Tessa cleared her throat. “The real question is what sucker are we going to take to their death with us?”
Lotus giggled. “As much as I appreciate your optimism, I don’t think that any of the mages would actually agree to go with us. Even the tank type warriors wouldn’t fall for that, and we can only pick from the Ascended Ranks, so we can’t recruit an experienced Commander from the Mercenary groups.
That rules out calling for any powerful old friends or connections.”
Karl had considered that for a moment as well, but Bob Mackenzie would be too powerful to be pulled into their team, and if Karl’s guess was right, the entire family would be out somewhere already.
“Then who can we even get?” Dana asked.
Karl smiled. He knew just who to ask.
“I think I know who we can get. Thor learned Earthquake from the Berserker Class. I bet that we can get one of their Ascended Rank members to come along with the promise of battle and rewards. The Berserkers don’t get out much during class because they’re a bit wild in combat, and teams with no healers can have issues.
But we have all the healing that we could need, and Thor’s [Refreshing Lightning] spread over everyone, so we don’t have to worry too much about them taking damage, unless we find an overstrength enemy.”
Lotus looked pensive. “How are your credits looking? You’ve got a beast of a weapon, and you can coat it in attack spells all the time. But not everyone can do that. We might need to equip a new member before we head out.”
“I don’t know exactly now that we’re back from this mission and those rewards will be processing, but buying armour didn’t change the first two digits on the balance, so we should be good for me to get someone Ascended Armour and a weapon if they don’t have a good one.” Karl agreed.
Tessa frowned. “Alright, we will go talk to the Berserkers. Does that mean we’re going to agree to this idiocy?”
“I have an idea. There is a spot in the mountains, not too close to where we were earlier, but not in the most populated passes. I don’t want to go into an abandoned area, that just seems like idiocy, but if we go somewhere near the edge of a secondary pass, we can aim for their scouting teams.
They should be smaller and weaker, as they will need to be agile and able to make it through the mountains. Giants shouldn’t be good at that when they’re excessively large. There are obvious clusters to their strength on the map, and as long as we avoid that, we can do a lot of damage and help everyone upgrade their gear and skills before anyone tries to change our mission.” Karl offered.
Lotus raised her hand. “It’s all well and good to say we’re bringing a Berserker, but I’m not travelling with some creepy guy who thinks that sweat is a form of shower.”
Dana smirked, knowing that described a lot of the Berserkers, and Tessa nodded her agreement with Lotus’ sentiment.
“Then I will leave it to you ladies to find our fifth member, while I deal with the details of the deployment. If you need to bribe them, let them know I will find them armour and a new weapon.” Karl agreed.
Before going back down, he spent a moment mentally preparing himself for the influx of questions and pressures to go to the very worst of the combat zones to add bodies to the main lines.
The group had gotten even larger when he got back down, and there were two groups of senior class students added to the chaos, all Ascended Rank with a Commander from the Bureau of Elite Development leading them. Namely, Jodi and Josh, two of the team members who had gone with Karl to go looking for his second pet.
“Jodi, Josh. Good to see you two gentlemen again.” Karl greeted them as he entered the room.
Jodi smiled back. “You’ve gotten all fancy on us. Tell me, how is that bloodbath spider doing?”
“Rae? She’s doing wonderful. Commander Rank already, and she made good friends with a nature priestess so they can play in the woods together. Thor, the Lightning Cerro is also doing well, and Hawk is making the best of the evolutionary resources we have found.” Karl informed them.
“Where are they sending you?” Josh asked, concern obvious in the blue eyes that looked much too old for his youthful face.
“We were just about to discuss that. I have a particular spot in mind, where my group composition would be well suited to hunting scouts from the Frost Giants, and to prevent the movement of surprise forces around the main battlefields.” Karl explained.
“And what makes you think you have a choice in your deployment?” An older bureaucrat, decades past his prime, demanded.
“Who are you to think that you get to tell me what to do? Will you be joining us on the front? I don’t think so. Now shut up and let the warriors speak.” Karl replied.
The room fell silent as the man’s face turned red in rage. Even Alice backed away from Karl, seeing that this was going to do downhill fast.
“I am the undersecretary to the deputy minister of defence!” The man shouted.
“Then, dear undersecretary, get your boss’s boss here, and we can speak on even terms.” Karl replied, emphasizing the man’s junior role.
“That was a bit harsh.” Jodi noted as the undersecretary was hauled away by other government officials before he could start a fight he couldn’t possibly win.
Karl shrugged. “He knows nothing of our capabilities, nothing of our personal experience, and he has never seen combat in his life. He shouldn’t have been here in the first place, puffing up his chest and making demands above his station like a newly promoted shift manager.”
“And if I made a demand as to where you would deploy?” One of the Elites from the government, a Commander in his late twenties who would have been one of the earlier graduates, asked.
“Then we can discuss the reasoning behind it. I am not part of the military to be ordered around, and we all know that ordering students to the front lines would require an official decree, as we’re still underage.
I came down to tell you that my group has gone to look for our fifth member, not to pick a fight. Now, would you like to hear what I had in mind?” Karl replied.
There was a new map on the table, and it had ten large red rings placed on it. One of which was over where Karl was planning to have his team deploy.
“These are the spots where we need teams. What were you planning to request?” The Elite asked.
“This spot here. It’s close to the mountains, and challenging to scout by normal Elites on foot, but not too far from reinforcements if we do find something we can’t handle. That is the spot that I was going to request, based on the troop deployment map.”
The Government Elite smiled. “So you did have an actual plan in mind, and you weren’t just pulling the Elite card on the Undersecretary. Alright, we can grant you that deployment area.”
A quiet voice cut through the conversation, and a sense of power filled the room as someone entered unannounced.
“Dealing with rogue and unaligned Elites is always a tricky matter. It looks like some of you underestimated the situation at hand, but I commend the others.” The man spoke.
“Overlord.” Alice greeted the man, while the other Elite bowed.
“Minister of Defence.” The man who had shown Karl the map greeted their new arrival.
Like Drake, he must have been one of the early test subjects for the Divine Injection, as he was at the Overlord Rank and well into his thirties, meaning he was much older than usual for recruits when the injections were made public.
At first, they had given them to anyone under eighteen, but that was still only ten years earlier, so very few of the Elites were over thirty.
The Minister held out his hand to Karl. “Congratulations on making Commander while still in the Academy. I don’t believe that we have met. I am Defence Minister Orleans.”
“Karl, first year student, originally from the Lithium Mines, and the Academy’s newest headache at the Commander Rank.”
That made the Minister smile. “I got a missive from Prince Corbin, asking that you be assigned to his battlefront, so I had the Mage Council send me over to see what was so special about you. That man lives to be a pain in my ass, but his Clan has the skills to back up their arrogance.”
