Chapter 193 - The Marsh - II (2/2)
”How is it in the front?” asked Alma as they joined the others following at the back. The scouts could see that the other numbers were attracting the beasts to them which were flanking them from the sides, but due to their large numbers, they were able to hold them back. The scouts slowly looked for gaps between the beasts and joined behind the line of guardians, paladins and berserkers who made the outer line of their formation.
”It is the same as last time. Though the advance party managed to defend themselves using the artifact that Karma has, the beasts surrounded them. We will need to slowly kill them in order to join the rest. I hope that the amount of those high-level beasts we saw were all the ones in the surroundings. If more pop up from the flanks, it would be very impossible to handle them even with these numbers,” whispered Kiriti after he got close to Alma. This was something he didn't want the independent players to know especially the ones he doubted like Shadow and the other three.
”What should we do?” asked Alma tensed.
”Stick to the plan. If it doesn't work, we will attempt again after the average level of the players increases. It is still a good thing as we have many who increased to level 16 and we got a lot of resources. It isn't the worst possible outcome for the guild, but Karma would be angry,” said KIriti.
”That is the main problem. All of this was because the guild leader insisted, we help him,” said Alma.
”We go ahead and do it. Even if we lose our lives here it isn't much of an experience loss and we did recruit these numbers so that they could be used as cannon fodder. Just make the entire group rearrange by our observations of their strengths to a more effective formation. We will try and kill through them,” said Kiriti. They had the independent players and the other fight most of the time during this period to be able to evaluate the players to a certain level. Only then, they would be able to coordinate them more effectively during the main fight as they already have a decent idea of their own guild members.
The monsters ahead were gharials, horned toads and the like which were a mix of ones with good defence and offence. These could also hide in the grass and few even burrowed into the wet ground. Apart from that, they also had a higher level. So, they need small teams which could advance into the beasts and kill them when they spot some jump without much losses. Else, they would take a very long time and the advance party would get into a dangerous situation as their protection couldn't last forever. This required Kiriti and Alma to create smaller teams without drawbacks and also give them instructions to merge into larger formations when required.
They set down in the place after clearing the smaller monsters and set up tents forming a makeshift temporary camp so that they could prepare and replenish their health and mana before continuing their attacks. The number in each smaller group varied from 5 to 9 and the total number were separated into three battalions each consisting of 20 or more groups. Each battalion was commandeered by Kiriti, Alma each and the last one by two of the Ronins together.
Kiriti wanted to keep a look on Balthazar and had him in a group along with two of his own guild members. The small group was also a part of his own battalion. Balthazar ended up in a group of 7 members. He had two berserkers, a paladin, an elementalist, a warlock and a guardian. A berserker and a paladin were from the raiders. The guardian named Grand Puba was made the leader.
Puba was from the Ardent Ronins. Apart from Kiriti and Alma most of the others were members of the Ardent Ronins and they have all mostly reached level 16 during the trip. The main force of the Valhallla Raiders was in the advanced party and Kiriti had to give the leadership of smaller groups to the players in the Ronins.
The members of the Ardent Ronins had different perspectives when compared to the guild members of Valhalla Raiders like Kiriti. They were also concerned by the fact that Balthazar could cause trouble to their mission or could be a spy, but they knew that their collaboration with the Raiders was just a temporary one and they have entered this town only because of the quest of the player Karma. They would probably not continue and hence they had to have moderate attitude towards other at this stage of the game and they kept a friendly demeanour around the strong ones that they found. That was the best option for an adventurer team if they wanted to have someone join them or have collaboration with them later in the game.
”I am Grand Puba. I will lead the group. Although, no one knows about me or my skills, I will hope that you guys will listen to my instructions. You can give any advice in the situation where you think things can be done better, but I hope that you will finally listen to my orders in the end without any delay,” started Puba while introducing himself. ”Mr. Kiriti will shortly be giving us information about the plan of attack.”
”These are few things that I have observed from the scouting mission. So, listen carefully. Till now, there has been a lot of small beasts hiding in the grass and the scouts have managed to give us information about their location enabling us to know about them beforehand and fight without any losses,” said Kiriti in the team chat. ”It won't be the same any longer. We have not much idea of the terrain before. The mobility would also be much worse. We were warned to expect the water to be a foot high on the land from a few metres forward. You have all heard that the marsh has only beasts above level 15. That is right. This is considered the actual start of the Greybark marsh. The area we covered till now is just the surrounding forest.”
”So, are we just starting our mission, now? You are kidding. A few of our friends already died. Aren't they going to get compensation?” asked one of them surprised by his words. A few other piled on his question immediately.
”The guild of Valhalla Raiders and the Ardent Ronins have discussed and decided to go ahead and provide the ones who have joined and helped us in killing the beasts till this camp. It would have been hard to establish a camp if it weren't for their efforts,” said Kiriti calming the crowd.
”We need to be much more careful from now. All beasts will be stronger than us and it is best if we defeat them using attacks from a large number of players,” continued Kiriti. ”So, we need to form small forward teams to lure them from the water towards us in the beginning to reduce our effort. Be careful, they will also burrow themselves into the ground and pop up suddenly to attack. It requires quick reflexes and regrouping among the forward teams to handle such situations.”
”All right!” started Puba. ”We are a part of the forward teams. We need to get the beast to come closer to the rest of the group, so that we could take them down easily. We have two players who always have shields on them. As we are going to try and lure the beasts, the members need protection from any attack of our flank. That where I and paladin will be.”
”As forward team to avoid unnecessary troubles, it is best if we get isolated beasts. So, a member from the scout is in each of the forward team. That is where Mr. fleet-foot comes in,” said Puba pointing to Balthazar. ”Some beasts have high physical defence while some have magical defence. So, to get the aggro, we have members who can deal high physical damage like these two berserkers and the elementalist for magical damage. Warlocks as always help to mitigate the situation if multiple beasts attack by using their curses to put them at bay. Any doubts?”