Village of Noobtown: A LitRPG Adventure (Mayor of Noobtown Book 2)
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Chapter 58: The Long Road Back
SueLeeta stopped. That’s what alerted me to the issue. She was slightly ahead of me on the road to Windfall. When she slowed down, I did too. It was fortunate that she was out in front. SueLeeta was so much quieter than me. I was confident that I never would have gotten as close as she did to the goblins without being heard.
I signaled the men to stop behind us on the road. This section was where the forest ended. The road continued out of the hillier country and into the broad flat plane of Windfall Valley. This was the area that provided the first good look at the town. It was where the current residents of Windfall had seen their new home for the first time. Now, it was surrounded by goblins.
This edge of the forest was as good a place as any for setting up a defensive point, due to the escarpment. The road had been cut down through the small ridge. It was maybe 20 feet tall; a man could easily climb down it's craggy face. It would be slow going, though. Moving quickly required the road. The creek, or very small river, depending on your viewpoint, that bordered the town was nearby. The waterfall could be heard in the distance, if one strained their ears.
The green menaces had taken several trees and affixed wooden spikes to them. They had then placed these trees across the road. The goblins were carrying short bows or swords and shields. Large sections of wood and bark had been placed across the road, to provide cover for the goblins. I used Lore. Amongst the common rabble, I spotted several Stone Blood Goblins bearing shields.
Most of the goblins were levels 3-5 and were punier than the higher leveled ones. I’d remembered seeing a picture of a North Korean soldier standing next to a South Korean soldier, both looking tough. Yet, the better nutrition of the South Korean soldier made him much larger and tougher than his northern cousin. These goblins reminded me of them.
There were only 10 Stone Bloods, with the rest being the more common kind of goblin. Each Mercenary was probably capable of fighting a Stone Blood on his own, and I had 20 Mercenaries. My militiamen were somewhere between common and Stone Blood in fighting ability.
“Options?” I asked my two companions.
“There are fifty of them,” stated Shart definitively. “We can sneak around if we go off-road and climb down. Even if the goblins know we are here, they aren’t going to go looking for a fight. Not with as many men as you have with you.
“We should kill them,” growled Badgelor. “They are threats.”
“We could sneak down and then attack them from behind. They aren’t stationed as heavily in that direction,” stated Shart.
Whenever I imagined having a shoulder angel and a shoulder devil, it was different than this. I didn’t have an angel. I had the sneaky devil and the direct devil. Both were equally down with murder.
I dragged an old quest up while they were talking. There were no Goblin Heroes here, though I could tell several were closer to the city. I put that out of my mind, grateful that the lack of Goblin Heroes simplified things somewhat.
“Here’s what we do,” I said, explaining the plan that I had laid out on the Battle Map.
Chapter 59: Goblin Infestation
The goblin fortifications were a ramshackle affair, but they looked serviceable enough. They were a series of 5 wooden barricades blocking the road. Each of the barricades had one side that had spikes built out of it, though I recognized from my Lore skill that they could be spun around if the goblins had enough warning. That seemed to epitomize the creatures, they did just enough to achieve a goal and not one whit of effort more. In practical terms, that meant that they could use their defenses against an attack from the front OR the rear. There were not enough barricades to cover both sides sufficiently, though they could have built one or two more to do so.
This roadblock was meant to keep refugees and militia away. It was not built for Adventurers. If I’d been alone, I would have avoided it. If I’d been in a small group, I’d have done the same. Leaving the road meant that I would run into parties of goblins, which would have been an issue for most of the travelers on this road. Heck, even if all the militia had tried to break through this defense, they would have been hard pressed.
This was going to be fun.
My plan was simple. SueLeeta and I snuck through the forest. She was good at sneaking through the forest, particularly at high speeds. I was good at sneaking in general, if I moved at a reasonable pace and didn’t jog through the underbrush. We assumed positions on either side of the fortifications. I placed SueLeeta in the better vantage point, because she was a more skilled archer.
Fenris and Zorlando stayed back with the men, waiting for my signal to advance. As soon as the goblins spotted them and got into position, SueLeeta and I would engage them. We would press forward or fall back, depending on the situation.
Battle of the Hill or Tree Fortification is about to begin. Would you like to active step 1 of the battle plan? (Yes/No)
Again, with the Ordinal weirdness. A leader had to name the battle plan. If you didn’t, the
Except for loyal Badgelor. “As long as I get to kill something, you can call it Daffodil Mayonnaise, for all I care.” He was sitting at my feet in War Form, in a state of near arousal.
Shart squealed. “Let’s do this, Jim, leader of the Battle of the Hill or Tree Fortification.” The demon barely got the words out before guffawing.
I selected ‘Yes’ and the battle began. Fenris and Zorlando advanced with the men, Mercenaries out in front, militiamen in the rear. The view from the road was good enough that the goblins noticed well before Windfall’s army was in proper bow range. Some of the goblins ran for cover, while others got their own bows ready.
