Chapter 133: Hundred Guns

Chapter 133: Hundred Guns

The recovery interval after Round One passed much faster than Noah expected. Ten Draeven soldiers had been enough to leave an entire region of Viridian territory filled with questions and confusion, and the goblins spent nearly every available moment trying to answer them before the next invasion began.

Noah watched the captured weapons move from the battlefield toward military workshops under heavy guard.

Rifles, ammunition, grenades, radios, pieces of body armor, and the damaged machine gun were separated almost immediately, while the surviving parts of the airship were sent to different groups of craftsmen who had experience with metalworking, engines, and mechanical devices.

The goblins did not understand what they had captured. Noah saw several guns dismantled carefully and laid out piece by piece while craftsmen compared springs, barrels, triggers, magazines, and smaller internal components they had never encountered in their own weapons.

The barrels interested them first because the path of the projectile was relatively easy to understand once they examined the weapon closely.

What took longer was understanding what actually produced the force behind each shot, and the ammunition became the center of attention as soon as they opened the first cartridges.

Noah watched the more intelligent craftsmen separate metal cases, projectiles, and the strange powder contained within. They could identify individual components, but reproducing them reliably was another matter entirely because the weapon depended on precise dimensions, consistent material quality, and a chemical propellant the goblins had never manufactured on such a scale.

Even the ammunition represented an industrial system rather than a single invention. A poorly shaped cartridge could jam the weapon, weak metal could rupture during firing, and inconsistent powder could make one shot weaker or far more dangerous than the next.

The goblins learned something useful much faster when they began testing what the weapons could do.

Noah watched thick wooden shields placed at measured distances while captured rifles were fired under controlled conditions by soldiers who had learned the basic operation from observation.

Ordinary shields performed badly. Heavy timber survived more punishment, packed earth absorbed bullets surprisingly well, and stone remained reliable unless struck repeatedly in the same area.

The results of their investigation passes through Viridian military channels almost as soon as they were confirmed.

Improvement and adjustments appeared across local formations before the recovery period ended. Troops assigned near likely invasion regions were ordered to spread farther apart, while commanders placed greater emphasis on ditches, stone walls, wooded ground, farm structures, and anything capable of breaking direct lines of fire.

Noah noticed that the goblins were not trying to abandon centuries of military practice in a single day. Instead, they were adjusting what they already possessed, loosening formations where necessary, breaking large units into smaller maneuver groups, and preparing more routes between pieces of cover.

The academy interface appeared again before Noah once the recovery interval reached its end. The next notice contained no surprise in its number, but seeing the increase presented formally still sharpened his attention.

Difficulty Five remained locked, and Round Two would deploy one hundred soldiers from Draeven. The invasion zone appeared in another part of the Viridian Empire, centered around rolling farmland divided by tree lines, a shallow river, and two roads that converged near a medium-sized fortified town.

Noah shifted his planetary sight toward the region as the countdown began. Local troops had already been warned, yet the academy had selected the location late enough that no enormous army could simply wait at the exact point of arrival.

Five dark shapes appeared in the sky once the round began. The airships descended in a loose formation, each carrying roughly twenty soldiers, and the difference from Round One became visible long before the first transport reached the ground.

The Draeven force was large enough to organize itself into several independent groups.

Noah could see machine guns distributed among the squads, riflemen positioned around them, designated marksmen carrying longer weapons, and a small command group using radios to maintain contact between the separate elements.

The transports landed across the same broad area rather than clustering together. Their spacing immediately gave the invaders several overlapping positions from which they could cover the fields and roads surrounding the landing zone.

Noah focused on the nearest Viridian formations and saw that the first lesson had been implemented.

No patrol walked directly into the open, and no officer gathered hundreds of soldiers into one obvious mass within sight of the descending airships.

Instead, the goblins remained scattered among woodland, drainage channels, stone walls, and small farm compounds.

Observers moved carefully between concealed positions while the larger formations stayed farther back until they understood what the enemy intended to do.

