Karl waited as the battle wore on, and the Giants made no attempt to get rid of Remi’s storm. They were saving all their energy to attack the walls once they were past the defenders.
No, that wasn’t quite right, Karl realized. They were disguising their Shamans. If they made themselves stand out from the other Giants in the back ranks, they would make themselves targets for assassination.
The Giants only had one type of caster. They didn’t have separate Clerics, Mages and Shamans. So, if they lost the Shamans early, they would be in grave danger once they reached the walls and the real siege began.
Danni leaned towards Karl and whispered a question. “Do you know what triggered this? Why the full assault on the Capital? Why now? Another six months and we would have been much weaker.”
Karl winked and tapped his head before sending her a message.
{Not necessarily. They have spies all over the Capital, reporting on everything that we do. The next influx of Elites is going to include awakenings with System Linked items, and we expect the success rate to exceed thirty percent.
I also managed to push a group of new Elites from Common to Awakened in two days. They’ll be there for a while as they adjust, but the Giants don’t know that we can’t just keep doing that. Their scouts will have told them that we found a way to force awakenings and advancements, or something close to that.
But when we first fought them, they said that they would take the System Item from us and crush the Church. They think that we have an equivalent to System Stones in the city.} There was a brief pause as Danni took that all in, then Karl got a message back.
{Holy wall of text. This feature is wonderful. Mine activated when you sent me a message.}
So not everyone could use it. That was valuable information.
There was a pause, and then the Mage sent him another private message.
{What if the item they’re referring to is the Trial Temple? I heard it changed lately, and new Clerics were awakening faster and stronger than ever.
If I heard, then whoever is spying surely did.}
That made a lot of sense. The Giants likely didn’t know that the temple was only awakening Clerics, even if they had success with sending in people for benefits to other classes.
But depending on how connected the spies were, the Giants might also know that it worked to give Commanders advanced Classes, which would give them a whole new set of skills to work with.
{Well, we can let that be the Archbishop’s issue. I will include it in my next report to him.}
Danni laughed out loud, then began to speak as they finished the confidential part of the discussion.
“You’re already thinking of your next report, but we’re in the middle of a battle. Such dedication. Are you sure you’re not an Inquisitor?” She teased.
Karl chuckled. “I’m sure that Sister Rae wouldn’t mind. Inquisitor Overlord Niall lets her stab people.”
Danni shook her head in dismay. “To think that our adorable spider friend is now a Monarch. How much has she changed?”
“Not much, actually. Her appearance is close to what it was at Commander. She didn’t grow too much more, but now she knows a skill to transform into a humanoid. Her skills are obviously improved, but that’s a discussion for later.”
{There may be transformed Giants among the supply group. I will give details in private.} Karl warned.
It wouldn’t do to have the detailed skills of his team revealed to the enemy in advance.
Rae’s mental voice interrupted Karl’s train of thought.
[Ooh, I win! They sent someone to challenge me to a duel. An Ettin Mage Monarch.] She cheered.
[Do you have this?] Karl asked.
There was no response for a few seconds, then Rae began to sing.
[I’ve got a lovely bunch of coconuts. There they are a hanging in a row.]
Karl was baffled for a second until he got a message from Ophelia.
{Can you talk to Rae about terrifying the soldiers? She’s arranging the pieces of the Ettin on pikes behind the line.}
[Rae, this is not the place for an art exhibition. You’re scaring the humans.]
[Just the heads?]
[Fine, you can leave the heads up. But please don’t hang dry your food in public.]
Ophelia messaged a few seconds later. {Thanks, that is much better.}
Then Thor had an update.
[I get one too. A Monarch Ranked Ogre Lord. This is going to be so much fun.]
[Have you got this?] Karl double-checked, the same as he had for Rae.
[I have a couple attack skills, and all your buffs. I can beat up some silly Ogre without even turning back into a Cerro.]
Overhead, Hawk was laughing.
[What is brother Thor doing? He’s in human form challenging an Ogre Lord. Oh, he can use Gravity Slam like that, and Eternal Lightning on the blade. That works pretty good. You’re missing out.]
The Ogre Lord rolled back to his feet, bleeding from one arm after being knocked over by a shield slam from this strange Paladin.
He was clearly the bigger one, and he should be stronger, but the Paladin had tossed him to the ground like he was a child. His pride couldn’t handle such an insult.
The Ogre Lord parried Thor’s blade, but the real attack was with the edge of the shield that slammed into the Lord’s ribs. [Crushing Blows] and [Shatter] activated, sending vibrations through his body that had the Ogre Lord spitting blood.
None of this made sense. They were both Monarchs, how could this stupid Paladin be so much stronger than an Ogre?
Thor activated [Brutality], increasing his height from just under two metres to three. That put him eye to eye with the Ogre Lord, who instinctively backed away a step to put himself at the edge of Thor’s reach.
A stomp of his foot activated [Earthquake], and the Ogre Lord stumbled, lurching to the left where Thor’s blade was incoming.
A twist of his arm parried the blow, but Thor was charging with his shield forward.
A fully buffed [Gravity Slam] flattened the Ogre Lord’s body and warped his armour, then sent him flying a dozen metres backwards into his forces.
For a few seconds, everything was frozen except the silent torrent of rain, then the Ogre Lord gave a wheezing gasp and collapsed with blood pooling around the joints of his armour.
Thor had won his duel.
[Playing Knight is fun. We should do this more often.]