Chapter 235. Here They Come.
“Here they come,” I muttered as the first of the enemy forces entered the dungeon. In addition to the wizard and the knight, I spotted a small army of armed and armored soldiers queued up and ready to go. The knight, Sir Medford, had brought his retinue, which consisted of two men in chainmail holding greatswords and four in padded armor. It seemed the four men in padded armor were squires or something of the sort. Two held crossbows, and two held shortswords, while everyone had at least a dagger on their belt.
The others, the militia that the knight in charge had mentioned, were all uniformly equipped. Each held a spear and shield, while their armor consisted of a simple, hardened leather vest and a conical steel helmet on their heads. Given the way they held their weapons, and the nervousness etched on their faces, I suspected the militia were inexperienced.
One of the militia members stood out, it was an older man who wore a chain shirt in place of the leather armor the others wore. His shield was a small, steel buckler strapped to his forearm, instead of the larger wooden shields of the others. For weapons, the older militiaman had a battle axe in one hand and a dagger in the other. From the way he barked orders at the twelve other militia, he must have been their sergeant or whatever this kingdom’s equivalent was.
I was about to order everyone into position, but I realized I’d already placed all the goblins and my minions exactly where I wanted them. From where I stood, I could hear Sir Medford’s voice echoing down the passageway as he barked orders after entering the dungeon. Pulling the first scroll from the case at my belt, I readied a Dagger Storm to drop on the unsuspecting invaders as soon as they closed in on us.
“Rico, I will return to the goblin village now unless you want me to stay at your side for this part of the fight,” Capria said.
“No, we’ll stick with the plan for now, I want you to be our final surprise if they make it to the village,” I replied. Capria smiled and left to join the forces inside the village where our final stand would take place. If things went according to plan, and they never seemed to, we would only be facing the last dregs of the attacking force by the time they reached the village.
“Watch Captain, have a section of your troops form up in the lead. The crossbowmen from my retinue will back them up,” Ser Medford ordered. Being able to listen in on my opponents plans and conversations made fighting alongside a dungeon core that much easier. If we were lucky, Avius wouldn’t consider the possibility we were listening in and adjusting our tactics to deal with their moves.
About twenty yards in front of me was the small barricade, about four feet tall, where a trio of goblin warriors and a pair of goblin archers crouched as they waited for the enemy to arrive. I also crouched down, wanting to stay out of the enemy line of sight until I was ready to cast my spell. While we waited, Avius and Medford got their troops in order and sent them down the passageway.
As the first of the militia came into view, the one in the lead spotted the barricade and pushed the others back before my goblins could get a shot. Sir Medford shoved his way through the formation, barking at the soldier for halting their progress before they had even gotten going.
“Why did you halt the formation? Who gave you that authority?” Medford barked.
“My apologies Sir, I’ve trained the men to identify and assess a threat before taking action,” the sergeant said.
“I train my men to take action when they spot the foe, not stand by and watch. Now, what is causing this delay?” Medford demanded.
“Sir, my apologies, but I spotted a barricade further down the passage and what I think are goblins crouching behind it,” the militiaman who had stopped the column offered meekly. I could see he was far more afraid of the knight than the goblins at this point.
“Let this be your one and only warning, we don’t stop and assess goblins, we charge in and kill them. Tell me soldier, are you afraid of facing goblins? Should I execute you for cowardice right here and set an example to your fellows? Maybe it will put some steel in their spines when I take your head,” Medford growled drawing his longsword which faintly glowed with some kind of enchantment.
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“I’ll attack now, Sir Medford, let’s go boys,” the terrified militiaman said as he charged forward, the three other militiamen in his section following closely.
“Fire,” I ordered to the goblin archers. The pair popped over the barricade and shot the first arrows from their crude shortbows at the oncoming militia. One shot went wide, shattering against the stone passageway, while the second slammed into the shield of the hapless militiaman who had been threatened by Medford.
