Chapter 33: Isekai Life & Battle of the Tower

They came for us that night.

I was up and waiting for them. It had taken all afternoon to get the farmers organized into something resembling readiness- which ones were going to be part of the defence, which ones were in charge of cataloguing our food reserves and get as much of it packed and ready to go as possible, and which ones were to be in charge of wrangling the children during the battle. Everyone had an opinion about how things should be handled, and weren’t afraid to share them whenever I stopped to take a breath.

I was standing guard on the battlements with Loudo and Elcair, the two fighter/mages in the Ravenwatch, as well as Moruca and Voss. Yua, Raszil, Haseth, Nievan and the majority of the Ravenwatch were on the landing inside the tower, prepared for the goblin’s assault up the stairs. Princess Kythaela was ... somewhere. Given the way that the Ravenwatch sorted their priorities, I wouldn’t be surprised to find out they had a backup defensive position somewhere with a couple extra guards. I didn’t try and figure it out because I had other things to occupy me.

I was probably close to midnight- hard to tell, without sun or, well, clocks- when the goblins emerged from the trees, forming a loose semi-circle around the tower. For the past hour or two, we had heard someone yelling in the woods, as if giving some kind of speech. The chieftain was rousing up his forces, convincing them to come out in a show of force. And they did- hundreds of them, far more than we knew he had warriors. He had all the “civilian” goblins out as well, just to intimidate us.

I had word passed around that afternoon that something like this would be bound to happen. We had the strategic advantage, but they had numbers, so they’d probably try to come out in force to try and break our morale. Hopefully, knowing the trick would help protect some of the farmers from it.

One of the goblins mounted on a warg rode forward, ahead of the larger swarm. He was the only one to get within bowshot, but when Moruca drew back her bowstring, I motioned at her to wait.

The goblin chieftain wasn’t the only one capable of manipulating enemy morale, after all.

“The Mighty Chieftain Warq,” it called out in a rasping voice, speaking common, “Has decided to grant you mercy, in exchange for our tower. Throw down your weapons and leave, and we will not hurt you.”

Moruca chuckled. “Liar. He think we’ll walk unarmed into a crowd of goblins?” she muttered.

I motioned with my hand and chanted. Two darts of pure magical energy flew from my hand, arcing down and slamming into the goblin, blasting him off his mount. It was not the most efficient use of that spell- I had wanted to snipe out the chieftain- but for the chieftain to get close enough, they needed to be angry enough to assault the tower. So, killing his herald in a big, flashy way was necessary.

The effect was immediate. The goblin horde immediately began howling for blood, and surging forward towards the tower. Behind their lines, I could see the wargs running back and forth like sheepdogs, herding the horde forward. I grimaced. Part of my hope was that the wargs would be on the front lines of the attack, but, no, it looks like the chieftain was canny enough to use his greatest advantage- his numbers.

I’d have to be careful fighting this guy.

Moruca and the two Ravenwatch elves started letting loose, hardly able to miss for her target rich environment. When the goblins got close enough, me and the handful of other farmers there started heaving down chunks of rubble at them. Not the most effective weapons, but we had a lot of nice, heavy rocks to toss down at them, and even just damaging a goblin and making it easier for the other defenders was good enough.

But there were a lot of goblins. Below us, the crude ramp of piled stone swarmed with black shapes, bottle-necked at the entrance to the tower. That’s when I gave the signal, and four burly farmer upended a steaming pot of boiling seawater down onto the swarm. The screams that followed were chilling, but they were out for blood.

Inside, I knew, the first goblins would be encountering our next line of defence, a series of simple rope traps intended to trip them on their way up the stairs. Peevish and maybe a little juvenile, but every little bit to break their moment, and possibly even cause damage, helped.

Shortly after that, I could see Moruca and the elves raise their bows, aiming a little higher with their arrows. The wargs, our primary target, were finally close enough for them to shoot. I saw one of the huge grey wolves go down at the edges of the crowd. Maybe we would have a chance to kill enough of their leaders that the goblins would break and run.

My life became simple. Grab a hefty bit of rubble, raise my arm, and launch into the crowd of goblins. Over and over, lift, aim, launch, lift, aim, launch. It didn’t take long before my arm began to ache. The hair was filled with the sound of rock hitting flesh, the howl of the wargs and goblins, the sizzle of boiling seawater splashing down.

“I’m dry,” Moruca said, breaking me out of my combat fugue.

I looked up in time to see one of the Ravenwatch loose his last arrow, bringing down a warg on the periphery of the swarm. The crowd pressed up against the tower was much smaller than before. The majority of the goblins must be inside the tower, and I realized I could here the sounds of combat within. All three of our caudrons of boiling seawater have been expended, and even our rubble piles were significantly smaller ... but there were only three wargs still standing outside the tower, their riders glowering at us even as the mounts snapped and barked at the crowd to press on.

“Good job,” I said, whistling my approval, “You did really well. I think we’re going to win this.”

The two elves of the Ravenwatch saluted, but Moruca just gave me a bitter smile. “Permission to use our spells offensively, sir?” one of the Ravenwatch- Loudo, I think- asked me.

“Granted,” I replied, nodding at the wargs, “You know what to do. Moruca, why don’t you get our little friend ready? I think it’s time we paid evil unto evil.”

Moruca gave me an evil smile, and went around to the rear of the tower. Loudo and Elcair gestured and chanted the words of magic, sending a pair of magic missiles streaking towards one of the mounted goblins, the one in the centre of the trio, knocking the creature off it’s mount. I guess they didn’t roll very high for damage, because the goblin stood and shook it’s fist at us. The third magic missile finally killed it. Hopefully that was the chieftain, but only time would tell.

Moruca returned, with a quartet of farmer carrying a heavily bound cauldron, capped with a crude lid made of one of the Ravenwatch’s shields. Boss Gull, one of the cauldron bearers, directed the effort, muttering “easy, easy...” as they lowered the cauldron into place, balanced precariously on the edge of the battlement. I drew Calliope’s dagger, and with Moruca’s help, we sliced through several of the ropes tying the lid in place, before Boss Gull and the farmers tilted the thing over and down into the crowd of goblins.