Volume 3 - CH 8

Chapter 8 – Defensive Battle

Outside the spire, the area around the castle wall suddenly became hectic. That was because the second wave of Goblins had finally appeared. Since there is a passage that connects the spire to the wall, Puke brought Eto and his party to the top of the wall in the east through that passage. From there, they could see hordes of Goblins illuminated by the magical tools which happen to be the light source that fills the roads.

However, without knowing the exact number of the enemy, it would be risky to exit the gate to intercept them. Therefore, the higher-ups of the kingdom decided to conduct a siege battle that effectively used the castle walls.

Fortunately, the way the Goblins attacked was simple. They either simply attacked the gate and tried to break it or climbed the wall by stepping over the corpses of their allies. Yes, the kingdom only has to be careful of those two patterns. Although there seems to be quite a number of Goblin Mages and Goblin Archers, their attacks can’t cross the walls and the barrier made by magic.

Thus, by blocking the advance of Goblins from the top of the walls by using bows, spears, rocks, or even boiling water, they should be able to prevent their invasion into the town.

However, over time, the defending side will definitely be exposed to a number of threats, as stamina and magic power do not last infinitely, and there is also a limit to the number of arrows.

Furthermore, the Goblins also cling their bodies to the walls, so the corpses will be piled up. And those mountains of corpses have begun to touch the walls of the east and south. Thus, they have to be wary of Goblins that manage to reach the top of the castle walls by climbing that mountain.

They couldn’t even go outside the walls to destroy the mountain of corpses, as they will soon be surrounded by a horde of Goblins and be killed if they do that. As the defenders desperately continued to resist without any concrete countermeasure, the sun started to appear in the sky. Subsequently, the Goblins began to withdraw to the eastern forest, as if they were avoiding the sunlight.

“What? The Goblins retreated? As far as I can see, there are still a lot of them, so why are they retreating just like that? Even though if they pushed a bit more, they would have been able to reach the top of the wall.”

Puke tilted his head, unable to understand the bizarre behavior of the Goblins. Incidentally, even though he had been repeatedly using attack and defensive magic all night, it seems Puke still had quite a bit of magic power left.

“The way they retreated seemed as if they disliked the sunlight. Or maybe, they were instructed to attack until the morning from the start? However, if that’s really the case, that just means the Goblins can even share such complicated commands between each other.”

Next to Puke, Eto also started thinking. And while the two were absorbed in their thoughts, forgetting the hordes of Goblins, the monsters gradually disappeared from the highway.

That night, before the attack started, Eto had applied the archers with a Strength buff and enchanted their bows, and he also gave the Magicians a buff that raised their magic attack power. In the battle, Sorano fired precisely and aimed at higher-ranked Goblins from far away. Meanwhile, Amou was responsible for dropping stones and boiling water from the walls, and Kohaku was guarding Eto in case of emergency.

Although they successfully prevented the hordes of Goblins from invading the royal capital, the knights and soldiers showed no expression of joy. Because they knew that there were still a lot of Goblins lurking around in the forest. But, as they found no hordes of Goblins nearby after thoroughly searching the area around the walls, the gate was opened, and they began to work to clean up the Goblin corpses.

After that, the attack of Goblins continued every night. Hordes of Goblins will flood the road when the sun goes down and attack the royal capital throughout the night. And when the sun rises, they will retreat into the forest. The army and monster expert have tried to search for an implication of this orderly action of Goblins, but it seems they still couldn’t find a convincing answer to that.

Despite their success in repelling the Goblins, the higher-ups of the kingdom knew they couldn’t let this situation continue. If the night attack continues every night, the fatigue of the soldiers will increase. They also have to consider replenishing consumables such as arrows, potions, and food.

The Goblins might not have attacked at noon so far, but it doesn’t mean they couldn’t change their tactics. Because in essence, Goblins are monsters that are active even in daytime.

The commercial activities around the royal capital have also been greatly affected, and if this situation continues for a long time, there is no doubt that the economic loss will increase. That is why they have to think of an effective countermeasure urgently.