Chapter 846 (2/2)

“Not that this isn’t something worth talking about,” Alana said shortly, rolling her shoulders. “But someone is walking out of the ravine. Simon told me I should hurry back; I’m glad to see it wasn’t just to walk in on the last few seconds of a soap opera.”

Annie’s eyebrows twitched the way they did when she was royally pissed, but she held her tongue. She probably noticed, as Dozer did, how harried and worn Alana looked. Her armor was covered in scuffs and her leather pants were clearly splattered with blood. Although they had won their few skirmishes with the ogres and suffered no fatalities, three individuals were put out of commission until a Classer healer could mend their bodies.

And Dozer had heard that the only reason that so few were injured was that Alana was the spearhead that broke the spine of the ogre resistance.

After casting and holding Annie’s gaze for several seconds, to assure her that he would revisit this topic, Dozer walked away from the fire and peered toward the rocky opening to the ravine. As Alana indicated, there was movement there.

Dozer was one of the few people that didn’t have a real Skill that boosted his Perception. Instead, he relied on something a bit more… intuitive. Dozer believed it was part of his Soulskill, but he took a deep breath in, tasting the air. Nothing.

“They aren’t coming to fight,” Dozer said shortly. There wasn’t even the faintest tang of violence in the air.

Alana gave him a sidelong glance. “How can you tell?”

“Dozer’s always been good at sniffing out fights,” Annie said sarcastically. Or perhaps not. Maybe she meant it genuinely, but her foul mood demanded the attitude in her tone.

Not that it really mattered. Alana gave Dozer a speculative glance and then turned to look back toward the low earthen walls that obscured their gaze. The night was dark, but there was enough starlight and moonlight to make out the shapes. Slowly, back and forth, several figures were moving.

“Ma’am? Should I rouse the force?” Ptolemy asked.

Alana thought it over, then shook her head. “They need a break. Besides… let’s trust Dozer’s nose. He isn’t the hammer of Donnyton for nothing.”

“Someone’s… coming out. Toward us.” Dozer said.

Alana rolled her shoulders and produced her spear. “Well, well. Hands raised, no visible weapons; it looks like they want to parley. But what the hell do they want to say to us?”

“They want to immigrate, don’t they? To come to Earth and live on the life energy here, right?” Annie said. She gestured to the abandoned surrounding area. “They probably want to arrange for an area that they can call their own.”

“...people won’t like it, if we really do let them settle around here,” Dozer said.

“Better ogres than the frog people that will apparently connect to the Danger Zone finished in the South,” Annie pointed out. “Their bodies are covered in slime. Imagine. Me. Cover in gooey slime”

Dozer stiffened and shook his head shortly. He then took another sniff to focus on the task at hand. There still wasn’t any violence, but… something warned him that this talk would not be what they expected. In addition, as the figure walked slowly forward through the lines of fortifications, their footsteps grew louder and louder; even for an ogre, they were huge.

Finally, Alana took a step forward and held up a hand. “That’s quite close enough, I think. Well met, ogre. I am Alana. I assume you have come to speak?”

Alana’s voice was even, but Dozer knew that she was staring at the same thing that he was: Obyrn Myys, Level 79.

The towering ogre surveyed the four of them. Then, slowly, it grinned.

“Of course. I am here to discuss the terms of your surrender to me.”