Chapter 364: Battered But Not Beaten

The demise of the traitors marked the end of the Hill Giant force's plans, and they began to back away from the attacking force, disengaging from combat before those further down the line began to retreat out of artillery range.

That was good enough to call it a win for Karl, so he just waited for the Hill Giants to run away as he did his best to absorb the massive influx of life force that his blade was giving him. It merged smoothly with the power cores in the spaces, and they were quickly coming to a peak again, but there was more power coming in, so he was going to have to spread it through the spaces soon, and start reforming the cores once more to continue the process. They had to be getting close to peak Commander now, with Rae advancing her species traits to Royal Rank, but Karl couldn't feel the bottleneck that he knew was coming when he reached the peak and had to learn how to adjust his power to Royal Rank.

Once the Hill Giants were a safe distance away, Karl made his way back to the group and took out his Maul to open a new hole in the wall. They would have to do something about that eventually, as the next group of Hill Giants to arrive would also take shelter behind it.

That wasn't Karl's problem, the Academy had Earth Mages as well, and they could disassemble the wall with ease once nothing was protecting it and the magic barriers had faded.

With the battle over, Tessa and Thor began the work of looting the good bits, as did many of the others who were in suitable shape for some scavenging. Loot was loot, and the group was loading Thor's bags with anything magical.

By the time that Karl made it to the line, most of the fallen had been brought back to life, and only one body bag was being carried away on a stretcher. It wasn't one of the team members that Karl knew, which was a small blessing, but a lot of the attack team were looking even worse than he was.

They slowly made their way back to the line, moving at the speed of an exhausted mage. It was the only pace where nobody was left behind, as many of them were supporting each other while the healing spells worked their magic.

Healing magic closed wounds quickly, healed muscles and bones more slowly, but the aches and pains usually lingered.

If they really wanted, the clerics could heal a body full of broken bones in a second, but the mana requirement was extreme, and as Karl understood it, the healed body often suffered from lingering trauma and phantom pains that were more severe than if it were healed more slowly.

So, it was sometimes necessary to save a life, but they did their best to avoid it.

As they approached the Academy defensive line, all of the students and the reserve soldiers who had been called up stood to salute the returning Elites.

Nobody had expected that fight to go even remotely well, but still, they had volunteered.

The Headmaster himself came up to welcome them back and check everyone for damage, to assure himself that they were fit to continue their duties.

"Welcome back, everyone. You have the rest of the day off, so go get something to eat and some rest to let those freshly healed wounds settle." He greeted them.

"Thank you, Headmaster. We could use both. Plus an armourer with magical repair skills. I'm told that my gear can be fixed, even in this bad of shape." Karl replied.

"Well, that bad of shape might be more than most can hope to fix, but we will get someone on it right away. All of you are in need of repairs, and bondable equipment is in short supply these days."

As they were talking, Generals Stonewall and Jackson came jogging over, looking positively overjoyed at the outcome.

"Commanders, Ascended Elites, wonderful work out there. You have defied every expectation that we had for your abilities." General Jackson announced the moment he arrived.

"General Jackson, it's good to see you again. The Elites really did work wonders today, especially the healers. But we should get some food in us before we start answering your questions. I know that you must have a lot of them for us." Karl offered.

The Generals paused as they took in the battered state of the Elites and nodded silently.

"Please, forgive our enthusiasm. We are having a proper meal prepared now that the trailers have arrived, and the butchering is well underway."

Karl nodded. "I had my beasts gather a huge amount of meat for the stockpile as well, multiple trailers worth, and all from the beasts that are considered fairly tasty." He didn't stop walking, and just continued on to the mess hall, where they had a number of large pressure cookers making stew for dinner, and a new addition to the mess hall, dozens of baking sheets in the newly created smokers cooking what appeared to be fresh dinner rolls, so they didn't have to eat the strange canned bread or hardtack.

The armourers were waiting there for the strike team as well. They were not usually considered combatants, and were mostly Awakened Rank soldiers who had gained crafting based classes, with a few clerics who had repair skills mixed in. "If everyone can change out of their armour and pass it over, we will have one of the armourers look it over. We will salvage as much as we can, but we will pass it all back to you when we're finished, even if we can't repair it back to perfect before tomorrow.

We have plenty of supplies, but it looks like a lot of your gear is completely demolished." One of the men with a Staff Sergeant's chevrons on his arm announced.

It didn't take long for them to change, and the supply staff had sent as many armourers as there were team members. It might be the majority of their team, given how much gear was destroyed compared to an average day, but it shouldn't be all of them.

As much as they needed the gear fixed, they didn't want to leave the others without a single repairman.

Lotus and Tessa stepped forward, and Tessa addressed the armourers. "We will take care of our team's gear if you provide the materials. We have the skill to fix everything that they have been using." "Of course, just let us know what you need. The whole armoury is available to our Commander Rank members and High Priestesses." The Sergeant informed them.

Tessa gave Karl a wink that said she would be taking advantage of that to fix absolutely everything to the best standard that she could, and Karl was eager to see it in action.

It was a blessing of the War Goddess, but she hadn't needed to use it since they met, as their armour had only gotten a little battered in that time, and it was mostly the cloth or leather items that needed mending.

Those were Lotus' specialty as a Nature Priestess, though Karl suspected that Doug could do it better now that he had advanced.

The staff brought out bowls of stew for the early dinner, along with a load of the fresh buns, which were much denser than they looked, more like a scone or breakfast biscuit.

It made sense, they were line cooks, not a bakery, and they needed to make thousands of them per meal, so there was no time to let a nice fluffy bun rise.

But the stew was just fresh meat, plus potatoes, onions and carrots. All of which tasted right when they were prepared for storage. It was simple, but nutritious and filling, and everyone prepared to head back to their bunks well-fed and ready for sleep.

Of course, that wouldn't be happening quite so soon for any of Karl's team. Morgana was still limping from a leg injury, Lotus and Tessa were going to repair the gear, while Ophelia was too wound up from her Berserker Rage and Dana needed to meditate.

One of the Mage Class teachers spoke up as the Elites began to rise from their tables. "Before you go, we have the books prepared for anyone who can use them. Terrorize and Brutality. We're told they work best for those with animal aspects, so the Clerics are all trying them, with variable results."

The Druid who had been an Owlbear for most of the battle looked stoked at the news, as he could go fully animalistic, but most of the others dismissed the comment as unlikely to help them.

"You might need to be in animal form, even if it's just a bit of scale or an eye transformation, to get the books to work. They were designed for beasts and are only cross compatible with humans." Karl added, so nobody would miss out.