Defence Dungeon

I’m really hyped for the grinding today. We plan on testing out the Defence Dungeon type today, and if all goes well, I should be reaching level 130 roughly by the end of the day. We’ll be trying out the Military enemies too, which I’m also pretty interested in. I’m hoping they’ll be scaled against the mundane world’s militaries, because it would be interesting to see how we all compare.

Olivia gave Emma and Lena training exercises for the day to practice on their own, and tasked Elsa with supervising them to make sure they don’t goof around too much (Olivia insisted on this, because in her words, ‘Those two are liable to use the forest as a bowling alley with their magic if nobody keeps an eye on them’).

With the three of them occupied training, and Ivy insisting on Paige needing another day to recover before she starts training with us again, there’s six of us going into the dungeon: Mia, Skylar, Belle, Olivia, Ivy and I. After making the final preparations, checking our equipment and confirming we’re all ready, I start the dungeon for us.

Immediately, we’re transported high in the sky, on the deck of what looks like the Marvel Helicarrier. “Aw cool!” Mia exclaims, as we look around at the base we’re now defending.

This isn’t something that exists in the mundane world, so I’m glad we get the chance to fight on it. Mia’s right, it is cool. I can only assume the same magic that allows this dungeon to exist is what’s allowing us to breathe while we’re this high in the sky.

“Incoming.” Belle warns us. A moment later, the sounds of whirring helicopter blades reach my ears. The helicopter hovers over the deck of the carrier, and a moment later, the doors slide open and soldiers repel down to the deck. I observe one of them to see what we’re up against.

Yes! “Belle, Olivia, go.” I tell them. Immediately, a flash of green light envelopes our mentor, and she emerges a moment later in her aeroray form. She takes off, flying towards the helicopter.

Belle sprints off in the same direction, heading for the soldiers that have already landed on the deck, and are running towards us, guns raised.

Skylar raised a shield of shadows around us, as the soldiers start firing a moment later. Skylar looks at me, wide eyed. “My magic can stop bullets.” She exclaims.

“Awesome!” Mia exclaims, and I grin. This is exactly as cool as I was hoping it would be.

Belle and Olivia get to the soldiers at the same time, dodging around the rifle fire. None of us are even close to fast enough to dodge the bullets themselves, but Belle and Olivia are both fast enough to dodge the aim of the soldiers.

In a move I’ve seen her practice lately, Olivia flies straight at the tail of the helicopter, rapidly morphs into her pelarota form, and uses its stocky body to careen into the helicopter’s tail, destroying it completely.

Another flash of green light, and she slams to the ground as a petradon, where Belle is already making quick work of the soldiers on the ground, golden mist spraying everywhere in place of blood.

Without it’s tail, the helicopter spins out of control, vanishing from view below the deck of the carrier.

The duo dispatch the rest of the soldiers, with the entire fight having lasted barely a few seconds.

They come to a stop, face to face with each other, both their faces having unreadable expressions. The moment looks awkward, but before I can process any of it, more whirring helicopter blades distract me.

“How much more do you think your magic can take before the bullets break it?” I ask Skylar.

“Maybe another 20 seconds of sustained fire? It’s hard to judge.” She says.

I cast my eyes to the barrier of shadow, one or two cracks having spread through its surface. “Fair. Think you can guard the command room and support from a distance?” I ask her, pointing to the obvious tower.

She nods, and hurries off in that direction, erecting a smaller shield around herself to cover her.

Belle and Olivia are already sprinting in the direction of the new helicopter, already knowing that they’re both on the frontline.

“Mia, give them some air support.” I tell her. She nods, and rushes off, flying alongside Olivia towards the fight.

Normally I would go too, but that would leave Ivy unprotected. Ideally, it’d be Skylar’s or Paige’s job to protect our healer, but we don’t have enough people for that.

Belle, Olivia, and Mia would all be wasted on protection duty as frontline fighters. I would be wasted guarding the command room and picking off stragglers who sneak past our main ****, but Ivy is too weak of a fighter alone to guard the command room herself.

Ivy gives me an apologetic expression, knowing what’s going through my head. I return the look, kissing her forehead. “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to make you feel bad. You’re our most valuable fighter. We won’t be stretched this thin when it counts.” I promise her.

