Homesteading in a fantasy world

POV Stebs Soot goblin Chief

I looked at the first arrows to land amongst the enemy. Each arrow split into 6 ones that landed en masse into the goblins that were moving towards us. Usually, facing this number of enemies would mean that we will all die soon. A goblin force with more troops wins, this was a known fact amongst our race.

Yet a strong commanding voice from the human sounded out and told my tribe members to prepare their throwing weapons for the right moment. Yet the entire time the human never paused firing his bow.

“Throw,” his booming command was heard and quickly all the commanders echoed the order. Hundreds of spears flew and landed on the enemy killing many, yet their charge continued. It was unfortunate that they were not in a tight formation but a loose one making our attack less effective. As they reached the dam they needed to bunch up and many fell into the river to be swept downstream.

There was no longer a mass command to throw spears. Every goblin threw the best they could and over the weeks of training in this sort of combat they had become quite good at it. Hundreds of enemies had already been wounded or killed and they had yet to reach our wall.

The design elements that the human gave us started to make perfect sense to me. On the top layer of the dam, the roundest stones were placed to make it dangerous to run across it. The horrific screams of the goblins that broke their ankles and then were trampled to death sounded out amongst the other cries of pain.

Then came the moment of truth; as the goblins started to slam into the shield wall, yet our formation seemed to be holding and the spear warriors behind them started their job.

The enemy was not defenceless as they also used shields. They were not as effective as ours, but it still gave them a chance to keep themselves in the fight.

At first, the council and I were surprised at how many spears the human told us to make and to keep making even more if we reach that goal, but now I saw how quickly we were throwing them. Making me understand better how many resources it took to wage effective war.

It took an hour before the first assault was broken and hundreds lay dead on the dam and beyond it. We didn’t let them escape without enacting a high cost. Rich had now switched to his smaller bow and kept firing at anyone that retreated. He seems to be quite ruthless when it came to warfare, and I am quite happy we were able to get him to our side.

I looked back at the terrifying weapon that was placed behind the troops and if our shield wall ever fell, it would be used to give us a chance to take back the opening. We wanted to use it at the start, but Rich made it clear that it would be best used as a surprise weapon, and we eventually accepted that.

Our next action surprised me as it seemed that our troops started bringing in the dead enemy goblins and I quickly went to find out why. Turns out it was the human's command again and the reasoning seemed quite sound, although quite disgusting.

It seems that the enemy is so desperate that they have started to eat their dead. So, while Rich kept the enemy away with his bow our troops went out and started to collect the dead so we could burn them. While eating our own kind is not foreign, it’s only done in the most extreme circumstances or to feed to the breeders which was quite common.

Rich informed us that there will be no other assaults today and to my surprise, I saw him lay down behind the wall and start to sleep before I could blink my eyes. I was quite surprised about this action, but I was quickly informed by one of his lieutenants that he often did this.

When they informed me that he was still able to wake up whenever trouble start to approach and that he must have some sort of future sight or something like that, I was surprised. This fact seemed to scare the goblins, but it seemed that Rich himself has explained it away by simply saying that if you are in a war long enough you will learn to do it.

Some of the other goblins also expressed that they have been starting to get better at sleeping whenever they could, especially if they were out on a mission that took a long time, but that they had no idea how long a person needed to wage war to be able to be as good as him.

Talking with the goblins that were around him the most, I came to learn that apparently, he once mentioned that he had been in a war for about 12 years, which to me made no sense because he couldn’t, he smelled too young for that.

The next assault was more difficult as the enemy was better organized and the frontline looked a lot steadier on its feet. Yet we were able to defend again, and another day went past when we killed so many more than we lost. If this continued, we might actually win this.

During the night we had some trouble as the enemy tried to sneak close and start to dismantle the dam. It was a cold and dark night and the only reason we were able to push back their attempt was Rich, as he somehow was able to see them in the dark and kill them with his bow.

Another assault seemed to be going well for us but suddenly the human started to give urgent commands and he seemed to be using his large bow this time. We quickly understood why the urgency.

One of the shamans was hidden in the mass that was approaching and thanks to Rich shooting at him and the shaman putting up a mage bubble. We were all able to see the location and execute the plan that we had come up with to deal with them.

This time we all throw our spears at the same time towards the mage bubble even I had to do this although I will never be able to reach so far out with my capabilities. Rich charged his javelin and gave the order for us to throw when he was ready.

The hope was that he will be able to break the bubble. Unfortunately, he did not succeed but he did crack it, but the hope that our spears would finish the job was still there. Unfortunately, they went unfulfilled. The bubble still had enough strength to withstand our spears even though some of them had abilities attached to them.

What they did do was finish off the bubble and that gave Rich a chance to use his bow to try to kill the shaman and while he did get two arrows into him it didn't look like it killed him.

As we continue the defence, Rich kept trying to kill the retreating shaman, but he was unsuccessful. Although we are quite certain that he was hurt quite bad and hopefully the wounds will take him out of this fight if not kill him outright. The best outcome will be if this will cause a conflict among the enemy.

After that, the assaults continued with different tactics being used to varying success. Thanks to the human we were able to withstand them. Thanks to our troops over half of their force was now dead and the number disparity started to get closer to equal.

The assaults came less often now, the last one was three days ago. We have defended this dam for 17 days and we are all exhausted, except of course for the human who has stood as a solid rock for us all, keeping our morale up when we were at our lowest points.

We have still lost so many, almost 200 dead or wounded so badly that they could not fight anymore, yet we have killed over 2000 of them. The number disparity is still hard to wrap our brains around for every one of us we have killed 10 of them. Not even in our wildest dreams have we hoped that we could defend this well.

But it seemed that trouble has come as the enemy has been acting weirdly. Finally, Rich called a meeting that took place on the wall where he has been for the entire fight.

“We might have a problem. I think they have finally discovered the waterfall path and might be readying themselves for a quick march there.”

This made us all freeze in horror. Rich has multiple times said that this is a lot better place to defend, and they still had a lot of troops they could levy against us. If this was truly the case, we might be in trouble, but it will not be hopeless. We can still defend, but we quickly needed to prepare if that’s the case.

We left while Rich stayed on his watch post, and we started to organize the march if it was needed. Most of the preparations were done already but just in case everything was rechecked and it turns out it was a good thing, as many things needed for fast supply movement were broken with time and required fixing. More and more problems seem to be popping up but thanks to the head start we had time to fix all of them.

And it was a good thing because in two days we saw how the army started to withdraw and move upriver towards the second location that can be used to get across. It was too soon to start moving as this could be a feint and they could just turn around, but some things were already starting to be moved that weren’t that crucial.

Messengers were sent to start preparing the other site. We had contingencies there that were supposed to protect against scouts and small groups, and it was weird that they had not notified us that the enemy had found the waterfall path.

I was one of the last to leave the dam leaving Rich and 40 goblins behind to protect from any incursions. He assured me that he will soon be moving to join us in a bit. We needed to leave the 40 goblins here so no one can sneak behind us and if the place was overrun, they were able to hold long enough that runners were able to escape to warn us about it.