There were still so many weapons left over that it would be a shame to discard them for the enemy, but none of the ones that remained appealed to any of the group members.
“Why don’t we have Rae make a fort back in the trees, and we can load the excess into that, so we can come back for it later? We can’t keep carrying everything we find, there is just too much. But we can hide the good stuff and destroy the rest, or bury it here, so whoever comes looking will be convinced that’s all that there was.” Lotus suggested.
“That’s a brilliant idea. Alright, we will have Rae find a good hiding spot for the excess loot, and we will bury the rest, then burn the bodies. We don’t need to fill the entire valley with scavengers looking for a Commander Rank meal.” Karl decided.
With the Flaming Body Barrier over his folding shovel, it only took a few minutes to dig a hole in the frozen ground deep enough to bury all the excess weapons that were either heavily damaged or just not great quality. Rae took the rest back into the trees an unknown distance and created a cocoon to hide the loot in.
While she was finishing her work, the team listened to the radio messages. The Artillery Battalion under Commander Dalton had made it safely out of the secondary valley, but were briefly engaged with a Frost Giant scouting unit as they rejoined the main line at the fallback point.
Casualties were light, and the unit was still mobile, while the Frost Giants had stopped at the mouth of the valley and had begun erecting new fortifications.
That left the valley scouts taking the hard way out of the hills that they had set up on, but that was to be expected with such a rapid retreat.
Unfortunately, while they could rejoin the main lines once they got to the west side of the mountains, there were three units trapped well behind the enemy lines. Two were forward observation units, led by Commander Rank Elites, and one was Karl’s team.
[Team 95988, continue scouting operations where possible. Enemy intelligence from your location is invaluable.] The regional Command Centre informed them.
Karl confirmed the order and then laughed. “Well, it’s not like we’ve got many options here. Hawk says that nothing is chasing after us from the larger valley, but they’ve fortified again between us and the main lines, so we either go the long way around or we follow the river along the border and see what we can find.”
“Do we go behind the main lines, or further away from the battle?” Tessa asked.
That was a good question.
“Well, further into the mountains, and we very well could find ourselves cut off and trapped. But behind the main lines will be the supply lines. That many Giants are going to need a lot of food, so we might be able to do some good if we can strike fast and return to a hiding spot.” Karl offered.
Everyone was quiet, thinking about which way they would prefer to go when the radio crackled to life.
[Team 62345 is under heavy attack by white cloaked Frost Giant Special Forces. Attempting to retreat east toward the border from grid B3 sector 8.]
Karl checked the map, and that was only a few kilometres to their west, between them and the main lines.
“Everyone pack up and get ready to move. We will go give them a hand.” He instructed.
Rae quickly rejoined the party, letting Lotus take up her riding position aboard the spider’s back, while Tessa and Dana climbed aboard Thor.
They ran toward the battle, not worrying about the noise that they were causing, though Karl was running silently thanks to his skill. The noise of the Elites and the Frost Giants in battle was loud enough that they didn’t need Hawk to tell them exactly where they were going, so the scout was instead circling the area, making sure they were the only reinforcements that were going to show up to the party.
[It looks like it’s just two scout groups fighting it out.] Hawk informed them as Karl got close to the battle.
[Perfect. Now, it’s time to see what your advanced Flaming Body can do with the shiny crystal hammer I just got.] Karl replied.
Charging five spells into it at once took more energy than he had been expecting, but the weapon was primed and ready to go when they entered the clearing, and found that the human team was one High Priest in white robes, and four mages.
Who had picked that composition was a mystery to Karl, but it was not a good combination to fight the Frost Giants.
All five of the Giants were not only Commander Rank, all five of them were well into the Commander Rank as well. The white cloaks that blended into the storms appeared to mark the most competent of warriors, and the Giants were startled to see Karl charging in their livery.
One of the mages had five blue orbs active, firing magic missiles at a furious rate, a trick that was rather familiar to Karl. One of the mages at the Academy knew that spell, and she had shown it off during the first week they were training Hawk with the mages.
As he got close, Karl realized it wasn’t just a familiar spell, it was Tori, the Ascended Rank blonde mage from the Senior Class, that was using her signature spell here.
The magic missiles put the Frost Giants on the defensive, and Karl slammed the Crystal Maul into the closest Giant’s chest. The head of the hammer pulsed five times in rapid succession, like the pulse arc welders that they used to fix mining equipment back home, and the enormous monster was thrown clear across the battlefield, to crumple against a tree.
The sight shocked the humans even more than it did the Frost Giants, and one of the mages had his barrier shattered when he delayed a bit too long. The sound of breaking bones was a sickening one, but a golden glow was already surrounding him as his team’s cleric got to work.
“Don’t you have Golems?” Dana shouted as she summoned hers to fight the Giants.
Rae’s were already in combat, and Hawk was sending down a rain of fire from above. It wouldn’t be long before the situation was under control, but it made no sense that they didn’t have any golems out if they didn’t have defensive warriors.
The cleric pointed to the far side of the group, where two exhausted mages were doing their best to avoid attacks and keep their barriers up. That was enough for Dana to understand that yes, they did have Golem Mages, but the Frost Giants were too smart for that trick, and they had targeted them first, exhausting them and draining their mana.
[Lightning Next] Remi shouted in Karl’s mind as he approached a wary Frost Giant.
This time he only put three charges of Chain Lightning in, to test the theory of whether the stunning effect stacked while saving some energy.
It was harder to hit the Giant with a huge and slow maul, and it wasn’t going to try to take the hit for a chance to counterattack after seeing what happened to its friend, so the first six tries were parried before Karl managed to get a swing up and under the warrior’s guard, only lightly clipping its hip, but enough to activate [Chain Lightning].
The power arced between the four remaining Giants, which twitched a little, but weren’t slowed any more than one strike had. They were smoking and visibly blackened at the point of contact, so the damage was all there, but the stun effect didn’t appear to be any worse.
The reprieve was enough for the mages to regain some mana and catch their breath, which allowed them to bring back two more Ascended Rank Golems. That wasn’t going to do much in this fight, as they weren’t enhanced in any way like Dana or Rae’s Golems were, and they were still a Rank below the enemy, but it was a good shield to hold the Frost Giants in place while the Spider Golems and Hawk’s flames dealt with them.
Their Cleric enhanced the Golems with a golden Holy Blessing, increasing their armour and attack power to Commander Rank, as was done for regular human soldiers on the line. That gave the ambushed team a bit more of a chance, but the High Priest’s blessing simply wouldn’t have been enough for two Golems to take on five Commander Rank Giants.
The Giants were quickly dispatched, and the High Priest came over to give Karl a grateful hug that made Lotus laugh.
“Thank you, Commander. We were in real trouble when those five happened upon us at the end of a fight. We have heard much about you and your team of monsters and beauties.” The High Priest informed him.
Karl smiled. “You hear that, Rae? He says you’re a beauty.”
Now Lotus was laughing so hard she was holding her sides, while Rae stood up a little taller and subtly wiped the blue Frost Giant blood off her limbs in the snow. She was still covered in it, blood was splattered on every part of her body, but it was a small improvement.
The Cleric was obviously confused as to who Rae was, and why he was being laughed at, but at that moment, it really didn’t matter. He was safe, nobody was dead, and the Frost Giant threat was ended for a moment.