25 Siege Battle

Seeing that King Roland's face had turned grim, Baroc immediately realised that something went wrong.

Had he chosen his words wrongly?

Perhaps he should not have spoken about the necessary sacrifices?

After all, this king was new to the throne and thus might still be a little idealistic, hoping that he could achieve victory without a single death.

That was usually the case with young leaders who lacked exposure, and Baroc himself was the same as well!

Or at least, he used to be the same, until he was harshly shown the cruel reality of this world.

But by now, Baroc had seen so much death around him that he had already become relatively numb to the concept of death.

Necessary sacrifices must be made in order for goals to be achieved, even if these sacrifices meant the death of a minority for the benefit of the majority!

That was something that he had learnt over the years, and it was something that he staunchly believed in.

Even so, it was probably a concept that this young king had yet to understand.

They might not be too different in terms of age, but they were completely different in terms of life experience!

One was a royal who lived a sheltered life in the palace, while the other was an adventurer who lived his life on the edge in battle!

Of course, Baroc had no clue about how Roland truly led his life from young, and could only make assumptions based on his identity as part of the royal family.

But how wrong could he be?

Realising his slip of tongue, Baroc quickly decided to change his tone.

"Even so, if things go as planned, we might not have to sacrifice any soldiers in order to take down the goblins! But in order for that to happen, we would need to do a lot more preparation work beforehand!"

At this moment, Baroc was feeling quite pleased with his quick thinking, changing his tone according to what the target audience wanted to hear.

However, he was answered with silence as King Roland simply kept watching him with a grim expression on his face.

After an uncomfortable few seconds, Alexander finally let out a deep sigh.

"Do you think it will be possible for your plan to succeed if there were multiple Goblin Kings within the goblin horde?" Alexander was the first to break the silence.

"Multiple Goblin Kings?" this time it was Baroc's turn to frown.

"Sir, with all due respect, it is simply not possible for there to be multiple Goblin Kings appearing at the same time," Adel cut in from behind Baroc.

"It is well known that Goblin Kings are rare existences that only appear occasionally, and there has never been any point in time when a single goblin horde had two Goblin Kings emerge at the same time. Is that what you wanted to say?" Alexander gave a wry smile.

"If you know that then why did you…" Adel's voice trailed off in indignation.

"How about answering Alexander's question?" Roland's voice was cold.

"This…" Baroc hesitated before finally coming up with the right words. "If there were really multiple Goblin Kings within the goblin horde, then we would truly have to think of a different approach. Did Your Majesty receive news of such a possibility?"

Baroc might not be convinced, but his gut feeling told him that the other party might be privy to information that they did not know of.

Why else would all of them show the exact same reaction at the same time?

Whatever it was that he did not know of, it would not be too late to continue reasoning with the other party after hearing them out.

"There are three Goblin Kings based in the goblin settlement, that is what we know for sure," Roland said sternly.

"What?!" the quartet exclaimed in alarm.

"Impossible! Did the scout see it with his own two eyes?" Klint shouted out in denial.

"Believe it or not, this is the truth. So tell me, do you have any plans to handle this?" Roland let out a sigh of helplessness.

The adventurers turned to look at each other simultaneously.

Seeing the blank look on each other's faces, just a few shakes of the head were sufficient to let everyone know about their lack of countermeasures.

All of this naturally fell into Roland's eyes as well.

"I appreciate your interest in the matter, and I would be grateful if you could stay around in case we need your help. However, I have no intention to accept your previous proposal," Roland said. "I will arrange a tent for you if you wish to stay. For now, I would like to rest for the night."

"Yes, Your Majesty. We will accept the graceful offer," Baroc bowed politely before leaving with the rest of the group.

As Phoenix Sentinels left the tent, Alexander shook his head in despair, "Looks like even S-ranked adventurers are stumped by the problem we have at hand."

"It might be difficult to come up with something immediately. Let us hope they can finally think of something after a night's rest," Roland promptly returned to his own tent to retire for the night, still depressed about not having found a solution.

Some members of the adventurer group Phoenix Sentinels, however, was not exactly in the mood to sleep right away.

"I call bullshit!" Klint sneered after making sure that the guards were no longer in the vicinity of their tent. "Three Goblin Kings? Why don't they just say that the goblins have dragons with them too?!"

"Exactly!" Adel added immediately. "They are probably just trying to exaggerate the problem at hand so that they would look better when the matter is eventually resolved!"

"Except at this rate, things will never be resolved!" Klint replied angrily.

"All these nobles…all of them only act at the benefit of their own interests! Do they not know that lives are at stake here?!" Adel got more agitated the more she spoke.

"But what if they are saying the truth?" Baroc cut in all of a sudden.

