The beasts had a lot to think about now that two of them were at the Royal Rank. Remi and Thor still had to advance, but their major concern was that there would be another space opening soon.
A new space meant a new brother or sister, and none of them knew what sort of sibling they would like to have.
[We should get another one for the front with Thor. Thor and Ophelia aren’t enough to block the whole front.] Remi suggested.
Rae thought about that. If there was another, she could send her Golems off on adventures more often.
[Yes, another one at the front would be good. Then we would have a person on each side of Thor.] She agreed.
[I think we need another scout so I don’t have to do it every time. I could be an extra mage and throw fireballs at things all day.] Hawk thought.
[But Ophelia can be a bear now, does that mean she gets her own spot?] Thor asked.
None of them knew the answer to that.
[I think Ophelia is like Dana, you can’t pull her into the space because she’s already an Elite.] Karl suggested.
[Oh, that makes sense. A human who wasn’t an Elite would be useless, though. So, what we need is a front fighter to accompany Thor and Ophelia, who can also fly and scout when they need to.] Rae announced.
Karl laughed. [Well, I will keep that in mind, but usually flying things don’t want to fight up close. That’s why they fly.]
[Why are they making it hard for us?] Remi complained.
[If we could find a way for Rae to grow wings…] Thor began.
[Rae is pretty big to be learning to fly. But Remi is still waiting to evolve, right? Maybe she can learn to fly.] Hawk offered.
Remi thought about that. Maybe she could develop wings. Were there winged snakes? She hadn’t seen them in her borrowed books, but there might be.
Or, perhaps she could work on a wind magic spell that would let her fly like Dana Mage and the Knights did.
That still seemed like a lot of work when she could just catch a ride on someone to get where she wanted to be. Plus, if she wasn’t touching the ground, how was she supposed to know where things were?
[Remi has a point. She relies too much on her tongue and ground vibrations, she would be a lousy flying scout. We will have to find Karl a better new member.]
While the beasts argued about who their new sibling should be, Karl relaxed along the line for his shift. He had decided that not calling them all out was the best course of action so that he didn’t scare the Hill Giants away or make them think that there was an increased military force here.
They already knew about him, but it was better not to let them believe there were more Royal Rank combatants here.
Karl listened to them argue about the next team member all shift, but as they were returning to camp for dinner, Karl’s group was intercepted by a military messenger with documents for them.
“Prince Karl, your extended group is needed for an emergency. Please bring them all to the bus, and we will go straight to the landing pad.” The messenger informed them.
“All of us, including the Knights?” Karl asked.
“Yes, sir. All of you, including the High Priest, Agent Morgana, Commander Mackenzie and the Knights.”
They all headed for the line, but the messenger stopped them. “You should get your packs and other personal belongings, this could take more than a day. I am not privy to the details, but you should bring your belongings.”
Karl smiled. “We all received a reward that allows us to store our belongings. We should be ready to go, unless someone left something behind?”
Everyone shook their heads, and they continued to the bus parking area.
The driver started moving as soon as they were loaded, racing down the battered dirt road as fast as he safely could in the large vehicle.
If they had a smaller vehicle that could carry a dozen passengers, it would have been better, but the smaller off-road vehicles were only suited to a maximum of five or six Elites.
The driver didn’t say anything, and Karl didn’t expect him to know anything, except that it was urgent that this group was brought back to the helicopters.
What was normally an hour-long drive took them under thirty minutes at his breakneck pace, with the passengers bouncing around in their seats, but their ride was waiting for them, and there were other Elite teams already in the helicopter that Karl was being waved into.
“Good, they didn’t have to search too long for you. Sorry about the short notice and what will be a long night. There is a monster outbreak that we need an additional Prince to deal with.” The crewman welcomed them as he shut the door behind Karl’s team.
“What happened, give me the abridged version if necessary.” He insisted.
“We noticed an anomaly within the southeastern region, near the Magma Dragon’s territory, one hour and forty minutes ago.
It was then determined that the threat level of the monsters leaving the anomaly included high Commander Rank monsters of the Ogre varieties.
The usual response teams for the southeastern region are currently deployed to the Mountain Giant border, which put you at the top of the response list.”
Karl nodded. “I understand. How large of an area has the threat spread to?”
“Less than one square Kilometre, but the monster density suggests that the Ogres are preparing to defend the area.”
Karl sighed. Attacking a fortified position with an unknown enemy force was going to be a headache, but if there was an anomaly at the core of it, they might actually get some benefit out of this situation.
“How long is the flight?” Doug asked.
“One hour fifteen.”
“Alright, wake me up when we’re five minutes out. We just came off a shift on the line, and it would be better if we got a bit of sleep before fighting all night.” He insisted.
“Of course, High Priest.”
Karl closed his eyes to get some rest while they made their way to the target, headed straight south so they didn’t approach the Frost Giant border too closely before they reached their destination.
It had been mostly quiet along that front, but there was no need to stir them up with powerful auras from a group of Elites in transit.
A change in the pitch of the helicopter’s noise brought Karl out of his meditative trance, and he saw the groups who were there before his team preparing to depart.
“Everyone is going down close together. It’s a few minutes early, but you can wake your team.” The crewman announced.
There was no need, they were already all awake.
“There are no teams in the area at this point. You are the first. Group One will be on the North Side, Group Two is on the West.”
Karl nodded, and accepted a map of the area from him.
The area was flat and lightly forested, without any nearby landmarks. It was safe to say that they would probably not be sneaking up on the Ogre camp, even if they were dropped five or ten kilometres out.
