there, incinerated, electrocuted or disintegrated by the energy dragons and other elemental projectiles, and about fifteen of them made it to the barrier.
Only to be met by a wall of crustacean shell.
The Colossal Crabs hammered their gigantic pincers against the advancing Flood Dragons, pulping them into gore. Even their durable armored scales weren't proof against 10,000 horsepower of crushing force. Perhaps the external scales could withstand the blows, but the shockwaves would rupture their internal organs.
As powerful as they were, even the Colossal Crabs were no match for the Flood Dragon Behemoths. Instead, two of the Guardian Golems stepped forward to intercept the titanic spirit beasts, throwing their thick arms out to halt their charge. The Flood Dragon Behemoths crashed against the Guardian Golems, and they began to wrestle, their immense bulks throwing up clouds of dirt and dust as they rocked the cave with their huge movements.
"Your head is mine!" The Flood Dragon champion bellowed as he leaped at me, swinging his sword down to cleave me in half. Vicious light gleamed in his eyes. "As long as I kill you, this war will be over! The dungeon will be ours! Cut off the head and the body will fall!"
I slid to the side, avoiding the champion's blade, and then I countered with a riposte that glanced off his armored scales. He laughed and responded with a backhanded sweep that I parried. Even so, his superior strength flung me off my feet and sent me skidding back.
While we fought, spells continued to hammer the barrier, the Flood Dragon priests attempting to break it with sheer volume of projectiles. Long Wang, Sylvie and Silvia had stopped activating the spirit arrays now that the enemy had come under our aegis and were engaging our forces in hand-to-hand combat, and they didn't want any incidents of friendly fire.
That was fun. The Colossal Crabs were winning, with very few Flood Dragon soldiers remaining now, their spears ineffectively glancing off the armored shells. The Guardian Golems and the Flood Dragon Behemoths were locked in a stalemate, while I was facing off against the champion, who no longer had an army to command…with the exception of the coven of Flood Dragon priests in the rearguard. They continued to cast spells and bombard the barrier protecting my barrier, which flickered under the assault.
As powerful as the barrier was, even it would collapse when subjected to overwhelming pressure. I was sure Sylvie or Long Wang would fix it when that happened, but I wasn't going to stress them out unnecessarily. Fortunately, I already had a contingency in place for that.
While the Flood Dragon priests desperately sieged my dungeon from afar, they were unaware of a squad creeping to their sides. Then the Little Anglers and Lantern Fishes struck from the shadows, combining their lightning bolt stacks to electrocute the whole coven. The Flood Dragon priests convulsed as they were hit by lethal electricity, their bodies sizzling as they dropped to the ground. Not all of them died outright, thanks to the innate resilience of their armored bodies. A few picked themselves back up and turned around to counter, only to be mobbed by ghost and wood type spirit beasts.
"Ugh!?"
The Phantom Stumps and Ghost Pumpkins were among them all of a sudden, the former leeching onto them with their wooden horns and sucking the vitality out of them, while the latter drew the spells away with ghostly orange qi. The Yellow ranked Flood Dragon priests normally were more than a match for the ordinary ranked Phantom Stumps and Ghost Pumpkins, but they were few in number, and thus were overwhelmed by the sheer volume of ghost and wood type spirit beasts floating around them. It was only a matter of time before they fell, their vitality sucked dry.
And those who managed to break free, swatting aside the plump Ghost Pumpkins, were confronted by the waiting Lantern Fishes. Even though my marine spirit beasts were the same rank, the Flood Dragon priests had been weakened by the ghostly assault…and thus were easily torn apart by hydro torrents or incinerated by coordinated lightning bolts.
With their job of extermination done, my aquatic armada and ghostly troops disappeared into the shadows once more before retreating back under the protective aegis of the barrier type spirit arrays. I could see the other spirit beasts coming to help me, but I shook my head and gestured for them to stay back.
"You guys need to preserve your strength for the main force. Let me deal with this guy."
"Isn't that the same for you, boss?" One of the Lantern Fishes protested – one of those who had stayed behind. The marine platoon that had gone out to attack the coven of Flood Dragon priests was just a couple of squads out of over two hundred Little Anglers and Lantern Fishes. I shook my head.
"Nah, it's totally fine. I just want to warmup. And besides, this punk thinks he can defeat me. I want to show him how wrong he is."
"You're looking down on me!" The Flood Dragon champion snarled as he charged at me again, his sword slashing the air. I deflected the next blow with Azure Dragon before retaliating with a riposte, only for my blade to glance off his armored scales. Damn. Maybe I should have acquired a hammer and used it instead, but if I were to go down that route, I might as well grab some parasitic organism to improve my strength and reflexes too.
Obviously, I couldn't do that because I would be ripping off Dungeon Odyssey a bit too much. Still, against the tenacious Flood Dragons, it appeared that blunt weapons were far more effective than blades. My Colossal Crabs had proven that point earlier.
"I guess I'll need to change my strategy…"
"It's useless!" The Flood Dragon champion snapped as he slashed at me again. "No matter what you do, you'll never be able to defeat me!"
