The Tyrant Mire-King roared, unleashing an earth-shaking blast that bent the reeds flat and sent ripples racing across the black water. As the monster sprinted forward, its six massive legs drove through the mud, shaking the ground with each heavy step and sending up sprays of sludge.

Reidar's army met the charge without flinching, as the five hulking bears from his Feral Pack lowered their heads and bellowed a challenge. They crashed into the Tyrant head-on, where their claws swiped and tore grooves in its armored scales but ultimately failed to penetrate.

The King retaliated, raking its claws across a bear's shoulder. Although the beast roared in pain, it held its ground while its companions swarmed the Tyrant's flanks.

Above the melee, the forty elite lightning Rift-Sprites unleashed a coordinated volley of blue-white lightning bolts that struck the Tyrant's back.

Its scales blackened and smoked under the electrical attack, which caused the creature to shudder and halt its charge, searching for the source of the stinging bites.

Finally, the thirty skeletal warriors gathered around the grappling titans, acting as a network of bones that looked for weak points. Their weapons struck at the joints behind the Tyrant's legs and at the softer tissue of its stomach whenever it reared up.

The Tyrant's tail whipped like a spiked club, smashing three skeletal warriors into bone dust, while its jaws crunched down on a fourth and pulverized it.

Despite the losses, the remaining skeletons didn't break; they continued to stab and hack at the gaps between the creature's scales.

The bears circled the monster, attacking from the sides as one charged the creature's back leg and bit deep into the thick plating.

In response, the Tyrant roared and kicked out hard, sending the bear flying until it crashed against a tree trunk and dissolved into shimmering mist.

From behind the fray, the spectral mages lifted their staves, causing stone walls to burst from the ground in an effort to stop the monster from moving.

Although one wall shattered under an extremely brutal kick, another held just long enough for a bear to clamp its jaws around one of the monsters' legs.

Near the edges of the fight, the shadow guardians attacked using their lances, which didn't hit as hard as Reidar wanted, but each strike softened the Tyrant's defenses, even if only for a second.

More importantly, the creatures siphoned mana from the air and fed a steady trickle back to Reidar, which helped keep his army going.

Twenty fire lances then slammed into the Tyrant's wounded side, and the impact rocked the beast so hard that molten blood oozed from its cracked scales, sizzling on the wet earth.

This time, its roar was one of pain, not just rage. It counterattacked with a tail sweep through another cluster of skeletal warriors, destroying more than six in one blow.

Its jaws then closed around a bear's head, crushing through bone and mana-construct flesh before the creature shook its prey like a dog with a rat and threw the dissolving corpse aside.

<He'd make a terrible house pet.>

The Tyrant thrashed like a storm given flesh, impossible to contain, yet it was slowly being worn down.

It hurled a bear aside like it weighed nothing, stomped skeletons into splinters, and sent Rift-Sprites flying with a flick of its tail; however, for every creature it crushed, three more stepped in.

The monster couldn't keep up, because every time it turned to bite one threat, another struck from behind. Although it killed many creatures, it was clear the beast was getting injured left and right, as its movements grew heavier and slower as blood leaked from its sides.

Reidar's mind focused intently on the battle, manipulating his forces like a jigsaw puzzle.

He spotted a spectral mage charging a massive Fire Lance, and with a single thought, the skeletons surged forward to hack at the Tyrant's legs, forcing it to rear up and expose its chest.

The lance hit, causing the Tyrant to scream in pain and stagger, one knee hitting the ground.

The bears lunged, their teeth and claws finally finding flesh beneath the scales, while Rift-Sprites swarmed the wound, lightning crackling deep inside.

The Tyrant swung wildly, but its strikes had lost their precision. It was still a monster and still deadly, but it was losing, and they all knew it.

…

…

…

Meanwhile, the sky above the valley was a storm of wings and roars, where hundreds of massive crows circled, their riders unleashing spell after spell into the writhing mass of Mire-Crawlers below.

Water cannons blasted the horde, wind blades carved through scales and flesh, and fire erupted in spreading pools across the battlefield. The Mire-Crawlers died in droves, and their bodies piled up.

From the back of his crow, Aldric watched the chaotic ballet of death as the battlefield turned into a churning mess of amphibian bodies and bear parts.

Eight hundred summoned creatures had flooded the ground to fight the Mire-Crawlers, who, however, were level 100 and fought back with equal ferocity.

Kara watched from atop her crow as a bear grappled with three Crawlers at once.

Despite the massive ursine crushing one's skull and raking another's eyes, the third drove its teeth into the bear's throat, causing the creature to dissolve into mana mist.

Hundreds of similar battles raged across the killing ground, and while the bears were winning, they were paying in blood.

Aldric flew past her position, his crow soaring as he shouted over the wind, "How much longer?"

The battle had already lasted for a while, and while they killed many creatures, it was still not enough.

Kara checked her skill timer, and her heart sank. "15 minutes. Maybe less."

The Feral Pack skill was about to expire, meaning it would soon disappear. Once the timer expired, the bears would vanish, and the raid would lose its ground and aerial forces, leaving them to face at least two thousand Mire-Crawlers alone.

"The summoned creatures are not going to last for long," Kara said. "What do we do?".

Helga hefted her warhammer and replied, "We go down! We finish this in the old-fashioned way and take advantage of the bears!"

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