Once they were resupplied and everything was packed carefully into its assigned spot in their packs, the group headed back for the edge of camp where they had left the wagons. The soldiers seemed startled to see them heading back out only a few hours after they had arrived, but the ones who had been around longer understood that the group was likely just running away from something annoying.
The plan was to hook Dana’s two Stone Golems up to the lead wagon to pull the group along, while they left the others behind. That would make the trip back much easier on everyone, and faster, as the Giant’s comfortable jog was a running pace for the mages and clerics.
Plus, with only one wagon, and a path to follow, they would be able to avoid the worst of the delays that had slowed them during the trip out, and the Golems might even be able to get enough traction on the muddy hills to make it up without assistance this time, when Thor’s larger feet had struggled.
It only took a few minutes to get them hooked up, and they were on their way back into the ash, with the intentions of stopping overnight at the Dwarven Village to get a good night’s rest and finish refining the plan to attack the cavern.
Obviously, the army thought that you could just march in there and wipe them out with enough firepower, but that was the last resort. Pretty much any other plan than charging into the cave was likely to be a better one.
They waited until the town was out of sight over the hills before anyone said anything, but they weren’t in a big hurry to start making plans when they hadn’t even seen the area around the target.
Finally, Doug broke the silence.
“Your group has been randomly selected from those in the region.” He mocked the pudgy General. “As if we weren’t the only ones in the area at all.”
The others chuckled, and the Nature Priest took out another smoke for Karl to light. It was the most that anyone had seen him smoke at work, and it was a sure sign that he was feeling the stress, but didn’t want to outright say anything about it.
Lotus smirked as she joined the rant. “Well, we will have all the bragging rights when we get back home. Imagine how jealous all those white robed battle clerics and guards are going to be when they find out that it was a pair of the Green Dragon’s Clerics who got the first Royal Rank team kill of the war.
In fact, I’m not even certain that the main lines have managed to get one yet, so it might be the first at all.”
Doug laughed. “Wouldn’t that be something? If we find out that we’ve got the first one of the war, I say we go get another, just for funsies.”
Karl knew that it probably wouldn’t be that easy, but if they could get not only the first one, but the first two of the war on this front, then they would certainly live up to any level of hype when they got home.
But more imminently, Karl noticed that everyone in the group was becoming much more powerful than they had been when they started the battles. Officially, practice did help the growth rate, but it was supposed to have more to do with the individual how rapidly they advanced unless they were using some sort of magical aid.
That didn’t seem to be the case with their group. If Karl had to hazard a guess, another month of this, and there wouldn’t only be three Commanders in the group. The Golems were already noticeably more impressive than they had been at the start of the war, but Karl didn’t have a standard to judge them against, so he couldn’t really tell how far through Ascended Rank they were.
He would judge them against the Spider Golems as a Commander Rank standard, but Rae had advanced them to Royal Rank, and they were multiple times more powerful than they had been, so that still didn’t actually help.
He couldn’t even go by the ease with which they killed the Frost Giants, as they had so much practice now that everyone knew where their vulnerable areas were, and they could target them with minimal thought.
But while he was thinking of power levels, Karl had a good idea. Since they were going to be keeping the Golems active most of the time after they left the safety of the Village, they should give them some of the Frost Giant weapons that were enchanted to cut like proper Commander Rank weapons.
That would give them an extra bump in combat power, as opposed to the single blade that came with the [Durable Constructs] buff. They would have to carry Giant sized spare weapons with them to give to the Golems, and give them back every time the Golems were summoned, but it would increase the speed that they could clear the weaker groups, where the Golems rarely sustained serious damage.
They had their loot wagon now, so they might as well make good use of it.
Everyone rested as the Golems trudged steadily through the mud near the ash wastes, doing their best to avoid slipping on the muddy slopes.
But it seemed that the logic behind using Golems instead of Thor was right. Thor’s feet kept him from sinking as deeply in the mud, but they also reduced his traction.
The Golems were pulling them smoothly along the path that the wagon train had followed to get to the lines last night, and with the sun up, they were able to avoid some of the worst areas, where they could now see that the mud was worse than it was a few dozen metres away.
That let them make it into the ash in good time, where their speed improved, and by the time that it got dark, they were almost back to the Dwarven Village.
The last few kilometres were a bit more difficult, as they were getting far enough from the volcano that the trees had survived, but they managed to get the wagon to within a hundred metres of the entrance to the tunnel.
They left the Golems to guard the wagon, and everyone made their way back into the Dwarven Village.
“We’re not leaving at first light or anything crazy, are we? Because as nice as it is to not walk, that wagon is not soft.” Tori asked.
Karl and Bob looked at each other and shrugged.
“I don’t see any reason to rush that much. We should head out before noon, but it’s less than a day’s travel, and we don’t want to get too close at the end of the day.” Karl suggested
Bob nodded. “Alright, then we will double-check all our gear in the morning after breakfast, then head out. It will get us in place early enough to check their scouting situation, and then we can make a proper plan based on what is actually there.”
“What are you thinking? Pick off the scouts and see if we can lure out what’s actually in there instead of going into the cave ourselves?” Tessa asked.
Bob nodded. “That seems like the better option. There are ten of us, and fighting in a cave sucks. You never want to fight in a cave if there is another option. Out in the open, we can make proper use of tactics. In the cave, we are limited by the space we have to work with, and even if it’s big enough for a Giant to pass, it’s unlikely to leave us room to flank them, or even make a proper defensive formation.”
Karl frowned. “Monsters generally get smarter as they grow in Ranks, so the Royal Rank Frost Giants might not fall for simple tricks like luring them out a few at a time by killing patrol members.”
Bob ran a hand through his hair and sighed. “That is certainly a possibility. They might send out everything that they have the moment that we’re detected, and that will be a nasty fight.
So, before we get anything started, we will have to make some preparations. Depending on the terrain, we might be able to have the two Greenies make a vine field to slow their approach.”
He gestured to the two green robed clerics, who smiled at the chance to show that they could do offensive magic as well.
“But we won’t know until we get there.”
