Chapter 135: The Battle for the Provincial City

Chapter 135: The Battle for the Provincial City

The first Draeven squads entered the outskirts before noon. Noah watched them pass the abandoned farmhouses that Viridian had given up without a fight, rifles covering doors and windows while vehicles remained on the wider roads behind them.

Nothing hindered their advance until the leading soldiers reached a cluster of stone workshops beside the first residential district. Crossbow bolts suddenly came from three buildings at once, dropping two Draeven soldiers before the others scattered behind walls and carts.

Rifle fire immediately hammered the windows where the bolts had appeared, shattering shutters and sending pieces of timber into the rooms beyond. By then, the goblins were already gone, moving through openings deliberately broken into the walls between neighboring buildings.

Noah followed them as they crossed from one structure into another, descended into a storage cellar, and emerged half a block away while Draeven soldiers searched the original position.

The attackers found empty rooms and passages that led deeper into the district rather than defenders waiting to be cornered.

The invaders continued forward and received another volley farther down the street. This time they were ready, and a machine gun opened fire on the upper floor almost immediately while riflemen moved toward both sides of the road.

Several goblins were caught trying to withdraw and fell before reaching the next structure.

Viridian gave up the block instead of reinforcing it, allowing the survivors to disappear deeper into the district while Draeven occupied another row of buildings.

The pattern continued for nearly an hour, with the invaders advancing and the goblins striking long and strong enough to force a response before withdrawing again.

From above, Noah could see the purpose more clearly because Viridian was not trying to stop Draeven at the edge of the city; it was pulling the force inward while making every captured block consume soldiers.

Draeven troops began leaving small groups behind at important intersections. A machine-gun team occupied one warehouse roof, another squad secured a crossroads connected to the eastern road, and vehicles remained near the wider streets because they could not follow infantry through the narrower residential passages.

The main assault kept moving, but it became smaller with every position left behind. Noah shifted his attention toward the city center and saw Viridian troops moving in the opposite direction, disappearing into alleys, interior courtyards, workshops, and underground drainage channels.

The city seemed to swallow them as the invasion moved deeper. Buildings that appeared ordinary from the street had been connected behind their walls, allowing entire groups of soldiers to move without using the obvious routes.

A Draeven vehicle turned into a broad market road and found the route blocked by overturned wagons and piles of stone. Soldiers dismounted to clear the obstacle, and the silence lasted long enough that several moved forward to inspect the barricade.

A heavy bolt suddenly struck the vehicle behind them and buckled part of its front assembly.

Crossbow fire followed from an upper floor, forcing Draeven soldiers toward doorways as they returned fire into the building.

The goblins fired only twice before disappearing. When Draeven entered the building, they found empty rooms and another opening broken through the rear wall.

Noah felt his interest sharpen because the city had been artificially altered before the battle.

Viridian had not fortified it in the old sense with one defensive wall; it had prepared routes that allowed defenders to vanish from one street and reappear somewhere else. Making their defensive arrangements versatile.

Draeven responded by slowing its advance. Squads began checking adjoining buildings before moving farther, and more soldiers remained behind to secure each cleared section as the distance between the front line and the landing zone continued growing.

Then the airships arrived above the outer districts and mounted guns began firing into rooftops and courtyards where goblin movement had been spotted.

One burst swept across a tiled roof and killed several crossbowmen before they could retreat, while another tore through a narrow courtyard where Viridian infantry had been gathering.

The Draeven ground force moved faster under the aerial support. Noah watched the front advance several streets in less than half an hour as goblin troops abandoned rooftops, open courtyards, and other positions that had been safe from ground-level fire.

Viridian’s answer appeared more slowly. Ballista crews hidden inside large courtyards began waiting instead of firing at every passing aircraft, and Noah watched one crew allow the same airship to cross overhead twice without revealing its position.

On the third pass, the transport descended lower to support soldiers entering a large square. The first ballista bolt passed beneath the hull, while the second struck armor and bounced away without producing serious damage.

The airship began turning after the failed shots, but a third bolt reached one of the exposed engine assemblies before it could climb. Smoke poured from the damaged section as the aircraft lost stability and drifted toward the outskirts before descending beyond several buildings.

