Chapter 163: Neighbours

Bob led the group forward again, toward the ridgeline, where they could hear the sound of trees being broken, and occasional shouting. There was no doubt that their target was there, and that they would be able to find it without much work.

He had already planned their combat strategy to have Rae held in reserve for evening watches, so the current formation was the golems surrounding the casters, with Karl in the rear and Thor at his right flank.

The Lightning Cerro made an impressive shield on his own, and having him on the warrior's sword side kept him from getting charged while he was fighting with his back turned.

For a young beast, Thor had proven to be remarkably well adapted to combat strategy, and he seemed to instinctively know what to do.

That was actually mostly Karl and Thor giving him insights into the situation and letting him make his own decisions, but the remainder was just his pure love for smashing things.

Hobgoblins, smashing poles and barriers had a lot in common.

"Everyone ready, there is a fight ahead, and we don't know who the other parties are." Bob warned the rest of the group as they approached the ridge.

The deep bellows should be an ogre, or possibly two of them, but the others weren't making any sounds that would give away their species.

If they were lucky, the Ogre would have come across an aggressive predator and both would be half dead when the group arrived to finish them off. But that was a lot of luck to ask for.

He led them over the ridge, and Karl sensed Thor's joy as Hawk circled back to the immediate fight instead of scouting in the distance to make sure they didn't miss anything.

There were more people here. New people, including ones in white. The ones in white knew just how to rub his head ridges, Thor informed Karl smugly, as if he was a neglectful master.

"The Cerro is with us." Bob shouted as he levelled his shield in front of himself and charged at the back of the group.

Three ogres were leading a party of lizardmen against another of the five-man teams, and the numeric advantage had put the humans on the defensive.

Thor put his head down and bowled over the lizardmen before spearing an ogre with his front horn in a place where no man would ever want to be speared. The ogre screamed in pain, but he was lifted onto his toes by the Cerro, and couldn't turn to effectively hit him.

Karl and Hawk both threw a barrage of [Rend] attacks at the giant humanoid, who was wearing crude leather pants and what looked like a flattened cook pot as chest armour.

It was no match for the attacks, and blood began to flow freely from the wounds before Thor flipped his head to the side and dropped the ogre on the ground.

He was under attack from both sides, and he lifted his tail to smash.

"Earthquake incoming." Karl warned, just in time for Bob to jump into the air before the skill activated and destabilized the lizardmen warriors.

"Nice skill." One of the twins laughed as she threw a pair of fireballs into the lizards, burning scales off and clearing the area around Thor.

The other team of Elites was regrouping, while engaged in battle with the other two ogres. The sudden reversal had taken the monsters by surprise, and the lizardmen weren't sure which group to deal with first, as their leader had been taken out entirely incidentally by one of the fireballs.

Karl turned to the left as he sensed something hostile coming his way.

Activating Refreshing Lightning to surround himself caused an obsidian dagger to glance off his throat as another group of monsters rushed out of the trees, screaming in Goblin.

The small green monsters were going to be a real nuisance, but Hawk was already moving downward on a strafing run, preparing to bathe them in fire, and the two wood Golems on that side were moving to intercept.

Karl sent a wave of [Rend] flying at the Goblins with his sword, and the front-line hit the ground, ducking underneath to save their lives, but leaving the second rank unaware of the imminent danger.

The attack sliced them clean in half, and the ones behind them as well, but there were still more coming out of the trees and into Hawk's stream of fire.

He flapped hard and moved back up to fifty metres in the air to get out of easy ranged attack range, but that put him in position to see more incoming enemies.

[Twenty more scaly people behind the Goblins.] He warned.

[Check the other side as well. I think we walked into a trap.] Karl cautioned.

"More lizardmen are coming behind the Goblins, like they're herding them to us." Karl warned as the cowardly little beasts halted and tried to run away from the wall of flames.

The second group of humans was moving toward them, running past where Thor was fending off the last Ogre with his tail, using Earthquake directly on the creature's chest to send it flying. Their warriors were wounded, and they only had one mage and one cleric with them, but the cleric was a student from the Seminary Academy.

He looked utterly terrified to be out here, but he had to be at least Awakened Rank to have been sent on this mission, and once he saw Doug, he began to gather his wits and remember his training.

The two of them were enough to heal the minor wounds that the warriors had, but the mage was looking exhausted from keeping up defensive spells.

The Goblins and Lizardmen fell back, regrouping just like the humans were, while their reinforcements arrived.

For a moment, it looked like the Ogre that Thor hit with [Earthquake] was going to get up, but as soon as it moved, it began coughing up blood and collapsed again, unwilling to try moving until its natural healing had more time to work.

Bob assessed the situation. "I count twenty lizardmen in total, some wounded. Under thirty goblins left, all terrified, and no more ogres. Mages, keep up the pressure with the fire spells, but don't burn too much mana.

Thor, come to me and defend against frontal attacks. Karl and Hawk can deal with the attack side."

Hawk was good with that. The lizardmen couldn't throw those spears high enough to hit him.

Rae woke up while they were catching their breath, and looked out at the battlefield.

[You guys went wild while I was asleep. Which spot is mine?] She asked.

[You can take the left flank of the lizardmen. Hawk will attack from the right, and I will back you up. But most of our attacks will be going toward the middle, where their numbers are denser.]

Rae appeared behind a tree on Karl's left and adapted her short fur to match the tree bark.

"Rae is on the left." Karl warned the others.

The mages relayed the meaning to the others in a whisper that the monsters wouldn't hear, and both sides prepared to attack.

[They're going to charge.] Thor warned, just as the Lizardmen shouted something and the Goblins did exactly that.

They were met with a barrage of spells from the mages, while Karl and Thor aimed for the taller Lizardmen. They were the ones giving the orders, and the best fighters of the group.

Then Rae attacked, piercing two with her forelegs while biting the head off another, and the new arrivals screamed in terror. The warriors visibly steeled their resolve for a hard fight, not quite grasping that Rae was on their side, but Karl's attacks were precisely where they needed to be, keeping the other lizardmen from being able to get close enough to properly attack Rae while she fought three on one.

One was already dead, but he had been replaced with another, and the two who had taken her forelimb spikes through the chest were fading fast as Lacerate prevented them from stopping the bleeding.

A limb flashed out, leaving a long but shallow wound on the fresh target, and it began to gush blood, leaving the creature suddenly weakened to the point of dropping its spear.

Karl finished the three with Rend, and Hawk worked on the other side with Shred and fireballs.

The monsters were effectively surrounded, but they were determined, and the remaining lizardmen charged through the burning grass into the line of warriors and Thor, who threw one high in the sky before thinking about his target.

"INCOMING!" Doug warned as a flying lizardman crashed into the group of casters.

It wheezed as it tried to get to its feet, but Doug was faster, clubbing it on the head and knocking it out, so the mages could finish it off with magic arrows.