Chapter 412: Battle in Dorn Town
The humans' words made Li Meng frown slightly.
The cities don't produce anything, at least not grain.
In this world, only villages and towns are major grain producers.
Some villages are basically huge farms.
Owning tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of acres of fertile land.
If humans want to be self-sufficient,
they must occupy a piece of fertile land.
Just relying on the Garrison Fort makes it really hard to be self-sufficient.
Li Meng waved his hand.
"Go!"
"Yes, my King!"
The humans secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
They quickly stood up and hurried out.
Watching their departing figures, a thoughtful look appeared on Li Meng's face.
Looks like the entire border territory needs to be taken over.
In the afternoon, a large number of airships docked on the high walls slowly took off.
They covered the sky, flying over the Garrison Fort.
Fully loaded with troops heading north.
Accompanied by a fleet of floating warships.
This scene was observed by human scouts hiding outside the Garrison Fort.
Irisis Principality, Border Territory, Dorn Town.
At night, Dorn Town was shrouded in darkness.
Thick clouds covered the moonlight, plunging the land into pitch-blackness.
Only the city walls showed patches of light.
"Did you hear?"
"About the Garrison Fort?"
"No, there were messengers from the Lord today."
The volunteer soldiers on guard gathered in small groups, chatting casually.
They wore leather armor and wielded various weapons.
Spears, sword and shield, bows, and axes.
Volunteer soldiers were the militia organized by each town.
Without funds for fine equipment, they used whatever they had.
"It's about goblins, right?"
"Didn't expect goblins to rise up, this world is crazy."
"Just goblins, I can kill one with one strike."
"Haha, exactly, I can fight ten goblins alone."
While the soldiers sneered at the goblins,
suddenly dense whistling sounds came from the darkness outside the walls.
A volunteer soldier chatting with his buddy trembled all over.
He opened his mouth to say something but couldn't make a sound.
Then his body tilted and he fell to the ground.
A crossbow bolt was stuck in his back.
The nearby soldiers were stunned by the sudden fall.
The next moment, blood splattered.
Bolts from the darkness pierced through the soldiers' bodies.
The soldiers on the walls fell like harvested wheat.
"Ah!"
The ones who didn't die immediately let out miserable screams.
"Enemy attack! Enemy attack!"
An experienced veteran quickly lay flat and shouted.
The sentry soldiers on the watchtower changed expressions.
"Quick, ring the alarm bell!"
At the top of the watchtower was a large bell.
Once rung, it would alert the town's inhabitants.
Just as a soldier hugged the hammer to strike the bell,
an ear-piercing screech sounded from the darkness.
The screech ended abruptly.
A black light shot out and hit the watchtower.
"Boom!"
A loud explosion shook the night.
A mushroom cloud of fire rose from the tower.
The flashing firelight was striking in the darkness.
The explosion, mixed with a shockwave, shredded the tower.
The watchtower was blown in half.
Debris flew everywhere.
The bell was blasted off, falling into the town.
"What is that?"
The soldiers on the walls finally noticed movement outside the walls.
Large shadows were moving.
The heavy clouds made it too dark to see clearly.
They could only see masses of dark shapes shifting.
They couldn't tell what it was.
At that moment, a huge black shadow rushed toward the gate.
Its speed was terrifying, accompanied by thundering footsteps.
Only when it was within twenty meters of the gate
did the soldiers finally see what it was.
It was a nearly five-meter-tall iron beast.
Bulky and muscular, completely encased in iron armor.
"Roar!"
The massive iron beast let out a roar.
It stomped straight toward the gate.
Under the terrified gazes of the soldiers,
the iron beast rammed into the gate.
"Bang!"
With a deafening crash,
the heavy gate was smashed to pieces.
The soldiers behind the gate stared in horror at the giant.
"Archers, fire!"
The leading officer shouted, his voice trembling.
Several archers hastily drew and fired arrows.
The arrows hit the iron beast's armor but bounced off.
"Roar!"
Wielding a giant spiked mace, the beast charged the soldiers.
A single sweep of its mace sent several soldiers flying.
Their bodies twisted grotesquely,
hurtling dozens of meters before crashing into houses.
"It's… it's an Ogre!"
Someone finally identified the iron beast.
The surviving soldiers' faces turned pale.
They turned and fled into the town in panic.
Meanwhile, hoofbeats thundered outside the city.
"Wahaha!"
Hundreds of goblin boar riders screamed as they stormed in through the broken gate.
Followed by masses of goblins and ogres.
Occasionally, bouncing slimes could be seen.
With the gate breached, the goblin army flooded into the town.
Screams filled the air.
Many civilians had no idea what was happening.
When they woke up, they found goblins bursting into their rooms.
Those who resisted were ruthlessly killed.
Those who didn't resist were forcibly taken away.
The humans resisted fiercely.
They knew being captured by goblins was worse than death.
Men and women alike fought desperately.
The adventurers in the town banded together to break out.
"Hurry, faster!"
"The goblins broke in from the south gate. We must escape before they fully surround the town!"
On the main road leading to the north gate,
a caravan was desperately fleeing.
Adventurers riding dodos accompanied the caravan.
