The First Legendary Beast Master novel Chapter 261

Chapter 261 Back In The Snow

Two days later, Karl found himself standing in the snow at the base of the mountains again, just as he had been on his last mission, only this time, instead of the frigid cold and silence, he could hear the distant sound of Frost Giant war horns, the sound carrying over fifty kilometres through the hills as they staged for an attack along the front lines.

The group had just landed, and the intelligence on their area looked good, but the numbers that his keen eyes had detected along the main lines were far larger than the number of stones that had been placed on the map.

If each blue stone had been five hundred, not one hundred, it might have been an overstatement, but much closer to the truth of the situation, while here in the hills, their newly arrived group had yet to spot anything threatening.

"Which way should we search first?" Bear asked as she surveyed the trees in front of them.

Like Lotus, she was more comfortable here in the wilderness than she was in the Academy or in a city, and Hawk wholeheartedly approved of her naming sense. Karl, on the other hand, preferred to use her actual name, so he didn't get into the habit of treating her like one of his pets by calling her Bear.

Karl brought out the folded map from under his tabard. "The first sweep should go east, away from the Frost Giant front lines, to see what might be coming around to look for better routes, then we will double back and check for hidden scouts before the sun goes down.

I got them to agree to allow us to operate in a wide area, so we're not going to be easily tracked back to the same routes, but that will also mean that we need to set up multiple camps and be finished with our route before the sun drops behind the mountains.

That doesn't leave us a lot of time to do our work, so we might as well get to it."

What he had failed to consider was how much the magic of the Frost Giants had changed the area from its natural state. There was normally no snow in the mountains within the Golden Dragon Nation, but now, even in the middle of the afternoon, the temperature was below freezing.

Hawk was out, sitting on Dana's backpack and surrounding them both with [Flaming Body], which was generating an area of warmth that the others were standing in, while Karl kept his own active and moved ahead.

[You're going to have to go scout soon.] He reminded the bird, who was just getting comfortable on top of the mage's backpack.

As a replacement for Hawk's warmth, Karl lit his sword with flames and passed it to Ophelia, who was the largest of the group other than Karl, even when she wasn't transformed.

"Here, that will stay lit as long as my barrier is up. The effect should be enough to keep the team warm if you hold the blade in the middle of the group, and you're the only one in the group that has superhuman strength other than myself." Karl quietly informed her.

"Got it. I'll take good care of your sword. We're going to have to work on something for the future, though. My armour keeps me plenty warm, but the others will need regular breaks, even with the winter gear they packed." She replied.

The Golden Dragon Nation did not have great winter gear, Karl would admit that. But he hadn't mastered the art of spreading the [Flaming Body] ability, which Hawk could only do by touch, so they were going to need to stop and warm up every few hours.

"I will think of something. If there are caves nearby, perhaps we can set up in one of them to make it easier to sleep at night." Karl agreed.

Hawk disappeared over the trees, and within minutes he was sending back reports of Frost Giants moving near their path.

[Three Ascended and seven Awakened in this group. They look like trainees.] Hawk reported.

[Anything else nearby?]

Hawk paused for a moment. [One Commander and two Ascended about four kilometres past them, moving south along a trail.]

"Alright, we have our first targets. A training patrol with three Ascended Giants and seven Awakened Rank juveniles. If we can make a quick and clean job of it, there is a Commander led smaller group a few kilometres beyond them." Karl explained.