Chapter 358: Meat Aisle Stocked

The first group, the ones who had been ending their shift when the attack started, were rotated off the line to get some sleep, as the battle wasn't showing any signs of ending in the next few hours, but Karl's side of the line was at the point where you could call it under control.

That let them all rest a little, as they were mostly using the largest scale attacks they could at greatly reduced power to deal with the stragglers of the monster attack on their flank. Remi had cut back the power on her spells to the point that the monsters were actually making it through, but only the Ascended Rank ones. That was low enough draw that she wouldn't burn herself out before it was time to nap, as long as she still had Thor and Lotus's help with their refreshing skills.

"Having such a large area spell is a blessing in battle. I think that Thunderstorm is even larger than the Blizzard she was using before." One of the warriors noted as he stepped back from the line, letting the second rank rotate forward.

"She's a Commander now, instead of Ascended. So, the Blizzard will have expanded as well, but her abilities definitely lean toward the dispersed damage effects over exceptionally large areas. I see that there is a Shaman further down the line using nearly the same spell, but we could have used several more of them." Karl replied.

"Are there so few shamans?" One of the mages behind Karl asked.

Morgana nodded and turned to the student. "There are right now. There are only five at the Academy, including the instructor. There are many more from previous years, but the last few haven't had many shamans among them."

One of the mages chuckled. "Eighty percent of the student body is either a cleave base warrior, or a wand marked wizard. It's like we got all the repeat draws the last few years."

Mick, the bald Golem Mage, laughed. "It's like gambling. You get a streak of nothing and then something big. Our year burned up all its luck with Karl and Dana. Mostly Karl. No offence to Dana, but she did start as a basic Mage with exceptional talent. He got the broken overpowered super mark."

Karl laughed as he sent a wave of [Rend] through the wounded monsters.

"It's not that the mark is overpowered. It's the beasts. If I didn't have such a cool group of teammates, the mark would be nearly worthless." Karl informed him, making Thor stomp happily.

Remi jabbed her head repeatedly toward the blizzard until one of the mages reached out to stroke her scales. "You are doing a wonderful job, Remi. Every bit as impressive as Thor's shield, Hawk's scouting and Rae's Golems, wherever they went." Karl laughed and gestured into the distance with his next [Rend] attack. "They're over that way, hunting for things that are stronger than a wounded Ascended Rank pig.

The camp will be eating good for a while after this battle, and I'll be sure to pull a few extra beasts into my storage space so we can do another roast in case we run out of fresh goodness before the next event." He added.

"What's the next event?" The mage petting Remi asked.

"Dana and Lotus both have birthdays coming up in the next couple of weeks, only a few days apart, so we were going to celebrate them together with another barbecue. It looks like we might not have to do much begging, though. There are hundreds of dead pigs out there." Karl noted.

"Are those safe to eat?" Jimmy asked as he stood in the front row with a pike in his hands.

"The ones in the thunderstorm are. That's just lightning and water magic. They'll be fresh and clean when we go to gut them, even if they are a bit charred. I'm sure we can save at least a truckload of meat from our section of the battle."

Morgana considered Karl's words. "You have a good point. I will see if they have an insulated trailer nearby. If we can get them butchered and on ice, perhaps frozen with ice magic, we can have fresh meat instead of canned for months."

The meal rations included canned pork. Or as the Elites called it, "Stuff Posing As Meat", but it was mediocre at best. Fried and slathered with mustard it wasn't too bad, and a number of the students liked to eat it with eggs, or drowned in a cream gravy. But Morgana was not a fan.

One after another, the mages took turns petting and encouraging Remi, as it was her wide area spells that were making life so easy along this section. The range that she had with her magic was ridiculous compared to what most of the students could manage, and as a result, they were mostly just standing around, waiting for something to make it through the blizzard so they could finish it off.

But that was becoming increasingly rare, and the flying beasts had never come near their portion of the line, though they could surely have just flown over the spell effects. The thunderstorm clouds were only a few hundred metres in the air, and Hawk was flying over them constantly, looking for targets stupid or brave enough to challenge his air superiority.

The birds had mostly fled as soon as the thunderstorm went up, and the only powerful flying things were all the way down at the anti-aircraft guns, ten kilometres from their location.

But there were some Gryphons among them, and Hawk thought that might make a good companion, as it could fly, use wind magic, and walk on four legs. It was a versatile sort of monster. And it didn't use water magic.

That was why Hawk wasn't dive-bombing the overgrown mice right now. The water magic wouldn't attack him, but he would get soaked with every pass, and that was simply unacceptable.