"Oh, really?" I ducked under a sweeping blow before I kicked him in the gut. Damn, it felt as if I had just hit a truck. Even as I winced from the pain that bolted up my leg, I was relieved to see the Flood Dragon champion fold and stumble back. seizing the opportunity, I swung my sword and struck his neck, but once again, the armored scales that protected his throat repelled my blade.
The Flood Dragon champion guffawed as he beat me back with another strike. I hopped backward before stopping, righting my stance and parrying another blow. The champion continued to bear down on me, swinging almost wildly now. There was no flair or skill to his swordsmanship. He relied purely on brute force to pulverize me.
"Did you think your puny blade can cut through my armored scales?"
"I don't actually have to cut through your armored scales, though."
"Huh?" The Flood Dragon champion's head whipped up as he tried to carve me apart, only for me to stay out of range of his huge sword. Then he stiffened, feeling an unnatural cold seeping into him. Pressing one claw to his neck, he found that ice had expanded all over his hide, clogging up his qi circulation and making his movements sluggish. "What the hell is this?"
"I just thought you might need to cool down," I replied. The Flood Dragon champion snarled and lunged at me once more, slashing frantically. With a burst of qi, he shattered the ice, but he had to expend a lot of qi to expel the chill from his body.
Making use of that, I slid under his blows before striking his leg and causing it to be encased in ice. He pivoted on his other leg and swung his sword at me, but I conjured Azure Frost with my left hand and deflected his blade to the side.
"A dual sword wielder?" The Flood Dragon champion growled, trying to stomp on me. With a single stroke, he broke the ice on his leg, sending frozen fragments spraying all over. They melted against the azure qi aura I had around me, but I crossed my swords to catch his heavy blade. My knees buckled from the blow, but I held. My opponent sneered. "It's useless. No matter what weapons you possess, I'll smash through all of them!"
Behind us, a Guardian Golem was slammed into the cave wall by his Flood Dragon Behemoth opponent, the impact sending debris tumbling down. He grappled with the snapping jaws of the titanic beast, keeping the fangs and powerful maw at bay. Even with his incredible resilience, he wouldn't emerge unscathed from the sheer power of the Flood Dragon Behemoth's bite.
Fortunately, he wasn't alone. While the Flood Dragon Behemoth was distracted with the Guardian Golem, one of my Tree Revenants moved over and hammered it with his wood. The Flood Dragon Behemoth snarled and spun around, only for my Tree Revenant to deliver a phantom force attack that jolted its head to the side.
While the Flood Dragon Behemoth was stunned by the ghostly blow, the Guardian Golem brought his fists together and swung down, burying the interlocked hands into the behemoth's spine and breaking it. Like a machine suddenly losing power, the Flood Dragon Behemoth collapsed, its rear legs no longer moving.
"Cowards," the Flood Dragon champion hissed viciously as he struck at me again, almost swatting me aside with his huge blade. "Ganging up on us when we are fewer in number? Where is your honor as a dungeon master?"
"Are you serious?" I couldn't believe what I was hearing. "You come attack my dungeon with a force of over a thousand Flood Dragons, outnumbering the residents of my dungeon, and you're complaining about us ganging up on you? What logic is this?"
"The logic of the strong!" The Flood Dragon champion roared as he smacked me, sending me tumbling to the side. "Might makes right! As long as we win, it doesn't matter what measures we employ! The weak like you only exist as stepping stones, so you have no right to complain about unfairness!"
"Really?" I scoffed as I rose shakily to my feet, plunging Azure Dragon into the ground. "Then you can't whine either when we obliterate your forces…because clearly that's evidence that you're weaker than us. By that logic, as long as we win, it doesn't matter how we do it. What matters is that it's proof that we're stronger than you."
"Hah! Utterly delusional!" The Flood Dragon champion spat and raised his sword with both hands, ready to lunge forward and cleave me into pieces. "I'll kill you right here and now! You don't even have the right to face my king!"
I didn't bother with a retort, drawing my bow instead. Fitting Azure Frost to Obsidian Drake, I took aim. The Flood Dragon champion's eyes narrowed.
"What's this? I thought you were a dual wielding swordsman, but it seems like you're an archer instead?" He snorted and leaped forward, swinging his huge sword down. "Not that it matters! As long as I get close, your bow will be useless!"
I released Azure Frost and the freezing arrow streaked across my dungeon, hammering into the Flood Dragon champion's chest and detonating. There was a bluish white nova that engulfed the vicinity in snow before the foe's frozen form dropped to the ground and shattered into a million pieces.
A cheer rose across my spirit beasts, but I held a hand up to silence them.
"That was only the vanguard, my friends," I said, steel in my voice as I kept Obsidian Drake and retrieved Azure Dragon. "The main force has yet to attack."
"They won't be far behind," Long Wang agreed. I nodded and raised my sword.
"Even so, this doesn't make this any less of a victory. Let's make use of this momentum to destroy the invaders! Prepare the dungeon's defenses!"
"YEAH!"
Yelling in unison, my spirit beasts began marshalling for the real battle to come.