Chapter 533 Old Soldiers

Chapter 533 Old Soldiers

The Cyclops never stood a chance as Karl leapt across the yard and smashed it in the back with [Disintegrate]. It was already heavily injured, and its armour was compromised.

"Thank you merchant. Were you at one of the other farms? Are they alright?" The older of the two Minotaurs asked.

They were both heavily bandaged, and one of them had only one arm, an old injury that had long since healed. No wonder they had sent the kids away to make their final stand. They were so heavily injured even before the fight started that they were in no shape to fight, but they didn't want to burden anyone else with more wounded to care for.

That was a soldier's pride talking for them, Karl assumed. No soldier wanted to drag down others when they were likely to have to relocate in the middle of the night. Instead, they had sent away the ones that could run and remained behind.

[Remi, do you have healing stuff in your space?] Karl asked.

[The blue ones in the round bottles with the long neck. Those are the new healing potions.]

Karl took two of them out and handed them to the Minotaurs. "Healing potions from my personal alchemist. This incident is huge, and if you're not too attached to the farm, we could use the extra fighters.

They're holding out well for now, and we had a watch set, but they will get tired eventually." They nodded, understanding what Karl meant. Part of the reason for the Minotaur's welcoming bellow was so that they had reserves when the front-line fighters got wounded or tired, allowing someone to switch them out.

"We have Dragon Clerics there, who can do more healing for you as well. Did you want to come back that way with me, or are you remaining here?"

The pair downed the potions, and Karl made a note of how their wounds closed and their stance improved. Remi would want that information later.

"We will join your group. I will just tell the kids that I wanted to get the last of my armour out before we joined them." The older soldier chuckled, with a gesture to a pile of supplies near the door.

Karl picked it up and slung the oversized bag over his shoulder. "Is that everything you need? With nobody here, the invaders are unlikely to smash apart the house as long as you don't have a large food supply inside."

"You've done an outstanding job on this side. Do you need anything else? We can send someone to assist you? Or you can pull your Naga Warriors back. They're covering two sides of the house already, and they've taken a lot of the load off the rest of us.

I don't think that our patrol would have made it through the first attack without his help, and it appears that the army isn't coming." The Satyr sighed.

"This incident isn't just on us. It's at all the farms as far as the farmers can communicate with each other for three relays. By my guess, that's at least fifteen kilometres in every direction that is under attack, and likely more. How many army units are in the area? Even if they sent them out right away, they could take a while to make their way here." Karl suggested.

He couldn't tell the guard that the issue extended past the next city, or all the way to the Fortress. At least not without explaining how he learned. They would find out soon enough, and it was going to be a nasty surprise.

It was better not to spring it on them in the middle of the night when everyone was panicked and exhausted.

"I see that they went with raspberries today. That's a change from the usual." Karl noted as he started at the plain wooden bowl full of oatmeal.

"Apparently it's a specialty of the local farms. They have whole bags of dried berries here, and they go well in the oats." The Satyr guard agreed.

"I will have to buy a few bags. Monster invasion, war, or emergency, goods still need to move." The Satyr nodded. "That they do. Fortunately for us, it will be dawn soon, and then we will be able to see trouble signals and find out what is going on in the distance.

But I've never heard of a surprise invasion this deep into the nation. It should have been stopped near the border, not allowed to get to the Overlord Council's doorstep."

"I am sure that the council will get it all sorted out. We just need to get enough rest that we don't get overwhelmed."

They ate quietly for a few minutes until Karl saw Minotaur shaped heat signatures in the distance.

"Go let someone know to bellow that this is a safe spot. There are more refugees in the distance and they look lost." He warned the Satyr, who informed one of his teammates with hand signals.

"They're on it. They'll likely call every hour or so, just in case there are others in hiding."