How to Survive on the Armored Front

Chapter 34

"Head as far inward as possible!"

As the excavation camp was being completed under the soldiers' guidance, the shadows cast across the defensive line-built with the colossus's power-grew deeper.

"We're not building closets here, aren't we too packed?"

"We'll be crushed by people before we even start digging."

Complaints from excavation team members could be heard everywhere, but even the soldiers could do nothing about it.

"Mine work finished?"

"Yes. We should manage somehow for about a day."

"Check the ammo status properly!"

For the escort units that had only worked in secured areas, this battle was effectively their first actual combat.

From behind makeshift guard posts and sandbags, a soldier staring into the dark forest had eyes full of fear.

"Retreat route as close as possible to the dig-team quarters; sentries in a back-to-the-entrance formation."

"They say every life's equal, but looking at this setup makes you realize it all over again."

The one evaluating the defensive position with a bitter smile was a Greyhound.

Their encampment on the outermost edge of the defensive line was the most vulnerable spot in an emergency.

"Ha, night patrol with the Penal Corps-why are they so jumpy? Right, rookie?"

"Corporal, aren't you nervous?"

Countless stumps left where the trees had been felled.

A soldier perched on one of them smirked and slipped a hand into his pocket.

"I once saw a goblin used as a porter by the Janskarl delegation. Pretty docile, actually."

"I-is that so?"

Watching the Greyhounds awaiting the fight without relaxing their tension, his gaze from afar was filled with contempt.

"Those criminal scum are living it up. Know what those bastards get paid?"

"How much is it?"

"Three times our salary."

"Wow!"

The corporal frowned at the private's exclamation, pulled a cigarette from his pocket, and stuck it in his mouth.

Flick-

"Orders say no smoking during reconnaissance...."

"That Penal Corps company commander said it. What's he gonna do if I light up...."

Just as he said that and brought the match flame to the cigarette-

Thud.

The nervous corporal's face split in two.

"...Huh?"

The private turned his gaze there.

"E-enemy assault! Goblinssss!"

Realizing something stood behind the corporal's corpse, the private began to scream like mad.

The first to react to the soldier's scream were the Order's colossi.

- All units, battle stations!

"Confirm positions and report status!"

As the soldiers shouted and scrambled to their posts, yells erupted from every guard post.

"Post One! Goblin cluster confirmed ahead!"

"Post Two! It's goblins!"

"Confirmed at Post Seven as well!"

With eyewitness reports coming in from everywhere, tension flashed in the soldiers' eyes.

Some of them strained to spot the goblins, focusing their gazes on the forest.

"Can't see anything at night!"

"Fire flares! I can't see a-!"

The noncom's voice searching for flares cut off-there was no need, as fire had risen from within the forest.

"Torches...?"

Soon, torches appeared one after another.

Like will-o'-wisps they emerged among the dense trees, multiplying until they lit the entire forest surrounding the defensive line red.

"H-hold on...."

At the overwhelming numbers-enough to say they were surrounded by fire-some soldiers' faces turned pale.

Seeing the fierce blue-green glow of the goblins' eyes beneath the flames only made it worse.

"How many of them are there!?"

Just as a soldier muttered that-

"Kill all the humans!"

"Screeeee!"

"Screeaaaam!"

Goblin howls swept across the entire excavation site.

Goblins charging the defensive line, roaring with a mix of bloodlust and hunger.

"Commence firing!"

"Shoot! We have to hold them!"

Wild goblins, unlike those employed by the Elf Kingdom, carry no firearms.

In this world only the Alfraian Army arms goblins with guns.

But none of that mattered.

The forest was packed with nearly ten thousand goblins.

- Don't leave your positions! I'll cover you!

It was the colossi's job to plug the gaps the soldiers couldn't cover.

- I brought a gift just for this moment!

Walter's colossus extended both arms.

On its back was a huge fuel tank; from the arms connected to it poured red flames with a roar.

Whoooom!

"What the-since when did we have that?"

[Estimated to be an anti-personnel flamethrower. Detected instability in ignition fuel. Risk of sympathetic detonation if similar-class armored units are hit.]

Nill elaborated for Yaan's mutter.

In a normal fight, dousing the enemy in fire wouldn't melt colossus armor, and lugging that huge tank would be pointless.

But against a horde of goblins armed only with melee weapons, the effect was devastating.

"Screeee!"

"Hot! Hot!"

"Humans! They brought a giant! Screeee!"

Hundreds of goblins were swept away in moments as flames engulfed a section of the line.

While the rest recoiled at the overwhelming sight, Kurks's colossus began its own work.

- Bullets are too good for you lot!

Saying so, he pulled out a massive club.

As if felling trees moments earlier, Kurks's colossus leapt straight into the onrushing goblins and began smashing them flat.

"Don't falter! The knights are with us!"

"Detonate the mines!"

Boom!

At Yaan's command, the pre-buried mines began their work.

A blast fueled by the resolve to use every last bit of elf-looted explosives.

"Screeee!?"

"The humans weren't like this before!"

Though the goblins were stunned by the terrible firepower, they did not stop charging.

The eyes of the half-starved goblins blazed like devils, heedlessly throwing themselves at the line.

"Damn it, do they not feel pain!?"

"They keep coming even after taking bullets!"

Rifles tuned for armor-piercing against orc plate now proved a curse.

Rounds that punched straight through the goblins' bodies without stopping them were ill-suited to halting these mindless chargers.

"Screeee!"

"Shit, it's a bomb! They're running at us with bombs!"

The instant a soldier's shout rang out-

Kwaahhh!

An explosion tore through one side of the defensive line.

A blast as powerful as dozens of grenades detonating at once.

"Fire at Guard Post Two!"