At that angle and with the goblins using the barricades for cover, it would have been really challenging for our archers to score any hits, and we didn’t have an unlimited supply of arrows. Our men continued forward at a good pace. When they finally got into goblin bow range, I noticed a difference between how my men and the goblins were formed up. The goblin archers started popping up in groups of five and firing small volleys at our men. Each five goblin group seemed to be choosing its own target and I realized that they were in normal Parties, not a large War Party, like my men were in. This gave us a tremendous advantage right off the bat. War Parties used war rules, which meant that the goblin arrows were forced by the
I thought back to my last mass battle. There had been some smaller subgroups, but it was basically all our archers verses all their Wargs. Here, there were small, disjointed parties fighting against my much larger group. I glanced at the Battle Map and saw that the enemy force had finally come up. However, only the Stone Blood goblins were listed.
“What’s going on here?” I asked Shart. I flipped to my menus, buying myself some time to think.
“It looks like one of the Stone Bloods has the War Leader talent. He’s probably only achieved the first rank, though. That would allow him only 10 men in a single unit,” responded Shart.
“There are limits?” I asked.
“Yes,” replied the demon. “Yours War Leader talent is at Rank 3 but that doesn’t actually increase your Command Pool unless you spend some talents on it. However, due to my demonic infusion of your talent, your Command Limit is currently 30, 50% more than you normally would be able to lead.”
“There are more than 40 men in my current War Party,” I argued, glancing through the list. There were Zorlando’s 20 Mercenaries, Fenris and his 20 militia, SueLeeta, and me. I knew pets didn’t count, but the rest of us were still over 40.
“Oh, Dum Dum,” responded Shart, sighing his infernal sigh. “You have sub-commanders. Zorlando’s ent
ire unit only counts as one man because Zorlando has talents. Fenris’ entire unit only counts as 10 because he also has the War Leader talent, though his effective count is halved because of your lack of applicable talents.”
“You are going to have to explain that better,” I thought, once again celebrating the menu’s slower pace. Shart would have plenty of time to explain whatever crazy rules he needed to.
“Fine,” groused the demon. “Zorlando has the Mercenary Leader Class which has the War Leader Talent. As someone who earned that talent from a class, his base Command Limit is 10. He has taken a talent to increase his Command Limit by 10, bringing him to 20. He also has the Master Sergeant talent which allows him to use his whole Command Pool if he’s under the command of someone else.
“Next, we have Fenris. He also has the War Leader talent, but since he has levels in a class his Command Limit is 20. However, if he is under the command of someone else, like you, his Command Limit is halved to 10.”
“Pets don’t count, nor do familiars,” finished the demon. “That means you are using only 13 Command out of your own Command Pool of 30, just like it says on your sheet.”
“What about when I was defending the fortress?” I asked.
“You were running at 27 Command during that fight,” replied Shart.
Fewer men but more Command.
“I have a bunch of questions, but now is not the time for it,” I stated, “I’m going to kill some goblins now.
“Finally,” shouted Badgelor.
Chapter 60: Battle for Windfall Road
The largest goblin was starting to yell at the others. They were finally preparing for their first proper volley. That would put enough arrows onto my men to potentially cause real damage. Thus, I deemed it time to strike.
I started with a Power Shot, one of my Marksman talents. I aimed directly toward the archer that seemed to be coordinating the rest of the goblins. As he was yelling out orders, I shot him in the head. The arrow impacted on the side of his temple, and his entire skull shattered like a melon. It sprayed his nearby companions in a fountain of gore as his body slammed into the goblin next to him.
SueLeeta released a moment later. Her arrows slammed into the opposite flank, dropping several more goblins. That was the signal for our men to start moving forward more quickly. They began charging while the goblins tried to figure out what to do.
Every time SueLeeta fired, two or three goblin archers perished. Every time I fired, someone’s face exploded. The flying bodies were a nice touch, but they seldom did more than distract the enemy. Several archers began firing into the woods without success. Spotting someone hidden in the shadows of the woods was a bit tricky than you’d think.
For maybe 30 glorious seconds, the goblin lines fell into confusion. Then, they got their acts together. Their spearmen broke off into two groups of 5; each group rushed into either side of the woods, trying to find us. The goblin archers attempted to fire on the advancing human troops.
SueLeeta had to back away from the goblins. She didn’t have an endless supply of Stamina, and her Multi Shot talent took a lot of it. Her hand to hand skills were not great, so she needed to allow her Stamina to replenish. Still, one of the goblins that was after her had his leg torn off in a snare. SueLeeta also managed to shoot another one in the chest, as she was forced back.
The five that came after me had a worse time. I shot at one with a Power Shot, which he knocked away with his shield. I tried a Magic Shot, but it was deflected as well. Not only that, but the flashy technique of Magic shot gave away my position, which caused several archers to spin and loose at me. They looked unimpressed, even as I dropped my bow and drew my longsword.
Badgelor leapt out of his hiding spot, diving onto the closest creature’s back. The goblin died screaming, huge badger claws digging deeply into his neck. Badgelor yanked out his foe’s trachea and began sniffing it. Not wanting to see where that activity was headed, I activated Thrust and drove my sword into another goblin.
