Lord: Starting from the Pit-Dwelling Courtyard

Chapter 23: Momentum

"Then stick close! Nobody is allowed to back down. Anyone who crosses the line, I'll chop them down myself!" Da Vinci raised his bone spear and slashed down hard, the tip of the spear drawing a horizontal line before burying itself three inches in front of his feet.

A criminal who had just crossed the line was forced back by him pulling out a bone gun. He didn't really want to kill him, but to make everyone see the line.

This is the territory entrusted to them by the lord; they must defend it even at the cost of their lives.

The first wave of goblins ran into the bone spear formation.

The crossbow bolts fired horizontally pierced through their front ranks, but the goblins that followed stepped on their companions' bodies and continued to rush forward.

The bone spear pierced his chest, and when it was pulled out, it brought out a spray of dark green blood. The flint axe chopped at his neck, and the sound of bones breaking was as crisp as stepping on dry firewood.

The criminal team suffered more casualties than any other team; their leather armor was insufficient, and their defense relied on sheer numbers.

But Leonardo da Vinci always stood in the very center of the first row. When his bone spear broke, he would switch to a hand axe. When the hand axe became dull, he would pick up a stone hammer from the ground. The horizontal line under his feet never moved an inch.

Fanta and Da Vinci each held their positions on the gentle slopes on either side.

This was also the task Ron gave to the two main generals: to hold off the invading enemy and protect the hillside positions and the ranged troops on the hilltop.

The guards were locked in a fierce battle with the goblins on both sides, and the militia rushed in to fill the gaps.

Shanlier plunged his spear into the abdomen of a large goblin, and when he pulled it out, the shaft was covered in slippery blood. He gritted his teeth and thrust it in again.

Just as the battle on both sides reached its climax, the goblin hero appeared at the foot of the slope.

The goblin heroes charged straight in the same direction.

Da Vinci had just slain a giant goblin when he looked up and saw the goblin hero charging towards him.

Fanta saw it too.

He was on the other side of the gentle slope, too far away to catch up.

The moment the goblin hero raised his battle axe, Leonardo da Vinci planted his bone spear in the ground without dodging.

If you dodge this gun emplacement, you'll be torn apart, and behind you on the hilltop are the laborers' archers and catapults.

The bone spear blocked horizontally.

The battle axe cleaved down.

With a snap, the bone spear was cleaved in two, and the axe blade embedded itself deep in Leonardo da Vinci's left shoulder, exposing the bone.

He knelt on one knee, still clutching the broken spear in his right hand, and thrust it towards the goblin hero's eye socket.

The goblin hero dodged to the side, the broken spear tip grazing its eye socket, drawing a trail of black blood.

The enraged goblin hero had already raised his longsword with his other hand.

A dark shadow swept across the top of the hill.

A heavy arrow made of cow bone pierced precisely through the throat of the sword-wielding goblin hero; the crossbow bolt went through his neck, the arrowhead exiting from the back of his neck.

The goblin hero's sword stopped in mid-air, then he fell backward and crashed to the ground.

Immediately following was a dull thud from the top of the hill. Ron's heavy crossbow was powerful enough to pierce through these unarmored goblin heroes. They might have reached the level of Earth Knights, but they lacked the armor and weapons to match them.

The catapult roared again, sending hundreds of pounds of boulders crashing into the remaining big goblins' gathering area.

Old Hall raised his hand, and the civil engineering team created a suddenly raised earthen embankment on the slope in front of Leonardo da Vinci. The little goblins that rushed up were tripped by the embankment, and the subsequent ones stepped on them, causing their attack to become chaotic.

"Da Vinci, get up!" Old Hall roared.

Leonardo da Vinci straightened up, supporting himself on one arm. Blood streamed down his left shoulder. He didn't retreat. Instead, he picked up a flint hand axe from the ground, whose owner he didn't know, and returned to the front of the position.

The death of the goblin hero threw the attacking goblin army into complete panic.

