"Fucking hells!" Sil swore. "Speak clearly, human!"

Sahtar sneered. "Goblins," he declared before changing to a whisper, so that only those close to him, Sil and the humans, could hear. "And a whole lot of them at that. Hundreds, at least."

Miss Nan's face turned pale at this information and General Escers swore under his breath.

"Sorry if I'm interrupting but... what are goblins?" Arthur asked, only to receive some annoyed stares.

"Small, green humanoids,” Nigel explained kindly. "Not very dangerous by themselves, but they can be overwhelming in large numbers. They are not very intelligent but hobgoblins, their leaders, are. They are bigger, stronger, and faster than the rest of the goblins."

"We can take a few hundred of them, albeit with some casualties," General Escers interrupted. "The problem is that even hobgoblins don't have the intelligence required for an ambush like this. There must be something else leading them."

"How in the hell did those things get here? They should be confined to the Dark Area!" one of Sil's lieutenants, who was close by, intervened angrily.

"Goblins are not native to the Dark Area," Sahtar answered him. "They mostly live there but are free to move wherever they want. There are a few tribes in every kingdom, though they usually stay in remote locations and number a few tens of members at most".

"Whatever the case, they are here now," Sil concluded the conversation.

"MEN," he shouted loudly, "let's show those green rats what they're made of!" The soldiers cheered as one and settled back into a fighting stance. Some more time went by; when nothing happened, until Arthur got bored.

"Are they going to attack or wha-" he tried to say, only to be interrupted by Sil's order. "SHIELDS UP."

A hail of rocks had flown over the walls and was descending on them. The dwarves obediently raised their shields while the humans hid in the wagons, and the rocks fell on them mostly harmlessly. Most of the rocks missed the formation and only one soldier was injured in the foot when a rock slipped through the gaps between the shields.

The soldiers had to somehow get rid of the rocks piled on top of their shields, so they just threw them on the ground between them. It could create problems if the formation was pressured from the outside, but they had received no orders so they just did what came to mind.

By the time the rocks had finished coming, angry, shrill shouts had filled the air and a mass of goblins was rushing at them from all three entrances of the open area, surrounding the circle the dwarves had formed. All of them being veterans, the soldiers didn't respond to the shouts, only stoically holding their position. The dwarven archers started emptying their quivers at the back end of the charging goblins, striking quite a few hits.

Arthur's eyes widened at the sight. The goblins were like small, green humans, only the size of a ten-year-old child. They had pointy ears, were bald, and had no facial hair to speak of but their teeth and nails were longer and sharper than humans'. Most of them were dressed in rags that barely covered their genitals, with the occasional naked goblin. Arthur could swear that no human could ever be that ugly.

Their weapons ranged from clubs and shortswords for the minority, to sticks and stones for the majority.

Interspersed among the goblins were what he assumed were hobgoblins. They were bigger than their goblin counterparts, standing at the height of a teenager. Like goblins, they were thin and their physical appearances were very similar, but that was where the similarities ended. Hobgoblins were mostly at the back of their forces, urging the goblins onwards. They were armed with swords or daggers that they were using to viciously poke any goblin that seemed to hesitate to attack.

They were wearing shirts and pants, had unruly hair, and their toned muscles were visible even through their clothes. They were, in fact, taller than most dwarves. Arthur thought that if they were as dexterous as they seemed, hobgoblins would be dangerous opponents.

The first goblins reached the wall of shields the dwarves had erected. Unsurprisingly, they were smashed aside by the shields or skewered by the spears sticking out. The wall held.

Then a second wave of goblins reached the shields. Then a third. Then a fourth.

As tenacious as the soldiers were, the goblins had strength in numbers and slowly a few began to penetrate the wall through the gaps created when the dwarves moved their shields. Those goblins wreaked havoc on the inside of the wall, causing some spear wielders to abandon their spears and some shield bearers to unwillingly abandon their lives. That, in turn, created bigger gaps on the circular wall of shields, allowing more goblins to slip through.

Those who had abandoned their spears and drawn their swords were quick to kill the sneaky goblins; they weren't too strong individually. But the damage had been done and, by now, the wall of shields was starting to become more of a death trap for the soldiers manning it than for the goblins. "DROP THE WALL, DRAW SWORDS," Sil ordered timely.

By that time, more than a hundred goblins had been killed, but eleven soldiers had fallen too. Excluding the soldiers lost before the battle began, there were now around 75 dwarves left, plus the humans.

