Chapter 188 Join A Patrol

188 Join A Patrol

Once the buses were loaded, they picked one and loaded themselves in the front, among the limited space that wasn't taken up with stacked supplies.

The bus seats didn't fold, but they had done the best that they could to load them with supplies, and the bus was packed from the third row back. That didn't leave much space for the five member team and their gear, but fortunately none of them was huge and burly. At least not to the point that they didn't fit in one of the narrow bus seats.

Karl took the seat closest to the door, while Hawk took a seat on the roof rack, which was also loaded with boxes of supplies for their journey. There were no off-road or particularly bad stretches between them and the base camp, so they had loaded as much as humanly possible into the vehicles for the trip.

That hid Hawk from sight from behind, and while it limited his view a little, he could see enough that he wasn't afraid of missing any threats to the convoy. The only real danger that they would face would be road conditions, as by the time that Hawk relayed them, it would probably be too late to do anything about them.

The morning was passing smoothly, with the miles flowing by outside the bus without incident, until Hawk spotted the same situation as on the way back to the Seminary Academy. There was a small group of monsters who had escaped from the containment area, and they were headed toward the road.

[They might make it to the road before the bus group gets there.] Hawk warned Karl.

"Incoming monsters ahead. They've left the containment area, and they're headed for the road ahead of us." Karl warned the driver.

The driver relayed the message, and the convoy began to slow as the lead driver spotted the same monsters that Hawk had seen thirty seconds earlier. They were right on the road now, according to Hawk, but they were no real threat, as they were all Awakened Rank.

[Take care of them quickly, and then someone will drag them out of the road so we can keep going.] Karl instructed.

That was a pleasure for Hawk. He flew up off his perch and forward to the front of the convoy to get in range, then hit them with a barrage of fireballs. The flames seemed to melt into their bodies, remaining coherent like chunks of magma, and the Ogres dropped dead, falling all along the road and in the ditches.

[Your fireballs are becoming quite impressive.] Karl congratulated him. Get your favorite novels at novelhall.com

[Fire is wonderful. I should have had fire from the start.] Hawk agreed.

"You will be assigned to the 4pm group. Their commander will have more details for you." She informed Alice as they finished the process.

"Understood. Have a good afternoon, and we will see you in a week or two."

They left the office and headed for the staging area, where the soldiers were gathered. The military insignia on Sergeant Rita's uniform got them through without any unnecessary questions, and in only a few minutes, Karl found himself looking at the largest armoured vehicle that he had ever seen.

He hadn't realized how big an artillery platform was until he first saw one up close, but Thor seemed to take the presence of the vehicle as a personal challenge. He was supposed to be the group's front line, not some metal truck with too many wheels.

[Relax, buddy. It's probably not coming with us into the wilderness, and it's certainly not agile enough to be on the front lines of a battle. It stays at the back, far away from the fight, to shoot at it.] Karl assured him.

Thor was still suspicious of the large vehicle, but decided to let the grudge rest, as long as it didn't try to steal his job.

Alice led them to a Captain, who had a group of soldiers with him ready to leave the base, and shook his hand.

"Good to see you again, Captain. I've got a proper group for you today." Alice informed him.

"Oh, and how is that?" The soldier replied with a smile for the slightly younger mage.

"We've got myself and the Sergeant, plus two clerics and a Beast Master, with three Ascended monsters bonded." She replied.

"And who is the small child?" The Captain asked, with a gesture toward Lotus, who gave him a rude gesture in return.

"That would be the Nature Priestess Lotus. She's not a child, just very short."