Chapter 197: Morning Formation

Once everyone was down, Karl slid down the ladder like a rope, and checked his pack to make certain that it was properly secured.

"We have twenty minutes to get back to the camp, no rush. They will be gathering for formation in thirty minutes." Alice informed them, and started heading back.

Karl took his position at the front, using his enhanced eyesight to watch for any threats, but this close to camp, there was nothing to see. Not even the local wildlife dared to venture too close, in case they became a supplementary food product.

The team seemed to be in much better spirits today, but Karl noticed that the Captain now had red badges on his uniform instead of gold. There were still two silver bars for his rank insignia, so he didn't get busted down from Captain, but it looked like he was on official punishment for however the meeting went the night before.

"There is a meeting with the base Commander before we head out. The whole base, except scouts, are to be in attendance." The Captain greeted them as Karl's group reached the barracks that the others had built last night.

Alice nodded. "Understood. We have Hawk scouting, so we will know what to expect before we head out today. Give him an hour, and he will cover everywhere that we can reach on foot."

The Captain nodded, and led their team to the meeting point, where the other units on station seemed to smirk a little as they cleared the way for him to take the place of honour at the front right of the formation.

It had been deliberately left open for them, a not so subtle nod to the fact that the other units agreed that he had been right, but the real shock was when the Base Commander and his adjutant came out.

The Base Commander was wearing Captain's bars, the same as their unit leader, but his collar was loose, and his jacket unbuttoned. His face was bruised and swollen, and from the looks of his shirt, his ribs were wrapped, which would explain the open coat. The adjutant wasn't in any better shape, and Karl could see that his hands were bandaged, and he was limping.

They had healers on base. Lots of them. So if he was still in that bad of shape, the Captain either beat him near to death, or the healers refused to work on him, which would be a massive case of insubordination.

"Attention." The Sergeant at the front of the formation called, bringing everyone to order as the Commander took the stage.

The wounded man cleared his throat and put on a stern face, as if everyone couldn't see that he still had one eye mostly swollen shut.

"It has been brought to my attention that our limited patrol radius has led to some inadequacies in the way that the threat level of the region has been assessed." He began.

That was the understatement of the day.

"As such, we will be reordering our patrols, beginning today. The new routes and zones are up on the board. I will expect a full report on every zone on my desk by zero four hundred tomorrow morning. That is all."

He stepped down off the crude stage, flinching at the pressure on his ribs, and the Sergeant dismissed everyone, sending them off to find their new patrol routes.

Just as they were yesterday, Karl's group was assigned to "Threat Mitigation" also known as the roaming groups. They would go wherever there were reports of more dangerous monsters, and deal with them before they became a threat to the base.

Yesterday, there weren't any recorded, so they just wandered. But today, Hawk had a rather interesting list ready for them.

He had found all sorts of monsters. Big groups, little groups, powerful loners, small groups with a powerful leader. A bit of everything, as should have been expected of a region where only the sector closest to the base had even been patrolled.

They exited the base so that their reports didn't scare the Awakened and Common Rank troops that had been stationed here, and then the Captain turned to Karl for the scouting details.

"If we start at the south, we have two groups of Ascended Ogres, both small groups. Then we have a Goblin Camp, this time with no other large monsters nearby. After that, continuing west around the zone, we have a group of Lizardmen with an Ascended leader, then a group of four Awakened Rank Giants. I will update you if that positioning changes." Karl informed him.

"You heard the man. Let's go clean up this mess before the Inquisitors get here and start to waste our time." The Captain announced.

For matters between Elites of the same Rank, the church usually stepped in if they couldn't settle it peacefully. If the Inquisition was coming, either the Base Commander had filed a complaint about being beaten senseless, or the Captain had filed a complaint for negligence and incompetence leading to the death of Elites.

Possibly both.

The first group of Ogres was one that was on patrol during the night, and Karl was happy to get rid of them so that they couldn't report back to whatever had sent them to scout the area.

They were still continuing their route, circling the base, when the group caught up to them, and the Ogres brought out their secret weapon. They had managed to obtain a military issue riot shield somewhere, probably from a group that was forced to flee, and the larger of the two charged straight at Karl.

Karl left his regular blade sheathed, and took out the bonded two-handed sword, to better deal with the larger target.

He charged it with [Shred], and used his enhanced strength to swing at the shield of the charging Ogre.

As should have been expected of an Awakened Grade Riot shield, it was sliced smoothly in half by the enormous blade, taking the Ogre's lower arm with it.

Then Karl put his shoulder down to duck under the Ogre's club, and charged forward to do his best impression of a shoulder toss on a creature twice his height.

Then he called Thor out, and the Cerro appeared behind the other Ogre, who was startled into stopping and attacking the incoming ball of Thor's tail, which brutally transmitted an [Earthquake] through the Ogre's body.

The sound of cracking bones was clearly audible to everyone, but before the Ogre could do anything to defend itself, the first wave of attacks from the Mages was there, and the Ogre was dead.

The Captain cleared his throat. "Good work everyone. Collect the heads, we will need proof of our kills for the next few days."

That just about settled the debate about what was going on with the Base Commander. If they really did return with a bunch of Ascended Rank and higher trophies, he would be on the hook for not doing his job. The Captain would still likely get charges for beating him, but they were both the same Military Rank, so it wouldn't be as serious as if he had hit a superior officer.

"Keep moving. If they've got anything valuable on them, hold on to it, and we will sort it all at the end of the day. I want a productivity record today. We will show them who doesn't know what a Commander Rank monster looks like." The Captain insisted.