The other transports immediately climbed higher and continued firing from safer altitude.

Their accuracy fell enough that Viridian regained some freedom of movement, although Noah did not mistake the result for a solution to Draeven’s control of the sky.

Inside the city, the ground battle had changed again. Draeven reached the second defensive district, but the number of soldiers actually pushing forward had dropped sharply because so many troops had been assigned to positions behind them.

Noah counted the scattered groups across the captured districts. A warehouse required twelve soldiers, a crossroads held eight more, a vehicle depot consumed another group, and two buildings had become treatment points for wounded personnel and their escorts.

Every position made sense when considered alone, yet together they were draining the momentum of the offensive. Viridian finally began attacking those isolated positions rather than the strongest part of the advancing formation.

The first checkpoint disappeared almost without warning. Goblins entered neighboring buildings through the rear, climbed into upper floors, and attacked from windows overlooking the position while another group approached from a structure beside it.

Draeven returned fire toward the first attackers without realizing a second group had already reached the adjacent building. The fight lasted only minutes, and by the time nearby soldiers responded, the checkpoint had been destroyed and the goblins had withdrawn with several captured rifles.

Another attack struck a small supply position farther east and failed badly. A Draeven machine gun caught the first group entering a courtyard and killed enough goblins to stop the assault before it properly developed.

Viridian did not attempt the same approach again. The next attacks appeared against different positions, forcing Draeven to react repeatedly without knowing which isolated point would be threatened next.

Noah saw the larger pattern taking shape as the goblins stopped fighting for blocks and began attacking the spaces between enemy formations.

Every separated position forced Draeven to decide whether it deserved reinforcement, abandonment, or additional troops that would have to come from somewhere else.

The main assault finally slowed near the old commercial quarter. Draeven infantry reached a broad avenue leading toward the inner city, where taller buildings and tightly packed streets offered fewer clean lines of fire.

Several routes had been blocked completely, while others remained strangely open. The invaders chose one of those open avenues, and Noah immediately understood that Viridian had left it be accessible for a reason.

The leading squads advanced under scattered crossbow fire and expected another withdrawal. An explosion behind them changed the situation when part of a building at the entrance to the street collapsed after prepared supporting columns were brought down.

Rubble filled part of the road and separated several vehicles from the infantry farther ahead. Crossbowmen appeared along both sides as bolts came from windows, side streets, upper floors, and openings cut through adjoining buildings.

The trapped soldiers fought their way toward cover while machine guns cleared several windows and grenades drove goblins from one structure.

For several minutes, Draeven recovered control of the center of the street and began pushing toward the rubble.

Viridian infantry entered from behind before the route could be reopened. Noah watched the battle compress into ranges measured in rooms and doorways rather than streets, where the invaders could no longer rely on distance to solve every attack.

Rifles remained lethal, and several goblins died before reaching the nearest entrances. Once fighting spread through the connected buildings, however, the Draeven formation became fragmented across rooms, stairways, and narrow passages.

The invaders eventually escaped the avenue, but they withdrew instead of continuing toward the inner city. That was the first time Noah saw the offensive give ground rather than pause before another advance.

Similar changes appeared elsewhere shortly afterward. A squad abandoned a captured block after losing contact with the unit beside it, while another formation pulled back from a market square when goblins began appearing behind its position.

The advancing line stopped resembling a front and became a collection of separated groups occupying streets and buildings they could not fully connect. Viridian chose that moment to attack the road leading back toward the landing zone.

The first strike hit a convoy carrying ammunition and medical supplies. A disabled truck blocked part of the route while crossbow fire forced the escort into surrounding fields, and another obstruction appeared farther back before the remaining vehicles could continue.

Additional Viridian formations began moving toward the corridor as Draeven attempted to reopen it. The road was quickly becoming contested ground rather than a secure connection between the city and landing zone.

Draeven responded by diverting soldiers from the city to reinforce the route. The effect at the front appeared almost immediately because the advance stopped completely and several forward formations began digging into captured buildings rather than pushing deeper.

