You are Summoned

Chapter 285. End of an Empire.

Seeing the four giant-sized forgotten ones in front of it, Doshkath flapped his wings and hovered near the top of the cavern. So far, I hadn’t seen any type of ranged weapons used by the forgotten ones, but these four monsters were large enough that their tentacle arms should reach almost to the top of the cavern. Doshkath roared in challenge and seemed incensed that the monsters in front of him were silent.

I was no expert on the subject of dragons, but if a young dragon was anything like a young human, ignoring his challenge was a good way to goad him into a fight. Folding his wings, Doshkath dove at the forgotten ones, his attack led by another blast of his flaming breath weapon.

One pair of giant forgotten ones were completely enveloped in the flames, and I could see their bodies melt away as the sticky dragon flame consumed them. The blast also consumed my market, but I had a feeling that I wasn’t going to need it any longer. The battle was at its endgame, and I had to just hold out as long as I could.

With the dragon and titanic forgotten ones holding the focus of everyone and everything in the cavern, I issued a few orders. All the surviving mercenaries and kobold warrior squads were now massed at the headquarters and barracks. The surviving militia, which there were just over a hundred of, were positioned outside the walls in front of the gate to the headquarters.

Directly in front of the gate, I had the giant barrier lizard appear. A score of militia climbed up its back and began to man the half dozen weapons that were strapped onto the immense beast. The lizard didn’t seem to mind, and even shifted his bulk a few times to make sure all the weapons, essentially the same oversized crossbows as we had on the walls, had a clear field of fire.

I kind of felt bad about leaving the barrier lizard and the militia outside. There just wasn’t enough room for them inside, and they should be able to at least get a few kills and slow down whatever tried to breach the entrance to the headquarters. Another roar from Doshkath shook the cavern. Unfortunately, this roar wasn’t one of challenge or anger, it was a shout of pain. Turning my focus back to the fight, I could see my dragon ally was in trouble.

Doshkath had adjusted his dive to hit one of the two surviving giants. The impact, along with his claws, teeth, and tail, made short work of the giant. His aggressive attack had left him open to the final foe, who wasted no time in lashing out with his tentacle arms. Instead of smashing into the dragon, the forgotten one instead looped one tentacle around the dragon’s throat, choking off the cries of Doshkath.

The other tentacle had pierced like a spear deep into the dragon’s chest. As I watched, the dragon’s struggles grew weaker, and the giant forgotten one seemed to swell with power as it somehow drained the life force of Doshkath through its tentacle. In a final, desperate effort, Doshkath croaked in pain, and I could see a red glow appear in his throat.

Doshkath was charging up his breath weapon, but with his throat constricted, the breath had nowhere to go. Heat radiated off the dragon’s body and the forgotten one squirmed in pain as anything in contact with the dragon began to burn. Sadly, the pressure and heat building up inside Doshkath’s body proved to be too much, and he exploded in a whirlwind of dragon flesh and fire.

The blast wave reached out across the cavern, killing hundreds of the smaller forgotten ones before its power diminished. Even with the blast over, I could feel the temperature in the cavern had increased by several degrees. At least the blast was too far away to do any damage to the headquarters, barracks, or the troops inside.

Despite the cataclysmic fight, the forgotten ones didn’t relent. The unstoppable horde continued toward my headquarters as I prepared to make my last stand. Archers atop the walls at the windows of the headquarters, and aboard the barrier lizard began to fire, dropping enemies by the score. There were just too many forgotten ones now, and they seemed to ignore any losses they suffered and continued to advance.

As the edge of the enemy swarm engaged the militia outside, the barrier lizard released a blast of flame into the lead ranks. Not nearly as powerful as Doshkath’s breath, the lizard was still able to toast dozens of the foes. While the lizard cooked the enemy, I received an update from the system. Apparently, another day had passed while I had been focused on the battle.

The 3rd day of the final stage has ended.

Remaining contenders: 309/2432.

A countdown of the remaining contenders will now be accessible inside your headquarters interface.

