Chapter 305: Risk Reduction

In the war room of the Frost Giants, a map of the continent, as they understood it, was set up for everyone to inspect. The Clan Chief of the Frost Giants raised his hand to silence the crowd.

"I believe that we have found the region that the humans are hiding in.

Their patrols are far from their home, and we have seen that they are trying to lead us to the western coastal region, but the city should be here, along the eastern shore. The human city was along a river when our people were pulled there during the Third Trial, and there is an active river leading to the ocean there.

The river in the other search areas seems too large for what we saw.

So, if we follow it with a strike force, we should be able to verify the location of their city.

And once that is done, we can determine how much force is needed to eliminate the second place faction on this planet."

A few looked unconvinced, certain that the locations where they had seen the human patrols coming from was correct, and that they were indeed on the western side of that peninsula. But none would countermand their Chief in public, they would simply take the long way around if they had the chance, and hope to show him up with their actions.

Words meant nothing without evidence and power.

In the culture of the Giants, even if you had proof of something, you also had to have the power to make your voice heard, or your opinion would either be dismissed or taken and claimed by another.

That was even worse, because they would get credit for the things you knew, and you would be dismissed as a lackey trying to make a name for yourself.

The Frost Giants started forming search teams, intending to do a full grid search, but they already knew that the city was along the coast, next to a river. That cut down the number of areas to search dramatically, but the land had changed so much that they couldn’t guarantee that they were even looking for a river that was on their maps.

It was only after the attacks started, and they narrowed it down to three rivers within the vicinity of them that the Frost Giants became at all confident that they had found the right region.

But for the other Tribes, that was wonderful news.

The Frost Giants had sent a huge force to deal with the threat that the Hill Giants had found, and that meant the tribes further from the region could stop their search for humans, and focus on eliminating one of the smaller tribes to complete their task.

Things were starting to look up for them all.

In the Hall of Heroes, Kalli continued to get reports from the scouts of movement on the perimeter of their territory. The Hill Giants were building a strike force, but they seemed to be waiting for something, most likely reinforcements.

But more tellingly, they were forming up along the river, facing north.

Meaning they had almost definitely determined where Marimgar was, and that they were going to try to launch a full assault on the city.

Warnings had been sent to the towers, so that they were aware of the situation, and on high alert for advance scouts from the Giant forces. If any were spotted, they were to be eliminated before they could send back a detailed description of the city’s defences.

That meant, get rid of them as soon as they came in sight of the towers, where the city would still be a distant walled fortress.

Even if they knew where the city was, as long as the patrols could be eliminated before they got any information on the actual city defences, they could evacuate the workers outside and mount a proper defence of Marimgar against the Giants’ attack.

"{ Coordinator, we have more Giants gathering at the river, a hundred kilometres out, near the edge of our patrol routes. Please advise. }"

The report made all of the people in the Hall of Heroes pause.

They were in to turn in their quests, and pick up some items from the shop that made life a bit more comfortable. But reports of a massive invasion force were enough to change everyone’s priorities. ℯ𝐥.

"{ Do not engage, we will send reinforcements soon. If you can get a preliminary count, it will help us determine how many to send. Remember, do not get more than a hundred kilometres from the city. }"

That was the range of the resurrection pod, so anyone who was less than that distance was reasonably safe.

"{ Understood, Coordinator. We will not engage, the force is outside the perimeter by more than ten kilometres. Preliminary count is two hundred Giants, heavily armed and armoured, strength unknown. }"

Kalli quickly realized that they didn’t have an appropriate number of transports to engage two hundred giants at the border of their resurrection range.

They could send people by ground, but it would take a full day or more to get there, but if they sent everyone by air, they would have to take multiple trips and leave a partial force behind and exposed.

That was not a great idea.

They could send speeders to harass and whittle away at the force, which was likely what they were going to do when the Giants began to move closer, but she didn’t want them leaving the range either, as the Hill Giants had Earth Magic that could fire powerful stone bullets at them.

If the Giants were as powerful as she suspected they were, then they would almost certainly be able to hit the speeders, and that meant rescues would be needed.

And that meant ground forces, so the logical choice appeared to be waiting for the Giants to get within firing range of the outposts, and then launching a full counterattack. They could get there in minutes with armoured personnel carriers on the ground, the city’s artillery could punish the incoming Giants at that range, and Marimgar’s full might could be turned on the Giants if they proved more dangerous than expected.

It was all about risk mitigation.