Chase (1)

<Your ability to make creatures with less than average intelligence learn keeps being impressive. Vespasian is beside himself with joy.>

Really? That's good to hear. With this the pressure should keep going up until the defenders break from it. Or the skull goblins run out of cloths. Now that I think about it, even if every one of those 50 skull goblins uses it, there will still be ladders remaining.

<Not to fear, we took care of that.>

How?

I respawn and find my arms wrapped in a dozen blue cloths each. This should last me a while. I am not to far from the concrete wall and I catch sight of the ongoing uphill battle that is being fought by the skull goblins after only a short sprint.

The adventurers are frantically trying to push the ladders off the concrete wall and shoot the skull goblins with blue cloths. There are only two skull goblins with a blue cloth left but I don't think all the others got killed. They probably just used their cloths judging by the twenty or so ladders that are near the wall.

Each time a ladder is pushed away, the skull goblins disperse and a few especially quick ones pick it back up and put it against the wall again. Then those skull goblins dive back into the crowd and hide from the defenders' arrows. But they look a bit different…

<They are kobaloi censors. I'll spare you the whole history lesson but censors were magistrates who mostly cared for public morality. These kobaloi censors evolved from some of the skull goblins you gave blue cloths. They are remarkably smarter and can command ordinary skull goblins to a certain extent.>

While Navi is talking to me, the skull goblins near me step back and make space for a dozen censors. Now that I see them for longer, my assessment skill tells me that they are censors. I hand each of them two blue cloths and we rejoin the battle.

I arrive near the remaining ladders and quickly tie my purple cloth to it. Why not use a blue one? Because the moment the defenders see me wearing purple I am so dead. Blue might make me a target but wearing a purple one will definitely get me killed.

We reach the wall and hoist the ladder upright. The censors immediately disperse into the crowd but I don't. While the ladders is placed and has no skull goblins on it, it is the easiest to topple.

While skull goblins are already climbing the ladder, the adventurers of the wall have already begun to push it. As the ladder begins to tilt, the climbing skull goblins slow down as they angle gets steeper.

I run to the opposite side of the ladder, grab some rope, jump up, wrap it around the highest wrung of the ladder that I can reach, and then let myself drop. My weight pulls the ladder down a little but can't stop the ladder from being tilted further.

My trick only works so long as the ladder's wrung I attached the rope to is still tilted toward the wall in relation to its base. The adventurers feel that it just got harder to push the ladder away but I am too close to the wall and half covered by the ladder for the archers to get me.

The censors quickly catch on and run to me. They too pull on the rope and the ladder is forced back against the wall under our combined strength.

The skull goblins on the ladder don't waste this chance and redouble their climbing speed. They reach the top and clash with the adventurers but can't quite make it onto the wall.

I get a few ordinary skull goblins to pull down the rope, pray that the ladder's wrung doesn't break under the stress and continue on to another ladder that is being pushed away. While running, an idea strikes me and I hand to of the three remaining bundles of rope to the censors.

They immediately make off with the rope to help stabilize other ladders. With four ladders that can't be pushed over, the skull goblins finally manage to get onto the wall. The first few die near instantaneously. However, soon enough, one of them manages to land safely and attack the adventurers.

With the top of the wall having no railing in the back, the evading adventurers inevitably push some of their colleagues off the wall. Since their side has no ladders, only the strong ones can jump back up. And if they do jump back up, they need space to land, which they don't have.

Seeing that more and more skull goblins make it to the top of the wall, I start climbing the ladder too. I want in on the action.

I'm not even halfway up the ladder when the troop morale on the adventurers' side takes a nose dive and the first adventurers begin to flee. A few fleeing acts like a domino effects as the others too begin to turn tail and run.

As these adventurers turn their backs to use I feel an inexplicable anger in myself. How dare they run?

An unstoppable desire to chase any fleeing enemies roils within me. As that feeling begins to well up more and more, I feel something within me break free and a surge of power washes over me.

Simultaneously, I feel that same desire become restless in all the skull goblins surrounding me. However, the desire seems to be suppressed, hidden. I don't know why I can feel this or what I am doing, but somehow I reach out and pull at that hidden desire, forcing it to come to the surface.

All the skull goblins around me straighten up and lock onto the fleeing adventurers like bloodhounds on a fresh trail. Only one word remains within our minds. Chase!

I push myself off the ladder so hard that it breaks. For a split second I question my sudden increase in strength, then I forget about it and focus on my prey again.