Hours earlier, Draeven had been steadily taking territory. Now its forward troops were repositioning machine guns to cover approaches and deciding which parts of their gains could still be defended with the manpower remaining.

Viridian gave them little time to settle. Attacks began across the outer districts as dozens of smaller actions replaced any attempt at one massive counteroffensive.

A rooftop position disappeared after crossbowmen reached the neighboring building, while a vehicle crew abandoned its machine after a ballista bolt shattered part of the wheel assembly.

Another Draeven squad holding a narrow intersection found goblins emerging from a cellar entrance behind them and had to withdraw before the position was surrounded.

Some attacks failed and left goblin bodies in the streets. Others succeeded, yet the important change was that Draeven had become defensive and was now answering following Viridian tempo instead of being in-charge of the direction of the battle.

Noah watched the occupied area contract gradually. Outer checkpoints were abandoned first as Draeven soldiers pulled toward stronger buildings and wider streets where their machine guns could cover larger approaches.

Concentration made those positions harder to attack directly, but it surrendered the spaces between them back to Viridian.

The city began absorbing the invasion from the outside inward as goblin formations returned through alleys and buildings Draeven could no longer afford to guard.

By evening, the invaders held only several connected blocks and a handful of isolated positions beyond them.

The airships attempted another low approach to move supplies forward, but hidden ballistae opened fire as soon as they descended.

Most bolts missed, yet the transports climbed before reaching the main defensive area. Ground troops were left to move the supplies through streets that had become increasingly hostile.

Noah could see exhaustion beginning to shape the battle. Draeven soldiers fired less often at uncertain targets, while Viridian units waited longer before exposing themselves and allowed the invaders to waste fewer shots on empty windows.

One of the remaining mortar positions went silent not long afterward. Viridian infantry reached it through a drainage channel connecting two districts and attacked from behind, removing Draeven’s most effective way of striking concealed concentrations inside the city.

The loss shifted the balance again, and goblin pressure increased around the main pocket. Crossbows fired from multiple buildings while heavy bolts struck barricades and vehicles being used as cover.

Small infantry groups entered structures along the edges of the Draeven position, forcing defenders to give up rooms one at a time.

The fighting continued into the night as the remaining invaders withdrew toward several larger stone buildings in the outer commercial district.

They had started the day attempting to capture a city and now occupied only a few buildings inside it. Viridian still refused to charge them directly, instead tightening the surrounding positions while testing different routes into the shrinking pocket.

One building fell after soldiers crossed from an adjoining roof and entered through an upper level. Another position collapsed when its defenders divided their attention between an attack through the ground floor and crossbow fire from neighboring windows.

The final Draeven concentration remained dangerous until the end. Machine guns covered the widest approaches and riflemen fired from reinforced windows, driving back several goblin assaults before Viridian abandoned those entrances and searched for other ways inside.

The defenders disappeared from sight and moved through neighboring buildings, tunnels, courtyards, and broken internal walls.

Draeven’s carefully prepared fields of fire became less useful when the enemy stopped approaching through them.

The last battle happened almost entirely at close range as Viridian entered from several directions. Rifle shots flashed from windows, grenades exploded through interior rooms, and crossbow bolts crossed hallways where distance no longer provided Draeven with the same advantage.

The remaining pocket shrank floor by floor until resistance disappeared. Moments later, the academy interface confirmed that Round Three had ended and raised Noah’s score to three hundred points.

Noah looked at the number only briefly before returning his attention to the city. Smoke rose from damaged districts while Viridian soldiers moved through streets that had changed hands repeatedly during the battle, collecting captured equipment and carrying the wounded toward treatment areas.

The city had survived, but the fighting had left real damage behind. Round Three had forced Viridian to adapt on how it defended an important settlement against a technologically superior enemy.

The academy interface changed again while recovery teams were still clearing the streets. Round Four would contain one thousand Draeven soldiers, doubling the invading force before Viridian had fully finished repairing the damage from the previous attack.

Five hundred soldiers had forced the goblins to fight block by block for one provincial center.

One thousand gave Draeven enough manpower to create several serious threats at the same time, and Noah watched the new countdown appear with the expectation that the next invasion would no longer concentrate on a single city.