Chapter 284. Breach.

The Zalbairn Forest Elves have been defeated.

There it was, my last ally was gone, and I was on my own. The largest tree in the elf village split in two, and another sickly portal appeared in the middle of it. More forgotten ones emerged from the portal, joining the unending stream of attackers heading toward my cavern.

To make matters worse, the newest invaders appearing were even larger than the previous ones. Each was at least the size of an ogre, and they were also fast, easily outpacing their smaller kin as they marched toward my cavern. At least the cavern itself was secured, and I had a few reinforcements spawning in to help.

The trade roads are no longer under your control.

As the system announced the loss of the trade roads, my vision over the zone shrank to just a small spot past the entrances to my cavern. I would have no idea what was coming for us until they reached the view of my defenders on the wall. Having intel on what was approaching would be missed, but the fight would be decided here, in the cavern, not in some battle of maneuver out on the roads.

All I could do now was wait. My headquarters was a small fortress in its own right and should hold out even after the defenses at the entrances to the cavern failed. The barracks next door also shared a wall with my headquarters and had its own defenders to help it survive for longer.

Now, both entrances were under continuous assault, though the defenders were holding strong. I had purchased enough mercenaries so that between them and my kobold squads, I could hold off the enemy for some time. Eventually, the enemy numbers would overwhelm me, but each moment I survived made it more likely I’d do better in the rankings.

The new day progressed, and we held. Some of the larger forgotten ones were starting to arrive, and they were causing us more and more casualties as they could climb up and snatch defenders off the walls. Our heavier weapons focused on the larger attackers, but they were becoming more numerous as the day turned into afternoon.

My mobile reserve, save for Durghat’s Fangs, the goblin wolf riders, were thrown into the defense at the wall. More and more enemies were climbing up to almost make it on the battlements, and the reinforced gates were also taking a beating from the constant pounding on them. Before long, one of them would be breached and we would be in trouble.

Just when it looked like the defenders on the walls were going to be overwhelmed, explosions began to ripple across the front lines of the enemy. Flames stuck to the misshapen flesh of the forgotten ones, their many faces screaming in pain and rage as they were consumed by the fire. A second wave of explosions rippled across the enemy front, killing them by the score.

With help from your crafting stations, the defenders in your sorcerer’s tower had developed a new weapon to aid your forces. Dragonfire bombs have been distributed to your kobold warriors, each warrior is issued one, though replacement bombs can only be crafted at a pace of 1 bomb per hour.

Checking out the kobold warriors inside the headquarters, I could see each carried what looked like one of the old-fashioned stick grenades, only much larger. A red rune glowed faintly on the iron casing of the bomb, as the sorcery inside waited to be unleashed. It was yet another item I filed away in my mind to report back home. Maybe we could find a way to duplicate these weapons?

Remembering home, I dug into the lessons I’d received from Major Finley. It was inevitable the walls would be overrun, and I needed a plan for when that happened. Ideally, I would have the idle workers build a wall behind the existing wall, so when it fell, a second line of defenses would be ready. Sadly, the system limitations on this challenge didn’t give me that kind of flexibility.

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What I could do was mass the workers near the quartermaster’s hut. When things were about to go south, I would activate the militia, and they would already be lined up to have gear issued to them. The plan would be to use them to hold back the enemy while the surviving warriors and mercenaries fell back to the barracks and headquarters where we’d make our last stand.

After a few minutes the kobolds ran out of dragonfire bombs, and the attack on the wall continued in earnest. Even larger forgotten ones joined the attack, and these didn’t try to bring down the walls, instead, they hurled the smaller monsters over the wall to land behind my defenders.

Reserves, waiting for their turn on the wall, were forced to deal with the ranged attacks. Only half the thrown creatures could put up a fight after the impact of their landing, but it was wearing out my reserves and causing more casualties among them even before they were needed on the wall. After another hour, the enemy was starting to gain footholds on the wall, and the gate by the main entrance was on its last legs.

It was time to activate my plan before the remaining warriors fit to fight were overrun. A gong and then a series of horn blasts sounded throughout the cavern as I called up the militia. There would be no more resource generation, and no casualty replacements after this, but I was under no illusion that the trickle of reinforcements would make a difference at this point. Earlier in the battle, they had surely helped, and I would have lost the walls hours ago if I hadn’t had them.

At the quartermaster’s hut, the workers began to flood into the oversized, barn-like doors of the entrance. They entered through one half of the door, and exited a few moments later kitted out in militia gear. The gear wasn’t as good as my warriors’, but the militia all had leather armor, a shield, and a spear.

I’d place the militia at about the same equipment and skill level as the warriors I was cranking out with the rank three barracks. They wouldn’t stand for long against the monstrous forgotten ones, but they’d buy me the time I needed. More workers, those that had actually been working at the various structures in the cavern when the call to arms sounded, were on their way to get gear issued, but I had a solid force of nearly 300 workers already geared up due to their placement earlier.

Half the equipped militia made their way to each wall, forming a line behind the wall as I ordered the retreat of my warriors and surviving mercenaries. To bolster them, I cast all the available spells I had acquired from the sorcerer’s tower. Flame Blasts and a pair of Scorching Ray’s hammered into the enemy as the warriors on the wall, and the reinforcements behind them, began to flee.

My troops had barely cleared the walls when the enemy swarmed over the obstacle. The first ones over the top took a few moments to unbolt the gate and throw it open before charging toward the line of militia defenders. To their credit, the kobold militia didn’t hesitate or break and run. They stood their ground and stabbed their spears into the nearest foes.

A steady trickle of militia replacements from the workers still being kitted out at the quartermaster’s hut flowed to replace the losses. Despite this flow of reinforcements, the lines of kobold militia were overrun in minutes. The ones holding the line near the main cavern entrance were the first to go down as a pair of super-sized forgotten ones broke through the walls and tore through the thin line of defenders.

I had made the right call; the pair of giant forgotten ones dwarfed the wall itself and were easily forty feet tall. If my main force was still on the wall, they would have been killed in moments. The giant forgotten ones broke through the wall like it was made of cardboard, and another pair of the oversized monsters smashed their way through the other wall.

A few swipes of their misshapen appendages swept aside most of the remaining militia and the monsters strode confidently toward my headquarters. Swarms of their smaller kin followed in the wake of the four giants, and I didn’t think the walls of my headquarters, or the barracks would stand up to the big guys.

With a series of shrill war cries, the goblin wolf riders charged to attack, trying to buy my other forces time to finish their retreat. To my shock and delight, they avoided the first clumsy swings of the giants, but their weapons seemed to barely scratch the surface of the giant’s, knotty hide. The goblins did the job of distracting the giants, though, and the attacks had shifted their attention away from smashing the headquarters.

Sadly, the goblins could avoid the clumsy swings of the giants’ tentacle-like appendages, but they couldn’t stop the swarm of smaller forgotten ones from surrounding them and taking them down one by one. With the goblin distraction over, the giants resumed their relentless approach, and I had a feeling my arena challenge was about to end.

A deep roar was heard from outside the cavern, and a wall of flame blanketed the main entrance, cooking scores of forgotten ones. Blasting through, and barely clearing the entrance, was a massive creature. It was one I had almost forgotten about, it was Doshkath, the dragon my sorcerers had summoned to help defend us.

The four giant monsters turned to face the new threat, and I waited for the clash of titans that was about to occur.