True to his word, Hawk eliminated the training group in a matter of seconds, and he was already on his way back to take vengeance on the Yetis.
Karl led the group close enough that he could get a general sense of how powerful the targets were, and found that they might have underestimated the power of the targets. What he had thought were High Ascended Rank Yeti were all Commanders, making this a ten Commander attack force.
Now that he had added the [Haste] Skill, they would be dealing much more damage for every minute of the fight, but they were still at a disadvantage in both numbers and Rank. [Terrorize] added forty percent damage, and [Haste] gave them forty percent more speed, but that still might not be enough to deal with ten Commanders at once.
The problem was that as soon as he attacked, those Yetis were going to start casting spells, which would exhaust Thor as he tried to keep everyone’s barriers up. Once the barriers were down, everyone was in trouble, so Thor would have to be pulled back from the front lines to focus on the defence of the Golems.
What they needed to do was eliminate the targets as fast as possible, before they could do too much damage. It was that, or find a way to ambush the target with Golems and let them fight to destruction, then send more, preferably without being noticed. If they could take down a few targets, it would even the odds enough that Karl would be more comfortable fighting.
“Alright, I have a plan. Everyone stay back for now, and I will call when it’s time to join. Rae, hide in the trees out of sight and summon your Golems into the group. Let them fight it out, but don’t let yourself be noticed until I give the signal.
Once the Golems are fighting, I will start firing arrows from the other side, using [Chain Lightning] to slow them down.
The goal is to eliminate two or three of them right away, then charge in. Ten Commanders is too much, but if we can take that down to six in an ambush, it will be manageable.” Karl explained.
Tessa pointed up. “You might want to be quick because Hawk isn’t going to wait once he gets back.”
“That’s fine. If they think that this is a monster attack, they won’t be ready for the mages when you approach. Thor, try not to get yourself too engulfed in the fight, the Golems are going to need your Lightning to hold up against the Yeti Ice Magic.” Karl added.
Thor nodded and stomped the ground in annoyance, but he understood the order.
“Alright, I’m off. Rae, I will attack as soon as the Golems appear.”
Karl rushed to get in position, so their ambush could be sprung before Hawk made it back, while Rae vanished into the woods after grabbing Dana instead of Lotus.
He activated [Terrorize] in advance, as it would spread to the Golems naturally, and then settled in behind a large bush, where his arrows would be fired without exposing his location.
The first grunt of warning marked the appearance of the Golems, and the entire patrol turned their backs on Karl, who began firing as fast as super humanly possible.
Three arrows were in the air at the same time, whistling toward their targets, and all charged with [Chain Lightning], while the Spider Golems leapt into combat with Stone Golems on their backs.
Commander Rank strength was enough that the burden hardly slowed them down, and the move put all four Golems in close combat just as Karl’s first wave of arrows hit.
Lightning Arced through the Yeti Clan, but missed the Frost Giant, who had been just a bit too far forward of the main group.
But it had better danger sense than the others, and when they had turned right, it had turned left, allowing it to see Karl’s arrows flying, and guess where he was hiding.
The next three gave away his position for certain, but wounded three more Yetis while keeping the others slowed.
That was good enough, and Karl whistled, calling Thor like he would an overgrown pup.
The Cerro began charging across the field, needing time to cover the hundreds of metres, but overhead, Hawk was faster.
A barrage of fireballs rained down on the Yeti Clan, ignoring the Frost Giant that was headed for Karl.
One on one, he was confident that he could win that fight, so destroying the frost armour and eliminating the Ice Bolts of the Yetis were more important priorities.
Remi brought up a [Blizzard] killing visibility, so the enemy wouldn’t know that Thor was coming, and to confuse them as to why they were taking damage. Using the enemy’s own tricks against them seemed like the best tactic to the Spirit Snake, even if it did annoy Hawk, who thought that the ten metres off the ground that it extended was much too close to where he was flying.
[Couldn’t you teach her to cast Firestorm instead of Blizzard?] Hawk complained.
[Sure, as soon as we see it, I will have her work on learning it. Just be glad that Lotus isn’t using her staff of Water Vortex.]
Karl spoke too soon. Three large water funnels, filled with ice shards from attacks and the blizzard, had appeared on the battlefield, making Hawk shriek in rage.
She was doing it just to mess with him, Hawk was absolutely certain. It was only ten Commanders, they could handle that without all this excess water magic.
[And teach the Lotus Priestess how to use Lightning.] Hawk added.
She was a cleric, not a shaman. The chances that she would be able to learn an elemental attack spell on her own were pretty slim. Maybe she could learn the Nature Golems. Those seemed like the sort of thing that a Green Dragon Priestess might be able to learn.
But once the water vortex spell was active, Lotus had begun to focus on creating binding vines to slow the Yetis, while Tessa cast attack buffs and healed the Golems of the damage they took between Thor’s activations of the Refreshing Lightning barrier.
As the Frost Giant approached, Karl switched from arrows to his new Maul, and charged five layers of [Flame Body] on it, ready to swat the enemy leader into oblivion.
The Giant paused when he sensed the power of the weapon, and the Commander Rank Elite in the trees, but only long enough to switch weapons from the large club he was carrying to two smaller swords.
That would be a problem for Karl, as he still needed to actually land a hit on the beast, but Remi was ready with the assist.
Her Chain Lightning caught the Giant unaware, as it was only watching Karl for signs of a skill activation. That slowed it for a split second as the Maul streaked toward its target.
The giant crossed its blades, stopping the upward swing of the maul towards its tender bits, but Karl simply shoved forward with the strike.
It wasn’t enough to cause any sort of damage with the weapon itself, but the skills activated on contact.
The Giant saw the opening and its blades flashed, striking the barriers over both of Karl’s arms as the maul made contact with the Frost Giant’s lower stomach.
Both combatants were knocked to the ground, and Karl was bleeding heavily from his left arm, where the second blow had landed after the barrier was weakened.
He brought [Refreshing Lightning] back up as Remi used [Healing Splash] to close his wound, and the Giant got to its feet, swatting out the smouldering wound in its chest with a handful of snow.
Now they were both more wary as they circled each other, buying time for reinforcements to reach their position.
The battle was getting brutal behind them, as the Yeti Clan realized just how flammable they could be against the targeted vengeance of Hawk’s flames.
Karl sidestepped a strike and smashed the maul into the Frost Giant’s right hand, sending [Chain Lightning] coursing through its body, which caused it to drop one blade.
The other was quickly discarded, and the Giant went in for the crushing blows, intending to grab Karl and simply rip him into pieces.
But [Flaming Body] came to the rescue, coating Karl in fire as the Giant grabbed his chest. It instinctively flinched, and the Maul smashed into its face, charged with fire.
Bones splintered, and the giant dropped dead, before vanishing into Remi’s swamp.
There was a small pile of items left where its body was, unable to be transferred, but Karl was more interested in the actual fight.
