Prince Corbin attacked through the breach on Thor’s side of the circle faster than most of the Elites’ eyes could follow, cutting down a swathe of yetis and burning through his mana to get everyone clear of the encirclement.
Tessa pulled Alice and Dana up on Thor’s back, while Rae grabbed Lotus with a strand of silk and pulled her into the trees, escaping the encirclement before the furry monsters could even realize that the Nature Priestess was unharmed.
The Golems held their positions around Thor, while the Spellswords used their magic to increase their movement speed and keep in the protective circle around the Lightning Cerro.
Karl chased after them, using fire to keep the monsters at bay as everyone ran, ignoring their injuries and exhaustion to keep up with the Royal Rank mage and the rampaging Cerro.
The Golems were the first to fall, forced to stop to hold off the wave of attackers. Then Darryl took an ice bolt to the knee that dropped him to the ground, leaving him far behind the main group.
Karl picked up the wounded Spellsword as the man downed a healing potion, then hurled him back ahead and into the main group.
At the back of the pack, they were taking too many attacks for the exhausted mage to keep his armour up, but Karl’s Lightning was still holding strong as he hurled attacks at the monsters approaching the sides of the group.
The monsters were as fast as Thor, and they weren’t giving up the chase, but the constant barrage of attacks was keeping them from closing in again, as three hundred metres passed, then four hundred, and the cave came into sight.
Lotus and Rae were already waiting for them, along with the Spider Golems, which Rae could only summon next to her after they had fallen in battle.
Once they were closer, the mages created new Golems to defend the cave mouth, and everyone dismounted from Thor as he stopped to guard the entrance.
But the Yeti Clans were no longer following them. Once they got within fifty metres of the caves, the beasts broke off the chase, milling about, but unwilling to get too close to the caverns.
That was probably not a good thing, Karl decided. But for the moment, it was keeping them from being attacked, and Rae had disappeared inside to scout, but didn’t find anything at all other than stone walls and some dripping water from the melting snow above.
Once everyone was inside, they dismissed the golems, and Karl called Thor back into his space.
The Yeti Clans still weren’t approaching, so it wasn’t the defensive force that was keeping them away, but something about the area around the cave.
[Hawk, do you see anything threatening above? Something that might actually be a danger to a Commander Rank Yeti?] Karl asked.
[Nothing. Other than them, there is nothing here. Not even mice.]
That didn’t sound promising, but they would have to work with it.
Rae returned empty-handed, but with insight about the caves.
[They extend another fifteen metres, then they stop at a stone wall with water flowing down it. The water runs out somewhere at the bottom, but I’m too big to fit in there. We should be safe in here.] She explained.
“Rae says the caves are empty, but there is a water drain at the back wall, so they’re not completely sealed. We should be able to hide and rest here, then continue in the morning.” Karl whispered to Alice, so he didn’t alert anything outside.
Corbin cast a spell over the entrance, creating a false stone wall, and Karl called Hawk back to his space.
[The three of you, get some sleep. If we’re attacked, we will likely need all of you in your best shape again.] He instructed.
The trio settled in to rest, and Karl turned his attention to the conversation between the Commanders and Prince Corbin.
“There shouldn’t have been Commanders here at all, much less dozens of them with weapons. The anomaly was strong enough when we saw snow start to fall in these mountains, when it has never done that before, but to have sudden appearances of an entire force of Commander Rank Yeti? That’s far too unnatural.” Prince Corbin was muttering.
“For once, I actually envy Darrel and Darrin, they managed to get a ride out of here.” Larry replied quietly.
Corbin shook his head. “No they didn’t. The helicopter was attacked and was forced to turn back. They joined up with the other Elite units in the zone to gather and retreat on foot. The radio communications say that they’re still alive, but they’ve been attacked multiple times as well.
The strength of the attackers is falling as they head out of the hills, so we have to be close to the core of the problem, but I have no idea how we’re going to even investigate it.
Darryl and Rose are in no shape to be going anywhere, and likely won’t be until some time tomorrow afternoon, and as we learned today, it’s not even safe for me to travel alone here.
I might be at the Royal Rank, but ten or twenty on one, Commander Rank magic users are still going to overwhelm me.”
As he watched, Karl noticed that the healing of the group wasn’t complete. Both Corbin and Larry were still showing distinct zones of cold, where the damaging ice magic was lingering in their body, weakening them internally.
The strongest fighters had been on the front lines, so they had taken the most damage, and while Lotus and Tessa were excellent healers, they weren’t strong enough to immediately The strongest fighters had been on the front lines, so they had taken the most damage, and while Lotus and Tessa were counteract the magic of the Yeti Ice. So he made his way over to the whispering group.
“Pardon my intrusion, but I think it might be best if none of us moved too soon. I have thermal vision, and I can literally see the lingering ice magic damage to your bodies. The magic will resonate with the next attack you suffer, freezing you more quickly. Once that starts to happen, we’re screwed.” Karl whispered.
Larry cursed, then softly laughed. “You’re one to speak. I can still see the ice on your armour.”
Karl looked down, and realized that he had ten times as much lingering damage as they had, despite the [Refreshing Lightning] that he still had active working to nullify it.
The spell itself had cold spots where it was fighting off the lingering spell effects, and Karl frowned at the pernicious nature of the attacks.
It had been hours, and the magic hadn’t even made it through his defences, but it was still lingering, and if he took down the lightning, it would succeed.
Instead, he coated himself in [Flaming Body], lighting up the cave like a beacon, and rapidly warming the area as well.
That nullified the lingering magic on his body in only a few seconds, leaving a nice even warmth in the cavern.
“Problem solved.”
Karl checked on the beasts in their spaces, and found that both Hawk and Rae were predictably fine. They weren’t frontline fighters, but Rae looked distracted. She was trying to learn something again, so Karl left her to it. She was the smartest of the three, and if it was possible for her to learn a new skill, she would have it soon.
Thor still had cold spots all over his body, but he had increased the temperature of the springs in his space, and the Holy Stones were dissipating the lingering magic at a visible pace.
The others in the group looked alright, though Rose was exhausted from the after effects of all the healing magic that had been used on her, and Darrel was hiding bruises all over his body that Karl could see as slightly flushed areas, where the warmer blood was close to the surface.
Lotus still had an area healing spell active, so a few minutes ago, everyone would have been much worse, and Tessa looked like she was already half asleep after the effort of keeping everyone buffed and the healing work she had done during the battle.
While it was their most important ability, saving someone of their own rank from a near death state, or closing multiple critical wounds, was an energy-intensive activity. Doing it every ten seconds for four different people must have stretched her abilities to the limit.
As Thor relaxed in his pond, he activated [Circle of Protection] which helped restore stamina, as well as reducing damage. That was what everyone needed the most right now, and it was no trouble for him to keep it active while he napped.