After the bellow by the farmer, more groups began running in their direction. The farm houses were fairly well spaced, but each family could only farm a few hundred acres at the most.
Even with Rae and Cara on the loose out in the dark somewhere, there were still hundreds of Giant Boars nearby, terrorizing the other farm houses.
The pair had been prioritizing clearing the area around this farm so that they would have as much left as possible. But there were just so many creatures spawned this time that they couldn’t eliminate them all.
[Is it just me, or does this not follow the pattern?] Remi asked.
[What pattern?] Thor asked, as he hadn’t been paying attention the first time.
[It was supposed to get weaker and lower density as we moved away from the dungeon, right? Well, we’re a long way from the dungeon now, and this is the strongest one so far, with the most monsters.] She explained.
Hawk considered reasons, then came upon a good one. [What if it’s a present? We haven’t had a good food influx for a while, so maybe we’re being rewarded with thousands of boars? They appeared centred around us, that has to mean that they’re ours.]
That was a somewhat horrifying thought. What if a thousand square kilometres of land had been overrun by giant boars and Cyclops because Hawk was feeling peckish and the Gods wanted him to have a new flavour of snack?
As much as Karl wanted to say that was ridiculous and impossible, he had a sneaking suspicion that it might actually be a plausible answer.
But the fact that this one appeared to be centred on them, while the last was only a few kilometres away, did make it seem like they were somehow involved in the generation of these anomalies.
If they were, wouldn’t it be a disaster if they went home and brought the spawns with them?
Karl had plenty of time to think, as it was only farmers headed their way at the moment. For a moment, he wondered where Prince Corbin and his Spellblade clan were. They should be well west of this incident, and hopefully out of danger. But they were faster moving than the wagon, and had a day’s head start going in the same direction, so they might have already been close to the Fortress.
It would have been nice to know for sure where they were, but there was no way of verifying that in the middle of the night.
During the day, Hawk might be able to scout them out if he could see through their disguise, but even that was questionable, as it was most likely being created by Prince Corbin, so Hawk wouldn’t have a power advantage when trying to detect flaws in the spell.
The influx of farmers from the surrounding homesteads didn’t come without its own dangers, as the movement was drawing the attention of the Giant Boars, who were leading the cyclops toward the gathering. The giants’ eyesight was terrible, but their hearing was decent, and they seemed to realize what was going on, even if they were struggling to find their way with the fences constantly tripping them.
If they followed the boars, it was better. The beasts smashed through the wooden fences without hesitation, and they had no issues finding the farmers in the dark.
[You have more coming to your side. Cara and Rae are over on the far side right now.] Hawk informed Karl, who was distracted watching the farmers coming their way.
Karl moved away from the farm house to intercept the boars, which were running towards a group of small Minotaurs.
The parents must have been at their home farm because these ones were all children.
One solid swat of the hammer killed the beast, but Hawk was not impressed with the use of [Chain Lightning] which internally cooked them and made them hard to prepare for later consumption.
[Alright, I will use Disintegration instead. That will only take away a small amount of them, and if I hit the head, it won’t even be a tasty part.] Karl conceded.
Rae laughed at their argument. She was using Lacerate, as were her golems. There was still plenty of blood left inside after they died, so a little mess wasn’t a major loss. The clean cuts left the entire beast usable, but neither Rend nor Shred were as powerful as Disintegrate.
They were suitable options to stack five deep on the hammer, though. Karl could release them without contact, so he could just use it to build up a charge of concurrent casts. But he really didn’t need to do that for the Commander Rank beasts. Even just attacking normally two or three times would be enough for most of them.
Karl tried that on the next boar that was coming for the children, and the first strike with Rend cut into its skull, but didn’t stop it. Karl had to hurry to intercept the beast before it could reach the Minotaur children.
“Sir, is there a safe spot? Dad and Uncle are fighting at the house.” One of the children asked, gesturing behind them.
“Keep going straight towards that house with the fire in the yard. We lit it to help people find us. There are others there already.
How far is it to your house? I might be able to help your family leave.” Karl asked.
“I don’t think that they will. Uncle Lu is a Colonel in the army and a Royal. They plan to hold the yard and keep the house safe so we can return in the morning.”
“And they sent you away anyhow?” Karl asked.
The Minotaur girl nodded. “Yeah. They said that it’s safer to be with a whole herd. We heard the bellow indicating a safe spot, so they sent the children.”
“Good luck, I will make their lives easier for a few minutes.”
The kids started running, and Karl headed for their house to clear the area. If there was a Royal Rank soldier there with someone to watch his back, they should be fine.
There were still three boars in the area, not attacking the house. The Minotaurs were teamed up to deal with a Cyclops, and Karl could see that they both had proper weapons and armour.
So, a few minutes to clear the boars should be enough to give them a rest.
[Rae, when you guys make your next loop this way, clear around the farmyards that still have someone fighting in them. We can start expanding our radius if the battle slows down.]
[Got it. We’re getting pretty well stocked already. These boars take up more space than expected. I don’t know what we’re going to do with a hundred tonnes of bacon, but it’s going to smell wonderful when we smoke it.]
Karl laughed as he finished the boars near where the Minotaurs were still dealing with the Cyclops.
That didn’t seem right. There were two of them, and the Cyclops was only using skills on the lower side of Royal Rank.
Karl turned to help them out. There might have been a reason other than safety in numbers that they had sent the children away while they defended the farm.
