Ch 12.
The wyverns flock screeched above, the spider queen's riders fired many arrows, the goblin horde cheered, carrying wall ladders as the death gliders laughed while flying to their targets.
But the entire army was jubilant thinking that with the giant shacking earth as he stomped forward and the first gate breached, this battle was already won.
But now was slayer Keep's turn.
"Everyone hold fire until they are within proper range. Remember the drills we did!" Noble Fighter said, as she saw how the giant walked past the second gate.
"Hold!" Fighter said to her squad.
The horde was behind him, with the Spider Queen at their centre.
"Hold!" Dwarf Shaman said to his.
This formation marched forward towards the second gate, dispersed sideways once past the first in order to run up the walls and kill the defenders on them and the wyverns and death gliders were in front as a vanguard to pick of archers and destroy the second gate.
"HOLD!" High Elf Archer said to her group, as the enemy was nearing the second gate.
They were a leap's distance away from it.
"FIRE!"
"FIRE!"
"FIRE!"
Every squad captain said.
As the wyverns came, they sought to pick off archers and defenders from the walls, yet found none, the walls and towers were all covered in an angled roof to prevent this.
But they did find Fighter's projectiles.
The former second in command of the Fighter Squadron, was now the Captain of the Heavy support squadron, which was composed out of 2 man operated heavy crossbows and light ballistas that could be carried by a party, ones that fired their contents at the wyverns, that upon impact the great flying beasts, which could be mistaken for fireless dragons many fell to the ground with a screech.
As this happened, High Elf Archer's group of archers all shot at the death gliders, preventing not all, but enough from smashing themselves against the second gate that it was smashed open, for now at least.
Finally there was Dwarf Shaman's squad of faux chassepot wielders that fired red bullets straight into the throat, not the head or the chest of the giant, at almost point blank range, just as the giant was winding up his great club to smash the gate, the giant fell backwards crushing the goblins that were right behind him.
While most of their vanguard was killed, the goblin horde behind, which had dispersed in rode to climb the interior steps of the second wall, found that they couldn't!
There were no interior steps!
The second and third walls were designed in a way that you had to go to the very heart of the old even fort and from there you climb to the battlements and towers, this designed made it impossible for invaders to climb the walls after breaching the gates.
The goblins still outside the first wall that had ladders all started to climb on top of the wall, and once they reached the roof, the first of them jumped forward for battle, but was immediately impaled, not by an adventurer or plebian, but by the sharp spikes on the angled roof.
"I was doing a quest for a harbor city years ago, and a sailor at the docks mentioned an eastern peninsula kingdom, whose navy's strongest ships had their decks covered and spike laden, this made them impossible to board and almost invincible on the seas. So I asked Wizard to make the walls the same way." Goblin Slayer said from next to Spearman, as in front from their position above the old elf fort's gate they could see the entire battle, as from the battlements, matriculations' and that lined the first wall, and the second walls towers and own matriculations and battlements the 700 plebian peasant militia was killing with arrows, and javelins the horde in the first courtyard and sipping the ones that reached the top of the first wall, those that were not killed by the spikes or fell down from hard sharp the roof angle was.
"This is a jar filled with small slimes!" Witch said as she looked at one of the light ballista's ammunition, as they continued to fire on the remaining wyverns.
"Many go on other quests for money, after they do their mandatory one goblin quest per week. In one of them Wizard came back with slime in jar, she said that she wanted to use them against hobs and champions. A pity they couldn't be used that way.
Goblin slayer lamented as the jars were used to one shot kill wyverns, each one of the flying beasts was stronger than 20 champions put together.
"Looks like you made this place so that the weakest troop could do something, while the stronger ones kept the enemy at bay." Heavy Warrior commented with joy in his voice.
The hired adventures, Goblin Slayer and his party and the army of Slayer Keep were all above the fortress gate, they were the last line of defense, if the goblins got past them they could reach the interior walls and slaughter the peasant militia.
But as long as the Adventurers hold the last bastion, the walls and towers were free to slaughter the goblins!
Behind them Cow Girl directed squads whose duty was to bring wounded from the battlements, that got unlucky and were hit by arrows that made it through the murder holes, and they did ammo runs for arrows, javelins and bullets for the defenders.
"I believe it is time for phase two Lord Goblin Slayer." Lizard Priest said, acting as the eyes and ears of the entire force.
