Karl turned to Lady Othello. “I just got a message that the traffic in the city is at a crawl, we won’t get far with vehicles. I don’t know where you need to go, but they are deploying the lower ranks to the North Side to defend against a Goblin and Ogre attack.”
“You sound personally invested in that.” The Overlord noted.
“In a way. My group was working on a way to rapidly boost trainees, and we had gotten a group to advance to Awakened within a week of training, they haven’t even started at the Academy yet, and won’t for another week. But they’ve been split up and sent to the city walls with random Ascended Rank team leaders.
I know the policy is that Awakened Rank and up are ready to fight outside the training environment, but this is a bit different.” Karl explained.
Othello looked impressed. “You managed to help them skip the entire Common Rank grind? That is impressive just by itself, but I can see how it would be an issue if they were at the Cathedral today.
Is there one in particular that you’re concerned about?” freewebnσvel.cm
Karl nodded. “There is a Rogue with them who is deaf, and the message she sent me says that she’s with a group that doesn’t have a cleric, or anyone else who knows sign language. So, she can’t understand any of the orders coming over the radio because nobody is speaking them out loud.”
“A message?” Lady Othello asked.
“Oh, right. There is a System Function for that. Sybil, the baby Rogue, found it.”
Karl sent Othello a message, startling her so much that she almost swerved off the road.
“Sorry, I didn’t think that it would be that obtrusive. It just appears at the edge of my vision.” Karl explained.
“I see how you sent it now. But it appeared in front of me like the System Alerts inside a trial. I will have to find a way to change that. Maybe if I just focus on moving it, and perhaps making it a little transparent. Yes, that’s better.”
Othello sent him back a brief message. {I will circle to the north of the city, and enter from the north gates. That is closest to the Cathedral anyhow.}
So, their convoy took a turn, following the edge of the city towards where it was becoming clear the battle had nearly reached the walls. They were under five kilometres away, and Karl could see the fight when they came over a hill.
“Would you be particularly mad if I jumped out and left you to deliver the message? My team would surely be a morale booster along the line, since the leaders there are mostly Commanders, the same as along the Frost Giant border.” He suggested.
“I don’t mind. Do you need time to tell your group?”
Karl shook his head. “No, they know already. Thor is in humanoid form, so he just told them directly. I don’t know if you can hear them over the wind.”
Othello shook her head. “No, my senses aren’t as keen as yours. But I hear that you might be able to change that. There was talk of an Elite passing out strange skill books, and my guess is that was you.”
“If there is time after the battle, I will see if there is a sensory skill that you can use. I don’t really have one specialized for Paladins, but there might be something. Even passive night vision might be possible, if I can find a way to isolate the change to make it into a skill book. I got it as part of a package upgrade when I first got my class.” Karl explained.
“Good enough for me. I’ve made it to Overlord without it, after all. But every little bit counts, and not relying on Presence Sense when fighting blind would be a huge advantage.”
Karl spotted familiar faces in one of the buses headed for the battle, and gestured out the window.
“There are four of the five trainees.”
[The Dana says that she will go to them.] Thor informed Karl, a second before Dana was flying out of the truck towards the slow-moving convoy of buses.
[Take everyone else and go help her, and whatever section that they’re assigned to. I will go find Sybil.] Karl informed the Cerro.
The others hopped out of the truck one after another, leaving only Ahmad in the back, still protected by [Eternal Lightning] as he recovered.
He was somewhat conscious now, and they had fed him, so he would only need a few more minutes before he was in fighting form again.
[I sense my baby Rogue. She is about to come out of the hole in the wall.] Rae announced.
The gate was only a hundred metres ahead, so Karl prepared to exit the vehicle.
“This is my stop, the last of them is just ahead. We will help organize this end of the battlefield and take over from whoever got pressed into the duty. Assuming they don’t outrank me, that is. You can let the Cathedral know that we’re not slacking.” He informed Othello.
“Send Ahmad up front, we will have to park the trucks here anyhow. See, Tabitha is about to pull over, and then I’m betting she’s going to run into the city. She’s impulsive like that. Absolutely hates when things aren’t going her way.” The Paladin laughed.
Sure enough, the truck in front of them was pulling off into the grass between the road and the wall, and the Warrior Class Overlord was out and running into the city, looking for whoever needed their intelligence.
“Good luck. We will likely see you soon.” Karl joked as he got out of the truck.
With a full assault from the Giants incoming, it was almost certain they would see each other within the next few days, as they would be assigned to fight some of the same groups of attackers.
Rae had already stolen Sybil from the bus she was in, and was standing next to the truck with her.
“Hey Sybil. What group were you with? I’ll explain the situation, and then you can be my assistant while we start to organize the lines. Without the radios, it is chaos all along the line. But we know how to send System Messages now, and we can use that to organize without the radio.” Karl informed the panicked young Elite.
She gave him two thumbs up, and Karl relayed his intentions to the rest of the group, both in person, and with a System Message. He included the four Overlords in the communication, and saw Niall and Ahmad pause as the incoming message startled them.
This was going to make battle planning so much easier once they had met all the section Commanders.