The Aura that comes off these Plague Angels is incredible, though. Forget Pestilence; even at twenty meters away, Ogres are beginning to wither and die simply from their aura effect. The only ones that aren't visibly affected are the bosses and the Ogre Shamans, who have enough resistance to fight it off.
They carry rusted two-handed swords with them and fly into the enemy with surprising grace even as the two-headed Record Keepers light everything up with magical fire, unwilling to lose this round of their bet.
They might only be half Cain's power, but they're Legendary and under the effects of a full suite of buffs. Then Misha casts an area healing spell on them to refresh the damage done by an Ettin's fireball, and a Spell Power bonus takes effect, sending a cheer through their ranks and causing a redoubling of their flames, making the best of the perfectly matched random buff.
Cain activates his Mana Flood totem, throwing it back to Misha to hold, as she's near the center of the spell casters, and returns to the fight.
The battle is entirely in their favor now; the summons outnumbers the remaining Ogres and are about evenly matched for losses, with the Echoes regularly calling in new waves of Demons as the Ogres wipe out sections of their force.
Cain and his forces have taken the center of the wave of attackers, with Plague Demons to his right and Magic Demons to his left, but back a little to stand closer to Misha.
The Plague Demons have Blighted Paladins among them, who can heal their putrid comrades, and the Lords of Decay increase healing and Mana Regeneration, so they're in no real trouble. They're also incredibly durable, which is an advantage over their competitors in a scenario like this when there is hand-to-hand combat with Ogres.
Thankfully, none of the recruits can see this, though Cyrene may see it in a vision. She did say she often sees massacres after all. A sight like this might cause lasting trauma for the young transfers.
Cain steps back from the battle, letting the summons do the work so he can see how the others are doing. Misha is staring at him open-mouthed, and he wonders if she's ever actually seen his Ancient Form before, as he so rarely uses it. The others are still lost in their sea of notifications, though.
The Echoes have personally engaged the two bosses, racing to see who can bring theirs down the fastest. In the boss race, the Echo that is being assisted by the Magic Demons has a clear advantage, even this early in the fight. But in the overall kill count, their team is getting crushed by the area damage of the Plague Demons.
As the number of Ogres dwindles and their levels rise closer to the dungeon level, the three intrepid volunteers start regaining coherency. The first back is Cyrene, who has a lot more practice with mental overload thanks to her visions, but with only a five-meter range on her Sonar, she still honestly has no idea what is going on other than a vicious battle.
Gilly and Snoo begin to return to the land of the living, so Misha gives all three of them the most crucial bit of advice for this situation. "Wait until we're all done to pick your new class. You want a clear mind to decide, and you need to put points into your old class before you change, or you'll never get any decent upgrade options."
The two youngsters look utterly baffled by what they see, hordes of summons, some very real, some cloaked in shadows, and three enormous Horrors. Snoo, having never been good with horror stories, promptly passes out again, while Gilly stares at Cain with an intrigued look.
"What do you think they taste like? Will it be calamari or something entirely different?" The Goblin ponders, giving Misha ideas for later.
'Surely Cain can make a smaller version of that form?' She decides, throwing a few more area heals to keep the random buffs up.
It's only a few seconds before the last of the Ogres falls, and the Magic Demon team celebrates their consolation victory of having burned down their boss more quickly than the Plague Demons.
Cain shifts back into a human form, and the Echoes shrink back to human-sized for comfort, keeping their natural Ancient Form. Cain is curious about just how well things went for each team since it's valuable information to him as well. Knowing what's best in every situation is essential for a Summoner, even if overwhelming force would still get things done.
"So, what's the final score?" He finally asks the Echo that led the Plague Demons.
"I'm up 194 kills to 102 in this dungeon. The Ogres have a bit of magic resistance but nothing against disease and very little armor. A definite win for us, but they did burn the boss 19 seconds faster, so the Magic Demons still have the edge in single target damage."
That's a more significant margin than Cain thought it would be. Pestilence was already good against large numbers with its insane rate of spread. Still, their Legendary level Demons are also winners against the residents of most dungeons without cluttering the place up like the Seraphim would have to do to keep up.
"Alright, noted. Now, you can fly back to your cave and finish your card game or whatever you had planned for the day. I'll leave you both to your mission in Niman Territory. The other teams should be finished with their mission to the border regions soon, and I'll call them back, so keep an eye out once the news spreads for the Nimans next attempts to raid both here and into Nyanko Confederacy. When they do, they should be easy targets."
It's almost like he gave a child a puppy the day before their birthday; these two are incredibly excited to hear that they get to continue their mission. Mostly, Cain isn't sure what to do about the Nimans, so he's having the Echoes haunt their border regions until someone comes up with a better plan or they do something that makes urgent action a necessity.
The three lower level group members are all functioning again and no longer quite so under level. Even though the Echoes didn't go way overboard with the summons calling summons, there were still a lot of Demons in this dungeon. Gilly and Snoo have made level 178, while Cyrene is at level 176.
Cain guesses she's very close to leveling up, the experience difference between levels is enormous at that point, and the others must have just barely advanced.
[Quest Complete. Three hundred ninety-seven targets were defeated under qualifying debuffs. Claim Random Reward Now?] Y/N
Cain decides to hold off on the reward so that he's not zoned out while the others might need assistance or advice. They just gained an awful lot of levels in a short pperiod, and picking the right skills is imperative to their First Advancement.
"What class are you going for, Snoo?" Cain asks the Turtle Kin, who has flopped out on the ground with Gilly sitting on his leathery shell.
"I want to be a Tank Type. So if I pick all the defensive skills and the toughness buffs, I should get something good I think. I got a skill book too. [Shield of Wrath] but I don't think it's good for me. It's a damage skill that uses a shield, though, so maybe it is?"
Cain sees from his link in party chat that it is a very ordinary D rank skill, nothing too exciting, but Gilly seems happy to see it.
"If you don't want it, I'll take it. Paladins always need more damage skills." She says happily, sliding off his back to stand in front of him.
"How about I buy the original from you and make you both a copy?" Cain offers, intending to add it to the Guild library.
"That works for me. As long as I get to learn the skill." Gilly declares, making Snoo thump her on the head.
"Don't forget, I'm the one that got the book drop." He sighs, used to her antics.
Cain brings out the Inscription desk, and the two younger transfers begin to examine it with great interest.
"You've got a Legendary Inscription Tool? And it looks ancient. I'll bet this thing is older than my dad." Snoo says, amazed.
"And it's inscribed in Dark Elven. I told you, adventurers do get the coolest stuff because they look where nobody else does." Gilly agrees.
Snoo hands over the book, and Cain quickly makes two copies, handing them back along with a few gold coins for the original. Being a low-ranked book, it is little more than a pamphlet with a cover, so he's done in only a few minutes.
The Superior Mental Domination book he got will have to wait, since that one will take time, and there's no guarantee he will succeed on the first attempt.
It's not a rush; he's got [Noble Command] for issuing orders and making sure they're followed; group mind control isn't on his itinerary for today.
Cyrene looks lost in thought, then asks an unexpected question. "Can you do for me what you did for the Royal Alchemist?"
