Once the buses were loaded, they picked one and loaded themselves in the front, among the limited space that wasn’t taken up with stacked supplies.
The bus seats didn’t fold, but they had done the best that they could to load them with supplies, and the bus was packed from the third row back. That didn’t leave much space for the five member team and their gear, but fortunately none of them was huge and burly. At least not to the point that they didn’t fit in one of the narrow bus seats.
Karl took the seat closest to the door, while Hawk took a seat on the roof rack, which was also loaded with boxes of supplies for their journey. There were no off-road or particularly bad stretches between them and the base camp, so they had loaded as much as humanly possible into the vehicles for the trip.
That hid Hawk from sight from behind, and while it limited his view a little, he could see enough that he wasn’t afraid of missing any threats to the convoy. The only real danger that they would face would be road conditions, as by the time that Hawk relayed them, it would probably be too late to do anything about them.
The morning was passing smoothly, with the miles flowing by outside the bus without incident, until Hawk spotted the same situation as on the way back to the Seminary Academy. There was a small group of monsters who had escaped from the containment area, and they were headed toward the road.
[They might make it to the road before the bus group gets there.] Hawk warned Karl.
“Incoming monsters ahead. They’ve left the containment area, and they’re headed for the road ahead of us.” Karl warned the driver.
The driver relayed the message, and the convoy began to slow as the lead driver spotted the same monsters that Hawk had seen thirty seconds earlier. They were right on the road now, according to Hawk, but they were no real threat, as they were all Awakened Rank.
[Take care of them quickly, and then someone will drag them out of the road so we can keep going.] Karl instructed.
That was a pleasure for Hawk. He flew up off his perch and forward to the front of the convoy to get in range, then hit them with a barrage of fireballs. The flames seemed to melt into their bodies, remaining coherent like chunks of magma, and the Ogres dropped dead, falling all along the road and in the ditches.
[Your fireballs are becoming quite impressive.] Karl congratulated him.
[Fire is wonderful. I should have had fire from the start.] Hawk agreed.
That was a new attitude from Hawk. Karl was actually surprised that he didn’t use Rend, but with Fireball being as good as it was now, clearly an Ascended Rank advanced attack ability, it made sense for him to switch.
“That Hawk has some serious attack power.” The driver commented as he listened to the lead guard group going out to clean up the dead Ogres and scavenge any loot that they could get.
Hawk didn’t sense anything worth keeping, but they might have some money on them, which the church would use to pay for the supplies and bus fuel.
They had the road cleared in under a minute, and the convoy was back in motion, with Hawk now sitting on the top of the lead bus, so he could get that extra few hundred metres worth of warning if there was anything headed toward the road.
Burning holes in Ogres was surprisingly satisfying, and with Karl meditating all the time lately, his space was starting to gain enough power that he could feel a bit of leeway to keep growing his skills.
Keeping up with the demands of the three growing beasts was more than Karl could easily manage, but now that Hawk had found some advancement room, he was making the best of it to improve his fire abilities.
Karl could tell that Rae was working on something as well, but he couldn’t tell quite what it was that she was trying to comprehend. He still had [Skill Master] active to help their learning, but without anyone to watch, their growth would be limited.
She was dedicated to it though, and she seemed to have a good grasp on what she was doing, there was just one last step left that she wasn’t understanding in order to make the spell work. Once they were in combat again, she might grasp it, as long as it was something that the group here was using as well.
With the combat enhancement of a War Goddess Cleric, the pets might even manage to learn some new combat enhancement spells and abilities. Sure, it was Divine Dragon Magic, but there was still a chance. The class marking were Divine Magic from the World Dragon, after all.
There were a few more monsters near the road just before they got to the base camp, and Hawk was getting excited about getting to burn them again, but the team on patrol in the field got to them first, and had the road cleared before they arrived.
It was their job, but Hawk was still disappointed that he didn’t get to show off his new skill.
The convoy rolled into the camp, stopping at the edge of the parking lot so that the work teams had more room to unload, since the interiors, roof racks and belly boxes were all loaded with cargo.
The guards exited the cabs, to give the work teams room to do their jobs, and Alice led the group toward the base camp office.
“I hear you made the Public Safety officer cry last time that you were here, so try to be nice to him this time. We will inform his office that we have arrived, and then we will be sent out with a weaker group as their escort. The military does things through the weight of numbers, not with raw individual power, so don’t expect an all-star team like you had last time.” Alice warned Karl as they walked away from the bus.
“I’ve already got an all-star team with me, I don’t know what you mean. But I understand that we will be tasked to a regular military unit to help with the sorts of things they struggle with.” Karl agreed.
That did somewhat explain why they had two healers. If they were accompanying a larger group, they would need more healing, and if the soldiers were fighting above their level, they would face not only more frequent, but more serious injuries than usual.
The staff member was the same one that had escorted Karl and his team in the last time he was here, but today she was all business, taking Alice’s notes and pulling the assignment for their team from the printed stack of missions.
“You will be assigned to the 4pm group. Their commander will have more details for you.” She informed Alice as they finished the process.
“Understood. Have a good afternoon, and we will see you in a week or two.”
They left the office and headed for the staging area, where the soldiers were gathered. The military insignia on Sergeant Rita’s uniform got them through without any unnecessary questions, and in only a few minutes, Karl found himself looking at the largest armoured vehicle that he had ever seen.
He hadn’t realized how big an artillery platform was until he first saw one up close, but Thor seemed to take the presence of the vehicle as a personal challenge. He was supposed to be the group’s front line, not some metal truck with too many wheels.
[Relax, buddy. It’s probably not coming with us into the wilderness, and it’s certainly not agile enough to be on the front lines of a battle. It stays at the back, far away from the fight, to shoot at it.] Karl assured him.
Thor was still suspicious of the large vehicle, but decided to let the grudge rest, as long as it didn’t try to steal his job.
Alice led them to a Captain, who had a group of soldiers with him ready to leave the base, and shook his hand.
“Good to see you again, Captain. I’ve got a proper group for you today.” Alice informed him.
“Oh, and how is that?” The soldier replied with a smile for the slightly younger mage.
“We’ve got myself and the Sergeant, plus two clerics and a Beast Master, with three Ascended monsters bonded.” She replied.
“And who is the small child?” The Captain asked, with a gesture toward Lotus, who gave him a rude gesture in return.
“That would be the Nature Priestess Lotus. She’s not a child, just very short.”
