Rae gave Morgana a curious look that would have made most people recoil in fright, but Morgana just smiled.
“If you have a few more of those glowing orange stones with the yellow streaks in them, and the perpetually cold bones that aren’t Giant bones, we could use both of them to make fire and ice potions for the Church Guards and regular soldiers. It makes them more attuned to Holy magic, but for some reason, it doesn’t work on the clerics who can actually use Holy Magic.” The Witch Doctor explained.
[Ask her how much she needs. They’re kind of bright, so I buried them in a hole.] Rae replied.
“She is wondering how many you need. She has a few tucked away.”
Morgana considered that for a few seconds, counting on her fingers as she looked out at the infantry units as far as the eye could see.
“To cover all of the soldiers here for the next three months, before the potion wears off, we would need at least twenty of the stones and a kilo of Ice Element monster bones that aren’t Frost Giants.” She decided.
Rae pulled the cover off her pit full of glowing rocks and began to sort out the ones that Morgana wanted. They were incredibly common in Frost Giant jewellery, and every Commander Rank warrior usually had at least ten of them woven into their accessories. So, she had quite the pit full of them, but she still carefully counted twenty of them before weighing the bones.
Karl wasn’t certain how accurate her guess of the weight was, but when she was ready, she retreated from her space to rest by Thor and left Karl to pass the loot over.
“This should do it. This is what Rae found for you.” Karl explained.
She had moved a large wooden shield over the pit again, and covered it with stones that didn’t shine, so the glow didn’t mess with the ambience of her space, which was nearly dark, with a few glowing blue stones strung up high to imitate stars in the sky.
Morgana took the large pile of materials from Karl into a spare bag, and happily patted Rae on her leg, being careful to touch only the side, and not risk her fingers on the sharp edges.
“Thank you, Rae. It will take me all night to make enough potions, but the whole army will benefit from this.”
That was all the thanks that Rae needed. Someone needed her shiny loot, and that meant that they all owed her a favour.
The Witch Doctor ran off from the lines and sent another teacher over to fill her space, leaving the newly arrived staff member thoroughly confused.
“There is a latrine right over there, where is she going?” He asked as he took Morgana’s spot next to Karl’s group.
“We got her some loot to make holy magic attunement potions for the army. It should last them for ninety days, so she’s in a hurry to get it made and distributed.” Karl explained.
“You found the orange sunstones? That is excellent news. I will gladly take the extra shifts if she can get those potions made. I didn’t even know that we had someone here who knew how to make the potions. They’re a pretty obscure recipe, and the materials only come from the Frost Giant nation.
Ah, you all were stationed there, weren’t you?” He realized.
Karl nodded. “Not those four, but the other six of us in this team were.”
The teacher pulled a spear from his inventory and stabbed the blunt end into the dirt so he could lean against it. “Well, there are always advantages to having veterans on the line with the students. I know most of you are still students, but the difference in experience has been far too obvious since we got here.
If I had to say, sending students out more would actually be better for their development. The gains that everyone has made since they got here have been incredible. It feels like we’re about to have another Commander in our ranks as well.
Possibly two.”
He was looking at Dana and Ophelia, who were both a bit nervous at his gaze. The status difference for Commander Rank would be huge, but they didn’t think that they were there yet. They weren’t close to Karl’s power, or even any of his beasts, except maybe Remi.
But none of them had really considered the fact that Remi had advanced to Commander already, and they were still at least equal to her in maximum power.
Most of the issue was just that Thor and Rae were throwing off the perception of what a Commander Rank beast meant.
Thor’s [Refreshing Lightning] was such a versatile skill that it made him seem much more powerful than he was, and Rae had her Royal Rank Golems which just tore through everything that they touched.
[They’re coming.] Hawk informed Karl after another half hour of patiently waiting for something to happen.
“We’ve got incoming. Hawk is in the air, scouting. He says there are more threats coming. I will get more details in a second.” Karl relayed.
[About five big teams coming our way, then about the same for everyone else. Maybe a hundred big teams?] Hawk guessed.
A big team was ten, so there were about a thousand Hill Giants coming for them.
“Hawk says we’ve got a hundred coming to our section, and there are about a thousand in total that he can see.” Karl relayed.
The teacher grabbed his radio and passed the message to the other units, which didn’t immediately get an attack alarm sounded, as they were already on standby, but the artillery started only a minute later, when they got positive confirmation on the Giants’ positions.
That was enough to inform everyone that their day wasn’t over, but Karl didn’t get up from his resting spot, nor did Dana, who was leaned against his side, trying not to fall asleep as she meditated to regain her mana.
The Hill Giants were already charging, despite being over ten kilometres away. It wouldn’t take them long to get to the human lines, but the attack alarm was still waiting for them to get in sight so that the students could get a bit more rest before they were scrambled into position.
It was only after the Giants were in sight and everyone was getting to their feet that the troops were sent back to the line, preparing to engage the rapidly incoming enemy lines.
That barely gave them time to get half the mages in position before the Hill Giants’ bombardment began. But once they were in range, the Hill Giants didn’t keep advancing, they stopped and used Earth Magic to create barriers in front of their lines so they could bombard the lines and remain out of sight to the direct attacks from the students.
Golems were charging across no-man’s land now, while being bombarded by boulders and sharp spikes of stone. But as fast as they were falling, they were being reformed, to charge from the caster’s maximum range again.
“Karl, can you have Thor hurl my Sand Golems again? That worked really well, and they have short legs.” Mick asked.
“Happily. Rae, can you make a catapult basket for Thor’s tail?” Karl requested out loud.
She made a quick mesh net, and the first golem got inside, while curled into a ball.
Thor hurled the small golem, which impacted with a boulder in the sky, sending both the stone and the remains of the golem to the ground.
“Next! Fire!” Karl cheered as another Golem loaded itself.
This one flew right over the Hill Giant lines, but it could attack from behind, and Mick gave him a thumbs up, signalling that the Golem had survived its landing.
One after another, they were hurled, with most of them dying in the process.
In fact, it took so long to get them there alive that Rae had sent a second set of Spider Golems, with Dana’s Stone Golems on their backs, to the line before Mick finally had all six alive on the line.
“Well, I can’t say that it’s more time effective, as they can dodge the artillery if they’re on foot, but it sure is more fun.” Karl noted as Thor finished his work.
“You never know until you try, right?” Mick laughed.
Even though they had made it to the line after much effort, they didn’t last long, and Mick sent the next group running across the battlefield with the other Golems and the Fire Elementals from Colonel Wilkes.
If the Giants weren’t going to advance, this was going to be a very annoying fight.
