by John Nest
As the northwestern and southwestern divisions moved along the first wall, the eight Condortlian Warriors stationed there took careful aim with their spears and attacked the pursuing goblins.
The Warriors made sure not to kill any of the goblins, only to reduce their life bars. All of Smoke's men were given strict instructions on the specific locations where they should kill the goblins.
As soon as the Tikbalangs reached the back gate, a rain of arrows fell from the sky and inflicted heavy damage to the goblin forces. Ichaival took charge of the back gate with eight Condortlian Warriors and twenty-seven Banalites on top of the wall with him. They kept attacking the goblins who were rushing to the ten Tikbalangs on the ground.
The Tikbalangs bravely made their stand and started to fight off the damaged goblins. Most of the goblins who reached them had less than 50% of their life bars remaining, which lead to Tikbalangs killing them with only two blows to the head.
The bodies of defeated goblins began piling up in front of the back gate. Eighty goblins were killed in a matter of minutes.
However, against Crucibelle's army of a thousand strong, the battle was far from over. As more goblins entered the fray, Ichaival and his men could no longer lower the life bars of all incoming goblins.
The monsters started to throw their crude weapons at the Warriors and Banalites positioned on the wall, but both their accuracy and their damage with them was low.
Each of the ten Tikbalangs on the ground had to deal with more than ten goblins at once. They were slowly being overpowered. The back gate remained shut until the Tikbalangs' life bars dropped to 70%.
"Open the gate!" shouted Ichaival.
The Tikbalangs hurriedly ran inside. Although the majority of the green monsters stayed behind and feasted on their dead kin, more than a hundred of them ended up chasing after the Tikbalangs as they bolted towards the second wall.
SMASH SPLAT!
The goblins that entered through the gate turned around to see what caused the loud noise. Two barrels of wine had been dropped from the top of the wall and shattered on the ground in front of the gate.
Smirking, Ichaival drew his bow back and released a fire arrow. The arrow landed where the barrels were dropped, igniting the spilled wine and scattered pieces of wood.
The thin green monsters were terrified at the sight of fire and took a step back in unison, away from the flames that blocked the back gate.
"RAAAAWRR!" "ROOAAAARRR!"
The shocked monsters rattled even more when they heard two distinct roars coming from the direction of the second wall. An orange Maneator equipped with two whips dashed towards them, followed by an even larger red Maneator equipped with a long glaive.
"AYIIIIII AYIIIII YIII YIII YIII!"
Regaining their composure, the goblins gave out their own battle cry and charged at the two Maneators. None of them noticed Jinggu, who stood up from his hidden position on top of the second wall. He aimed his ballista at the charging monsters and groups of small goblins were blown backwards as large bolts landed right in front of them.
Rasant moved swiftly and wildly swung his barbed whips. Apparently, Smoke thought that with his attack speed, Rasant could handle two of them at the same time and asked Darius to craft these whips specifically for him. The orange Maneator rapidly assaulted the monsters from their sides, slicing through their skin with ease.
Meanwhile, Stark charged straight through the goblins. He kicked the ones that tried to grab a hold of his feet and knocked away three of them that tried to jump on him. The red Maneator blindly swung his Rzeka glaive and attacked anything that came within his range.
With the goblins' attention on the two of them, a gray Maneator stealthily appeared from a camouflaged hole. Weise carried a flamdius and Gora shield. He carefully planned his movements, weaving between groups of goblins and staying out of reach of Stark's glaive.
Weise slashed the goblins' backs and dealt significant damage with his flamdius. Some of the goblins tried to intercept him and attacked from his left side, but he'd just bash them with his red shield.
The three Maneators made short work of the thin monsters that were led into the first layer of Smoke's trap.
From the top of the first wall, Ichaival occasionally glanced at the fight occurring behind him. He was focused on attacking the Gobble Goblins locked out by the flames, most of which were either eating corpses or trying to make towers to scale the wall.
//Stopping here.
As the flames blocking the gate were quickly dying out, ten transformed goblins prepared to enter.
From the command center, Smoke observed that Ichaival still had the back gate relatively secured but was starting to show signs of struggling against the goblins. The front gate, on the other hand, had two of his best men guarding it. With his power chainsaw bow equipped, Smoke glided down towards Ichaival. His dark ember sprite came out of the metal orb on Smoke's chest and attacked the goblins with a barrage of fireballs. Together, they targeted the monsters that came within range.
* * * * * *
Minutes after Smoke left to help Ichaival, Banal's main gate was forced open by twenty transformed goblins. The ten injured Tikbalangs that guarded the gate had been ordered to retreat to the third wall.
As Vijaya was carried by six falcons, she issued the same order to the twenty-two Condortlian Warriors who were with her.
With all the corpses consumed, the thin green monsters joined their transformed brothers and entered the area between the first and second wall.
