It was now several days later of clearing Rifts out in the wilderness, and they were about to head back into the city to start the PvP event. The party was now fighting through an established orc base, a place that if left alone, might actually establish a Fortress Assault event. The Rifts in the area were all building it up and reinforcing it, so it had to be cleared.

There were hundreds of orcs at this base, having numerous watchtowers and huts filled with troops. The melee forces had gathered, taking on Avalara, who was buffed up and had grown to her maximum size.

It was like an orc army versus the dangerous, living jungle of Highlands, and a primal, giant monster crushing them in the middle of it. With them focused on taking on Avalara and fighting through the jungle, the Ravenwolf Clan and the rest of the family just picked off orcs with ease, and focused on destroying buildings and killing off the archers and casters.

Berri laughed, and shouted, “Timberrrr!” She then cut through the leg of an orc watchtower, causing it to fall to the ground and crash into the central stone and wood hut.

Bree was in her dinodog form, grown to a massive size with her auril and Jake and Tanda’s buffs. Her claw cut through another watchtower’s legs, causing the same to occur as she howled. It crashed into the building, causing a part of it to crumble.

A powerful orc commander and his retinue came out of the building, a Boss-level creature meant to lead the hundreds of orcs spawning. Jake’s spell completed, a giant mire of thick mud covering a wide area around them and slowing them all down. Tanda, Sati, Fhesiah, Nessa, and the entire Ravenwolf Clan of nine, continued hunting down the remaining archers on the outskirts with arrows and deadly spells, and Jake had just given them a little more time to clean up.

Bloodberri’s snake body surged forward in a zig zag pattern, then bowled into a large grouping of orcs with a large loop of their tail. The orcs were flung into the air, and their nethril debuffs and Twilight Monarch aura washed over them, making them even weaker and draining their strength into the snake girl.

Berri cut down two orcs with quick, deadly swings, and smiled. “It’s just like old times, isn’t it? It’s been so long since we closed all those Rifts and saved Highlands!”

Tanda was evading several orc archer’s shots as she flew through the air. “It really is! But it feels even easier now, even though Rifts have way more enemies and stages now.”

Her bow continued to shoot out, tagging the archers and invading their bodies with deathly flames. She added a swarm of ravens into the mix, joining her father’s as they attacked anything in range. Dahlia and Bree’s summoned wolves and dinodogs were on the hunt, and so were Avalara’s stags and Ophelia’s Hearth Guardian. Even without Jake’s summoned templates, the group of twenty felt like a veritable army of their own. If Tanda and Fhesiah were unsealed, the spriggons and sprites would add even more to the mix.

And Jake had summoned a few more. Jasmina sang her song, protecting all the beastkin present and enhancing their auril and nethril available and protecting allies with her water. Zephyr hunted through the enemy lines, its mobility and deadliness with its wing blade surprising. It had gotten a qualitative upgrade when Jake hit the second Tier, unlocking much more of its power as he grew in level. Its divine nature had grown, and was shown and felt with any of its attacks, its special winds having unique properties.

Most substantial were the defensive winds that surrounded its feathery, winged humanoid form. Combined with its shield made of feathers and deadly wing blade, the creature was more formidable than ever. Whether it was protecting allies or cutting through enemies, it was yet another excellent, mobile warrior on Hearthtribe’s team.

With the Battlegroup’s many strengths, they eventually defeated the horde of orcs, and were able to focus on the Boss and its team. The large orc commander was supported by several elite orcs that were nearly at his level: two shamans, two archers, and two shield warriors, working with the coordination of a balanced party–for orcs, anyway.

But they were no match for Jake’s boss monsters. Bree and Avalara stomped through with their huge forms, crushing the warriors and tearing them apart. Nessa and Sati sent Fhesiah their flames, and she used her Breath of Celestial Alchemy to create a massive blast of golden frost and flame, washing over the enemy Boss and its party. The group attack from the three girls likely could be considered a third tier spell, and was an absolutely devastating attack that caused them to be both frozen and scorched by the golden flames, melting their armors and freezing their bodies.

