Chapter 356 The Northern Diversion
The horns blared so loudly that it could be heard throughout the valleys. Slashreaver was looking nervously back to the Valley Town of Gob Gob Bu. It was hard to imagine that this beautiful sight would turn into a battlefield in no time at all. The Thunder Orcs would start their attack soon.
Even though it's supposed to be a mere "Diversion" as reported by Jin, it was clear that no side could afford to pull their punches. The broken gate had been replaced by a permanent fort wall with the combined effort of Shu and Sandy before the Treant left for the Coastal Town of Gob Gob Si. The Sand Witch remained to aid with the defences of the town. This time around they had prepared more than just her sand sentinel to oversee the walls.
Goblin Mages, Engineers, Another Jin and Niu Lang, the Cowherd had come together and the result of this very first collaboration between the members of different races resulted in 'Sand Golems'.
Another Jin had purchased large hamster ball looking spheres through the System's market channel as the core of the pilot unit. Being an experienced Mecha pilot, Niu Lang had suggested some specifics to be placed in by the goblin engineers. For example, the type of seats, the pedals to drive the golem, the pulleys to control the movements, buttons and flip switches alongside with headlights and ventilations.
The Goblin Mages under Sandy's lead had managed to procure large piles of sand and rock from the valley's old mines and fuse it around the large 'Hamster Ball'. The rocks from the valleys were mixed with a sort of dense mineral, unqiue to this particular valley which acted as a sort of natural armour and was shaped into the core skeleton for the Sand Golem. The sand and soil were processed over and over with the subsequent help of Goblin mages to ensure that it would be as hard as possible. Finally Another Jin used a secret ingredient for these Sand Golems.
Reanimation magical charms, which were aptly named the 'Frankenstein Activators'. (A byproduct of Half Ghoul Lord Derek's inventions)
Niu Lang with his ample experience as the pilot of Mechataur had been the perfect candidate to test out the first prototypes of the Sand Golem. He was rather happy with the result, especially after the activators aided with the smoothness movement of the golems, though the speed was still an issue.
Also, when the visiting werejackals saw the project in the northern region while aiding the cultivators in the past few goblin days, they queried about their project too. Grey became especially interested in it since he had already assisted in the research of the reanimation charms and had developed an interest in creating new things. Gathering a bunch of Jacks, they asked Another Jin to allow them to assist and used some earth strengthening magic unique to the werejackals as the final touch.
Surprisingly one more person got involved in their creation. Colonel Ayse proved herself to not only be a wonderful hidden spy agent for Jin but also a hidden treasure trove full of experience. The young Orc Lady secretly took the time to review the Sand Golems and criticised numerous points before she made suggestions how to improve them in the future. (Since the latest war operation was too near to make any major changes.)
Nevertheless she did praise their effort. After all, it was rather ingenious how Another Jin and the rest of the gang managed to create a mechanised walker within such a short amount of time without access to the Lost Tech blueprints.
Eventually, the Sand Golems became operational with very little mechanical materials and more of the natural ones, making it easy to replace on the battlefield. Goblin mages would be the ones to do the heavy lifting such as providing the mana for the Sand Golem to move. So long the large hamster ball core was still intact they could keep on fighting. Ayse deduced that their expendability and prolonged durability could become the winning point that might let them triumph over the 'Tin Cans' she had designed for the Orc Army.
A few carefully selected Goblins (mostly based on their size to fit into the hamster ball) were the ones privileged to test them out a few days before the start of the Northern Diversion.
Upon seeing the finished products of the mass produced Sand Golems, Niu Lang could not take it anymore and decided to renamed the Sand Golems into 'Sandroku Golems' to make them sound cooler. (The name change became an overwhelming success. Most of the goblins loved it. They even took some leftover paint they managed to salvage from the town area and painted decals on their Sandroku Golems to customise them further.) Even, Gladios got a teeny weeny bit jealous of those golem pilots. Unfortunately because of his size, he was unable to ride one of them. Slashreaver did joke that all his father needed to do was to make a request to Jin and he might create one on the condition he'd join him.
With the addition of ten Sandroku Golems, the goblins were able to extend their defence line to the outskirts of the valley town where they could utilise the side cliffs to flank the Thunder Orc Army before they reached the Fort Walls of the valley town. Each Sandroku Golem was carrying a makeshift artillery gun which the engineers managed to wire to their backs. It turned them into portable artillery which could respond to any threat as soon as possible.
