Bob looked at the map and pointed well inland of any of the major routes.
“What if we don’t ambush any of them, but instead, we zigzag across the pattern, as if we were a wandering monster pack being chased from place to place. It would confuse them with its disorganized nature, and it would let us search their territory to see if there are any signs of where they might be making the new clones.
I suspect that it is actually in the city, where we won’t be able to easily get to the next summoning spell, but if it is still out in the wild, then there is a chance that we can break their reinforcements a little more, and not just by killing them in vast quantities.
If one spell can make a group every half hour, we would have to kill them every fifteen minutes during daylight hours just to keep up. That isn’t feasible in the long term, so it would be better if we could find a way to either distract or delay them, assuming that there isn’t a good way to stop the cloning.”
Karl nodded. “That works for me. The main lines will thank us for every Frost Giant that we kill, and if we happen to find something that can stop them from continuing to make more attackers, it will be even better.
I know that we reported it, but who knows if High Command took it seriously enough that they are going to actually do something about it and not just throw more bodies on the line to face an unending tide of Frost Giants.
Eventually, even we will get tired and worn down by the fight, so anything that has a chance to change the balance is worth trying.”
They led the group out again, hunting groups of Frost Giants, who were no more on guard than the first day back had been. That made no sense, as they hadn’t cleaned up the bodies. They had to have passed at least a few dead groups of Giants on the way, but they hadn’t taken any additional precautions, and they were barely paying attention to their surroundings.
But their inattentiveness began to make sense when the group reached the second path. They Giants there were almost running through the tundra toward their spots on the main lines. So, it wasn’t that the first group was inattentive, they were all rushing, and the Frost Giants were just doing the best they could while following orders to make it to the front as soon as possible.
“Well, we should kill a few groups this way. We will still be fighting when the next group shows up at this rate, so we are going to eventually have to rush a fight so we can break free and make it to the next path.” Bob realized as they prepared to fight again.
Doug shrugged, unconcerned. “We will do what we can. If it turns into a huge fight here, then it is what it is.”
Ty and Harry gave him a look that said he should be concerned, as it would lead to an all-day fight until they were exhausted and made a mistake. But the Nature Priest had a level of confidence that they could only aspire to.
Today, Thor was pulled back to the second line, defending the casters, but by the time that the fourth group made it to their battle, that proved to be a valuable bit of foresight.
The Frost Giants pushed past the warriors, taking light wounds to shoulder them aside. If it hadn’t been for Thor, they might have made it into the much less durable magic users, and that would have been a disaster.
With Thor’s Lightning Barrier on them, they weren’t just squishy and easily killed, but they didn’t have Giant Strength, so they could end up being grabbed and hurled through the air, while they were unable to fight back.
But with Thor blocking, the Giants ended up boxed in, and were quickly dispatched by the arrows fired by Karl and Ty.
“This is a mess. Rae, finish those quickly, and we will withdraw to the first line, but further toward the city. That way, we can make a fighting retreat at the end of the day. We’re not going to make it any further with so many Giants on the path today.” Karl announced.
Hawk broke away from the fight to scout them a route to the next fight, assuming that they could get away from this one, but came back with bad news.
[There is no more first line today. They’re all on this path. The Elementals have chased them away from the Ash Wastes.] He explained.
“Hawk says we have two routes worth of Frost Giants to fight. They abandoned the line closest to the dragon’s territory.” Karl informed the others.
Bob nodded. “Finish these as quickly as we can. If we can charge into the next group, we can take them by surprise. Advancing into them, so they don’t see the other bodies, should give us a little bit of an advantage, and we can use all we can get.
When the day starts to wear us down, we will retreat toward the ash and see if they follow.”
Karl burned extra mana to add [Flaming Body] to all the arrows, in addition to [Chain Lightning]. The extra damage took the Giants out fast enough that they still hadn’t heard or seen any sign of the next group when the fight ended.
So, they charged forward, away from the growing pile of corpses and into fresh snow, where they could ambush the Frost Giants from inside of Remi’s [Blizzard].
The change of pace was just what they needed, and the group picked up a new rhythm, hitting the Frost Giants hard, and then taking a short breather before charging into another group. They didn’t move far between fights, just enough that the next group didn’t realize that the blinding snow wasn’t a natural phenomenon, as the day was windy, and blowing snow was a constant phenomenon in their lands.
They managed to keep the pace until the middle of the afternoon, when Hawk informed them that the flow of Giants was slowing, and that would give them a chance to retreat and hide before they got too hungry.
There wasn’t enough of a break for them to sit down and eat a proper meal, so they had been snacking between fights. That was enough to keep going for a while, but it wasn’t good for a whole day’s worth of combat.
They weren’t uncaring bureaucrats who saw fighters as data on a sheet, just numbers to be added and subtracted, so they would let the rest of the Frost Giants go, and take care of themselves first.
They were about to retreat when Lotus pulled an interesting item from the body of one of the Commander Rank team leaders.
“Check this out. I think that it’s a drawing of the statue of the Allmother that Remi is holding on to. They’re still looking for it, so there has to be something special about that particular statue.” She announced as Rae flipped the tiny cleric onto her back for the run.
“Did we find anything similar on the others?” Karl asked as they jogged off toward a stand of trees closer to the ash covered lands near the volcano.
“No, The tube that it was in caught my eye because they never have scrolls or anything with them, and I’m not sure that they even have a written language to read. But it’s just the drawing, so I don’t know what they are planning to do when they find it. For all I know, it might be a drawing to get someone to make another statue.” Lotus realized.
Karl shrugged and slowed his pace once they were out of sight behind the trees and headed into the ashes.
“Anything is possible, but my guess is that they can’t recreate whatever magic is on the old one, so they want it back, and they’ve got the reinforcements looking for it. We just happened to find someone who didn’t dispose of the instructions before leaving town.” He offered.
Bob frowned as he replied, an expression that made him look much older than he actually was. “We will know more tomorrow. If there are more scrolls, then it’s a new thing. If there aren’t, then it was a one-off, and likely not so important.
But I get the feeling that the Giants are getting desperate. They are running to the lines, which could only mean that they are urgently needed. None of us heard anything on the radio, but that’s no surprise, we can barely hear the messages from the closest front, and during the day, we can’t even hear that.”
[Despair is good. Let them suffer.] Rae cheered.
