Mortar Bomb Thunderclap
"Hurry up and haul them away. When the work’s done, I’ll let you rest somewhere safe."
- Gob! Gob! (Got it!)
The goblins bustled about, clearing away the bodies of their own dead.
"Start with the ones rolling around on this slope."
The corpses piled up on the incline before the defensive line were becoming a nuisance. The goblins had been using their fallen kin as stepping-stones, climbing over them while also turning the bodies into cover against the bombardment.
- Gob gob? (Where do we take them?)
"Stack them along both sides of the approach. Neatly, in alternating rows."
Ho-yeong had intended to provide the goblins with a proper meal before putting them to work, but there was no need for that now.
- Goooob! Gob gob! (You bastard! You’re dead meat!)
- Gob gob goooob! (Not leaving a scrap!)
They had rushed the corpse of the goblin warleader and started devouring him whole.
"You lot have strong stomachs."
The goblins showed no hesitation at all when it came to carrying the bodies of their dead kin. If they came across a goblin they disliked, they would even tear off strips of flesh and eat them on the spot.
"Goblins have no funerary customs, especially no habit of burying their dead. Before the corpses of their own kind attract the appetite of other monsters, they quickly eat them or fling them far away."
"R-right. Cultural relativism. Respect."
He couldn’t exactly project a human moral code onto a monster.
"The spearmen who were holding the barricade earlier will rotate out with the reserve."
While the goblins were busy with environmental cleanup, Ho-yeong let his troops rest.
The attack lane was not especially wide, and he had narrowed it even further with rocks and scrap, so he hadn’t placed many spearmen there to begin with. But he had still formed a reserve force in case the barricade was breached by an unexpectedly fierce charge, so they could fall back safely.
"Those who are injured, go to Rubia. Those who are exhausted, go to Peach."
There had been no dead, but there were a few lightly wounded.
"...Priestess, my leg is hurt. Why do you keep kneading my thigh?"
"Hush. I’m calming down the startled muscle, so keep quiet."
While Priestess Rubia tended to the injured, Peach diligently carried tea and food back and forth.
"This tea’s made with mandragorani horn leaves. And these are cookies with horn leaves kneaded into the dough."
She didn’t care that the blood and sweat of the soldiers were staining her clothes.
I thought she’d be crying and shrieking, but she’s holding up better than I expected. I’ll have to raise her pay once things are settled.
Ho-yeong watched her with quiet approval, while Peach was having far more frightening thoughts.
She doesn’t mind hard work or low pay. So long as she can become the count’s wife, that’s enough for her.
"My lord, please try the cookie too. Ahh, please."
"No, I’m fine. Give more to the soldiers."
Her master made an "ah" in a direction very different from what she had hoped for, and gnawed on the leaves dangling from the horn of Mandragorani No. 8.
"That really does help with fatigue and recovery. I should sell it as a territorial specialty later."
- Raniii? (M-me?)
"No, not you. Just the leaves."
While they traded jokes, Meyril approached hesitantly.
"Oh, Meyril. That last move was excellent."
"R-really?"
"Yes. You were a big help. I’m counting on you from here on out."
"I’m glad I could help."
After encouraging Meyril, Ho-yeong climbed the slope back toward the allied line. There, Lilian was watching the goblins at work.
"I never thought you’d even take in goblins. Are you really planning to use them like livestock?"
"Of course. What’s wrong with commanding monsters? Hm? You’re drinking mandragorani horn-leaf tea too, aren’t you?"
"...Only to preserve combat strength."
She quietly hid the wooden cup.
"I agree with Your Lordship that monsters can become useful beings. But whether those ones will be helpful is another matter. Perhaps if they were used as arrow fodder, maybe."
"Oh, come now. Why would I use the ones I’ve converted as meat shields? They’re perfect for 3D labor, no, for hard, dirty, miserable work. Besides, there’s no need to prepare separate rations for them. They even like monster corpses, so isn’t that convenient? They’re practically cleaners."
Lilian sighed and shook her head.
"Since your resurrection, my lord, I find your thoughts more and more impossible to follow."
"...Isn’t it usually 'easy to follow, impossible to understand'? Still, I think you ought to get some rest too. Ah, no. On second thought, you can’t rest."
"Pardon?"
She had wondered if he was about to order her to do drills for speaking out of turn, but that wasn’t it.
"There’s a lot for you to do, Lilian. The next wave, no, the next offensive won’t be as easy as this one."
"What do you mean?"
"There’ll be soldiers with shields and bows."