Ophelia’s Vajrafire Blast combined with her Consecration washed over the targets, her charge on Valora having a deadly momentum behind it and piercing into one of the shamans as others were finished off by the Ravenwolf Clan, Timone and Dahlia swooping in and striking them hard.

Bloodberri’s chimeric axe cut deeply into the orc commander, and an explosion of light and dark severed the enemy in two. Twilight Divide shredded the target with its bronze fragmenting explosion, the monster ripped apart by the turbulent energies.

[Rift Closed. 15,232 CP Earned across Battlegroup.]

Rifts at this level were worth more than ten times what they were worth on Highlands, but they found they took longer. The enemies flowed out of them more frequently, and constructions like what they encountered here were much more common.

A normal Battlegroup of forty to fifty might have taken much of the day to work through the many spawns in the surrounding area before moving into the orc war camp. Then, it would have taken quite a bit of time to work on the hundreds of enemies within, slowly whittling them away from this camp before taking on the final army of orcs.

Of course, Jake’s elite party was different. It had only taken them a little over thirty minutes to clear the surrounding area of all the enemies and clear the war camp. They’d cleared about twenty Rifts per day as they waited for the event to take place, thanks to their mobility and power. With the distance between each one, he’d be surprised if each of these fifty person Battlegroups would clear much more than one per day. Certainly, only the Ravenwolf Tribe would be able to reach more than one in terms of travel per day.

Timone laughed as he landed next to Jake. “You and your Clan have truly gotten stronger. It feels like the difference between us has only grown since the last Tier, Clan-son.”

Jake nodded. “The difference between a Champion and a most warriors has grown quite a bit, and the Framework and Tartarus both recognize this. Each of us count for seven now.”

Dahlia grinned as she landed next to her husband and joined them. “I don’t think that’s quite it, Clan-son, but we should have a chance to close the gap if that’s the case. If we perform well in another Prime Instance, Cernunnos and Lugh will make Timmy and I Champions.”

Tanda beamed as she landed next to her mother, and grabbed her hands. “That’s big news, Mom! You’ll make an awesome Champion!”

Timone’s smile faltered. “What about me, your dear old dad?” ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ N(o)vᴇl(F)ire.nᴇt

Tanda laughed, her tail wagging. “Of course, you too, Dad. You two will be great!”

Jake checked the time in his Menu. “Just in time. By the time we get back to HQ, PvP will be disabled. We can take a rest for a bit back at our Refuge, and get ready for the Battleground.”

Nessa and Blood were both quite satisfied with their progress, the two monitoring the Conquest Map extensively. Jake and Valtor’s general had gone over some plans the last time he was at a Nexus Node, and their efforts certainly depended on whether they won this Battleground and cleaned up any PvP area ambushers or not.

Assuming they won, their best bet was to focus on a singular area, to make the largest impact and to have the maximum amount of safety in numbers. They would stick to larger groups of fifty, only splitting into smaller groups to take on Monster Dens.

If they lost, their members would split up across the HQ areas, and use their incredible mobility to make it difficult for pursuers in large numbers to find and corner them at any Nexus Node or HQ.

Nessa had a proud smile on as she looked over their destruction of the orc base, “We closed so many Rifts! Way more than those hundred scrubs would have. Your Reverse Summon skill with Ophelia or Fhesiah rushing around was so powerful!”

Blood grinned. “It’s been a long time since we showed our might. I think once our people arrive, this might become a landslide. We’ll still have to be careful though, looking out for any of the dungeon’s machinations. We have this world’s dungeon to check out too.”

That was the new potential complication, in addition to the increased likelihood of Greater Rifts and Fortress Assaults, and more, appearing. Thankfully, things like discovered floors and activity within the dungeon were not secretive among the Alliance. Maps to the static floors that could be mapped out were readily available to all at the HQ, along with important information and paths to individual floors.

