Chapter 194: Headcount

The battle was over, with the Goblin tribe and the invading Orcs all dead, but not without a grave cost. Even the healing magic of the four clerics present couldn't save five of the members of the other group, which had been attacked by the Orcs.

They had been killed in a single strike, with no time to heal them or save their lives.

"Headcount." The Captain of Karl's group asked wearily.

"One down, seriously injured and recuperating." Their cleric replied.

"Five dead, including the Major, two injured." The other cleric replied.

The Captain sighed and shook his head. That Orc attack had been too much. From the moment that they had killed two Ascended Golems in a matter of seconds, he knew that there would be casualties, but losing a Major, the other Ascended warrior here, had been unexpected.

The second group couldn't continue alone without him. It was simply too dangerous out here to allow them to go on without an Ascended Rank leader, especially with their diminished numbers.

While the soldiers mourned the loss of their own, and the clerics did last rites, while finishing the healing of the wounded, Karl searched the bodies. The two-handed blade had bonded with him, and when he thought of dismissing it, it vanished, but remained available as a presence in his mind, similar to the beasts, but just present, and not in a space.

There were magical blades on all the Orc warriors, which made him wonder where they had come from. Even for an elite group, that was too well armed. They had faced Commander Rank Ogres before, and they hadn't been anywhere near this level of equipped.

But the blades were almost all they had. There were no coins on the bodies, and their decorations were all made of bones and teeth. Even their armour was hardened monster leather, though it was tattered now, and unsalvageable.

Alice came over to inspect the bodies, while the clerics came to inspect the weapons Karl had gathered, after stopping to pat and congratulate Thor, who was celebrating the fact that he had been a Cerro Knight for the battle.

"These blades are all magical. Most of them are just common grade enhanced blades, but this one is a blade of Skill. It will reduce skill cost use." Tessa explained.

Karl smiled. It was the second time that he had observed that effect, and the other blade was in the hands of Bob Mackenzie.

"Did you need it, Elite?" The Captain asked Karl when he noticed the smile.

Karl shook his head. "I bonded with the two-handed blade I took off the Champion."

Tessa made a grabby gesture, and Karl took it out to hand to her. She turned it over in her hands, reading the inscriptions, and becoming increasingly confused.

"I have no idea what that is supposed to do. It says the effect is called the Champion's Reaping, but there isn't a description, and the other runes don't make much sense. They're in Orcish, not the common magical language, but I am at least a little familiar with them." She explained.

"That's alright, I know what it does. It's a form of life drain." Karl explained.

Tessa nodded, then handed the blade back. "Life Drain is good. Is it the healing or the strengthening sort?"

"Strengthening, I think. I wasn't injured to start with, but it didn't feel like healing." Karl replied.

"That might be even better for you, at least for now. You have a whole team with you, and the Refreshing Lightning, which slowly heals you on its own. So, having a stacking combat damage effect will make you more effective in a battle.

We will have to examine these bodies more closely, as I have reason to think that they might be close to peak Ascended Orcs, but if command decides that they were low Commander Rank, there will be extra awards for everyone, including the families of the fallen." Tessa announced.

"I can store them as well, so we can drop them at the base camp for someone else to decide." Karl suggested.

Alice shook her head. "Unless one of the beasts wants them, there is no need. They will accept Tessa's judgment on the matter. The outcome of the battle should be enough for them to understand just how dangerous this situation was, especially when they struck in the middle of another battle."

The four clerics all examined the bodies, with increasingly grave expressions.

"We would say that there were two Commander Rank Orcs, and four high Ascended ones. This needs to be reported to the base camp. It is way outside the threat assessment for the area." The cleric that had come with their army unit announced.

The Captain nodded and began to send the message back to Command.

He nodded along with whatever their response was, and then his face turned severe.

"They say that there are no other signs of monsters outside the danger rating, so we are to merge units and continue with our mission." He informed the group.

That wasn't quite what the second group had been hoping to hear. They had just lost half their team, close friends and comrades. Continuing the mission was the last thing they wanted to do today.

The first thing that needed to be done was to dig proper graves for the soldiers, and redistribute their supplies. Fortunately, they had a few skilled mages, who could dig proper graves with magic, while Thor used his horns to throw the Goblins into a number of huge piles in the middle of the camp.

He just used his upper horns like a shovel, as the Goblins had died in waves. He pushed them together into piles, gathered close enough that they would burn and leave the area cleansed.

The unit gathered for the last rites, standing in orderly lines with the civilians off to the side. The priests attached to the units gave a Eulogy before the bodies were lowered, and the soldiers shovelled the grave full again.

Once everything was finished, they lit fire to the piles of Goblins, and the second team tossed the fully looted bodies of the Orcs on top of the piles.

Hawk went back on patrol once the fires were burning, to see what would be drawn to their position by the fire. Many monsters would come either for the smell or the smoke, and they didn't want to end up surrounded.

[East is clear. If you go that way, you can get away from the things coming, and then fight with a small group of Ogres, weak ones.] Hawk suggested.

[Close enough for me.]

Karl relayed the messages, and the Captain got everyone moving, moving away from the battlefield with the promise of easier fights to come. It wasn't much, but anything had to be better than this battle had been, they assumed.

After fifteen minutes, they came across the Ogres, three juvenile Awakened Rank males, which the enraged and grieving soldiers tore into with everything they had to give. It seemed to work, and once the battle was over they were more focused, and it was time to head back to the base camp for the night.

Forward Command hadn't prohibited them from returning, and the unit needed the normalcy for the night, so the Captain turned the back for the camp, intending to be there before dark.