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It was probably the latter, though. If Carl had that much power at his disposal, then he would have been able to take care of the Beast of Lorent all on his own. Sure, it was possible that the Vanguard had only very recently sent him more troops or something, but Hector doubted it.

It sure would've been nice if Jackson himself decided to show up to help, though. If the guy's reputation was anything to by, then Hector wouldn't mind meeting him. Plus, there weren't very many Rainlords around at the moment, so it might actually be safe to talk to him. Maybe.

The most recent rumors about Jackson weren't quite so pleasant, what with him supposedly having been gravely wounded by the Mad Demon, but that was a while ago. No matter what Morgunov's machines had done to him, Jackson had to have recovered by now.

...Right?

Hector tried not to linger on that particularly question too much. Hell, even if Jackson just sent some of his troops their way, that'd be great. The guy must've had tons of strong dudes working under him.

Eventually, Krigoth got back to him about Garovel's earlier question. Could the scouting team identify specific combatants in the enemy encampments?

'No,' was the reaper's unfortunate answer. 'Isaac's team has been looking for nearly an hour now, but none of the big names have appeared out in the open.'

'So the camps really could be decoys, then,' said Garovel. 'We have to assume that the major players are already on the move. Let's get everyone into the Tower of Night. It's the safest place for all non-combatants.'

Hector could only agree, and soon enough, everyone was moving. It was a bit overly cautious, he knew, since the attackers were almost certainly going to pop up in Lorent before Atreya, but if ever there was a time to be overly cautious, it was now. And besides, with so many people abroad, the Tower of Night had more than enough space. They wouldn't be cramped in here at all.