I reached out and called Glimpse down to land on my shoulder. Ashrot was still oozing towards us. It moved surprisingly quickly for something that weighed thousands of tons, flowing across the ground, looking like an enormous grey slime mould, at the speed of a sprinting man. Only the speed of a normal man, though, and none of my troops were normal. At least none of the infantry was.

"Fuck the wagons!" I yelled as I stopped just outside the nomad camp. "Get the people moving north. Where the hell is Pertabon?"

"Legate!" My first tribune trotted over to me, a "short" spear three times my height slung casually over his armoured shoulder. "Lethic! Get the Legate a new tunic!" he called. I glanced down and saw my clothes were ruined, tattered shreds being all left after the fighting and shapeshifting.

"I want a fighting retreat. Keep the Titans back! They'll just get swallowed by the fucker until we've worn it down. How long till your artefacts are recharged?" I sagged as I finally found myself with a moment to breathe. My hands rested on my knees, and my back slumped over as I took long, slow breaths.

"Don't slouch, Mond," cackled Kril as he sauntered over, seeming like he didn't have a care in the world. "What's the plan for dealing with this bastard?" He spat to the side as he stopped beside Pertabon, his head barely approaching the Huskar's waist. I cocked an eye at Bon as I waited for his answer.

"We've switched out the spent artefacts, so we're good to go again. The only way to fight this abomination is to keep falling back. If it's smart, it will retreat after we do enough damage," rumbled the giant as he leaned his spear into his shoulder and removed his helmet. He swept his sweat-slick hair back, grinning. "This will be one for the annals! We've got one more set of gear we can switch to; after that, it will be a day before we can attack at range again."

"No, it won't. Not for some of you, at least." I reached up and rested a hand on Glimpse's head. I dumped five thousand Souls into him, losing ten thousand in the process, and grimaced at the gross inefficiency. I sent a mental request that he pick Fire, Ice, and Lightning as his affinities. Red letters appeared over his head, shifted from F's to B's and A's. Shit. Should have considered that. Now, any soulbound or Shikrakyn that saw the bird would attack. Or at least be very confused. A problem for future Mond.

"Bud, get some levels, pump up your magic strength and mana, then get some spell levels. Then go nuke that prick and come back for a mana potion," I whispered into the crow's ear.

Yes Ray.

The thought was clearer than any communication from the bird before. I always knew what he felt and thought vaguely, but this telepathy was a whole different world. The simple words contained many layers of meaning. Affection, loyalty, determination, pleasure at becoming more powerful… so many feelings hid behind the affirmation he'd sent into my mind.

With a caw, his wings cracked, and he wheeled to the south as he rose into the sky. I turned to look at Pertabon and grinned.

"Should have thought to do that bloody ages ago, bloke. Glimpse is going to keep the big guy distracted for a while. Get me your two best squads. Now. It's time to make magic giants. You!" I pointed at Lethic, who was approaching with a clean tunic. I started shrugging my pauldron off, freeing the straps across my chest. "Get the rest of the legions to form up and send nomads to advise the forward forces. They need to pull back, or they could be cut off as we withdraw." The tunic slapped me in the face as Lethic threw it at me before he spun to stride away, barking orders at the nearest legionaries and nomads.

"Got any more mana potions?" asked Kril in a greedy voice. I opened my storage and pulled out another dozen… I was going to start running low soon, but I still had over a hundred left.

"Share them with the coven!" I called out as he ran off towards the nomad camp. He waved back at me without turning, so I knew he'd heard me. I flicked his bond, and he stopped. He glared back at me for a second, nodded, and headed into the maze of tents and wagons.

Glimpse was bombarding Ashrot from on high. Arcs of lightning and fireballs rained down on the monster, the bird occasionally swooping low to cast walls of fire and ice across the thing's skin. These attacks were much more effective than the bombardment. Ashrot had become very good at throwing out pseudopods to intercept projectiles, but it couldn't do anything when a dozen metres of its flesh froze solid or burst into flames.

The bloody thing was smart. Maybe it could be convinced to fuck off south and leave us be for a while. Maybe not, and even if it did retreat, it would just be back later once it had rebuilt enough biomass. Sometimes, short-term solutions are all you have to work with, though.

As I shrugged my new tunic on and reached for my pauldron, Fay, the members of the coven who had stayed with the army, and the fangs emerged from behind the wagons and advanced on me. Fay gave me a quick kiss before holding out a hand. I looked down at it, then back up to meet her fierce hazel eyes.

"Mana potions. The good ones, please," she said sweetly, but I knew failing to obey would be worse than getting swallowed by the Akira-baby dragging itself towards us. I pulled out the six Pure Mana Potions in my inventory and weighed them in my hand. The small blue vials glinted in the flickering lights from the magical assault falling on the monster behind me.

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"Do any of you have enough to justify them?" I asked. "No point wasting potions if they top you off without using half of them."

"Men. You don't have to quaff the whole thing! A sip will have a partial effect," snapped Habene from behind her veil.

"Habene, you have to ensure Fay gets away after you've attacked. Swear it to me!" I snapped, carefully ignoring the glare I got from my wife.

"I swear by the moons and the Great Blue that your wife and son will survive this day," she said in a heartbeat. I passed the potions to Fay, who snatched them away and spun to distribute them.

