Kuro no Maou

Chapter 490 – Goblin Army Attacks

“It’s the goblins! They’ve come attacking the village!!”

It was on the third day of Crystal, the day after Sabbath.

The man of who discovered the threat was a hunter who entered the forest early in the morning. He had headed out, aiming for prey like hares, deer, or boars but had encountered a group of goblins inside the forest instead.

A group of 5 goblins. These rural goblins’ standard equipment was a rusty sword or stick and they wore a dirty pelt or old rag. However, what’s worthy of noting is that these goblins had the two-headed wolf monster, Windle with them.

It could be that a more higher class of goblins among the ones Lily and I annihilated that time went west and built a settlement near a cave.

I do not know the details yet but as soon as the notice came in, all the higher members of the village gathered for an emergency meeting. The location for the said meeting was of course my home now, the church. As there were quite a number of people there, we had the meeting in the chapel. Of course, Sariel and I were called to the meeting as well.

“There’s a possibility they’ve made a nest nearby, a big one at that, too.”

Chief Randolph stated his assumption. The gathered members couldn’t help but feel nervous hearing how confident Randolph sounded.

“Toad only spotted 5 goblins. They were just the scouts. A normal nest would send out 2 or 3 scouts at best but they sent quite the number this time.”

Ryan began explaining in Randolph’s stead. He was also called to the meeting as he was the leader of the vigilante group.

Toad is the name of the hunter who saw the goblins, by the way. He is an Evramian and could be seen with Ryan and Ted a lot.

“To top it off, what makes it worse is that they got wolves with them. That’s proof that there are tamers or magicians among the group.”

The group’s threat level increases drastically if there are goblins who can perform magic or martial arts. Your usual goblin group would just come charging with their numbers and jump into my bullet arts but if they’re even a bit smart, they would try to deal with it first.

In the worst cases, they’d have an intelligent lead and would come attacking with tactics such as using diversions or surprise attacks, baits or hostages as well.

“They’ll probably come attacking in great numbers.”

A few raised their voices denying Ryan, saying that that is still not confirmed.

“Toad found them soon after entering the village. That means that they’ve been loitering around very close to the village. They already know there’s a human village here. They wouldn’t come this close if they were a small group.”

Even goblins with low-intelligence don’t attack humans the moment they see them like in games. If they’re low in numbers, they move very cautiously.

On the other hand, if they are high in numbers, they would start actively attacking their surrounding habitats and even try to expand their nest.

Such knowledge about goblins was common in the Pandora continent and I also heard from Sariel that it was the same in Sinclair.

“The fact that they came this close to the village means that they’re already planning an attack. We can’t be acting leisurely here, debating if they’ll come or not. We should strengthen our defenses as soon as possible, old man!”

Randolph calming pacified Ryan, who had a halberd on one hand ready to go out there right away.

“Now, now. Calm down, Ryan. I do not think anyone here objects to strengthening our defenses.”

And of course, there weren’t any objections. Randolph steadily progressed the discussion, confirming things one after another.

“When push comes to shove, we’ll ring the chime and have everyone evacuate to the center. The men will prioritize defending the village with the vigilante group. Let’s go over our equipment and positions.”

“Wouldn’t it be better to strengthen our fences as well? Maybe even have more watchtowers as well.”

“That’s right. Let’s go ahead and strengthen our defense facilities as well, as much as the time and materials allow us.”

And so, when the talk about strategy came to an end, Randolph brought up my name, as if he had just remembered.

“Ah, that’s right, Priest Kuroe, what will you do?”

“I will also fight, of course.”

After all, that is what I’ve been hired for in the first place. No, even without any remunerations, I am still willing to fight.

At first, I did have a bit of hatred towards this place as it was built on top of Irz village... but now, I do feel towards it. I also feel like I’m a part of the village now. I do think I’m being naïve but still.

After all, I want to protect Reki and Ursula; and starting with Randolph and Ryan, I also know the faces and names of everyone in the village by now. I can’t be cold-hearted enough to just sit and watch as danger comes upon them.

However, there was one thing I was curious about.

“Won’t you ask the Crusaders for help?”

“They probably won’t mobilize for something like a goblin nest. It’s standard to deal with low class monsters just by the vigilante group.”

I was relieved to hear that.

