The discipline in the rank and file troops of the goblin army is commendable. Never a Goblin warlord had been able to control their goblins to such an extent until the appearance of the Goblin King.
Compared to the standard human armies in the Middle Age Plane, this discipline shown by this particular army of goblins can be said to be of an equivalent an elite regiment. Their raids and pillaging brought fear to the past villages they went through.
They left nothing behind. Food were used to feed the army. Slaves are taken for labour in their main base. All salvageable metal objects were reforged by the human slaves into barely usable weapons and armour.
Quantity matters more than quality. Despite the strict marching orders into Hongshan village, each and every Goblin warriors were already thirsty for battle, thirsty to kill a human again. Morale was soaring as they are marching into a village that was nearly conquered, making confidence to be all time high.
All they had to do was to complete their routine orders. Kill those males that fought back, slave the rest and pillage everything they can find. There were indeed ongoing rumours of a few ace warriors which managed to kill a mountain troll but what can those manfilths do against an army of hundreds?
The goblin that can get the head of the ace warrior will probably be the next commander in line. Each step they took nearer to the village, they believe fear creeps a little more into those humans' heart.
-BA BA ….BA-
There were distant sounds similar to thunder from the direction of Hongshan village and somewhere near the mountains. The warriors did not care at all and continuing to march as per orders. In a few seconds, they heard a slight whistling sound from above which got louder as each second goes by.
-BOOM BOOM BOOM-
Explosions were heard at the back of the goblin warriors and they even felt the impact of it. Some broke their restraint of discipline and turned their head. Thick smoke and fire were seen in three different sites. Multiple goblins cried in pain as they were caught by the blast fire. Body parts were scattered all around the area.
"WOOHOO! That was the disadvantage of tight formations!" Sen screamed in his head and quickly maneuvered further up the mountain route after firing the shot. Feng was surprised by the amount of damage done by the first shell and quickly controlled the machine consoles to fire the next shell.
Raizan who was used to weapon testings still felt satisfied to see real combat results than dummy ones. The trio used the feature of a highly disciplined army as a weapon against the goblins.
For once, the goblin army felt terror and fear encroaching onto their bodies. However, they knew their Goblin King will come out with a plan, there will a way out of these magical fire attacks. They fervently believed in the King that promised them eternal victory.
However, the Goblin King itself did not think so. Being situated at the rear of the army it was able to see the explosions unfold. It knew that the goblin shamans were able to create such a blast with sufficient preparations and sacrifice. Unfortunately this does not seem to be the case for the humans. The humans condemned these practices by their bishops.
That was the reason why the Goblin King initially did not believe the report that the humans had magical items and casted magic to push the goblins out of the village . Now it finally believed the fact that the humans were able to cast magic.
The Goblin King got even more upset when it realised the three blasts of fire and smoke was not randomly cast but they specifically aimed at the army's archers and wolf cavalry. Losing archer support and cavalry will significantly reduce the army's options in tactics.
Without archers, they lost the ability to kill their enemies from long range. Without cavalry, they lost their shock troops. With such value in these troops, it was the reason why they were placed in the rear since this should be a simple village takeover.
In less than a minute, two more thundering cackle were heard again and they aimed at another company of archers and cavalry. The King sweat in fear. "Those humans knew our location and numbers?! We are hidden in the forest! The goblins that we first sent out will have no idea of our army composition! How can this be? This does not add up at all."
A third volley targeted the same group of troops again. This time round, the Goblin King spoke out in a clear voice "CHARGE NOW, CHARGE FRONT!" The goblin trumpeter acknowledged the King's order and blew an anxious sound. Upon hearing, some of the goblins commanders at the front were slightly confused even though their warriors followed the order diligently.
The tactics the King are usually rational but by charging now, most goblins commander knows that the front line goblin warriors will run out of stamina before reaching the gates of the village walls.
