The Strange Adventure of a Broke Mercenary C337 Northern War Theatre – Part Two

Once the M4 Sherman tank was fully filled with ammunition and fuel, everyone got on it. Some sat at the side of the tank while Jia Le began to make a three point turn and drive towards the Valley town of Gob Gob Bu. Bin Yong wiped his sweat away from assisting the refilling of the ammunition and turned the main turret of the tank towards their back in case some orcs came forth.

“Do not worry, I did more than just construct a sand wall. I added a few deep quicksand pit right beside it, so even if they manage to break through that sand wall it will take them a lot of time to catch up. They will lose a good number of orcs before they will be able to proceed.” Sandy reassured Bin Yong over the open c.o.c.kpit as she swirled a barrier of sand around the tank to cover any possible arrows attacks from afar.

Nearly everyone in the first wave was deadbeat tired. Xiong Da was covered in scars which both Se Lang and Deng Long assisted in applying some basic first aid for him while Xiong Da continued to chug down the freshly arrived bottles of chi to recover. Kraft who stepped in as the overall commander understood that Xiong Da needed much more chi potions, but there was a limit to how much he could stretch the generosity of the System. As the ones defending the front, they were allowed to receive preferential treatment, but ultimately the System possessed the mindset of a business manager. If the cultivators needed more resources, they would be more than welcome to purchase them from the shop to be delivered in the next supply drop.

Kraft then asked the System to notify the first wave responders via the Pandamonium App that after their break, they would be going through the second round of the raid event, requiring the use of a new entry ticket. If they had any qualms, they could teleport back to the Shop instance within the next five minutes and their new entry ticket would be refunded. However, they all agreed and pressed the continue button as they proceed towards the next destination.

Not just them, most of the cultivators approved of this 'do you wish to continue?' process and some even bought additional electronic tickets via the Pandamonium App while they were still in the Goblin World to be able to stay longer and collect even more points. It was a new function in the App update by Jin when he created this Raid Event so it would not break the experience of the living goblin world but also reminded them that this was after all a 'dungeon instance'.

Jin wished to motivate the cultivators to stay around and therefore implemented a great incentive for them to do so. As long as the customers survived through continuous runs, their points would acc.u.mulate with a multiplier factor. In the second round, the cultivators would receive 1.2x more points than usual (rounded up) and 1.4x points in the third round, so on and so forth. However, the monitoring rings that Panda Captain Hei made them wear would also signal the System to pull them out if it realised that the fatigue acc.u.mulated in a cultivator was too high.

Bin Yong now slouched on the chair inside the tank relieved that they appeared not to be in trouble for now, while Luo Bo was checking out if there were any updates of points on the Pandamonium App since she had already decided to continue to the second round. “Hm?! How come I have the highest points amongst all of us? I did not really kill that many…” Luo Bo was shocked when she saw the points score among the team.

Luo Bo thought that Xiong Da would be in the lead but instead became second while Bin Yong was third. The others who were curious also picked up their phones to take a look and it was true, Luo Bo's score was miles away from the rest, even though she did not remember killing as much.

“I roughly heard from Master Jin that the points are based on the types of orcs that you kill. Higher ranks should yield higher points. Perhaps you accidentally killed a top brass officer?” Sandy offered her opinion and the team could only congratulate Luo Bo for having a lucky shot or two. (They never learned it was the explosion of the Orc Scout that happened.)

“We are reaching soon!” Jia Le shouted from the front of the tank and those who were sitting at the top of the tank saw the incoming fort walls of the Valley town of Gob Gob Bu. It was at that moment, Se Lang noticed that there were long metal barrels poking out on the top of the walls of Gob Gob Bu and the walls got taller the closer they got to it. With the ironclad gates slowly opening to welcome them, the cultivators felt a sense of excitement they could not explain. It felt unreal that the raid instance was so realistic. Deng Long later noticed a group of goblins holding familiar looking gun models from afar as well as another unfamiliar face who wore a distinct half mask similar to his fat looking w.o.m.bat half mask or Se Lang's slick grey wolf half mask. He did not hesitate to check the Pandamonium App's Stat page which indicated that person as an ally.

“Fei?” Deng Long read out the name from the Pandamonium App and it got the group curious too since they saw him commanding tens of goblins who were actively reloading their bullets into rifles and checking their combat vests to ensure they had sufficient ammunition. Hou Fei heard his name and was delighted to finally see 'humanoids' arriving into the scene. Hou Fei was equally surprised that Jin had managed to obtain and customised the Sherman Tank blueprint in a short period of time and deployed it almost immediately for the cultivators to use when he asked his contact to pass it to Jin via email. But then again, he underestimated Jin's High Intensity Mode and the System.

