The moment that the attack became imminent turned out to be about ten seconds later.
The leaders moved to the far end of the line, and Karl adjusted his position to match them, with Remi close to him, but toward the main body of the Mountain Giant force.
“Remind me again why I am doing this?” Karl asked as he watched the Commander Rank Giants form ranks behind their leaders.
“Because they’re mad that you showed them up, and they’re not going to let you leave without a fight.” Tessa reminded him.
“Right. Almost forgot about that part. Alright, if everyone is in position, I will move forward with Remi to make the unofficial challenge.”
When Karl moved, the Monarchs and Royals all moved to match his group. That made life a lot easier on everyone else, and the Giants were already charging forward, aiming for the trial orb with superior numbers.
[Hawk, see what you can do to slow the attackers once I have the strong ones busy.] Karl instructed.
[ALL the fire.] Hawk agreed.
Karl moved to lure the stronger Giants away from the group, while the rest of his team grew increasingly concerned about the odds on his side. With all the Royals gone, they would have an easier time with the Commanders, but twelve on two, or seven, depending on how you counted it, was not great odds when Remi was a ranged fighter.
The bodyguards were Monarchs, though. That should make enough of a difference, Tessa hoped. Thor was itching to charge into battle, and she could feel the will of her Goddess flowing through her. The will of the Red Dragon wanted a war, and there was one waiting for them only a few hundred metres away.
Or at least they would get to enjoy a small sample of the ongoing war at the borders right here in their own backyard. That was close enough for the War Goddess.
Karl equipped the Haint Claw as gauntlets on his hands, and then drew his sword. The Monarch Rank Giants smiled at the sight, not realizing the hell that was waiting for them, and increased their charging speed to take out Karl before they dealt with the others.
Karl pushed his speed as much as he could manage, testing the limits of the enhancements that he had gotten from the new class, and the bonus he received from each of his pets.
With [Disintegration] on his sword, Karl lashed out at the largest of the Monarch Rank Giants, internally wincing at the sound of his blade breaking the sound barrier. He either needed to stop doing that or invest in some earplugs. It had been the same thing when Leafa fought the Emperor, a cacophony of violence that could be heard for dozens of kilometres.
The Giant was unprepared for that sort of speed, and hastily erected a [Guard] barrier to defend itself. But the skill didn’t hold, and the lingering remains of [Disintegration] along with the ghostly trail from the Haint Claw were still in effect as the blade pierced the Giant’s throat. freēwēbηovel.c૦m
Karl jumped to stop his momentum by kicking off the Monarch, and managed an almost smooth backflip to land on his feet.
[Not bad. Eight out of ten. You need to work on your form.] Remi congratulated him.
However, the Giant wasn’t dead. At least not yet. But it was bleeding heavily from the neck, and a stream of pale green energy was being ripped from its body as it struggled.
The other Monarch saw this and came to the rescue, but the trio of bodyguards intercepted it, while Remi threw [Chain Lightning] to slow the Royals until Karl’s Lamia bodyguards could cut off their advance.
It took Karl a moment to realize what had happened to the wounded Giant as he was evading the strikes of its enraged companion, but when the stricken Monarch began to have seizures, he finally understood.
The blow had come so close to killing the target that the Haint Claw had grabbed a hold on the Giant’s soul and was forcibly ripping it from his body with lingering psychic damage.
Karl parried with his full force, and both blades rebounded away, nearly putting the tip of his blade in the dirt as the Giant’s chest was exposed.
The Monarch twirled away from Karl’s counterattack, but immediately found itself falling. A Naga Warrior had taken advantage and wrapped its legs with its muscular lower body, and once the Giant was face down on the ground, the Warrior went wild attacking with all four arms and blades coated in [Tsunami] water magic.
Crude, but brutally effective.
That left Karl and the warrior free to engage the Royals, as the first Monarch struggled for its life while fending off one of Remi’s Bodyguards from a kneeling position.
The increased speed was an unfair advantage, and while the Giants had no problem keeping up with Karl’s running speed, his hand speed was far too high for them to effectively counter.
However, after only a dozen strikes on his way through the crowd, his arms were getting sore.
There was an imbalance in his stats. He could move faster than his body could currently sustain. Human bodies were not beast bodies, and despite all the enhancements, he was actually dealing a significant amount of damage to himself, which was being negated by [Void Body].
That was going to have to change. Once they got out of here, or at least found time to go through their loot, he needed something that was going to increase his durability. Even if it was a workout routine and not a magical item.
It was either that or he would have to hold back in combat to avoid injuring himself, and the amount he would have to hold back would increase with every beast that advanced.
Worse, if it didn’t work, he would have to change his role from frontline fighter to ranged support.
The Lamia moved to Karl’s flank as the Royals double-teamed all three of them. That shouldn’t be right, there weren’t that many Royals in the group.
Then Karl noticed that once the Monarchs were both dead, Remi had taken her trio of Bodyguards into the flank of the Commanders to set up a combination of [Blizzard] and [Hellstorm].
The defenders were in combat now, and Hawk had just arrived, striking at the back of the force with a wall of [Hellstorm] vortexes that were moving forward at a walking pace, while Dana’s Golems attacked the survivors, and she assisted Hawk in raining attacks down on the Giants.
Being attacked from three sides was not in their plan, and despite the Giants outnumbering the defenders by an overwhelming margin, they were unsure what side to send reinforcements to.
With that being the case, Karl held back against the Royal Rank Giants, testing the limits of his physical durability compared to his maximum strength.
It was fast enough that the Giants could only haphazardly parry, and took indirect hits from most of his attacks, a distinct advantage on Karl’s part, as they were forced fully onto the defensive.
The Bodyguards appeared to have gotten faster as well, but Karl couldn’t be certain, as he hadn’t spent much time actually watching them fight.
“Prince Karl, the reinforcements are here!” A Satyr runner shouted from a few dozen metres behind him.
“Have them join the main force and push the enemy back into the flaming vortexes.” Karl shouted back.
The goat legged Demon ran off to relay the message, while the Royal Rank Giants rallied into a circular formation, where each of them would have a helper to cover their blind spots, and defend against tricky attacks.
There were still five of them to Karl’s trio of attackers, who now had them surrounded.
Karl was about to move in for the kill, aiming to cut through one Giant and attack the others from behind, when a Portal opened, and the Giants, including the dead, turned incorporeal.
Then, they vanished, and the portal closed. All that they had left was a lot of scorched grass and blood, plus one Monarch Rank body. The unfortunate Giant whose soul had been siphoned by the Haint Claw had not been recovered with the rest of their force.
Remi tossed the body into Rae’s space for later, then took stock of her bodyguards.
They were a little beat up looking, but with [Trollish Regeneration] and [Eternal Lightning], their bodies were still solid.
Then they refreshed their armour spells, and they were back to pristine appearance.
[Resounding victory. Is it lunchtime yet?]