Good to know that we could at least handle the Anomalies here by ourselves if we need to.

There were a few more stray Anomalies along the way but it wasn’t a problem for our group to take care of them.

I was wondering how the Anomalies could just pop into existence until one of the Vanguards explained to me that the Anomalies aren’t actually that big to begin with but are all smaller in size. It’s just that they enlarge themselves when they spot enemies which makes it seem like they just appear out of nowhere.

At least that’s one mystery solved I suppose...

But that means these Anomalies have really good eyesight since they could see us from so far away... Or they have some other alternative means of spotting us.

Speaking of which... I was worried that we might need to stay in the rift for longer than a day since we were still walking along this path for almost four hours in total by now, having taken a single break two hours earlier.

But we reached a small hill where the entire group came to a stop and the ones leading the front motioned for me to follow them.

My Guardians and I followed the scout group to crest the hill and they motioned for us to stay low.

I did as they asked and we moved towards the top of the hill.

Peeking over it, I realised that the place where the Gatekeeper was holed up was directly behind the hill at the bottom of the basin.

There was only one problem...

"There’s... No guards?" I muttered.

The Gatekeeper was just sitting at the very bottom of the basin surrounded by a scant few Mana Crystal veins and nothing else.

Unless...

"Don’t tell me... The Anomalies are really, really tiny before they expand to their giant sizes?"

The scout leading us at the front nodded slowly, lifting up to pinch his thumb and index fingers together until there was only a small space between them.

"Normally... They’re about this size... Take a look, Mortal God..."

He handed a pair of binoculars to me and I took it from him to peer through them.

It was a little hard to see since I was still wearing the mask but I managed anyway.

I wasn’t really sure what to look for as I scanned the area near the Gatekeeper but I couldn’t really see anything.

That was until I looked at the area around the Mana Crystal veins and I saw what looked like movement on the ground.

It looked like small dark dots moving along the ground and I would have thought they were ants but there should not be any insects in this rift after the Anomalies had taken over...

That could only mean that those black dots moving around on the ground were the actual Anomalies in their normal sizes.

Ok... When I first heard they were small... I was expecting them to be human sized at least... Not to this tiny of a size...

I can’t even tell how many of them there are since they were so small so for all we know, there might be hundreds of them down there.

Taking out one of them already required the combined efforts of everyone and the kill would also not be instantaneous. So if there were hundreds of them down there... We would definitely be overrun before we can kill all of them.

Judging by how things have been going on... These Anomalies most likely only transform into their giant size when they spot enemies and right now, they have not seen us yet so they were still in their normal sizes.

But what would happen if hundreds of them suddenly expanded in size in that small space at the same time?

They would definitely spill out of it and reach us instantly to crush us under their weight...

I’d say the safest option for us is to kill them before they can even expand themselves but... How can we even do that?

Calling in an artillery barrage might kill them but that would also kill the Gatekeeper as well... Which means that we would have to give up on mining the Mana Crystals too. Assuming there were even any left to mine after we bombarded this place, that is...

I nodded at the scout to show that I had seen enough and we climbed back down from the hill, joining the others that were waiting below.

The leaders of the military armoured group and the Vanguard group came before me and I nodded at them.

"What’s the plan here?"

The military guy gestured towards me, "We were hoping that you might have a plan for us, Mortal God."

Really? You guys brought the artillery, the armoured vehicles and also arranged for the Vanguards to participate here without even having at least some kind of plan to deal with this?

Were you really just expecting to call along a Mortal God and have them solve everything for you?

Ok... To be fair, I guess that’s the normal train of thought for most people so I can’t blame them...

I gave both of them a look, "I would like to hear if you have any ideas first before I give my own. Anyone?"

The two of them looked at each other and the Vanguard leader spoke first, "We had the idea of just bombarding the place and killing everything inside... Then we just run in, grab whatever we can and run back out..."

Hmm... That’s arguably a safe option but it also means there would be barely any reward for this.

In other words... Such a suggestion was definitely not ideal for us.

I turned to look at the leader for the military group and he hesitated, clearly not really comfortable to reveal his own thoughts.

But I guess the thought of not answering me was worse so he eventually sighed and gestured towards the Vanguards.

"We had planned to have the Vanguards move to the top of the hill to draw them out then fight while retreating as we bombard them from a distance..."

The Vanguard leader obviously wasn’t too thrilled to hear that but he was tactful enough not to say anything and just continued watching me instead.

Hmm... There’s too many variables in this expedition so I guess I should just take whatever I can here...

I took a moment to look around and there weren’t really much we could use to our advantage in terms of terrain here. The only good thing was that it was quite flat so ranged units would have no problems hitting their targets here, especially since the Anomalies would be bigger in size.

I then turned to the military leader, "Has the artillery been ranged properly?"

He blinked in surprise at the question before shaking his head, "We have some FOs with us that will conduct ranging for the artillery here... We can set up a kill box right now if you need us to, Mortal God."

Perfect then.

I looked around before pointing down at the ground, "I want to set up a killbox here, stopping just short of the hill. What’s the safety distance for us?"

The military leader winced, "Forgive me, Mortal God... But if I may ask what the plan is first?"

I nodded at them, "I will be the one that is doing the luring. I’ll first grab their attention and as soon as they start chasing after me, I will start running towards you guys. You will set up a defensive line just outside the safety distance and while I lead them back, the artillery will start firing at them and thin out their numbers. Anything that makes it through the bombardment, we will take them down ourselves."

The Vanguard leader seemed quite relieved that I wasn’t going to suggest that we fight in the middle of an artillery bombardment because I have a feeling that’s what he actually thought I would suggest.

I continued, "In case there are too many of them or the bombardment failed to drop the number of Anomalies down to a manageable number, then we will engage in a tactical withdrawal to lessen their numbers while maintaining our distance with them, following the path we used to get here to avoid any other Anomalies from flanking us."

Both leaders took a moment to think about my suggestion before nodding at the same time.

"I believe that is the best course of action for us, Mortal God. In that case, we will be depending on you," The military leader saluted.

I raised my hand, "Just a warning... I’m expecting one of the Anomalies to be the strongest one amongst the defenders who would most likely be their leader. If that Anomaly appears, I will handle it myself. You guys will concentrate on the mobs instead."

Neither of them questioned me and readily agreed to my instructions.

Since that is decided, I guess all we need to do now is to set things up in preparation to execute the plan.

Hopefully... The Anomalies don’t get triggered while our artillery is doing their ranging...