I could fight without holding back if the Crusaders won’t come. This village has the same fate as me as they killed Mashram and sheltered me. There isn’t anyone here who would go informing the Crusaders of me as it would also be risky for the village.

After all, the people who have been sent to this village have nowhere else to go.

With that conviction, I declared my participation to the villagers without hesitation.

“Everyone, please rest assured. I’ll be sure to protect this village—I swear on my Lord.”

Well, that Lord isn’t your White One, though, it’s the cute lil’ demon lord.

The church’s bell rang louder than ever the next day, 4th of Crystal, upon spotting the goblins. Within just a day—or rather, they must have completed their preparations for the attack way before.

Early morning, just when the men of the village were about to go lumbering, they spotted a whole group of goblins flooding out of the forest and taking formation in front of the village’s front gate.

Fortunately, as they were large in numbers, it took them a while to prepare for attack. We had the leeway of having the kids and women evacuate to the center and move to the defense lines.

“....There’s a lot more of them than I thought.”

I gazed at the goblin group in front of the gate upon meeting up with the vigilante group who had finished preparing their weapons.

“Yeah, this might get a bit rough.”

Ryan said, standing next to me. He was already equipped with the full armored heavy knight equipment, excluding the helmet. I wonder if he has some fixation about that part.

And just as Ryan had just said, they opponent might be more dangerous than what we had assumed. I had never seen such a large goblin squad even with my limited adventurer experience.

Although they were equipped with trash equipment that a regular army would just dispose of, their numbers were overwhelming. Even with just a glance, I could tell that there were about a few hundred of them. It won’t reach a thousand but it would easily be about ten times our numbers. They were already acting like an army with several dark bloody flags fluttering above them.

While goblins are weaker than humans, being smaller in size and having the advantage of defending, their numbers gave them too much of an advantage.

That said, their strength did not end with their numbers.

Judging from how the scouts had windles with them, it was certain they had some sort of method to make monsters obey them.

I could tell that they had a decent amount of windles with them, even from this far. Especially the big ones that had goblins straddling on them with better quality spears—they were acting like cavalry.

Other than that, they also had low level monsters like slime, frogs and lizards, which I hadn’t seen outside of the fairy forest ‘Fairy Garden’.

But what’s surprising was not these small fry monster groups.

“To think they even have doltos’ obeying them.”

Their huge hill-like bodies stood out in the group of small goblins. The doltos, which looked like gray mammoths, were berserk with their eyes giving off a red glow.

About ten or more goblins were on top of those doltos’. One could tell that they had completely tamed it judging from the leading goblin holding ivy-like reins to it. They probably plan on using that to charge into the village at once. And these rank 3 monsters, doltos’, which are also known as berserk monsters, can easily break the weak fences at once.

“There’s no way the goblins tamed such a huge monster like that.”

“That said, we need to do something about it now that they’ve appeared with them.”

“You say that but a rural vigilante group can’t take that on... people will die.”

Even Ryan, who’s usually full of vigor, couldn’t help but mutter that out loud seeing such a great force before them.

Even I am reminded of the old Iskia fortress battle from the second trial by these mixed forces of monsters. Although, compared to that army, this one is still very small... but big enough to sink a village like this.

But that is if I was absent.

“No, I won’t let anyone die. Open the gate.”

“Ha? What are you talking about? Don’t tell me you’re going to go alon—”

I just nodded with a smile.

“Are you insane?”

“It isn’t as reckless as you think. I can use magic so I want to aim for the moment they surge in. If it turns into a melee, I’ll just slice through and group up with you guys.”

“Eh, priest, you can use magic?! For real?!”

Oh, right, I didn’t tell them.

There isn’t much of an opportunity to use ‘em during the training and besides, it’s better if I don’t show black magic as a priest as much as possible.

However, I can’t say that in such a situation. I can’t afford to hold back against this big group of monsters.

“Ahh, a’ight, I get it. Go ahead and blast ‘em off with some flashy magic, priest.”

“Y-yeah.”

It’s alright, it’ll probably look flashy enough with how I am now. I mean, something like Grenade Blaster does explode and everything.

However, if I had ‘The Grid’ here, I could use ‘Plasma Blaster’ and annihilate them all at once... curse you, Sariel, but I’ll leave that for later.

I should be able to intercept a group of this size even bare-armed.