Also, Hou Fei was nearly unsure about Jin and Kraft's plan upon hearing it from the two Panda Captain NPCs when he was on board the C130. This was because he had been in this Goblin World for days, intensely training the select few for the war, when it only had been a matter of hours back in their own world. But he figured it was work he gladly do if it could make him one step closer to become the Defence Minister in the new Dungeon Fortress City.

“Ah! Welcome cultivators. Allow me to properly introduce myself. I'm Hou Fei. You could say I am a helper for Master Jin rather than a customer of his.” Hou Fei held onto his half snake mask and bowed. Since all the cultivators had come in with an NPC to support, they were a little wary at this new helper of Jin especially one they had never seen before. Even Xiong Da and Bu Dong did not really recognise this particular helper even though they were by far the oldest regular customers of the store.

“Yea, he is with the Master, I can vouch for him. Do not worry, he is not going to betray us or anything.” Sandy chimed in after she made sand float stylishly around her face as a cover so that the goblins did not suspect her as a human too. The cultivators lowered their guard upon hearing Sandy's reassurance and they began listening to Hou Fei.

“I am responsible for building up a modern attack force for these goblins and teach them how to use the *cough* lost tech that Master Jin has in his collection.” Hou Fei told them and the cultivators grinned at the attempt in keeping to the story of this particular raid event. “Hence, you can say I am somewhat the proxy for Captain ehhh Hei and Bai.” Hou Fei took up his phone as if to check if he was following the script correctly. Who could blame him since it was an impromptu decision by Kraft to airlift Hou Fei, the unit of Marksmen trained in the M1 Garand Rifles and a new unit that trained in using the German Pak 38 50mm anti tank guns to assist the cultivators.

The anti tank guns were of decent size and had been transported via the C130s. It was easy enough for the goblins to operate as compared other gun emplacements like the flak guns or artillery guns. They were similar to cannons they had operated but provided more range, less complications and most importantly, more firepower! It was difficult to get the anti tanks up the top of those fort walls but the wyverns who managed to return from the first wave of attack, assisted the goblins in setting them up.

General Argent came by and saluted Hou Fei while apologising to Team Hippo for abandoning the area ahead of time even though it was part of the plan they had agreed on from the start. Xiong Da shook his head and said a good general knew when to retreat and when to advance. He also notified him about what had actually happened to those makeshift catapults. General Argent listened with some disbelief but felt proud that those goblins never lost their pride after being captured by the Orcs.

“Their sacrifice shall not be in vain. We will do our best to protect this valley town.” General Argent swore solemnly before Hou Fei interrupted him.

“Not be an asshole or something but you do know that we are in a valley right? Technically, we could plant explosives at the top of those cliff sides and rocks will come tumbling down against the main bulk of the Orc Army.” Hou Fei pointed at the mountainous areas and explained how it could be the last ditch attempt to stop the Orcs from coming by blasting the two mountains and cover of this Valley Town of Gob Gob Bu with an avalanche. General Argent listened to that and pondered for a while.

“I get where you are coming from. Why surrender the town when you can destroy the town alongside the enemies at the same time? Hence, denying them leftover resources in the town and a fort town with natural terrain advantages. It is very tempting but there is actually some significance to this place.” General Argent sighed.

“This was where General Gladios was born. At the same time this was also the place where our ideas of rebellion started, thereby holding a significant cultural value to us. The Orcs crushing us here would prove to be a morale booster for them too. So Gladios is bringing the best of the best goblin warriors to here as soon as possible. Sentimental values aside, this place also holds the only chokepoint preventing the Orcs from spreading like wildfire. If we can stop the Orcs from coming through here, we should be able to hinder the entire Northern Invasion of the Orcs.” General Argent stated and Hou Fei took out his phone and checked the map.

“But can't the Orcs simply cross over via sh.i.p.s from the West? Although that should take a longer time I presume.” Hou Fei studied the map and General Argent did not deny that possibility.

“They can. That is also why General Igni is preparing a special squad of goblins to infiltrate into the Orc's territory and attempt to link the leylines from their country to ours before the orcs get the chance to block us from doing so. Should we succeed, it would allow us to send an assassination squad against the Orc King Hamu and end this nonsense.” General Argent answered while revealing it to the cultivators too. (Of course, not in such open space, they had entered the High Command Tent to speak of such sensitive information!)