The battle was swiftly devolving into a melee. The dwarves still maintained their circular formation, covering each other's backs, but they were surrounded. Colonel Sil was beginning to doubt his decision to gather at the center of the open area for better visibility as they were now surrounded and vulnerable. He hadn't been expecting a full-blown attack.

The battle wasn't going too poorly though. While the goblins were overwhelmingly more than the soldiers, the gap between their individual strengths was too pronounced. Now that the situation had come down to swords, the armored and trained dwarves were dominating the goblins. It was at this point that goblin screeches were heard behind the walls as rocks came flying at them again. "DODGE," Sil shouted.

This time there was no time to raise their shields, or even enough shield bearers left. The dwarves and some of the goblins, who were also in the attack radius, stopped fighting each other and tried to dodge the rocks. Some other goblins chose to ignore the rocks and keep fighting.

The fact that the rocks were coming from all directions didn't help the soldiers trying to dodge and a good number of them were hit. Most hits landed on their armor, only causing painful bruises, but some dwarves were hit in unprotected spots or attacked by the goblins while stumbling due to being hit by a rock.

Of course, the number of goblins hit by the rocks was vastly larger than that of the soldiers due to their swarming tactics, and most of them were either killed or seriously injured, but every soldier out of the fight weighed far more than a few goblins. The humans were able to safely hide in the wagons, as the battle still hadn't reached them at the center of the formation.

Due to the rocks and the chaos caused as the soldiers tried to dodge, around one-third of the remaining soldiers were killed, or rendered incapable of battling and then swiftly killed. The open area was filled with screams and shouts, the clanging of weapons colliding, and the scent of blood.

"MEN," Sil shouted, trying to motivate his troops. "WE ARE WINNING. DON'T GIVE UP. FOR YOUR FAMILY AND YOUR COUNTRY."

Some soldiers tried to shout in response but their voices were drowned in the sounds of battle.

Now that the dwarves had been halved and the shield wall had fallen, the hobgoblins joined the fray too.

Arthur was observing the battle. He had been on a battlefield before, as a soldier of the Red House, so he wasn't shocked by the battle. He saw that the goblins were ganging up on the soldiers, many of them against one of the dwarves. The goblins were quick to fall, both because the soldiers cut them down and because they accidentally hit each other. Coordination wasn't their strong point.

Whenever a goblin fell, though, another took its place, and occasionally they would succeed in killing the soldiers. The goblins were beginning to thin out, but the soldiers' numbers were also growing dangerously low.

The hobgoblins were stronger than the goblins and smarter too, two of them teaming up against each soldier and holding their ground. There weren't more than a few tens of them though.

The only thing saving the dwarves was their formation. Otherwise, with the vastly superior numbers of the enemies, they would have been long overwhelmed.

"Fuck this, we're joining too!" General Escers' voice resounded over the battlefield. "Arthur! Sahtar! Follow me! Nigel, do something with your damn flute!" The General didn't wait for their response and dived out of the formation, slaughtering goblins left and right. The general's battle prowess couldn't compare with the soldiers, much less the goblins and hobgoblins, and soon a path of corpses was strewn behind him as he advanced.

Arthur and Sahtar weren't late to follow. Arthur's wide swings decimated throngs of goblins, while Sahtar was wielding a strange curved sword, carving the goblins up while gracefully dodging their wide swings.

Nigel wasn't quite sure what to do, but he decided to try the tune that worked on the rabbits. Even though the melody of his flute was drowned in the sounds of battle, around fifty goblins stopped moving, confused. Then some of them shook the effect off and kept moving, while others started attacking their green friends. A small number of them started dancing, causing confused looks to emerge in the faces of the goblins around them.

Less than twenty soldiers were left now, with Sil himself, riding his brave goat, having joined the battle too. The only one not fighting was Miss Nan, who was hiding in the wagons. The goblins had visibly thinned by now and most of them looked scared and ready to run, but suddenly, out of a big group of goblins, a squad of ten hobgoblins appeared. They had been crouching and blending in with the goblins, waiting for the right moment to strike.

As soon as they appeared, they pounced on a group of unsuspecting soldiers, ambushing and killing them. "Fuck!" General Escers swore and moved after them. Sahtar was even faster than him and was already fighting with five of them. Arthur was on the other side of the formation, which had all but collapsed by now, and couldn't intervene in time. Fortunately, two of the hobgoblins were suddenly affected by Nigel’s flute, one of them dancing by itself and the other killing one of its brethren before being killed in turn. As Escers and Sahtar were cleaning up, a roar shook the battlefield.

