Volume 3, Chapter 202 - Retreating Battle III (2/2)
“GURuUoOOaAAA!”
The black of the night shook as a howl that could shake courage itself bellowed.
That was a voice so sinister it was hard to associate it with a goblin’s. When the people heard that powerful voice for the first time, their blood ran cold.
“They’re coming! Defend! Raise your shields and ready your spears!!” Allen gave orders to his cowering allies. “Magic platoon, cast fire bullets to the surrounding area!”
Allen knew they couldn’t outpower the goblins in terms of unity during the hour of the night god, so he decided to focus on defense instead.
The reason he ordered to cast fire bullets at their surrounding area was because they had gathered piles of leaves around their camp. Allen intended to set those on fire to use as a light source.
One of the biggest reasons Allen believed they couldn’t win against the goblins was because of the difference in sight. Unlike the goblins, the humans can’t see without the brilliant body of the fire god that ever shone in the morn and in the afternoon.
As such, they needed a way to grasp the goblins’ position. It didn’t matter whether it was by ear or by smell, they needed to grasp the goblins’ position and pass that to the entire army as soon as they could.
The light of fire warded off a portion of the black of the night, unveiling the figure of a giant goblin.
When the adventurers saw that for the first time, they audibly gulped.
This was nothing like the goblins they knew.
It wielded a club over its shoulder and donned a ferocious face from which even the devils of hell would surely run.
Giant goblins came up one after another behind that giant goblin.
“That’s one of the three goblins from before!”
Allen relied on the light source they had secured and gave orders to the archery platoon.
If they got caught in a melee with that giant goblin, the mixed army would surely lose.
He couldn’t play his strongest soldiers, the Blue Knights, just yet, so the mixed army would have no way to stop them.
As such, Allen ordered the army to focus on defense while they kept shooting at the goblins with arrows and magic.
The giant goblin clicked his tongue as he used a black light to sweep away the arrows and then retreat.
“Knight-commander! Please give the order to pursue!”
The enemy did not appear to have been damaged in that attack, but voices still rose up from the knights, asking to pursue the fleeing enemy.
However, Allen did not give the order.
“No. We shall pursue in the morning. For now, just stand guard and wait when morning comes. It is better to attack those guys under the light of the god of fire rather than the darkness of the god of night.”
After that the goblins would come from time to time, but Allen never allowed them to come close, until eventually, the night had passed.
◆◇◆
Report of the goblin’s attack failing reached the king.
The humans were only camping for a night, but they had secured it throughly. They cut the surrounding grasses and erected plenty of fences.
Attacking into that would take much bravery and sacrifice.
The Order of the Blue Knights that they fought before focused on using their cavalry’s mobility, but this time, the enemy was mainly made up of foot soldiers.
The style was different, but the Goblin King believed that they were still facing an elite army.
“This makes things difficult.”
Rashka led the goblins to attack in the night, but the humans just kept him away with magic and arrows. The enemy refused to come out themselves, but they couldn’t launch themselves against them either because of all their defenses.
The Goblin King was visibly irritated as he glared at the south.
Their pursuers did not take chances and instead maintained a steady pace.
That was the most annoying kind of pursuer.
If they clashed directly they were bound to lose. Why? Because they had too many to protect.
The fact that the Goblin King couldn’t just leave them behind and run made him even more impatient.
“8 more days until the western capital, huh.”
The western capital wasn’t geared for defense, but if they could just bring the people there, then they would surely be able to destroy 20,000 soldiers.
Right now the goblins in that region were currently in a staring contest with Germion Kingdom, so it should be safe to call them temporarily.
In any case, they needed to hurry.
The elderly, the women, and the children were a lot slower than expected, but the Goblin King desperately wanted to avoid a battle with them pulling at their heels.
“The enemy has begun to move, Your Majesty!”
When the night cleared, the goblin forces and he borderlords started moving again.
When the Goblin King received Hal’s report, he narrowed his eyes.
In the end, what was to come, came in the end, the Goblin King secretly thought to himself, but he had no intentions of losing.
“Tell Gi Gu Verbena to rendezvous with the main army. Rashka, Gi Zu, Gi Jii, Gi Go! Prepare for battle!”
The goblins nodded to the king as he called out to them, and then they immediately started their respective preparations.
“We will take half the army and stop the enemy. Hal, Gi Ji, Gi Gi, scout the area as you head north. Gi Ba, work together with Zaurosh and defend the humans!”
What was scariest of all was to have the enemy come before their eyes and scatter, as that would make it harder to defend the humans from their attacks.
The Goblin King didn’t believe once that the humans wouldn’t do such a thing to a fellow man.
The moment a man has recognized you as his enemy, he will be capable of anything, no matter how cruel.
The Goblin King knew how terrifying the hate humans could feel toward other humans.
The humans couldn’t cross the plains by themselves, so the Goblin King had to provide them an escort and send them north. There were more of them than the goblins, so the Goblin King had to provide them an appropriately sized escort.
Aside from Zaurosh and Gi Ba, he also had Ra Gilmi of the Ganra Tribe and Felbi of the elves accompany the humans.
The fact that the Goblin King had allotted so many of his soldiers to protect the humans showed just how wary he was of a detached force coming to hit the humans.
