Chapter 313: Skirmish

Following that, the Adventurers laid as many traps as they could manage under Cortina’s orders. Even if the enemies were led by a Lord, they were still Goblins at the end of the day, so even if their strength had increased it wasn’t the same for their intellect.

Lord itself was one thing, but against the rest of the Goblins that were like its extremities, these traps should be highly effective.

Moreover, Cortina made parties of Adventurers and pointed them towards the respective defense points.

Since there was a river on the northern side of the city, the enemy’s marching route was narrowed down to an extent. They were going to ambush them at different points, laying traps and decreasing their numbers as much as possible, and then eventually deciding the battle at the town walls.

That was Cortina’s strategy.

“Honestly, having no way to handle this is quite unlike her… And where did Maxwell go in the first place.”

I muttered to myself while confirming that no one was paying attention to me. It has been three days since then, but Maxwell still hasn’t returned.

The Adventurer’s Guild had contacted several times, but he still hadn’t managed to return.

I had also evacuated to the Magic Academy with Finia, but I disguised myself and slipped out when an opportunity arose and came to check the situation on the frontlines.

Since there was a prediction from Cortina that they might come in 3 days at the earliest, they could appear any time now.

I could obviously not overturn the battle situation on my own, but since Cortina was stepping out onto the battlefield, I wanted to be by her side too.

I had Cortina, and my friends that I wanted to protect living in this city. It wasn’t possible for me to just stand quietly and watch from afar.

The scouts flew overhead frequently and had a firm grasp of where the Goblins were currently, thus people could focus on the work leisurely now. However the anxiety from waiting when you’d get attacked was still there, so the fatigue was piling up faster than normal.

If this went on for too long, the Adventurers might succumb mentally first.

On the fourth day after such apprehensions had taken root, the report came from the frontlines saying that they had encountered the Goblins.

“Message! The party working at the front lines had encountered the Goblins, fought one battle and retreated.”

The message arrived in the Adventurer’s Guild’s hall. I was also there in disguise, so I managed to catch it too.

“What about the damages!?”

“The vanguard warrior had received some minor scratches. He has already been healed with potions.”

“I see. Every person counts now, so relay to them to try to avoid injuries as much as possible. The forest is not where we decide the battle.”

“Understood!”

The deciding battle that Cortina supposed was on the defensive line that used the walls, and the cleanup of the small number that managed to break through.

For that reason, she needed there to be as many fighters as possible. It would be bad if they got themselves injured during the skirmish like this.

The messenger once again rushed out, and the Adventurers who had returned to take a break also followed after him. I also followed after them in my disguise.

Before we reached the battleground, yet another piece of information had reached us from the scouts.

That information included the notice that the enemy’s numbers have swelled up to 400. This terrific reproductive power was the most frightening part of a Lord.

“Damn it, they are popping out children one after another. Give some of that health to Maria will you.”

If Maria, who was completely exhausted after giving birth to Fina, had heard that, she’d surely have gotten jealous.

As I ran to the forest, I pulled a spear from my back. There was a pigeon familiar in the sky. It was probably the familiar Cortina dispatched for monitoring.

Since she was watching over the battle situation, I couldn’t use my threads. And I couldn’t use an unusual weapon like a katana either. Because, there was probably only me in the entirety of Raum who used a conspicuous weapon like that.

But Cortina didn’t know about this spear.

This spear that was made by the God of Destruction was so firm it could be considered a weapon of its own.

“There! It’s Goblin scouts!”

A warrior running ahead of me had sensed the tumult up ahead. There, I saw two Adventurer parties engaged in a battle with a Goblin group.

There were about thirty of them, so it was ten against thirty.

“Let’s go! Let’s earn favor from those guys who are taking so long to deal with some Goblins!”

“Right!”

He addressed the following group and raised their morale. If it was a newbie, their head would be filled with thinking about their own self and would not be able to consider others like this.

Thus, ten more Adventurers rushed into the battle. The Goblins that had been taken by surprise had momentarily stopped their movements from astonishment.

The Adventurers mowed down their heads like wheat.

However, the Goblins didn’t die just like that. Those that clearly had fatal wounds were still swinging their rusted swords without falling.

One of the Adventurers was taken aback by their tenacity and stopped in place. The other Goblin used that opportunity to attack him from the side. I thrust my spear towards that Goblin and sunk it deep into its lower back.

It was a thrust that carried all the momentum of my rush. It held enough power to break the Goblin’s hipbone.

The Goblin did a somersault as it collapsed. Then, it tried to get up again… But once again fell down.

Tenacious they may be, the bones were the origin of all movements. If you broke those bones, they wouldn’t be able to move properly.

“The enemy is tenacious, so don’t fight normally! Cut off their heads, and if you can’t do that, break their spines. Break their legs and slice off their arms! Make it so they physically cannot fight!”

Seeing my result, another Adventurer raised his voice.

Normally, you would slash at their chest or pierce their abdomen and they would be easily rendered powerless. However, these Goblins were serving a Lord and had high resistance against pain.

Against goblins that had been half-turned into berserkers, slashing at their chests or abdomen to rob them of their combat power would be nigh impossible.

Thus, it was better to aim for their limbs or spine.

If they lose their arms they wouldn’t be able to pick up their swords. And if they lost their legs they wouldn’t be able to stand up. It was important to chip off the enemy mobility like this.

The Goblins that were already having a tough enough fight against ten Adventurers started to flee after sensing the disadvantage once they saw ten more Adventurers join the battle.

This was also not an action you would expect from normal Goblins. They had low intellect, so they would either fight to the death, or lose their chance of escape after losing sight of their surroundings.

These actions were made possible because they were commanded by a Lord.

The Adventurers managed to neutralize nearly 20 Goblins already, so the battle was starting to turn around.

The few Adventures that tried to chase the fleeing Goblins were stopped by the earlier Adventurer that led us.

“Wait, this is still a skirmish. It’s already enough that we managed to take down twenty of them without damage to our side.”

“Still, wouldn’t it make our lives easier if we dealt with the fleeing ones here?”

One of the Adventurers who was about to chase them objected in dissatisfaction. The man easily warded it off and started his explanation.

“It’s just ten Goblins. We’d still have 390 of them, you know?”

“Ugh, well…”

“If you guys follow them and get yourselves killed, it would harm us even more. I ask you to control yourselves.”

“Tsk, fine.”

Hearing the remaining enemy number made his head clear up. He was still reluctant but he decided to back down here.

And thus, we managed to finish our first battle against the Goblins with fine results.