No one realized what had happened in the early hours of that night with Sofi, Constance and the small altar, all the newcomers were already exhausted with the escape and fear, adding that to the disbelief of what they witnessed in the afternoon ended up exhausting them beyond the limit. Everyone was so tired and in such a deep sleep that only if the goblins attacked with catapults could they wake up, and even if that happened it was possible that some would still prefer to sleep rather than react.
Soon the sun rose and with that the almost total silence ended, with all humans waking up and heading to their own tasks. A single night's sleep and a half-full stomach (you need to ration food well) wasn't enough for the newcomers to fully recover, but at least it made them calmer and more receptive to new obligations.
And they knew that if they wanted to see their homes and many loved ones again, they had no choice but to help defend their "sister village" against the goblins. Generally they could have even despaired at the idea of fighting the same things they were running away from, fortunately there are important details that prevented this.
1. They were caught in a surprise attack by the iron goblins, which prevented an effective defense, but although clumsy it was strong enough to let many escape.
2. The goblins they faced or saw (from afar) being faced were different from ordinary goblins, not only using weapons equal to humans but also tactics and they were also larger than ordinary goblins, while the goblins here would be the same type as they would already be "used to it".
3. They have no choice but to fight with the village, they left with little more than the clothes on their backs and some animals, a good part of them didn't even manage to do that. How were they going to be able to travel to the next town without supplies that would be needed to fight the goblins? Stealing? They would be immediately discovered and at the very least beaten with just cause.
4. If what they saw yesterday with the small altar was in fact real, then they would have the protection of some higher entity, which helped their morale considerably.
Thanks to this, even though some didn't like it and complained in their minds, with many asking themselves the classic questions of 'why show up now?' 'why appear here and not there when we need it' 'would it really be a God or a devil?', everyone still helped as much as they could.
Some helped build obstacles and traps in the field, others helped with the harvest to make room for these obstacles and increase food reserves (lucky it was already harvest time, after all there is never too much food for more than 300 people).
While a small portion of the newcomers were trained in basic combat like how to use spears and shields, fortunately the volunteers were mostly young people with energy and motivation, both men and women. Since it was their older brothers and sisters who were left behind, they now felt a responsibility to protect their mothers (at least those who did not stay with their fathers) and younger siblings.
An even smaller group of young people were also trained by Ivan and Matt, finally released, in the art of forest camouflage and with the bow, both to find new prey and to check on the goblins and if possible (which Ivan was very emphatic when he said) reduce your numbers a little. Of the over 200 newcomers, around 48 or 50 were fit and volunteered to fight, to the concern and despair of several mothers and some grandparents. In total, the number of people who could fight the goblins would be around 100 people, against a still unknown number of enemies.
Normally worry and fear would be a strong, unstoppable and inevitable response, but thanks to the history of the two communities and the slight invisible pressure that the still unknown entity gave, this did not happen, it also helped that everyone heard and saw the corpses of the nobleman and the knights 2 days ago, which deterred the few who wanted to take risks and run with as much food and goods as they could carry.
Everyone was anxious, but the constant work helped to distract even if it was just a little from the dark thoughts. Among all the groups, one didn't even have time to worry about these thoughts thanks to work, that was Barton's group, his two apprentices and 2 more blacksmiths from the neighboring village with their own apprentices. Literally from the moment they arrived they had already started working.
This apparently small group would be considered excessive in other circumstances, after all, how many blacksmiths would a small village have?
Generally none, even in times of war before or after Corruption. But now 3 blacksmiths were in one of these small villages, even if it was against an order of goblins, it would still be considered excessive by some, wasteful by others, and nonsense by most.
The fact is that they were here and they did not allow themselves to think about anything negative while they hammered hot iron, making both spare spears and arrowheads and long daggers, with the iron and steel provided by the nobleman and his knights.
They could work with the material without worrying too much, thus being able to supply all 100 or more people with weapons and the slight surplus becoming reinforcement for shields and helmets courtesy of one of the blacksmiths from the neighboring village.
Why not just use the knights' ready-made weapons and armor then?
Simply because the armor of
Knights would be custom-made for them and even if they weren't they wouldn't have enough for all the combatants, and their weapons would be too heavy for untrained young men.
What if they had enough?
Even so, it wouldn't be practical, after all the combatants are mere inexperienced young people who have never picked up weapons, what would their performance be like having to use both spear and shield, which would already be heavy on their own with the additional weight of armor without the necessary muscles to carry it? such?
For all these reasons they chose to dismantle the armor and reforge it into something that could be practical for them, with spears being the easiest weapon to learn to use in a short time and shields large enough to protect them but not heavy enough to unbalance them. A "thin" layer of iron is applied to increase protection but not weigh too much. And since everyone needs a spare weapon, what would be better than a long dagger, which is nothing more than a larger and sharper kitchen knife.
In addition to these groups, there was still one that was preparing silently, this one made up of just 4 people. These were the healers from the neighboring village who made poultices and medicines from the few plants they brought, usually they would be led by Sofi but no one had seen her since the afternoon of the last day, so they were led by Agatha and Gertrude, with several other women and some men without the ability to fight by helping to make more medicine.
Everyone had their own tasks with impotence and necessity but one thing everyone did at least once a day, go straight to the altar and pray to the entity, including the newcomers with several asking for weapons or food but never getting a response.
Some dissatisfied people tried to instigate some response from the rest of the people but they never achieved anything, everyone always responded that 'he' would respond when there was a real need, with the main person responsible for this argument being Constance who had witnessed this happen first hand, twice on top of that. even if no one but Sofi knew about the second one.
But thanks to that, she knew that 'he' didn't respond to superficial requests for weapons, miracle medicines, food or even clothes. He would answer yes, as everyone already knew, but only when necessary, due to the certainty with which she said that and combined with the "fame" she already had in relation to 'him', many began to consider her as 'his' intermediary in the village.
Some ended up asking her to talk to 'him' others directly asking her for things, fortunately no one was foolish enough to try a more... crude method with her, both because of what had already happened and because she was the possible wife of their village chief.
Even though out of necessity she always walked either with her friend Hannah or her fiancé Dan.
Despite the threat they faced and the anxiety they had about those left fighting the goblins in their village, things still managed to go on relatively peacefully in the village.
Until the third day when signs of the goblins' advance were seen.
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A/N: I'm sorry for the delay even though I said I would still post twice a week.
Believe it or not, I already had 6 chapters ready since Halloween. So why didn't I post? because I simply made a huge mistake and ended up deleting them by accident and having to redo them from scratch.
But nothing that can't be resolved, I'm managing and next week I should be able to post daily again
Thank you for reading and being patient until next time. 😁😃👌