Chapter 299: They Ran Away
What Hawk found in the Frost Giant city was not at all what anyone had been expecting. The city itself was nearly demolished, with a large breach in the wall that faced the Ash Wastes near the volcano.
He was not the first one there, the Elementals had beat him to it, and from the look of it, they had either taken the city or done enough damage to make the civilian population retreat. There was still a sizeable military contingent nearby, so the Elementals might not have won the battle, but the city was demolished anyhow.
That began a search for the summoning spot. If he could find that, they could smash it and stop the reinforcements entirely. There was nobody on this team who wanted to leave more than Hawk did, and that included Remi, who couldn't survive the cold for long in her current state.
The logical place for him to start was where the remaining Giants were. If they were still being summoned, the stones had to be there.
But there was no big stone, no Giants standing in a circle to cast a ritual spell, just a bunch of weak Frost Giants standing in rows.
[Hey, these Frost Giants are strange. They're not identical to each other.] Hawk informed Karl.
[Of course they're not. There is a whole city full of them. How is the military situation there?] Karl replied.
[The city is empty and most of the buildings are smashed and burned. All that is left are a few Awakened and Ascended Giants standing around outside, but they're the ones who aren't identical.] Hawk explained.
[Do you see the path where the other Frost Giants left? They must have sent the ones who can't fight, the very young and the elderly, out of the city when things got bad.] Karl asked.
[Yes, back further into their lands. Lots of them went that way, too many to tell by footprints.]
[And they're gone over the horizon already, even from your altitude?] Karl confirmed.
[Long gone. Not even traces left, except the stomping that broke all the little bushes and flattened the snow.]
[That is excellent news. If we can find where they were summoning from, we might be able to gain another statue.]
Hawk snorted in annoyance. [I am looking. It's not by the soldiers, and it's not in the fields near the city, but there aren't any more Frost Giants.]
[Well, there is a chance they took it with them when they left. But we will head there tomorrow and clear the area if there is a small enough group left for us to fight.]
[That sounds good. There can't be more than three hundred left, but they're almost all Awakened, and they don't even have the good weapons with them.] Hawk agreed.
Now, Karl just needed to sell the idea to the others, who would naturally be very wary of approaching a Frost Giant city, even if it looked abandoned.
They might not have taken their slave species, who would have been ordered to defend what was left, and whatever took the city would not be happy to see random humans either, so no matter what they ran into, it was likely to end badly for them.
Karl didn't realize that everyone was watching him so intently until he turned to talk to them, with the intent to sell them the plan to go check the Frost Giant city.
"Well, out with it. I can tell that it's a bad plan already, but we might need to do it." Bob insisted.
"The Frost Giants have abandoned their city after it was attacked and mostly razed to the ground. That is why the number of attackers dropped today, they were too busy fighting to send anyone to the front lines.
However, there is still an Awakened Rank garrison of Giants there, plus any slave species or possible attackers who might still be in the city.
What I am thinking is that we need to find out if they managed to take the summoning materials with them, or if they were destroyed in the attack." Karl began.
Bob nodded. "Because if they left with them, the attacks won't slow, they will just be reinforced from a new direction, and that doesn't help us at all.
But if the materials were destroyed, the Frost Giant front lines could very well be in full collapse within the week.
They've already lost most of their summoning ability with the spots near the front lines that were destroyed, and while they could theoretically make more, if it were just that easy, there would have never been peace with them."
"Exactly. Now, is there anyone who has a good reason why we shouldn't at least go check it out tomorrow?" Karl asked.
Tori rolled her eyes as she glared at him. "Other than the fact that you're insane, that is a suicide mission, it's a city full of Frost Giant Magic traps and possibly thousands of lesser ice monsters?"
"Yeah, other than the obvious. Hawk says the city is mostly empty, and I really do want to know what they did with the summoning equipment. If it's destroyed, that's perfect. But Hawk can't tell from the air, there's just no sign of it." Karl explained.
The mage looked around for support, but everyone else was either resigned to the fact that they were going to have to search for the summoning location, or kill off the rest of the Frost Giants in the area and then wait to see where the next batch were coming from.
"Alright. I suppose it's not actually more dangerous than fighting them in the fields, as long as the city is actually empty. Hawk wouldn't lie to us about that, would he?" Tori asked.
"No. If there was anything to kill there, he would have informed me. So, anything that is still in the city is in hiding." Karl replied.
Tori looked suspicious, but Doug had a knowing smile.
"If he had found anything alive in the city, he would be hounding Karl to go kill it. Hawk hates all things water and ice element. He wouldn't hold out and miss a chance to attack them." He explained, while straightening his robes to check them for stains.
Karl began to draw out a new map in the dirt, relaying what Hawk was telling him about the situation, and the lack of new Frost Giant reinforcements from the city, as well as the location of the forces that were still in the area.
He would return before it got dark and the glow of the Elementals would give them away, but for now, he wasn't seeing any of them lingering in the area at all.
Of course, there was a chance that the city had been destroyed by something else, like one of the other Dragons that they had upset, but as it had happened while they weren't watching, they would have to get someone more skilled in forensics to make the determination.
Hawk knew that the walls were breached and the houses burnt, but that was about the extent of his analysis ability when there were so few bodies visible during his high altitude scouting loop.
"This is the situation now. The remaining forces are here by the wall, and there is a flat section of ice there which should be a lake. There are entrances to the city here and here, both of which are open, and the wall is breached here, closest to the volcano, and there is a smaller breach on the other side of the city.
The bodies are most prevalent near the wall breach nearest to the volcano, but there are some scattered all through the city.
Hawk reports that there is a stomped down section of land headed over the horizon in this direction, which we can assume is the refugees. Is there more that we need to know, or can I call him back for the evening?" Karl asked.
Bob pointed to a spot behind the city. "There is a valley there, roughly round, like a crater. Can you have Hawk check it out before he returns? It's not part of the normal search area, but there is a chance that the Summoning might have been done there to keep it out of sight of the scouts."
Hawk flew over the area a few minutes later, and relayed his findings back to Karl.
[There might have been something here. There are signs that Giants were in the valley recently, but there is nothing there now except fresh snow and fog.]
"No sign of occupation, but you were right, they were there recently. Why, we can't tell, as they didn't leave anything that Hawk can see from the sky, but they were there." Karl relayed.
"Well, that's one more spot to search. Central Command is going to owe us big time for this one."