Chapter 304: Triangulated

While the residents of Marimgar were celebrating their culinary victories, the Giants were slowly honing in on their position.

It had started with a missing patrol that had reported encountering their scouts, and then a stretch of shoreline that held nothing but open sand. Clearly, they had not been coming from their home base. So, they might have been returning to it.

That sent the Giants searching to the northwest of the encounter, when Marimgar was straight north.

Which was where they found what they were looking for.

Another Marimgar patrol was scouting the region, checking for monsters and anything else of note that the city might be able to make use of, when they were suddenly under attack by stone bullets from the trees.

The patrol group had been on the ground, inspecting an unfamiliar berry bush to see if it was edible, when the Giants had come through the woods.

To the Giants, that was proof that they were on the right track.

They had found the humans again, on the course they were expecting to find the human city on, and they had already sent a message to the other tribes.

The hunt was on, and the Hill Giants had taken first blood.

Or so they thought.

The stone bullets hit hastily raised shields, both magical and physical, as the scout team weathered the first attack. The ground team ran to get into combat positions as the speeder teams strapped in and darted into the sky.

They had gotten sloppy, after so long without seeing anyone.

By procedure, they should have been hovering overhead, but when they had found what looked like edible food, everyone had landed to have lunch, instead of keeping a scout in the sky, watching for danger.

But once they were flying, the Pulse Cannons opened fire on the Giants, and the stone walls that the Giants had erected began to crumble.

This was the first time that they had faced something that didn’t immediately collapse to a Pulse Cannon, and that made the heroes wonder if the Hill Giants were exceptionally strong at magic, or if it was simply resistant to the plasma weapons.

Either way, it didn’t last long.

The barrage of fire wore through the stone in under twenty seconds, despite the Giants’ concerted efforts to reinforce it.

And by then, the speeders had time to circle the force, and were ready to attack from all sides at once.

The ground team charged with weapons ready, giving the impression that they were the direct threat, with the Giants focusing on them. Then, the speeders launched their assault, causing chaos in the Giant ranks just before the front lines of the teams met.

Steel rang on steel as pulse cannons tore through heavily armoured giants, turning the battle in the humans’ favour.

When the last of the Giants dropped, Alexei saw a notice from the System.

{Encountered Faction: Hill Giants} Trials incompatible for cooperation.

"Well, that’s something. Did you all see that System message?" the Rogue asked from his place on the back of an assault speeder.

"Yeah, we see it. Looks like the Giants aren’t doing anything that’s going to be able to work out with us. Perhaps, they’ve got something that requires them to take over more territory? If they need to take a section that belongs to us, that would definitely be incompatible," one of the others suggested.

"That’s a good point. We’re all on different trials, so it’s quite possible that theirs is to control a region, since they’re naturally more powerful than humans.

We need to report this to the city."

"We’re already on it. The radio message has been sent and relayed by another patrol team, the Coordinator will know what has happened in a few minutes. But this changes our patrol. We’re going to have to find the rest of the Giants before they find us."

Alexei nodded. "That’s two encounters now, both within our patrol range. It’s safe to assume that we’re going to find more, and that they’re going to increase their forces as they realize they’re losing scouts.

Our team sizes should be fine, but make sure that we’ve always got at least one other team in radio range, even if we need to keep the utility speeder at a much higher altitude until the ground forces are needed.

Being a thousand metres above the ground, they could get messages much further than if they were at surface level, enough that they might reach the city directly, but they could certainly reach at least a few other patrol teams.

"Do we alter course?" The driver asked.

"No, keep to our patrol route. The other scouts all know that there are Giants in the area now, and that they’re hostile. But if we change our pattern, it will leave a gap in the coverage.

The scouting pattern wasn’t meant to be a full defensive formation, but it was designed to cover territory without missing anything major.

A few monsters, perhaps some edible plants might sneak through the search, but they shouldn’t miss a major force of attackers if they kept to the grids they were assigned. And then the replacement teams would come to where they were at the end of the day, so the routes were rarely identical, as the extended scouting teams didn’t travel on the ground.

It wasn’t long before the Hill Giants’ warning brought more danger to the patrols of Marimgar.

The Tribes were working together to search the area, intending to eliminate the humans from the System’s trial. There was only one human city left on the planet, and that was still one too many.

Especially when they dared to outrank the tribes.

"{ Another patrol of Giants spotted northwest of the city, headed south down the coast. At this rate, they’ll run right into Marimgar. Should we eliminate them or lure them away? }" One of the scout groups was asking.

Kalli heard the message and paused. They were coming from three different directions now, and it wouldn’t be long before they realized that Marimgar was close to its actual location.

"{ Take them out. Don’t let them get within sight of the city. They’re going to locate us soon enough. }"