Karl sighed and looked to the sky for answers. Far above the flames, the Dragon’s tail constellation shone dimly, barely visible over the light of the vortexes, even with every bit of cloud cover forced from the sky.
The Oracle quietly made his way to the house, leaving Karl to his thoughts. With the revered Oracle gone, one of the Royal Rank farmers came over to where Karl was standing, and patted him on the shoulder. “I get the feeling that you’re going to be leaving here in somewhat of a hurry.” He whispered.
“I get that feeling as well.” Karl agreed.
“I won’t ask what you did that angered the Emperor to that level, but if it has something to do with your friend the Thunderbird, or with whatever emergency called Overlord Leafa away, you should likely get a head start on your travels.
I will look after your wagon until you can return, if you need.”
Karl smiled and shook his hand. “We will see once this influx of monsters slows down. If I leave too early and something happens to the Oracle, they will hunt me to the ends of the continent.
The Emperor went looking for the Overlord. Apparently her mission was not approved, and he was not happy about the timing when the Oracle foresaw it. I don’t have all the details, but at the very least, the Emperor is busy for the day.”
The Minotaur nodded in understanding, then got to the topic that had actually brought him over. “That fire spell you are using, is that something that can be learned somewhere? One of my nieces is a Shaman apprentice, and that fire tornado spell is the sort of signature spell that could let her advance to High Shaman and reach the Royal Rank.” Karl shook his head. “I don’t know anyone else who can use it outside my group. It is possible to learn, but not quickly or easily, and she would need to know a number of spells as a prerequisite.”
The Minotaur sighed. “I feared that might be the case. If it were so easy, more people would know it. But I do need to tell her about those flame totems. Those are the sort of signature ability that should scale well with level and let her stand out from the others in her training group. There is only so much to go around, and everyone competes for additional resources.”
Karl nodded. “Resources are the great limiter for all of our growth. But at least after this, nutrition won’t be a problem for your community for a year or so. The children will have plenty of energy dense meat to eat, and that will help their growth.”
“That they will. Let me know what you decide, but if you’re thinking of flying away on the massive bird, I wouldn’t recommend it. A twenty-metre wingspan and the fact that he’s literally on fire probably don’t combine to create the greatest stealth skill.”
Karl chuckled. That might make Hawk’s scouting duties difficult in the future, but they could work something out to dim his glow if he couldn’t do it himself. But even if he could dim the light, he was still enormous. Not even Thor was as large as Hawk now, though Hawk was more slender than the Cerro. freēwēbnovel.com
[I will have to make a harness for him later. Thor has his Tessa Knight mode, so Hawk will want a rider too. Maybe our Dana? They both have good range with their skills.] Rae suggested.
[What am I, chopped liver?] Karl asked.
[No, boar liver probably tastes better. But you’re a ground combatant like I am. Besides, Cara and Remi have a system worked out, so you’re mine by default. Unless I’m wearing my Lotus.]
[Glad to know that I’m the option of last resort.]
[Well, you don’t do anything that the rest of us can’t, do you? You’re like picking all of the others when we only need one. You’re a good choice, but not the most efficient one.]
Karl knew that Rae was trying to make him feel better, so he decided to tease her. [That’s fine, I have the Lamia Bodyguards now. They’ll hang out with me.]
[Or you can hang out with Ophelia. She doesn’t have a partner yet.] Rae offered.
[The Bear and the Karl don’t need partners. They just like to smash things.] Hawk interjected with a mental shrug.
There wasn’t much smashing to do right now, the invaders were stuck on the other side of the wall of vortexes. That was what the Minotaur thought that Karl was focusing on when he was speaking with the beasts.
“How is the situation outside the spell? Can you tell?” The Minotaur Royal asked.
“It’s getting better by the minute. The spreading vortexes have eliminated most of the attackers now. If it keeps going at this rate, we should be able to let down the spell in the next half hour.
There will be more attacks for the rest of the day, but the monsters near us are nearly under control. The three of us holding the vortexes will need a break after this, but it was the only viable way to deal with the flood of beasts coming our way.” Karl explained.
The Minotaur nodded and turned to walk back to the front of the house. “If you need more assistants than those two Lamias, let me know. We have rested fighters in the yard.”
Karl nodded. “We should be alright. These two are excellent fighters, but I will let you know if we need more assistance on this side.”
The Minotaur returned to the other side of the fight, but they didn’t wait for Karl to make a request before they sent over assistants. If you could call them that. What they sent were four of the General’s guards, Ascended Rank Satyrs who had a look of determination, and the glow of Tessa’s Holy Blessing on their bodies and weapons.
“Welcome to the dark side of the house. The Vortexes will be up for a while longer, then you can let the Lamias take the front lines, while you harass and distract their targets. It will be the fastest way to get the Giants down.” Karl instructed.
“Yes, Sir. We were sent to make up numbers so that nothing made it to the children. Fear not, we won’t let you down.” One of the Satyrs replied grimly.
“It’s not that serious. There are no more high-ranking beasts anywhere that I can detect. It’s just Commander Rank boars, and low Royal Rank Cyclops leading them. The three of us can handle those easily enough, but every distraction you cause gives us one more opportunity for a lethal strike.”
That was enough to assure the Satyrs that Karl really wasn’t messing with them or putting on a strong front to make them feel better. If he could view their assistance as nothing more than a distraction, even when they had the blessings of a High Priestess of the War Dragon on their weapons, he must be extremely confident in his abilities, they assumed.
A normal person would have been overjoyed just to find out that they had anyone with a Commander Rank blessing on their weapons that didn’t burn the wielder’s energy to attack.