Right on the heels of the militia were the pair of crossbowmen from Medford’s retinue. The two took aim at the barricade, holding their shots while they waited for the goblins to pop up and fire again. When the goblins finished nocking their next arrow, the attackers were almost to the pit trap. Standing up from the barricade, both goblins were hit by Sir Medford’s crossbowmen.
With a high-pitched shriek, both goblins were pitched back. One was dead by the time he hit the ground; the crossbow bolt having taken him in the throat. The other goblin archer was squawking with a crossbow bolt lodged in his shoulder. Seeing that he wasn’t going to die, the goblin dropped his bow and drew his dagger as he waited for someone to stab.
“Look out!” The lead militiaman managed to get out as the ground opened under his feet and he fell onto the wooden stakes below. The two in the lead, and one in the second rank also fell into my trap. From the screams of pain coming from inside the pit, I figured that all three had likely been impaled on the spikes.
Two more crossbow bolts thudded into the barricade, keeping the goblins’ heads down. They shouldn’t have bothered; the goblins archers were out of commission and the others were ordered to wait until the enemy was at the barricade before attacking. The final militiaman stood there, unsure of what to do. He eventually decided to climb down into the pit and try to rescue his fellows.
“Wizard, can you do anything about that pit?” Medford roared.
“Here, I keep these on hand for my charges to use when they encounter just such a thing,” Avius said, pulling two long boards from his pack.
Given the boards were ten feet long, his pack must have been similar to the one I had, giving him a magical storage space. I wondered what else he might have squirreled away in there, surely it held plenty of toys to get the kids he led into the dungeon past any obstacle. This was something I hadn’t counted on, and I had to put the wizard at the top of my kill list.
Thinking about the wizard reminded me to use my new class ability. Since I’d gotten it, I hadn’t had a great target for Template Hunter. A mage was just thing I could use on my team, as it was the one thing I lacked in the roster. I wasn’t sure if I could target from inside a dungeon, but a system prompt confirmed I was good.
You have targeted a human Air mage with Template Hunter. This target will remain in effect until you choose to change it, or until you reach Tier 2, Rank 5, and receive your next minion. Please be advised that the longer your ability remains focused on the same target, the higher the chance of acquiring the template.
That list bit was something new. It seemed like the longer I kept a potential minion as my Template Hunter target, the better my odds were of getting it as a permanent addition to the team. I’d need to weigh the risk of switching targets too often in the future.
While I waited for the enemy to get their act together, Capria sent me a message through our dungeon link.
“Rico, our dungeon is receiving a strong influx of mana from the enemies you have slain so far. Since this group is here to harm the core, we can spawn new defenders inside if you wish, or add additional defenses. It’s an extremely inefficient process when intruders are in the dungeon, but we must do all we can to help ensure our survival. Which would you like the dungeon to create, minions or defenses?”
“Minions, if you can. Keep them back at the village,” I replied verbally, hoping that Capria would understand. She sent me a confirmation over the connection, and it felt very similar to how Melvin and I communicated. The defenses I wanted were already in place, so more bodies swinging weapons would be the best bang for our buck.
Boots clomping on the passageway floor drew my attention back to the invaders. Another group of militia were charging forward, hauling the long boards with them. This time, the attack was led by Sir Medford. He held up his shield which glowed with mana. He was wasting his mana, given that I had no more archers.
Thinking about archers, I had been waiting for a larger group of enemies to mass together before using Dagger Storm, but taking out their only two crossbowmen might be the better choice. Pushing mana into the scroll, I stood and targeted the spell right between the two crossbowmen. A system overlay told me the area of effect the spell would have, it was going to cover a fifteen-foot area, which was more than enough to hit both targets.
I wasn’t sure what to expect, but the spell worked exactly as it was described. One moment, the passageway was clear, and the next, dozens of daggers flew about inside the area of the spell. The crossbowmen were taken by surprise as dagger after dagger slammed into their bodies. In under a second, both had been cut down. The spell quickly expired, but it had proved to be a good one.
The militia now had planks across the pit trap and Sir Medford was charging across, his sword pointed directly at me. It was time for me to make my exit from this first part of the battle.