A blast of Ice Magic washed over them, shattering Thor's [Refreshing Lightning] and dealing slamming into those caught in its path. Rae summoned her Spider Golems closer to protect Ophelia and Karl, only to watch the outer layers of them being shredded by the violent magic before she made it over the ridge and behind a huge boulder to hide.

The Stone Golems were shattered to dust, and the barriers over everyone shattered as Thor was hurled through the air, leaving a trail of damaged scales before he chose to return to his space.

Karl felt his bones creak and vainly clutched at Dana as the magic sent him flying after tearing through the Spider Golem, but it didn't feel like anything broke. He would be sore later, but his armour held. He lost his grip on Dana, but hopefully, she would be alright with both him and the Golem as a shield against the initial blast.

When the blast had spread from the stone, Hawk had returned to hide in his space, avoiding any injury, but the Frost Giants weren't so lucky. Most of them were still gathered around the stone, trying to stabilize it when it had exploded.

The blast sent a bright blue mushroom cloud up into the sky, dwarfing any mountain range. That would be visible from a thousand kilometres away, all along the front lines, as well as in the Frost Giant nation.

"Check in, is everyone alright?" Karl called as he got back to his feet.

Thor made an unhappy noise from in his space, then brought the barrier back up over everyone, while the others all groaned in pain. The Refreshing Lightning, and Remi's Healing Splash, which she was throwing out at everyone now, were precisely what everyone needed, but it sounded like there were worse injuries than those two spells could easily deal with.

Lotus cast her area healing spell over the group, and Karl heard Tessa curse as she reset her own broken arm so it would heal properly, before going to help the mages, who were in even worse pain, despite the numbing effect of the healing spell.

Karl just lay in the snow for a few minutes, catching his breath as the healing spell took its course, and the pain from his joints began to fade.

Looking over, there was some blood on Ophelia's fur, but nothing major, as the Spider Golems had taken the worst of the blast. It was the spell casters who needed the most help, and the clerics were both busy with the task.

After fifteen minutes, everyone was back on their feet with a golden glow surrounding them as the clerics worked together to cast a spell to repair their armour. It was a form of nature magic called [Mend], quite useful if the gear wasn't completely destroyed. They hadn't had to use it before, but it was considered one of the basics for a wandering Nature Priestess or a War Priestess.

Especially a Red Dragon Priestess who worked with orphans. They needed all the mending spells they could get, so the children didn't destroy the few clothes they had.

"Excellent. Job done, no casualties. I say we go back to the Front Line and take a few days to rest and recover." Karl decided.

Lotus raised a weary hand. "I vote we do anything but that. Do you have any idea how many questions there will be about whatever that was? I've never seen an explosion like that, and everyone would have seen and felt that."

From a few metres away from Karl, Dana nodded. "She has a point. I say we radio in and tell them we're not dead, then hide in the hills somewhere for like two weeks."

She grabbed the radio from Karl's chest pocked and frowned. "It's smoking."

Karl doused it with snow, stopping the smoke, then flicked it off and on again. There were no lights, no sound on any channel, nothing.

"The radio is fried. Can someone get the emergency phone out of my pack?" Karl asked.

Dana unbuttoned the side pouch, and took out the small emergency phone.

Karl hit the button for a dial tone, and got nothing. No lights on that either, though it wasn't smoking.

"Emergency phone is dead as well." He sighed.

The barrier, combined with Lotus' area healing spell, had already repaired the damage to the group, but it couldn't fix their communications gear.

"Well, maybe if we go find a scout team, we can tell them that we're not dead? That should be enough to ensure that they don't make our families cry." Ophelia suggested.

Tori looked shocked, as if she had forgotten that was a possibility. If they were presumed dead, they would be added to the war casualty rolls, and their families would receive a death benefit from the government based on their last recorded Rank.

Since they were all young, or clerics, it would go to their parents, not a spouse, but that was still bad enough.

[Hawk, can you go find us a scout team?]

Hawk left his space and flew out in search of a scout team for them to meet up with, out of sight of the main line. That way they could hold the meeting, then disappear into the battlefield without anyone interfering.

That didn't take long, as there were dozens of scouts coming their way from all along the front line, even a few two-person teams running their way from the other portions of the front line. Only the ones closest to them would be likely to suspect that there was someone from the Elites here already, but they would all need to confirm what the situation was, and if you couldn't see it, the sight would be very concerning.

They weren't at the front lines, but they weren't that far from it, so the other lines wouldn't be able to tell that the line here hadn't just suffered a catastrophe.

Karl turned the group to the closest group of scouts, and saw that there were others running toward them. They were the first on the scene, so they might have more information than the others who hadn't reached the site yet.

"Commander, was your group close when that happened? Is everyone alright?" The leader of the first scout team they reached asked.

"Indeed we were. We were tasked to scout the crater valley, and it turned into an all-out battle with the Frost Giants. Somewhere along the way, a large glowing stone got destabilized, and its destruction was what everyone saw." Karl explained.

"Perfect. I will send a runner back to the line to report."

Karl gave him a confused look. "Just radio it in."

The scout shook his head. "The explosion knocked out every radio in the base. We had no communication when our team was dispatched. They should have some fixed soon, I heard something about blown fuses, but I don't have a working radio."

"Same here. Even my emergency phone is fried. We were still in the crater when the explosion happened." Karl explained.

"You're lucky to be alive. I will have the runner explain to the General that your team is fine. Where are you headed next?"

"Into the wilderness between front-line groups. I will come grab a new radio in a few days, or poach one off another scout group." Karl replied.

The scout smiled and nodded, then led his whole team back to the line. They were Elites, they knew what was up, and they weren't going to waste their breath trying to get Karl to come straight to the chaos of a base with no communications.

For the next two hours, Karl repeated the explanation to various scout groups, who returned to the front-line camps to give explanations, as anyone close enough to reach him that fast had lost their radios to the blast.

[It's time to go. Frost Giant army, 40 kilometres out, coming for the crater from the city.] Hawk informed them as the last of the scout groups was about to leave.

"You, Lieutenant, I forget your name. There is a Frost Giant army Battalion coming this way from the city. Can you run and tell the General that he's likely to have incoming hostile forces later today?" Karl shouted after them.

"No problem, Commander. Make yourself scarce before they get close enough to spot you."

Karl nodded and led the team away, headed for the woods between the two sections of battle line, where he could take the team and disappear into the mountain caves in only an hour or two. That would keep the Frost Giants from finding them, and if Remi cast a Blizzard once they were out of sight, they wouldn't even leave a trail to follow.

[Yep, Blizzard is useful.] Remi agreed, while coiled around her new statue, trying to determine what it was for.

[Blizzard is useful.] Hawk mimicked, while Thor chuckled, startling the group members who were standing beside him.

"They're bickering about the virtues of Ice Magic." Karl explained, while the mages climbed up behind Tessa on Thor's back and the Golems were dismissed.

The trees were densely packed in the foothills here, and Thor had to be dismissed, while Rae chose to return to her space, as she couldn't climb sideways between the trees without dropping Lotus.

Remi started a snowstorm with [Blizzard] as Hawk gave them directions to a nice cave he had scouted. It was part of a large cave complex, as far as he could tell after his brief exploration, but there were spots that could be blocked off for safety, and the whole place was well underground, and warm from the stone of the mountain.

[That's good enough for me. We might even get to explore another cave and spend a few days without going out in the snow.] Karl agreed.

It probably wasn't that large, but no snow sounded good to Hawk.