A thick smell of blood and iron mixed together fills the whole place. That smell becomes thicker as time pass unless the battle creating it does not stop.

The ground becomes very squishy, filled with countless pieces of meat littering around. Blood puddles form wherever there are holes on the ground, created by the stomp of the marching or the destructive power of magic attack spell. For any reason, this place has become quite hard for people to walk on.

Yet, there are still numerous creatures walking on this land. They walk, run, stomp, stand, jump on that slippery ground like it is the least of their concern when the enemy is right in front of them. Many of them fall on the ground, some manage to stand up back again, but the rest just lie there for a while, contributing their blood to the blood pool on the ground, and waiting for next incoming.

“BOOM”

Another explosion comes, followed by several others a few seconds later. There is no intact corpse on this battlefield. Once someone falls, within a few seconds later, an explosion will come at his position, blowing away the entire corpse into smithereens and causing damage on anyone nearby.

“Keep going!” A seventeen-year-old boy yells from his lung “Smash all those green skins to dust. With the next generation magic cannon, we can win this war without any further bloodshed. ” His voice is deafening, echoing the whole battlefield spreading over two-kilometer radius. The tension in his voice can be felt, but there are also excitement, confidence, and belief in victory. His feelings are transmitted to everyone, boosting their morale and confidence in their new commander.

Next to him, there is also another boy who is also wearing the same armor as the commander boy, indicating his rank. He does not say anything, just only stands on the tall wall, looking over the horizon where the massive goblin army is lining up and being blown away by his inventions. His fists clench tightly, but his grin is very wide. He has been glaring at the scene nonstop without blinking.

(Yes! This is what we, the summoned heroes, have to do in another world. This is our supposed strength, our true potential. This is my power.) Such thought keeps repeating in his mind as he sees the goblins being blown away while being helpless against the human attack.

……….

The city of Alvanka is under a siege of the goblin army. Unlike the Brendhill town which is only a small town out of nowhere, the city Alvanka is one of the biggest trade centers in the entire kingdom of Vahalla with the population over 3 million people. The scale and the richness of the city make it a good place for wealthy people and nobles to live there, as well as people trying to establish a business there. The merrier the trading, the more attractive it is for more people to come. This also results in a large army also stationing here, consisting of over 100,000 troops of different ranks. There are also numerous adventurers and private guards working in this city too. Combining all of these fighting powers along with the big walls surrounding all side, Alvanka is supposed to be an impenetrable fortress. But today, that reputation is being challenged.

The fact that a city of this scale is being challenged means one thing: the invasion of the goblin army has come to the next phase. From the current intelligence, the goblins started their invasion in an easily noticeable manner: destroying all the villages in the area, then attacking the town at the center of those villages. It is clear to see what these green skins want to attempt: isolate big fishes after killing all nearby small ones. And by deduction, after clearing the towns, their target will be the cities. And when a city is attacked, it means the nearby towns have fallen.

Fortunately, the situation is not bad as it sounds. Due to the strength of security in this area, they managed to push back the initial wave of the invasions at the village. Information managed to reach the nearby villages and towns and appropriate response was given out. Thanks to being able to estimate the strength of the goblin army, they decided to evacuate from the villages and towns, gathering all the strength at Alvanka, where there are enough defend structures to withstand the attack.

However, there are two sides to everything. As the evacuations were successful, the take over of the towns and villages became easy with few losses on the goblin side. With only the city left, all the goblin forces attacking different towns concentrated their power into the frontal assault toward the city, an estimated force of 500,000 goblins, the highest record of monster count in the human history.

……

“Damn, look at that. A sea of dark green. Is this how it is like to face an entire population? Even though we have an upper hand, it’s still quite overwhelming.” On another part of the wall, a boy is using the telescope to see where the vast goblin army ends.

“I agree. Even so, this is quite amazing. Without using the archery skill, I can even see from such far away. Not only that, this ‘telescope’ thing can be used by everyone. This will make everyone rethinks the importance of the academy again.” A knight captain on the boy’s left side says in admiration.

“Please don’t talk to me those topics. I really dislike studying. I’m just a user and only knows how to use things that are useful. Studying is annoying. It’s always very boring and I always want to sleep in class.” The boy says in a dissatisfied voice.

“Hahaha. True. When those scholar guys discuss, the topic changes rapidly from one to another. After a while, I don’t even understand a shit what they are saying. I guess I am not suited to these studying thing either.” The knight captain agrees.

“How many cannonballs do we have left?” The boy changes the topic.