The Goblin King still remembered the last fight with the Blue Knights. The way they made use of a detached force to toss them around was nothing short of magnificent.
They have yet to spot the enemy cavalry, so the Goblin King had no choice but to divide his army in two.
There was still some time before the sun rose. It wasn’t much, but the Goblin King allowed the soldiers that attacked in the night to rest a little.
The battle between the forces of Pena and the goblins led by the Goblin King began when the brilliant body of the god of fire was at its peak.
The forces of Pena, who have been advancing steadily until now, took full advantage of their superiority in numbers to attack the goblins without pause.
That was exactly what the Goblin King had been fearing. A relentless attack without pause.
After all, no matter how strong they were individually, without the numbers, they would eventually exhaust their strength and be killed.
It also so happened that the place where they’d made camp was in the plains with no nearby forest. With the enemy already before them, they couldn’t even set traps as they pleased.
In fact, the Goblin King had already judged that they had no choice but to limit their movements, so they could only quietly wait for the enemy to arrive.
Pena’s force of 20,000 came pushing toward them, while the goblins that lay in wait stood only 3,000 men strong.
As Pena’s forces charged straight toward them, Gi Gu’s forces met them.
As the Goblin King’s subordinate with the biggest horde in the Forest of Darkness, Gi Gu Verbena had more rare goblins under his command than anyone else.
Goblins of the noble class and above were permitted to have their own horde. And Gi Gu had the most rares, boasting a staggering number of 25 goblin rares.
Of the goblins under his command, many were of the special southern variant with longer arms, but even those southern goblins had different classes, from beast tamers to druids.
Gi Gu, who possessed the biggest horde in the king’s army, charged alongside Gi Jii the battle demon to attack the enemy right from the front.
In response, the enemy humans cast spells, forcing the goblins to take a step back to dodge. At the same time, however, the rare goblins under Gi Gu’s lead attacked.
The enemy forces had gathered into one lump and were attacking them, but they couldn’t move like Gi Jii’s regiol, which moved as if it were one organism.
The mixed army that was composed of various clans attacked the goblins.
Gi Gu’s southern subordinates took full advantage of the three-man- cell strategy by moving with their predetermined groups of three to let the spells shoot past them, and then break formation to attack the mixed army.
One goblin would deflect the spear swung by an adventurer, while the second would swing his spear toward the adventurer’s feet. When the adventurer lost his footing, the last goblin would thrust his long sword into the space between his armor to finish him off.
The southern goblins have always been numerous, so in exchange for being weak individually, they fought much better than the Gi Goblins as a group.
They could use their long arms to attack the enemy from outside their range and their smaller stature made them much harder to hit.
As Allen watched the battle become much more difficult than expected, he looked for an opportunity to strike.
Allen has led many small platoons until now, but this was the first time he would be commanding such a big army. That being said, the vice-commander of the Blue Knights couldn’t possibly be an incompetent fool.
“Don’t do anything reckless. Just focus on exhausting the enemy.”
Allen desperately pushed back the desire to quickly end this battle. A habit he was prone to. He did well considering he also had to endure the nerves that came from holding all 20,000 lives in the palm of his hands.
Allen would immediately order a clan to step back when they started losing momentum and substitute them with a new clan. At the same time, he took advantage of their numerical superiority by ordering a part of the clans to expand toward the right flank. By doing so he would be able to gradually surround the goblin forces.
The goblins had to defend against that, so they couldn’t use their full power to crush their forces from the front.
The adventurers also had healers among their ranks. The healers were given a much bigger reward and were ordered to heal everyone without discrimination.
As Allen carefully attacked, he started to feel the heat emanating from the sweat on his forehead.
“Good. At this rate, we will be able to defeat them!”
In response to Pena’s tactics, the goblins also fought by taking turns.
One platoon would be sent to the front, then when they were tired, they would be brought back and replaced.
When the Goblin King saw that Gi Gu Verbena was starting to tire, he brought out Gi Zu Ruo’s platoon next.
“Gi Gu, retreat to the left flank! Gi Jii, retreat to the right flank! Gi Zu, Rashka, it’s your turn to fight!”
Giving orders was easy, but the execution was difficult. Regardless, however, the Goblin King was able to make it work by going out into the front lines himself with the platoon under his direct command to scatter the enemies.
When the Goblin King stepped out to fight in the front lines himself, for a moment, they were able to push the enemy back and were able to use the chaos during that moment to quickly substitute platoons.
“The weak do not interest me! Only death awaits those who stand in my way!”
“Turn me into a blade! (Enchant)”
The curved sword of Gi Go Amatsuki the Sword God and the great sword clad in the black flames of the abyss plowed through the humans.
The Goblin King wanted to keep up that pace and destroy the rest of their enemies, but the wall of 20,000 soldiers before him left him with no choice but to step back.
It was as if a powerful unrelenting wave kept crashing against them.
Even the Goblin King’s momentary success was only accomplished because he had seen through the weakness of the clans’ attacks.
The army before them was nothing more than a mixed army of clans with poor coordination, so the goblin forces that have been fighting for a long time now were much stronger as an army.
They worked better together compared to the enemy.
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