The First Legendary Beast Master

Karl ran off to the east, slowing his pace so Remi could keep up. It wouldn’t take much to find the Ogres, he assumed. There was enough screaming to lead him in the right direction, even with the other sounds of battle.

But there wasn’t one other group here, there were three, and another dead Dwarven Totem.

[Rae, you’re up. Bring him to Lotus and then hunt for more defeated Totems. All the local clerics will be in one spot for the casting they just finished.] Karl instructed.

Rae darted off to claim the body, which she brought to Lotus, while Karl took a moment to decide how exactly he was going to make this work.

Nine really was a lot of Ogres when you looked at them all together, and they were all Totems. That old dragon wasn’t joking, this place wasn’t a safe one to be casually travelling around.

As one, the Ogres sensed his power level and turned to face Karl.

Karl focused on activating [Demonic Oppression], Rae’s bloodline suppression ability, and the Ogres growled at him, but didn’t make any attempt to attack.

[Oh, it’s ugly out here. There are at least six Ogres left for every Totem.] Rae noted as she searched the city.

[Once you find the dead ones, go back and help the ones in the most trouble. I don’t think they’ll mind if you keep the bodies.]

That made for a happy Rae, and she was claiming every Ogre body that she passed. They weren’t edible to Dwarves or Beastkin, and the Trolls were mostly vegetarian, so nobody should really miss them.

[Remi, you hide for a moment, and then summon the bodyguards at random spots to confuse and distract the Ogres. I am going to try to make them chase me around this open area with the destroyed buildings.] Karl instructed, and Remi quickly reached upward to pull herself onto the roof of a crumbling stone house.

The butterfly made her [Invisible], and Remi gave Karl four thumbs up to indicate she was in position.

Karl switched to his bow and took a deep breath, hoping that his idiotic idea actually worked.

Fully buffed, he unleashed arrows into the nine Ogres as fast as he could, while the monsters charged in his direction.

Just as they were about to make their first attack, Karl activated [Teleport] to the spot where they had started, and continued to fire. Ogres were dumb to start with, and being from a Monster Spawn, they were also enraged with bloodlust.

It had worked once, and hopefully would a few more times, as the arrows were doing an impressive amount of damage.

[We got the Ogre down. The area is clear.] Thor informed Karl just as he teleported again, this time to the top of a building at the end of the block, so he could see and hit more of the Ogres in the middle of the group.

[Good work. Keep the area safe, there are countless people hiding in the buildings there. I will catch up with you once we’re done here.]

The Ogres were dumb, but they did understand some things. Like not giving the prey a place to run away to. So, when Karl began firing from the building, only half charged for him, and the other half spread out to cover the open areas, starting with the ones where he had already been.

That was when Remi summoned the bodyguards into battle. They distracted an Ogre at the edge of the battle and caused a few Ogres to think there were reinforcements.

Karl took advantage to move to another building and fire arrows into the one fighting the Naga pair, then two more close to them.

Three Ogres fell, and Karl had a moment of appreciation for the [Predation] skill. He hadn’t put more than six or eight [Void Blast] arrows into any of them, but it was enough to take them out.

That had also made an empty spot in the Ogres deployment, and there was only one other near where Karl was standing. The brute charged, attempting to swat away the arrows with its club, and Karl held out to the last second, then switched to his sword and charged to run the Ogre through before teleporting again and returning to his bow.

He found himself on a rooftop only one over from Remi, who called a [Hellstorm] vortex into the Ogres, which caused chaos as the vortex multiplied faster than they could swat at it.

They didn’t seem to know where she was casting from, so Remi continued her assault, and Karl dropped another Ogre with his arrows.

She couldn’t use [Chain Lightning] as the spell originated at her, and would defeat the purpose of being invisible. But the Vortexes were quick to cast, and weren’t giving away her position just yet.

Remi laughed as a group of five Overlord Ranked Dwarven warriors ran to the edge of the battle, then promptly turned around and ran in another direction.

Five Overlords versus one Totem Ranked Ogre was workable. Five on five? That was suicide for them.

Karl moved again, and put up a [Blockade] wall of ice to slow the Ogres as he continued to fire. It didn’t slow them for long, but it was long enough for Karl to take out two more of the Ogres, leaving only three, all wounded.

That was close enough to defeated for Karl, so he summoned his Lamia bodyguards, as well as two Dire Bear Golems, and erected another [Blockade] in front of himself.

The summoned beasts only needed to hold the Ogres for a few minutes. That was all it would take to get enough arrows in them to finish them off.

Stone spikes erupted from the ground, and Karl saw a battered looking Totem Rank Earth Mage join the battle from the street closest to Lotus. That should be the one that they resurrected, even though it was a bit early for him to be fighting again.

But the intervention was perfectly timed. His stone barriers didn’t just wound the Ogres, they slowed them down while Karl fired, and within ten seconds, it was all over but the cleanup.