Jake would allocate some of his people to check and explore the dungeon, and ensure no monster tides arrived while they were fighting their battles. Not only that, but the dungeon actually provided the fastest route when teleportation was otherwise unavailable.

Like what happened when Cascadia was under attack, and they were unable to teleport there directly. There could be an instance where heading through the dungeon could end up being the fastest, assuming there were dungeon entrances at both locations. There was actually a similar number of dungeon entrances to HQ’s, at four on this world. Another had already opened on Highlands to the south of Cascadia, and another would likely form soon in the north or in the desert continent.

A portion of the Battlegroup flew together, escorting the Ravenwolves back to the city in case Tartarus somehow targeted them. Jake and the slower flyers stayed behind at the closed orc base, but their conversation continued as Ira continued guarding the area from any stealth threats.

Jake said, “I wonder why our opponents stay as children of the Divine, if becoming Champions is such an obvious increase in strength? Bree’s manifestation of her Traits are powerful, but they can’t really compare to me summoning Hestia for example.”

Nessa replied, “It has to do with the path to Divinity. I cannot share all that I know, but there are essentially both advantages and disadvantages to becoming a Divine’s Champion, when it comes to your potential paths. But what I can say is that Avaron and Cassius are likely a lot like their parents in that they are driven by their egos, and to fully submit to their parent’s will and lose their freedom, goes against their very nature.”

Bree stomped over, and sat down with a canine grin. “It’s the same for my sisters and me. We want to be our own individuals, not become more like our mother than we were when we were born.”

Jake thought that was plenty of a hint, for him. As Hestia’s Champion, she had full control over his personal progression and how the Framework granted him spells and abilities. She was up front about this and gave him choices, like with his Aura.

Perhaps, becoming her Champion was a lot like putting him on railroad tracks that the destination was to be even more like her–a copy of her. This matched with how clergy and Champions worked in the first place–resonance with their Divine made them better at their roles.

To become a Divine of his own, it likely required extra sparks and more work, to alter himself. This was what Guan Yu was presently doing. Gathering Divine Sparks to alter his essence, to differentiate himself from his previous lord, and prepare himself for ascension.

Jake wasn’t exactly sure why that was required, why not just have two very similar Divine, in terms of their essence? But he realized there must be a reason for this, as unlike the myth Jake read about on Earth, the Roman and Greek Divine were a lot more different.

A child of a Divine likely would evolve very differently from their parent, simply from their actions and personality as they collected their divine sparks, he wagered. Perhaps, they would require far less work when they reached the peak, to become something different entirely as they progressed rather than erasing or shifting something.

Plus, there was some kind of tax or tithe to the Divine as a Champion, besides. Each spark they collected certainly helped their respective Divine in some way, even the ones that they spent.

Bree chuckled as she focused on him and responded to his thoughts. “You’ve mostly got it. There’s more, of course, but that’s the basics of it.” She turned to Nessa, “That does make me wonder, why did you not become a Champion of your Father, little snake? You don’t have the same issue as those arrogant maniacs, do you?”

Nessa blushed. “Aside from the technical reasons… Father doesn’t seem to wish it for me any longer. My plan was to become his Champion, once I had established myself properly in this Sector with a world of my own. I wanted to help his cause after all, and I still do. But when I failed and was reborn in this vessel… his plan had shifted. So did mine, once I found Jake. I’m not fully against it, but as a cultivator, I see the power in finding my own path.”

Fhesiah added from their connection as she escorted the Ravenwolves, [I’d have to agree. I’m happy for Bastet to help guide me in accomplishing the impossible, and she’s somehow done it while allowing me to walk my own Path. I can feel her influence, and I can tell that she is only guiding me like a mentor or loving parent. Yet another reason for me to thank her.]