“.....Now then, come on.”

I went out the gate alone and confronted the enemy army head-on.

Right that moment, it seems their preparations were also done as the sound of a war drum could be heard. The drums were made with wood and covered with leather from animals and they had crafted small bones into appropriate sticks. This sound acted as a signal and increased their fighting spirit.

With that, the goblins started making a ruckus at once and began splitting to the sides, opening up the middle. What could be taken as the leader appeared from within.

4 clearly well built goblins were holding up a palanquin with the leader on it, lying with its legs stretched out.

It looked thin like an old man but was wearing decently clean white fur with clothing with different primal colors on its shoulders, resembling the fashion sense of a barbarian. He was wearing the claws of what looked to be a duggerupter as a necklace and had a helmet on with colorful feather decorations.

It had a staff longer than himself on his hand and while it was just made of wood, it had a goat-like skull decorated on the tip and was giving off a dark green glow from within.

It looked like the magician and chief of this group, no matter how you look at it. It was probably the one who tamed the monsters like doltos as well.

“Gob! Guara, geaa—!”

The chief came in front of the army and started giving some sort of a speech but since it’s not human language, I had no idea what it was saying. But I could somewhat tell that it was saying things like their victory was confirmed seeing our numbers and equipment.

Judging from its performance, one could tell that it was a head above in terms of intelligence than the rest of the rural goblins. I see, I can see how they formed such a big group with this leader.

This tribe chief looked the most dangerous among them.

“Bullet Arts.”

And so, I decided on taking it down first.

The fact that their supreme commander boldly came in front of the enemy like this and was on top of a palanquin with no cover—with such conditions matched perfectly, there is no reason to not shoot.

I raised my left hand and prepared a magic bullet without showing any preparatory actions and took my shot towards it with no hesitation.

The chief looked immersed in its performance and didn’t even pay any heed to me. It had its guard completely down, assuming that we couldn’t attack from such a distance. And in fact, it couldn’t react at all.

“——Giii?!”

However, the bullet did not hit.

Not because I missed—it was repelled.

“Defensive wind magic, eh... So it seems they did take some precautions.”

Being hit by a thin layer of green mist right before hitting the target, my bullet’s trajectory had slightly bended. The bullet, which was supposed to go through the middle of its eyebrows, went up and blew away its feather decorated helmet.

“Gii, geraaaaaaaaaaa!!”

Burning with anger, the chief let off a high-pitched screech like a monkey and then got off the palanquin before disappearing into the group of soldiers.

It’s quick on its feet—mixing in with its soldiers to avoid the second bullet.

It seems it also gave the command to charge the entire army.

The goblins let out a roar and started rushing towards us.

“Oi, priest, that’s dangerous! Come back already!”

Ryan called out to me, sounding a bit panicked seeing the horde of monsters flooding in.

“—’Gatling Burst’.”

I rained down black bullets on the fools who came into my kill zone.

As I didn’t have [Black Ballista Replica] nor [The Grid], I have accustomed myself to Bullet Arts thoroughly. To the point I was almost always shooting these left and right during the Galahad war.

And now that I think about it, this convenient long-ranged black magic has gotten more natural for me to use over time. The feeling of activating the magic was as natural as breathing for me at this point.

And as such, it wasn’t a difficult task to pulverize such a charge with a barrage of bullets. Compared to the time I exterminated the goblins half a year back, my mana efficiency to construct the bullets, bullet speed, rapid-fire speed—all of them increased drastically.

“O, oi, oi... w-what in the world is this...”

The melody of destruction I created drained out Ryan and the other vigilante’s voices. Along with the constant howl of the machine gun, the bullets shot from it kept piercing the enemies, making a mountain of corpses in front of me.

The fragile goblins’ bodies scattered and burst upon making contact with the bullets. As these were big high caliber rifle bullets, the goblins’ bodies were just exploding rather than being filled with holes. Their heads, limbs and internal organs spread about in the while snowy highroad and literally turned it into a blood path.

And of course, the same fate was upon the other monsters in the army as well. Windles, who are much swifter than goblins, had no means to escape from the barrage or get close to me. With their characteristic green fur being dyed red with blood, they also sunk into the bloody path one after another.

The slimes, the large frogs, the lizards—none of these monsters had any means to escape or break through this storm of bullets.

