By the time that they had finished clearing the last battlefield, the bags on the side of Thor were overflowing with loot, and he looked more like a pack mule than a combat pet. They had simply killed so many Frost Giants today that they couldn’t resist grabbing anything remotely magical looking, with the plan to identify and sort it later.
The Frost Giant scouts should have been sent into battle with decent gear, and that gear would be very close to what the group needed to fight them. It wouldn’t be the fire Element attack gear they wanted, but if even a few of the armour pieces could be bonded, and assuming there were some Giant Strength type enchantments, they could make massive gains.
Hawk sent them an update on his scouting mission.
[To the south, four kilometres, there is a large cave. That will be perfect for the night.]
That would also put them in front of where the patrol lines had been slaughtered, so it would be unlikely that the next day’s reinforcements would start there in the search for the humans killing off their scouts.
As they were making their way to the cave, Karl began to hear disturbing news on the radio. The Frost Giants were redeploying, and sending a huge number of troops into this valley. It looked like their efforts had gone overboard, and now the enemy thought that there was a major military force here.
Of course, as they were sending a large force to the valley, the Golden Dragon Nation was also sending an entire artillery regiment to the other end of the valley, to ensure that the Frost Giants didn’t advance past the lines.
That put their hiding spot in the middle of no man’s land in what was likely to become an artillery bombardment the next day.
“It looks like we might need to be cold for a few more hours. Keep heading south until Hawk finds you a new hiding spot along the southern end of the valley. The army is redeploying artillery here, and I don’t want to get caught in the middle of a bombardment.” Karl explained once he had a full grasp of the situation.
“You make it sound like you won’t be leading.” Lotus noted.
“For the next hour or so, I won’t be. I will follow Hawk’s guidance back to you, and you’ve got Rae and Thor for extra protection. I’ve got Remi with me to hide my movement. I’m going to put out a distraction to slow the Frost Giants’ advance.” Karl explained.
“Alright, see you soon. None of us can run fast enough to keep up with you anyhow.” Tessa joked.
That was true, and he had [Silent Movement], so he didn’t need to worry about making a commotion.
[What’s the plan? Are we going to ambush them from out of a blizzard and just boom pow smack down a bunch of Giants?] Remi asked as Karl ran toward the point where the Giants should be entering the valley.
[Not exactly. You see how we’ve got all sorts of extra Ascended and Awakened Rank Frost Giant bodies? We’re going to pile them all up at that end of the valley and set a bonfire for the Giants to keep warm by.]
[Oh, we’re doing something nice to apologize. That’s kind of you.] Remi replied proudly, thinking that they were doing a nice thing for the enemy.
[Frost Giants are terrified of fire, and the heat causes them pain. Sorry, Remi.]
For a moment, she was disappointed that they weren’t doing a nice thing, then she decided that it wasn’t worth being sad for monsters that would lose a fight to a bird.
[Well, they get back most of their dead, so they can’t be too mad, right? Even if it’s not their usual ritual?]
[That is true, they’re getting most of the bodies back.]
That was enough assurance to make the naive young snake play along with the plan, and keep her Blizzard active on its lowest setting, creating a snowstorm that would only really damage Common Rank monsters. It did dump a lot of snow, and the winds were high over a large area, so it would hide their movement once they were gone, as Karl was leading them right to the mouth of the pass.
[This is the spot, you start piling up the bodies into a huge hill, and I will cut down some trees to get the fire started.] Karl instructed.
Starting a fire when you were whittling deadfall logs for kindling with a flaming blade was a simple task, and within minutes, Karl had a good, hot fire burning, and Remi was piling bodies all around it as Karl hacked down more trees to place in a second layer around the outside.
The smoke was billowing up into the clouds, thick and black, and it would be impossible to miss the smell, which reminded Karl entirely too much of wet work socks drying by the fire without being cleaned first.
Once the outer logs were burning steadily, Karl headed south at a run, hoping to catch up to the group before they made it too far. Remi’s Blizzard was reactivated as soon as they were out of range of the bonfire, hiding their tracks, but even the howling winds couldn’t hide the rage of the Frost Giants when they realized that the fire they had come to destroy wasn’t a human army camp but a massive funeral pyre.
The army wasn’t sure what to make of the situation, so Karl sent a brief message, letting them know that it was a diversion.
[Regional Command, I can confirm that the fire is set by our side. Repeat, the fire is a distraction to slow the Frost Giant advance.] Karl informed them.
[Understood. Report all sightings for ongoing bombardment as the line is extended.]
That was terrible news. He had deliberately picked a deployment spot well away from the main battle line, but they had already expanded to meet him only a few days into his mission.
Worse, there was no real reason for it, other than a single day worth of increased activity. There was something going on behind the scenes that he wasn’t aware of, and it wasn’t making logical sense based on what he had seen of enemy deployment strategies during their flight in.
If they were going to bombard the area, he couldn’t scout it. But the mountain ranges further from the line were too inhospitable for either humans or Frost Giants to traverse in large numbers.
The best bet was for Karl to take his team behind the enemy lines, where he would still be within his appointed zone, and they could attack Frost Giant supply caravans.
Hawk would like that. They farmed monstrous boars and giant goats.
[Hawk, where are you leading the team?] Karl asked as they began to turn toward the human military unit.
[There are soldiers everywhere. Unless we’re going to take a cave near their camp without talking to them? Tessa thinks we should say hello before we move on.] Hawk replied.
[Alright, I will catch up to you before you reach them.]
Karl had Remi stop the blizzard when they got close enough to see Hawk above the trees, and then caught up to the group just before they reached the outer patrols of the incoming military camp.
Once the beasts, except for Thor, who still had a pair of massive packs full of magical items, were all safely back in their spaces, he led them out into the open, where soldiers were surrounding the camp, all carrying swords glowing with the holy light of a Cleric’s blessing. So, not Elites, but regular infantry, relying on Holy Magic to be able to injure anything that came their way.
That could make it difficult to get back out of the camp, as they weren’t going to want to lose the protection of a Commander Ranked Elite and his team, especially just for Karl and the others to go scouting in another region.
“Identification.” The patrol guard requested, with a hint of reverent respect in his tone.
“Commander Karl, 95988. Deployed to the region with my team to control scout movements away from the main lines.” Karl replied.
“And how did that go?” The patrol leader asked.
“We’re up by about seventy Frost Giants for the day.” Lotus cut in with a smile on her face.
The man froze as if she had slapped him.
“Did you say there were seventy Frost Giants in the zone today alone? I will need you to report to the battalion Commander asap. I don’t think that they are aware of the threat level.”
