Volume 3, Chapter 249 - Battle of Gilgimel Plains III (5/5)
The War Princess had to avoid the Goblin King’s assault once more, but this time she had the mana guards and the archer knights with her.
“Don’t let them near us! Archers, shoot!”
Magic bullets rained upon the cavalry of the Goblin King. They were so many and so powerful, that had it been a human cavalry receiving them, they would have already fallen into chaos, but the Goblin King only cut down those rain of magic bullets and continued onward.
“Maintain speed! Do not cower!”
What was more was that they maintained their speed as they continued their assault.
Even Blanche’s smile couldn’t help but twitch upon seeing the figure of that goblin riding upon that giant monster beast.
“Truly a monster… Turn around!”
Blanche immediately ordered her soldiers to turn around to flee from the Goblin King.
“…Tch, they’re clinging onto our sleeves.”
The cavalry from just the left wing already numbered almost 2,000. When that was combined with the Valkyria Blanche led, their numbers were close to 3,000. Unfortunately, because of how many they were, some of the soldiers couldn’t follow Blanche’s instructions.
That’s where the Goblin King attacked.
The rearmost part of the army had literally been bitten off, but Blanche could still see the back of the panicking Felduk right in front of her.
“Trample them!”
When Gi Gu Verbena realized that the person leading the strongest cavalry in the battlefield was aiming for them, he resolved himself and fortified their defenses.
“Huddle up soldiers! Don’t give their horses any room to get in!”
Blanche tried to carry out her assault, but arrows showered at her from the sky.
“You shall not!”
The archers under Pale Symphoria focused their attacks on Blanche after determining her location. Their arrows were so precise that they were even able to hit Blanche’s armor. Unfortunately, it was deflected.
“Please withdraw. This place is dangerous.”
One of the Valkyria adventurers realized that it was dangerous for her to continue remaining at the frontlines and asked her to withdraw, but Blanche only laughed.
“No, and don’t you dare slow down! If the likes of monsters can do it, then so can we!”
The horsemen carrying large shields closed in on Blanche from both sides and defended her from the descending arrows.
“Arrows!”
The archer knights drew their bows and shot out a dense cloud of arrows. At roughly the same time, the mana guards also casted their magic against Felduk. Already Felduk was like a comb with missing teeth as they incurred one casualty after another, and then the cavalry of the War Princess attacked them.
Goblins were driven off and crushed under their hooves, as they cut Felduk apart. The pain was made only worse by the arrows shot up close and magics cast at them.
The enemy cavalry came from behind the goblins and passed through their left wing to retrieve the horsemen still fighting with Zaurosh’s cavalry, then they attacked Zaurosh’s cavalry and rode around the battlefield.
When the enemy left the battlefield temporarily, the Goblin King and Pale met up.
“Are you alright, Your Majesty!?”
“Of course, I’m alright. Don’t worry about me!”
Pale was relieved from the bottom of her heart to see the Goblin King smiling as ferociously as ever. After which she made a bitter expression and advised the king to retreat.
“Your Majesty, please forgive me. All of this is my fault. Please give the order to retreat.”
At this rate, Felduk would be destroyed. Pale didn’t word that thought out, but the Goblin King still ground his teeth. Blanche the War Princess has been thoroughly avoiding a direct confrontation with the Goblin King and attacking only places that were easy to attack. It was unlikely that she would make a mistake here and attack them head-on.
“If we retreat here, can we win against that War Princess?”
“Without a doubt!”
The king nodded and gave his permission to order the retreat.
“My cavalry will watch our back. Give Felduk the order to retreat!”
“As you will.”
When Pale gave the signal to retreat, Gi Gu glared at the enemy cavalry running around the battlefield and yelled.
“Retreat? After going this far!?”
Gi Gu boiled with rage, but the king’s order had to be obeyed.
“…Fine. Gather the wounded! We don’t need prisoners!”
After recovering the wounded goblins, Gi Gu’s Felduk began their retreat to the west.
“So the king will be watching our backs…”
Seeing the Goblin King watch Felduk leave, Gi Gu and his men quickly fled.
“Get rid of the enemy footmen still clinging to us.”
When the commander of the various nations saw the goblins fleeing, they attacked as though the time to secure victory had come. The War Princess had temporarily left to organize her soldiers, so the Goblin King’s cavalry was able to make full use of their power.
The Goblin King’s Great Sword that Dances the Black Flames (Flamberge) and Black-Red-Speckled Great Sword (Zweihander) mercilessly crushed the enemy infantry. Not willing to allow the king to get hurt, Gi Be Slay and the other imperial guards fought intensely against the enemy infantry.
“What is that monster?”
The commanders opened their eyes wide in surprise and fear spread through them. Before long they stopped pursuing and instead ordered their army to turn around and attack a different group.
Like a storm blowing, every swing of the great swords sent limbs flying, scattering the fragile lives of humans. The great sword flickering with flames of black was the symbol of the Goddess of the Underworld. Was this monster a messenger from the underworld? Or was it a demon of sort?
The goblin that took human lives with his black flames became a storm with his two great swords and reaped one life after another. Any and all who witnessed that shuddered in fear. The kind of unmanageable fear that would appear only in the face of a calamity.
