Chapter 279: Hawk Gets The Stragglers

"What does Hawk say?" Lotus asked as they prepared to move out.

"He says no easy fights today, he's going to take care of the lone stragglers, the severely injured and the trainees, but there are plenty of Frost Giants retreating from yesterday's battle toward one of their cities that will be crossing our path.

As long as the main force doesn't pull back to rescue them, we should be fine to hunt at will. Hawk will keep an eye on them for us, but the chances are they will never know that there is an issue until it's all over." Karl explained.

Remi's voice whispered in Karl's mind, as if she was trying to hide it from the other beasts.

[We should keep going into Frost Giant land. I can feel an incredibly strong shaman energy there, and I want it.]

[Wouldn't that be a Frost Giant Shaman? What good would a living Giant do you?] Karl asked, considering the fact that the Shaman in question might well be an Overlord Rank monster.

[No, not a person, a thing. I can feel it.] She insisted.

[Well, we will see what we can do, but if it's days away, that's too far for us to leave our area.]

Remi pouted as she realized that they wouldn't be taking a multiple day detour to go find her the thing she could sense, but she didn't stop working, and kept her blizzard active and low enough not to damage the Ascended Rank or stronger Frost Giants they were hunting.

If they weren't hurt, they would think it was just a snow storm, or at least that was the theory.

The first target they found was a lone Commander, lightly injured. Unfortunately for the Giant, it never even realized that Rae and her Golems were stalking it before it was dead.

Then came an injured trio, who Karl marked with an arrow before the Spider Golems got to them.

In fact, for most of the morning, it was the Karl and Rae show, and everyone else was just out for a walk in the snow. Nothing was living long enough to have a proper fight.

But, it was valuable work. They were eliminating the survivors of the failed attack before they could get to safety or heal themselves and rejoin the fight.

Around lunch, Hawk came back to take a break while the Giants who had noticed him attacking stragglers either calmed down or gave up on searching for him. They had been chasing him for hours, but the bird had been hiding among the trees to ambush the weak and then racing away.

At this point, the Giants likely hated Hawk just as much as he despised them, and it felt like an oddly balanced situation as the exhausted bird took a short nap in his space while he recovered his mana and strength with a good meal and some sleep.

In the middle of the afternoon, after taking a few detours to pick up loot that Hawk's targets had left behind, they were headed back for the nearest main line, and Thor was again loaded up with equipment, while Karl's loot bag held the good bits.

There were a surprising number of nearly identical weapons, which they hadn't seen during their previous days at the other front, though these Giants had been coming from that direction. The change and uniformity of the gear implied that they had been keeping them in reserve for the main line force, to increase their attack capabilities.

It was a solid tactic, but they had failed to create a breach.

[Regional Command, this is team 95988, we are headed to your location for a supply drop this evening. Look for the Lightning Cerro as our marker.] Karl broadcast to their allies.

Remi would drop the blizzard once they were close to visual range of the camp, so they didn't get themselves bombarded, and then they would walk in from the same area where they took out the artillery team the previous night.

As they got close to the ridgeline where they had eliminated the artillery team, Karl spotted a five-man team of Elites searching the area.

[Remi, you can end the blizzard. We've found the first scouts.] He instructed.

As the snow faded, they continued their jogging pace, headed straight for the scout team. Tessa raised a hand from Thor's back to let them know they were friendly, while Rae remained a bit behind with Dana on her back.

The Bloodbath Spider had switched riders for the day so that the Golems could all be coming from one direction, even though that meant leaving her pocket healer behind. She wasn't big enough to carry them both, or rather she couldn't carry both comfortably due to her body shape, though she was large enough for them both to fit, so she had chosen to only take one rider at a time.

"Identity?" The scout team asked as they approached.

"Commander Karl with team 95988."

The scout smiled and gestured to the wreckage of the battle. "We've been finding signs of your work all over the region today. Dead Giants left everywhere, and even a large group of Yetis that looked like they died last night. Have you been that busy, or is there another team out here?"

Karl shrugged. "We've been busy, but I can't say for certain that there wasn't another team out here. I didn't know that you were here until just a minute ago."

The scouts finished taking notes on the destruction, then turned back to Karl. "I hear that you're coming back to the base for the evening. Can I ask what you're short on, so we can get it ready for you?"

Karl shook his head. "We're short on storage space. We loot the Giants so that they can't reuse the equipment of the dead, and we've got numerous weapons and magical armour with us. I just need to drop it off for credit, and we will be on our way again."

"Weapons? We've come across a few, but most of what the Frost Giants carry is just junk strengthened with their magic when it's time to fight." The scout replied.

"We found a number of matching enchanted blades today. Here, check that out. Simple, but effective." Karl explained.

The scout examined the weapon with great interest. It was a large sword for a human, a short sword for a Frost Giant, but surprisingly light, and Karl was right, the enchantment was basic, just enough to make it cut as if it were a Commander Rank weapon.

It was the sort of thing that the army would issue to line soldiers if they had the ability to make them in large numbers.

"How many of these did you recover? Because we could use these for the warriors of the scout teams." The soldier asked, eager intensity growing in his eyes as he imagined the possibilities.

Karl turned to Lotus, who was sitting closest to the bags on Thor's back.

"Um, about thirty, I guess? There's a bunch of other gear in here, and I lost count." The Nature Priestess apologized.

Identical items normally wouldn't equip for the same person, so keeping a spare set of Giant Strength Gloves or wearing two sets, one inside the other, simply didn't work. That had led to them loading a lot of gear into the storage bags on Thor's back now that they all had a copy of what the Giants had to offer.

At least the parts of it that they could use. Dana was somewhat disappointed to learn that she couldn't use the Ring of Giant Strength.

The Giants also weren't very creative with their gear, and it was just the same thing in different appearances on every Frost Giant that happened to have a magical item. If they were trying to improve their own gear, Karl would have felt like he got scammed. However, as they could keep trading it in until every Elite they met had Frost Giant gear on, it was a great money making opportunity for them.

The scout shook his head in dismay. "You lot are monsters. We haven't even killed thirty Commanders this week, and here you are bringing us back thirty Commander Rank swords for the day."

Lotus giggled. "Technically, a bunch of these came from last night, when we came here to avoid that cold front that moved through the other main line. We weren't about to get caught out in that, so we came here and took care of that artillery group by special request right before dark."

The scout made notes, and then gestured toward the south. "We should get moving if you want to get your gear sorted in time to pick a camping spot outside the main line tonight. You know how it is, if you're there when the attack starts, you tend to get stuck on the main line."