"I believe it is. Give the signal!" Goblin Slayer said as a great war horn was blown by Lizard Priest, this was the signal for everyone to tie on piss covered rags on their mouths and tub charcoals and grease on their faces.
And the reason for that?
Well it had to do with the bags of powdered lime that were thrown off the second wall and into the first courtyard, filling it with the toxic dust that chocked and blinded the goblin horde bellow.
"Small vortex of mist !" Wizard and several other magic casters both of Slayer Keep and a few adventurers did the spell, which was meant to keep the lime cloud inside the first courtyard, choking the waaagh to death and blinding them when the spell would wear off and some of the cloud would reach the defenders, or something worse would reach them.
The piss covered mask and charcoal grease cream was to protect the defe4nders from choking and going blind from the mist.
"This won't last. The lime will eventually settle and that gate will be breached eventually, when that happens the champions and the goblins will storm trough with that Spider Queen leading them. I'd say we have about 30 minutes before the gate is breached." Spearman said from next to Goblin Slayer.
"That is where you come in. The second courtyard dorms and stables have been all built and boarded in order to funnel in the goblin horde, that way they will come at this one at a time. With this we will hold the horde of from the wall entrances and the wounded; also the second gate will give the last hidden squad time to fulfill their objective." Goblin Slayer said as the whole group of Veteran Adventurers looked at the gate that they expected would crumble in half an hour at best 20 minutes at worst.
The gate exploded in less than a minute after that!
A great fist came through it and from the toxic mist of lime a huge monster reappeared.
"It's still alive! The damn giant is still alive!" Dwarf Shaman said in astonishment at what he was seeing, he was sure that they poured enough bullets into its neck to kill it!
"Paint is peeling of….of of a flesh colored scarf! Wait….the scarf is in fact sandbags tied together! The must have blocked our bullets! Just who is leading this army!?" Lizard Priest said in astonishment as the giant then smashed the dorms and tables of the second courtyard, destroying the funnel.
Now the waagh would not be coming at them one at a time, but all at the same time.
"SURPRISE, TEME! I TOLD YOU , YOU'D PAY AND I HAVE COME HER TO COLLECT WITH INTEREST!" a wretched and bone chilling voice shouted from the mist as the warboss that was riding a bear revealed itself.
It was bigger than a champion, gave out more magic than a shaman and inspired more leadership that a lord.
This was the stuff of bedtime stories told to scare children, a Goblin Prince!
And this one was glowing in an ethereal way.
"That one is possessed by a spirit!" Lizard Priest said in astonishment.
"RIGHT ON THE MONEY SCALLEY! JUST FOR THAT I'LL KILL YOU FIRST, I'M BACK AND I'VE COME HERE TO TAKE REVENGE ON YOU ALL, FOR KILLING MY MEN, MY WIVES AND MY CHILDREN!" The possessed Goblin Prince said and pointed at the one he knew was the leader of this Keep.
Namely at Warrior.
"He, he thinks' I'm the one in charge!?" Warrior said in confusion from atop the old elf fort's walls.
"YEAH! YOU SUNSHINE, AND THIS TIME YOUR HELMET WON'T SAVE YOUR LIFE FROM MY BULLETS!" The possessed warboss said and fire a bullet, one that was redirected from its trajectory of Warrior's face, by Witch's spell of 'deflect' that kept the Slayer Army and the large group of Adventurer's safe from volleys from the goblin army.
"It's….it's that overlord we killed last month!" Warrior said in shock and fear as more than half of Slayer Keep recoiled in surprise.
"DING, DING, DING, DING! AND I AM HERE TO GIVE YOU ALL A ONE WAY TICKET ON THE WHOOPASS EXPRESS! ALL ABOARD! CHOO CHHOO!"
The warboss said and shot a great fireball at the keep.
But he missed aimed and the dice rolled in their favor, for the fireball overshot the old fort's top and exploded above them.
Thankfully Middle Age Monk was there and he managed to erect a barrier above them to protect from the shockwave.
But it was not enough, the whole elven fort shook, cracks appeared in its foundation, the adventurers that were at the barrier's edge were either burned alive, smashed by the shockwave or heavily wounded, too wounded to fight.
"WHAT'S MY NAME TEME? WHAT'S MY NAME?" the warboss said as he fired a second and third wild great fireball that also missed the top.