Ho-yeong knew this because the status window had warned him, but Lilian had no way of knowing that.
"Even crude bows are still bows, so we need to prepare. Put shield bearers among the spearmen, and have them carry swords or maces as secondary weapons. Tell the mage troops to prepare protective spells as well."
"As you command."
But she answered at once. Her trust in her lord was firm now. He trusted her, and she trusted the man she had chosen to believe in.
* * *
- Gobgoooob!
The goblin shield troops’ gear differed a little from the game’s designs. Instead of crude shields, they had lashed together several thick stakes into a single barrier large enough to cover their bodies. As a result, arrows and spears had a hard time stopping them.
"Damn it. I just want to ride out there and smash the lot of them!"
The sturdily built barricade was a disadvantage in moments like this.
"If only opening the entrance was as easy as deploying a barracks."
To send in a cavalry charge, they’d have to move the carts out one by one, and there was no time for that.
"These lousy bastards!"
Baunal cursed in frustration. The goblins had shown a surprising degree of tactical development, planting their stake-shields in the ground and crouching low whenever stones were hurled at them.
"Instead of rushing in like before, they’re forming ranks? Hah. For goblins, they sure are full of surprises. This isn’t dynamic difficulty; it’s just cheating. Feels like they pulled the next stage’s difficulty ahead of schedule."
As Ho-yeong said, they looked nothing like the first wave. The shield bearers advanced first and settled into position, even waiting for the archers to catch up.
- Gobgoooob!
Most goblin bows were crude things, but among them were more than a few crossbows that looked like they had been looted from humans.
Just then, when the goblins began an arcing volley all at once, Meyril raised the wind again.
"Wind, please help me!"
"Nice timing, Meyril!"
- Gobgoooob?!
Arrows lost their force and dropped to the ground, or were blown back the way they had come. But the goblins lifted their shields overhead, preventing any real damage.
"Tch. Sneaky little bastards."
"I’m sorry I couldn’t be more help."
"No, no. Making them waste their arrows is already a big help."
Ho-yeong immediately prepared the Bakgyeokpo. In the meantime, Berneval had repaired it and manufactured a great many Bakgyeok Jincheonroe shells.
"This isn’t like before."
The fragments from the Bakgyeok Jincheonroe had also lost much of their power because of the shields.
"Should I fire at a slight angle? Mister Berneval! Give me the next shell!"
"Aye!"
Berneval rolled over another stone shell.
"This is starting to feel like bowling. Wait. Bowling? Mister Berneval, don’t put explosive stones in it!"
With a good idea in mind, Ho-yeong mounted the Bakgyeokpo in the gap between the barricades. Unlike the steep upward angle before, this time he set it to a very low trajectory.
"Fire at power forty!"
The stone shell he launched in a direct shot flew with tremendous speed.
- Goooooob!
Crack. The goblins in its path were sent flying along with their shields.
"Ha! Strike!"
Their shields might block fragments, but they could not stop the momentum of a stone shell hurled with such force.
"Perfect game, here we come!"
Ho-yeong fired shot after shot, laughing all the while.
Because they had cleared away the goblin corpses lining both sides of the road, the attack lane had become very narrow.
"Another strike!"
If the goblins packed together along the almost straight road were bowling pins, then the stone shells were bowling balls. And thanks to his trait The Nation of Artillery, his aim was so precise there was no chance of the shells becoming gutter balls.
"That’s so satisfying."
Notice. Remaining mana is at 8%. In addition, the barrel becomes unstable when firing at high power, so adjusting the output appropriately is recommended.
"Right. We’re out of shells."
By the time the mana and ammunition were both running low, the left attack lane had been thoroughly cleared.
"Ah, right. How’s the other side looking? Meyril, get on behind me!"
"M-my lord’s back?! Kyaaah!"
Meyril had been so horrified at the prospect of mounting a monster for the first time that she nearly fell off. The back of Mandragorani No. 8, galloping powerfully up the slope, jolted beneath her, and she clutched Ho-yeong around the waist, pressing herself against his back.
"Easy, easy. Stop, Number Eight!"
When the charge ended, which had felt brief to her, Meyril was set back on the ground and brushed the dirt from her robe.
"Eh?"
Her body tilted to one side. Ho-yeong had wrapped an arm around her and thrown himself sideways with her.
And then arrows rained down on the spot where she had been standing.
"My lord!"
Lilian, fighting a few paces away, cried out in alarm as she called to Ho-yeong. More arrows were already on the way.