"Get the men out and fall back! Lieutenant Yaan is coming through!"

"Kieeeek! Humans! Kill them all!"

Limbs blown off by the blast mixed with goblin flesh, painting a scene straight out of hell.

A soldier, stunned by the shock wave right in front of him.

Dragging him out and shoving him toward the split defensive line was the job of the Greyhounds of the Independent Company.

"I told you not to set up over there, but you insisted!"

"Lieutenant! Personnel withdrawal complete!"

The moment the squad shouted that, Glaepnir stretched out an arm toward the spot.

[Open fire.]

With Nill's single command, the machine gun mounted on his arm roared to life.

Brrrraaaah-!

The goblins who had proudly broken through the line vanished without a trace under the fusillade of thousands of rounds.

As Glaepnir pushed the goblins back, Walter and Kurks, covering the other directions, likewise began driving the goblins beyond the defensive line.

-Suicide bombers? Why do the goblins have bombs!?

-Rael. It's that lunatic's doing! I'm sure of it!

Even so, goblins carrying bombs started charging the two colossuses.

-Damn, are they trying to ram the colossuses!?

Kwaang-!

Picking out the bombers hidden among the tightly packed goblins was practically impossible.

Walter's colossus had taken the brunt of the goblins' suicide attacks, but it wasn't going to fall to mere grenade-level explosives.

Puhwak!

Soon the flames bloomed again and began to set off the bombers' charges.

Boom! Kwa-boom!

"Guard Post One is breached!"

-Kurks!

-I know!

As the soldiers evacuated from the post the goblins had started climbing, the colossus's blunt weapon smashed the post packed with goblins to pieces.

Even as their own allies disappeared with a metallic shriek, the goblins showed no sign of faltering.

Watching the scene, the knights frowned as if they couldn't comprehend it.

-Why have the goblins become so aggressive?

-They're supposed to run at the first shout, let alone wild goblins!

Goblins were a naturally timid species. As seen in previous battles, even the Alfraian-raised ones would bolt if they weren't sure they could win.

Yet these fellows, their sclera dyed red, were charging like rabid orcs.

Soldiers and knights alike were visibly rattled by this inexplicable change.

"They won't retreat! Have they all gone mad!?"

"We have to kill every last one! Don't stop firing!"

"We're out of bullets! At this rate-!"

Most of the goblin force was already corpses, yet their charge never slowed.

A goblin racing forward like mad; soldiers watching their empty rifles click uselessly.

"Screeee!"

"Ah, no!"

A goblin that had leapt the line raised its axe at a terrified soldier.

Overwhelmed by fear, the soldier couldn't even think to resist-

Thud!

With the crunch of breaking bones, the goblin's body was flung far away.

"Wh-what... how!?"

"Fall back. From here on, we'll handle it."

At the voice from behind, the ordinary soldier turned.

"P-Penal Corps?"

The red brand on the shoulder and the hunting-dog emblem gnawing on a human arm bone.

It was a Greyhound of the Independent Company under Yaan.

"We're out of ammo on this side too!"

"The enemy is pushing in!"

"Damn, you want us to fight them bare-handed!?"

Beyond the ordinary soldiers who grumbled, figures stepped forward over the line, one by one.

On the faces of those advancing was a twisted grin.

"Greyhounds!"

The instant Dandel's roar rang out, the forward troops raised their rifles in unison.

Short-barreled rifles tipped with bayonets slick with goblin blood.

"By order of Lieutenant Commander Yaan, we fight to the death! Fix bayonets!"

"Kieek!?"

"Humans aren't running!"

The goblins were bewildered by the total reversal from the previous attack, yet they kept charging.

"All units, charge!"

Dandel fired his pistol into the onrushing goblins, then raised the weapon high.

"Waaaaah!"

"Kill them all!"

The Greyhounds, instead of fleeing the goblins charging at them, launched a counter-charge.

What the ordinary soldiers saw next, as they fell back, was carnage too brutal to watch.

Thwack!

"Screeee!"

"Humans! Humans are attacking us!"

"My gut! My guuuut!"

Five more minutes passed before the battle was truly over.

"Casualty report."

"Five wounded. One stabbed pretty deep."

"Ah, shit, I've got to do laundry again."

The ordinary soldiers, watching the squad trudge back drenched in blood, could no longer tell who was the beast.

Roughly three hundred goblins had charged the front, despite their small stature.

Yet the ferocious Greyhound Company had slaughtered them without a single loss.

-Request support from headquarters and move the wounded to quarters!

-About twenty of you, with me. We're reinforcing the line!

Behind the three returning colossuses strode the commander giving orders to the soldiers.

At the giants' backs, thousands of goblins lay strewn across the forest as chunks of flesh, piles of ash, or mere dust.

-Good call felling the trees, Lieutenant.

-If we hadn't, we'd have burned the whole great forest, right?

The hero of this defense was Walter's colossus with its mounted flamethrower.

The land near the ruin, scorched black by the flames. In less than two hours the lush green forest had become a desolate battlefield.

"Still, I can't figure it out. How did the goblins...."

"Sir Knight! Please take a look at this!"

One of the soldiers called Walter over as he climbed down from his colossus, still puzzled.

"What is it?"

"There's something odd on the goblin corpses."

"Tattoos?"

As he asked that and checked the goblin corpse, Walter furrowed his eyes.

"This..."

"These are needle marks. Very thick ones."

The one who said that from behind was Yaan.

"So you're saying the goblins turned aggressive because of drugs?"

"Pardon. And these marks..."

"Do you know something?"

Yaan didn't bother to answer Walter's question.

He merely looked at the needle marks on the goblins' bodies-identical to the ones on his own arm-and tried to guess what had been injected into them.