Chapter 4

“Moknach! We got something!”

Themis and her party turned their attention towards the spotter as his voice rolled down the mountainside. Moknach looked up from where he and Josin were helping Penn out with their survey equipment. Themis started putting away the survey equipment set up around her, listening closely for any instructions.

“What did you see?” The expedition leader asked.

“Red signal, Sounding Shot.”

“Damn it!” Moknach cursed, “Drop everything – we’re getting out of here!”

“Which way?”

The wind whipped over the slope as Moknach looked around them. The expedition had just rounded the bend where the future highway would make its way below a high mountain pass. One option would be to descend the mountainside and hope that they could elude the Frost Giants in the rocky gorge below. The other option was to try and make it to Feoh Raizo, which was roughly ten kilometres northeast.

“Feoh Raizo,” Moknach told them. “Once we’re in, we should be safe – I got no idea how long these Giants will chase us for if we head down.”

The expedition leader sent Josin to make sure the rest of the expedition started to move in the right direction. Their spotter came down from his perch on the jagged outcropping of stone above, jogging up to them.

“We’re in trouble,” he said.

“More trouble than we were in thirty seconds ago?” The furrow on Moknach’s brow deepened.

“Looks like some bad weather’s coming down from the north,” he said. “It’ll be on us in less than ten minutes.”

They turned their heads up at the mountains looming overhead. Ominous grey clouds were beginning to fill the evening sky, obscuring the icy peaks. It felt as if they were roiling down towards them like a cascade of thick mist.

“What do we do?” The spotter’s worried voice was half-obscured by the rising wind.

“What can we do?” Moknach said, “It’s not as if we can Message Mare to come and change the weather. Let’s go.”

They set off at a run along the slope. Within minutes, the cool evening air turned frigid, and snow started to blow lightly down from above. Themis couldn’t believe how quickly things had taken a turn for the worst.

“Does anyone need cold protection spells?” Themis called out.

She stopped to cast Protection from Elements on the two who raised their voices. In the growing darkness, the red flare of another signal arrow went up in the distance, then another on the opposite slope of the pass.

“I think they’re trying to split them up,” Moknach peered out behind them.

“Will it work?”

“I don’t know,” he replied. “It’s worth a shot. What’s more concerning is that there’s enough of them that the Rangers think they’ll split up in the first place.”

“I really didn’t need to hear that,” Penn’s voice shook.

They continued trudging their way up the slope. The mountain that marked the entrance to Feoh Raizo had disappeared entirely, obscured by the increasingly inclement weather. Themis raised her shield to block the stinging grains of ice from her face, then staggered as a freezing surge nearly blasted her off of her feet.

She gritted her teeth and leaned forward against the wind.

“Penn!” She shouted, “Let’s make our way up together–”

Themis looked to her right, but the Sorceress wasn’t there. Her eyes followed the marks in the accumulating snow to where Penn had tumbled down nearly a hundred metres from the sudden gust. She was in the path of the other Adventurer parties slowly converging with them, however, and they helped her back up.

Another blast of stormwind drove the expedition members to their knees, and they went to their hands and feet to avoid being blown away.

“How far are we from Feoh Raizo?” Themis called out into a lull in the wind.

“Ten minutes from where we started,” Moknach replied.

She looked behind them. The air was still clear enough that she could see their abandoned survey equipment less than half a kilometre away. With the weather progressively getting more severe, the simple trek that shouldn’t have taken more than an hour for the expedition members had turned into a slow and dangerous undertaking. One could only hope that the Frost Giants were similarly impeded by the storm, but the timing of their appearance made it seem like they had been waiting for it.

The ground trembled, and a dull rumble filled the air. As one, the Adventurers turned in the ankle-deep snow, guards raised. They peered westwards, trying to discern what lay beyond the veils of blowing snow.

“What do you see?” Moknach shouted.

Themis couldn’t make anything out at all. Beyond a few hundred metres, she may as well have been trying to look through a wall. The evening continued to rapidly darken until it felt like night had fallen prematurely upon them. They looked towards the spotter, who only shook his head in return. Moknach called for them to resume their march.

This is insane – how does anything live here?

The citizens of E-Rantel considered the gloomy forests at the edges of the cultivated lowlands a dangerous realm where Humans did not belong, but those forests had nothing on this. It was as if the mountain itself was actively assailing them, closing its icy grip upon them like an unyielding vice. Over the next ten minutes, the snow built up to their knees, slowing their progress even further. Once in a while, someone would slip on the hidden patches of ice formed by the sudden advent of the storm.

“What the – how are you guys only this far?”

