The remainder of the group had gathered at a table in the nearly deserted mess hall, where Karl and Dana joined them after loading their trays with random items.
Karl still couldn’t think clearly, and every light source made his head hurt, but not enough that he couldn’t just leave them mostly closed while he ate.
“What’s the prognosis, monster man?” Doug asked as Karl attempted to operate a canned drink one-handed, as his other wasn’t working properly, even if he removed it from the sling.
“They say my head should be better tomorrow, and my arm will work eventually. Good work, by the way, to whoever put that back on. I distinctly remember that it was not attached for a while.” Karl rambled.
Lotus smiled and gave him a thumbs up.
“I did the best that I can. I’m a good healer, but that was a pretty gnarly injury.”
Karl smiled at the little cleric. “Where’s George?”
Doug frowned. “They took him for more intensive treatment. He was somewhat coherent once they drugged him, and we got the ritual done, but he’s in bad shape. I take it you’ve worked with him before?”
“Briefly.” Karl agreed, not wanting to get into it too deeply, as that was when they had picked up Tori, whose current fate was uncertain.
They were eating quietly when a commotion outside drew all their attention. The feeling of a powerful creature or Elite approaching put them all on guard, but the feeling was familiar to Karl, with his heightened senses, and he just returned to his eating.
“Someone you know?” Doug whispered.
“I’m fairly certain that is Prince Axel and Overlord Drake.” Karl agreed.
That surprised the high Priest, as they should have been on the Mountain Giant front, keeping the most powerful of their foes under control.
The two stormed into the mess hall, followed by over a dozen officers, and then paused in visible relief as they saw the group eating.
“Ah, there’s a sight for sore eyes. When we heard that the group sent to subjugate the Frost Giant Royal had been annihilated, we feared the worst.” Prince Axel blurted out with a relieved smile on his face.
“I take it that you got the news about the same time that you got the news that we had been sent out?” Karl asked, while the others looked unsure how to respond.
Karl and Dana were the only ones in the group who had held a proper conversation with either of these two leaders, and Overlord Drake had quite the reputation as a fighter.
“We were meeting with General Orland when the news that a group had been wiped out and their tracking spells were all disabled within five minutes of each other. But the report was incomplete, and we only knew that it was the church who put the trackers on. They didn’t include the team leader’s name.” Drake explained.
Karl winced at the loud noise, but smiled. “We will have to send the Generals a message and let them know that I got that head for my trophy case.”
Axel and Drake both burst into laughter.
“You really did it? Orland told me about your little spat with the Generals, but I didn’t think you would actually manage it. The Frost Giant Royals aren’t just a little bit above Commander Rank, they’re skilled leaders and cunning monsters.” The big warrior asked.
“That’s no joke. They were hiding down under the snow and rocks, laying perfectly still in an ambush ring around the bodies of the first group when we arrived. They had been there for days, and they were deep enough that not even thermal vision could spot them until they moved, and by then it was too late.” Karl explained.
Prince Axel whistled. “Damn, that’s just evil. The Mountain Giants camouflage well with the stone, but at least you can see them on thermal. What else can you tell us about the Royal Frost Giant?”
Everyone turned to look at Karl, as he was the only one with the opportunity to get a good look at it while it was still alive.
“Middle-aged female Frost Giant, a full head taller than a Commander Rank Giant. She was fast, stupidly fast, and even with a Commander Rank agility buff, she was nearly faster than I was. Stronger than a Commander with two Giant Strength items on as well.
She spoke common, and understood combat tactics as well as common battle traps intended to put her off balance.
Still vulnerable to fire, but able to take an immense amount of pain from poison attacks with no noticeable decrease in combat efficiency until fire attacks began to damage her back and shoulder muscles.” Karl explained.
“She spoke human common? What did she say?” Axel asked.
Karl took a second to sort through the fuzzy memories for exactly what she said. He couldn’t get it, but Remi filled him in with the details.
“She said, ‘Look what I have caught. Stupid humans.’ then told me that she would enjoy eating me after I landed the first blow.”
The Prince nodded. That much was expected of the Giants, and not enlightening or shocking, even if it was uncommon for them to bother to learn human language.
“Alright. I just need a basic overview of the battle, who was where?” Axel asked.
Karl gestured to Doug, as he hadn’t actually seen the battle. He was too busy.
“Karl was lured off to fight the Royal Giant, while I was in the wagon with Dana and Tori. Tessa was mounted on Thor at the front of the wagon, with Harry and Bob on either side.
The stone Golems started at the back with Ophelia and then spread to Harry’s side when he was injured. The Spider Golems that Rae makes attacked from behind at first, while she guarded the top of the wagon.
Hawk was on scout duty above, and I think that’s everyone.”
Axel was briefly confused as he counted the number of combatants.
“Hawk, Rae and Thor are beasts belonging to Karl. Commander Rank magical beasts.” Doug explained.
“Ah, I see now. Alright, how many Frost Giants were there?”
Doug counted in his head for a moment. “Thirty Commander Rank Frost Giants, plus their leader.”
Everyone in the tent fell silent at that announcement.
“Not the ten that were reported, but thirty Commander Rank Frost Giants, and a Royal Rank leader? And you returned with one half casualty? They just might give you all a commendation for that.” Prince Axel declared.
Karl hadn’t realized that there were so many, and it was a miracle that anybody had made it through, even with multiple healers. The first group was twice their size, and they had been massacred. But there also might have been even more Frost Giants before that fight.
One of the officers from the back stepped forward with a frown. “Not to question the integrity of a High Priest, but how is that possible? If one of the Commanders was fighting the leader solo, and the other was on defence, protecting the wagon, how did you manage to kill thirty Commander Rank Frost Giants while surrounded?”
Doug sighed and had Karl light him another smoke. “Partially the berserker, Ophelia, who lives up to the reputation of the Bear Totem Clan, and did a massive amount of damage with the War Goddess’ blessing on her weapons, but mostly it was our ability to hold them off while the Spider Golems summoned by Karl’s Bloodbath Spider tore them apart and the Dragon Hawk set them on fire.
Both of them have combat power well beyond what you expect of the average Commander Rank monster, and no matter how many times you kill a Golem, if you don’t take out the source, they don’t stop coming.
The Frost Giants thought that both mages were summoning the Golems, but it was one and the Spider. So, they targeted the mages first, before deciding that the second set of Golems belonged to the one fighting the leader.
They weren’t speaking Common, but some hand gestures are universal to all humanoids.”
Drake looked curious. “And the Ascended Rank warriors and Golems were able to stand up to the attacks of the Frost Giants long enough for the Commander Rank Golems to eliminate them?”
Doug gestured at Karl, and Thor brought up [Refreshing Lightning] over the cleric.
“This is [Refreshing Lightning] the Lightning Cerro’s primary defensive barrier. Thor can spread it to the entire group, and between that and [Circle of Protection] at Commander Rank, the incoming damage was low enough that we could hold.” He explained, then motioned for Thor to lower the barrier so he could smoke.