Thinking further on it, Bloodberri, Tanda, and Ophelia were each a Champion of a Divine but a clergy of another. This influenced their beginning, but he wondered how things would shift as they rose in Tier. It certainly felt like their Divine they were a Champion of had a larger influence when they ascended to the second Tier, but would that continue? Jake wondered if Ophelia’s flames of Hestia would advance further, or if she would become more like Guan Yu, for example.

When they arrived back at the HQ, Jake Reverse Summoned himself, and then used Call Summon on all his girls. The Ravenwolf Clan gone over to their own Refuge for private time. Entering the Refuge portal, Jake couldn’t help but feel relieved to bathe in the dense, welcoming energies of their home as they arrived in their dressing room slash armory. The energy makeup had changed due to being docked on The Burning Steps, so Earth, Fire, and Wind mana were more abundant. Thanks to Highlands set as their home world, they still received a small amount of auril, so it was still plenty welcoming within.

Ophelia smiled as she swapped her armor for her casual wear–loose workout clothing. “It’s good to be home, even if it’s not for very long.”

Berri did the same as Ophelia, stretching as she enjoyed getting comfortable. “We get to take a rest and then it’s time for the challenge. The kids have been missing us…and we’ve been missing them. It’s been tough working around the clock again.”

Tanda shifted to her red tribal wear, “Those jerks gave us a lot of work, leaving so many Rifts uncleared for so long. It was nearly worse than Highlands near Firewake. To think, we found five Rift-spawned Bosses roaming together already, and that’s not even including that Orc Commander and his army. It wouldn’t be much longer before they stormed Firewake and killed so many natives.”

Nessa removed the scaled layer of armor, leaving her in her usual cultivator robes. “I wish we had more time to investigate what their plan was with those people, but apparently, I’ll get to question them soon. But we’ll have a lot more manpower after this event. Assuming we win, of course.”

Tanda’s ears went flat on her head. “Just what is that Sector Council doing? Why would we need to wait to question them? It’s just delaying tactics! And if we lost, you won’t even get to question these hundred men at all?”

Nessa sighed. “I don’t know, but I do know that the second Tier is not usually something that reaches the Council’s eyes besides war decisions. While the crime was despicable, they are focused on impact to the war. And trafficking fourteen people… it’s hardly a crime as seen by the Alliance. By us calling attention to it, some would say we hurt the war because they were getting away with it in secret.”

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Fhesiah shook her head. “While true in a sick sort of way, they are merely burying their heads in the sand. They know these guilds are up to worse than human trafficking, their crimes obvious. Would it have been better if we didn’t attack those men at all, and simply followed them to where they handed the captives off?”

Nessa was conflicted, several emotions running through her at once. On the one hand, she didn’t like putting the captives at risk at all, wanting to rescue them immediately, and Ophelia agreed. On the other, learning of the bigger crime might have pushed forward their investigation and potentially brought them closer to bringing the Obsidian Blades to justice. And now, she regretted not offering this option and giving it a larger priority for the group because she was the only one who should have known just how little the council would have actually cared about human trafficking on its own.

Jake decided to cut off that kind of thinking. “It’s true that following them might have been better. We made our decision with the limited information and our own goals for PvP and Conquest we had at that moment, and it’s pointless to think back on it now. We know our enemy is devious, and likely has layers of separation–Cassius and Avaron can probably disavow any one group of their men of their activities. Even if those men were truly betrayers and committing a larger crime like we believe, we need to unravel a larger pattern to pin the blame on the entire guild, so not much would have changed. For now, we need to focus on winning this Battleground so that our investigation can continue unimpeded this time.”

Blood nodded. “It was far too risky to remain around town when thousands of enemies could arrive at any moment to investigate further, and if we had let them leave, we might have been unable to stop them–the moment they left town, they wouldn’t have been viable PvP targets. Then, if we were too busy following this Battlegroup, we wouldn’t have thinned their numbers further, or cleared over fifty Rifts these past several days. We might have lost a little in seeking justice, but there were many other risks, and we also gained from our focus.”