“But as I thought, doltos won’t be stopped from unarmed magic bullets.”

The doltos kept advancing forward like tanks amidst it’s slaughtered brethren who had now been turned into a piece of meat.

These monsters were a size larger than the elephants one would see at a zoo and even against a target this big, the bullets couldn’t halt their movement.

Not only do they have extremely tough fur covering their whole body, they also have a defensive ‘extra’ which lets them control the wind. The two fangs of the doltos resembled that of a mammoth but was flat in shape like the ones elks have and these were the organs responsible for manipulating the wind.

As such, even if one were to rain arrows upon them, the air turbulence covering their huge body would deflect it all. And my bullets were no exception to that as well. Although they failed to completely deflect the bullets, it seems it has more than enough defensive ability to avoid critical points.

Even with blood oozing out of their heads and front legs, the doltos didn’t stop their charge.

I could have easily pierced through them if I shot with [The Grid] but no point complaining about things I don’t have.

“Sword Arts—Blast Blade.”

While continuing to shoot with my left hand, I thrusted the halberd on my right hand on to the ground for the time being. And then, I drew one out of the two long swords I had equipped on my waist and threw it towards the doltos who was now within 10 meters of me.

“Blast.”

A burst of red and black flames blew away the doltos’ huge body.

The doltos felt sideways as if it had hit a truck going full speed on the opposite lane. The ten or so goblins riding on its back also got thrown off with a speed enough to break a strong windshield of a car.

Both the car-doltos and its passenger goblins were caught in the black flames and burnt to a crisp on top of the snow.

“Oo, ohh...”

“Wooah!!”

Just as I had dealt the final blow to one of the big ones, voices of joy burst within the vigilante group suddenly.

And with that, the tables have turned. That is, if they were to keep up with their frontal charge like this, I would be able to exterminate them all myself but—

“Gob, guraa! Giiigaaa!!”

That chief wouldn’t be stupid enough to do that. Just as a voice resembling his could be heard, the goblins’ charge stopped abruptly and they hurriedly went back to the starting point. Although, most of them couldn’t reach that line as I wouldn’t let their defenseless backs go.

“Ah-they retreated.”

“No, it’s not over yet.”

Their chief is smart. However, if he were to retreat after being destroyed one-sidedly like this, it would affect his reputation. Besides, he still has plenty of soldiers.

“As I thought, they are spreading out——Everyone, take a stance! They’re gonna attack from all four sides!!”

With numbers still greatly higher than ours, the goblins now chose to have close-quarter fights in the wide field. The army that had huddled together in the highway was now spreading left and right into the forest so as to surround the village.

Their plan to charge head-on through the front game was already in ruins thanks to me. If so, they just have to attack from a range where my attacks won’t reach.

While it’s a pretty simple strategy, it is still an effective one against a small force like ours.

“Oi, put your backs into it! It’s our turn now!!”

“Leave it to us, boss!”

“We’ll show you the fruits of getting beaten by the priest everyday!!”

Come on now, at least say the priest’s training there. Anyway, it seems like their morale was at least high.

Considering they dispersed to all sides, their files of troops also thinned out. Against this amount, even the vigilante group should be enough.

I can only pray such that no one dies—

“W-we got a problem! Goblins appeared in the opposite gate as well! There’s a big one too!!”

“Wh-what?!”

Although we had assumed as much, that falls into the worst case scenario.

I ended up shouting out loud inside my head like Ryan too.

Considering the number of troops they have here, it wouldn’t be weird if they had more.

Most of the vigilante group was gathered here since the enemy chief appeared. We have only deployed the minimum amount of troops on our flanks to be cautious of surprise attacks. It sure won’t hold if they come attacking with more troops. Even more so if they have more doltos’.

If they get into the village, only the small garrison left in the middle for protection would be left. Although the garrison sounds pretty strong, most of them are kids and women—normal civilians.

They could deal with one or two goblins but any more than that would be difficult.

It would be checkmate if they pass through the opposite gate.

“Ryan, I’ll head over there. Can I leave this to you?”

“We have no choice if they also have big’uns there, I’ll leave that to you, priest!”

And so, I hurried to the other side to support.

I couldn’t help but feel uneasy. Rather than the village being in danger, I was more worried about Reki being in the small number of troops there...