Chapter 38 Bad Feeling
"Everybody! Group up and prepare for a long, fucking fight!" I screamed.
Yet even I couldn't hear my own voice as it got drowned out by the stomping in the distance. My mouth moved, but nothing came out. It was weird.
Luckily, I didn't need to scream to inform the others of what was happening. The beasts weren't quite silent with their ambush.
I could see everyone at the base camp spring into motion.
They stood up, grabbed their weapons, and sprinted towards the battlefield.
The people already here just went pale. With trembling hands, they gripped their weapons.
Gerald, who was by my side, pressed against my back and yelled at me.
I didn't hear him, but I understood the motions he was making.
He wanted us to go back. Ben, Ren, and the others had long been dismissed as they were much more useful on the battlefield rather than here with me.
We were alone, faced with thousands of raging beasts.
I didn't have to think long about my decision, and we sprinted away from the edge of the now black forest. The pounding turned into wails of pain as most of the beasts now stepped across the still hot coal.
Honestly, the wall of fire had worked much better than I thought it would.
I assumed it would buy us a few hours and drive away a few hundred beasts, but it actually bought us more than half a day.
We reached our wooden maze quick, and then stopped.
I looked around. I hoped somebody would tell me what to do.
Where to go. Where to fight. All I saw was Gerald's grim face as he watched the sea of animals in the distance rage across the black forest. Their still dark bodies, obscured by the night, made them look like creatures of nightmares.
My soldiers all either looked at me or at the charging personification of death.
Then it hit me—I was that person.
The person who had to tell everyone what to do.
I funneled my mana into my throat. I could feel the strain it put on my vocal cords, but I didn't care. I had to make sure everybody heard me. So with far too much mana inside my throat, I screamed.
"Do not be afraid! Do not look back! Do not retreat!
Follow the plan. Follow what you have been trained to do!
Look to your left. To your right. Those are your brothers and sisters.
Think about your family behind you. Your children.
Spouses. Siblings and friends. These are the people for whom you are doing this.
If you fight, you fight for them. If you die, you die for them. Take your positions! NOW!"
My voice reverberated through the whole battlefield like rumbling thunder.
Just for a few seconds, the pounding of the Beast Wave seemingly disappeared, and only my voice remained.
It was so loud Gerald and the soldiers right next to me clutched their ears tight.
A notification echoed through my mind, but I dismissed it as quickly as it came.
My eyes were fully focused upon the charging Beast Wave in front of us. I trusted my soldiers. I trusted that they would take their positions, and so I didn't check on them. I just let the anxiety wash over me and looked as the beasts came closer. For the next few minutes, I could do nothing.
I had no long-range attack—something I promised to rectify.
Volleys of arrows soundlessly flew through the air. I knew they should whistle, but they didn't. Instead, they just disappeared into the darkness of the night, and I saw a few beasts at the front stumble. The animals behind them rammed into them and then trampled them to death.
Yet their number just didn't lessen.
All I saw was a giant mass of darkness move towards me.
My fist tightened, and I could feel the leather of my gauntlets deform. I looked ahead, and something inside told me to simply charge ahead into the Beast Wave. I should fight them and kill them all. If I died, so be it. If I—
Then a hand grasped my shoulder, causing me to turn around.
It was Gerald.
He simply shook his head.
And with that, I was brought out of my thoughts. I lifted my eyebrows, did I just seriously consider charging right into the Beast Wave after my speech? It might have just been a spur-of-the-moment thought, but...I had a feeling I might have actually contemplated whether or not I should attack.
Weird. Was I that dumb or...?
I shoved my bizarre thoughts aside. We had a plan to follow. Another volley of arrows silently arced through the air before drilling themselves into the beasts. More animals stumbled. More animals were trampled to death.
Yet once again, the number didn't lessen.
Soon they would be here. Looking at the number of enemies, it didn't make sense to engage them here. Too many would die.
I gathered the mana inside my throat and yelled, "Retreat to the second choke point!"
My vocal cords trembled and hurt. But my command was heeded without any complaints.
Not that I would have heard them. The soldiers and archers that were at the front lines retreated towards the back.
We carefully walked through the maze of walls, making sure not to step into any traps before reaching the second choke point.
We created the maze for a reason, and it would be idiotic to fight our fight right at the frontlines.
Instead, we arrived a couple hundred feet away from the edge of the forest. The earthen mounds holding up the wooden walls were practically the same here, just that in front of us, a giant maze of walls, holes, trenches, and traps was placed rather than a burned-down forest.
We climbed up our earthen mounds and simply watched as the mass of beasts smashed into the frontlines we had just retreated from.
Most of the animals were simple boars, deer, and other prey animals. I could see the fear inside their gazes. They were acting out of pure instinct, and that instinct caused multiple of them to drill themselves into the spikes we had placed in front of a few walls.
Within one breath, pretty much all spikes were occupied by boars and deer that had holes gouged into them.
Some of them escaped, but most simply wailed in pain as they were stuck there.
We made sure to mimic fishing hooks. The plan was not to kill them but to immobilize those animals or at worst, slow them down.
Chills went down my spine. The earthen mounds holding up the walls trembled and shook wildly as more and more of the Beast Wave slammed into the walls. The wood began to crack and spikes chipped off.
But that was not what caused the chills.
It was the fact that the Beast Wave simply didn't seem to shrink.
By now, the leading animals had run past those walls and reached the maze. Some were swallowed by the earth and dropped into holes. Others split up in different directions, with most being dead ends.
Animals followed the path of least resistance. Why try to climb out of a small trench surrounded by walls when you could simply move forward? They did not think, and that was exactly our advantage.
I sighed in relief as I watched the numbers dwindle. Of course, most of the animals were still alive, but the ones running towards our second choke point were much less compared to what we would have to fight at the frontlines.