Nessa smiled at Jake and Blood. “Thanks, you two–you’re right. It was still a victory, and we’ll just have to do better next time. We just have to focus on crushing Avaron and Cassius in this battle!”

Berri giggled, and hugged both Nessa and Jake together with her tail and then her larger body, squeezing them together. “Yeah! It’s fine, little Nessa. We’ll beat those bad guys soon enough!”

Bree had transformed to her humanoid form, back into her plant bodysuit. She chuckled at their hug, but was thoughtful about the upcoming battle, by how her dino tail was wagging behind her. “I understand this Cassius and Avaron are in the third Tier, but they are simply not on our team’s level. Even still, I’m even more excited about this fight. These Battlegrounds are a Framework Sanctioned event, are they not? Whether I’m facing Tartarus forces or not, I should become stronger, having a chance to evolve.”

Jake had previously swapped to his home clothes, and was comforting Nessa with a hug. “That’s a good point, I had forgotten about that. It’s only once a week, but that is a way we can try to train your resistance, as short-lived as most Battlegrounds are.”

Bree nodded. “I’m excited to give it a try. I doubt they’ll use anything all that exotic, except those children of the Divine. I hope you all don’t mind if I’m a bit aggressive with them, in hopes of them targeting me.”

Ophelia pouted a little at that. “Just don’t hog all the good fights.”

Berri said, “It’ll be fun, I’m sure! But let’s go see our lovelies!” She teleported to the Sanctuary, and the rest of the family followed.

As soon as they arrived in the Sanctuary, the many kids felt their parent’s Presences, and rushed over to spend a bit of time with their moms and dad. The last few days, they hadn’t really spent much time at home at all. They only popped in for a few minutes per day when near a Nexus Node to recover in the Hearth of the Refuge before heading out to close more Rifts. During that time, they certainly spent their time saying hello to their many sons and daughters, but time was at a premium.

Having a few hours to spare before the event, Jake spent time with each of the mothers and their daughters and sons separately. He did his best to relax, as he knew it would be much more frantic later with battles for at least a few weeks.

As Jake sat up in the hammock, Yona joined him along with one of his wives and a couple of his kids at a time–his lap and sides were rather crowded as they rested against him. Yona’s soothing purr as he ran his fingers through her fur-like hair and scratched her ears was calming, especially combined with his kids and other wives spending time with him.

The kids excitably shared the things they’d been up to this past week. They showed their school projects, many of which had been worked on together.

Despite their focus or desires as warriors, Jake was happy to see that their studies never relented. It was interesting how history was considered a focus in The Alliance, as most would learn about the most common Origins–the largest Pantheons and their histories of those that helped establish The Framework itself, and then an individual’s native world history.

The kids also showed off their practice with magic. Most were practicing with runic magic, but there were a couple with a few different styles among his children. Moxie, the muckbill-like echidna had a unique poisonous flaming hearth core, and much of her practice had been geared toward controlling those flames and converting it into other attacks.

Moxie waved her hands covered in green flames, sending out several waves of them at her target dummies. They washed over the targets, and the effect spread across them as they melted.

She then shifted the flames held in her hands into a caustic substance, and threw them at them, the two blobs striking some armored target dummies and melting them away nearly just as fast.

Bloodberri was a distance away from her, and Blood said, “Thank Echidna that she doesn’t have to grossly spit her attacks out like that muckbill.”

Berri sniffed. “Of course not. Our children are perfection.”

Moxie then took a deep breath. With a very distinct quack sound, a caustic ball of flaming substance was launched out, striking the target dummy with intense speed and force. The ball was certainly larger than her mouth, but it shot out of it in a distinct fashion.

She clapped and cheered as the successful attack melted and burned the stronger dummy in the distance, and she started to launch many more at others rapidly, making that same strange quacking sound the creature had made. It was clearly a superior way of attacking, as the flaming, caustic substance was even deadlier, and was launched much faster and more powerfully.

