From his hidden position in the trees, Carnivac watched as the Prince ignored the conversation between my main body and the Princess to whisper something to the Captain. The Captain then relayed those orders to a subordinate who ran to the rear of the caravan.

The soldiers started to gear up for battle, beginning with the remaining Automata. Their handlers barked orders at them and ineffectually shoved them when they didn’t move quickly enough. The Automata were sent into the tree line in order to flank our group, followed closely by their handlers. Even in a situation like this, it seemed like the leashes on the Automata were kept quite short.

The golems sat like statues until four specialized mages approached each one and began chanting spells of power and activation. The mages entered a trance in a protected area as their golems came alive. I wondered if this was a magic similar to my proxy magic and they had full control or if they could only send basic commands.

Beyond the golems, to the rear of the caravan, two huge ogres were being let out of rolling cages. Each one had multiple handlers that would jab and prod the beasts with blunted spears to move and direct them.

The ogres were somewhere between IronHide and Cyclone in height, and vaguely humanoid in shape with the proportions of a gorilla. Like a gorilla, they had a mashed nose but with beady red eyes, tiny ears, and a large mouth with protruding tusks that pointed upwards with exposed teeth. Their skin was a sickly yellowish color and covered in dirty, emerald-hued, protruding scales. Carnivac saw a control collar on the ogres, but otherwise their only clothing was a shredded loin cloth made from a patchwork of materials and bits of hanging metal.

The golems might be a concern but I was reasonably certain that our group could handle them. The ogres were going to be a bigger handful, especially if we had to fight them at the same time. There was no way that Carnivac could take on an ogre, let alone two of them at once, but he might be able to delay them to give IronHide time to deal with the golems.

He slipped out of the branches and to the forest floor. The bombs that he packed earlier would come in handy. He fixed explosives to the trunks of a couple of large trees and set the fuse. When the bombs exploded, he was already positioned further up the caravan and ready to strike at the golem mages.

The bombs exploded and the thick trunks of the trees shredded in a spray of splinters. The heavy trees crashed down, across the caravan, sending soldiers running for cover and blocking the path of the ogres and their handlers.

A couple of fallen trees wouldn’t hold them for long, already the beasts were starting to climb over the obstacles. Carnivac looked around, what else could he use? He’d used the bombs he’d brought already. He still had the smoke bombs though, could he set a trap?

He ignited two smoke bombs and threw them into the pile of fallen trees. The smoke wouldn’t last long but it should make it confusing for the ogres trying to climb over. Carnivac slipped between the branches, climbing under the trunks until he was below the lead ogre.

When it reached out to grab the trunk, Carnivac shoved upwards with one of his swords. The blade cut into the ogre’s hand and it pulled it back with a confused roar. He wasn’t able to do much damage. For the ogre, it was probably the same as a regular person grabbing a thorn.

Each time that the ogre tried to grab a different spot, Carnivac’s sword was waiting and jabbing at them again. The second ogre pushed against the first one, urged on by the jabbing spears of its handler. Carnivac readied his sword for another attack on the ogre’s hand but instead of grabbing at the tree, the ogre missed.

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As the ogre was shoved, its hand missed the tree and it crashed through the branches. The massive arm thrust through the leaves and smoke knocking into Carnivac, pinning him to the ground.

The large hand quickly pulled back thanks to a slash from Carnivac’s sword but it knew he was there. Blindly it fumbled around, reaching for him. The branches of the fallen tree that had hid Carnivac, now trapped him, preventing him from being able to move freely.

He rolled from side to side, avoiding the grasping fingers of the ogre and trying to jab at it. Frustrated, the beast roared and swiped its arm, clearing away the branches that were blocking it.

The ogre locked eyes with Carnivac, fury radiating from it, its eyes burning red with hatred. It roared at him, spit flying and showering Carnivac. He tried to scramble backward through the crushed branches and fallen trees, but was trapped.

Moving with speed surprising of a creature so large, the ogre grabbed Carnivac by the chest and wrenched him free. It pulled him up and shook him around like a doll, all the while screaming in his face.

The other ogre shoved the first one, nearly causing it to fall into the space Carnivac just vacated. The first one turned and started yelling at the second, shaking Carnivac around as it yelled and gestured with him in hand.

The handlers jabbed at the ogres again as they tried to climb around the trees themselves. The second ogre shoved the first one out of the way and continued on. The one holding Carnivac yelled at its handlers when it started getting jabbed and threw Carnivac at them.

The lead handler ducked under the incoming wolf pretender, but the ones behind him weren’t so lucky. Carnivac smashed into two human handlers, sending them crashing through the branches and to the road below.

Carnivac bounced through the branches and debris and came to rest beyond the fallen trees and onto the forest road. He did a quick assessment and nothing was too damaged. He’d been shaken around but that was about it.

He pushed himself up onto an elbow and looked around to see a pair of rough hide boots in front of him. He followed the boots up to see heavily muscled green skinned legs, a leather sarong that covered nothing from this angle, a defined and bulky chest covered in tribal paint, and the tusked and bearded face of an orc looking down on him.

“So... what do we have here?” the orc asked.

He reached down and picked Carnivac up by the back of his leather armor. Carnivac was by no means short but this brute was probably the same size as Cyclone. He easily lifted Carnivac up into the air, holding him out at arms length.

“Looks like we got a lost little puppy,” the orc taunted.

“Thork, you got that?” one of the other handlers called out.

“Yeah I got this, go ahead.”

Being held by the collar of your armor with your back to your attacker would make it nearly impossible to make any sort of effective counter-attack. Instead of attacking the orc directly, Carnivac slashed at the wrist of the arm holding him up, as if he were drawing the sword from a back scabbard.

The orc let go and dropped Carnivac, pulling his hand back but wasn’t quick enough to avoid the attack completely. The tip of his pinky went flying. The orc growled and clutched at the stump of his finger but Carnivac didn’t wait and whipped around slashing at the orc’s legs as he landed.

The orc stumbled back with a surprised shout but managed to avoid the strike. Carnivac pushed forward, slashing with his wakizashi. The orc stumbled but found his footing, grabbing Carnivac’s sword hand with his damaged hand and Carnivac’s throat with the other.

Carnivac brought both clawed wolf feet up and raked them down the orc’s chest, clawing deep gashes. Blood pooled in the fresh wounds and the orc grunted but held fast. Again, Carnivac brought his legs up but this time, he wrapped them around the arm holding his throat at the shoulder and locking the arm straight.

With his free hand, he clenched a fist and slammed it into the orc’s elbow with an Automata's mechanical strength. The blow was the same as a pneumatic hammer smashing into the joint and hyper extending it well beyond its limits. The orc screamed in pain, dropping Carnivac to grab his broken arm. Carnivac arched his back with the drop, his legs still wrapped around the orc’s shoulder. His weight and momentum pulled the orc forward and over Carnivac, smashing his face into the ground in a move similar to the Luchalibre Huracarrana.

The orc feebly pushed himself up onto a knee and glared at Carnivac in pain and fury. He opened his mouth to swear a curse but didn’t get the chance to utter it before Carnivac caught him in the temple with a spinning hook kick, knocking him out cold.

Carnivac became aware of the ogres making contact with IronHide thanks to his proxy connection. At least he’d slowed them down a bit. Maybe he could do something about the golem controllers.

He leapt over the fallen trees and through the branches, reaching the rear of the guild’s carriages. His mana was at the halfway mark thanks to all the activity, but no rest for the wicked.