“We will only have 50 left soon. After hearing their effectiveness, the great general has passed the order to increase the production of both the cannons and cannonballs. The other city mayors and nobles are also pushing the requests to purchase them. We can finally get a lot of money from those bastards’ pocket.” The knight captain says.

“When will the next batch arrive for us?”

“There will be 100 delivered to us at the end of the day. The other gates will also have the same amount. After that, there will be no more delivered to us.”

“Do you know the reason?”

“Apparently, we will be prioritized for today only. Tomorrow’s batch will be delivered for the other cities to prepare. And also, since we have been so effective, the higher up thinks that we don’t need that many cannon balls anymore.” The knight captain sighs deeply, not being happy with that decision.

“One ball gets about 30 goblins. We have shot 200 so far, 6000 kills. With our reserves, we can only get 1500 more. Damn, we have fired so many, yet that number is still only a drop for that sea. So this is how war is, even though what you are doing is effective, the number you achieve may be impressive, but it can still be very small in the overall view.” The boy mutters his thinking, making the knight captain smiles.

“You are correct, commander. Even if one person’s strength is great, he must work together with everyone when facing a big disaster. Our artillery unit managed to kill a lot of enemies, enough to make a name of ourselves in a normal campaign. However, with our strength alone, when facing this big of a disaster, it is still helpless. That’s why we also need to work with the other 100,000 soldiers in this city to fight this war.” The knight captain gives the lecture to the young boy.

“Thank you very much, gramp Robert. I have learned my lesson. I, Kaito Takehara, will keep working better to become the hero for this world.” Kaito smiles in response to the old knight captain. His sincere smile and sudden casual attitude give Robert a fresh feeling of respect, a genuine respect from the bottom of the heart, not caring about anything else. This makes the old man, who does not have any children, feel attracted to him.

Kaito Takehara is a strange hero. Out of all heroes, he is not the smartest, the most knowledgeable, the most powerful, or the most charismatic hero. Yet he is the leader of a faction within the heroes, though the person himself denied so.

He is an adolescent boy, learning things to become a hero suitable for his name. At first, when Robert met him, he actually disliked his hero, always spouting naïve or unrealistic thought at random moments that made the everyone speechless. The old knight truly thought he was stupid beyond idiocy and deeply separated from the reality. Then one day, unable to tolerate the stupid thinking, Robert lost himself and shouted at the young hero, telling him straight into the face that he was stupid and what was wrong with his thinking.

In response to his disgracing words, Kaito just blanked out “Eh, is that really so?”. At that time, Robert really snapped himself and gave an hour lecture long on the life lesson before he realized that he overstepped the bound. He expected a comeback, for example, a threat or an attack on him, as that is the common response when commoner disgraces a noble. But there was no such thing, Kaito wholeheartedly listened to his whole lesson.

From that moment, Kaito really changed a lot. Instead of being stupid and thoughtlessly throwing out random thought, he became serious in his attitude toward anything, whether it was training, studying, or fighting. He really changed in a good way that the fellow heroes were also surprised. Sometimes he faked his old stupid behaviour, but everyone knows that he was changing for the better, so their attitude toward him changed as well. Robert could not help but believe that such change was credited to him since Kaito really listened and followed his advice.

Robert then noticed that the most distinguished thing about him is that he the most honest hero out of everyone. He was stupid, naïve and also looked down by the other heroes, but his words truly meant it: to fight for the human side and get a better future. He was unlike the other heroes, who either distanced themselves from the people here or befriended in a façade that schemed a lot of things.

“You are the first stranger who talked my bad points straight in my face. My parents have never talked to me those things. My friends just fool around and talk the stupid things. But you are the first one who gave me a proper lesson. Thank you very much.” He still remembers Kaito’s words at that time. Those words have changed his impression on this young man.

(I want to make this young man into a true good hero for the people and this country) or so Robert thought from the bottom of his heart.

Since then, the knight captain has devoted his full effort in being a mentor for Kaito, teaching him about the common sense here and how it works in the society. And Kaito, who faithfully listened to him, becomes a respected hero, both among the hero circle and the people here.

“Please call me Captain Robert, or just Robert, Commander Takehara. We are still on the battlefield.” Robert replies to the hero.

“Ok, captain. Please send the order to the troop to shoot more sparely. We will need to save 20 cannon balls left for the emergency. And get the archery group and mage group to get ready. It’s time to work their body.” Kaito waves his hand and turns his attention to the battlefield again. “Ok, where are you now, big monsters? I am looking for you.”