Berri froze in shock for a moment, then she looked away, her mind doing some mental gymnastics. “W-Well…strength is strength. If the enemy is dead…does it matter if how she did it is a little strange? Also, doesn’t Faye-faye breathe flames out too? I guess it’s fine. Yes. It’s wonderful.” She nodded to herself, her elf-ears twitching.

Blood was also doing her best. “Of course. Our daughter is still perfection, as you said. Just look how dangerous she is, and without being gross like that vile creature at all.”

Nessa was amazed. The two actually believed what they were saying, their words ringing true.

Rena and Nyxa showed how they were teaching the treant children to dance as they sang, and their dance reminded Jake of those strange electronic flowers that would dance when music was heard.

They swayed their thin, tree-like bodies as the branch-crowns fluttered, their leaves dancing along with them as they mixed in hand and arm movements. The dance didn’t involve their feet moving much at all, only to turn to a side profile and change their formation. Their stumpy feet didn’t handle more complex movements well, but that was fine for the dance chosen.

Several of the other echidna sisters joined in the dance, the style one that they could easily replicate.

Avalara’s lesser avatar wiggled into Jake’s embrace, her deer tail’s tuft fluttering behind her. “Such a cute little dance! Rena and Nyxa are helpful big sisters to teach them that.”

Yona was watching them all with a fond smile. “Such pretty voices those two have! Very soothing.”

Jake chuckled. “It’s interesting that a snake girl and a tree person would have dance styles in common.”

The tension was relatively high in his wives and kids, knowing they had a major event coming. While the event wasn’t all that significant–it was a weekly event, and the worst thing that could happen was them spending a few days in the void rather than clearing Rifts.

However, it could have a real impact on the success of their PvP War Games, as well as their overall influence on The Burning Step’s Conquest. One loss on their part could be catastrophic for their guild’s success in other battles. This was why Jake spent time with each and every one of his wives, along with his children, doing his best to help them all relax.

Jake wasn’t worried, and was confident in their success in the upcoming battle. He believed in his family’s strength and all their preparations. They had trained long and hard, planned and built up their allies. Just like they dominated in the dungeon, they would crush these PvP enemies just the same by outclassing them, and never showing any weakness.

Tanda was sitting with Jake with Ophelia and their three daughters and son, a number of tails wagging and wings fluttering in their pile of fur and feathers as he brushed them. Some brushes had to be controlled with his telekinetic flames rather than his hands, but all enjoyed being pampered by their husband and father.

The other kids had begun to play with the other mothers not busy with Jake, now that they were done showing off their schoolwork and things they were working on. Even Yona, Bree, Ruby and Sati got dragged into their play, the older women joining the teen-like kids in various activities.

Ophelia smiled at Jake, “Thanks for taking care of us again. You’ve always got the busy brushes.” She kissed his cheek, and snuggled closer to him, her wings fluttering as he brushed her hair.

“Of course. I need all my warrior wives, girls, and boys in tip-top shape.”

Jake noticed that the tension had decreased as he had brushed, hugged, and kissed his wives, and they spent their time with him and the kids, so he considered this choice for relaxing a success. Their bodies weren’t overly worn from just a few days of Rifts, but they were a little mentally exhausted. The Hearth of the Refuge helped them recover, just a few hours were easily better than a night’s sleep for their magical Tier 3 bodies and minds.

Tanda’s tail was wagging as he brushed the hair on her head as well. “Hehe, the brushes and kisses are great, but just spending some time feeling your flame, your Presence is why everyone is calm. We can all feel that you’re confident, so we are too.”

Bloodberri was playing catch with her many daughters, and Blood said to them, “It also helps that many are battle maniacs. They can just focus on their excitement rather than their concerns. The thrill of the fight ahead gets their blood pumping, and their mind off those other things.”

