Homesteading in a fantasy world

***

The goblin commander was in disbelief, but he understands now how the forces before didn’t actually have any chance of breaching the bridge.

He now knows that they should have crossed some place else, but all that strategy was forgotten when his anger overtook him, and he wanted to send all his troops to try to cross the river.

At that moment, the second army sub commander finally got his wits about him and started to order a proper defence with the few shield bearers that he has.

This was, however, a grave mistake, because it didn’t take Rich Dirt longer than a moment to notice the goblin giving orders and quickly a full volley of 4 arrows was flying towards him.

He was a good fighter and even had a few evolutions, but this didn’t save him this day. After the sub commander died, the goblins were in even more of a disarray. Some started to run away, some still tried to cross the river, and some just stood still, not knowing what to do.

This snapped the commander out of his anger filled mind and made him think clearer. He shouted for a retreat to be called out.

But as it was called out, goblins kept dying. The Goblins notice the retreat order in waves, giving Rich Dirt plenty of time to keep killing them. When the current engagement was over, almost half the goblins that went to try to cross the river were dead.

“We will wait for the Beaver to appear and then we will launch a full-scale assault, until then prepare any fortifications that can be made and salvaged those that were already built.” The commander yelled out those commands while shaking in anger.

During the time that it took for the Beaver to make it here, only a few fortifications were completed about the same amount that were built before.

There just weren’t enough goblins that knew about woodworking. These were soldiers, not workers. There were so little fortifications it made them almost useless. When the Beaver arrived, the commander started to give marching orders.

“I want the second scout sub commander’s unit in the front-center and surrounded by the rest of the rabble. Behind them I want you shaman and then all the units of the sub commanders behind protecting the Beaver.”

“When we get to the river and deploy the Beaver, the first army sub commander and your troops will cross and take out that tower, but don’t kill the human capture him.”

“Commander, the second scout unit has yet to return and our scouts have not seen them close enough to support the attack.”

This news silenced the commander for a bit and made his anger return. It took a bit of punching a tree until he calmed down enough to start thinking. “Leave the general rabble in front.”

Most of the goblins were now outside of the forest and in battle lines for Rich Dirt, it was an intimidating sight. His long experience in war allowed him to quickly count the enemies against him, 355 goblins were in the battle lines.

It didn't take long for Rich Dirt to see why they were all ready. Two woolly rhinos emerged from the tree line, pulling a siege device meant to get over moats and will most certainly help them get across the river.

The ramp that will be lowered kind of looked like a beaver’s tai. This device was built to last, not a quick build in front of the fortifications meant for single use.

The battle lines advanced instep with the Beaver being pulled. As they got closer, arrows started to fall into the goblins that were marching in the front.

And while goblins died, it failed to make a difference. After some time, the goblin commander saw the human changed weapon and bring out a bigger bow and started shooting it.

This bow’s arrows were bigger and hit with more energy. This time they didn’t land on the front goblins but further back on the more trained goblins.

More specifically, the goblins that were carrying throwing weapons. There were two units of these kinds of goblins. But this shooting didn't last long, only killing about 5 and wounding 2 and only 10 arrows were fired.

The goblin commander looked in puzzlement as to why the human would stop firing but a moment later, he shivered in fear for a moment, because the human threw off the covering from the ballista and revealed the terrible weapon hidden there similar to the Fat Across.

Thanks to one of his evolutions, he was able to see clearly the human prepping the weapon and then loading onto a wooden bowl a sack. The man aimed, and after a moment, fired.

There was a thump and a moment later goblin cries were heard, and a section of the front line disappeared. All the goblins stopped moving except for the Beaver.

The devastation was large, and the grapeshot’s stones went through multiple goblins, killing or leaving most in the path of it to die.

This weapons effectiveness was a surprise to all and an equalizer for the battle. If this was a war game, then the blue team's winning bar filled by a large amount and every shot, will move the blue line closer to the center of equal battle.

“KEEP MOVING!” was heard by all the goblins. As the commander below his command.

The commander quickly moved to that first army sub commander and orders the shield bearers to protect the woolly rhinos and then he moved to the shaman to discuss strategy.

But during that entire time, the thumps went on in the background. The front goblins start to buckle under the pressure. And while the commander was yelling at the shaman to do something useful, the frontline was decimated and started to run away.

But they had carried everyone else a lot closer to the bridge and when the command finally noticed his running goblins, it was too late to stop them. They were stupid but they are not suicidal and when they all broke, they run to the sides to get away from the human and the other goblins.

Four more shots from the ballista and the goblin units, with throwing weapons, also broke and started running away.

But the goblins were now quite close, and whips could be heard, making the woolly rhinos start to move a lot faster for the final push to the river.

This time Rich Dirt didn’t load another sack but a proper bolt and aimed for one of the woolly rhinos at the same time the shaman was following orders and casting a spell.

Simultaneously, the bolt was fired and flew towards one of the woolly rhinos. The shaman casting was successful and multiple vines shot out, wrapping themselves around the top part of the raised bridge.

One of the woolly rhinos was shot through its neck and into its torso, downing the beast and stopping the Beaver from being moved forward.

The goblins quickly grabbed the other end of the vines and started to pull as more goblins pulled, the more strained the entire system holding up the bridge went.

Rich Dirt started do quickly reload the ballista to shoot a grapeshot into the pulling goblins before they can pull down the raised bridge.

But he didn’t get the chance to fire because the shaman had finished another casting and a fire ball flew towards him. He quickly grabbed arrows and the short bow and jumped down. The fireball hit but didn't do any real damage, just covered everything in flames for a moment.

Rich Dirt was now on the bridge. It will only be moments before the bridge is pulled down, so he prepared the best he can by placing a spear near to him and preparing to fire his bow as soon as the bridge falls.

The first thing to give on the bridge was the stopper meant to hold the bridge upright. When it crashed down, Rich Dirt could see nearly 150 goblins against him.

The first arrow wasn’t meant for any goblin but for the shaman. The shaman was quick and was able to dodge enough that it only left a cut on his side. He gave a quick smirk towards the human to show its superiority.