The lizardmen noticing one of their fellow kin getting impaled by a spike of ice were naturally shocked and startled by the sudden attack,they didn't take time to mourn their dead companion and instead focused on what was happening the ice spike alarmed almost every lizardmen in the area somehow,even thought half of them weren't there they still knew what was happening which was inconvenient so to say..

-Everyone shot the ones who are the closest to our base if they cross the line and somehow get here ignore them and let the others take care of them...I am counting on you..

I said immediately raising both of my hands making countless spikes of ice appear from the ground,I wasn't aiming the spikes and only hoped to make them slow down and struggle more,but I could still see that a few of my spikes did hit a lot of the lizardmen turning the area in front of our base into a field of spiky ice.

The female hobgoblins who stood by my side nodded to me feeling praised and relied on they immediately shout out their spells hitting the lizards that were close by and killing them in one shot.

Of course the lizardmen were enraged and didn't just stand there getting themselves killed I could see one of the lizardmen yell something and lead the other lizardmen towards us while trying to avoid the spikes which was hard since the ground itself was frozen and a bit slippery to move with haste.

I kept a steady eye on the battle field while the female hobgoblins shout out their spells wildly slaughtering some of the lizards from a distance..

The female hobgoblins who were down bellow us seemed very restless since only 5 people were doing the work,the rest were sitting duck waiting to defend the core base for now not one of the lizards was able to breach us because of the harsh terrain that had turned into a icicle it seemed to made them feel a bit useless,but it couldn't be helped since I wouldn't allow them to blindly charge in and risk getting surrounded by them.

While thinking like this I noticed from the left a shadow was standing in one of the trees the slimes immediately identified the target to be another lizardmen who was taking the high ground to observe the lizard in question held onto a bone axe aiming steadily it threw the axe towards one of the female hobgoblins standing on the staircases the one he aimed at was hoboku.

The axe flew with high speed towards hoboku who was still just concentrating on hitting the lizardmen with her spells she didn't notice the axe until the last moment when she saw the silhouette of the axe approaching her which was already too late she had no way of dodging the axe and closed her eyes scared from the pain that it would cause her...which never came of course.

(Tuck!)

The sound of a hard impact could be heard and when hoboku opened her eyes she noticed that she seemed to be alright the axe didn't hit her confused she looked at where it came from and realized that a wall of concentrated frozen water was hovering in front of her,the wall was slightly cracked,but not broken really from the other side you could see the bone axe stuck inside the cold wall of ice.

-Careful..

I muttered not bothering to look at hoboku,but rather dissolving the water wall and concentrating on the battle field...there were already a few more lizardmen standing above trees and aiming their weapons at us if I lose focus one of the girls may suffer the consequences for it,which I didn't allow to happen..

-Yes...thank you...

Hoboku replied embarrassed and grateful for my quick save,usually hoboku wouldn't lose to such low life attack the reason she didn't notice it at the start was because there was too much going on in the field,taking notice of everything that is going on it is very hard even for her so thats why I am keeping tabs on the surroundings to protect the main damage dealers while they handle the situation from what I could see the main troops of this group were about to reach our walls,the lizardmen who was standing on the trees were leaving their position to join into the fray charging towards the entrance were a few shielded female hobgoblins stood strong behind them were the others getting ready to fight.

Seeing that we were about to have a direct confrontation I decided to go down and start the final phase of the fight.We already did a good job clearing almost half of their troops on the field,on my count we killed a total of 18 of their original troops leaving 24 lizard men who seemed to be moderately injured and weakened from the cold,it was said without a doubt that this fight was in our complete advantage since we mainly relied on our long distance shooting and home advantage protecting our base the lizardmen needed to overcome the deadly terrain and endure our shooting to get here.

The only thing I don't understand about this matter is why are they even charging at us ? They must have realized that the situation was completely unfavorable for them so why are they still trying to breach us,did fleeing never occur to them or something ?I would have let them alone if they did...

I thought a bit regretful and pitying with their current strength opposing us was pretty hard I could even see hobura holding her greatsword in one hand charging up a AOE skill the lizardmen didn't seem to understand what hobura was doing,but if they walk in further the cut radius is going to kill them all fortunate for them the leader of this group seemed to have realized what hobura was doing immediately telling his men to avoid the radius he and another few jumped to the side as hobura unleashed her sword skill killing off another 5 of the lizardmen who were too slow to react their slowness could be attributed to their cold since reptiles were cold blooded animals they weren't capable of taking in too much cold it made their movements slow and could potentially be lethal to them surviving this long was already good for them I guess.