The only drawback was the limited ammo that they were carrying. Hence, the Sword General Gladios would be the deciding factor when or where to use it and inform them through their accompanying magpies. Not to mention, those Sandroku Golems held rock solid shields and comparatively large melee weapons. They waited patiently at side of the cliffs were the several anti tank cannons had also been placed with the help of Sandy.
When Jin opened the 'instance' to the public, most of the newer cultivators were teleported to the northern valley and unlike Spear General Argent, Sword General Gladios was ordered by Jin to command the cultivators directly. He apologised that these few comrades of his did not see much of the battle compared to the ones that had been selected to assist the Coastal Town of Gob Gob Si.
Gladios roughly understood the underlying reason behind Jin's decision. The Coastal Town was guarded heavily and had more goblins manning the area, the distance the goblin army had to cover was large. Assigning Argent with fresh recruits would only worsen the Spear General's headache in coordinating the defence. On the other hand in this Valley Fort, the enemies could only come from one particular direction, it was a do or die situation. Either they'd survive as one, or fail as one.
Hence, Gladios gladly took the newer comrades under his wing and commanded them strictly. It was a surprise not one had any qualms about following Gladios who was thought to be a high ranking NPC. Unknown to him, not too long ago the cultivators had learnt that it was a bad idea to go against the NPCs. One of the cultivator who was a Grade 4 and a regular at King's Monster wanted to skip all the introduction and simply want to start killing some Orcs. After he was refused, he decided to challenge Captain Bai to a duel, which the later accepted immediately.
The moment the duel started, the cultivator tried to attack Captain Bai yet the Panda evaded each strike easily. No extra movement and always with just enough distance to avoid the slash. The cultivator then tried using his strongest technique… but failed miserably when Bai just walked to him and smashed his paw on the cultivator's face. Only splatters of blood were left and the headless body was teleported out of the instance. After he had awoken, Jin refunded the money with a stern look and warned him not to come back anymore if he did not wish to follow the rules of the dungeon instances.
The other cultivators who witnessed that incident, spread it like wildfire in forums and it instantly became part of the "Things to know before entering Jin's Dungeons and Pandas" guide on the internet. Hence, the cultivators followed Gladios strict to the letter whenever he gave out any order via the magpies.
"Go, enjoy yourselves. The frontline troops are arriving soon." Gladios send the cultivators off when he heard the blaring horns of the Thunder Orc Army. At the same time, he had begun to give orders to the goblins staying at the cliff to commence their attacks the moment they saw the Thunder Orc Army. If Jin's intel proved to be correct, it should turn into an easy battle with all their counter measures in place.
Gladios stood on the fort walls as he saw the humanoids mowing the orcs down. Yet the Orcs seemed more determined than the ones he had seen in recent days. As if they were not just putting their lives down for the attack but there was a certain kind of craze which only fanatics had. Then Gladios noticed something else.
Each and everyone of their weapons emitted sparks of thunder.
He remembered that the Thunder Orc Mages were supposed to be severely decimated by the failed initial invasion. By all means the frontline orcs should not have such strong thunder imbued powers in their weapons. If not for the humanoids acting as the vanguards, his own goblins would have been killed in battle almost instantly. Yet, the humanoids were also visibly struggling against the ferocious attacks the Orcs were putting in.
"If we assume that they have not hidden any more Orc Mages, which should be impossible without anyone noticing…Then that could only mean one thing… Sandroku 004 do you have any visual on any powerful orcs in the vicinity?!" Gladios grabbed on the magpie and shouted his orders into the poor little bird.
However, there was no reply.
"Sandroku 005! Respond! 006! Any of the golems respond NOW!!!" The only answer he got was more silence which Gladios had started to fear for the worse. Unless there was someone somehow had the capability to jam their signal (which according to Jin was impossible) it would mean someone must have defeated the enhanced golems. And whoever or whatever that was doing it had not been taken account into any part of their plans.
But before Gladios could spend more time pondering about it, suddenly a large purple lightning bolt ran across the valley and struck the fort walls. Sandy who was on the fort wall tried to block the attack but she only managed to deflect its might partially because of the sudden strike. The purple lightning bolt not only caused Sandy to lose her left arm, it destroyed a portion of the fort walls too.
"Purple Thunder!" Gladios shouted to warn the rest of the army about the arrival of the Avatar of Syldra as he tried to help Sandy up. The Sand Witch refused as she tried to collect sand, dust and dirt from the debris of the destroyed wall to cover the wound she had suffered. In the next instant, another lightning bolt flashed towards the fort wall. Gladios had expected another attack and used the large two handed sword from his back to block.