Before the howls of the Goblin King, the commanders could just barely keep their platoons together, much less pursue the fleeing goblins.
Meanwhile, Blanche, who had been riding around the battlefield to rally her cavalry, understood the whole picture and confirmed that the goblins were retreating and that the Goblin King had thrown himself into the fray.
“Binding them with fear? Not bad.”
As she said that, she turned her eyes from the Goblin King to the retreating Felduk. The smile on her face was just like that of a predator that’s found its prey.
“Those who are fleeing are our prey.”
She brandished her sword in place of a commander’s staff, and called over the feeble aide and the commander of Valkyria, Feeble Aide, then ordered them to attack once more.
“That monster is still attacking the infantry. Are you sure?”
“That’s probably their boss. Leave him alone.”
“As you will.”
Just how many people in the world could fight the Goblin King and win? At the very least, Blanche knew that there weren’t any under her. Besides, in order for her to secure victory, it was necessary for the Goblin King to keep on living.
And that’s also why she will be thoroughly beating his subordinates instead.
“The fleeing goblins are our enemy. The time for the hunt has come!”
At the War Princess’s behest, the cavalry simultaneously rode off and split into two groups with the War Princess and Far leading each.
The mana guards and the archer knights gathered under the War Princess, while the Short Sword Battle Maidens (Valkyria) and the lance knights gathered under Far.
“Come, let’s expel these monsters from our lands!”
As Blanche happily gave the order, magic bullets and arrows fell down on the fleeing Felduk. Valkyria and the lance knights attacked Felduk from behind like a school of small carnivorous fishes hunting a fleeing large fish.
Felduk’s numbers decreased like a bleeding wound that couldn’t be stopped, and Gi Gu could only grind his teeth helpless.
“There’s so many of them!”
In the face of all the magic bullets and arrows being rained at them from above, the goblins under Gi Gu and even Pale’s elven archers could only fight defensively. Still, there was no way that Pale’s plan was a simple retreat.
After all, it was a given that the enemy would give chase.
And from the way the War Princess has been fighting all this time, it was also understandable that she would avoid the Goblin King and attack Felduk instead.
Given all that, even Pale could predict this situation.
As such, she was able to prepare a trump card behind Felduk.
The plains shook and clouds of dust rose up. At the head of that cavalry was none other than the colossal stature of the Goblin King. The Goblin King’s cavalry set their eyes on the Valkyria.
“GURUUuuUOOaaAA!”
His bellows full of wrath rolled over onto his subordinates, and by the time the War Princess noticed the approaching goblins, they were already right behind them.
“Far, enemy reinforcements! Dodge them! Soldiers, Focus your attacks into a single point!”
As the War Princess brandished her sword in place of her staff, the magic bullets of the mana guards descended on the Goblin King. But despite that storm of magic bullets, the Goblin King’s pace did not slow down the slightest. Some did manage to hit him, but even then, he showed no signs of pain and continued riding as fast as ever. The Goblin King was the very picture of a death god.
It was as if those snake-like black flames were wrapping themselves around the Goblin King to protect him.
“What is that!?”
Even for the War Princess, the sight of a monster that has been blessed so deeply by the Goddess of the Underworld (Altesia) was a first. To make it worse, the attack of the mana guards whom she trusted so deeply were completely ineffective. Given all that, it was only natural that she would waver.
But the War Princess was a heaven-sent genius of the battlefield. Immediately, she changed gears and ordered her archer knights and mana
guards to turn around.
“Slip past them and attack the monster from behind!”
The main force led by the War Princess made a sudden turn. She immediately made the decision to call off the support of the Valkyria, and to instead try and tear away the Goblin King’s cavalry.
The reason was because Far didn’t notice the great threat approaching her until it was right behind her.
“Impossible! What is with that speed!?”
But she too was a veteran commander, and she was able to put aside her shock to order her cavalry to turn around. But by then her soldiers had already been overtaken by the Goblin King’s cavalry.
With every swing of the Goblin King two great swords, the black flames would reap a human’s life. The fear of death was right behind them, but they had no choice but to desperately try to run away.
Magic Bullets didn’t work against the Goblin King but they should still work against his subordinates, or so the War Princess thought, and true enough, the goblins that couldn’t defend against the magic bullets either fell off their steed or slowed down.
“Far has retreated. The time is ripe!”
After confirming that Valkyria was able to escape, it was now time for Blanche and her army to turn around, but then the Goblin King’s bellows resounded from behind them.
“After coming this far, now you want to go after us!?”
What Blanche saw when she turned was the Goblin King’s cavalry riding for her.
“Very well. Since you’ve come, you might as well get a good look at how we ride.”
With a swing of her sword, she ordered her soldiers to expand, and then they retreated while dodging the charge of the Goblin King. With horseback riding so exquisite it was almost acrobatic, they fled the battlefield despite the overwhelming speed of the Goblin King’s cavalry.
In this way, the curtains were drawn on the Battle of Gilgimel Plains with the goblins as the defeated.
This content is taken from fr(e)ewebn(o)vel.𝓬𝓸𝓶