Chapter 232: Swarmed

There were more sounds of combat coming their way, as if someone were fighting a running retreat, so Karl had Thor bugle out a greeting that should bring the humans their way.

If it were the other Spellswords, they should know that he had beasts with him, and if it were other Elites, they might come to what sounded like a Cerro pack for safety. The animals were herbivores, but they would fight back viciously if other monsters attacked them.

A second later, Prince Corbin was next to them, with a blood covered blade in one hand and an unconscious Rose in the other.

Tessa immediately began a Healing Prayer spell, and golden light surrounded the injured girl.

"What happened?" Karl asked.

"The damned tunnels happened. The entrances were covered in ice until we passed, and then the Yeti Clans came flooding out to fight. I killed hundreds of them until I started to run out of mana, and they broke the barrier over Rose." He explained.

If they broke the barriers of a Royal Rank mage, that meant that they likely had multiple Commanders with them, and that was bad news for everyone.

"How many are still following you?" Alice asked, forming a battle plan that didn't involve being here in the trees when the Yeti attacked.

"Not more than ten, but I ran into more that were already headed this way." He sighed.

[About thirty now, counting the ones from the other sides.] Hawk updated.

"Our scout says thirty in total, coming from three sides. The way we came from is still clear." Karl relayed.

Corbin looked suspicious. "Why are they all over us like fat kids on a cupcake, and there is no horde of angry monsters coming your way?"

Karl shrugged. "They are now that we're standing next to you. It might be a smell thing, either your magic or something about all of you."

Rae sniffed the air, but didn't detect anything. She could sense their magic, but that wasn't a long ranged ability.

The monsters spread out to circle them, roaring and grunting in a primitive language that was effective enough to arrange the battle.

"Any words of wisdom?" Lotus whispered to Karl as the monsters came into view.

"Yeah, I don't think they can climb trees, so if things go sideways, get Rae to pull you up out of sight." Karl whispered back.

The tiny Nature Priestess smiled and patted him on the back, and Karl shifted position, so that the Golems, plus him and Thor, made up the outer rank of defenders.

Prince Corbin needed a moment to catch his breath and recover his mana, while Rose was still recovering under the effects of Tessa's magic, and the other Spellswords were not tank type fighters, so they would join after the first charge was blocked.

"We could use some more room to fight." Prince Corbin sighed as he assessed the dense trees in front of them.

Thor gave a whistling snort in response, and when the first of the Yeti began to move forward, he smashed the ground with his tail, dropping a dozen trees with [Earthquake].

"Well, that's one way to do it. Alright, once the fight starts, I will clear a few more trees from our path, so we don't have to dodge them as we fight."

Rae was not a fan of that plan, she was intending to use the trees as a chance to ambush from above, but even if she had to go a few extra metres, it shouldn't hurt her tactics too much.

The attackers paused as they saw the destructive potential of the Lightning Cerro, and the formation of humans arrayed against them. The Yeti Clans might not often fight in large groups, but that didn't mean they were incapable of it, and after a few seconds, they began to shift positions, intending to swarm the two Awakened Rank Golems, which were the softest target on the outer loop.

That was a monumental mistake, as right behind them was Prince Corbin, and no sooner had the Yeti attack reached the Golems then they were sliced clean in half by a blade of wind.

The ones behind them couldn't understand what went wrong. The wind blades were nearly invisible, and with the swirling snow and fog, they had never even seen them coming. To the others, it looked like the two Awakened Rank Golems had taken out the first to attack.

So, they all charged at once, intent on overcoming the humans by pure force if a targeted strike wasn't going to work.

Thor's Circle of Protection flared, surrounding the defensive formation. That was all the courage Karl needed as he sent the strongest [Shred] that he could into the incoming wave of Yeti warriors.

[Hey, these other ones have weapons.] Hawk warned them just as Karl's [Shred] took out a trio of furred monsters.

"Hawk says that the next ones coming have weapons." Karl warned as he sent a [Rend] attack straight forward with an overhand slice.

"Yeti don't use weapons." Corbin called back as he defended the point behind Dana's Golems.

"Do you think someone forgot to tell them that?" Karl asked, using a Rend attack to highlight the fact that there were ones with weapons already in sight.

"Shit. That's not right at all." Alice cursed as she saw what Hawk was informing Karl of.

"How is our count?" Tessa called as she refreshed the buffs on everyone's weapons and stamina.

[Not more than twelve, all extra strong with weapons.]

"I don't think that the count will matter for long. Darrel and Darrin just paged for emergency rescue. They're too far from here for us to get to, but there are other Elites nearby, and they're all having issues." Corbin informed them.

He had an earbud in, so he could hear all the radio updates, and things were suddenly chaotic for everyone who was within communications range.

Karl stared down a pair of oversized yetis, who were wielding short swords in both hands, with eyes glowing like blue gemstones as they channelled magic.

Karl stepped forward to give himself room to fight, but mentally made a note of Thor's Circle of Protection. If he was going to go two on one against Commander Rank monsters, he was going to need all the help he could get.

He wasn't the only one that was about to be in trouble, all the armed monsters were Commander Rank beasts, and their ice magic was resonating with that of the ones near them, creating a swirling vortex of ice around the battlefield.

[Hawk, find us a way out of here. A nice cave, somewhere that we can't be surrounded by these things.] Karl instructed as the bird circled overhead, still scouting until he was given orders to attack.

[Got it. I will look for something.]

The creature in front of Karl turned up its mouth into a sneer, and the two attacked in unison, sending a wave of ice Karl's way.

A flick of his wrist sent a wave of flame toward them, intercepting the icicles, but most of them still made it through, slamming into his [Refreshing Lightning] barrier and draining his energy. That was the insidious part of the ice attacks, they tried to slow you until you were frozen, and they could eat you at their leisure.

Tessa's magic warmed him from the inside, and Lotus had cast a spell over the area that was counteracting the ice magic with plants, but it wasn't enough, as each of the beasts were individually stronger than she was, and their magic resonated.

Another volley was partially blocked as Karl switched to using [Rend] which had already optimized itself against the Yeti magic, and cut deep gouges into the closer of his two targets, but in return, Karl took a direct hit that punched through his lightning Barrier, leaving a bleeding wound in his side that quickly closed under the effects of Lotus' magic.

"We need to get out of here." Alice called as she took out one of the monsters fighting her Golem.

Larry was with Thor still, and Corbin was with Dana's Golems, which she was using all her focus to keep active as they took continual hits from the ice magic.

"Hawk is on it. He will have something soon." Karl called back as Rae crept down the trees to launch a surprise attack on the Yeti's back before vanishing again.

They weren't healing quickly, and within ten seconds, the blood was beginning to pool at its feet from the wound. That was a good sign, and Karl expanded [Flaming Body] to cover all of himself over the Lightning barrier.

It would break first and wouldn't be available to attack for a bit afterwards, but the fire did a much better job of negating the damage from the ice attacks, and Karl couldn't afford too many more hits like the last one.

If it wasn't for the flying spells, and the two Spellswords darting in and out to slice and chop at the beasts, it would almost look like a stalemate on the battlefield, but when Rae got a flurry of attacks into the back of the second beast that Karl was fighting, and her golems went on a Kamikaze mission to support Larry on Thor's side of the encirclement, Karl knew that it was almost time for them to go.

[When there is a chance, run to Thor's side. Five hundred metres that way is a cave with nothing inside.] Hawk explained.

"Everyone, get ready to move. Punch through on Thor's side and keep moving five hundred metres to a cave."

"Got it. I will shift sides for a hard push, you take the rear guard. Everyone else, run as fast as you can, but stay together." Prince Corbin instructed.