Silence filled the tent as the two fuming adventurers turned to him in disbelief.

"Do you truly believe that shit?" Klint raised an eyebrow in surprise.

Baroc let out a tired smile, but did not answer the question.

Sensing the awkwardness in the air, Klint did not pursue the matter either.

With that, the adventurer group ended their night uncomfortably, each having their own thoughts about the matters of the day.

The heavy downpour continued relentlessly over the night, seemingly reflecting the heavy feelings within everyone's heart.

Dawn had yet to arrive when Roland's eyes shot wide open.

He did not even bother with his daily routine of morning meditation as he rushed to flick open the entrance flap of his tent.

The rain seemed to have become even heavier over the night, and the sound of rain was deafening to the ears.

However, Roland's keen senses were able to pick up on something else.

Within the sound of rain, there was another sound mixed in that was almost completely drowned out.

No, it was not just another sound.

It had not even been twenty four hours since he last heard these familiar rhythms, so Roland was able to immediately recognise them despite the relatively soft volume.

Drums!

Goblin Drums!

After confirming it, Roland hurriedly got dressed and left the tent with his sword.

It was still early, and Rose had not even gotten to his side yet.

Due to the cover of the rain, the drums were not yet audible to any normal man, so everyone else was still in deep sleep, oblivious to the approaching danger.

That included even the extremely well-trained Rose.

But not for long, because her tent was Roland's first destination upon leaving his own.

"Rose! Get up!" Roland barged right into the tent, immediately rousing the young lady from her sleep.

"Your Majesty?" Rose asked in confusion, but seeing how the king was already fully dressed for combat, her focus sharpened immediately.

Even without any further explanation from Roland, Rose quickly got dressed, and the two rushed to wake Alexander.

Soon enough, a warning horn sounded across the encampment, signalling for the call to arms.

By then, every soldier present could faintly hear the sound of drums gradually getting louder and louder.

The Royal Army soldiers braved the rain as they hurried to their assigned positions on the watchtowers and behind the barricades, all focusing their attention in the direction of the Dragontail Valley.

Roland stayed within the command tent, patiently waiting for any news of goblin sightings.

This was his privilege both as the overall commander of the army, and as the king.

He had personally experienced the thunderous drums of the goblins, and was aware of how far the sound reverberated.

Thus, he was not surprised that it took this long from the time he first heard the drums, to the appearance of any goblins.

Thankfully, the fact that the sound was getting louder showed clear indication that the goblins were indeed approaching.

Another horn sounded, and Roland immediately picked up his sword to leave for the nearest watchtower.

The fortifications were setup a good distance from the dense trees characteristic of Dragontail Valley, but still near enough to cover the entire exit, not allowing anyone to leave without passing through.

The goblins seemed to be completely unaffected by the heavy downpour as they agilely weaved through the trees and finally out into the clearing, heading straight towards the fortifications.

They were not advancing in formation, but rushing forward as though they were a pack of wolves that had spotted their prey.

Their weapons in their hands were crudely made. But be it a spear or a knife, each goblin was waving the weapon in their hands with an indescribable fervour.

Flames burned in their eyes as the goblin horde charged ahead with complete disregard for their lives.

There were hundreds and thousands of them, and that was only counting the ones who had already emerged from the cover of trees.

The slightly more inexperienced soldiers of the Royal Army were shocked by the immense pressure from the bloodlust that was being emanated by the charging goblins, but managed to stand their ground after thinking of their duty to their kingdom and to their liege.

If these low intelligence goblins could fight for their horde with such great fervour, then what would they be worth if they faltered just at the sight of the enemy?

Would they be less than a goblin?

They would be completely letting down the king who had prepared so well for this battle, even going as far as completely fortifying the area!

This was when the soldiers felt slightly ashamed of themselves for having doubted the king's decision to fortify the area, believing that it was an unnecessary action that would have yielded no results.

Looking at the mass of goblins charging at them right now, who would still think that it was unnecessary?

In fact, they could not thank him more for it!

These fortifications had effectively transformed this battle into one where they were defending against a siege!

A defensive siege against goblins that had no siege equipment whatsoever!

Terrain, equipment, preparation, strategy.

At this very moment, they were miles ahead in every aspect.

All that the goblins had were their numbers!

So all the soldiers had to do was to kill each and every one of them as they come forth!

Thinking of this, the soldiers steeled their hearts and roared at the top of their voices, bracing themselves for the slaughter that was to come!

Roland stood atop the innermost watchtower, frowning as he carefully watched the mass of goblins running towards the sturdy barricades below.

At this time, a huge shadow suddenly swept across the ground towards the approaching goblins.

The first volley of arrows had just been fired!