Ruby was joining a game of badminton nearby, while Sati, along with Fhesiah’s sprites and Tanda’s spriggons chased around the many snake girls trying to hide in an epic game of cops and robbers.

Fhesiah played with her kitsune children, teaching them their usage of Qi with a bit of a game. Showing them illusions, the two did their best to copy their mother.

Bree and Avalara had each given the treant children rides with their large bodies, their vines wrapping around and making them feel rooted to the ground.

The family enjoyed their time together, preparing themselves mentally for the many battles to come.

***

Rested and recovered from their days of Rift closing, Jake and his combat Battlegroup entered the event through the portal in their Refuge, arriving at a waiting area for the Battleground. The large room was like many that they had experienced. A large, carpeted and well-lit room with various furniture and even cots for resting.

They had over a thousand Hearthtribe arriving in total, at varying levels of skill. The Ravenwolves had increased in number even as they rose to the second Tier. They were now a much more varied group than before, just like what was seen in the dungeon recently. The Ravenwolf Tribe Clan heads had taken Elysian mates or added spriggons to their teams, and allowed many others to join their numbers, whether avian beastkin or mammalian so long as they could operate the crafted wings for flight.

Of course, having a bunch of smaller spriggon passengers was not an issue for a powerful raven or hawk beastkin to carry, so thankfully, they would not lose much mobility from this. The treants and tamed beasts were largely kept out of the specialized groups, unless they could be stored or otherwise didn’t slow their teams down.

For the PvP event, several instances of the same fifty-person event would be taking place, but the battle would largely be decided by the Prime Instance, just like the Dungeon Raid–the top elites of each Guild.

With Jake and his party having three unsealed Champions, they took up a lot of the fifty party slots. Nessa and Bree didn’t quite take up the same number as a Champion, but it was close. Thankfully, they knew that Cassius was also a child of a Divine, and if Avaron or Calix had made it into the Battleground, the enemy wouldn’t have fifty people either. Probably just over forty compared to their twenty.

Baron Calix, the Hermes descendant’s whereabouts, were currently unknown. If he was present on this world, nobody had seen him yet, nor had they seen many of the races of Grecian Origin that he favored for his fighting teams. Talari were a human-adjacent race he used significantly, that had wings on their ankles and often wore magical winged helmets, enabling them to glide and fly earlier and easier than most humans.

Berri was excited, swaying her body in place. “I wonder which challenge it’s going to be!”

Of course, Jake and his party were as prepared for this challenge as they could be, and most of Hearthtribe should be, too. Valtor and Amara had compiled popular strategies for most of the Battlegrounds, and so whatever came up, his people would be familiar with them, and able to act accordingly. There were about eight common ones, and a bunch of variations for each in terms of landscape or environmental factors that provided a bit of randomness to the equation.

The prompt appeared a moment later.

[PvP Event: Hearthtribe versus Obsidian Mercenaries]

[Battleground: War Swept Canyon. Teams of Fifty Battle Strength will face off against other teams in this competitive capture the flag event. Hearthtribe has bet the current maximum: 5M CP for Prime, 300,000 per instance.]

Dahlia grinned. “I love this one. I get to just slay them all while Timmy carries the flag.”

Timone groaned. “I hate this one. Being unable to fly is just unnatural, and just who loves taking a beating?”

“Dibs on carrying the flag first!” Berri said, swaying back and forth even faster and clapping, and then Timone let out a breath of relief. She added, “I was hoping for this one a little, it looks like fun! Who’s on defense?”

Nessa said, “If there are no objections, I would like to be on defense.”

Ophelia turned to her, “Are you sure? You’re not allowed to make or construct anything in the flag room. Doesn’t that include your lake?”

