Out of the darkness, the sound of combat carried to Karl’s sensitive ears, as well as the Naga Warriors.
It was too faint for Thor to hear it, but Rae perked up, trying to find the source of the disturbance. It was out of sight, and Karl quickly realized that someone had found a low spot to camp in, where they wouldn’t be spotted from a distance in the morning.
That was a much better idea than just camping next to a big rock, but if their battle was intense enough that it could be heard from kilometres away, they might need assistance. But more urgently, the sound of battle was drawing the attention of all the creatures in the area. Once they started to move with purpose, it got the attention of even more, and soon every one of the creatures that Karl could detect was headed in the same direction. Some would be passing right through their camp if they didn’t move, and there were hundreds of them.
“Okay, that’s not good. Whoever is fighting in the distance has gotten the attention of every creature within five kilometres, and they’re all headed that way. Some of them will be passing right by us, and that means a fight.
But a fight means that there will be more of them turning our way.
I think it might be best to go for a strength in numbers approach.” Karl explained.
Tessa frowned as she replied. “So, head towards the battle and hope that whoever is over there is more friendly than whatever spawned? Well, given our experience with the spawns, that shouldn’t be hard to achieve.
Do we know what the enemy is yet?” Karl shook his head. “Just our various theories, but we will find out when we get to them.”
[We won’t have to wait long. There are already monsters headed this way.] Rae reminded him.
“Alright, pack quickly and let’s get going. I want to get as close as possible before the fight spreads.” Karl insisted.
They only had to pack up the two sheets that were hiding the campfire, then they were ready to move, as fast as Thor could go without risking the wagon. Karl jogged alongside the wagon as Rae kept Thor updated on the best routes.
The monsters weren’t fast, and they were actually catching up to the ones in front of them, so Karl ordered Thor to slow a little. They would get as close as possible before they had to actually join the fight.
He could already hear the voices, and they were speaking the Common language, so at the very least the defenders weren’t insane.
“Shoulder to shoulder, keep your positions circled and don’t get so far from the ground that they can get under you and inside the ring.” A male voice was shouting.
The sound of blades and the flashing lights of spells were now visible. Whoever was there, they had magic users. That meant it wasn’t a random group of farmers, as the Minotaur didn’t have any spell casters that Karl knew of. They had extremely powerful warriors, but that was the extent of their combat power.
“Tamarind, watch your offhand blade technique. You’re slow on the left side.”
[Hellstorm!] Remi cheered in Karl’s mind, and a massive funnel of fire formed off to their right side, where a dense pack of the attackers had gathered.
There was a short stone ledge there, but for some reason they were not climbing it, just piling up against it or going around.
But with the light illuminated their features, Karl knew that today was going to be a lousy one.
Every face was rotted, eyes glazed in death, as the zombie horde pressed towards the signs of life. The undead were relentless. The only option was to kill them all or run away. But they were all around both groups, so running wasn’t an option.
“What the fuck is that?” The voice shouted. So they were close enough that they could see the fire.
“Merchant team coming to your location.” Karl shouted, drawing the attention of a number of zombies.
He called out the Lamia to join the Naga Warriors around the wagon, and Rae called out her Golems to help her clear the path for Thor.
Karl used Rend to cut down swathes of the creatures, then realized that the upper halves kept moving. Crushing the heads or burning them was the best option.
So, he brought out his bow and began to fire [Chain Lightning] enhanced arrows into the horde.
Most of them were Awakened and Ascended, but there were a few stronger ones in the crowd.
Karl could feel them there, but it was impossible to tell which was which when they were packed so densely.
The source of the spells came into sight as the ground dropped away into what looked like a dry dugout pond, the sort that farmers made for their cattle.
It was an oval about ten metres by twenty, and only five metres deep. However, the defenders were all human, wearing the black cloth outfits of a Spellblade clan.
They were putting up a valiant defence, and the zombie bodies were beginning to stack up.
“Don’t attack the Spider, it’s a friendly.” Someone was shouting, and Karl breathed a sigh of relief. It was good to have intelligent allies.
Karl started a second [Hellstorm] on his left, matching the one that Remi was still holding active on the right, along with over a dozen smaller flaming cyclones.
They were wandering through the horde, lighting zombies on fire. The weaker ones burned to ash in seconds, but the smaller cyclones weren’t Royal Rank. They stepped down by a Rank as they shrunk, first to Commander, then to Ascended Rank.
Karl let his vortex wander, spreading the chained Vortexes through the horde, but it was nowhere near enough.
With Rae’s assistance and Karl’s arrows, they managed to push the wagon to dugout position, where the Spellblades parted to let them through.
Ophelia and Dana hopped down to join the defensive line, while Tessa and Lotus worked to bring up holy spells for the defenders. Thor already had [Circle of Protection] active, and he quickly spread [Eternal Lightning] over the group as he settled in to focus on his magic.
Karl nodded at the golden masked Royal Rank Spellblade as he stopped at the edge of the circle to reposition his [Hellstorm] vortex.
Remi did the same, putting hers opposite Karl’s at the top of the hill as she came out to join the fight.
Hawk used the light from the spells as a guide to take flight and bombard the area, while Cara wandered out into the horde, looking for something worth fighting.
She had a barrier up, and she was virtually immune to low rank attacks anyhow, so Karl wasn’t all that worried about her, as long as she didn’t get too far away.
Most of the Spellblades were Ascended Rank, with four Commanders and one Prince leading them.
That was a pretty normal group composition for a thirty-person team, but against this horde they would eventually exhaust themselves. Having Thor here would help immensely, with his barrier refreshing everyone’s stamina, health and mana.
The blade skills looked familiar, and Karl quickly settled into his role killing zombies who made it to the ridgeline, using minimal power with his arrows so that he didn’t have to take down [Hellstorm], which was still mana intensive even after it was completed and learned as a skill.