The sword glowed with immense light, creating a magical light barrier which protected Gladios, Sandy and a few of the goblins manning the fort wall from the imminent attack. Purple Thunder did not hesitate to run towards Gladios ignoring the humanoids which the Orcs were pushing them back. But even before Purple Thunder reach the fort walls, Slashreaver intercepted him in the valleys.
"I am your opponent!" Slashreaver roared as he released a slash of chi towards the Avatar of Syldra. Purple Thunder smirked and evaded that almost immediately while countering Slashreaver with a 'slow' ball of lightning. (To Purple Thunder, certain lightning spells were considered slow in his eyes.) The ball of lightning electrocuted Slashreaver but it gave Gladios enough time to enter the scene.
Despite carrying a greatsword, Gladios' actions were swift and precise enough to make Purple Thunder think twice about not evading properly. The orc himself took out his own greatsword. It was a sight to behold as the dark purplish sparks seemed to challenge the white shine of the goblin's sword. Against the Greatsword of Light, it was nothing but a distraction for Purple Thunder to waste time for him to prep his spells. But as long as Purple Thunder managed to bring Gladios down, the goblin army would become less of a threat. The two started to exchange blows though they seemed to be somewhat equal. The slightest mistake could prove fatal for either side.
"Don't you dare forget about me!" Slashreaver entered the fray exactly when Purple Thunder had finally managed to force Gladios into revealing an opening. He felt annoyed that this brat dared to disturb him and so he decided to change the trajectory of his attack towards Slashreaver. A simple palm strike enchanted with his electrical powers flashed towards Slashreaver's face. The goblin was unable to evade nor block in time.
"ARRRRRGHH!!!!" The intensity of the electricity burned half of Slashreaver's face away in a moment and it made Gladios stagger a little when he saw his son in such a dire condition. Purple Thunder himself became surprised as he had expected a counter attack. Wanting to make use of the situation he retracted his hand and prepared another lightning palm strike.
"Father!!" Slashreaver did his best to overcome the immense pain he was experiencing momentarily through sheer willpower and gave it his all to stab Purple Thunder with all his power. As Purple Thunder had already written off the goblin and he did not was expect that attack and was unable to evade in time. The Avatar of Syldra cursed as he redirected the attacking palm strike to block or at least mitigate the sword stab.
The sword was evaporating due the heat produced from the lightning palm strike but not before Slashreaver injured one of Purple Thunder's main casting hands. However, the backlash from the lightning palm strike burnt not just the sword but Slashreaver's hands too, melting them right in front of him. This time, Gladios did not hesitate and made use of the opportunity his son had provided to slash his greatsword at the preoccupied Purple Thunder.
Trying to turn around, the Orc managed to mitigate the attack partially by using his greatsword yet the fury of Gladios broke Purple Thunder's greatsword cleanly into two as he sunk his weapon into Purple Thunder's body. The Avatar of Syldra coughed blood. He was unable to scream as blood had already entered his lungs from the cut. He looked up to the Sword General and his mouth turned into a sick smile.
If Purple Thunder couldn't kill the Sword General with his bare hands, then he would suicide with whatever powers he had contained in himself.
"Get away!!!" Sandy managed to cry out. In her still sorry state, she used her magic to pull Gladios and Slashreaver away from the scene with sand. In that same time the Avatar was pumping himself up to explode, the pilots of two heavily damaged Sandroku Golem jumped down from the cliffs. The Golems were no longer able to fight but it was enough to move. They landed and leaped towards Purple Thunder, piling on top of him.
"Sandy Big Sis! Do what you need to do!!!" One of the goblin pilots who was bleeding profusely inside the Sandroku golem 007 shouted to her while pinning Purple Thunder down with the Greatsword of Light still stuck in him. Sandroku Golem 002 picked up 007's towering shield and slammed down two of their shields on the living orc bomb that was primed to set off anytime. Sandy knew immediately what they were doing and quickly used whatever magic she could summon to surround Sandroku 002 , 007 and Purple Thunder within layers of sand, rock and soil.
"System! More magic! NOW!!!" Sandy shouted and the System immediately compiled as she could see a glimmer of light being emitted out of the 'prison' of sand she had haphazardly created. Peppers was immediately summoned and a cylindrical barrier was placed around the sand prison which Sandy created before it broke down. The living bomb then exploded and both orcs and cultivators saw streaks of lightning running along the cylindrical magic barrier and up to the sky.
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU STARING AT! CONTINUE TO ATTACK! DON'T LET THEIR SACRIFICE BE IN VAIN!!!" Gladios roared and both the goblins and cultivators gave shouted in unison as they pressed on with their attack against the shocked Orcs.