The Cyclops never stood a chance as Karl leapt across the yard and smashed it in the back with [Disintegrate]. It was already heavily injured, and its armour was compromised.
“Thank you merchant. Were you at one of the other farms? Are they alright?” The older of the two Minotaurs asked.
They were both heavily bandaged, and one of them had only one arm, an old injury that had long since healed. No wonder they had sent the kids away to make their final stand. They were so heavily injured even before the fight started that they were in no shape to fight, but they didn’t want to burden anyone else with more wounded to care for.
That was a soldier’s pride talking for them, Karl assumed. No soldier wanted to drag down others when they were likely to have to relocate in the middle of the night. Instead, they had sent away the ones that could run and remained behind.
[Remi, do you have healing stuff in your space?] Karl asked.
[The blue ones in the round bottles with the long neck. Those are the new healing potions.]
Karl took two of them out and handed them to the Minotaurs. “Healing potions from my personal alchemist. This incident is huge, and if you’re not too attached to the farm, we could use the extra fighters.
They’re holding out well for now, and we had a watch set, but they will get tired eventually.”
They nodded, understanding what Karl meant. Part of the reason for the Minotaur’s welcoming bellow was so that they had reserves when the front-line fighters got wounded or tired, allowing someone to switch them out.
“We have Dragon Clerics there, who can do more healing for you as well. Did you want to come back that way with me, or are you remaining here?”
The pair downed the potions, and Karl made a note of how their wounds closed and their stance improved. Remi would want that information later.
“We will join your group. I will just tell the kids that I wanted to get the last of my armour out before we joined them.” The older soldier chuckled, with a gesture to a pile of supplies near the door.
Karl picked it up and slung the oversized bag over his shoulder. “Is that everything you need? With nobody here, the invaders are unlikely to smash apart the house as long as you don’t have a large food supply inside.”
The farmer gestured to one side. “The pantry is concrete with a steel door and underground to keep the temperature stable. It should be alright.”
Karl took off at a jog with the soldiers behind him. There was nothing in the area, but they were both on guard, and hesitant to move so quickly.
“I can see heat signatures in the dark. There is nothing along this path, I killed it all on the way here after making sure your kids made it to the farm.” He explained.
“They made it safely? Thanks be to the gods. Alright, we will trust your eyes. Lead the way.”
Karl stopped fifty metres from the house. “It’s right there. I’m on duty to protect this side, so I will let you go ahead. Tell them Karl sent you if they ask, but I doubt they will. Half the people there are your neighbours.”
The Minotaurs laughed. “If old man Davos can’t recognize us by firelight, we have bigger issues than a few questions.”
They clapped Karl on the shoulder as they passed, and a few seconds later, happy voices greeted them as they passed the Naga Warriors and came into the light of the bonfire.
Lotus’ voice joined the chaos as she explained that she would heal them, and that everyone else here was still in fighting form, so they were the backup line. They had a bit of time to eat and catch their breath, then they could change spots with Ophelia, who was watching that side along with one of the other farmers.
The battle near the farm began to fall silent as more farmers came to join their group, and as Rae teamed up with Cara to slaughter everything that moved and wasn’t a farmer.
That was a surprising level of restraint for that duo, but Karl didn’t see any small creatures or Minotaurs coming into the piles in their spaces.
Two hours later, they were getting bored with the lack of powerful targets and variety, so Karl called them back.
[You can rest in your spaces. We’ve secured the area well enough. There should only be a few issues before dawn, and the others can take care of that. How did your collection efforts go?] He asked.
[Pretty good. I think we got all we need, but there are no Monarch Rank Cyclops close enough to fight. If we could have gotten one of those for Rae’s bath products, it would have been better.] Cara replied.
One of the Satyrs came over with a bowl of oatmeal and some roast pork slices for Karl, and then joined him for breakfast, taking a seat on the woodpile.
“You’ve done an outstanding job on this side. Do you need anything else? We can send someone to assist you? Or you can pull your Naga Warriors back. They’re covering two sides of the house already, and they’ve taken a lot of the load off the rest of us.
I don’t think that our patrol would have made it through the first attack without his help, and it appears that the army isn’t coming.” The Satyr sighed.
“This incident isn’t just on us. It’s at all the farms as far as the farmers can communicate with each other for three relays. By my guess, that’s at least fifteen kilometres in every direction that is under attack, and likely more.
How many army units are in the area? Even if they sent them out right away, they could take a while to make their way here.” Karl suggested.
He couldn’t tell the guard that the issue extended past the next city, or all the way to the Fortress. At least not without explaining how he learned. They would find out soon enough, and it was going to be a nasty surprise.
It was better not to spring it on them in the middle of the night when everyone was panicked and exhausted.
“I see that they went with raspberries today. That’s a change from the usual.” Karl noted as he started at the plain wooden bowl full of oatmeal.
“Apparently it’s a specialty of the local farms. They have whole bags of dried berries here, and they go well in the oats.” The Satyr guard agreed.
“I will have to buy a few bags. Monster invasion, war, or emergency, goods still need to move.”
The Satyr nodded. “That they do. Fortunately for us, it will be dawn soon, and then we will be able to see trouble signals and find out what is going on in the distance.
But I’ve never heard of a surprise invasion this deep into the nation. It should have been stopped near the border, not allowed to get to the Overlord Council’s doorstep.”
“I am sure that the council will get it all sorted out. We just need to get enough rest that we don’t get overwhelmed.”
They ate quietly for a few minutes until Karl saw Minotaur shaped heat signatures in the distance.
“Go let someone know to bellow that this is a safe spot. There are more refugees in the distance and they look lost.” He warned the Satyr, who informed one of his teammates with hand signals.
“They’re on it. They’ll likely call every hour or so, just in case there are others in hiding.”