The wagons had standard markings with family crests.
Indicating they belonged to a merchant caravan.
A dozen beast carts rumbled loudly as they sped down the street.
"We're at the north gate. Why aren't there any guards?"
The town wasn't big; soon they reached the north gate.
Strangely, it was deserted.
The gate was shut tight, and no soldiers were visible on the walls.
"They must have run. Forget it, open the gate!"
The adventurers sped up.
They needed to open the gate before the caravan arrived.
When the caravan was less than a hundred meters away,
shadows suddenly surged from the sides of the street, blocking the gate.
"Goblins!"
"Kill them!"
The adventurers didn't hesitate.
The north gate was right in front of them.
And only about a hundred goblins blocked it.
Though the goblins wore armor,
many were larger goblins and goblin warriors,
but goblins were goblins.
Even with better gear, they were still weak goblins.
"Kill them!"
The adventurers roared.
Swordsmen drew their weapons.
Magic archers nocked arrows.
Mages began chanting.
Suddenly, the situation changed.
From a side alley,
huge figures charged out.
Ogres and ogre brutes.
Wearing iron armor, they crashed into the caravan like tanks.
With deafening crashes,
the beast carts were overturned.
Some were smashed to pieces.
"Fireball…"
A mage tried to cast a spell, raising his staff.
Before he finished chanting, an ogre brute smashed him and his dodo into pulp.
"Wahaha! Shoot them all!"
The goblins blocking the gate cheered and opened fire.
Crossbow bolts rained down on the caravan.
Their bolts were powerful,
but couldn't harm the heavily armored ogres and brutes.
So they fired without worry.
Within five minutes, the street was silent.
All the beast carts were destroyed.
Some flipped, some reduced to wreckage.
No human corpses were seen,
only blood and the corpses of beast animals.
"Meat, meat, mine, mine!"
Goblins scrambled to devour the beast corpses.
Soon, even the bones were chewed up and swallowed.
"Where are the humans' bodies?"
"I saw them turn to ash!"
"Why would they turn to ash?"
"Dunno!"
"Neither do I."
"The boss must know."
"Stop looking at me, I don't know!"
"How can you be boss if you don't know anything?"
"Yeah, yeah, can't be boss!"
"What, you want to rebel?"
The goblin warrior roared angrily.
The goblins shrank back, terrified.
"Shut up and guard here! Don't let a single human escape!"
Time passed slowly. Dorn Town was in chaos.
Fires broke out everywhere.
Battles raged at the west and east gates too.
Dorn Town was quite large, with a population of about 10,000.
Located near Twilight Forest, it was rich in fruits and alcohol production.
Surrounding the town were numerous orchards.
Within the town, there were many breweries and food workshops.
Since the forest housed many monsters,
Dorn Town attracted a lot of adventurers.
This made the battle drag on.
Adventurers fled in groups through the streets and alleys.
Magic flashes lit up the darkened town from time to time.
"Boss, let's bomb them!"
At a thousand meters above Dorn Town,
an airship hovered in the night sky.
Several goblins leaned over the rails watching the battle.
"No, the boss said to protect the human town as much as possible."
"Why?"
"No idea, but that's the order."
"Boss, just one shot?"
"No!"
"Come on, just one!"
"I'll throw you down if you keep whining!"
"Okay... I won't ask."
Time dragged on, and the night grew deeper.
The battle in town continued.
Lives were lost by the minute.
Eventually, Dorn Town began to fall silent.
Only the crackling of burning buildings remained.
"Hurry, hurry!"
"Move or I'll eat you!"
At the central plaza, chaos reigned.
Goblins herded the surviving humans there.
Driven by goblins, terrified humans flooded into the plaza.
Nobody knew what the goblins were shouting.
They just saw the goblins' ferocious faces, twisted in grotesque grins.
In the center of the plaza stood an angel statue.
About twenty meters tall.
Before the statue stood a goblin champion.
About 3.5 meters tall, clad in iron armor.
Holding a spiked mace, his eyes gleamed as he watched the plaza.
"Boss, almost everyone is here!"
A goblin warrior scampered up to the champion.
"Then let's begin, I'm getting impatient!"
The goblin warrior turned and started barking orders.
They brought the prettier human females before the boss.
"Not bad!"
The goblin champion grinned at the frightened human woman.
A raven perched on his shoulder,
looking the woman up and down.
"No, next one!"
"Ugly, go away!"
The goblin shoved the woman aside.
Another was brought up.
"No, next one!"
"But she's okay, why not?"
"No, next!"
One after another, women were rejected.
The goblin champion grew anxious.
"You don't understand the King's taste. Bring an ugly one, and he'll eat you!"
The raven's words made the goblin champ pout.
How could a mere raven know the King's taste?
"Listen to me, listen to me!"
The raven pecked the goblin's helmet furiously.
"Alright, alright, I'll listen!"
It turned into a bizarre beauty selection.
One pretty woman after another was paraded in front of the goblin champion.
Most were rejected.
Only a few were selected.
All of this was watched with grief and despair by the human men.
They didn't know what the goblins were planning,
but it was definitely nothing good.