Chapter 250: Act 17 – The Battle for the Lumberyard (Part 4) (Second Update, Seeking Support)
“You’ve never seen such a creature. When it stands upright, it’s over two meters tall, covered in fur, and it’s said to have some blood relation to the goblins on the surface. However, compared to their weak but numerous relatives, this group is an anomaly. They are strong and robust, and even a newborn among the bear goblins possesses strength comparable to that of an adult human,” Brendel slowly narrated. “If a bear goblin wields a large shield while another has a heavy flail as cover, and the cave dwellers dig tunnels below, it could be quite troublesome—”
He paused momentarily, then shifted his tone. “However, cave dwellers often coexist with bear goblins, so it’s possible that there might be bear goblins in this lumberyard.”
Everyone was taken aback, their eyes returning to the lumberyard across the river. The wooden gate creaked open once more, and a group of cave dwellers emerged from inside, followed by the heavy sound of footsteps—indeed three heavy creatures were trailing behind—large beings one wielding a great shield while dragging a rattling flail with a chain, slowly stepping out from behind the gate.
Bear goblins.
Although most people present had never seen such creatures before, they recognized the newly appeared monsters based on Brendel’s earlier description: over two meters tall, covered in brown fur, with heads that seemed to curl atop broad shoulders, one brandishing a shield and the other a flail, almost identical to what the young man had described.
Everyone couldn’t help but admire the young lord.
Juliette appeared somewhat silent, casting a meaningful glance at the young lord, as if seeking some difference in him.
“I’ve seen these things,” Vurn said, intensively staring at the group of monsters crossing the river. “Once in Karasu, we dealt with them. A dozen soldiers can barely approach them,” his dark face changed color for the first time. “My lord, are you sure this thing is also first-class?”
Brendel nodded. “The classification of armies was initially set by the Four Great Temples, and the basis for it isn’t just single-combat effectiveness. Bear goblins aren’t very smart, and because they coexist with cave dwellers, they have never been able to form large-scale units. If it weren’t for the cave dwellers being the foundational level of Jotungrund’s army and the tactics that the bear goblins developed while fighting alongside them, these big oafs would probably still be unclassified.”
Vurn nodded but remained silent.
At this moment, the cave dwellers were wading through the water near the riverbank, and although the cave dwellers on the forest’s edge had retreated, they still surrounded Martha and the others tightly. The riverbank fell into an eerily quiet state; an invisible balance teetered on the battlefield.
The cave dwellers launched a second wave of attack, but they immediately sensed something was wrong.
The two crossbowmen on the stone fort abandoned their heavy crossbows and unsheathed their long swords from their backs—two shimmering silver long swords adorned with two rows of strange patterns glinted brightly in the sunlight.
“Magic swords!” someone among the mercenaries shouted.
These magic swords were not the low-level alchemical ones that most could easily obtain, but true magic swords—at least artifacts above bronze rank, possessing the capability to alter the balance of power between the wielder and the opponent.
“Who does this belong to?” The gazes of the various mercenary leaders converged on Juliette, Vurn, and Crenshia; in their eyes, only these three major leaders could command such a lavish arsenal.
But the three leaders themselves were equally puzzled. While they all thought the same—this certainly was not from their ranks.
However, if the moment was one of surprise, the next was a collective holding of breath. Two beams of snow-white sword light flashed across the stone fort, slicing the two cave dwellers leaping onto the city wall in half. This exhibited power near the peak of black iron approaching the silver rank; among the present mercenaries, only the three major leaders had that level of prowess.
“Who is that?” Juliette finally turned to ask. “Crenshia, are they yours?”
Unfortunately, Crenshia had no mind to respond at that moment; seeing those two swords finally changed his complexion. He looked back at Brendel—he had recognized that they were the holy swords wielded by the two angels who had followed Brendel that night. He then understood why Vurn had confidently sent his most capable wizard to serve as bait; with two silver-level warriors providing close protection, what was there to worry about?
But the mid-aged mercenary leader’s recognition could not replace that of others present; not everyone recognized those two swords, thus the forest only echoed with quiet gasps.
Brendel did not respond; in his gaze, the cave dwellers who had been thwarted in their attack stepped aside, as the first bear goblin arriving from the riverbank suddenly charged forward. They swung their flails with a whooshing sound and smashed a blow towards the magically constructed castle.
With a tremendous crash, the sound of cracking earth echoed, and the stone castle suddenly collapsed. Everyone saw the two crossbowmen who had appeared to be weak suddenly leap high, one grabbing the wizard while the other seized the warrior before rolling backward to the ground.
The cave dwellers let out an excited shriek, seemingly preparing to rush in.
But at that moment, a sharp whistle pierced the air as a group of over fifty cavalrymen suddenly burst from the forest, causing everyone to turn instinctively. Vurn and Juliette recognized that the lead rider was Husher. It was Lubis’s mercenaries along with some unnamed smaller mercenary groups.
