Chapters 316 – Defensive Battle

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Early in the morning, the Goblins had started their assault right after Kayle’s group had left.

Cortina stood above the walls and gave commands to the entire force.

When the situation reached this point, there was no point in staying locked up inside the Guild. Rather, showing up on the battlefield served to boost morale, if anything.

The main gate had already been closed shut, and without a battering ram, there was no breaking it.

In other words, the Goblins could only climb over the walls to get into the city. If it were soldiers, they would be setting up ladders, but the Goblins weren’t intelligent enough to make them.

On the other hand, they had strong claws that they could use to tear bodies to pieces. They weren’t sharp enough to content with swords, but still strong enough to embed themselves into rock and support their weights.

Seeing Goblins digging their claws into the walls and climbing up here and there was enough to set fear into the Adventurers.

“If they pass us, they’ll wreak havoc in the city! This is the critical moment. Everyone, fight with all you have!”

Cortina motivated the Adventurers with a yell. With that, the Adventurers started their counterattack. They started showering the Goblins from the wall with arrows and rock bullets, while also spilling hot water and oil on them.

There was a limit to the wideness of the wall, so at most, a hundred or so Goblins could climb up on it at once. Even so, there were over three hundred more Goblins standing behind them, while the opposing Adventurers were 40 at best.

Such overwhelming numeral assault wasn’t something that could possibly be kept in check.

It was going favorably at first, but before long, some of the places gave in to the numbers and the Goblins had gotten through.

It was about two hours after the defensive battle started that such reports had reached Cortina’s ears.

“Lady Cortina, 12th position has been broken through!”

“Kh, 9th and 10th should’ve had some more leeway. Have them expanse the defense perimeter by two meters each. 11th should move by four meters and assist 12th. 13th should also expand their point at the present point. How many have invaded the urban areas?”

“Somewhere around 20.”

The Guild staff rushed to report the situation. There were twenty Goblins, a number that an average Adventurer party could exterminate.

However, against normal people, that number was powerful enough to destroy a small village.

Now when the gate guards and newbie Adventurers were protecting the southern part of the city, while the knights were confined in the noble district, there was no one to protect the safety of the north.

There would be almost no harm to the citizens, but the damages to the city could not be entirely prevented.

“As much as I’d want to chase after them, we have no leisure for that. There are some traps, so we should plug the holes and keep on defending.”

“Alright!”

“12th position—Morrison, was it? What about him?”

“He has suffered a serious injury but his life is safe… But there is no hope for him to return to the battlefield.”

On top of the defensive battle being broken, the Adventurer in charge could no longer return to the frontlines. That said, the fact that he managed to hang on to his life was already a profit.

Thinking about the damages that would be dealt to the town even if they succeeded in the defense made the people present despair.

“It’s okay, I still have some measures. You should focus on protecting this place.”

“Okay!”

Hearing that Cortina still had some methods roused the morale of the Adventurers around. They judged that since their strategist wasn’t despairing, they still had ways to overcome this.

Goblins who had entered the city were initially bewildered at the strange sight before them. It was because carts and wooden boxes were blocking several locations, sealing the way to advance there.

Most of them were blocking narrow roads, leaving no way to advance but the main road. Naturally, those obstacles were mere piles of things, so destroying them would be easy. That said, the Goblins no longer had enough reasoning to do something so laborious.

These Goblins whose minds had been incited by the Goblin Lord didn’t give much thought to the sealed-up places and rushed ahead on the main street.

One of the reasons was the fact that their wide increase in numbers had made it so the food did not reach everyone. Tormented by hunger, they decided to choose the easiest path towards their food—that is, humans.

Their comrades that should have gone on different roads also joined up with them, and they advanced ahead in a large group.

And finally, they discovered their prey.

There were more walls deeper in the city, and their gate was being protected by soldiers wearing neat plate armor.

The soldiers looked clearly different from the Adventurers that protected the outer walls. However, Goblins were not one to notice such a difference.

“GUGYAAAAAAAAAAAA!”

They raised yells of delight and charged towards their prey.

When he sighted the Goblins, the soldiers—the chivalric order, raised alerts.

“Goblins are here! They came, as planned!”

“We should at least do this much a̲s̲s̲-wiping!”

The knights set up their shields and thrust their spears forward. To protect the citizens taking refuge in the southern parts, Cortina had skillfully blocked the roads and led the Goblins towards the noble district gate that the chivalric order was protecting.

She judged that maddened Goblins would not try to purposely climb over the blockades, and she purposely divided them at first only to let them converge at the end so they would not suspect they were being led.

The knights were also regretting the fact that they weren’t able to protect the citizens.

However, to them, the orders of their superiors were absolute. But Cortina had proposed this plan, and utilized the war power that she couldn’t normally have.

The knights who were unable to protect their citizens were more than glad to accept her request.

“Some of the Goblins might inevitably break through, and those Goblins might head straight for the nobles, right? I’ll be relying on you if that happens.”

Seeing the impish laugh of the strategist, the knights accepted with wry smiles.

They were ordered to protect the noble district from the start, so this would not be going against their orders.

As for the nobles that had issued those orders, they were not made aware of Cortina’s plan.

This was, to the end, simply an inevitable situation, after all.