Well, I’d held out for longer than most. Pulling up the remaining contenders’ countdown inside the headquarters interface, I found I could keep the countdown open in the corner of my vision without needing to constantly focus on it. I watched it tick down to 308, then 307 in seconds. My competitors must be facing the same sort of pressure I was.

The forgotten ones had now cut through the remaining militia and the poor barrier lizard outside, and the larger ones were pounding on the gate and throwing their smaller kin atop the headquarters battlements. On the battlements above, the archers suddenly found forgotten ones dropping all around them. After a few minutes, the numbers of enemies atop the battlements grew and my kobold defenders were cut down.

The defenders inside the headquarters bolted the hatch leading to the battlements, but I could already hear the forgotten ones above tearing into it. They would break through before too long. At the main gate, I could hear the stout wood bar holding it closed crack. A couple more shoves and the gates flung open.

Forgotten ones poured through the open gates and were met by a barrage of the last dragonfire bombs my troops possessed. After the bombs were used up, the sorcerers burned the last of their mana to blanket the area in Flame Blasts and Scorching Rays. I added my spells to the mix, as well as dropping a Health Bloom over the first ranks of my kobold troops.

Ignoring the firepower slaughtering them, the forgotten ones charged forward, their objective was in sight, and nothing was going to dissuade them from reaching me. A quick check revealed that the contender count was down to 264. Others were falling fast, and if I could just hold a bit longer, my rewards would be much better.

A string of explosions rippled through my front ranks as the kobold fanatic mercenaries charged forward and detonated themselves against the horde. Collateral damage killed more than a few of my own troops, but it gave us a breather to reorganize the rest and bolt the doors to the map room.

Inside, I had the dragonkin elite squad and my minions. The door to the map room was reinforced, but nowhere near as strong as the front gate. Once they finished off the rest of my forces, the forgotten ones would have no trouble breaching it. Through the interface I watched as the last of my troops were slaughtered, but each death bought me a few more moments of life.

Those extra moments of life allowed me to keep climbing the ranks of the surviving contenders. We were down to 207, and the number was falling fast by the time the door to my headquarters was breached. Minutes passed, and the powerful dragonkin elite warriors I’d positioned there seemed to have no trouble holding back the tide of attackers trying to get through the doorway chokepoint.

Part of the wall behind me crumbled as the forgotten ones breached it. I cast Duplicate on the mana slayer drone and assigned the pair to hold the breach. Khurr also joined them when the forgotten ones began to push past. I hurled my javelin, the lightning empowering the weapon cooking several enemies that were tightly packed in the breach.

Just then, another section of wall crumbled, and I sent my goblins to hold that spot. Elida was constantly casting healing spells, rapidly burning through her spell slots as she tried to keep the defenders alive. I dropped Health Blooms over each group of defenders, helping to keep them on their feet for as long as possible.

Moving to the corner of the room, I overturned the map table and positioned myself behind it as I prepared to make my last stand. The contender count was down to 117 and dropped to 116 a second later. Whatever was happening in the other zones, it seemed as devastating as the attacks against me.

Glurk and Glamb were snatched up by a larger forgotten one and dragged into the swarm. I hit Glamb with Ring of Final Sacrifice, causing him to explode as the forgotten ones tore him apart. Firing off magic missiles from my wand, I also reached into Rodney’s Bag of Beasts for another defender.

“Really bag, that’s what you give me,” I complained as a large rodent was pulled out. The system called it an Agouti, whatever that was. I thought it looked like an oversized squirrel without a tail. It did about as well as I expected, charging forward only to be stomped on by a forgotten one.

My wand ran dry just as the last of my goblins fell and the enemy charged forward. The surviving minions and dragonkin elite turned and tried to come to my aid, but there were too many enemies between us for them to reach me in time. Just as the lead forgotten one was about to enter melee range, the ground shook, knocking me off my feet.

I caught a brief glimpse of the ceiling collapsing and another of the titanic forgotten ones readying his arm for a blow that would probably bring down the entire headquarters.

You have been crushed to death by falling debris. Your arena challenge is now complete.

Congratulations! You were ranked #96 in the final tally. As a top 100 contender, additional rewards have been allocated. You will now be returned to the arena center to receive your rewards.