A dark green tide descended upon the gloomy forest.
Like algae spreading across a reservoir, goblins filled Jun’s entire field of vision, each one glaring at the subjugation force with murderous intent.
The atmosphere surrounding them was unmistakably different from that of ordinary goblins, and the morale of the subjugation force visibly wavered.
“What kind of goblin has eyes like that……?”
“Why are there so many of them?”
“No one told us about this! There are obviously more than a thousand!”
Judging by numbers alone, they were outnumbered by nearly eight to one.
Naturally, the mercenaries who had expected an easy job were the first to grow unsettled.
“Silence! Are you frightened by mere goblins?!”
“And you call yourselves mercenaries?”
“Get a hold of yourselves!”
The commanders and the Ten-Man Captains of each unit worked to steady the wavering morale.
Fortunately, the soldiers quickly regained their composure.
Their morale had remained fairly high throughout the journey here, which helped considerably.
“That’s right! They’re only goblins!”
“They could come at us by the wagonload and it still wouldn’t matter!”
“We have the Knights with us!”
The soldiers, who were generally more skilled than the mercenaries, trusted their comrades.
The attempt to raise the mercenaries’ morale, however, proved less effective than expected.
Unlike the soldiers, they remembered the news about the mercenaries who had recently been annihilated in the Black Forest.
“If our luck is bad…….”
“Are we going to die like dogs, just like those bastards everyone was talking about?”
Regardless of what they thought, however, the situation was not going to change.
The two commanders leading the Assault Forces had given the order to charge.
“Raise your shields! Do not leave a single opening!”
“Advance, loyal warriors of the Empire!”
It was far too late to retreat now.
In the end, the mercenaries raised the shields they had prepared and advanced.
Soon, the human army collided with the wave of green dwarfs.
Despite the initial faltering of morale, the battle itself continued fiercely.
The mercenaries who had come here to hunt were now fighting with everything they had simply to survive, while the soldiers had prepared Paralysis Resistance Potions against the hail of poisoned darts.
The mercenaries had also managed to acquire potions of their own.
Once the paralytic poison the goblins relied upon failed to show its usual effectiveness, the goblins gradually began to give ground before the humans surging forward behind the two commanders.
“Wow. Chloe must be making a fortune right about now.”
Countless empty potion bottles littered the ground.
There were plenty of other brands among them, but the mark Jun saw most frequently belonged to the Gilenne Trading Company.
“She really does have a talent for business.”
At the same time, Jun used [Keen Eyes] to observe the overall state of the battlefield.
Amid the fierce heat of combat, the troops were advancing little by little.
However, their momentum would not last long.
The enemy’s main force had not even appeared yet.
“It should be about time for that thing to show itself.”
Goblins were fundamentally cruel and cunning.
And once one reached the level of a Goblin Lord, wisdom was added to that cunning.
It would therefore appear at the perfect moment—
Just when the humans’ momentum had reached its peak.
KRAAAAAAAAGH——!!
So that it could crush their soaring morale.
Its appearance began with a tremendous roar that seemed to fill the entire forest.
KRAAAAAAAAGH——!!
The goblins who had been steadily pushed back by the human forces erupted into cheers at its arrival.
Their numbers had fallen somewhat from the original thousand, but they still glared at the subjugation force with eyes filled with murderous intent.
At the same time, the members of the subjugation force felt their bodies become strangely heavy.
More strength was required to hold their shields against the goblins’ clubs, and every step forward became laborious.
They quickly realized that this change had been caused by the Goblin Lord’s appearance.
In terms of distance, it was not particularly far away.
Even Jun could clearly make out the enormous goblin pounding its chest and repeatedly roaring.
Unlike the other goblins, whose main weapons were clubs, this one carried a bronze sword and shield.
Moreover, dark green Mana enveloped its entire body.
It was clearly using Mana to reinforce its physique.
‘A Goblin Champion.’
Then it began to move.
Cunning as any goblin, the creature avoided the center where the powerful Knights stood and instead drove into the flank.
The Goblin Fighters following the Goblin Champion thrust their crude spears through gaps in the subjugation force’s shields.
“Damn it! Hold your shield properly!”
“Do not give me that shit! You use your spear properly! Their numbers aren’t going down!”
“Do you have any idea how many are in front of me?! Aagh!”
“Damn it!”
With the Goblin Champion’s appearance, the other goblins began charging forward even more recklessly.
The poisoned darts flying in from every direction were also becoming increasingly troublesome.
No matter how much Paralysis Resistance Potion someone drank, repeated exposure would eventually begin to take effect.
