"Should we give one of them a try? Worst case scenario, can you exit the dungeon, Oath Breaker?" Cain asks.
The one from the Dwarven quest dungeon exits successfully and unharmed. "Yes, it starts you well away from the group, and leaving is no problem. I don't know why the dungeons were blocked off. Perhaps they were still unstable then? Or there might be something strange about them. None of the other portals were visible inside the dungeon. Not even the one into the city."
"Here goes nothing then. Everyone, follow me into the dungeon. We'll go rescue the Elves, since that dungeon and quest is still active."
Cain heads into the Green Portal, hoping nothing disastrous happens, but finds himself near the entry to the city, the Elves off in the distance, digging into the sand to build defensive fortifications.
[Quest Accepted: 80/80 Elves surviving.]
The message comes the moment he enters, so Cain dismisses the Giants and summons a full compliment of Oath Breakers, keeping only one merged, and then the rest of his summons.
"Stay well clear of the Elves and let nothing get to them. The quest didn't specify what the attack is or where it's coming from." Cain instructs everyone, and they all head out into the desert, looking for the attack that must be coming.
The incoming force is surprisingly easy to spot, but Cain understands immediately why the Elves didn't run. What he's seeing, kicking up a sand storm in the distance, is an entire Human Army riding camels. The livery is unfamiliar, but the ones without helmets all look human, as do the scouts that the Oath Breakers caught. One scout fired off a green flare, alerting the army to the target before the Oath Breaker understood what was going on and informed Cain about the incoming attack quest in this dungeon, but the rest have been killed now.
"Everyone form up. We will circle behind that dune to the east and ambush the army when they get close. They're headed for the Elves, so they won't be expecting us now that their scouts are dead."
Keeping low to the sand, they all move to intercept, the Oath Breakers looking exceptionally creepy doubled over, moving rapidly on their 6 hands to avoid becoming a giant silhouette against the horizon. By contrast, the Lamia have it the easiest, simply slithering along parallel to the ground. The Snapping Turtle kin moved better than expected, their limbs partially withdrawing into their shells before launching themselves forward on their bellies like they're the shells in Mario Cart. Given their size and armored shell edges, they might be even more dangerous as a flying object.
Now in position, Cain inspects the incoming group. They're lower level than he expected, most showing as twenty or more levels beneath him, while the leaders are mostly close to or equal to his current level. During the war, and right after the system was formed, this must have been a truly fearsome force.
None of the creatures that Cain brought are truly in their element in the desert, though the Lamia do well in the sand. If only their scales even closely matched the sand, since hiding is important to this tactic until the vanguard of the army is a hundred meters away.
"Turtles, move in front of the army at a fast jog, like you're trying to cross their path and escape. If they don't engage, come back and attack the far flank. Wrath Bringers, you've got the front, stop them from advancing towards the Elves, while the rest of us attack from the close side. I'll need two Oath Breakers in the rear though, to stop them from organizing or retreating." Cain sets out the battle plan and the summons start moving.
The Snapping Turtle kin are still pretending to be giant Tortoises, moving on their bellies as the others watch in amusement. The army leaders call out a halt, fear evident in their voices at what they believe are Legendary Quality Beasts in an already dangerous desert.
The first of the Snapping Turtles have passed the army now and they turn to head up its side, getting into position while the others pass the front. This puts then out of sight behind a dip in the sand, and makes the army brave. Only a few are still left to cross when the leaders call the attack.
"Grab the last few. Our food stores are almost empty and they'll fill our soup pots for a week."
As instructed, the rest of the Turtles launch the attack when the first Arrows land, and Cain gets the Wrath Bringers in motion.
"It's an ambush, the demons were using the Beasts as bait." The army leaders call and Cain signals the Dragons to fly up and launch their breath attacks, covering the army in withering Forest Dragon Breath and a thin Ice Fog.
They're well disciplined though, and both spells and arrow fire quickly drive the Dragons up in the air and out of range. But the Oath Breakers teleport in to cause chaos in the ranks while the Lamia charge through the sand, trapping the army between angry Turtle kin and a wealth of demons.
Cain and the Companions are still waiting on the perfect chance. Once the Lamia are fully engaged it will be time for them to charge and start adding debuffs to the mix, both Pestilence and Nemu's bard techniques.
"Avoid the back third of the army, I'll be casting a water pool under them, turning the deep sand to quicksand." Nila whispers as it gets close to time.
"Now, get as close as you can before drawing attention. I don't want them to realize we're not all demons and Beastkin." Cain says, seeing the time to engage. He wishes he'd thought to put a hood up, but in his excitement to plan an ambush he totally neglected his own appearance as a factor. The helmet he has on looks like a bandana, hardly enough of a disguise. He might as well have stayed bare headed.
Nila laughs quietly at his statement, like the species of the attackers will be less suspicious than the six identical Beast Lords behind them.
The army has discovered that the Forest Dragons can and will heal the others, so they're focusing most of their inner ranks on anti air firepower, leaving them vulnerable to being ambushed by teleport attacks by the Oath Breakers.
At the beginning of the battle, Cain's force was outnumbered ten to one, but that is changing very, very fast. He never did change the Fire Elementals serving as his Sorcerers back to Plague Mages, and their presence is destroying all remaining morale in the human force. Their supplies are being burnt to a crisp and from the shouting, Cain believes they don't know how far the desert extends. They certainly don't realize that only a day or two north they would be at the ocean.
Sometimes just selecting last used when he casts Summoning spells has unexpected benefits.
Cain himself is into the army now, slicing his way through the front ranks with grace and speed they have no hope of matching. Every attack causes Pestilence, which has spread as far as he can see, and the area damage of his attacks is dropping huge swaths of fighters around every target he hits. The spear only causes a minor area damage effect, but being merged with an Oath Breaker sends full damage to a large area.
This means Cain is using Cloud Dancing to its maximum extent, just to reach new targets, and the Human Army is rapidly becoming isolated pockets of resistance trying to survive the ambush.
Cain sees the command group has rallied a group of Mages and Clerics to create a Barrier and cleanse an area of Pestilence, but Nila is closer. A mighty Tsunami races forward from the Wave Rider, crushing the hastily erected barrier and sweeping everyone in the area off their feet.
Those who ended up in the low lands are having the worst time of it, fighting knee deep in water with a wet sand bottom. Those washed away from the fight only found themselves even more isolated and being targeted by Legendary Snapping Turtle Kin. Not a great option, but at least they have a chance to run.
The Elves who were the actual target of the attack have now joined in, attacking the humans from a distance, not trusting fully that the Beastkin won't turn on them, and trusting the demons even less, even if they do seem to be on the same side right now.
"Nila, go let them know we're allies today. Hopefully they still trust Dark Elves enough to take your word for it. I don't want to fail this quest because some idiot attacked us and suffered area damage." Cain calls and the wave rider sprints off, calling something in elvish to the lead forces in the rescued group.
They're not attacking her, which is a good sign, and the incoming Arrows are all finding human targets. Cain wonders if he should feel bad about that, picking another team in a species based war, but for today's Quest he's not going to worry too much about it.
