Chapter 55: E-Rank Adventurer Party (9)

The adventurers returned around the time the sun passed its zenith and began to gradually touch the western mountain range. They appeared over a hill a fair distance away from the village.

We split the group into humans and goblins and pretended as if we were battling. Bundles of straw were tied to the ankles of about a hundred goblins, so it appeared like a fierce battle was being carried out as a huge cloud of dust was kicked up. Within the cloud of dust, the humans used a gong and sang their anthem while the goblins cried out loudly. The sound of metal and metal colliding echoed clearly throughout the sky.

Laura spoke while covering her mouth with her sleeve.

“The enemies are approaching.”

“They most likely think a battle has been ongoing for quite a while now.”

“We shall proceed to the next stage, then.”

I gave her an approving nod. Once I did, Laura began to command the monsters. Although she couldn’t convey her orders as instantaneously as I can━In my case, I could telepathically give orders to the golems and fairies that I had formally purchased in my dungeon━she managed to lead the monsters in her own way through flags.

━Keururuk!

━Kiru, kiruruk!

The goblins ran towards the main gate of the village in a hurry like a bunch of stragglers that were retreating due to the sudden appearance of more enemies. As we planned beforehand, the humans chased after the monsters right away. Laura and I stood in a corner of the village and watched.

“Wooo! The monsters are retreating!”

“Kill them! Capture them all!”

From the perspective of the adventurers, the situation most likely appeared like this: the monsters and villagers have been fighting for a long time and as both sides were in the middle of an intense battle, their group appeared behind the monsters. The monsters were then alarmed by the sudden appearance of more humans and began to retreat.

“They have taken the bait.”

The adventurer-civilian militia alliance charged after the retreating goblins. A retreating army is the most appetizing prey. The adventurers intended to use a pincer formation with the villagers to put a full stop to the battle.

However, as the monsters weren’t retreating but were charging at the adventurers━.

They also had no idea that the villagers who appeared as if they were pursuing the monsters were actually going to attack them.

Laura and I muttered almost exactly at the same time.

“It is over.”

“This is the end.”

* * *

“Kuhaha, the village people did better than I expected!”

Once Riff witnessed the battle that was happening at the village, he ordered his men to charge without any hesitation. He couldn’t see properly because of the cloud of dust, but he was certain that it was a fierce battle. The loud noises, shouting, and screaming all pointed towards it being a bloody battlefield.

At a glance, the fences appeared to have been breached. Riff first thought that the village was in an unfavorable situation, so he intended to quickly carry out his Hammer and Anvil strategy before the village got wiped out. However, his thoughts changed once he saw the goblins run out of the village as soon as his men started to approach.

‘They’re equally matched!’

The village wasn’t at a disadvantage. Even if the fences had been breached, the fight was seesawing constantly inside the village. The monsters most likely lost a large number of its forces while trying to get through the fences. Thus, once Riff and his men appeared at their rear, the Demon Lord’s army panicked and were ordered to retreat.

The situation has changed. There was no need for the village to be the anvil and for them to be the hammer. On the contrary, it was their turn to become the anvil and hold on to the retreating goblins. The villagers will become a large hammer and slam the goblins from behind!

Riff shouted in excitement.

“Brothers, do you see it!? The goblins are running away like mutts with their asses on fire!”

“Yeah! As clear as day!”

“Our spears are more than enough to take care of these little runts!”

The adventurers and civilian militia let out a cry. There were some people who were already shouting to charge.

The goblins and Riff’s group charged towards one another. The distance between the two groups decreased quickly. At that moment, the number of people letting out battle cries increased drastically. They got rid of their fear of battle by shouting.

Their hearts became heated as they ran and their cries let out hot breaths. At that moment, the adventurers jumped into battle in the truest sense.

“Let’s kill, let’s kill them!”

“Huff! Huff! Huff!”

“Kill those sons of bitches!”

The goblins were right in front of them. The monsters then let out a fearsome cry.

━Kirurururuk!

━ Keruk! Keruk! Keruruk!

Riff pushed the end of his spear out forward. It was a spear he had acquired after a certain wealthy city merchant decided to support him. It was longer than a short spear and shorter than a long spear, and though it may have been somewhat lacking to face against other humans, it was more than enough to impale goblins that were much shorter than humans.

“Speeears!”

“Graaaah! Die!”

“Yahooooo━!”

Once Riff gave out his order, all of his men held out their spears. Muscular arms, physiques that were overwhelmingly larger than that of goblins, and their log-like chests and legs held their spears firmly. Finally, the two groups collided.

“Guaaaah!”

A large cry echoed throughout the plains. A strong impact traveled up Riff’s arm. Two whole goblins had gotten impaled by his spear. His palms hurt and his pace slowed. Despite this, Riff put more strength in his right leg as he pushed himself forward. An impact would travel down his spear each time he took a step forward. Like moths to a flame, the goblin bastards were jumping right into his spear!

“Try and kill me, you fuuuucks!”

“Charge! Chaaaaarge! Don’t stop! Don’t stop moving!”

“Hans, you son of a bitch, keep moving!”

The adventurers-civilian militia alliance was like a moving rocky coastline. The goblins collided against them non-stop, but they quickly fell away like waves on rocks. For goblins, the spear charge of heavy infantrymen was as powerful as a group of charging knights.

