The next morning, Karl woke to a surprise birthday present from the last person in the world that he thought would give him a gift.
The Hill Giants.
The attack alarms started to blare just before dawn, alerting all forces to come to the front lines. Karl was on morning shift, so they would have been headed there anyhow, but not for another two hours.
That must have been why the Hill Giants attacked now, when the predawn twilight made it hard to spot them, and when the night shift would be at their most inattentive, just before they had to look professional as the next shift woke up, and the morning light revealed them to the eyes of supervisors.
Karl and his team equipped their armour, and Karl called out the beasts to serve as mounts for the run across the distance between the camp and their assigned position.
They made it with plenty of time to spare, as the first arrivals of the attack were on the far flank, going after the artillery battery, and there were no Hill Giants in range of his position.
[Hawk, get some altitude and see what’s holding up our side of the party.] Karl ordered.
Everyone was here, and the Golems were summoned, but there were no targets within a kilometre of this end of the position.
Hawk soared out over the lines and started to relay enemy positions back to Karl.
[We have more giants coming. They’ve got three forces. The one that is fighting, the one coming to reinforce those ones, then the one coming from the far right that should be headed to our side of the line after we send our reinforcements away.] He narrated.
Karl passed that information along to Morgana, who relayed it to the teachers in charge of strategy. The best that was likely to happen was that a few extra troops would be left at this end of the line, as the reinforcement of the side which was actively under attack would take priority.
But every little bit would count, and the third hit was intended to be against the weakest portion of the line, so they could breach the lines of warriors defending the much softer mages and devastate the human defences.
They all understood that their position was important, but watching the other end of the line fighting while they waited for the order to do something, even to adjust the lines and attack the flank, was beyond frustrating to the students on Karl’s end. However, they were in for the biggest shock of the day. The Hill Giants had sent an actual strike force to them, and they were in for a much more serious fight than the other end. Morgana looked over at Karl. “Two Royal Rank leaders, fifty Commanders and a whole Company of Ascended Hill Giants. Did you do something personal to them?”
Karl chuckled, and the rest of his team looked at him like it was a very real possibility.
“Not that I can think of offhand. But we’ve got a whole line of Elites here, and we still outnumber them.” Karl replied.
Ali, the swarthy warrior on Colonel Wilkes’ half of the team, gave Karl a concerned look.
“You do understand that there are two Royal Rank Hill Giants there, right? What are we going to do against that? When they charge at the back of the line, we’re not going to be able to break their Earth Magic barriers in time, we will be too busy dealing with the Commanders.”
From behind the line, Tank came jogging over with a pair of other warrior class teachers.
“We will take care of the Royal Rank Hill Giants until you’ve handled the others.” The oversized Berserker declared.
Karl shook his head. “I will come with you, and Hawk can help us from above. The others will stay with the line. Two on one is a more evenly balanced fight.”
Tank shrugged, and prepared to move as the Hill Giant line charged at them.
“Shall we, gentlemen?” Karl asked, taking out his bow.
[On Karl’s mark, begin the attack.] The section leader announced over the radio.
Karl buffed himself up and focused on the line. “Remember where the leaders are, it’s going to become difficult to see them.” Karl reminded the team.
[Chain Lightning] gave the arrows range, while [Blizzard] added the shredding ice damage and blocked the view of the attacking Giants.
Karl wasn’t aiming at them, though. He was burying the arrows into the dirt in front of them, letting the lightning arc, and the blizzard spread over their section of the battlefield.
That meant their mages and archers were firing blind as well, but the wall of snow and ice gave them a range finder to their much larger targets, and as the Hill Giants began to emerge, Karl sent out another wave, moving the barrier forward.
That put the front line in range of the majority of the mages, while the Hill Giant stone attacks were horribly inaccurate, with a full half of them missing the line entirely.
Tank looked into the ranks of Hill Giants, now that they were close enough to see them through the snow.
“Alright, let’s go.”
[First Rank forward, pikes up.] The zone leader ordered.
The pikes rushed forward into the Hill Giants, and Karl switched to his Maul.
[Everyone, stay here and protect the group. Rae, make sure nothing happens to Tessa and Ophelia on the front row.]
[I’m feeling artsy today.] Rae replied, sounding somewhat distracted.
[Fine, make an art installation in the clearing when you’ve got time. But don’t let anyone smash our team members.]
Rae’s mental smirk let Karl know that he had been hoodwinked, and she only wanted to find a way to get him to agree to it. That didn’t slow his advance, Rae would follow instructions and build her art when she had spare time, likely while the Hill Giants were regrouping for a second charge.
He moved in a defensive formation with the other three Commander Rank warriors, but when Karl and the rest of the response team advanced, the Hill Giants spread, leaving them a clear path to the leaders.
“Oh, this is bad news.” Tank muttered as they rushed past the Ascended Rank Hill Giants.
“I’m not saying this is a trap, but this is a trap.” Karl agreed.
The other teachers shook their head in dismay, realizing that someone still had to stop these two Hill Giant leaders from attacking the front lines, as their Earth Magic would devastate the mages if they got any closer.
[Rae, send your Golems forward to keep a hole open behind us.] Karl instructed.
The Hill Giants behind them were mostly Ascended, and the Commanders in the attack force were spread out to make a pincer and push at the students’ weak points when the strongest defenders moved to fight the Royal Rank Giants.
Rae was happy to help with that, and she brought Dana and Mick’s Golems along with Colonel Wilkes’ Fire Elementals forward with her. That made a solid breach in the Hill Giant lines, and the warriors pushed up into it, keeping Tank’s team as the spearhead of the counterattack.
That was what the Royal Rank Giants were hoping for, now they just needed their leaders to defeat these four, and have their Commander Rank teams push through the extended lines, and they would be into the mages.
But they quickly realized it would not be that easy.
When Tank raged, he grew scales. Then [Brutality] took effect on him, and he grew from 250cm to 350cm instantly. That still only made him a little under waist high on a Hill Giant, but the extra strength made him a very scary opponent.
Karl heard a musical giggle in his mind, and realized that Morgana had found a new way of working with Remi. She had planted an ankh topped staff in the ground for Remi to put the totems on, and the Spirit Snake had wrapped around it, leaving the Witch Doctor one hand free to cast her spells, which mostly required a gesture to activate.
Karl and Tank split up to engage the Royal Rank giants, with the other teachers falling in beside them. Karl would pair with a double blade wielding warrior, who dressed like an agility type in light armour, while Tank got the defensive warrior.
It was a good combo for the Berserker, who didn’t really care what was in the path of his axe.
Karl aimed his maul at the Hill Giant’s club, forcing the creature to change trajectory to avoid finding out what Karl had enchanted his weapon with.
The power rolling off Karl’s weapon felt stronger than a Commander should be able to manage, and that put the Royal Rank Giant on edge. The Hill Giants had been informed in advance that this end of the line had the army’s leadership team, and that they were Commanders, but there wasn’t much other information for them to go on.