"AYIII AYIII YIIII YIII YIIII!"
Dozens of goblins rampaged through the houses located on the outskirts of the village. Despite Smoke's efforts to lay out a straight path towards the second wall, these monsters tore down the boarded-up windows and doors and went through the houses in search of Banalites.
The goblins' attention was drawn towards the second wall when a wide opening appeared in it. Behind the opening stood one man, holding a gigantic double-bladed sword, seemingly taunting them to come and challenge him.
They shouted their battle cries at the top of their lungs as they ran towards the opening. The transformed dark-green goblins led the charge while hundreds of their shorter kin followed.
About ten meters after they passed the second wall, the transformed goblins threw their hands in the air as they desperately tried to grab hold of something.
The monsters fell down the deep trench as they ran into the second layer of Smoke's trap. As they were charging through the opening in huge numbers, they had a hard time stopping. Dozens of goblins fell while others were pushed into the trench by the goblins behind them.
The transformed goblins had bigger life bars and harder skin, which allowed them to survive the sharp wooden spikes planted on the bottom of the trench. However, the smaller goblins that followed had no such protection and were impaled on the spikes.
The life bars of ones that somehow managed to survive the fall were slowly depleted as they tried to remove themselves from the spikes. The goblins received Bleeding status and suffered from blood loss
The trench had smooth walls, making it almost impossible to climb out of. In order for them to escape, some of the transformed goblins started making a Gobble Goblin tower.
The other goblins that remained above ground, in front of the trench, waited for the results of the tower.
"Ayii. Ayyy ayayayyay."
Some of the smaller goblins seemed to discuss something among themselves and moved towards the long end of the trench. They started carefully tapping the ground next to it with their feet.
Ecstatic to discover that the trench didn't continue on, the goblins signaled for others to join them and rushed towards Adder with vengeful eyes. However, their advance was short-lived, as they fell into a different trench after taking a couple of steps.
Seven goblins were impaled on the wooden spikes and near death. Discouraged, the goblins that were following behind them returned to the first trench and checked on the pro
gress of the Gobble Goblin tower.
Adder watched as the goblins across the trench started to shout and jump up and down. He interpreted it as a sign that the goblins were about to cross it.
As the Condortlian sprinted towards the edge of the trench, a transformed goblin leapt out and reached out for his head.
Adder expertly blocked the attack with the top blade of his BlitzSturm and countered it instantly with the bottom blade, severing the transformed goblin's hands.
The Gobble Goblin cried out in pain, but was quickly silenced as Adder decapitated it with two swings of his double-bladed sword.
Two more Gobble Goblins emerged from the trench to attack Adder, but they proved to be no match for Smoke's second-in-command.
As the transformed goblins fought, the goblins on the other side of the trench began willingly leaping into it and tried their best to avoid the wooden spikes.
Many were only gashed by the spikes, while a few were still impaled despite their efforts. The thin monsters that landed without being impaled immediately feasted on the corpses of the less fortunate ones.
After Adder defeated eight transformed goblins, he was left with 82% of his life bar. He only got hit a few times when four of them jumped at him at the same time.
Adder took out a chunk of smoked lemurcat meat and ate it snappily. As he chewed, he watched more than thirty transformed goblins emerge out of the trench.
"Attack!" Adder yelled out, spewing chewed pieces of his meal.
Espion and twenty-two Condortlian Warriors immediately came out of the third wall's gate. He firmly held his green dual knives, while the Warriors were equipped with bastard swords and round shields.
Six falcons swooped down from the sky and distracted the Gobble Goblins. Vijaya was running behind the Warriors with her bow in hand. As soon as she got in range, she took her stance and started shooting fire arrows into the bodies of dark-green monsters.
Running past her, one by one, the ten Tikbalangs were returning to the front lines after receiving quick treatment.
Adder, Espion, the Condortlian Warriors and the Tikbalangs were winning one-on-one fights against the transformed goblins, but many more were still coming out of the trench.
A large intimidating shadow flew over the Gobble Goblins. Two of the dark-green monsters looked up, only to be knocked back into the trench and skewered by the wooden spikes.
As Ledur flew directly above the trench, he noticed the Gobble Goblin tower the monsters were using to climb out of it. He used Earth Manipulation and abruptly tilted the bottom of the trench, knocking the stacked-up goblins off-balance.
Ledur then flew towards Adder and pushed away a Gobble Goblin that was about to attack him from behind. The two leaders gave each other a quick nod and went their separate ways.
In a matter of minutes, the transformed goblins were wiped out. Adder moved closer to the trench. There were still more than a hundred and fifty goblins left on the other side, while around eighty of the green monsters were stuck in the trench.
"Any more goblins outside the wall, Vijaya?" Adder asked the brunette Huntress.
