Hawk led them away for a few minutes, then directed them to turn left to hit another of the weaker patrols. The stronger groups had gone toward the shout, while the weaker one had carried on their mission.
Hit-and-run was the name of the game that day, and Karl was intending to do as much damage, and make as many groups go missing as possible.
The second Awakened Group went down even more smoothly than the first had, as Karl got used to his bow, and the others got used to working together without Prince Corbin or Alice around.
Being without the Spellblades and their rapid movements and magic changed the way the group had gotten used to fighting, as did having Karl in the distance instead of right up close.
Interestingly, while Ophelia couldn’t store the blade the way that Karl did, it had no resistance to her using it in combat, and it happily transferred Karl the energy from the monsters that died near it.
That was far better than he had expected, and with Karl’s newfound ability to stun or slow the Frost Giants, the use of a single large weapon wasn’t a hindrance to the survivability of the Berserker.
Remi had refused to come out and see things with her own eyes. She was a monster, but a cold-blooded one, and she would have to burn mana to keep from freezing. She could extend her powers out just enough to cast [Blizzard] when needed, and that was enough for her as she hid in the tropical heat of her swamp.
Thinking about that made Karl realize that the others were getting cold, so he instructed Hawk to find them somewhere to hide and reheat.
[Go north. There is a small cave in the mountains there. It looks dry and unoccupied.] Hawk instructed.
“Follow me. There is a cave ahead, and we will rest for a while and warm up before we head out again. This cold is unnatural, and I don’t want anyone getting frostbite.” Karl instructed.
Hawk settled into a tree outside as they hid in the cave behind one of Dana’s barriers. It didn’t have the illusion factor that Prince Corbin’s did, but there had been vines partially obscuring the cave entrance, and the barrier would keep any nearby monsters from smelling them inside.
Karl turned up the heat from the sword to warm the small cave, and took out his map to note the battles that they had been in. The instructions were to make reports no more than once a day, and only right before you moved on from a location, in case the Frost Giants had found a way to track communications.
They weren’t known to have any such technology, or really any technology at all, but if they had gotten their hands on one of the military radio phones, they might be able to decrypt all the nearby messages or even track the source of the signal.
That could be disastrous for the teams who were operating in the field, so the standard procedure was to send the message then move on, leaving the area where they might be able to track the team to.
Of course, this didn’t matter to the main lines, as they weren’t hiding from anyone, but for Karl’s team, anonymity was their friend. Even just being able to collect the bodies of the fallen Frost Giants and have Remi coat the area with new snow would make it incredibly difficult for the enemy to track their movements.
They would know that their teams were missing when they didn’t sound the horns at the next random interval, but they wouldn’t easily stumble across them either.
[Hawk, what else do we have in the area?] Karl asked once the group was beginning to get warm again.
[Nothing close. You’ve only got an hour and a half until it is dark, and the closest group is over six kilometres from you now.]
[Alright, you can come into your space to rest, or stay in the tree, whichever you prefer. We will stay here the night, and then go hunting again in the morning.] Karl agreed.
“Short day everyone. There is nothing close enough to hunt before dark, so Hawk recommends that we stay here. We will head out in the morning and get back to work.” Karl explained.
They had two communication devices on this trip. The emergency phone, and the standard open channel radio. The first was safely stored in his pack, but the second was tucked into Karl’s armour, with the earbud in one of his ears.
That way it wasn’t loud enough for anyone else, or any nearby enemies, to hear, but he could keep up to date on what was going on around them.
The battle lines were active, but there were no major changes that day, just a few skirmishes.
What he was waiting for was a report of an enemy troop draw down, or a redeployment, which would likely mean more enemies coming through their patrol area. As long as the Frost Giants were busy on the main battle lines, he would only have to deal with scouts here.
But there was a second part to their mission, and it was to try to determine how they were spreading the frozen area out of their nation and into the Golden Dragon Nation. The hope was that it was some sort of device that could be destroyed, forcing the weather back to normal and putting the Frost Giants at a disadvantage.
There wasn’t any sign of that within the patrols, and they were deployed well within the frozen area, so if it was something that happened near the edge of the advance, it would be beyond their reach.
But what they could do was keep hitting the Frost Giant scouts until they started to send more troops into this area, weakening their front lines and giving Karl and the others the chance to earn a massive amount of rewards once they were back home.
Dreaming of being able to advance beyond Commander in one deployment was insane, but that didn’t mean that they couldn’t gain anything. For one, there was the credit for the kills that they could trade for resources, and the other was the Skill Master upgrade that Karl had chosen during the Dungeon hunt.
[Skill Master Rank 2] Usable only by those with the Skill Master Ability. Allows learned skills to improve to one rank above the bonded partner’s current Rank with practice.
That was his goal on this mission. The beasts were going to be using their skills nearly constantly, and finding new ways to expand their combat skills. That meant abundant practice opportunities, and the chance that one of the Commander Rank skills might actually improve in power by a Rank.
If Rae’s Golems improved, they would have something akin to low Royal Rank combat power, without having to wait for Rae herself to improve.
Then, when she did improve, the skill should improve along with her, and she would become even more deadly.
Or perhaps it would be Thor’s [Refreshing Lightning] or Hawk’s [Flame Body] that advanced first, as both were in constant use. The condition of practice wasn’t all that clear, so it could mean just keeping it active, not actively trying to improve it.
Though Thor had proven that he was improving it, when he learned to expand his skill to everyone, and step into his desired role as the team’s healer.
Tessa laid the sword flat on the floor of the cave and gestured for Karl to turn up the heat. It was already reasonably warm inside, but she didn’t want to waste their precious fuel canisters, and there was no wood in here to create a cooking fire from.
“Alright, I’m not going to do anything that will mess up the dinner schedule. We’ve got a long night before we have to move again, but while you cook, we should come up with a better plan for dealing with these groups.
I am thinking that we have Hawk scout a larger area tomorrow during the early morning hours, and then he can inform us of their general movement patterns, and where they are likely to be so that we’re not wasting time looking for them.
We will be able to go out, hunt, and then return somewhere warm to rest before we go out again.” Karl suggested.
Lotus nodded. “That’s not a bad idea. We could also have Rae set up a spot in advance if we knew that we were going to be circling back to it later. It would allow us to go straight inside without waiting around.
I’m not sure the forts will be the best option, though. The cold is getting insane out there, and spending the overnight in a cloth fort, even with the blade for heat, might not be the most comfortable thing ever.
If we can keep returning to caves that we can properly heat, that might be best. But like a heated tent, it is possible to keep the forts warm.”
Rae thought about that for a while. [If I double the layers used to make the fort, we can keep the wind out, and the floor will stay warm under everyone’s bodies. That will keep the wind down, and the blade will keep the inside warm.]
“Rae says she can make a fort that will be warm enough. Once Hawk scouts in the morning, we will start making plans for where we will rest tomorrow. I think that switching between caves and Forts hidden high in the trees would be a smart move, so the Frost Giants don’t have as easy of a time guessing where we might be hiding.
A few more days of eliminating their patrols, and they are going to start trying to do something about it.”