“I see, no wonder you are sharing this information with the comrades of Master Jin.” Hou Fei rubbed his stubble as he eyed the cultivators in front of him. The cultivators would make an ideal strike force, worst case they could try to overwhelm the enemy with numbers. “But I think Young Master Jin would prefer personally going in with his trusted bellators rather than these people. Oh well, maybe they could go in to support him. We will see…” Hou Fei thought to himself when suddenly a loud clanging sound alarmed them. A messenger also hurried into the tent and delivered a report to the General, which he quickly studied, before shaking his head and sighing.

“While this might sound like an excuse, I regret to inform you that this message informs me that the Goblin Army has reached an impasse and requires more time to come here. An ace unit will rush here as soon as they can but I fear the rest will not be fast enough for the next wave.” General Argent picked up his spear from the side of the High Command tent and wore his battle helmet.

“What actually happened? Did the Orcs manage to bypass us and attack them?” Hou Fei asked as he walked out with the General, so did the others.

“The escaping civilians from this town have blocked the one and only road with their belongings. We have warned the civilians to take only what was necessary with them, but it seems they ignored us. After somebody took more than they should have, others followed suit, and currently their wagons are blocking the way. Both the army and civilians have to compromise to make some space for each of them to go through. Plus this is a valley area. The road leading here is steep which makes transporting items slightly difficult.” General Argent gave some specific orders to an officer after he explained it to Hou Fei and the others.

The Dashing Wyverns and their goblins were currently banned from flying by General Argent and they rested at the back of the valley town. They were being treated by the Town's healers to the best of their abilities and if General Argent needed them in action, they better be in tip top shape.

In the meantime, the Town Militia had set up their defensive parameters with the precious time earned from the cultivators and deaths of some of the Dashing Wyverns. Despite it being makeshift, barricades had been set up in 50 metres intervals away from the front gates. The plan was to fight as much as possible near the Town's Fort walls but as soon as they would start to get overwhelmed, they would pull back to each defensive layer the militia had set up.

The front fort walls were currently manned by simple militia bowmen, elite marksmen with their new M1 Garand rifles and the anti tank guns that served as cannons. The rest of the militia continued to strengthen the barricade supporting the front gates while the Cultivators had parked their M4 Sherman tank about 25 metres away from the front gate.

The tank would act as the buffer against the incoming orcs and allow the goblins to fall back too should the walls were overtaken. The only cultivators and monsters participating at the top of the fort walls were Luo Bo, Sandy, Zhi Nu and Jia Le. The rest of the cultivators would be on standby, conserving their strength until the Orcs started to siege on the fort walls.

However, not everyone wanted to stay idle, especially Xiong Da. “Is there anything else we can do instead of just waiting around?” He asked Hou Fei who seemed to be the one in command of the cultivators. Hou Fei thought for a while then realised he did have some task which requires their help. He leaned forward to Xiong Da and whispered to him.

“The goblins assume that the orcs will move in a straight line and focus on their barricades. The thing is, I noticed there seemed to be many loopholes in their defences. Well it is not exactly their fault, since the main cause is the houses. I suggest placing explosives in those houses in case the orcs decide to ambush us from there. While I respect their cultural appreciation, we are at war, and sacrificing houses to kill off some orcs and potentially lessen our casualties is a fine trade to me. If they would be mad at us, I shall take responsibility. Right over there, you should be able to see a large red striped crate. Get your friends or acquaintances to place the C4s in those houses.” Hou Fei whispered and Xiong Da agreed readily. Some collateral damage to the houses was inevitable if they had such a small force against a tide of Orcish Sea.

“What about the detonators?” Xiong Da asked and Hou Fei smiled widely.

“Do not worry, I have control over all those explosives right through this tablet here.” Hou Fei smacked his backpack while holding onto a customised Barret M82 0.5 calibre sniper rifle. He had been a sniper by trade before he turned into a military vendor. He figured it was a good time to catch up with his sniping skills against these orcs and aid with the fight too.

“Hahaha, all this for a request of an army. Jin better be well compensated for this. Now to make sure that we will still have an army to help us out later…” Hou Fei thought to himself as he went up to the tallest building he could find. The cathedral bell tower was perfect as he could oversee up to 900 metres from there.

At the same time, Xiong Da called the others to assist him in allocating the explosives. Noticing the movement of the group of humanoids, Spear General Argent came over to ask what were they doing. Xiong Da announced that they were going around to make sure no other goblins were hiding within the houses by banging house to house. Yet, General Argent was not so stupid to simply believe them, especially since he could see that Xiong Da was carrying rectangular parcels and so did the other cultivators.

