The ride was rough, and the engine was screaming as the cargo truck did its best to follow Tabitha down the gravel road, with the other vehicles falling further behind. freeweɓnvel.com
Rae and Niall had found their way to the lead vehicle, only appearing among the troops sitting in the back with one perplexed cleric once they were already comfortably settled on the floor.
“Can you tell me what is so important that we had to turn around? We were expected to be the reinforcements for a group of Overlords who were fighting a large invasion force. They’re going to be pissed that we’re not coming.” The driver asked timidly.
“That was us. That fight is already over. But we learned what is happening and why. It’s crucial that we get the information to the Cathedral so that they can properly protect what needs to be guarded.” Karl explained.
The man’s eyes briefly flashed pure black, and his scent changed just a little. A transformed spy, Karl was certain of it.
[Rae, check all the humans in your truck to see if they’re actually human, or something else disguised as human. I think that my driver is a spy.] Karl instructed.
That put all the beasts on high alert, and overhead, Hawk began to scour the auras of all the soldiers.
[The driver of yours and the driver of one of the other trucks don’t match the rest of the soldiers. They’re not the same thing.] Hawk updated.
That was good enough for Karl.
“Incoming on the left.” Karl warned his driver, who turned to look out the window, right as Karl hit him in the back of the head with a [Disintegrate] attack.
The head vaporized, and Karl was about to throw him in the passenger seat when the body began to grow.
So, he threw him out the passenger window.
[Hawk, tell me what that dead driver turns into. The body should be far enough from the road that the other drivers don’t see it.] [Some sort of Giant. Four arms, blonde body hair.] Hawk updated, then swooped down to grab the body and toss it into his space.
It was a young Giant, still with the perfect skin of one who hadn’t seen a life of combat or exposure to the elements, but already at the Commander Rank. Whatever species that was, it had to be a powerful one if it could hit Commander before it had even finished puberty.
[I killed the truck with the other suspect in it. He also turned into a Giant.] Rae updated.
Karl wasn’t sure what she meant by killed the truck, but dead was dead, and it looked like they had removed the spies from their convoy.
Overlord Othello climbed out of the canvas covered bed and into the passenger side through the window.
“Care to explain what that was all about? And do you even know how to drive?” She asked.
“I can drive a mining truck, and it’s kind of similar. I’ve never taken one above five kilometres an hour before, though.”
The Overlord laughed. “Change seats. I will drive, you explain why you threw a body out the window, and where the driver went.”
Karl gave her an overview of what he had found and suspected, then waited for her to process it.
“So, there were spies passing information, dressed as regular soldiers from the supply department, where they would be able to see our deployments just by what we needed for the area. Insidious. We’re going to have to get the Inquisitors to do a full search of the service after this to root out all of the others.
To think that there are so many spies that they sent two in the same convoy. It might have been deliberate, as they were coming to aid us, but it could well have just been coincidence.
If it was just by chance, we’ve got a real problem.” She muttered, mostly talking to herself, while Karl had Rae relay her thoughts to Niall.
[I’m a super secret Inquisition spy asset.] Rae giggled.
Really, she was just whispering what Karl was hearing to Niall, but if it were arranged, she really would be an incredible spy.
The trucks were making good time back to the city, bouncing along the gravel road, which was in surprisingly good condition, considering that the nation typically didn’t improve roads that went to the borders.
It would take them under an hour to get to the city limits, but well before that, they were starting to see signs of battle, and Hawk had picked out defence patrols in the distance.
[There are battles on the North Side of the city. I think that they’re trying to force the humans into the water.] Hawk noted with disdain.
That made a cruel sort of sense. The Giants sounded like they didn’t want survivors after they took the city, so they would want the residents backed into the lake, and not able to flee out the far side in trucks and buses.
Most likely, they would try to surround the city, once the rest of their forces arrived.
A frantic message from Sybil using the System’s message function caught Karl’s attention.
{Mister Karl, they say that we’re being activated to defend the city, and we’re all in a bus, but they’re talking on the radio, and nobody is signing, and there are no clerics on the bus.} {What direction are you headed? We’re coming back from our mission with information, but we’re not in the city yet.} Karl replied.
{North. The others are talking about Goblins now, but I’m not with the rest of the trainee group. They split us all up into different buses with Ascended Rank team leaders.} Sybil explained.
No clerics, and they split up a team that hadn’t even made it to the Academy yet, to send them out on patrol against Goblins, and whatever other small monsters the Ogres had managed to force to join them.
What a mess.
{I will send people to you as soon as I can. Let me know if your bus stops, and where it is when you stop.}
{There are so many people in the street, the bus can barely move. I will tell you when we get somewhere, or when someone starts talking where I can see them.}