They had circled to approach from the west, which would put Karl’s team down first.
“Team Two, get ready to deploy. How far out do you want to be?” The pilot shouted over the intercom.
Karl looked at his team, and Doug gestured downward then closed his fist.
“Drop us right on top of them, as close as you can get.” Karl informed the pilot.
That sounded like crazy talk to the other team, but for Karl’s group, it wouldn’t be so bad.
He would summon the beasts right into combat, while the Magical Knights could fly. The rest of them would form up on the edge of the Ogre defences, allowing them no time to shift their formations, and the fight would be on.
The helicopter dropped fast a hundred metres from the Ogres, as close as the pilot felt wasn’t suicidal on his end, and Karl charged out at the head of his team, sending Hawk into the sky while Rae and Thor fell into position with the group.
Remi found herself momentarily homeless, as she usually stood next to Dana, who was now with the Magical Knights, but she soon found a spot between Morgana and Doug to cast from.
Karl fired three arrows with [Blizzard] on them from left to right across the visible monsters, blinding and damaging the weaker Ogres as his team advanced, while Hawk began his bombardment from above.
Ophelia shifted into her new [Dire Bear] Form, and Karl realized that he had greatly underestimated how large she was going to be.
Ophelia in Werebear form and buffed was three metres tall and must have weighed close to three hundred kilos.
Ophelia in Dire Bear Form was over four metres tall while standing on all four feet. There was no comparison, the new form was massive, though she might not appreciate it if someone mentioned she was roughly the size of a delivery truck.
Ophelia and Thor alone were enough to hold the front line, it was hardly necessary to send Bob forward, much less the Magical Knights, who had stepped up into the sky with Dana and tore into the Ogres with their spells.
Attacking from so close gave them all the advantages, and Dana’s Golems appeared deep within the enemy ranks, sowing chaos as they fought back to back.
Then Rae lobbed a boulder in the air and [Shadow Stepped] to it so she could do the same with her golems before hurling the boulder at the Ogres.
Then she retreated to her defensive position and began firing stone bullets at the enemy, keeping them from flanking the group.
The Ogres were mostly Ascended, and with the Royal Rank [Chain Lightning] spreading from Karl’s arrows, they were falling like crops being harvested.
Even the [Blizzard] wasn’t going to take long to kill them, and Karl was prepared to fire more of the enhanced arrows into the deeper ranks near the anomaly.
The Ogres were preparing to charge at the invaders, but what Karl was waiting for was word from Hawk or Rae’s Golems that they had found the Royal Rank Ogre variant that the army suspected was here.
Cutting down the weak ones was a simple task when they had gathered like this, but if they couldn’t find the leader fast enough, it might escape.
A Royal Rank Ogre loose in the wilderness was a catastrophe waiting to happen.
[Hawk, make sure that none of them run away. We don’t want them causing problems somewhere else.]
From his vantage point, Hawk could see the whole formation, but from what he was relaying to Karl, it seemed that the Ogres were gathering Commanders for a counterattack.
[There are incoming two headed Ogres.] Hawk warned.
Those should be the Ogre Mages. Ettin, Karl thought they were called. They couldn’t use too much magic, but their fireballs would be much more effective than anything that the other Ogres had managed to accomplish so far.
[The other team will be down soon.]
Ophelia seemed to greatly enjoy her new form, and her [Toxic Claws] left the Ogres twitching and shivering with the slightest scratch, as black poison spread from the wound.
Commander Rank lethal poisons were no joke, and even if they were only slightly wounded, the Ogres would be dead within minutes unless they were healed.
The fact that she was bigger than the Ogres didn’t help their chances, and a swat of her massive paw was enough to throw them off their feet and shatter bones. With Thor and so many mages, there was no danger of her losing her defensive barriers, but the group’s spell casters were mostly focused on dealing damage.
Dana gracefully stepped down as an Ogre turned its back and severed its head with her new [Disruption Blade] before stepping back up into the sky.
Karl almost felt sorry for Bob. Everyone else had gotten so many ridiculous new powers, while his new skills were much less flashy.
He had gotten a new [Slam] skill that sent out a shockwave in front of his shield when he attacked with it, and the blow was hard enough to send three rows of Ogres staggering backward, but Karl couldn’t tell what his second skill was, or if he was even using it.
Thor cleared a path with [Earthquake], then charged forward into it, gaining more ground and trampling the surviving Ogres underfoot.
Karl moved up, waiting for the Ettin group to get a bit closer before he focused on them. However, the moment that Hawk hit the first of them with a Rend Explosion, Rae moved her Golems to tear into them, racing the Dragonhawk to see who could kill more of the real threats.
They hated losing to each other, especially in cases where Hawk didn’t have to do any real scouting duties.
“Are they even intending on letting the rest of us do anything?” Morgana asked as she watched the Ogres fall.
Doug chuckled. “Probably not. I forget that your magic doesn’t have a very long range, and we’ve got so many ranged fighters right now, without the threats of giant stones coming our way, that not much is getting close.”
The Witch Doctor’s magic was much like [Blizzard] or Ophelia’s [Toxic Claws]. It took a few seconds or a minute to deal its maximum damage. But nothing was living that long.
[The other group is coming our way, chasing the Ogres. I don’t think the Ogres care.] Hawk updated them.
[Any sign of a Royal Rank Ogre in the group?]
[Nothing so far. Not even many Commanders, just some strong ones.]
The response to this appearance might have been overkill, Karl decided.
But after a few seconds to look at the map, he realized that there were two coal mines within ten kilometres of this point. The loss of production would be a national security concern, so it was better to divert extra resources for the day.
The emergency response fights were supposed to be a sure thing, not a hard fight, after all.
[Yes, they’re starting to run. This is my time to shine.] Hawk cheered as he flew off to bomb the deserters.
[He’s just running away early so that he can say he didn’t lose.] Rae joked.
That might be true, but it was Karl’s orders to make certain that nothing escaped.
[That’s his job, don’t give him a hard time and make him consider abandoning it. I don’t want to be chasing Ogres through the woods all night.]