The green fiend had been distracted, both by his friend’s death and by my companion’s desecration of the corpse. I batted away a spear from the third goblin with my gauntlet and executed Hack and Slash. The goblin collapsed, the side of his head completely caved in.
The fourth goblin successfully blocked my first strike. He got into position, braced himself, and thrust forward with his spear. Once again, a goblin strike was unable to penetrate my armor. I jammed my sword into his eye, not stopping until the tip of the weapon came out the back of his head.
Badgelor was running down the fifth and final goblin. I briefly glimpsed them as they ran out of sight. The badger was still clutching his neck prize in one fist. I heard a haunting, loud scream that grew softer and softer, until it finally died away. By that time, the Mercenaries had closed with the goblins.
The Stone Blood goblins had spears and hammers, while the conventional goblins had only spears. They both formed a line around their spiked fortifications, using their barricades to protect their vulnerable center. The militia and the goblin archers were close enough that they were sniping at each other and anything else they could manage.
It looked like a pretty traditional battle, until Fenris leapt entirely over the spikes. He landed on the other side and charged straight into the Stone Blood’s leader. Fenris came down hard with his sword in an overhand blow. The Stone Blood deflected, but, before he could bring up a counter strike, Fenris executed a rapid strike. It knocked the spear out of the goblin’s hand, forcing him to grab his hammer. All the while, Fenris continued striking.
I rushed into the side of the fortification, using Fenris’ tactic of just leaping over it. Badgelor climbed over, the long spikes doing little to his armored hide. In an instant, I was with the last group of archers. Every swing of my blade dropped one of the beasts. Badgelor leapt onto the back of one of the Stone Bloods from the top of their wooden defenses. The badger dragging him to the ground, leaving the Mercenaries free to concentrate on his fellows.
I heard the sound of a hammer striking and spun to see Fenris stagger backward. Oh, no. I moved to help but realized the Stone Blood was falling backwards, too. It was the goblin’s throat that was fountaining blood. Fenris had only been thrown off balance by his own strike.
That was the moment when we went from generally winning to routing the bastards. The goblin’s line crumbled. The Stone Bloods tried to back away, but, with spears on one side and Fenris or myself on the other, they were facing death sentences.
SueLeeta appeared, Stamina fully restored. She was ready to grant any fleeing goblins the sweet release of a feathered death. The entire battle had lasted less than 5 minutes. Every goblin was dead, and we’d only suffered a few injuries.
“Tougher than I expected,” stated Zorlando, looking down at the Stone Blood goblin that he’d killed.
“Some of the goblins around here are,” I responded. The men were already patching their wounds. Several were chewing on healing root to deal with some of the more serious injuries. A few had gotten speared, but their heavier armor had protected them.
Fenris had a bad wound on his shoulder, where the Stone Blood commander had gotten in a single good strike against him. That had caused normal damage, and Jarra the Healer was certain that he’d be fine in an hour or two.
SueLeeta punched me in the shoulder. She had a few minor wounds on her own person, but nothing major. “So, you didn’t get all of your goblins down the road, did ya?”
“Sorry,” I stated. “They scattered into the woods. I believed, with their little legs, it would take them longer to get here.”
“No worries,” she replied, using first aid on herself and Cat Four. Sadly, I didn’t remember if it was a new cat or not.
From here, we could see that the rest of the path to Windfall was finally clear.
“Let’s go.”
Chapter 61: Back to Windfall
There were cheers when we entered the village, not many, but it was still gratifying. Wi
ndfall had prepared for a siege the best that it could. The villagers had gathered some herbs and honey. An attempt had been made to patch the walls. Given our food situation, we weren’t as prepared as I would have been comfortable with. However, I was hoping the siege wouldn’t last too long. If it did, we were going to have to slaughter and cook up some goblin
A prompt appeared, asking me to immediately report to the mayor’s office.
“Fenris, get the troops rested. I’ll go find out what’s going on and get back with you. Expect to move within the next hour,” I stated, before I ‘walked’ to the mayor’s office. I could, at need, walk faster than most people could jog, if I really wanted to. It just looked awkward.
I brought up my town menu to get a run down of the village’s situation. I noticed a new menu labeled ‘Defense’ and selected it. It showed the town, the defenders, the supply situation, the Western Gate Fortress, and the fortress’ defensive situation. That was new.
Glancing through the town logs, I read that the barracks had received maximum priority. They were now at temporarily repaired status. The status required additional repairs every four hours, at a cost of significant amounts of lumbar and metal. We had enough of both materials for the short term.
Ah, so the barracks upgrades the town menu just like the Town Hall did.
Several of the options in the defense menu were greyed out. I was guessing it was due to the building being temporarily repaired instead of fully functional. I filed that for later and reviewed the map of the surrounding area. The goblins were investigating the mine and two additional points, just outside the barrier. The three points formed a rough triangle.