"AAAAAAAAGGGH!" shouts of pain and death came from the adventurers above.
"AAAGH? AAAGH AIN'T MY NAME, MY MOOMA DIDN'T NAME ME NO AAAAAGGH!WHAT"S MY NAME TEME? SAY IT! SAY IT!" the warboss said and was ready to fire not just another great fireball, but a great giant fireball.
BANG!
As he did so a shot of gunfire echoed throughout the battlefield, it struck the warboss's bear mount straight in the face, making it rear of its hind legs, throwing the warboss of his mount and making him auto great giant fireball himself and several hundred goblins around him.
The whole battle seemed to stop at that.
As the goblins, the adventurers,, the wounded war boss, the peasant militia, the Slayer Army, even the wounded giant himself to stop and look to were the shot had come from.
They saw that it had been from Goblin Slayer and his smoking double barreled shotgun.
"Your name is without value, you are just another dead goblin." Goblin Slayer said as he reloaded his shotgun and aimed it at the now not moving goblin horde that had breached the second gate.
"Don't stop until we kill all the goblins. Rip and tear." Goblin Slayer said and started firing and firing his shotgun and reloading it, right into the second gateway, where the goblin horde was the thickest.
1..2…3…..4…5…6….7…8…9…10…11…12…13…14…15…..16 rounds a minute.
This made the goblin horde and the giant renew their surge, the goblins actually managing to overtake the giant and rushed forward to climb the last defense of Slayer Keep with ladders.
But this also made the Slayer Army and the hired adventurers recover from the great fireball and return to the walls to hold the last line of defense.
„We are STEEL! We are DOOM! We are the death of all goblins! We march for Goblin Slater, who knows no fear! And with him, we shall know no fear! Goblins, we have come for you all!" Warrior shouted the Slayer Oath and a great battle cry was his reply.
„Rip and tear!" Noble Fighter said as the two stood shoulder to shoulder.
„Rip and tear!" „Rip and tear!" „Rip and tear!" „Rip and tear!"
The Slayer Army shouted back.
"Come on! We can't allow the Slayers to outshine us! Let's also rip and tear!" Spearman said as in front of his section of the wall a ladder touched it.
"Great spear thrust!" Spearman shouted and with a single blow of his spear he killed every goblin climbing it, a few that were lining behind it and destroyed the ladder.
"Oy, Goblin Slayer, 20 goblins already!" Spearman shouted to him in a competitive way.
"145….152…170." Goblin Slayer said in a report like mannder, as he fired at the gate entrance and reloaded his shotgun .
"WHAT?! No goblin obsessed, always helmet on weirdo is gonna outscore the strongest on the frontier!" Spearman shouted with a chuckle in his voice.
"That is true….189…." Goblin Slayer said a matter of fact before continuing to kill goblins.
"HA!" Spearman said and humped on top of the battlements, from there he saw that to his right and left was tree ladders each, he was bow between six goblin ladders.
"60….." He said as he gave a great spear slash to his left, which cut down the goblins on top of the ladders and half of those on those ladders.
Spearman then turned to his right and did another great slash.
"120…..180….240…" Spearman said as all across the old fort's walls every adventurer and every Slayer fought or shot the coming horde.
From the right side of his vision Goblin Slayer saw that a group of 3 goblin had managed to sneak past the defenders and ran towards Cow Girl and the support and healing squads.
Cow Girl immediately reacted and with an axe on her person she threw one axe that bashed the head of the leading Goblin, killing him, she then took out a club and managed to smash the second to death, but the third tackled her to the ground!
Goblin Slayer saw red, his eye glowed from within the dark helmet, he ran towards Cow Girl, grabbed the goblin on top of her, hold it high in the air with one arm and blasted it at almost point blank range with his shot gun.
Cow Girl's childhood friend then turned towards her, to see if she was allright, but found that she had already downed an antidote poison and a stamina one and quickly went to help more wounded and deliver more arrows to the militia inside the walls.
"She really is tougher than how she looks." Goblin Slayer, remembering the words that she said at her uncle one time over breakfast.
Goblin Slayer felt proud of his old friend as he returned to his position on the wall.
From there he could see the giant was nearing and that the Goblin Champions and Hobgoblins had reached the walls.
"More dead goblins." He said as he reloaded his shotgun.
"Rip and Tear until it is done." Goblin Slayer said to those around and fired