I didn't have to command anyone. Every soldier knew what to do.
The melee fighters moved down and crouched right next to the corners the first beasts would reach.
The archers walked up to the tip of the walls and nocked the arrows into their bows.
A few seconds later, they pulled the string and fired at will.
Not many of the arrows hit. Because of the trenches and walls, the beasts were naturally more protected and hidden. Luckily, we had prepared enough arrows for that case. Also, since the arrows were targeted on a smaller amount of the animals, most of the beasts had still been wounded.
I watched from above as a boar with arrows sticking out of its body turned a corner in the maze.
It was met with multiple polearms to its face and squealed in pain.
Its mindless eyes snapped towards the soldiers that had attacked it.
It got ready to charge, but in the time it took the animal to come to its senses, the soldiers had already pulled out their weapons and stabbed forward a second time.
The boar dropped to the ground as its vitals were pierced.
A second later, a couple of deer accompanied by a boar and rodents reached the corner. The soldiers stabbed out again. This time they had to fight multiple animals, causing less injury to each enemy and therefore increasing the danger substantially.
But we were prepared for that.
The pain shifted the beast's state of mind from running away to charging at my soldiers.
The deer and rodents were killed with the second strike.
But the boar remained alive. The two soldiers who fought it managed to land one more strike before the animal reached them.
As it was about to smash into the spear-wielding soldier, the one with the shield stepped forward.
He briefly glowed in a golden light before a shimmer in the same color enveloped his shield.
The boar smashed into the shield, and the man simply took a step back without any injuries.
The boar looked ahead, unsure of what it witnessed, but its confusion was swiftly met with two strikes towards its chest and leg. Then the other soldiers joined and pierced its body with their weapons.
It died like the rest.
I witnessed scenes like this all around the battlefield. Unfortunately, there were deaths amongst the ambushes. Not all were lucky enough to meet only a couple of animals. Some were faced with a dozen or so.
As much as I wanted to go down there and fight myself, I stayed atop the wall, with Gerald as my guard and advisor. I was the commander of the battlefield. The soldiers listened to my commands. I was the man to tell them when we would retreat further back.
They trusted my judgment. They trusted that I wouldn't let them get overrun.
If I went down, I could at most replace one team of soldiers.
But then what?
I shook my head. As much as I hated having to stay still and observe, it was the thing that would keep my people alive. It was my burden to bear.
"Besides..." I mumbled to myself, and looked far into the distance. The smoldering forest had calmed down by now. It was pure black, illuminated by a few stars in the sky and the moon. Yet, I couldn't pry my eyes away from it.
I had a very very bad feeling.
I squinted, trying to make out anything besides the Beast Wave. But there was nothing. Was it just the Goblins and Shamans that concerned me? I clenched my fist in anger. Again, I could only wait and do nothing.
I let go of the breath I was subconsciously holding and let the tension dissipate.
Patience. Logic. Not emotions.
My eyes switched back to the battlefield with a cold, analytical look. I watched as a giant group of boars, followed by wolves, reached a group of soldiers in the distance. The enemies were too many for them. I yelled out my order, mana swirling around my throat.
"Position Eight in Zone Two is about to be breached! Reinforce!"
Each choke point was numbered, with me standing in the middle in Position Zero.
Position Eight was to my far right. Zones encompassed all positions in that zone.
Each zone was part of the battlefield we had planned for.
Zone One was the front lines, while Zone Two was the place we were at the moment.
From my position, I could observe all the others. It was a burden and a blessing, as it allowed me to command the battle but also forced me to see each and every death.
Position Eight was briefly breached, with two soldiers getting trampled to death before the reinforcement arrived. They killed the beasts, then two of the reinforcement team stayed while the rest went back.
Hours passed with me standing atop Position Zero, yelling out order after order, while watching my soldiers getting slaughtered.
The deaths were still minimal, so we didn't retreat to Zone Three—our last one.
But I knew we were getting there. The reinforcements had by now switched with the soldiers who started the fight.
Everyone was getting exhausted.
Especially me.
"Position 12!" I screamed. My throat felt like it was rubbed against sandpaper. Each time I spoke, my vocal cords ached, and it felt like they would snap. I gritted my teeth and forced the mana inside my throat.
What was a little pain compared to the life-and-death battle my soldiers were going through?
It also barely used any mana.
"Position 3! It–" I broke down in a coughing fit, spitting out blood with each subsequent one.
"Lord–" Gerald said, but I simply lifted my hand.
I wanted to say that I was alright, but the moment I tried to speak, a jolt of pain ran through my throat. So I didn't. Instead, I returned my attention back to the battlefield. Even though I wasn't able to finish my command for Position 3, it didn't mean nobody acted.
The people here weren't just some idiotic NPCs, which is why–
My eyes went wide, and a chill ran down my spine.
A loud explosion rang through my ears as I watched an orange fireball illuminate the night briefly before slamming into a group of soldiers holding the position right in front of me.
They wailed in pain, as the flames licked the flesh of their bones.
Their bodies hit the ground, and they stopped screaming.
I was almost glad that they didn't have to suffer long before dying.
Then I noticed that their bodies never stopped moving.
Oh.
Their vocal cords were simply burned.
But they continued to twist and turn as the fire slowly ate away at their life. I couldn't even imagine the pain they had to go through. They flapped on the ground like fish, each second their skin and muscles simply melting off their bodies.
Then I saw the culprits for the suffering of my men.
A group of Goblin Shamans calmly walked around the corner, snickering and...
talking amongst themselves? They all were around four feet tall, with dark cloth tied around their lower parts.
Inside their hands they all held crooked wooden staffs with a crystal attached to the tip.
Looks like my bad feeling was now not just a feeling anymore.