Thick tree trunks snake up from the ground a moment later to block the bullets headed straight for me, from a group of soldiers that made it past the others. I add my ice magic as reinforcement a moment later, peeking out from cover to assess the situation.

I’m lucky that I’m looking through layers of translucent ice, because the second I expose myself, they’re already firing at my head.

I snap my head back into cover before my magic is tested too much, and breathe deeply, remembering the positions of the six soldiers storming rapidly towards us.

Combining every bit of my agility and intelligence stats, I snap out from behind cover and fire of precise blasts of ice, directly at the advancing soldiers, before darting back behind the tree trunks.

From the sounds of the pained grunts, five of my shots hit their mark. I confirm that a moment later when I snap out from the opposite side and let loose one more blast of ice, downing the sixth, before finishing them all off with more magic.

Ivy whistles at my display of power. “Good job princess.” She says with a smile. I blush happily at the praise.

As the fight goes on, there are more helicopters and more types of soldiers. The grenadiers are a bit of a nuisance. At least for a solid two seconds, before Belle tears their heads off.

The number and frequency of the helicopters increases, and different types of aircraft start to **** our position.

I feel a small amount of panic as I see a chunky looking helicopter with a minigun mounted on it’s side, pointed directly at Ivy and I. It’s flanked by two jetpack wearing soldiers, each with a hefty looking rifle.

“Mia, Olivia!” I scream, rapidly working with Ivy to raise magical barriers as cover as the barrels on the sinister looking weapon start to spin.

Mia immediately unleashes a pulse of air at the chopper, pushing it and the jetpack soldiers off balance. Belle sprints as close as she can get and throws her chain towards the gunner, sending a powerful pulse of magic through the blade.

The weapon acts as a conduit, aiming and focusing Belle’s magic, and blasting the gunner backwards with a hole through his chest. He dissolves into dust a moment later.

From inside the chopper, another soldier takes his fallen comrade’s place, aiming the gun at Belle. Olivia swoops in, using her quick morphing trick to build up momentum in the air for the pelarota form to exploit.

As the green light fades from her transformation, the helicopter swerves upwards, and she misses, going careening past.

Belle’s chain, still in the air, changes direction and wraps itself around Olivia and pulls her back to the ground, to prevent her from being kept out of the fight for too long.

The jetpack soldiers open fire on Belle, and a shield of shadow manifests itself in front of her, to protect her from direct fire.

I spot Mia charging for one of the soldiers in the air, so I let off a cone of powerful frost magic. They go down at the same time, unable to stay in the air from the impacts. Mia finishes them both off easily.

The helicopter swerving to avoid Olivia also threw off the gunner’s aim, so as the terrifyingly powerful gun finally starts to fire, it’s way off the mark.

Mia appears from behind, flying into the open door of the vehicle, shoving the gunner out the door and letting him fall onto the deck below. She moves rapidly through the interior, killing the pilot and giving the chopper a final magical push to send it crashing away from us.

On the ground, the barrier Skylar erected around Belle made it impossible for her and Olivia to see each other.

As the barrier dissipates, no longer being needed, Olivia crash lands on top of Belle, the two of them tumbling a few metres before stopping with Belle on top, mounting the older woman.

They look at each other for a few moments, red faced, breathing hard from the fight. They linger just a moment too long, unmoving. Without a word, Belle climbs off, standing up and turning her back on Olivia without offering a hand.

The expression on the Scarlet Witch’s face is again, unreadable, although she’s almost as red as her hair.

Olivia climbs to her feet, dusting herself off, barely showing a change in her demeanour.

“That was-” Mia starts, as she lands beside me. I hold up a hand to silence her. More whirring helicopter blades. Except somehow, they’re heavier. Another sound accompanies it. It takes me a moment to identify it.

Jet engines.

A moment later, the source of the noise makes itself known. A small squadron of helicopters of different kinds, flies towards us in a simple V formation. Accompanying the two of them is the roaring approach of two fighters jets, rapidly approaching from behind the main group.

“Focus up. This is the boss.” I say.