The leaders appeared to be making plans for what they were going to do next. They couldn’t just hang around here forever. They had far too much work to do for that, and the General had been stationed on the Mountain Giant border specifically to keep them from causing trouble with their Overlords.
“Shall we retire to dinner and let our subordinates take care of the rest?” Nacht, the black dragon Totem, asked.
“Yes, dinner sounds wonderful. Prince Karl, kindly wait here for someone to relieve you.” The Archbishop replied.
The General nodded. “I will have someone come to take over, but unfortunately, I am needed on the line.”
The Giants’ leader said nothing, and simply left with his people.
The General turned to his people and gave them a polite nod. “I will send reinforcements here within the next five minutes. You just need to make sure that nothing happens while they’re attempting to awaken their System interface.”
“Understood, General.”
This all appeared to be part of the ritual, pretending that they didn’t know that there was going to be an imminent attack at the lower levels and that the deal they had made actually held any weight.
The Black Dragon opened a portal with a wave of his hand, and left with the Archbishop. Then the General left, and a unit of a hundred Commander Rank soldiers, and fifty Ascended and Awakened Rank support staff rushed through, only to realize that they had no orders other than be here.
Karl cleared his throat. “Listen up. Every new arrival is to follow the directions on the plinth to give thanks to the World Dragon for the opportunity to gain access to the System. Once you have accomplished that task, you will be stationed here for guard duty of the orb.
DO YOU UNDERSTAND?”
“Sir, yes sir!” They responded in unison, then swarmed the Orb.
Colonel Lu chuckled at their response. Karl wasn’t even part of their army, but they were so used to just following orders that they naturally assumed anyone giving them orders had the right to.
It only took a few seconds before the first of them had vanished, and the rest were gone within two minutes.
This unit was all younger soldiers, likely a frontline shock troop unit that the General happened to have stationed near his camp.
The old Minotaur rubbed the shoulder of his freshly regrown arm, distinguishable by the lack of tattoos and scars, then smiled at Lotus.
“Well, Little Cleric. I told you I would love to try your food again, and it looks like I’m going to get a chance sooner than expected. It appears that your merchant group on a pilgrimage routine is a bit far gone to salvage, though.”
Lotus laughed and winked at him. “Never underestimate our shamelessness. We fully intend to continue with the act as soon as we are done here. We’re headed for the Jungles and then to Whiton Temple.
That much hasn’t changed. We will just have to leave someone else to help you with the mess here.”
The old Minotaur smiled at her, then reorganized his troops to surround the plinth.
[Everyone, I believe it’s time to come out and be sociable. Hawk, you can scout the area in case they’re forming up in the distance.]
The beasts appeared in the ruins, and Hawk made a quiet screech along with a ‘come along’ gesture to Dana that said he intended to have a rider for the scouting mission.
Tessa hopped up on Thor’s back with her spear ready, leaving Ophelia and Lotus to wait with Karl.
Or roll around in the dirt playing with Cara.
“How are we going to handle this? There will definitely be a challenge for the orb soon.” Colonel Lu asked.
“If it’s Orcs, I say that we let them. Same with the Nomadic Demons if they’re brave enough to approach. If the Giants challenge, I will deal with their leader.
The Lamia pair will guard my flanks, while the trio of Naga Warriors are with Remi, the Naga Queen. Remi and Tessa will work together as a pair, and Lotus heals.
Ophelia and Cara are Berserkers, so just stay out of their way.”
One of the Demons, a slender woman who almost looked like she should be undead, with her skin the colour of a drowning victim, gestured at Cara.
“That is a Winged Void Badger, isn’t it? You cow brains should stay well away from her. Those things are a menace to society.” She taunted the Colonel.
“You have no idea. She’s got a Monarch Rank attack skill. I’ve already seen it in action.”
[That was fast. The Giants are back. Two Monarchs, ten Royals, and five hundred troops, almost all Commanders.]
“The Giants are back. Five kilometres from here, just over a hill.” Karl informed the Minotaur Colonel.
“Oh, did they send enough to make it fun?”
Karl patted him on the shoulder. “Did you ever doubt it? There are five hundred Commander Rank soldiers out there.”
“That doesn’t sound fun at all. They outnumber us five to one, even after the others come back. What did they send for a leadership squad? They normally have a five Giant officer squad for a full Regiment of soldiers.” Colonel Lu asked.
“Two Monarchs, ten Royals.”
The Minotaur sighed. “I will inform my people. With the few who got a Class, we might stand a chance using our new skills.”
“You’re too pessimistic. I will take one Monarch, Remi and her bodyguards will take the other. The rest of my team will focus on the Command squad.
Remember, they don’t know that half the team is summoned. What they see are six Monarchs, eight Royals, including your team, and a handful of soldiers.
They’re not going to be hasty when we have the advantage in visible Monarchs. If they hesitate long enough, we will have another hundred soldiers, and then whatever other reinforcements we get.”
“When you put it that way, it doesn’t sound so bad. They certainly can’t allow any of those Monarch Rank Naga Warriors or Cara loose in their Commander Rank back lines. It would be a massacre.”
As Karl had expected, the Giants paused as they came into sight of the orb and saw the defending team.
Some of them would be hidden from sight, but the Giants could get a good enough estimate to slow them down.
From a distance, it was much harder to guess relative power level, especially with mixed species.
If they were all Giants, you could guess by their size. Though, Hawk had better senses than that. But when it was a dozen different species, you had to guess how they compared to their own species, and then the humans would be a wild guess.
It wasn’t like humans normally got bigger as they got more powerful.
“How long do we have?” One of the younger Minotaurs asked.
“If they charge, we have three minutes. It’s hard to say how long they will plan for now that they have an estimate of our power levels. Expect them to spread out their formation first, so they can see how we respond.
Once they have started to shift positions, the attack is imminent.”
