Goblin Kingdom

Volume 3, Chapter 249 - Battle of Gilgimel Plains III (1/7)

It has been 2 hours since the Battle of Gilgimel Plains began.

The battle was gradually inclining toward the goblins, as the vanguard led by Gi Gu Verbena’s Felduk was overpowering the spearmen of the Holy Shushunu Kingdom.

The goblins that slipped in through the spears and attacked were clearly stronger than the Holy Shushunu Kingdom when considering only their strength as an infantry. But by repeatedly retreating, the Holy Shushunu Kingdom was yet to fall.

Behind them was Blanche Ririnoie the War Princess, an unsparing commander also known as ‘Lady Impaler’. And that ruthlessness could only be worse given that these footmen were sent here by the countries under the patronage of the Holy Shushunu Kingdom. What’s more was that she has already shown to them before what happens to the countries that rebel against them; hence, these soldiers that were pulled out of their respective nation’s standing army had no choice but to fight desperately. Running would only rouse the anger of the Lady Impaler. They had no choice but to desperately stop the goblins.

That being said, the attack of the goblins was indeed fierce.

After going through many battles and learning many things, Felduk’s manner of fighting has already brought the power of the goblins to a peak.

The reason why the Holy Shushunu Kingdom was still yet to collapse despite that was because their cavalry was still a threat and persistently trying to separate them from the flanks.

The Holy Shushunu Kingdom had spread out a horizontal line. At the frontmost were the footmen and the archers. In the second line was the cavalry. And in the third line were more archers. It was a simple formation, so as soon as the Holy Shushunu Kingdom started the battle, they separated the second line and moved their cavalry toward the flanks.

The cavalries positioned at the flanks would show signs of launching an assault whenever the goblins’ attacks intensified.

The goblins deployed in a half-circle formation changed their formation as they fought the enemy, and they adopted a similar horizontal line to keep the cavalry at the flanks in check.

Normally, they should have been able to push the soldiers at the flanks and surround the footmen to wipe them out, but the cavalry of the Holy Shushunu Kingdom were more agile than the goblins expected.

Zaurosh of the Proud Clan (Leon Heart Clan) was the one leading the goblin cavalry. He was both an excellent commander and a skilled warrior who used a sickle spear.

But there were several times more archer knights and mana guards who could shoot from afar than them. Especially, the mana guards who weren’t all directly under the control of the War Princess, and had many skilled mages under their ranks.

At the behest of the feeble man, they would cast their spells to cover for their lance knights, and a rain of magic bullets would descend upon the goblins to slow them down.

Of course, Zaurosh led his soldiers to try and break through that situation and proactively fought against the lance knights, but not only did the enemy have more soldiers, they also ran away as soon as they provided cover, making it very difficult to pin them down.

In these plains where there were barely any obstacles, the mana guards tuned their spells to focus on range over power.

They already had a long range from the start, but now that range was even longer, so unless they intended on being the aggressors, Zaurosh had little chance of catching them.

“This is hard… At this rate, this battle will never end.”

But Zaurosh didn’t think that the enemy would continue shooting at them from a distance like this either. Right now they still had their footmen, but those soldiers were already on the verge of breaking formation. Zaurosh calmed himself by telling himself that victory would be theirs as soon as the footmen’s formation broke.

Compared to Zaurosh, Pale Symphoria the Tactician was looking at the battle from a much wider perspective.

Before long, the enemy footmen won’t be able to endure the attacks of the goblins anymore. They weren’t weak by any means, it just so happened that the Felduk goblins have learned much in their past battles.

But the enemy should also be aware of that.

Although she may not have been directly involved with any battle until now, someone as skilled as the War Princess should have already understood the advantage the goblins held physically. If so, then she should have a countermeasure of some sort in place, but the Holy Shushunu Kingdom wasn’t making any moves.

“Am I overthinking it?”

Did she misread the strength of the goblins? Pale shook her head again.

No, she’s not someone who could make such a blunder.

“Regardless, let’s strengthen our offensive.”

No matter what schemes the enemy might have, if their footmen are wiped out, they shouldn’t be able to do anything anymore. After Felduk received the order to change out their frontmost row, the battle at the frontlines became even more heated.

By changing out the tired soldiers at the front with fresh soldiers, the offensive of the goblins naturally became stronger, and the enemy had no choice but to retreat more. The number of enemy soldiers being killed was increasing more and more.

“…Could it be?”

As Pale sorted her mind and she took a look at the position of the armies, she instinctively felt that something was amiss. In the front were the footmen. To the flanks were the cavalry that numbered nearly 2,000.

It was just a thought, but could it be?

Could they be waiting for someone to come from behind?

“Mu?”

The first one to notice that was the Goblin King. Without so much as sparing a glance at the heated frontlines, the Goblin King turned around.

As the Goblin King narrowed his eyes, a cold shiver crept up Pale’s back and she turned toward the direction the king was looking at.

From the clouds of dust rising from the distance could be heard the footsteps that would overturn this war right from the roots.