With the death of the Overlord, the Giants had realized that things were not going their way, and began to retreat towards the portals.
They were in for a shock when they got there, as Rae and Niall had killed anything that moved in the camp on the other side, and then had returned here to ambush an Overlord together.
It was good to see Rae making friends with similar interests.
Karl rejoined the others as the Giants ran away, but didn’t let down his guard.
“Keep ready. They’re going to find a massacre on the other side of the Portals, and they might come back.” He warned before Niall could.
The Monarch leading the other team came over to shake his hand with a smile. “I’ve already greeted the others. I am Lady Othello, Head Knight of the Silver Blades.” She introduced herself.
“Karl, The Beast Master.”
She smiled. “I gathered that much from the Cerro. I must say, young Thor is quite the cavalry unit. I don’t think that I’ve ever seen a breaching charge quite so effective.”
Thor stomped his feet and wobbled his head in pleasure at the praise. Gravity Slam and Earthquake worked amazingly well to put the Giants off balance for him to charge into the defence lines.
“I appreciate the rescue. Even with a paladin of my power, we were having issues. But what is that combat power you have? Not your beasts, which are an unfair advantage to start with. But your personal combat power.” Lady Othello asked, an excited gleam in her eyes at the chance to gain new knowledge.
“I can share some of the skills and physical stats of my beasts. With five of them at Monarch Rank, I would estimate that my base physical abilities are twice what an average Monarchs are. Mostly, I only use a few of the most efficient attack skills, though there are more.”
“Like Soul Chain?” The Overlord Rank Paladin asked.
Karl shook his head. “I have a weapon with Soul Steal and Soul Damage on it. That’s the effect you’re seeing, not one of my personal skills.”
She shrugged. “Either way, you should have seen how terrified they were when you literally ripped the soul essence out of a Monarch Ranked Giant.
It makes a bit of a spectacle, and I do hope that you have a plan for when they start to focus on you to eliminate the threat.”
Karl nodded silently, while Rae transformed back to human and rode one of her Golems over to the conversation.
“Are we making plans to deal with the Mountain Giants? I vote genocide.” Lady Othello looked confused at the new arrival, but Niall just laughed.
“Lady O, meet Queen Rae Bloodbath. One of Karl’s bonded partners, and a Monarch Rank Bloodbath Spider.” He explained with a wink toward his counterpart.
Othello smiled at Rae. “I saw your handiwork today, and I have no doubt that it is an actual possibility.”
Tabitha came over and cleared her throat. “I hate to break up the happy fun time, but the Giants have clearly advanced past our lines. We need to scout them out and find the advance strike force teams that have made it past the defenders.”
That brought everyone back on task.
Karl nodded in agreement. “Right, we found the first group nearly five kilometres from here, closer to the Capital. They were waiting next to where we entered by Portal. They seemed determined that they would raze the Capital with this offensive, so they won’t be alone.”
[Hawk, what do you see? Any more targets?] Karl asked.
[Sure. Do you want weak ones, lots of weak ones, strong ones, or lots of strong ones?]
[How many groups do you see that aren’t fighting?]
[Maybe fifty?]
Karl cleared his throat to get everyone’s attention back on him. “Hawk says there are at least fifty groups of Mountain Giants past the defenders, and that’s just the ones that aren’t fighting anyone right now.”
[Only four that have big ones stronger than you.]
“Four of them with Overlords.” Karl added.
This portion of the border near Lake Chiptonrith marked the closest spot for the Giants to cross their border and head to the GDN Capital. It was a long way from any Mountain Giant population centre, as far as anyone else knew. So, it was normally a safe route for travellers to pass through to move between the Golden Dragon Nation and Newbon.
“Should we split up?” Lady Othello asked.
The other Overlords nodded, and then Tabitha sighed. “I think it’s for the best. I will go with your response team, and the other two will stay with the Beast Master and his team.
Most of the Giants should be operating with one Overlord at the most, and this will give us the advantage.”
Karl frowned. “There are a few large groups as well. Should we deal with them before we split.”
Othello looked at him like he was insane. “You want to get into a fight where you know you’re outnumbered?”
Karl smiled at her.
“More loot from the loot god. Besides, we specialize in it.”
Othello hummed to herself as she thought about the answer, then realized that Cara was wearing a gaudy golden chain around her neck.
“Wait, I don’t remember that. When did the Void Badger start wearing bling?” She asked.
Karl inspected the chain, then laughed. [Chain of Disruption] Grants the wearer’s crowd control and interrupt type abilities a five percent greater chance of success.
“It looks Cyclops made, and it’s Monarch Rank, so my guess is she got it sometime in the last hour. It looks good on her, though. Very fashionable.”
Karl definitely wasn’t going to mention that it looked like a cat collar made of gold.
Dana reached down to pet Cara’s head. “It increases her chance to disrupt enemy attacks. You know, the fact that the Giants’ equipment doesn’t bond or vanish with the dead makes them a pretty good target for upgrades. My own gear could use a bit of a refresher, but nothing that they wear is suitable for a Battlemage who needs mobility.”
Othello shrugged. “Most of the Cyclops made gear does bond to the user. However, bonded gear that is in use remains on the body when you die. It can be claimed by anyone after you’re gone. It’s just the items that are put away that remain locked away.”