The mercenaries were the first to falter before the seemingly endless stream of goblins.
The exhausting march of the previous several days had played a part, but most of the mercenaries were not Mana users to begin with.
The soldiers, who had a comparatively higher proportion of Mana users, filled the gaps as best they could.
But before the Goblin Champion, they were ultimately still ordinary soldiers.
“Gah!”
Unlike ordinary goblins, which were only about the size of a ten-year-old child, the Goblin Champion and its Fighters were either larger than an adult man or only slightly smaller.
And the bronze sword wielded by the Goblin Champion could even split the soldiers’ wooden shields apart.
The Goblin Lord’s wide-area Aura Effect.
The goblins’ numerical superiority.
Even the Knights found their movements restricted under those conditions.
Meanwhile, the Goblin Champion and its Fighters rampaged forward as freely as though they were swimming through the sea.
“The flank has been breached!”
“Damn it!”
“Lord Mardin! We have to break through them!”
“Hmm!”
At last, the two commanders made their decision.
Nothing good would come from allowing the battle to drag on.
There was no guarantee that the goblins before them represented the entirety of the enemy force, and the troops’ stamina was rapidly being drained by the endless assault.
“Lord Chern. I trust in your honor!”
“Of course!”
The one who made the decision was the slightly less capable of the two commanders.
Rather than allow themselves to continue being pushed around by the Goblin Champion, one of them would activate Aura and carve open a path.
The problem was that doing so could result in the remaining Knight monopolizing the glory of defeating the Goblin Lord.
Aura could not be maintained for very long.
Given the situation, however, the two commanders quickly reached an understanding and moved to reverse the momentum of the battle.
Meanwhile—
“Oh…… So that’s Aura. It really is impressive.”
Watching from a distance, Jun found himself filled with a peculiar sense of wonder.
Seeing Aura with his own eyes after only ever watching it through a game screen was a fascinating experience.
“He really is cutting through goblins like tofu.”
Once a Knight activated Aura, he was like a tank that had appeared on a battlefield of swords and spears.
Nothing before him could stop his advance.
Every swing of his sword cut down five or six goblins at once.
Perhaps because they had watched their own kind fall helplessly in less than a second, even the previously aggressive goblins began avoiding the Knight.
Thanks to that, the Knights were already approaching the breached flank.
“Aura really is absurdly powerful.”
Jun wondered how long it would take Aiden to reach that level.
“Hah.”
When Jun turned to look beside him, Aiden had focused every ounce of his attention on the Knights’ movements, as though afraid he might miss even a single moment.
‘With as much talent as that guy has, he’ll definitely learn it before long.’
Jun could not say exactly when that would happen, but he doubted it would take very long.
After thinking for a moment, Jun looked toward Jinovan, who had likewise placed a hand on the hilt of his sword.
“Are you ready, Commander?”
“Mm. Give the word whenever you’re ready.”
“Now, Lord Chern!”
“HAAAAAH!!”
Amid the countless goblins, the Knight called Chern activated Aura.
His target was the Goblin Champion, which made no attempt whatsoever to conceal its presence amid the sea of green.
It had successfully driven deep into the human flank, but the Goblin Champion had allowed the excitement of battle to lead it into a mistake.
It had gone too far.
Only belatedly did it notice the Knights and attempt to withdraw, but its escape route had already been sealed.
The goblins behind it struggled desperately to open a path, but the humans, having already endured one crisis, fought just as fiercely to block its retreat.
“Monster! This is the end!”
With Aura blazing around him, Chern instantly cut through the goblins blocking his path and arrived before the Goblin Champion.
The Champion raised its bronze sword, apparently unwilling to die without resistance.
But the bronze blade that had cut down so many humans snapped in two like a toothpick before the Knight’s Aura.
KRAK——!
At the same time, the creature’s head separated from its body just as cleanly as its sword had broken, flying through the air.
It was an anticlimactic end for the Goblin Champion that had driven the humans onto the defensive.
“I-it’s dead!”
“The Goblin Lord is dead!”
“The Knight cut off the enemy commander’s head!”
“WAAAAAAAAH!!”
The soldiers and mercenaries who witnessed the scene erupted into cheers.
Their momentum rose even further as they pressed the goblins.
The two Knights also wore broad smiles at their accomplishment.
But—
“Hmm……? Why are the goblins……?”
“Why aren’t they retreating?”
Chern and Mardin were the first to notice that something was wrong.
They might have fallen behind Jinovan when it came to gathering information, but they were still elites who had graduated from the Imperial Military Academy.