She turned her head to find Pool settling into a walk nearby. The Ranger had been stationed halfway between the expedition and Merry. Had he not raised his voice, she wouldn’t have noticed his approach at all. Dirty-white equipment cloaked him from head to toe, making him look like a pale ghost against the snowy backdrop in her Darkvision.

“How far are we?” Moknach said.

“Uh…not even two kilometres from where you left your stuff,” Pool replied.

“What about the Frost Giants?” Penn asked.

“I’m not sure anymore,” Pool answered. “Merry said that the initial report was at least thirty-one Frost Giants. Two of the Rangers went to try and lead them in the wrong direction, but we still have at least half of ‘em coming this way.”

“You met up with Merry?” Moknach glanced over his shoulder, “Where is she now?”

“She broke off when the Frost Giants started getting closer,” Pool told him. “I dunno how long she can mess around with them for. Our arrows are useless unless we use Martial Arts that ignore the wind, but those boulders they throw sure don’t have the same problem. All we can really do is try to make them come after us and dodge like crazy.”

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“I guess if she did that, we can’t fight them up close…”

“Nuh uh,” Pool said. “No way. I got close enough that they started sending boulders in my direction too. These ones are nothing like the group that we fought against last week. Their hunters caught me hiding from over two hundred metres away – I’m pretty sure they can see through this weather, too. They really know what they’re doing: every time we repositioned to gain an advantage, they flat out countered us.”

“What about Ludmila?” Themis asked, “You mentioned everyone but her.”

“She was the one furthest up,” Pool answered. “The one that sounded the alert. Those Giants move damn fast, so they should’ve overrun her position long ago. If the bagworm hasn’t been strung up, she’s probably up to something as usual. Even if she isn’t the strongest, she’s by far the most experienced Ranger in the guild aside from Merry, and the only one with mountain training.”

Themis quietly intoned a prayer for Ludmila. She seemingly made regular visits to Surshana’s realm, but it would be better if she had survived.

“How far apart are they spread out?” Moknach asked, “Maybe we can gang up on them one at a time.”

“There might be a few minutes between them, but there’s a few moving in pairs as well. Every single one that I could get a read on was Orichalcum or stronger. Again, they move fast – this snow’s only ankle-deep for them.”

“Did any of them stand out over the rest? Like a Lord-class Demihuman?”

“Not that I saw,” Pool replied. “There was one that was in the Realm of Heroes, but the rest are between mid-Orichalcum and somewhere in Adamantite.”

Moknach grimaced as they pushed forward. Even with all of the Adventurers combined, fighting one would take so long that the next one would catch up. As the minutes passed and the snows grew waist-deep, he called the others in closer.

“We’re not going to be able to stay ahead like this,” he told them. “We’ll try and buy time for a few by putting together a delaying force – I’d like to try and save as much of this expedition’s budget as I can.”

Nervous laughs rose from the assembled men and women.

“How far are we from Feoh Raizo?” Someone asked.

“More than seven kilometres away,” Pool answered. “This storm’s cut us down to a crawl. I can try and blaze a trail for the runners, but our chances are slim at best. Do the Dwarves have defenders posted outside the city?”

“They don’t,” Moknach replied. “The entrance is a chasm in the mountainside: the city gate is underground. There was a temporary post office outside at one point, but I don’t think it’s in use anymore.”

A post office would have certainly helped. It was likely to have several Death Knights maintaining security, and every office had three Vampire Brides. Themis frowned slightly – was it right to think about the postal service in those terms?

Moknach quickly picked out several Gold-rank Adventurers and sent them ahead with Pool. Those remaining settled on a section of the mountainside where the route narrowed into a passage that hugged a sheer slope. The winds had blown a portion of the path somewhat clear of snow, leaving patches of exposed ground and snowdrifts that collected against outcroppings of stone.

Themis knelt behind one of the larger outcroppings near the back edge of the passage.

“What’s the plan?” Henrich’s voice came from beside her.

“Aside from getting them to fight in this clearing,” Moknach said from another outcropping, “getting rid of them as quickly as possible.”

“What about a standoff? We’re buying time, right?”

“Wouldn’t that basically be us getting pelted by boulders?” Moknach asked, “It’s pretty much up to them, though. If they all come storming in, we’ll just have to last as long as we can. If they start tossing rocks at us, we’ll see how long this cover will last us.”

“How long till they get here?”

The ground shuddered. Themis and Penn shot Henrich a look.

“Oh, come on!” The Fighter said, “They were already on their way.”

