Chapter 68: Preparations

There was no time to lament on what had happened. At the moment, Tristan could only try to do the best he could with whatever he currently has.

Now that he was in full control of the two hundred plus lawless, disorganized greenskins, he really should start preparing for the incoming battle now. There was no more time for him to waste as barbarian attacks could come at any time from now on.

Luckily, he still had one piece of good news, which was that the dwarves finally decided to help. However, what made Tristan unable to help but imprecate was that it was just the two apprentices. 

That's right. The master apparently decided to take a nap at the keep, throwing the job at the two.

Sleeping at times like this, the dwarf was probably the bravest of them all as not even Tristan, with his near indestructible body, managed to do so.

Still, two were always better than one or none at all. Thus, even though he was upset, Tristan was still grateful to the dwarves for their help. 

Without wasting any more time, the former Earthling immediately made the two dwarf apprentices start working right away.

Bifur, the one with brown beard, was in charge of the main gate, while Bofur, the red bearded one, was in charge of fixing the damaged walls on the west side of the fort.

The main gate's problems were mainly mechanical. Hence, Tristan deployed Barry and Seth to help the dwarf because the two at least have some basic knowledge of the matter. 

There was no way he would send the orcs to help him. If he did that, he was afraid the problem would get bigger instead of being solved.

As for the west wall, the one with a three meter wide gaping hole, that would need a special kind of care to be fixed. Special care meant more time, and time was one such commodity they currently didn't have much.

Bofur himself knew that he didn't have much time to spend fixing the wall, therefore, he opted for an alternative. After thinking about the matter, he settled his mind on using a temporary wall construct that would be made out of wood.

When Tristan heard about the idea, he immediately assigned a dozen Gretchin to help out on the arduous task.

Knowing that they would be fighting against an enemy that was five to ten times their numbers, Tristan could not expect to win by just cowering behind the walls. He needed something else, a trump of some sort.

Tristan began to storm through his mind, searching for a way to possibly deal with the situation at hand. Then, an idea sprouted within him.

He summoned Karra and asked her to bring him to the place where the orcs stored their equipment.

Tristan remembered some sayings from a military book he read carelessly back on Earth. It said that if one didn't have the number to fight against the enemy, then one should resort to better strategy or equipment. He already had the former, and now he was going to check the latter.

Unfortunately, the moment Tristan arrived at the 'warehouse', if it could be called one due to how neglected the place was, he was disappointed by the sight that greeted him. 

All this time, the orcs were fighting their enemy with the crudest armor. Heck, Tristan could even see that some of them already had cracks that would make them shatter on impact. And as if the matter wasn't horrible enough, the amount and quality of weapons they had was also extremely disheartening.

"There's no long-range weapon?" Tristan corrected his words the moment he saw some of them, but became depressed again when he saw the amount the orcs have.

Apart from sturdy walls for protection, what they had to have were long-range weapons, the best weapon for defending during a siege. Unfortunately, other than half a dozen crossbows and limited bolts, there was nothing else.

It was impossible for them to start creating weapons now, not with the time they had. Hence, Tristan decided to just use the most simple form of long-range weapons: stone and spear.

The orcs that weren't helping on the repair of the fort were ordered to pick up stones from the hills around the fort. Tristan's instruction was: the more the better.

But of course, he had some requirements with the stones they would be using as weapons. They would need those that weren't too heavy to throw, but also not too small lest it would not do anything when it hit the opponent.

With that requirement in mind, a hundred orcs, Grunts and Gretchin alike, both ventured outside crossing through the terrain until the hill area and began collecting rocks.

Thus, hundreds of stones as big as a person's head were gathered inside the fort and distributed across the wall.

Lastly, for the spear, actually it was more like a long spike rather than a spear.

The rest of those who weren't assigned yet were sent to the woods. Their job was cutting down the trees and making hundreds of spikes from them. Half of the spikes were put on top of the wall, while the rest on the bottom.

Tristan smiled as he watched the orcs do the task assigned to them. He couldn't help but think the race was such a fantastic worker. Not only were they physically advantageous, they also worked without a single complaint and a single coin. Such an amazing race. 

When the dark shroud concealed the sky, a figure appeared on the hill, running towards the fort. It was none other than Astrid, who came to bring back information.

From him, it was confirmed that the next barbarian attack would come tomorrow at noon, and they brought 2000 men.

Hearing the news, when the orcs returned from their task and had their dinner, Tristan ordered to bring out all the orcs' mead supply.

"Tonight we feast to our heart's content. Tomorrow we will feast in the blood of our enemy!"

Even before Karra translated the words, the orcs already cheered in excitement which made Tristan wonder with two possibilities. Either he's a natural born leader or the orcs really are just too stupid.