At most, the goblins had on leather armor, but it still revealed most of their body. On the other hand, the humans were wearing good quality cloth armor with chainmail on top. Although they couldn’t cover their entire bodies with expensive chainmail, they were able to properly protect their upper bodies and thighs.

A couple of goblins waded their way through the forest of spears and swung their clubs. However, it was difficult for them to do any massive damage past the chainmail. A small portion of 8, out of the 73, people unluckily died during the process of the charge. The 65 remaining heavy infantry carried on without reserve. Almost a hundred goblins had perished around the time they came to a complete halt.

“Brothers! Stick together!”

“Don’t try to show off and fight together! Hey! Hans! Do you want to die!?”

The humans hastily created a tight formation.

The members that got too excited and charged further ahead were surrounded by goblins. They couldn’t do anything but get torn to shreds by the goblins’ teeth like a couple of deers that got caught by a pack of wolves. There were 60 men left. They formed a square and calmly stabbed at the goblins.

“Kuhaha! It’s like taking candy from a baby!”

“Match our breaths. Hah! Stab! Hah! Pull back!”

“Hah! Huah! Hah!”

The civilian militia that had defended their villages from goblin attacks all their lives were especially active. The civilian militia knew better than anyone else that they could escape from any large dangers as long as they don’t let the goblins surround them.

It was around the time the excitement of the charge had settled down slightly.

“Hah! Hah!……?”

One of the senior adventurers furrowed his brows. He glared at the area in front of him persistently before speaking to Riff who was swinging his spear next to him.

“Leader! Hah! Something is strange!”

“Huff! What, you bastard!? Don’t talk nonsense and keep stabbing!”

“There are too many goblins!”

Riff’s brain, which he had stopped using until now as he had been pouring all of his concentration on killing goblins, finally activated.

‘……There are too many goblins?’

Riff’s field of vision soon widened in an instant. Not only could he see the goblins right in front of him, but he could now see the ones beside, behind, and behind the ones behind as well. His comrade was right. There were way too many goblins. Even though they should have killed almost a hundred of them in their initial charge, the area was still overflowing with green monsters.

‘Wait. Shouldn’t their numbers have decreased during their assault on the village?’

From what he could see, there were approximately 300 goblins. It was strange. The goblins should have been trying to invade the village until Riff’s group arrived. Their numbers should have dropped to at least 200.

What, did that Demon Lord bastard scout more goblins? As a few guesses went through his head, Riff’s party shouted.

“Oi! What’s going on!? The village people are splitting to the sides!”

“They probably intend to join together with us instead of attacking the goblins from behind!”

“Those cowards!”

Riff’s comrades continued to swing their spears as they complained. Riff also followed their movements automatically. The contents of his comrades’ words filled his head.

‘The villagers aren’t attacking the goblins from behind?’

Riff swiftly turned his head and looked at the battlefield.

The villagers were definitely splitting to the sides and passing the goblins by. The village people were practically surrounding the goblins and the adventurers on both sides.

‘What the fuck? What are they trying to do?’

It was understandable that they would want to fight alongside the adventures instead of taking on the goblins by themselves. The adventurers were far stronger, after all. Nonetheless, weren’t the goblins candidly revealing their backs to the villagers? Is there a reason you wouldn’t want to take out foes that have their backs towards you? Were the villagers that cowardly?

Furthermore, why were the goblins being so tenacious when they were being routed?

“……!”

Riff came to a realization before then being struck with dismay. There was only a single thing that could answer this bizarre situation━the villagers had betrayed them!

“Fuck!”

Riff involuntarily swore. That’s it. For some reason, the villagers had teamed up with the Demon Lord’s forces. The goblins weren’t actually retreating, but they were coming to attack them, and the villagers were currently moving to completely surround the adventurers.

The battle had completely turned around. The situation that seemed completely favorable to them up to this point was now being shone in the exact opposite light. It wasn’t them who were carrying out a Hammer and Anvil tactic. It was the goblins that were holding down the adventurers as the anvil while the villagers became the hammer……to crush the adventurers!

Riff almost let out a scream as he shouted.

“Retreat! Everyone retreat! Retreat!”

“Huff? Leader, what do you mean……?”

“Don’t talk back and retreat! Fuck! There’s no time to escape! Quickly!”

Riff left the formation and ran back. His comrades screamed. Some of them even swore at him, but Riff paid them no mind.

This was the last moment. The adventurers were set up. Completely and utterly trapped. However, the villagers hadn’t surrounded them completely yet. It may be a matter of time……but if he misses this opportunity, then the group will get wiped out after getting surrounded by the goblins and the villagers.

They have to escape before then!

“What!?”

But it wasn’t long before Riff had to come to a stop. The adventurers who started running after Riff recklessly also came to a stop. They could also tell that something bad was happening now.

Approximately a hundred humans were blocking their retreat.

They were none other than the villagers from the western end of the mountain range that Riff thought were the traitors. Roughly 2 villages’ worth of people.

***

TL note: Thanks for reading the chapter. Okay, I rushed this a bit too fast. I STILL HAVE ASSIGNMENTS. Welp, I’ma go under for a couple of days. See you guys after I finish my work at the last second.