He never really got use to waiting for an attack he knew was coming. Part of him wondered if he did the right thing in attacking them. If he hadn't attacked them though their numbers would have just continued to increase exponentially until they could pose an actual threat. Best to deal with them on his terms than wait for them to attack, all the while getting more numerous. It wasn't like he was just waiting either. The goblins were closely monitored by one of the aerial recon teams. He also made sure to get the slag slimes into position since they were pretty slow. Not only that but he also wasn't sure how wide of a net he would need in order to encircle them like he did the last group. He also has a few of the Boar variants help with containing the goblins next time. He'd like to use the wolves again, and indeed he plans to. The trouble is, he doesn't believe enough of the larger wolves will have spawned by the time the attack comes to make up for the ones who died. After that he takes inventory of what all he has. He thinks hard about the best way to use them and even tries to think outside the box. He still wants to save the spiders for attacking the dwarves underground, although he may end up needing to use them in this fight if things go south.

He's so busy making plans for how to deal with the attack he knows is coming that he almost misses the recon team returning from the human city. Their packs contain mostly little statues and other trinkets that Logan guesses had some historical or cultural significance at one time. Perhaps when this is all over, they can find some documentation or something to shed some light on that aspect of the artworks. Some of the statues do at least have a name carved into them so at least that's something to go on. There's still a lot they'd like to bring back but most of them are too heavy. Reluctantly Siobhan decides to wait a year or two before sending anyone else down to the human city. It's not that she expects stuff to magically show up in that time. It's more that she expects them to be a lot more organized by then. She's also hoping the sanctuary will include a lot more people by then.

In the meantime, Logan does manage another four expansions while waiting on the goblins to attack. He thought about expanding north some more but decided against it. Instead expanding south for no particular reason really other than it just 'felt right'. Admittedly his instincts are still wanting him to expand west but he wants to spend a little time maximizing the amount of actual area he gets with each western expansion. Hopefully without increasing the cost of each western expansion too much.

The wait was finally over. The goblins were only a few days away based on the recon team's latest estimates. Just enough time to review his plan. Something he was grateful for because he wasn't the best at this kind of thing, being far more comfortable with one-on-one fights even now. He's not a brilliant tactician. He's just Logan. Still, he chose this path so he can't back out now literally or figuratively. He isn't worried that he'll lose. It's a question of how much of his forces will be left. Aside from not wanting to use the spiders he also doesn't want to recall his mantises that are currently guarding the cavern entrance. One change he makes is using the smaller bird variants along with the wasps to hopefully keep them from realizing that they're being corralled into a giant death circle. Speaking of the death circle he made a few changes to the slag slime starting positions since it seems like the goblins would be attacking his northeastern corner. He also draws his forces back farther than he normally would do to the size of the circle he will need to make.

The time for preparation officially ends as the first goblin steps past the barrier into his domain. He signals for the slag slimes to begin encircling them even before they've made it to the designated point. He also has the lava wolves and giga boars attack the goblins left and right flanks to prevent them from fanning out. When they do eventually make it to the right spot he sends in the arctic wolves as well as the armor, feral, and even a few pack boars to stop their advance. At the same time, he sends the birds and wasps to keep them distracted. They're proving a lot harder to corral than the last group though. Eventually he is forced to send the big vampire snakes and two headed snakes to strengthen the front lines. He also has the nightmare gophers attack their minds leaving them frozen with fear. The one drawback to this ability, aside from it not lasting very long and requiring a lot of energy from the user, is that some of them will still lash out when injured sometimes even scoring a lucky hit. Still, he had enough nightmare gophers that he could keep the ability going for some time yet if he focused on the ones near the front. As this was going on the various rat variants were going after any goblins trying to be sneaky or who somehow made it past the front line. At some point it even becomes necessary to send in the stone and dire wolves to attack their flanks and help corral them. The hard part turns out to be not closing the circle before all the goblins make it inside. He continues to underestimate just how fast goblins reproduce. In fact, it occurred to him that most of the ones he is fighting now are probably less than a year old. Yet what they lack in experience they're numbers more than make up for. It turns out to be a good thing he had allowed them to get much further into his base before engaging than he normally would. Even with the extra room the last few goblins are just barely able make it into his territory. This isn't good as it means he'll need to 'trim the fat' before the slag slimes can completely incircle them. With that in mind he sends the normal wolves and lesser wolves to attack the rear of the goblin lines. The fact that he now has twice as many wolves as he would've had certainly doesn't hurt. While it doesn't make things easy by any means. It does mean his wolves are more capable of getting things done, making the job easier than it would have been. The fight is progressing slower than he would like. He sends in the raptor chickens to prop up the dwindling front lines while the wolves work to maneuver the last of the goblins into place. He never thought he'd have to use the chickens for combat but then again, he still isn't sure raptor chickens actually count as chickens. According to whatever or whoever was in charge the did. Then again, the 'powers that be' also thought dropping six unique intelligent species onto this world with no context or warning, much less the consent of its inhabitance, was a great idea. So, he didn't put much stock in their opinion. eventually though the goblins numbers were thinned down enough that the slag slimes were able to completely incircle them. Once he noticed this, he pulled his remaining forces back. The goblins, not being the brightest of the races, thought that they had forced their enemy to retreat and so began celebrating. That is until the first goblin was hit by the now slowly shrinking circle of heat. He almost felt sorry for them as they tried in vain to find a way out of the circle. Once again, he was thankful that he no longer had a nose. Just trying to imagine what the area must smell like was enough to make him hold his nonexistent nose.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