"Hmm, about 60% of the archers and cavalry are dead, so target areas with the largest number of goblins for maximum effect!" Sen commanded as he reached the edge of a cliff that faces the forest. Raizan and Feng acknowledged and started firing at the mass of goblins that they can view form the Strider's map interface.
Meanwhile, Raizan spoke to Feng through the intercom. "Feng, thought about imbuing those shells you fire? I am gonna try a trick of my own too." Feng laughed and said "That will be fun to watch."
Feng knocked a shell with his magical hammer and the shell glowed azure in colour, he then inserted a machine command to load the live shell and fired using the controls after aiming. As the shell was fired, the machine shook so intensively that the strider went backwards from the blast.
The shell landed on the frontline goblin warriors and the whole ground shook . It created a deep crater of approximately two metres deep and at least tens of metres wide. That shot alone probably killed at least twenty goblin warriors! "WOAH" Feng shouted in excitement and decided to the same again with the next shell after repositioning his strider.
Raizan casted a magic enchantment on the shell and did the same with Feng. When the shell flew into mid-air, it suddenly broke and scattered into tens of metal pieces with electrical properties. It was raining metal and as the shell pieces touches with the metal equipment of the goblins, it electrocuted them.
The electrocution was sufficient enough to put the goblins into a state of cardiogenic shock. Their internal organs failed and those affected goblins slowly fell to the ground dying. " This is one experiment I am so dying to try." Raizan gleed a little.
The morale of the goblin army is faltering. If it was just one terrifying explosion, the goblins will continue to move forth. They knew some sacrifices were needed in every battle. However, after being bombarded multiple times to the extent that it create significant losses, the goblins felt extremely helpless for they never experience such an invisible attack. It was so severe that some started to retreat.
The King stood up his seat and viewed retreating as a cowardly behaviour. He threw a chained hook and grabbed a retreating goblin. The goblin was panicking in terror but the Goblin King tighten its fist around the goblin's neck. It went lifeless after a while "I do not condone cowards in my army. King Guards, kill any goblin who retreats.
If they wish to retreat, it is to retreat towards the village!" The King Guards bowed their heads and ran in multiple directions to execute the King's orders. The army eventually stop retreating and started to move forward despite the continuous casualties the army incurred.
Princess Zelanie helped with the last of barricades in the village hall. During the whole rebuilding, she could not help but feel frightened by the constant booming sounds. Captain Rogers meanwhile prayed that they could survive this whole trial. He could not understand why there was no news of a large goblin army of this size coming.
Did the goblins silenced all the runners? If such a devastating news were to spread, The Kingdom's knights would have reinforced the area. Captain Rogers will not have allowed Princess Zelanie to choose this village as the spot for contact.
Speaking of contacts, did the neighbouring allies knew about the movement of the Goblin army? Rogers could not stop thinking of the people to blame when this is over and if he survives.
Seeing as the Goblin King starts to make his move, Sen did the same as well. He shot a shell directly towards the King. Why should he kill his minions when he have the element of surprise at his disposal. A few trees fell in various directions and dust appeared at the bombarded area.
Several more loyal guards died from the surprise attack. However, in his minimap, the King symbol did not disappear. He felt that it was weird and he decided to shoot once more in that direction. If a cockroach is not dead with stomp, stomp it a few more times. He shot twice but the minimap did not show that King symbol disappear causing Sen to be perplexed.
The consecutive bombardments against it allows the Goblin King to notice Sen's Strider and it jumped. Its jump was so high that it managed to reach the cliff that Sen was at. With another push, the King can reach the cliff which the Strider was residing, and that made Sen panic a little, causing him to misfired.
The strayed shot was not wasted as Sen expected, it managed to kill a goblin or two.
The King shouted as it reached the cliff and gave a deep stare towards the Strider. His eyes seems to pierce through the metal of the Strider and into Sen's soul.
He unsheathed his axe and started licking it as a sign of provocation.