Dull and steady thumping could barely be heard over the wind, but they felt it under their feet. Without a view of the clearing, Themis could only vaguely guess how far away the Giant was. What sounded like two more sets of steps joined the first, and they eventually stopped. She wasn’t sure if the pressure she felt was real or imagined.

She exchanged looks with the two other Adventurers that shared the same piece of cover.

“What are they doi–”

Themis ducked after a sharp crack filled the air. Snow and gravel exploded from the ground on the other side of the outcropping.

“Are they trying to flush us out?” Penn whispered.

A half-minute later, another boulder flew in, throwing debris into the air. Henrich peeked around the corner.

“What are you doing!” Penn hissed.

After a second, Henrich pulled back.

“Buff me,” he said.

Themis frowned at the strange word. It was a term used to describe beneficial enchantments by Mare and Aura, one of many that a number of the Adventurers were starting to employ as well.

“Hurry up!”

“Why?” Themis asked.

“A hunch,” Henrich answered. “Throw on the same stuff you put on me when we fought them last week.”

“Stuff…” Penn frowned.

Themis started casting her spells, and Penn eventually followed suit. Henrich shared his ‘hunch’ with them as they did so.

“There’s six of them at the edge of the clearing right now,” he said. “They could rain boulders on us nonstop if they wanted to, but they’re not.”

“Maybe they didn’t know we were here?” Penn said.

“Well, uh, they do now,” Henrich replied, and they flinched as another boulder struck the outcropping, “but I’m pretty sure they know we’re making our stand here.”

“So what?”

“Just watch,” he said. “If this doesn’t work, maybe I can start catching up to Ludmila when it comes to stupid ideas.”

“But her ‘stupid ideas’ always work,” Themis noted.

Henrich walked out from behind the outcropping, stepping out into the clear space between the Adventurers and the Frost Giants. Themis poked her head out to watch, fully expecting Henrich to explode into a spray of gore upon being struck by another boulder. Instead, the next boulder did not come at all.

“Seriously?” Moknach said.

“What?”

Moknach walked over to Penn and Themis. No boulders flew at him as he casually made his way across.

“Henrich’s buying time,” he said.

On the other side of the clearing, the six Giants became nine. They looked at one another until one made a gesture with his bearded chin at another. The Giant nodded and stepped out to stand before Henrich. Henrich raised his shield and cocked his hammer. The both of them moved at once.

“「Smash」!”

The Giant brought his maul down in a savage arc, and Henrich dashed forward.

“「Evasion」!”

The Fighter’s form blurred, and the Giants maul struck the ground a split second after Henrich passed. Chips of stone clinked off of his dwarven plate, and the Giant stepped back as it attempted to recover from its strike. Henrich continued running forward until he found himself between the Giant’s legs.

“「Ability Boost」!”

“「Smash」!”

“「Fortress」!”

The head of Henrich’s warhammer abruptly stopped upon touching the Giant’s knee. Rather than gawk at the unexpected defence, Henrich drew back down to dodge away from a booted heel. It was strange to hear both combatants call out some of the same Martial Arts, but Themis’ eyes remained fixed on the duel.

“I thought these guys were at least Orichalcum,” Penny said. “How is Henrich holding out? He has our enchantments, but he’s still just Platinum.”

“He’s not,” Moknach replied. “We just don’t have a Mithril test yet. He doesn’t have the decades of experience that I do, but in terms of raw ability, he’s just as strong. This bastard…he stopped a dozen Frost Giants just like that. Pool and the others might make it to safety, after all.”

“But this won’t last long, can it? He’ll lose eventually.”

“He probably will,” Moknach nodded as they watched the lopsided duel continue, “but there’s an order to things between warriors when they’re facing off against one another like this. You test each other out first, then you decide after that how the fight goes. If it’s close enough, it just keeps escalating. If he manages to convince that Frost Giant that they’re a match, we might get a few minutes out of this.”

Henrich continued to weave between the Giant’s legs over the next few minutes, scoring what appeared to be a few telling blows. The Frost Giant did not fall, however: he only picked up his pace. Themis could only watch helplessly as Henrich eventually started to struggle.

“「Power Strike」!”

The maul caught Henrich full on his shield, launching him out over the side of the mountain.

Watching from their places, the Adventurers were left blinking at the sudden end of the duel. The Frost Giant’s gaze followed Henrich as he disappeared into the gloom. A few moments later, the Giant glanced back at the line of his assembled fellows, who loomed on the other side of the path like a section of E-Rantel’s curtain wall. The one who had sent him out nodded once and the Giant returned to his place in the line.

On their own side, Moknach made a great show of looking around.

“Uh, what now?” Penn asked.

“We buy as much time as we can,” Moknach answered with a smirk.