“My lord, what is this?” Vurn suddenly realized upon seeing this unexpected force; Brendel was trying to use a gradual reinforcement tactic to draw the main force of the cave dwellers over—if too many troops were committed initially, it might alert the enemy; but if reinforcements came incrementally, it might effectively produce the ‘boiled frog’ effect!
“This is Husher’s tactic,” Brendel said, his gaze fixed on the riverbank, his eyes sparkling.
“The key is that these cave dwellers are unwilling to abandon the bear goblins and companions they have already sent out. When arranging tactics, the underground residents often have this weakness.” The young man smiled. “Actually, not just NPCs; players occasionally make this mistake too, it’s habitual. After all, the population resources of Jotungrund are too precious…”
In fact, when Husher first suggested this strategy, Brendel understood it would certainly succeed because it was truly clever, akin to how players previously exploited the psychology of the underground residents—he watched as the two holy angels under his control rolled around to their feet with their ‘companions’ and began to cheer, as if reinforcements had indeed arrived. He couldn’t help but chuckle inwardly, thinking he might have been a little too sneaky.
“NPCs, players?” Vurn asked from the side.
Brendel cleared his throat and replied, “Look ahead.”
The three major leaders turned in unison, but the lumberyard’s gates creaked open once again. This time, it was not one door, but three doors from the east, west, and south—everyone watched as an endless stream of cave dwellers seemed to emerge from behind the high wooden fence, as if they were never-ending. Crenshia almost gasped in shock; there were at least two hundred, indicating his previous estimate had been far off.
This meant there might be over three hundred cave dwellers in this encampment. With Martha on top of this, how were they supposed to fight? Drawing them out was one thing, but now it seemed even if the enemy gave up their advantageous terrain, it wouldn’t be something they could handle all at once.
He couldn’t help but turn pale and look at Brendel.
But Brendel merely gazed silently at the swarming cave dwellers wading through the river—their objective was clearly to reach their crossed comrades before the human cavalry could join forces.
In terms of speed, they indeed had that advantage.
But Brendel had also been waiting for this moment; he cared little about the somewhat unpleasant expressions on the three major leaders and simply raised his hand: “Fire the crossbows.”
Everyone was stunned, watching the mass of cave dwellers and the bear goblins following behind. They lacked the courage to continue fighting. Moreover, even at this moment, half of the enemies were still on the riverbank; wasn’t it a bit early to prepare the arrows? But no one dared to disobey the order of a lord—regardless of whether this lord was truly worthy of the title—Brendel’s noble identity and his own strength were enough for the three major leaders present to acknowledge it.
And since the three largest mercenary groups raised no objections, the others naturally dared not voice differing opinions. Moreover, with the bait still at the forest’s edge, they couldn’t afford to ignore their comrades.
The mercenaries swiftly unstrapped their crossbows from their backs, pulling back the grips to load them. Due to the very keen hearing of the cave dwellers, everyone had to slow down their movements, carefully tightening the bowstrings little by little. One by one, crossbows were silently erected, and the forest filled with the rustling sound, as if a gentle breeze was brushing through the treetops.
“Steady,” Brendel commanded in a low voice as he saw the last mercenary finish loading their crossbow.
At this moment, timing was perfect as the goblins and cave dwellers were just emerging from the water—having slowed their pace, this precise predictive order surprised almost every leader present. Crenshia even turned back to look at Brendel in astonishment; he was meticulous and, amongst the three leaders, the most perceptive, yet he had not expected Brendel to understand the mercenaries under his command to this degree.
After all, they had never entrusted the command of their mercenaries to this young man before.
How had he guessed this?
However, Brendel couldn’t help but chuckle inside. The strength of the Erluin mercenaries was quite uniform, and their habits of loading bowstrings varied little. What had just unfolded was merely a confirmation of his experiences from past games; this was not the first time he had made such predictions.
Let’s not mention the bear goblins and cave dwellers—just slightly faster Sylph cavalry could be preemptively tackled by the mercenaries.
At this moment, including the wizard, every mercenary had leveled their heavy crossbows—or at least hand crossbows. No mercenary was unprepared for ranged weapons; even if they didn’t have simple and easy-to-use crossbows, they would at least have a bow or firearms ready.
Each crossbow was aimed at its respective target, but the tide-like approach of the enemy left a lingering doubt about how much impact this round of attacks would have.
Everyone couldn’t help but ponder, had this young lord mentioned earlier that this was just a warm-up?
But did such a warm-up even exist?
Brendel did not answer; he waited two seconds and then snapped his fingers.
“Fire!”
(PS. Finally overcoming obstacles; everyone, please give some support. The days of writer’s block are truly painful, and nothing seems to have energy.) (To be continued. For what happens next, please log in for more chapters, support the author, and support legitimate reading!)