The giant rock fell from the sky again, the enormous sound and the whooshing sound like the roar of a demon.

The boulder smashed the remaining large goblin gathering area to pieces.

The suffocating feeling of death crushed their last bit of courage. They may not be afraid of death, but they are terrified of the unknown power.

The goblin hero, a god of war, is dead, and the boulders falling from the sky are something they cannot comprehend.

The rout began from the rear. Several large goblins were the first to throw down their weapons and run down the slope. When the smaller goblins saw the larger goblins running away, they also threw down their weapons and ran after them.

The rout spread like a plague, and the gray-green waves retreated from the foot of the slope faster than they had surged forward.

Ron put down the crossbow and stood up.

"All troops, attack!"

Fanta leaped from the gentle slope on the left, his longsword unsheathed, and led his guards straight into the flank of the fleeing goblins.

Da Vinci pulled the broken gun from the ground, swung his right arm, and led the criminals to press down from the front.

They no longer need that line; the line is now behind them, and they are outside the line, chasing after it.

Mad's archers threw down their bows, drew their flint axes from their waists, and charged down.

Shanlier ran behind Mad, his spear still embedded in the ribs of a large goblin, the tip of which was still stuck in the ribs of a goblin. He simply threw the spear away, picked up the short spear the goblin had dropped, and continued running.

Fanta's vanguard cut off the retreat of a group of fleeing soldiers. Thirty-odd goblins were surrounded on the open ground at the foot of the slope, back to back, holding short knives with trembling tips.

Fanta didn't shout "Surrender!"

Goblins don't understand, and even if they did, they wouldn't need to be captured.

The longsword fell, one sword for each enemy.

Leonardo da Vinci caught up with a goblin that had been shot in the back. It was still alive and dragging its battle axe forward, the crossbow bolt on its back swaying with its movements.

Leonardo da Vinci raised his flint axe with one arm and chopped it down at the back of its neck.

The hand axe got stuck in his cervical vertebrae and couldn't be pulled out.

Leonardo da Vinci tried to pull it out twice, but couldn't budge it.

He loosened his grip on the axe handle, stepped on the goblin's back, and gripped the shaft of the heavy cow bone arrow with both hands, pressing it down hard.

The crossbow bolt pierced even deeper, and the goblin let out a hoarse scream, its limbs twitched a few times, and then it lay still.

Leonardo da Vinci pulled out his crossbow bolt, using the shaft as a crutch, and turned to look at the criminals who were chasing after him. His left shoulder was still bleeding, and his face was covered in sweat and dirt, but he was smiling.

"Can you still run?"

"We can run!" the criminals shouted in unison.

"Then keep chasing them. These green bastards killed so many of our brothers; we have to make them pay for it all."

The fleeing goblins forgot their superior numbers and desperately tried to regroup with the army in front of the fortress.

Their carcasses covered the hillsides and open spaces, stretching from the foot of the slopes all the way to the end of their escape route.

Ron stood atop the hill, his heavy crossbow set up. Two goblin heroes remained untouched. When he severely wounded one of them, he realized that goblin heroes were far weaker than earth knights.

He did not participate in the pursuit; his gaze remained fixed on the battlefield.

Fanta has cut off the retreat of the fleeing troops, Da Vinci is advancing deeper, and Mad's formation has spread out but is still pressing in the same direction.

However, the pit that Ron had set up was soon filled with the corpses of goblins.

Fanta quickly stopped the soldiers from pursuing, and Leonardo da Vinci gritted his teeth and ordered the criminals to stop chasing, just as the goblin army that had been attacking the city slowly retreated and formed a battle formation in front of the camp, preparing to fight the sudden human army.

However, just by looking at the fear on the goblins' faces, it was clear that the severely damaged goblin tribe had put immense pressure on them.

Every now and then, goblins would look up at the sky, as if fearing that the terrifying boulder would fall again.

The goblin army lost simply because of its sheer numbers.