Karl led the charge down the hill, hoping that the Monarch Ranked [Eternal Lightning] barrier that was over the whole group would trick the Elites into thinking that it was just a large group of Monarchs that were coming to the aid of the outnumbered force.
Normally, the extra Overlord with the fancy armour that the Mountain Giants were wearing, would be enough for them to still have the advantage, but with three new Overlords on the human side, this would be a short and messy battle.
Tabitha’s plan was to surround the force, making them fight in both directions, and preventing them from retreating, which would prevent them from reaching a healer who could resurrect their fallen.
If it worked, they would rack up two more confirmed Overlord kills for the day, bringing them to five. Battles between Overlords rarely ended in permanent death, so it would be a huge change in the balance of power at this end of the battle.
Others had told Karl in the past that the Overlords were generally only there to keep the peace, but that didn’t seem true of the Mountain Giants, who had more of them than anyone else, on an individual national basis.
As they charged into battle, one of the Mountain Giant Overlords held up a talisman made of what looked like pure diamond, then a pair of portals began to form, allowing reinforcements to arrive.
“Crap, they tricked us. It’s an ambush.” Niall noted, his voice more amused than concerned.
Rae shifted back to her humanoid form without breaking stride and smiled at him.
“Do you want to play a game?”
The Overlord smiled back at her and both of them vanished, while Tabitha cussed them out.
“We’ve got an entire battle ahead, and they’ve already run off to play?” She complained.
Karl focused on Rae’s position, and realized she had gone through the portal, but he could feel her magic only a few kilometres away, and she was keeping a kill count as she worked.
“Don’t worry about it too much. Those portals only go a few kilometres. They’re in a Mountain Giant army camp causing chaos now that all the Overlords are gone.” Tabitha shook her head in dismay, then Hawk swept across the battlefield, throwing out Monarch Ranked [Hellstorm] vortexes that were rapidly spawning smaller spells through the newly arrived Giants.
“If there is one thing that we’re good at, it’s area suppression. Go pick your Overlord, and we will deal with the rest.”
There was only one with the reinforcements, making it three on three, counting the Overlord that was with the team they were relieving.
“Thor, charge into the middle with the clerics and relieve the defenders.” Karl ordered.
Ahmad’s Golems were hacking a path through to the newly arrived Overlord, and Karl’s team was moving to join the encircled forces, forcing a gap in the attackers, while Karl hung back and used his bow to keep the path clear.
[Disintegrate] was incredibly effective on the arrows, and punched through armour like cloth. The golden plate was absorbing most of the energy from the spell, but the arrows were finding their marks, deep in flesh, even if they weren’t carving holes in their chests.
Karl smiled as he saw the Giants trying to deal with Ophelia, whose fully buffed Dire Bear form was nearly as tall on all four feet as the Mountain Giants were on two. They clearly were not expecting that sort of foe, and the Berserker was handily herding them to where Dana and Cara were waiting for them.
Remi was halfheartedly casting spells, but it was clear that she was still exhausted from trying to keep up such a large spell at full power.
Ophelia slammed her front paws down, using [Gravity Slam] to knock a row of Giants over for Dana and her Golems to deal with. [Oh, that’s it. I get it now.] Thor cheered, and then a tail slam took another group of Monarch Rank Giants to their knees.
[Isn’t it kind of them to kneel in respect for the might of a Cerro?] Karl joked.
[Wait, what are you guys doing there? It sounds fun. Eighty-seven, eighty-eight.] Rae interjected.
Whatever they had found at the camp, Rae was going on a rampage.
A group of Giants charged Karl, who was now isolated and standing by himself, a bit further up the hill where he had stopped when the reinforcements arrived.
It was a great spot to shoot from, but nobody would be able to get to him in an emergency unless one of the beasts returned to their space.
Karl charged into them as fast as he could, forgetting that his physical stats had been pushed so far beyond normal by the Packmaster Class, and the [Bestial Champion] skill that buffed him even further when the pack was in danger.
The Blade of Champions buried itself to the hilt in the chest of a Monarch Rank Giant, who simply stared at Karl in shock for a few seconds, unable to comprehend what had just happened.
Karl followed up using [Rend] coated in [Nullify], aimed at the throat of the beast on his left.
Blood sprayed into the air, and something tugged at Karl’s sword arm.
A sharp tug pulled it free, and Karl saw a spectral image of the dying Giant being forcefully ripped from its body by a string attached to the Haint Claw.
The weapon was getting thirsty, and while the Giant’s body was healing as it tried to retreat, the Soul Siphon was stubborn.
The others were shouting something in Giant, but Karl couldn’t make it out as he used [Rend] to parry the attacks coming his way.
The Giants in the back were horrified by the attack, so Karl decided to take advantage.
[Ghostfire] coated on four arcs of [Rend] hurled from his fingertips barely grazed the Giants, but it set them on fire, and established the soul damage to give the weapon a link.
Oddly, that made it easier for their Shaman to free the mortally wounded fighter. There must be a limit on how much Soul energy the Haint Claw could steal, and when it was pulled from multiple targets, it was easier to deal with.
A flash of his blade, and the judicious application of Nullify over Disintegrate, took the head off another Giant, right before Karl was hit by the flat of a blade and sent flying.
He twisted in the air to keep his eyes on the Giants, and landed on his feet, sliding a few more metres before he came to a stop, unharmed.
[Oh, they’re in trouble now.] Cara laughed from the far side of the battlefield, where she was helping Thor and Tessa push the Giants away from the defenders on that side, to give everyone a break.
Karl braced his feet and pushed off to jump back into battle, then threw a flurry of [Rend] attacks ahead of him to put the defenders off balance.
Another Soul was grabbed by the Haint Claw as Karl took an arm off the Giant, then followed up with a slash across the back of its legs as it turned to defend the weakened side. This time, the Giant was too close to death, and the Haint Claw ripped its energy free of the body, causing the Giant to crumple dead on the ground.
Then, a roar went up through the Giants as an Overlord fell to the combined efforts of Rae and Niall. The Giants were surging in their direction, but the feeling was different. They were not looking to overrun the humans, they wanted to recover the body and retreat.
[Let them have that one. It will make them go away.] Karl instructed Rae.
[Fine. I’ve done pretty good today. They can have one to bring back to life. We will just kill him again later.]