The battle came to an abrupt end, and Hawk landed among the bodies after making a quick spin by the army group to make sure they didn’t get lost on the way to the Hobgoblins.
Sergeant Rita turned to Karl. “You know, a little heads up when your pets gain new abilities would be nice.”
Karl nodded. “I told them the same thing. But that’s the first time that Rae has managed to make that spell activate. She’s been working on it for days, but couldn’t get it right until she saw Alice cast her Golem spell. I’ve had [Skill Master] active for ages now, trying to help her learn a new skill.
I didn’t expect that it would be Golems, but skittering tree golem spiders are pretty handy. Lotus had no problems healing them, and their damage isn’t bad.”
Lotus smiled up at Karl. “And, they’re only a little terrifying, so they’re a nice way to acclimatize your allies to her presence. They’re built like spiders, but they aren’t really spiders, so I think that the soldiers shouldn’t be as afraid of them.”
Rita chuckled. “You believe that the tree monster version of spiders will be any less terrifying to the soldiers? While they might not have the reputation of the Bloodbath Spider, anything arachnid shaped terrifies a significant portion of the population. They should be used to it by now, though. They’ve already met Rae, so accepting spider shaped Golems won’t be a stretch for them. If anything, they will think that it is a personal idiosyncrasy of Karl’s, since golems always take the same shape after they are summoned for the first time.”
They quickly checked the bodies for anything useful and caught their breath, checking the straps on their bags and preparing to walk back to the main group.
Tessa gestured back toward the soldiers. “We should likely regroup with them right away. I can feel them still fighting, so something probably went wrong.”
The rest of the group turned and started moving, not wasting any time when the others might be in danger, and the Red Dragon cleric moved up to run beside Karl.
“I will stay with Thor during the next fight. Some of my buffs are very short ranged, and with his massive strength, he will get the most of it.” She explained.
“Just don’t get squished. I kind of like your style.” Karl replied with a wink.
Karl reached the clearing where the Hobgoblins were fighting first, and found that the danger of the fight had been greatly underestimated, while the actual fight was exactly as Thor had described it.
The soldiers were fighting a group of Awakened Rank Hobgoblins, but among them was an Ascended Rank Goblin Shaman, who looked like a normal Goblin Leader until it started casting healing magic.
The Hobgoblins had encircled it, and while their numbers had been cut in half, the healing was keeping them in the fight much longer than expected.
“Thor, you know the way.” Tessa encouraged, and the Lightning Cerro put its head down, charging past Karl and into the melee.
Tessa was right behind him, so Karl followed her through the fight, batting away blades that tried to intercept them, and letting the Spider Golems take his back, which let Rae push through with him.
“Where are you going?” Karl heard Alice yell, but it was too late, they were already at the centre of the fight, and the Goblin Shaman was flying.
Literally flying, as Hawk had caught him after Thor threw him in the air, and was pulling the Shaman up in the sky with him.
A sharp turn sent it hurling toward the ground at hundreds of kilometres an hour, while the Hobgoblins roared in rage at the surprise invaders.
Karl slashed out, using [Shred] to cut down a wave of Goblins who were pushing back their way, and the Shaman reached the ground, directly onto Thor’s front horn, which pierced through the creature’s back for a moment before the Cerro flicked his head and used the body as a shield against a Hobgoblin blade.
Karl found himself shoulder to shoulder with the spider Golems, while Rae joined Thor and Tessa behind him, with the cleric moved toward the centre of their circle.
She had a chain flail, which had a surprising reach, and she was using it to keep the Hobgoblins from getting at Thor’s back.
Not that his back was any weaker than his armoured head, but it was harder for him to defend.
Sergeant Rita cut her way into the centre of the fight, and took the side of Thor opposite Rae, which gave them enough numbers to start pushing out, and driving the remaining Hobgoblins into the encirclement by the military unit.
Attacked from both sides, they didn’t stand a chance, and the fight was over before Alice’s slower moving Golem could even make it to the fight.
“Thank you for coming back so promptly. Did you hear our calls, or did your scout warn you?” The Captain asked.
Tessa shook her head. “I felt the fight still going on after we finished with the Ogres, so we came back.”
The Captain shook his head in dismay. The mercenary team might be more powerful, but they were really showing his unit up today. They even managed to come up with a better tactic in the few seconds after they arrived than he had managed to accomplish for the rest of the fight.
Of course, he didn’t have a Lightning Cerro that could just smash through Hobgoblins like they were bowling pins, but he should have been able to come up with something to deal with that healer.
The Captain whistled to address the group. “Check the bodies, we’re moving out. This won’t be the only group that we come across today, and there are other groups in this region doing the same. You don’t want to be the low producers for the day.”
Sergeant Rita chuckled as she joined Karl, who was cleaning off Thor before he returned to his space. He didn’t want to get the mess in his pond, and that meant someone needed to wipe him clean of Goblin blood before he returned to his space at the end of the day. It would be easier now than after it dried, and there hadn’t been any word of a river or pond nearby to wash in.
[I found more people. We should go see them.] Hawk suggested.
[I think that the other groups have their own things to do.] Karl reminded him.
[But Rae’s human is here, and there is a whole group of Ogres to kill near them.]
Karl had to think about that for a moment. Rae’s human? Wasn’t he Rae’s human? “There is another group in that direction, about a kilometre and a half. There are more Ogres near them, and Hawk thinks they might need the help.” Karl informed the Captain.
“If he says they need help, I trust him. This fight was going to be a tough one on our own, so if that one is worse, then reinforcements might save lives.” The Captain agreed.
The soldiers weren’t happy about being pushed to start moving again instead of taking a break after a fight, but they were moving, and Karl took the point with the Captain, while Rae darted off into the trees, but left her Golems to walk alongside the column where everyone could see them.