“You guys…I sense that you all are plotting something more than that… but you have already proven yourself trustworthy. As long as you sweep the area properly and ensure that there are no civilians around, I shall pretend not to have noticed whatever else you might be doing. We do not wish any innocents to be killed in this meaningless war.” General Argent walked away while he hurried the militias.

Xiong Da and the others did not hesitate to throw as many explosives as they could split equally into their storage rings and began to search every house while placing the explosives right at the doors and exits they could find. They figured if they were to destroy something, might as well be the openings, at least then the interior of the house could still remain more or less intact.

Meanwhile, Luo Bo, Sandy and Jia Le looked over the horizon and saw that there was not much daylight left. With the mountains blocking the sunset, it would get darker soon. Unlike in a lot of fantasy books, these goblins did not have the sight to see in the dark. Thankfully, Luo Bo, after learning that it might drag longer than a day before the start of their mission, she had purchased specialised arrows to be supplied in the previous ammo crate similar to the flare arrows she had used in the warehouse when they tried to save Lynn from the Yakuza.

After having been delayed by the sand wall, it appeared that the Orcs finally managed to get through, as their silhouettes started to appear in huge numbers. It seemed that the Orcs were relentless as if they were rushing for something but the moment they saw that the walls were in sight, they went into their practiced siege formations.

The frontline warriors placed whatever shields they were carrying in front of them. The lines behind the front held their shields at the top of their heads in an angled position to prevent arrows from damaging them too. The remaining archers that survived the first wave began to nock their arrows while the Ogres who were carrying the Catapults started to place them on the ground for the Orcs to use them.

“Cannons! Aim towards their siege weapons! Bowmen, nock! Marksmen, on my mark!” General Argent walked along the fort walls as he gave his commands. The cultivators began to ready their weapons too including Sandy who was preparing a spell to subdue the frontlines. If not for the terrain being sand and rocks all around, she probably could not unleash her full potential. Perhaps, that was why Kraft had decided to send her.

“OOOOOOWWWWWOOOOOOO.” A loud long warhorn sound sounded from the back of the Orc Army lines and signalled the commencement of the siege against the Valley Town of Gob Gob Bu.

“FIRE!!!!!” The highest ranking Orc officers shouted simultaneously once the warhorn echoed throughout the mountains. Rocks doused in a special concoction of oil were lit before the Orcs fired their catapults towards the fort walls. The Orcs began to stomp their legs as they walked towards the fort walls. Orc Mages started to cast supportive spells to aid the warriors in the frontlines making them more resistant to magic and projectile attacks.

Separately, a small group of high ranking mages was summoning a spawn of the Thunder Serpent Syldra to aid the Orc Army especially when they knew that there would be those pesky humanoids helping the goblins. That was definitely one oddity factor that they did not account for at the start of the war. Still they believed they had the firepower to damage and take over the fort.

As the fiery rocks were fired towards the fort walls, Zhi Nu who was at the side of the fort walls threw her threads that were as tough as steel, wrapping those rocks and slowing them down to a point where she could control them. The fire was not strong enough to melt the immortal's strings and she lobbed the rocks at the warriors upon releasing the immortal strings.

Sad to say, the Orc mages had anticipated such a possibility of retaliation and cast out bursts of lightning targeting the rocks. The lobbed rocks disintegrated into debris in mid air which did not affect the incoming Orc frontline formation a single bit simply landing on their shields. Arrows were being released by the Orc Archers, also doused in fire but Sandy managed to summon a Sand Shield Sentinel Spirit which was tasked with protecting the fort wall.

Like its name, the Sand Shield Sentinel Spirit was a giant being made out of sand and possessed some sort of sentience. It carried eight particular large shields that aided the fort walls in defending the goblins and defended the cultivators from the rain of arrows. Even the goblins were in awe as the Sand Shield Sentinel Spirit appeared right in front of them, providing them with the confidence that they could defend this small Valley Town.

“Marksmen, fire when your targets are in range! Bowmen keep suppressing them with your attacks! Cannons fire away!” General Argent shouted and the German Pak 50mm anti tank guns produced a raging booming sound that was equivalent to the sounds of the thunder striking. Some of the goblins even had to close their ears when anti tank guns were fired.

All of the shells that were being sent out into the midst of the Orc's army were highly explosive in nature and the Orc Mages tasked with defending nearly broke down from the strain of maintaining the shield barriers because of the consecutive blasts that the anti tank guns had sent out. They vomited out blood but continued to maintain the barrier only to realise it was futile when hearing another round of booming echoing through the valley. Those Orcs did not expect the goblins would have such heavy consistent firepower at their disposal.