The Draeven soldiers remained near their transports only long enough to establish order.

Once their equipment had been unloaded, several squads began advancing toward the road leading to the fortified town, while others moved parallel through the surrounding fields.

Noah understood immediately that this force had a different purpose from the ten soldiers of the first round. One squad could defend an airship and test an unfamiliar world, but one hundred soldiers could begin taking ground. Making it a proper invasion force.

The goblins still did not attack.

For several minutes Noah wondered whether the local commanders were being too cautious, then the pattern became clear when the invaders moved farther from the landing site.

The road ahead entered terrain broken by woodland, stone boundaries, narrow irrigation channels, and low hills that restricted long lines of sight.

The Viridian forces were giving the Draeven soldiers exactly enough space to leave the open terrain that favored them.

Noah watched the leading squads enter the chosen area before the first crossbow volley came from a tree line on their left. Several bolts struck the ground or passed between dispersed soldiers, but two Draeven riflemen fell before the rest dropped into cover and returned fire.

The goblins did not remain where they had fired. By the time bullets tore through branches and bark, most of the crossbowmen had already withdrawn deeper into the woods along prepared routes.

A second attack came from the opposite side only moments later. Arrows and bolts struck from behind a low stone wall, forcing part of the Draeven formation to turn toward a new threat while another Viridian group moved closer through an irrigation channel.

Noah felt a quiet satisfaction as he watched the pattern repeat. The goblins were no longer trying to defeat firearms by enduring them; they were trying to control the battlefield through picking when and where they engage the enemy.

The technological advantage remained obvious whenever they made a mistake. One group attempted to cross an exposed stretch of road before the nearby Draeven machine gun had been suppressed, and the weapon opened fire with enough speed to drop several goblins before the rest could reach the opposite side.

A marksman killed two soldiers who repeatedly exposed themselves from the same position behind a wall. Noah saw both failures clearly, but he also saw nearby officers alter their movements almost immediately rather than continue feeding soldiers into the same danger.

The first truly new problem arrived several minutes later. Two Draeven teams stopped behind the main formation and placed short tubes onto the ground, adjusting them while another soldier watched the goblin-held terrain through binoculars.

Noah recognized mortars from the academy’s earlier description, although the goblins didn’t understand their capabilities yet. The first round disappeared behind a low hill where a cluster of crossbowmen believed themselves protected from direct fire.

The explosion tore through the concealed position without warning. A second shell landed moments later, followed by another, and the goblins abandoned the hill after realizing that terrain blocking enemy sight did not necessarily protect them from enemy weapons.

Noah watched closely because this was a more difficult lesson than rifles. A rifle could be countered through hiding from their line of sight, while the mortar allowed Draeven soldiers to strike areas they could not directly see.

The first response from the goblins was simply to scatter more widely. That reduced the effectiveness of the next few explosions, but it did nothing to remove the weapon itself.

Viridian observers tracked the direction of the mortar fire and eventually identified the small teams operating behind the main Draeven line.

Several goblin groups began moving through woodland on a wide route that avoided the strongest rifle positions.

The battle spread across the countryside as the hundred invaders continued advancing toward the town.

Small engagements appeared around farmhouses, hedges, riverbanks, and wooded slopes, with neither side forming the kind of continuous line Noah had watched for months in Caldris.

The Draeven soldiers won almost every clean exchange of ranged fire. When goblins stayed visible too long, rifles and machine guns punished them immediately, but the Viridian troops increasingly avoided giving them those clean engagements.

The airships complicated the battle further. Two transports moved closer to the fighting and used their mounted machine guns against goblin positions near the road, forcing several groups deeper beneath tree cover.

Heavy crossbows and portable ballistae responded once the aircraft descended low enough. Their first shots missed or struck armored sections without doing meaningful damage, but the airships quickly stopped lingering over the same location when large bolts began passing through the space around them.

Noah filed that away as another weakness that would become more serious in later rounds.