Two red-skinned, horned beings showed up, the goblins parting to make room for them. They were clearly humanoid and were wearing nothing but pants, exposing their very muscled body. The most obvious difference from humans, besides their red color and their almost three-meter-tall statures, was their head. It bore the resemblance of a bull, with two horns sticking out of its forehead. Golden iron hoops stuck out of their noses, and they each carried an enormous, double-headed battle-axe.

"Damnation!" Escers swore. "Minotaurs! How the fuck did you not see that, Sahtar?"

"Arthur, take care of the goblins! The minotaurs must be the commanders," he shouted as he ran towards the minotaurs, followed by Sahtar.

"How about you duke it out with someone of your size, you oversized cows?" he taunted them. The dwarves were too busy trying not to die to care about his comment.

"Foolish human," one of the minotaurs spoke in a heavy, raspy voice, "you cannot compare with us". They readied their battle-axes as Escers and Sahtar collided with them, a fierce battle immediately unfolding. Escers was trading blows with his enemy, demonstrating his awe-inspiring physical prowess, while Sahtar was weaving around his own opponent's blows and trying to find an opportunity to counter-attack. He was in trouble though, as his opponent's range was far beyond his and he was too afraid to go into close quarters with the beast. Both fights quickly grew to a standstill, even though Sahtar was clearly having difficulty holding on.

Escers and his opponent crossed blades and then disengaged momentarily, putting some distance between them. "NOW," the minotaur roared, and an even more terrifying roar than before shook the battlefield.

The battle stopped as everyone turned to regard the new arrival. The goblins cheered, while the dwarves and humans despaired as a huge humanoid walked in from one of the entrances.

"An ogre..." Escers drew a sharp breath, but his opponent wouldn't let him disengage until he killed it. They can't handle that. Damn! he thought, but had no choice but to keep fighting the minotaur.

It was grey-skinned and reaching three meters in height. It carried a spiked wooden club and was butt-naked, leaving his - clearly a ‘his’ - exposed bits dangling high in the air.

It was completely bald, and its eyes betrayed nothing but animalistic ferocity. This monster was a shocking sight to behold as it towered over the goblins, its bulging muscles and wide body making it look even more threatening. Apparently annoyed by the goblins' cheering, the ogre grabbed one and bit its head off before throwing it back to the ground. Besides causing the goblins to immediately shut up, this revealed its sharp canines. While still chewing on the goblin's head, bones and all, it walked towards the soldiers.

The soldiers were shivering as the monster approached them. They knew they could never take on this beast. The few remaining dwarves and goblins had stopped fighting, scared and in awe of the large predators in their midst. Yet, they didn't run either. The dwarves because they were surrounded and didn't have a path to run off to, and the goblins because they didn't dare disobey their orders.

Nigel’s flute still sounded in desperation, but the ogre completely ignored it.

Am I going to die here? Arthur thought as despair started to creep on him. As he was the biggest target around, the ogre's gaze landed on him. It would normally choose the weakest opponent first, but nothing here qualified to be anything more than prey. The ogre started walking towards him in big strides.

Fuck this! If I'm going to die anyway, I might as well try to fight it, Arthur regained his composure. His strength had been growing by leaps and bounds lately, and he'd even started practicing body strengthening magic. He wasn't as proficient as Vreil, of course, but he had some impressive success. Now, not even he knew where the limits of his strength lay.

Steeling his resolve, Arthur drew his sword and started running towards the towering ogre.

"Arthur, no!" General Escers shouted, but Arthur ignored him. He was still shivering in fear inside, but on the outside he was overflowing with courage. He had decided to fight head-on and hope for a miracle.

"Fight me, you gray turd!" he shouted, and the embarrassment that came with his unimaginative insult helped shake off the remaining dregs of panic in him.

The ogre, although its ability to understand language was debatable at best, turned to regard the small shouting human before roaring wildly.

It was surprised when the creature kept running at it. Its small brain struggled to comprehend this. When it roared at smaller creatures, they froze or ran away. This was not how it was supposed to go! Ever so slowly, the tiny wheels in its brain turned and it decided that if the small prey was not afraid of its roaring, it was an enemy! Roaring again in anger, it waved its club in the air. How dare this small prey challenge it?

It charged towards Arthur while flailing its club wildly, scaring the living daylights out of poor little him. Still, he kept going, and they collided with a bang.