Maxwell

I watched as Kaga heaved next to a tree. She really couldn’t handle my teleportation skill, could she? After a few seconds, she collected herself and straightened up. She sent me a glare, which I supposed I deserved before storming off. Rowena patted my arm.

“That one is a stick of dynamite, my friend,” she said, consoling me… I think.

Shrugging her off, I made my way over to the command tent. The leaders that we trained over the last two weeks were still green, not that we were much better, but I had to admit that the structure had helped maintain order for the march here. I just hoped that the same could be said during the battle that was about to start.

“Telmu!” I called as I looked around the room. The Guard captain turned Royal commander, now turned expedition commander gestured for his lieutenants, or was it captains, to leave him. I really had to have Telmu give me a chart of all the ranks. My only experience with the army was through movies and one attempt to recruit me in high school. Not exactly something that I want to advertise while in the middle of a military expedition.

“My lord.” Telmu said once I joined him. “We have been waiting for you. The army is ready and waiting. Morale is high. The skies are clear. This is a great day for a war.”

I gave him a small smile. “If you say so, Telmu. I just want everyone to return home safely even if I know that is impossible once I give the order to move out.”

Telmu missed my mark. “A city battle has its advantage, but the risk of damage to our infrastructure is too great.” The choice of battlefield was only about a hundred kilometers from the town. If we failed to hold them here, then it was likely that the goblin army would stream over Alflona and Free-Mud in a matter of hours. “We must meet them on the field and send these fiends back to their mud dens.” A few growls came from the goblins in the room. Telmu gestured apologetically. “No offense to present company.” The goblins grumbled but went back to their tasks.

“I do agree that we need to send them packing. All this over a little village. I feel like there’s more to this than what we’re seeing, but there is probably no way for us to find out without getting the leader of the goblin force.”

“Capturing the goblin commander is an objective.” Telmu picked up a parchment. “They’ve already suffered such heavy losses. There is a good chance, that a concentrated attack will rout them, thus I’m not holding out much hope to accomplish this goal.”

I patted him on the arm. “Don’t worry too much about it. Just make sure that your people survive the coming fight.” That was my ultimate concern. To suffer as few casualties as possible.

A horn blew outside. Telmu and I both jerked up then made for outside. That was the signal if the enemy was within five kilometers of the camp. How had they moved so quickly? A force that size should have taken three or four times as long… Shit! Aurora had cut down their numbers last night. Of course, they were moving faster.

“Prepare a defense!” I shouted to everybody near me. “If they’re going to come to us, then we’ll meet them head on right here.”

Telmu and his commanders jumped into action. Those with Earth magic began to raise bulwarks and towers. Being quick, they wouldn’t hold on for long, but it was better than nothing at all. I moved around the completed sections inscribing runes onto the walls to add to their strength as well as repel some of the enemy’s magic. I was glad that the potion makers were going full steam back in the town. Without their mana potions, I would have been up a creek without a paddle.

I searched around for Kaga as I wanted to ask her to scout ahead while I worked on the defenses, but I couldn’t find her in the camp. I doubted that she would flee in the face of battle, but I couldn’t exactly contact her. The woman refused to add me to her friend list. Claimed that it could be used to track her with the right magic and tools.

I wasn’t able to pursue the issue for long, however, as the ground started to shake. The weight of nearly five thousand goblins marching toward us was quite a sensation. I had never experienced anything like it in my life. The closest I ever got to a march on Earth was a marathon and even then, the runners were so spaced out that I barely noticed anything.

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Telmu and Razz took charge of their respective units. Razz commanded most of the goblins, while Telmu focused on the Dark and Void elves. The division was like this since just about every single goblin focused on melee while my elves were able to cast magic. It would be best for the combined forces to properly utilize our abilities.

I joined one of the units at the top of a makeshift tower. My abilities were probably the deadliest of everyone on our side of the conflict. I planned to put them to good use. There was the added benefit of my teleportation magic. I could rescue critically injured soldiers and get them to the healer before it was too late.

The trees began to shake around the camp. Only a few minutes later, the yellow and red eyes of the goblins peered out at us from the shadows of the trees. Hundreds upon hundreds of eyes all of which looked hungry for battle. It looked like the massacre in their camp last night was not enough for them to break. Looking at the slobbering, dirty creatures, I couldn’t decide if they were brave, stupid, or just insane.

Silence filled the air as both armies stared at each other. If this were a movie, the sky would open up right about now with rain, letting the sound of waterdrops smack against metal armor sound out through the tension filled air. Reality was rather different, however, as the sun beamed down at us, the temperature was perfect and there was even a nice breeze.

A guttural roar sounded from the goblin army signaling the start of a charge. The ground shook again as the goblins ran headlong at the bulwarks. “Mages! Fire!” Telmu ordered. I was glad that I gave the commanders those enchanted stones. Amplifying your voices was ideal for a leader.

A torrent of spells shone through the camp as fireballs, icicles, stone bullets, wind cutters, and more took shape in the air above the mages. The fire seemed to sizzle as the spells arced over the wall to slam into the charging goblins. The fireballs were definitely the flashiest. They turned anything they hit plus everything about three meters around the impact site into a blazing pillar.

Not to be outdone, a combined force of goblin and elven archers unleashed a volley of arrows at the goblin army. The bolts turned dozens of goblins into the worse pincushions I had ever seen. Combined with the mages, piles of bodies were starting to form in areas near the particularly skilled soldiers.

I couldn’t let them out do me. Rather than aim for the goblins, I targeted the trees they ran through. With a well-placed Spatial Tear, I caused tree after tree to fall into the oncoming goblins. I probably only killed a couple dozen, but the trees acted as extra barriers that gave the mages and archers easier targets.

This continued for the first five minutes or so. I knew better than to be optimistic, but part of me was relieved at how easy the fight was going. If it stayed like this, we might not lose anyone. The small voice in the back of my head to tell me to shut up started to shout. I barely managed to dodge in time as a blazing arrow completely vaporized the top of the stone tower I was standing on.

Tumbling to the ground, I spat out a mouth of dirt as I climbed back to my feet. A skill like that was far too powerful for some beginner level character. This guy had to be at a much higher level than anyone here was. When another arrow failed to follow the first, I sighed in relief since the spell must have a cooldown to be used again.

“High level or not, I’m not going to take this laying down,” I growled then teleported to the top of another stone tower. I traced the path the arrow had come from and found the troll like goblin from the other night. He had a few other goblins that were clearly above par compared to the rabble around them. I teleported down next to Razz. “Found our players. We might be a bit in over our heads.”

“Good! I was just thinking these enemies weren’t challenging enough,” Razz exclaimed.

I grinned at his enthusiasm turning back to the battle. The enemy players seemed to be holding back on helping their NPC counterparts. Otherwise, they would have already breached out defenses with their levels. The question now was how to approach fighting them. Charging recklessly at them would only result in a painful death.

Before we could come up with any sort of plan, there was a wave of green energy that washed over the battlefield. Another wave of energy followed it only this one was nearly as black as night during a new moon. I glanced around trying to find out the source and what effect it had on the battle, but nothing seemed out of place. A solid minute went by before I put it down as an enemy healing spell or something similar.

I called the others to my side. Players were meant to fight players. Once everyone had gathered, even Kaga had returned at some point, I looked them all over with a steeled expression. “Everyone ready for some life-or-death PVP?”

We cheered loudly. We rushed to the bulwark and got the enemy players in sight. They hadn’t moved from their place. The troll-like goblin, Cirg, glared at me before he issued a loud order. The goblins between us and them moved off to the sides making a path. Friendly fellow. Might as well accept the invitation.