The leader of the lizardmen avoided the attack by a hairs breath and was now left with only 18 of his men who were slowed by the cold,he was looking at our direction his gaze showed the amount of hate and contempt he held towards us his look showed me that he wouldn't leave no matter what his men seemed to be the same as they held their bone weapons and started charging us again...

Valiant...I thought immediately activating my spell for the first time,under my feet swirling water started to appear the force of the water was strong launching me towards the front of the group as if I was a human torpedo,my sudden movement made the female hobgoblins shocked as they were lost for words also a bit anxious about me moving towards the front potentially getting hurt.

The spell power was surprisingly powerful and easy to control the spell directly launched me in front of hobura who was surprised to see me appear from above she instinctively wanted to tell me to get back,but she stopped herself remembering who was the boss,she wasn't sure what to say since she didn't want to offend me instead she came along with me resolute to protect me as did the others walking behind my back weapons ready.

-DIE HUMAN !

The leader of the lizardmen growled in his reptilian speech raising his bone club,he charged at me with his killing intent,we were only a few steps away fro each other and hobura was getting ready to hold her shield to intercept the bone club from hitting me,but as soon as she moved she realized that she didn't need to do that,after all...the lizardmen was already down on his knees.

-Guhhh...urhhh..

The leader of the lizardmen groaned as he spat out a few mouthful fulls of his blood onto the ground for a few moments he didn't realize what it was that made him kneel down,but when he looked down he noticed...a big spike of ice had penetrated his chest....feeling pained the leader of the lizardmen raised his head again looking at me his eyes now didn't hold the same light as before,what was once hate and anger was replaced with unwillingness and regret he didn't seem to have a grudge against me no he understood why I did this to him and why I attacked him it was his own fault and even if I didn't attack him he probably would have attacked us instead this forest had only one rule...kill or be killed...the lizardmen could only depend on themselves and together they were strong,fighting is a everyday occurrence in this forest him losing was something he long since understood and accepted...but how come I feel that what I did just now was wrong ? I feel like I could have resolved this issue in another manner why do I feel so incredibly conflicted in what I did ? I murdered him thats for sure,but why are his eyes not blaming me? Cursing me or raging at me...it feels wrong.

-RAHHHHH

The sudden quiet atmosphere immediately turned upside down as the dying lizardmen roared in his last breath the lizardmen that were standing still up until now also moved with anger flashing through their eyes enraged everyone started to charge aiming at me in particular not caring about the others their goal was to completely obliterate me even if it meant their death...

Ending it right now was appropriate so I simply shook off the uncomfortable feeling I had and ordered everyone to start killing the remaining lizardmen.Hobura who was by my side immediately reacted she dropped her shield and gripped onto her greatsword with both of her hands stepping forward she cleaved with her sword skillfully beheading 2 lizardmen at the same time a third lizardmen was about to come and hit her to the head,but was blasted on the spot by a dark lance through the chest...hoboku had fired and her aim was true to her mark.

Like this we defeated the lizardmen without a hitch I only participated in the fight mildly by sometimes shielding someone with a ice wall to protect them or trip over lizardmen to make them a easy target,hobusakus skill with the dagger was most impressive since she always aimed at the vitals such as the neck and eyes,her graceful movements seemed almost professional in my eyes compared to hobura's brute strength that was chopping the lizardmen indiscriminately.

At the end of the fight everyone sat down to rest a bit a few of the female hobgoblins were injured slightly,but not too heavily at those cases I used my to heal and clean their wounds faster which they appreciated a lot,the spell itself covered the selected area with water as if it was an bandage and healed pretty quickly also cleaning it.

While taking care of the girls I also stopped in front of the leader of the lizardmen for a moment he was still laying on the ground with the slowly melting ice spike in his chest he didn't have anything on his body other then some rags that he used as clothing the bone weapons were also useless so I didn't bother taking those and instead ordered the slimes to clean up the mess.

Watching the slimes I sat down onto a rock and pondered about what had just happened...we were successful in defending our base,but why were these lizardmen even here ? from where did they come from ?

From what I know there shouldn't be a settlement near us that had lizardmen,the closest settlement in this area of the forest was the kobold village so how did they get here ?

It was still a mystery in my head,but while I was thinking about it the scouting slimes that I had left alone send me a urgent message.

-There are mass amount of humans going through the forest !

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