Chapter 351: Kobolds

Chapter 351 – Kobolds

A pillar of smoke rose, signaling the start of an attack by the kingdom’s army.

Two pillars of smoke rise, indicating that the attack of the kingdom’s army is going well, and the Northwest Fleet only needs to stop the pirates fleeing on their ships in the outer sea.

Three pillars of smoke rise, indicating that the attack of the kingdom’s army is blocked, and the Northwest Fleet needs to attack the harbor to distract the attention of the pirates in the city.

This was a signal agreed upon by the two armies, if possible, the kingdom army wanted to destroy the pirates only by their own strength, and the Northwest Fleet didn’t want to rashly attack a port that might have heavy defense facilities.

Twelve battleships floated in a single file arrangement on the surface of the sea, and on the deck of the flagship Unicorn, the fleet commander Tirbitz waited impatiently for the next signal.

In the distant land, a beam of smoke towered high in the sky, the attack of the kingdom’s army had already begun for a long time, how come there was still no hint of the next move.

……

Before launching the attack, Harrison did as detailed a reconnaissance as possible of the pirates entrenched in West Harbor, and he roughly determined that the number of pirates remaining in West Harbor was estimated to be around 1,500~2,000 people.

Is this fucking still a pirate? The size of the navy of some small countries in the Horned Bay is just like this, right? It must have been the rebellious Grand Duke Greedy Wolf in the south who had started the rebellion.

In addition to not wanting his initial formation to fail, there are three reasons why he was reluctant to launch an attack, one is that he had just started leading a team of only 4,000 people, as an attacking party, this level of strength to defeat the enemy who was defending the city is basically impossible, two is that and in addition to a small number of elites, most of the soldiers were temporarily recruited, and after the battle they had to be allowed to go home, their morale and Their morale and combat skills can be imagined, third, he learned from the mouth of the senior, this group of pirates seems to have a “mysterious power” to help – the assassination of the Navy’s senior so far inexplicable, the released political officer even claimed to have witnessed the legendary sorcerer.

In the meantime, he strengthened the training of the army and recruited more soldiers, until the arrival of the Northwesterners, who brought him the confession of the captives, it turned out that the pirates had already withdrawn a lot in order to carry supplies, and only more than 1,000 people stayed in the harbor.

After observing the Northwest warships on the kind of weapons known as “artillery”, Harrison’s confidence increased, in his view, this is also a “mysterious power”, and powerful. Unfortunately, they were very stingy and did not have any intention of borrowing it.

The specific plan to recover the West Harbor was quickly formulated, the kingdom’s army and the Northwest Fleet land and water attack, breaking the pirates.

Somewhat unexpectedly, after launching the attack, the city walls were quickly breached. An interrogation only to learn that most of the city walls are forced by the pirates to defend the residents of the city, there are not many real pirates, really heartless bastards.

He ordered his army to approach deeper into the city, while reminding his men to beware of ambushes. However, the pirates have given up the most powerful fortification walls, the number of inferiority of their biggest possibility is to run away by boat, and then it came to the Northwesterners show their skills.

Just as he was examining the entire battlefield with cautious optimism, a group of routed soldiers came running back crying. “Ghosts! There are ghosts and monsters in the city!”

Harrison was so shocked that he immediately took his men to the front line and saw with his own eyes what the soldiers called “ghosts and monsters”-goblins.

This is a kind of humanoid creatures inhabiting the southern rainforest, they are small and thin, only about half the height of an adult, their skin is usually green or brown, from a distance they look like children, with a little bit of intelligence, individual smart individuals can learn some words and phrases to communicate with human beings.

But their character is also notoriously evil, and cruelty seems to be an innate trait of this race – they will attack intelligent settlements, steal women and children, and torture their captives to death in their own lairs.

But this is only for things weaker than they are, and the kobolds fear those who are stronger than they are, and when faced with violence they cannot handle, they will temporarily choose to “submit”, noting that it is only to “violence”, and if the other side, despite its strength, does not choose violence, the kobolds will consider it to be “violence”, but will not choose violence. If the opponent is powerful but does not choose violence, the kobold will think that the opponent is weak and bully the opponent step by step, for this kind of creature, it is useless to tolerate or avoid. And even if you use violence to make the kobolds temporarily submit, betrayal is also a matter of time, when you have a little bit of slack, there will be a sharp blade to stab you in the back.

Kobolds also have a notorious habit of cannibalism, or eating any intelligent race. According to scholars, the kobolds are the source of all the horrific folklore about cannibalism in the rainforests. Although there are a lot of conflicts and even deep hatred between the various intelligent races on the continent, no talking individual would be happy to eat another talking individual, not even those savage orcs on the savannah. Kobolds were different, they didn’t have this taboo of the intelligent races in the slightest, which was the biggest reason why they were never considered an intelligent race, of course their pitiful IQ was also a big reason.

Though their IQ is low, it’s low enough to support them in making simple tools, building tricky contraptions – darts coated in poison, well concealed traps, and so on, and also building some metal blades, though of poor quality.

Kobolds have very low single combat power, and although they are agile, a strong child can pickpocket an adult individual if the fighting space is small enough. Let the intelligent races headache is this creature reproduction is super strong, can mate all year round, pregnancy period of about a month, a year can give birth to 6 to 8 litters, a litter can give birth to 5 to 1 0, the hatchlings can continue to reproduce after a year of growth, the ability to expand the community is comparable to rats, and the females give birth to the same as a hen laying an egg so easy, not at all the same as humans or other humanoids give birth to that kind of over the gate of the ghost-like pain. The pain is not like the pain that humans or other humanoids feel when they give birth.

Some people say that the kobolds are the remnants of the ancient legend of the war between man and devil, is the curse of the devil left to the world, each civilization and race are strictly guarded against this kind of creatures, once this kind of creatures appeared on their own territories, immediately sent out large armies to clean up, so as not to let these [the devil’s relics] expand to all corners of the continent.

Harrison, after recognizing the true nature of the “ghosts and monsters”, shouted: “This is just a pirate tamed kobold, a kind of cowardly, lewd, cowardly and pathetic creatures, there is nothing to be afraid of. Warriors of the kingdom, hold on to your weapons and kill them all!”

The soldiers under his command all came from the rural areas of the kingdom’s hinterland, and most of them had never once left their hometowns before being drafted, so it was normal that they did not recognize the kobolds.

The commander-in-chief’s words were spread throughout the army, the kingdom’s army reorganized their morale, many people did not know kobolds but had heard of them, knowing that they were cruel in nature but underneath the fighting power, their hearts regained their courage. The soldiers who retreated back waved their weapons and wailed as they rejoined the battlefield.

But things did not go as well as Harrison imagined – as long as the soldiers overcame their fear of such strange creatures and fought seriously, they were able to kill the kobolds, who had low combat power, all over the streets.

The performance of the kobolds on the battlefield was beyond his knowledge – they, they were surprisingly not afraid of death.

(End of chapter)