Nessa shook her head. “My lake is a part of me. It’d be the same as one of your treants growing a ton of vines out of themselves. There are limitations to this, meaning I cannot spread my lake out for dozens of meters and cover the entire floor of the flag room or something, the magic of the room will work against me. But none shall be able to grab the flag without me knowing and slowing them down first. Then, if you can leave Sati or Ruby with me, I think we can deal with any sneaking team of flag snatchers.”

Jake thought about their potential enemies, then eventually nodded. “That should work well–we’ll leave you Ruby, and she should be able to sense just about anyone on their team, based on the races among them. And we’ll go all in on the attack. With a five-minute respawn, it does make some sense to try to take them out in an initial clash. Just let me know if you need reinforcements.”

“Of course. My venom and freezing efforts will be my focus, so even if they manage to escape the room with the flag, they won’t get away unscathed, and won’t be too difficult to stop. My dao will not be easy to remove even with their special items, and I’ll follow them with my lake. Then, Ruby can hide in it, giving us more options for a counter ambush.”

Rogue or speed types stealing the flag was a common strategy to both capture flags but also prevent flag capture. It was important to protect the flag room, or an annoying situation where a flag turtling situation could end up occurring–each team hiding in their base with the opposing team’s flag, unable to turn it in for a point. They would alter their defense numbers based on how aggressive the enemy was or how they attempted to attack.

Jake looked over the waiting room, as it began to fill with more people. The truth was, Jake wasn’t that familiar with everyone here, at least by sight. A vast majority of them were Ravenwolf Tribe, and they were perhaps the busiest and spent the most time away from Highlands than any other group within Hearthtribe.

As their songs filled the room as their hearts beat and Avalara shared them, he remembered many more of them, having met some of them a few times, or heard their songs as he harmonized with Avalara and Tanda. Jake had participated in many of the changing of the seasons festivals with Tanda over the years, listening to his people’s stories through their songs.

While the Ravenwolf Tribe weren’t truly the elites of Hearthtribe, they were on average quite talented, and their mobility was unmatched. Not only that, but all of them had the most PvP experience, and many of them had likely encountered and experienced this Battleground already.

Another fifty warriors appeared in motes of light, and Fhesiah smiled at two newcomers and their team. There were a few spriggons that they saw, but were mainly a team of avian beastkin and a few reptilian and mammalian beastkin using flight suits.

They also had two beast tamers with Highlands flying dinosaurs much like pterodactyls, but they had evolved to include some plant growth along their bodies, and their tails looked even more deadly. Jake imagined they could swoop down and club a target with ease, or slash into them with their deadly rear claws.

“Davonius, Avina! Good to see you both. Are you ready for this battleground?”

Davonius grinned. “We are, Goddess. It’s a great pleasure for us to join you in this great battle!”

“Blood…Berri!” The two spriggons shouted, and then suddenly a bunch of them gathered around her, even from the other teams. The many Ravenwolf warriors were shocked that Bloodberri now had auril and nethril hearts, but were ecstatic to hear two new songs join the beastkin’s choir.

The two were still working on their Auril and Nethril Mastery their way up to Sublimation, taking pills and eating plenty of auril beast meat to increase the density of energy within them. The nethril energy would be a larger challenge to grow, but Fhesiah had made some excellent pills and salves, that they could direct the energy through their bones and scales.

Nethril was still relatively difficult to come by on Highlands, but the levels were rising rapidly. New Nethril warriors were reborn every day, along with countless nethril beasts and other creatures.

The many warriors eventually filled the room, the approximately one thousand joining the Battleground event over the course of a few hours as their Refuges landed on The Burning Steps. The family met with the many clan heads, discussing strategy and plans for once the event came to an end as well. It was already a part of their working orders, but they had more specific updates to the Conquest in the last few days and what they had learned.

The investigation into the human trafficking and potential betrayals was going to be a significant priority. They would spread themselves out across numerous cities and villages, and before closing Rifts they would question the locals. Of course, the details learned from the interrogations might change their priorities.

The time before the event was ticking down, and soon, the battle would begin.