The Peerless Kobold - Chapter 3
“So how was the group in Zenaeus, boy?”
Sitting in a simple but good quality chair, Weld, the captain of the mercenary corps who currently leads around 60 elite mercenaries, asked me a question.
I no longer felt nervous as I gazed at the eyes of the captain who still maintained a sharp gaze even as he was starting to approach old age. He had picked me up from the streets as a kid, and he had become like a father figure to me since then.
“They are foolish and rash. Once they have consumed all the supplies in Zenaeus, they’ll probably start attacking other neighboring cities under the guise of overthrowing the monarchy. Frankly speaking, I think they’ll be in trouble soon.”
“Haha, that’s the same thing Wilson told me when he returned earlier.”
I see, so the advance party sent to Olrein returned ahead of us…
“I need you to give me the report in writing. Once you’re done, take a rest and we’ll head over to the town of Ishtvan in a few days.”
“Ishtvan?”
As I remember, it’s a small town near the city of Olrein with a population of at least a few hundred citizens.
“Yes, a letter was sent to the capital from there asking for help. Apparently, they were being threatened to join the anti-monarchy forces in Olrein. They want us to go ahead and fortify the town defenses and lay the groundwork for receiving the royal army.”
The monarchy will not allow both cities to rebel, and would need a stronghold to suppress them.
They probably placed great importance on the small town of Ishtvan because of its position in Olrein.
“Understood. I’ll be kicking back with Eric and the others at the tavern, then.”
“Sure, but don’t forget to hand in that written report tomorrow.”
After a brief nod, I exited the captain’s chambers and headed into the tavern across the barracks to drink with my comrades.
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A few days later, all 60 members of our mercenary group, the “Wolves of the Desert” were dispatched to the town of Ishtvan. But when we arrived around sundown, there was an eerie stillness that seemed to permeate the whole town.
“Where are the people?”
“Strange, the whole place looks like it was recently lived in, but…” Gaston, who was behind me, reacted to my muttering.
“Everyone, let’s move to the central plaza, but stay alert.”
Although we had a bad feeling about this, we couldn’t return to the capital without checking the situation first so we obeyed the captain’s orders and headed to the central plaza.
Without a single citizen in sight, everyone’s faces turned grim, especially so when we were greeted by the gruesome sight as we entered the town square. In the middle of all the blood and wreckage, hundreds, if not all the citizens living in Istvan seemed to have been cut down and burned in a mountain of corpses.
“We were too late…”
“No captain, it’s possible that all the citizens of Ishtvan could have already been murdered by the time we received the letter requesting for aid. Now that I think about it, only the enemy forces are able to commit this type of atrocity right aw–!!”
Just before vice-captain Evans could finish his sentence, all the windows in the houses surrounding the plaza violently opened and our enemies who had hidden their presence appeared and launched a volley of arrows at us.
“Guuuuuh!?”
“Uwaaaaaaagh!!”
“Tsk, activate the wind wall right away!”
When more than a dozen people fell to the sudden attack, the rest of us kept our posture low. At the vice-captain’s instructions, the magic users activated the Wind Protection spell as we scrambled to safety.
“It doesn’t matter if they stall. Fire the next volley!”
“Ouh!!”
Another volley of arrows are launched at us but they are blocked by the wind wall before they can do any damage, but the situation has forced us to come to a standstill.
After all, it’s just as the enemy said, we are just stalling for time.
“This isn’t looking good for us.”
“I agree…”
While we were distracted by the arrows raining down from above our heads, mercenary-like soldiers appeared from the side-streets and buildings, blocking off our retreat.
At a glance, the enemy numbered around 200, which is 4 times more than our numbers. Considering how well their preparations are, we could only assume that they were expecting us right from the start.
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This is a really long prologue, but I hope you’re enjoying so far!
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