Dungeon Day 70 - Continues
Dan was glad to find that even though he couldn't use his hawks to fight, he could still use them to scout. And they started coming in with news shortly after he got the notification about the new event.
Dan got information and images of how the entirety of the green camp residents had just marched out. They were ready for combat, armored up and traveling in a somewhat coherent formation. Hearing this and wanting a better live feed, Dan sent out Eagle the Hawk and was soon blessed with up-to-date information.
At the very front was a mixture of orcs and hobgoblins. They were all melee combatants and wore armor—at least, the majority of the hobgoblins did. The orcs, on the other hand, were mostly bare-chested, and since there were more orcs than hobgoblins in this particular line, it was rather noticeable, making the battle line more green than brown.
The two species also stood out due to their physicality. Hobgoblins were a bit lankier, while the orcs were bundles of muscles ready to explode into action. In a way, the hobgoblins made up for it by being more organized, but the discrepancies in lifestyles were visible. For example, the orcs that did wear armor only had a mixture of mixed-matched pieces. Meanwhile, the hobgoblins wore full sets of armor even though they were all made of leather.
As they marched, it was clear that the orcs beat the hobgoblins in strength. Meanwhile, the hobgoblins beat the orcs in agility and composure.
Behind the melee combatants were the archers mixed with infantries made up of goblins. However, the goblins also made up a large number of range units. The other range units were hobgoblins with a few orcs scattered here and there that used regular crossbows. This secondary line was interesting because they were truly more of the skirmishing types. Sure, they had bows, but every single one of them also had swords or other weapons that they could use in melee combat. Dan liked the idea of having range units that could also function at close range. However, considering it, Dan also didn't like the idea since these enemies would take out his birds. They wouldn't take out many, considering his birds were D-rank, but losses would happen regardless.
This second line of soldiers also showed another disparity between the different green skin species. The orcs were clearly much more interested in melee combat, whereas the hobgoblins and goblins swung either way, giving them that range advantage over their muscle-headed comrades.
Another thing that stood out to Dan as he watched was that there were as many goblins as any of the other two green-skin forces, which wasn't right, as goblins were known for their numbers advantage in order to make up for their small sizes. This made Dan think that even if these green skins were transported here from another world, the Chaos Mother had reduced the number of goblins to make it all look nice and neat. Not that Dan could complain about it too much damage since it was fewer enemies for him to fight.
Aside from the difference between numbers, the secondary line followed armor tactics similar to those of the first one. The goblins and hobgoblins wore more armor than the orcs, but considering the goblins were smaller and their armor pieces were ragged and tattered, Dan didn’t think it mattered. On the other hand, the hobgoblins were still neatly armored in leather.
Behind the range units were the casters, at least the few of whom the army had. From the information that Dan got from his hawks, there were 200-something casters. The majority of them were goblins, with the second most being hobgoblins, thus leaving the smallest portion to the orcs. These casters weren’t wizards and looked more like shamans, witches, and warlocks.
They all carried staffs of many different sizes and made of many different wood types. The staff themselves were often adorned with skulls, and some held crystals or gems. As for the casters themselves, they wore tattered robes and single armor pieces. They also had many different talisman knick-knacks, like small critter bones, along with many bottles on their waste. Their more distinguished feature was the many intricate headwear that they were adorned with. Some, like the goblins, wore the skulls of larger humanoids adorned with jewels or feathery-like items. The bigger casters belonging to the hobgoblins and the orcs ranged from pointed hats as if they were trying to copy a wizard to much more intricate mane-like headgear made of feathers and cloth.
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Outside of their small numbers and odd gear, the casters stood out from the rest of the green army for one simple reason: pets. Every single caster had one to two animals as pets or even mounts, which was often the case for the goblins. These pets ranged from birds to reptiles, with the goblins often having wolves, panthers, or boars. Dan wasn't sure if the pets were just a green-skin thing or something related to their magics. Magic Dan was ultimately assigning to them by their looks, as he had no actual idea what the goblins could do. They simply looked like shamans and witches, so he assigned them that name. However it didn't help that a multitude of wooden totems were being carried by what were definitely servants or apprentices. The totems were roughly carved out of wood into a variety of shapes. Many were simple animals like snakes or wolves, while some resembled shields and swords.
Anyways the final line of the army was actually the smallest and was home to 30 green humanoids and one big ass monstrosity aberration combo. The 30 rankers were evenly spread and consisted of ten goblins, orcs, and hobgoblins. This number was further broken down into their rather well-known chosen fields of combat. Five of the ten orcs were fully encased in black plate armor, wielding large two-handed weapons. Meanwhile, the other five wore no armor and matched the looks of barbarians, who also used big two-handed weapons.
Following that were the hobgoblins, four of whom wore brownish robes and floated above the ground using clear telekinetic magic. The other six wore their usual leather armor and wielded long bows and long swords. Finally, the last rankers were goblins, who had professions similar to those of the hobgoblins. Four were casters, except that instead of robes, they wore the common tribal attire that made them look like shamans or witch doctors. Dan figured they, too, had access to telekinetic magic even if they weren't in the process of using it. And instead, they rode large wolves or boars.
Looking at the remaining six goblins, Dan saw they were more roguish in nature. They wore blackish leather armor that Dan figured was more colored from dirt and soot than anything else. The goblins had hoods and wielded daggers, which Dan assumed could be easily covered in poison. Additionally, pinkish-black energy flowed around them, and Dan believed it was some mix of telekinetic and shadow magic. Either way, Dan would have some cool rogues for his dungeon.
The last enemy combatant was the worst one and stood looking down at the entire green army in front like the green-skinned giant that it was. Despite its slow strolling pace, two long legs allowed it to easily keep up with the army. And its well-defined torso with four incredibly muscular arms gave no doubt to its incredible strength. Dan just thanked the two entities watching that it at least had simple leather pants hiding its more private area.
In Dan's opinion, the worst of its features was the head or heads.
The heads were a mixture of what Dan assumed were the three green heads of the army leaders. Facing the front was the largest one, which was obviously the orc leader. Its gruff and scarred face, along with its two jagged tusks, stared ahead with light blue crystal eyes, a trait shared by the other two heads. This trait also clearly showing its combined nature.
Stuck on either side of the orc head and merging seamlessly by the sides, creating an almost perfect three-faced mask, were the other two army leaders. On its left was the goblin, its face grotesquely enlarged to fit the theme of the mutation. The enlargement really gave the ugly goblin's head a new and terrifying look, which did not help the goblin's already ugly visage.
Surprisingly, the hobgoblin face didn’t look as bad and still looked somewhat refined by its new combined standard. Both faces had their eyes opened and filled with the light blue tinge of the crystal found within.
Looking at the green giant thing, Dan knew that its simple humanoid looks had to be a farce. The green skins it had empowered showed signs of using telekinetic magic, something Dan doubted they had been able to do before. In fact, pulling up the event notice it clearly said it was an aberration, which meant it could have a variety of other powers, the worst possibly being regeneration.
In addition to that, there was a good chance the damn thing had also become part monstrosity granting it access to some new and unwelcome abilities. Of course, that didn’t even count the fact that it had to have some of the powers of the old army leaders.
The only good thing that Dan had going was that the boss was still D-Rank, High D-rank, but still D-Rank nonetheless. So, at the very least, a D-Rank enemy shouldn’t be able to crush his army completely, especially with Drax involved.
Moving away from examining the army itself, Dan looked to see where they were heading. It didn’t take very long to figure that out.
The army was heading straight for the village.