“I don’t suppose that you saw another one of those last night, did you? The Forge Master, that is.” Karl asked Leafa, who was still staring at the location of the now closed portal.
The Haint nodded. “Yes, we killed one near the fortress last night. We also had the Oracle and Trouble Seers search for more, but only one appeared according to their visions.
I was confident that you would win the battle, or I would have come earlier. I never expected that the Giants would find out about the situation so fast and try to abduct him.”
Karl nodded. “I think you should likely be more concerned with how they found out about that very specific Cyclops among the entire horde of Cyclops. That seems like a difficult thing for a foreign seer to pick up, but a much easier one for a spy to relay to the enemy.”
Leafa tilted her head. “You consider the Giants as an enemy?”
“Doesn’t everyone? They’re just generally unpleasant to be around. Plus, they keep attacking me.”
Their conversation was interrupted by the giants that had come to support the forge master, and Karl’s sword was suddenly thirsty for blood again. He used the maul most of the time, and the blade seemed dissatisfied with receiving life force secondhand.
“Are you good on this side? Your Lamia friends should be recovered by now, right? They’re not dead, are they?” Leafa asked.
“No, they’re alright. I am more concerned about the other beasts. They are circling the farm now, clearing the area so that the defenders get the occasional breather. Some of the fights have been intense, but they’re managing.” Karl explained.
“Alright, I will return to the farm. My hearing is good, just yell if you need assistance. The farmers take comfort in my presence.”
With that, she was gone, back to the side of the farm house where the children were beginning to make a fuss as the fear and noise kept them from sleeping.
Karl was fighting well away from the farm, but the noise would carry, and it was coming from every direction. The general spawn density tonight didn’t look any worse than it was yesterday, or at least not significantly worse.
But there were many more powerful beasts at their location than there were in the previous days.
Rae was in heaven. She had gotten a literal bathtub full of Monarch Rank blood already, drained from Cyclops bodies, and her thoughts were already on how much she was going to enjoy her grooming routine now that she had such wonderful bath products.
The current wave was mostly Commander Rank boars, with high Commander and low Royal Ranked Cyclops leading their packs. That was an easy target for Rae, who could just [Shadow Step] and assassinate the Cyclops, then deal with the boars while Hawk bombarded them in the darkness.
The boars couldn’t see or hear him, the only warning that they got was when the skills were coming at them, and by then it was already too late.
It wasn’t significantly harder for Remi and Cara. They were leaving the corpses in much less recognizable condition, but the intruders were dying just as quickly.
Only Karl was left without much to do, as his job was to hold a side of the house and not scout out new targets.
The two teams of beasts had just passed each other on the far side of the yard, and they were moving a bit further from the farmyard to ensure that they had something to fight. They were still letting a trickle of monsters make it to the defenders stationed at the farm, but they picked out any of them that had a decent power level for themselves.
The dispersion pattern of the monsters was much different today than it was last night. The farmers weren’t at home anymore, they had all gathered with neighbours, rightly believing that the incident wasn’t likely to be over, even if their houses were still standing.
There were far fewer burning houses tonight, which was a good sign for the farmers, but from his vantage point, Karl couldn’t tell if any of the fires were homes that had been guarded.
He was waiting for something to come into range while the two groups of beasts came back to meet each other in front of him.
Karl could feel that there was something unstable with Remi’s bodyguards, and through that, the Lamia that he had summoned with the same skill.
[Is your skill advancing?] Karl asked.
Remi wiggled happily, shaking her shoulders in a little dance as she inspected her bodyguard.
[I think so. Your new Skill Master is a good skill.]
Thor grumbled. He had good skills, but he couldn’t get them to go over his rank. It might be a potential issue, as even with his changes, the Lightning Cerro suspected that he was reaching the extent of his ability to grow.
He was already stronger than any Lightning Cerro known, as they usually only made it to Commander Rank. But if he couldn’t make it to Monarch, he was going to run into trouble very soon.
[Don’t worry, buddy. If you get stuck, we will use Evolution on you, and then find a new way to keep you going the next time that you reach your limits.] Karl assured him.
Thor had a point. He had reached equilibrium with his pool full of Holy Stones. It was comfortable, but it wasn’t really helping him advance anymore, and he wasn’t advancing on his own.
They would have to find something to help him grow if he was even going to make it to peak Royal Rank. Constant practice and dedication had taken him this far, way beyond his species’ limits. But there were limits.
Remi, on the other hand, had more potential. She had not been born as a low Awakened Rank being, but a Commander.
As the process completed, the armour on the Naga Warriors turned to a deep black that seemed to absorb light around them, and their size increased by a third, making even the largest of Minotaur Men look mediocre.
The Lamia, on the other hand, gained light red edges on their bone white scales, and the red dresses that they wore gained silver embroidery.
Rae glared at them in annoyance. If anyone was going to be upgrading their summoned creatures, it should have been her Golems. Spiders were clearly superior to Naga, they should be easier to upgrade.
Karl could hear the chaos behind them as the Naga Warriors suddenly grew in size while fighting a small group of boars, but most of the Minotaurs were taking it as a skill they used, as they didn’t know the Naga were a summoned creature.
Now, they were at the same level of advantage that they had when Rae had Royal Rank Golems at Commander Rank. With defenders a Rank above them, Karl wouldn’t have to worry much about facing stronger opponents for a while, and the skill’s advancement was a strong sign that Remi would be able to follow them once the spaces were maximized again.
The two teams of beasts continued on their routes, but Karl noticed that Remi’s side was much more smug, while Hawk and Rae were working double time, trying to grind hard enough to force an advancement.