They had gathered a reasonable amount of information about Goblin Lords.
True to their cunning nature, goblins normally scattered in small groups and fled once their leader died.
That was precisely why the two Knights had used Aura to eliminate the Goblin Champion as quickly as possible.
Yet the goblins before them showed no sign whatsoever of retreating.
And then—
“Commander! B-behind us!”
“Goblins in the rear!”
“Goblin reinforcements have appeared!!”
The two Knights soon realized the reason and grimaced.
They understood instinctively.
The Goblin Champion they had just killed had never been the Goblin Lord.
“There were plenty of clues.”
First, the goblins had fought far too straightforwardly for creatures known for their cunning.
Just as humans possessed knowledge about goblins, goblins also knew about humans.
More precisely, they understood how to deal with enemies stronger than themselves.
Yet despite that, the Goblin Champion had revealed itself far too openly.
Showing off its considerable presence while avoiding the Knights’ formation and driving deep into the flank had been a decent attempt.
But it had still been lacking.
In the end, it had possessed no real method of dealing with the Knights.
“And the Aura Effect was different from the type a Goblin Champion should have.”
Jun forced strength into his arms as they threatened to droop.
He knew exactly what this phenomenon was.
“A Goblin Shaman. The Lord of this generation—and the Irregular—is that one.”
The Goblin Shaman’s Aura Effect.
A weakening curse had spread across the entire subjugation force.
If the Champion they had just killed had actually been the Lord, the goblins would have been strengthened instead of the humans being weakened.
“The people on the front line probably couldn’t tell the difference. Their lives were hanging in the balance right in front of them.”
Were their arms losing strength simply because they were exhausted?
Or had the goblins become stronger under the Champion’s Aura Effect?
In the middle of that battle, it would have been difficult to distinguish between the two.
Unless, like Jun, one had remained in the rear.
“And more importantly, the shape of the Totems they hung up was the decisive clue.”
The Totems were horrifying enough to inspire disgust in anyone who looked at them.
Jun had carefully examined their appearance.
They had been dried so thoroughly beneath the sun that it was difficult to tell at first, but they had unmistakably been made from—
“The heads of young goblins.”
If the Goblin Lord had been a Champion, the Totems would have been made from the heads of old goblins.
Totems fashioned from young goblins were the signature mark of a Goblin Shaman.
“This brings back memories. Once I noticed that difference, Goblin Lord subjugations became quite a bit easier.”
It was a hidden detail within <Blackout>, something that could not even be found in the community strategy guides.
It was a tiny detail known only to ‘Lee Jeong-jun.’
‘And compared to a Champion, a Goblin Shaman is far more cunning.’
Cunning enough that new players on the <Blackout> community forums had complained about them endlessly.
KRAAAAAATATAKA——!!
Goblin cries erupted from the rear.
And beyond the newly appearing dark green wave stood, just as Jun had expected, a Goblin Shaman draped in rags.
“Now then, shall we see how our rookie commander performs?”
Of course, Jun had every intention of claiming a share of the action himself.
The Goblin Shaman had appeared in the rear.
Around three hundred goblins accompanied it.
Apparently, the force stationed behind the subjugation army had been kept comparatively small in order to avoid detection.
Even so, three hundred was still a threatening number.
The rear was defended by only around twenty soldiers under Jinovan’s command.
“Everyone, prepare for battle!”
At the shout of one of the veteran soldiers, the troops gripped their shields tightly.
It was a desperate crisis.
The forces at the front were still fully occupied fighting the endless goblins pressing against them.
At the rear, there was no one except Jun, Aiden, and Jinovan’s troops.
Perhaps Baron Dortagon had finally realized the danger.
“L-L-Lord Jinovan! Lord Jinovan!! Where are you, Lord Jinovan?!”
Baron Dortagon’s shrill scream echoed across the battlefield.
But Jinovan was nowhere beside him.
The one fortunate circumstance was that Baron Dortagon had positioned himself closer to the center than the rear, which meant the goblins could not kill him immediately.
Baron Dortagon himself, however, felt nothing remotely resembling relief.
‘What glory and riches did I think I was going to gain by coming all the way here?!’
If he had known this would happen, he would have remained with the Imperial Family.
It took only an instant for him to begin bitterly resenting his past self for coming all the way to Blackout in an attempt to overcome the limitations of his baronial house.
Meanwhile, behind the soldiers who had formed a Defensive Formation, Jun drew up his Mana and cast the first spell.
[Detecting Target]
[Lightning Whip(Lightning whip)]
It was finally time to try out the spell he had paid so much money to learn.