"Ladies, let's do what we've practiced!" she called, and the small phalanx of nomad women advanced towards the danger. Something twisted at the thought of letting these brave women endanger themselves, but I fought it down. I sent a thought to Wilson, asking him to shadow the women and be prepared to snatch away Fay if the worst happened. A faint woof returned to me down our link, and I felt him slink off to follow the coven.

"If you ever have a golem pick me up like that again, I'll break its legs. What are we doing?" asked Jandak. Mune and Kos both glowered at me as well. Sometimes you've got to piss off your friends when they're battle mad idiots who'll get themselves killed.

"We'll hold off with the Titans and push when it's been battered. Very battered. This fucker is going to be fried fish before we get up close to it. Bon! Where are the squads I asked for?"

"They're on their way, Legate. Mulius and Marbo are on their way. The nomads are abandoning anything they can't stuff into storage rings and heading north with their herds," he rumbled, looking over from a quiet conversation with a small group of Huskar in fancier armour than was the norm.

"I'm just going to join the ladies, if that's alright with you?" asked Kril in an acidic voice. Great. I'd annoyed my mentor, who was also my nominal spiritual adviser, my friends, and last but certainly not least, my wife.

"Bob, take the other golems and go with Kril. Force the humans back if Ashrot gets too close. When you think it's weakened enough, your lot can attack. Otherwise, you're babysitting," I said, and the spidery golem quickly gathered up its more humanoid kin and advanced back towards the wall of flesh sliding across the grassland in the direction of the rapidly emptying nomad camp.

Marbo and Mulius stomped over, dwarfing the unmodified Juskar. They looked down at me and gave me yet another bloody glare. Everyone was pissy today, it seemed.

"I'm not going near that thing," rumbled Mulius. Marbo nodded and fell down to all fours before pulling his tail around to stroke it in his… paws? Hands? It was hard to tell these days.

"None of us is. This is a kill-from-range kind of job, and you are not ranged fighters-" I began before Pertabon cut me off.

"Legate, the troops you requested are on the way," called Bon as he came over. Sixteen armoured Huskars fell in behind him. The Fangs and my Titans eyed the newcomers with disdain. I turned to look up at them as they formed a neat double row and slapped their fists against their chest, shields held at their sides.

"Gentlemen." I started after a moment's hesitation. Would calling them men be rude? I was about to make them my slaves in some sense, and didn't see any reason to be rude before I did. "I need you to accept some Souls. We need more firepower, and I want you to be part of that. Step forward if you are willing to take the elemental affinities and put most of your points into the Mind stats. I won't force this on you." Bon nodded slowly, a faint smile on his face as all sixteen took a smart pace forward and loomed over me at an even closer range.

"Sir, we're happy to serve the Harvester!" barked one of the legionaries whose helm had a crest running sideways across the top.

"Set us up to knock them down, Legate!" barked another Huskar with a sideways crest. The others all grinned fiercely. Shit. Time for maths. Just shy of one hundred and twenty thousand, divided by sixteen… divided by two –fuck you system– make sure there's a few left over… that meant… call it three thousand Souls a piece and I'd still have twenty thousand left for little old me.

I passed down the line and watched as red letters appeared over the heads of the two squads. Jesus, the base stats of Huskars made it seem pointless to give Souls to my nomads. They all had S-tier Mind stats and A-tier bodies.

"Elemental affinities, please, focus on range and intensity upgrades. You done?"

"Sir!" barked both the sergeants.

"What're your names, blokes?" I asked.

"Bathnir." "Hrangit."

"Go get them. Just use your magic to support my wife and her-" harsh lights flickered from behind me as Kril and the coven launched their attack. "-friends." The pair barked orders, and the small group of Huskar filed past me in good order to advance on the monster.

I borrowed Glimpse's senses for a moment. He circled above Ashrot, but I could see the nomads filing away to the north in a desperate caravan. I sent him a mental query.

I'll need a mana potion soon, Ray. The words were whispered in my mind.

As and when, buddy, I replied. That was going to take some getting used to. A faint sense of amusement flowed down the link from the crow.

"Bon, get the legions formed up at the rear of the nomads. Let the chiefs know they need to hold with you while the non-combatants escape. With a bit of luck, they'll be turning back around soon, but for now, keep them moving north. Mulius, Marbo, you guys go with Bon. I want you ready to move when Ashrot is weak enough."

The Mammoth titan grumbled and started plodding north, but Marbo gave me a feline grin before flowing away on all fours.

I turned to the south. Blasts of Ice and fire illuminated the early morning. The sun had yet to rise, so other than the moons and stars, they were the brightest things I could see. Lumps of ice expanded to freeze large volumes of the monster, which it was forced to shed and roll over. Fire cut spheres from its mass, turning reanimated flesh into ash and smoke.

Walls of elemental fire, ice, and lightning sprang up in its oozing path. The ice was simply rolled over, but the sparks of electricity and boiling fire forced it to pull back, at least for a few moments. Bolts fell from the sky as Glimpse joined in on the fun, and the coven renewed their attacks with imbued items to cast area attacks. They began to spend the charges on their enchanted items.

It was making a difference. The damn thing had completely pulled its mass from around the walls, but it was still huge. It towered five stories tall and covered an area the size of a football field, at least. My casters were whittling it down slowly.

I pulled a mana potion out of my belt pouch and weighed it in my hand. I grinned and strode forward, eager for round two.

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