The shield units rushed to array themselves in front of the goblin army. If they had advanced further forward, the shield bearers might have saved those at the edge of the sprites’ attack range, but the fate of those closer to the tree line was sealed. This was why Hisako had waited to give the order to strike. She had needed the goblins well within her people’s attack range. Heqht-jo knew that as well. He left the advance team to live or die based on their own strength rather than waste more valuable units.
The sprites powered their shots for five seconds, the standard attack time indicated by Yoshi’s horn blast. Years went into training sprite archers. Those countless hours paid off as they released as one. The shots flew forward, and the cumulative detonations echoed through the valley with a massive BOOM! Goblin scouts and fighters from the first attack wave screamed in terror as death fell from above. Dirt, bodies, and waves of magical force flew this way and that. A cheer was taken up by the combined forces of the Mist Village and Hearth Tree. The battle ground to an early halt as the forces on both sides glared at one another over a field of bodies.
Heqht-jo gritted his teeth. The other truths that all goblin commanders learned were that one, you did not attack sprites entrenched in trees, where their cursed Woodcraft ability tilted the odds in their favor, and two, you must never let them ambush you. He had failed to keep both of those things from happening. It occurred to him that retreat might have been the most prudent course of action at that point. True, the prisoners would be lost, but they were simply a means to an end. More could be captured, and it was unlikely the sprites could defeat his forces once they were fortified. Most importantly, the artifact would be protected.
The thought did not last more than a moment in the goblin’s mind. He would not be defeated. He would not bear the insult of losing his prisoners. He would not allow himself to be defeated in battle, at the hands of sprite no less. It would lower his rank in goblin society. He would kill them all! It didn’t matter if it cost him the life of every soldier under his command. That had always been the racial strength of goblins. More could always be bred. No, he would attack and sacrifice every prisoner. Besides, he thought with a smile, he had the Bloodstone.
Heqht-jo looked to the Druid at his side, “Protect them.”
The Professed Druid, Radg-or, adopted a cruel smile and began chanting. Green light surrounded his left hand, and his right rested upon the Bloodstone. A red glow ignited behind his eyes, making him look like a demonic creature. The goblin shield units arrayed themselves at the front of the warband and awaited the order to strike.
Radg-or drew heavily on the mana pool of the Bloodstone and not for the first time he wished he could command its full powers. Without Blood magic, however, he was severely limited in his manipulation of the sanguine item. The Druid definitely had offensive spells, but the Bloodstone didn’t extend the range of his spells. Still, the thousands of points of mana it contained would be put to good use, immediately. He cast Soldiers of Stone.
Liquid stone welled at the feet of every green-skinned soldier. It quickly flowed up and over their bodies. One or two began to panic, but many had fought with the Druid before and knew what to expect. The fluid grey rock flowed over the bodies, clothes, armor and weapons of every goblin in the AoE, covering them from head to toe. The rock disappeared a second later, however, sinking into the goblins’ skins and armor. The skins of the goblins adopted a grey tinge and the hide, leather and metal armor grew gritty in appearance. This was just a side effect of the spell. The exact effect was that each goblin’s natural and worn armor had an increased by +10. For the next twenty minutes, the goblins truly had become tanks.
“What spell was that?” Richter asked.
“Soldiers of Stone,” Hisako replied grimly.
Radg-or slumped slightly at having channeled such a large amount of mana into the spell, but he nodded at his commander.
“Forward!” Heqht-jo bellowed.
Two hundred and fifty goblins marched towards the tree line in formation. They moved slowly at first but soon began to pick up speed. Yoshi blew into his horn a second time, Ta-Rii, Ta-Rii. Three hundred lights appeared again, and the goblins broke into an orderly run. Five seconds later, the sprites released another volley.
The goblins stopped abruptly and raised their shields. Those in front held them vertically. It did not have the fluid perfection of a roman legion, but their round shields still stopped a large number of the arrows. Some of the arrows struck home, and others caused the goblins to buckle under the assault, but the injuries were minimal. The entire contingent started moving again.
The sprites fired a second imbued volley with similar results. Yoshi gave an order, as did Terrod and Caulder. Both men moved their melee fighters forward. All of the Mist villagers stared at the goblins coming towards them with a mix of dread, anger, and urgency.
“Trust in your comrades!” Terrod called out.
“For Lord Richter and the Mist Village!” Caulder shouted right afterward. All of the soldiers responded, “Raaa!”
Seeing an enemy they could attack, and one that was half their number no less, the goblins gave an excited scream and rushed forward. They kept moving forward in their controlled run for the remaining one hundred and fifty yards. They stayed wary of another sprite volley, but holes still appeared in their formation. The goblins couldn’t be held back when there was the chance to spill red blood. Each goblin felt an almost sexual pleasure at the deaths they were about to cause. Then they triggered Richter’s traps.
The chaos seed had spread the web traps of the assengai spider queen in a line at about a hundred yards from the tree line. The biggest problem would have been if the goblin commander had only sent a few goblins forward at a time. It would have been a complete waste if only a few goblins were caught. That didn’t happen here. The war cries of the second wave became pleading cries of pain.
Each trap had created its own type of hell. The Tranquilizing Web Trap shot sticky strands in every direction. Richter had hidden two of them, and they were both triggered at almost the same time. The webbing was as bad as glue, trapping every goblin within fifteen feet of the traps. To make matters worse for the entombed goblins, the webs were full of a sedative. Within seconds, the cries of the goblins faded away as the scouts and fighters all lost consciousness. They were the lucky ones.