"Kekekk keekkek." Vijaya asked her falcons and all of them gave out the same shrill in reply. "No, all of the goblins are here." she answered back with her bow at the ready.
Adder looked at Ledur and gave him the signal. The winged Tikbalang closed off the opening in the second wall and created a bridge over the trench.
The monsters were divided, as some of them panicked and tried to climb over the second wall, but they were easy targets for Vijaya's arrows and Condortlians' throwing spears.
The main gate's defending forces gathered in front of the bridge and waited for the Gobble Goblins to attack. The goblins snarled and growled at them, but held their ground.
"Maybe they're afraid you'll destroy the bridge once they try to cross it?" Espion thought out loud.
"Then let's give them a reason to cross it." said Ledur.
Ledur flew closely to the restless goblins in front of the bridge. He proceeded to zoom over them several times, tauntingly tapping their heads with his hoof every time he did and evaded their claws all the while.
Cornered, the Gobble Goblins gave in to their rage and two of them rushed towards Ledur. This started a chain reaction and soon enough, most of the goblins were charging across the bridge.
The bridge was only wide enough to allow up to eight goblins to cross it next to one another, preventing the monsters from using their overwhelming numbers to their advantage. The goblins tried to force their way through the line of Condortlian Warriors waiting for them on the other side, only to be slashed and sliced by their bastard swords.
Vijaya kept shooting her fire arrows while her six falcons took turns diving in and attacking from the sides of the bridge. Espion stayed in the safe zone behind the Warriors' shields and would only come out to deal the killing blow on damaged goblins.
If one of the Warriors got injured, he would push back the monsters directly in front of him with his shield and quickly swap places with a Warrior from the second row. Meanwhile, the Tikbalangs took care of any goblins that managed to slip towards the side and tried to attack the Condortlians' flank.
The goblins couldn't break through the defensive formation of Smoke's private army and died trying to. Once the last of the charging goblins were on the bridge, Ledur calmly cancelled his Earth Manipulation and watched them fall into the trench.
The small number of goblins that was too scared to attack remained on the other side of the trench and huddled together as they waited for their imminent death. Ledur took pity on these monsters and created a sturdy earth prison, locking them inside it.
Swiftly, they started to kill off the trapped goblins. Ledur raised small portions of the trenches, which enabled Adder, Espion and the Tikbalangs to deal with the goblins on it.
Vijaya led the Condortlian Warriors and positioned them along the full length of the trench. They targeted goblins that were eating fresh corpses, preventing as many as possible from transforming.
Soon enough, all of the Gobble Goblins at the main gate were defeated.
A purple flare was launched from the direction of the back gate. Adder and others smiled, as it indicated that Smoke had successfully defended the back gate as well.
Moments later, they saw their leader gliding through the air as he descended towards them.
"Great job! I knew you guys could do it. Were there any casualties?" asked Smoke.
"None. We were fortunate enough, but many have broken limbs and are in need of serious treatment." answered Adder.
"Well, at least you are all alive." said Smoke with worried face. He was extremely impressed by his private army members.
"What about the back gate?" asked Adder. "I hope there were no casualties there as well."
"A Banalite did fall down when Ichaival ordered them to retreat to the third wall." said Smoke and heard Vijaya gasp, "Don't worry, he's alive. Ichaival managed to pull him back up using a rope."
Smoke's voice became serious as he continued to recount the events at the back gate.
"Weise and Stark's life bars went down to less than 30%, but Rasant was the bravest on that battlefield. He only had 10% left on his life bar when he was retreating towards the third wall while being chased by two transformed Gobble Goblins."
Smoke could feel everyone hold their breath.
"Luckily for us, Jinggu's bolts finished off the goblins before they could catch up with Rasant."
"Praised be Cuezaltzin! I knew he would shine his light of protection upon us." Adder said out loud as he formed a fist and raised it to the heavens.
"Don't count your blessings just yet, we still haven't seen Crucibelle." added Espion. "Still, Smoke is as impressive as ever."
Espion patted Smoke's shoulders. "You've got a full life bar... and how in the world did you manage to deal with six hundred goblins?" asked Espion in an astonished voice.
"I had to eat a lot of...huh? What do you mean,
'six hundred goblins'?" said Smoke, confused by the question.
Ledur explained, "We fought about four hundred goblins. So we figured that the larger force went to the back gate."
"No, we only encountered three hundred at most. That's why I immediately came here." Smoke replied as he frowned and clenched his fists.
"Damn it! I thought we only had Crucibelle left. I'll scout the area from the top of the command center. Espion, I need you to go out and search for the missing goblins."
Without a word, Espion nodded and left the village.
"As for everyone else, gather the arrows and spears and return to the emergency shelter." instructed Smoke as he was about to fly off, but a black hoof firmly held back his shoulder.