The goblins possessed almost no true answer to mobile aerial fire, and crude heavy bolts would become increasingly inadequate if Draeven began deploying more capable aircraft.

The mortar teams did not survive much longer. The Viridian groups moving through the woods reached their flank after a prolonged approach and attacked at close distance before the Draeven soldiers could redirect enough fire to stop them.

Noah watched one mortar position disappear beneath a rush of spears and crossbow bolts.

The second team attempted to relocate, but the loss of supporting troops exposed it long enough for another goblin group to close the distance.

The effect on the rest of the battlefield was immediate. Without indirect fire, the Draeven force could still dominate open spaces, but the goblins once again gained freedom to use hills, walls, and wooded ground without expecting explosions to fall behind them.

The invaders gradually began concentrating their remaining squads. Noah understood the reason because scattered groups had become increasingly vulnerable to attacks from several directions, while a tighter formation allowed machine guns to cover neighboring positions.

Concentration solved one problem and created another. The goblins now knew where most of the surviving force was located, and Viridian units began forming a broad encirclement without rushing directly into the center.

Portable ballistae were brought forward under cover and positioned where they could threaten machine-gun nests and the remaining airships. Crossbowmen shifted constantly between concealed firing positions, while infantry waited near likely escape routes instead of forming a single assault line.

The Draeven soldiers continued inflicting losses, but their fire became less constant as the battle stretched on. Noah noticed machine-gun bursts growing shorter and riflemen becoming more selective with targets.

Ammunition was becoming a limitation.

The goblins appeared to notice as well. Whenever firing slowed, small groups pressed closer, forcing the Draeven soldiers to spend more ammunition or surrender ground.

One remaining airship attempted to provide support from low altitude and was struck near an engine by a heavy bolt. The damage did not destroy the craft, but smoke began trailing behind it as it pulled away from the battlefield.

By then, the hundred-man invasion had been reduced enough that the Viridian forces could close the encirclement. Draeven soldiers occupied a cluster of stone farm buildings near the road and turned them into a compact defensive position, using windows, walls, and nearby machinery as firing points.

The goblins avoided a frontal rush. Crossbows attacked from several directions, ballista bolts shattered openings in the structures, and small infantry groups moved through drainage channels until they reached positions too close for the defenders to cover every approach.

When the final assault came, it did not resemble the desperate charge of a technologically inferior army.

Viridian soldiers entered from several sides after hours of pressure had reduced the defenders, exhausted their ammunition, and forced them into a shrinking section of the farm complex.

The Draeven soldiers still killed many attackers at close range, but every casualty represented a much larger share of their remaining force.

Once several firing positions fell, the balance collapsed quickly and the last organized resistance disappeared beneath multiple converging goblin groups.

The academy interface changed while Noah was still studying the battlefield. Round Two was recorded as complete, and another one hundred points were added to his score.

Noah barely glanced at the total. He was comparing this battle with the first.

Round Two had contained ten times as many enemies, yet the goblins had not been as clueless as before.

They had spread their formations, chosen terrain deliberately, identified high-priority weapons, used concealment more effectively, and learned that ammunition placed limits on even the most dangerous firearm.

The mortars remained a warning, and the airships were an even larger one. Noah could already see how badly those weaknesses might hurt once Draeven began deploying larger formations with enough equipment to exploit them properly.

The captured material from Round Two was far more substantial than what ten soldiers had left behind. Rifles, machine guns, radios, grenades, mortar tubes, ammunition, and damaged airship components began moving toward workshops while the recovery interval started.

Noah watched the equipment leave the battlefield and wondered how much his civilization could learn before the next escalation arrived. The answer came sooner than he would have preferred when the academy interface brightened again.

Round Three would deploy five hundred Draeven soldiers.

Ten had taught the goblins what firearms were, while one hundred had shown them how modern infantry fought as a coordinated force.

Five hundred would be large enough to begin conducting a real offensive, and Noah remained focused on the planet below as the preparation period began.