That metal box was a beast on its own, having claimed a majority of the casualties, but the Orc army had assumed that was the only thing to fear throughout this particular leg of the campaign. Fortunately in the previous battle, they managed to found out how to deflect the metal box's attacks, so they were insured that it was only a matter of time until the metal box could be beaten.

However here, there were even more new types of attacks, which had never before appeared. To the Orc's best knowledge they were aware that humanoid factions out there had secretly found and horded lost technolgy. Though only a small handful could learn how to operate it, Orc King Hamu purposely sought out these humanoids and enslaved them to make them replicate or utilise the lost technology he found.

So the orc officers that were observing the battle believed that the intense firepower must have belonged to the humanoids or the Goblins had somehow found a way too to replicate lost technology alongside with the humanoids which the Orc Intelligence was not able to pick up. (Well, of course they could not pick it up, they never knew the existence of Jin, teehee!)

The wide shield barriers finally shattered after the second volley of high explosive shells drained the mages dry. Many died on the spot after exhausting the mana lines in their body. This allowed the bow goblins to be slightly more effective and both Jia Le and Luo Bo could start attacking too. However, it was not yet their turn to shine.

The Goblin Marksmen fired their very first fusillade of bullets onto the orc warriors in the frontline. They listened to Hou Fei's instructions and aimed the Orc's heads or vital regions while ignoring the shields that were blocking it. “Those metal shields do not stand a chance against these babies right here.” Hou Fei had told them in their training exercise as he demonstrated by firing a few shots through the thickest shield they made. The bullets pierced the sheet of metal easily and travelled further than the goblins expected.

With such knowledge, the goblins scored dozens of confirmed kills, practicing Hou Fei's preaching of one shot one kill. “Each bullet is equivalent to a gold coin. Imagine each click you press, one gold coin of your kingdom disappears. Painful isn't it? So make every bullet count for you! Use the kingdom's coffers to not only suppress but eliminate the enemy!!!” Hou Fei lied to them but his bluff had been very effective. The goblin marksmen made sure they used them efficiently. (If Jin knew how Hou Fei successfully bluffed the goblins operating the Anti Tank Guns about the cost of each shell, he would have a heart attack too. That military vendor was not to be underestimated with his powers with words.)

Yet, the orcs behind the fallen frontline did not start to panic, instead they picked up the bodies of the dead and turned them into meat shields to protect themselves from further attacks. “Wow, these orcs, they…are that heartless… To use their comrades' body as protection.” Jia Le could not bear her eyes at such sight as she threw a kunai towards an Orc who used that tactic. The Kunai she threw was enchanted with one of Jia Le's cultivation techniques, causing multiple vines to appear from the weapon to whip and slash orcs in its radius of attack.

To the orcs, it looked as if the dead orc were used as a catalyst where vines appeared to attack them, which made the orcs that survived the attack to stab the dead orc's body repeatedly, ensuring the vines would not emerge once more.

In the meantime, Luo Bo unleashed her intermediate Bow Art technique, Charge Tornado Puncture of the Rabbit to mess up the frontlines. The tornado wind knocked and slited orcs up but it did not lower their morale a single bit as they remained as organised as ever moving towards the front gates.

“The way these orcs are moving…I know this sort of magic…” General Argent saw how mindless yet determined those orcs were acting. “I cannot believe they've continued to use this kind of taboo magic!” He slammed his fist at the fort walls as he commanded the anti tanks to continue to aim at the catapults.

“Colonel Ayse, the runes you've distributed to the orc warriors are working splendidly! They are fearlessly moving towards the fort walls!” One of the Orc officers knelt in front of the female Orc who was dressed in a dirtied white coat riding on a war wolf.

“Of course, they are based on the products from the previous Head Researcher. I have improved them, so their usefulness is a given. Have you started to activate the lost technology artefacts just as I instructed you to do?” Ayse asked as she pushed her glasses while grinning at the possible turn of events.

“Yes, we are in the midst of doing so. They are being covered by our mages using illusion magic as we activate them. So far the Goblins seem eager to destroy our catapults, so they must assume, those are the biggest threat so the artefacts would be ready in no time. We have also received reports indicating that the one leading them is supposedly the Spear General of King Sol.” The officer reported before Ayse dismissed him.

“Heh, to think I might be able to meet one of the famous Three Generals in person. And it's the Spear General of all people. This must be fate. Guess it's a good thing I parted away from the main army to oversee this foreseen mess. Father, I hope you are watching me, today might just become the day for your revenge.” Ayse smirked while overseeing the entire battle from the back of the valley.

Chapter end