paranoianovel Chapter 49: Revenge
Chapter 49: Revenge
The fighting on the city wall did not last long, and Dodok's five hundred elite troops were completely annihilated.
Ron didn't even glance at the corpses on the city wall, and decisively shouted, "Throw the corpses into the barbican, and all commanders return to their original positions."
"yes!"
Da Vinci Hillden immediately agreed and turned back to the city wall where he was stationed.
After another half hour of fighting, Dodok realized something was wrong. His first thought was to find the mage Devon and ask him to check the situation on the city wall.
They couldn't find anyone.
"They ran away." Dodok instantly realized that the battle situation on the city wall had changed, and they might even be completely annihilated, which was why Devon and the mage had taken advantage of the chaos to escape.
"My five hundred elite goblins!"
Dodok let out a wail and simultaneously gave the order to retreat.
Fortunately, Dodok's tribe was indeed considered elite among the goblins. Upon hearing the retreat horn, they began to flee, which was at least better than those ragtag tribes that fought mindlessly to the end and were completely wiped out.
Seeing the goblins begin to flee, Ron didn't hesitate any longer. He rushed to the city wall with a javelin in front of him and threw it out with his Mage Hand.
With his current magical power, a javelin thrown out would be even more terrifying than an eight-ox crossbow.
Unfortunately, the aim was off. The intended target was the elite goblin warrior in front, but the shot missed the goblin wolf rider to the side, piercing through him along with the wolf.
Arrows rained down simultaneously from the crenellations of the north, east, and west walls, resembling a reverse downpour in the firelight.
The goblins were completely disorganized amidst the rain of fire and arrows. Ladders fell one after another, and goblins clinging to them tumbled down into piles of corpses.
A chaotic cacophony of screams and wails erupted outside the north wall.
Outside the north wall, a tall figure was gathering the fleeing soldiers.
The chainmail gleamed coldly in the firelight, and the battle axe cleaved through the goblins that were fleeing backward.
Dodok stood at the rear of the fleeing soldiers, surrounded by his most elite personal guard. He was trying to stabilize the situation and at least get the remaining elite troops out of the arrow-strewn area.
Fanta peeked out from the enemy tower.
"The Eight-Ox Crossbow still can't hit anything."
Ron didn't answer. He looked down at the javelin in his hand, then looked up at the retreating formation.
Ron took a deep breath, and a mage's hand materialized in the void, gripping the end of the javelin.
He aimed at the tall figure in chainmail below the city and threw it with all his might.
The sound of a javelin tearing through the air was more like artillery fire than a throw.
It traced an almost straight path across the night sky, whistling as it covered a distance of five hundred paces.
By the time Dodok heard the sound, it was too late to hide.
The javelin flew past his ear, the strong wind making his earlobe sting.
The next second, the two goblin guards standing behind him were pierced by a single shot and pinned together like a string of candied hawthorns.
One of them has just been promoted to Goblin Hero, and his future is very promising.
But he was killed by a javelin.
Dodo looked at the distance; they were already more than 500 meters from the city wall!
Ashwood Territory also possesses such terrifying long-range weapons.
Dodo quickly took the lead and retreated another hundred meters.
His withdrawal caused the previously stabilized military formation to collapse once again.
Looking at Dodok, who was completely out of range, Ron was filled with regret.
"Lord, you are mighty! Your shot has killed two elite goblins." Sanlir immediately came over to flatter him.
Ron nodded expressionlessly, as if to say that he was aiming at Dodok.
I didn't expect it to go off-center.
"No need to chase," Ron said, then raised his voice, "Send orders to hold the city walls; no one is allowed to leave the city before dawn."
Nighttime pursuit is too risky; the fleeing goblins would become countless unpredictable ambush points in the darkness. He cannot allow Fanta to lead his men out of the city.
But Thun was not on the city wall.
Goblins have night vision far superior to humans.
As the firelight on the city wall gradually died down and the garrison began to count the arrows, Thun led five Grimmmen out quietly through the side gate of the south wall.
They didn't light torches; their gray-green skin was the best camouflage.
The fleeing goblin scouts ran past them, and no one noticed these few of their "kin."
Thun went against the tide of the fleeing soldiers, chasing after the animal skin banner with crossed bones painted on it.
Those are remnants of the Two-Headed Bone tribe.
After being repeatedly bombarded by arrows and catapults during the siege, the Double-Headed Bone Tribe was reduced to only a dozen or so warriors, who were fleeing northwards dragging a tattered animal skin flag.
Thun slashed in from the flank, gripped his short sword in reverse, and sliced the neck of the outermost sentry in one stroke.
The second goblin noticed and turned to yell, but a Grimm grabbed him from behind, choked him, and stabbed him through the lower back.
The third, the fourth—the routed soldiers didn't even realize they were being silently harvested.
A tall goblin, leaning on a bone spear, limped at the rear of the fleeing soldiers. His left leg had been injured by a rolling log during the siege, and his tribe's animal skin banner was still wrapped around the bone spear. Half of the pattern of crossed bones on the banner had been burned away by fire.
He is the chieftain of the Two-Headed Bone tribe, and also the tribe's only goblin hero.
Ten years ago, he personally threw Thun's mother, that human woman who could no longer bear children, into a big pot and stewed her.
Thun emerged from the shadows.
Thun squatted outside the tent, his face filled with grief as he watched the water boil in the iron pot, meat still clinging to the white bones. His gaze finally settled on a finger floating in the pot, its nail coated with the juice of safflower—the only habit his mother had retained from the human world.
He picked the safflower himself and gave it to his mother. At that moment, his mother rarely smiled.
That was the last smile he ever saw.
Thun's eyes reddened.
The chief stared at Thun for a moment, then recognized him. His lips moved as if he wanted to say something, but in the end, he seemed to understand and nodded resignedly.
Thun gave him no chance; he stabbed the chief in the abdomen with a backhand, pulled out the knife, and stabbed him again.
With another cut, the sound of the blade piercing flesh was rapid yet dull.
He didn't know how many times he had stabbed himself until a Green man next to him grabbed his wrist and pulled him away.
The chief knelt on the ground, his entire abdomen hollowed out, his internal organs spilling out onto the ground.
Thun looked down at him.
He pulled a small, polished stone from his pocket. It was a keepsake from his mother, a flint, its surface smooth as jade from years of being rubbed by the woman's fingers.
He placed the flint on the chief's body.
Thun looked up at the sky and opened his mouth.
He wanted to call out to his mother.
But that wasn't his mother's name. He had grown up so much, yet he had never thought to ask his mother's name.
He's a real beast.
He remembered his mother sometimes staring blankly northward, muttering a syllable.
It sounds like a place name, but it also sounds like a name.
He never understood it, and he never asked it.
Now there will never be a chance to ask.
Thun shut his mouth, letting out a very low, crushed sound from his throat.
All he knew was that she was human, the daughter of some lord, who had taught him to read and to breathe, and who had been thrown into a food pile after losing her fertility.
She had many identities, but none of them remained in a place where he could call her name.
Thun shut his mouth.
He stood in the direction the fleeing soldiers were heading, with five silent Green men behind him.
"The chief is dead, and the tribe is left with only the old and weak," Thun said in a low voice. "There are the food and weapons that the Twin Skulls have accumulated over ten years. There are also people they stole from human villages, and perhaps many more brothers and sisters waiting for us to rescue them."
The five Green men followed him without hesitation.