Even though victory was now just a matter of time, he still had his other forces remain on high alert. The last thing he needed was to be blindsided while his slag slimes were busy dealing with the current threat. It took a while for the last goblin to die just due to how big he was forced to make the circle to start with. Eventually though the last goblin in that group did fall and the battle was officially over. With his newfound mana riches, he was able to get a whopping ten southern expansions. All total it came out to 14,940 square meters just on the surface making it by far the most land he's ever acquired at any one time. The total area he acquired both above and below ground makes that number higher still.

Yangus and the other woodworkers waste no time in constructing additional housing using the foundations left behind in the ruins of the city this current town is being built on. The demand for housing, although nowhere near what it once was, is still high enough that houses are claimed almost as soon as they are finished. With couples using their newfound privacy to try and add to the community's population. Adam and his team were around shortly after to reinforce each building making sure they wouldn't be as easy to destroy next time. Not that Logan expected any enemy to live long enough inside his territory to actually pose a threat to the buildings themselves. He wasn't naive enough to think that it couldn't happen, which was why the building were being reinforced with stone in the first place. He just didn't actually expect it to happen.

Focusing back on the goblin issue he didn't want to give them time to replenish their numbers. The fact that there were two goblins' camps practically side by side did give him pause though. He was certain that he could eventually destroy the first goblin camp relatively easily. The problem was if the second camp intervened. Of course, even if it didn't it would be free to continue increasing its numbers exponentially. On the other hand, he could goad the second camp into attacking him now. The obvious problem with that being he is still weakened from the goblin attack a few weeks ago. While he is confident he could win it would be a costly victory in many ways. Not only would it leave him weaker than he's been in a very long time it would also mean giving up on his plans to attack the dwarves any time soon. On top of that it would allow the goblins in the first camp to just continue rebuilding their forces.

That settles it then, he will focus on one camp at a time. With that in mind he sends another army of dire rats to attack the goblin camp and intentionally lead them back to the sanctuary. He isn't sure if the rats can understand such a complex order but decides it's worth a shot. At the very least he figures the rats will attack the goblins and then slowly make their way back to the sanctuary. Considering travel times this should give him somewhere between two and three weeks to get ready. As long as the other goblin camp didn't get involved it was plenty of time.

A week later he got to hear through one of the recon teams how the dire rats had interpreted his instructions. Turns out it worked better than he planned. every time the goblins stopped chasing them the dire rats would go on the offensive not killing them but annoying them enough to continue chasing them. This meant that they would be worn down and exhausted by the time they got here. It also meant that they would arrive several days earlier than expected. The problem is that they wouldn't arrive all at once but would be staggered. They would in fact be trickling in over the course of several hours, and while not ideal the fact that they would be worn down and exhausted should make dealing with them rather simple. He does wonder how much the goblins being just barely sapient effected the outcome of the dire rats' tactics. Would the same tactic be more or less effective on other species. He suspects that had they been just a little bit more clever they would have realized they were being led to the slaughter.

Another week later and the first of the goblins stumble across his threshold. They are clearly sleep deprived and somewhat delusional, but then he doubts he would have fared better under similar circumstances. He doesn't allow himself to relax to much though considering even in their current state there is still a lot of them. He does allow the humans to help out. The humans, for their part jump at the chance to get real battle experience. The mock battles and tournaments are one thing but there is something to be said for no longer having to hold back. He doesn't mind letting them help because he needs to know that they can work effectively on a large scale against something actually trying to kill them. Plus, as long as the goblins die in his borders it doesn't matter how. Naturally he doesn't expect them to defend the town completely on their own. He makes sure to jump in whenever a human or soldier looks like they are getting overrun. Still the amount of creatures he is allowed to keep in reserve doesn't go unnoticed.