Dawn Of Twilight

"The ogres have appeared!"

As they made sense of the situation, every one slightly calmed down as they slowly got into position. The halfling within the squad immediately took out his dagger as he went and hide somewhere unknown in the shadowy corners of the carriages.

While the human archer made a quick flip and climbed on top of one of the carriages to find somewhere suitable for himself, as he slowly positions the wooden bow that he usually carried on his back with two arrows, now grasped in his hand.

"Damn ogres? What took those mofos so long!"

The Valkyrie Anomander said in delight, as she excitedly got up on top of her mount immediately darting in the ogre direction.

Even as the valkyrie rode the large bull, there were bȧrėly any obstacles in front of her as she showed a rather unique horsemanship in riding a bull. Even in the situation where, what she was actually riding was a bull and not a horse she had still managed to pass through the chaotic, environment and obstacles to make her way to the front of the caravan.

At the front, a few carriages had suffered some minor attacks, as they were in retreat, and several mercenary groups were already at a battle stance as they fought with both swords and broad swords in a somewhat semicircle.

Standing across the defensive group, were a bunch of enormous monsters, with the least of them being 20 some.

"Are you here to look or to fight?"She heard a voice come from behind her, as she turned around to see Tobi standing next to her.

"When...d...id you get there?" The Valkyrie stuttered in bewilderment.

Her eyes were focused on him in surprise, she had bȧrėly seen Tobi move from his spot even when the alarm was sounded, so how was he able to appear before her so quickly?

Even though the Valkyrie Anomander, was overwhelmed she didn't overthink it, even still it was a bit unimaginable to her, outside it being unreal.

'Perhaps rather than calling him a warrior, he should be called a thief instead!' She thought silently to himself.

"Are these...?"

"Yes, those are ogres," Tobi commented, beside her.

"Of course, I know that. But this is the first time I'm seeing them!" The valkyrie Anomander, had a tinge of curiosity in her voice as she stared at the monsters in front of her.

While she looked at them, she slowly took mental notes of their features, the first ogre among its group was nearly 3 meters tall, with the torso of a normal human.

Its appearance was like that of an obese human, with dark-grey skin color, and a thick neck, coupled with greasy matted hair and dried bones attached to its necklines. Under it, blank beast green eyes was a wide and flat nose, and on its jawline was an exposed protruding grey-black tooth, making it look menacing.

Among those ogre a particular one stood out the most, as it stood at the very front of the ogres, its slight noticeable attitude made its seem like it was leading these group of ogres. Its appearance was also the same as the others, except it wore a tanned animal fur on both his ċhėst and waist.

"They smell awful!"

With just a few meters away, the nausea smell created a stench that smelled like rotted meat to the nose.

'It looks quite similar to the image in the illustrated grimoire Horus had once shown me, except the fact I haven't seen its different variations such as the two-headed ogre and the ogre shaman…'

Tobi stared at them, letting his eyes roam around them as he thought to himself, his blue eyes had a dim halo, as he made a mental copy in his spirit world which the ogres instinctively quiver seemingly like a hiccup.

So when he stood there, he was slowly taking mental and making theories about them, since it was said ogres possess minor regenerative abilities, that could allow them to survive even when faced with a fatal wound such as being stabbed on the heart, and the fact they possess strong skin which acts as an extra layer of defense in a close melee fight.

Though he wasn't completely sure, since this was likely an ordinary group of ogres.

Even as the mercenaries slowly ȧssembled, none hastily dare to charge forward to such a huge group of ogres by themselves. Since they needed to rely on the others for protection before they were certain they could pass through this region safely.

As Tobi was pondering, a loud voice could be heard from behind them.

"No need to worry, it's just an ordinary group of ogres!"

Together with the voice was a group of people, which could be seen slowly making their way from the back, as everyone turned backward they could easily recognize the people to be from Dawn Light, which was led by the high-ranking knight Urara-a who Tobi had seen previously.

Seeing that there were fewer than 20 ogres than he thought, Urara-a frown for a bit in a sigh of relief.

"There aren't any shamans. There's only a few enough that the other mercenaries within the carriages can gain combat experience with it. It won't be as frightening in our next encounter then…"

Urara-a was fully aware that if the strengths of their large caravan group could be well united and used, then it would not be a problem at all for them to pass through this region.

However, humans were emotions fickled and could be knocked down by their fear of the unknown, especially when they aren't sure about how big the ogres tribes were. It was very much easier to trigger a collective panic, and that would result to even more damage than expected.

So it was very important to get intel about the ogres and be prepared in advance, to let the various mercenaries prepare themselves.