harleyscars Page 16
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Power: 90
Agility: 101
Magic: 0
Defense: 45
Special skill: Concealing one's whereabouts.
Reproductive talent: Goblin Assassin.
Special talent: secreting milk.
Corruption Value: 66
Shizuku Misato's panel attributes:
Combat Talent:
Speed: 61
Power: 84
Agility: 86
Magic: 26
Defense: 41
Special Skill: Enhanced Transformation (Limited to once per day, 15 minutes per use, greatly increases combat power.)
Fertility Talent: Goblin Spellsword.
Special Talent: Sharp Tongue
Corruption Value: 46
Aponia Panel Properties:
Combat Talent:
Speed: 99
Power: 105
Agility: 100
Magic: 69
Special skill: Aphrodisiac
Defense: 51
Fertility Talent: Goblin Lightning Elemental Shaman
Special Talent: Commandments of Discipline, which allows those who believe in you to firmly believe in your commands.
Corruption Value: 50
It seems that due to the frequent pregnancies, the stats of the three maids have all improved, and their defense stats have been fully unlocked. No wonder Shizuku Misato has now recognized him as her master; it turns out her corruption value has increased from less than 40 to over 45. Ushiko is now wondering if a maid's corruption value exceeding 40 automatically triggers the recognition of her master based on her acceptance level? He can try this in the future. That way, by looking at the corruption value of different maids, he can roughly see how accepting they are of him, which will help him to better manage his interactions with the maids in the future.
"On this expedition, we will also take all the captured thieves with us."
Before setting off, Niu Zida chose to ride on Joel's beautiful back this time, and gathered the remaining nearly 50 thief prisoners together, gave them their original weapons, and told them that they were going to rob Dorei City. If they did well, everyone could share the spoils.
They were naturally excited to hear that they could rob these thieves, but they were still a little worried about attacking a proper noble city. Niu Zida encouraged them, saying:
"I've already bribed the gatekeeper. Your entry this time is tantamount to a sneak attack. If you succeed, you can rob as much as you want inside."
Hearing Niu Zida say this, the thieves were naturally delighted. To be honest, these days, working and building houses in the village every day, these thieves missed the days when they could make a living by robbing. Especially this time, they could rob a city, even if it was just a small city with a population of more than 1000. For them, it was much better than the village in the countryside. Naturally, they were all eager to get started.
Niu Zida brought nearly 50 captured thieves and 150 goblins with him on this expedition. The remaining goblins stayed in the village. To conceal themselves, the group did not go too far after leaving the village and approaching the territory of Dorei. They found a high hill to hide the group and continued their advance after nightfall. Fortunately, due to the desolation of Dorei territory, there was little activity outside during the day, so the group traveled along secluded paths and would not be discovered, ensuring the surprise of the night raid.
In preparation for the night raid on Dorei City, Niu Zida even had a simplified map drawn up, and he specifically sought out prisoners who had been to Dorei City to inquire about the city's interior. In addition, Niu Zida had ordered a considerable amount of rope to be brought. When Sanxiang Shizuku, surprised, asked about the purpose of this, Niu Zida replied mysteriously:
"You'll find out that night."
After waiting patiently until dusk near the edge of the Dore Territory's mountains, Niu Zida led his men along a small path and sneaked into the city of Dore Territory. By the time they arrived, it was almost midnight, as agreed.
This was Niu Zida's first time here. Under the cover of night, he couldn't see exactly what Dorrey looked like, but judging from the outline illuminated by the few firelights on the city walls, it shouldn't be a large town. After all, it was a small town that developed from a lord's castle, and there were many such small towns in medieval Europe.
"Yor, you come with me and take the men over there first."
Niu Zida did not lead everyone to approach the city. Instead, he rode Joel and led the human troops composed of thief prisoners to approach the city first, while Sanxiang Shizuku and Aponia led the goblin troops to guard the small hill outside to provide support.
Dorei City was just a small town, so there was only a rammed earth wall about 3 meters high around it. The so-called city gate was not very big either, just a wooden gate covered with iron. Niu Zida climbed onto Yor's beautiful back and arrived at the city gate. As agreed, he knocked on the gate three times. Sure enough, the iron gate slowly opened. It seemed that everything went smoothly. Combat really had bribed the gatekeeper.
Niu Zida led his men through the gate and into the city of Dorei. But just as half of them had entered, the ironwood gate suddenly slammed shut, splitting Niu Zida's small force in two. Twenty or thirty thieves were left outside the city gate.
Just as the city gates were about to close, torches were suddenly raised on the city walls. Several archers emerged from the walls and began firing arrows indiscriminately at the people below. Several thieves screamed in agony, and then several chainmail-clad foot knights charged forward.
Realizing the situation was not right, Yor quickly grabbed Niu Zida and used his stealth skill to hide his presence. He then slid a few steps along the rammed earth city wall away from the main force. After a few more steps, he climbed up the wall. Dorrey City was a small city, and the city wall was not high, so Yor climbed up without much effort.
"Master, just as you said, Compaq betrayed us."
"They agreed so readily and everything went so smoothly, they practically made it clear that this was a trap. But it's fine this way, I didn't know what to do with these thieves anyway, so this is a good opportunity to make use of them."
Watching the thieves trapped in the encirclement being slaughtered by the knights and militia of Dorre, their screams echoing everywhere, Niu Zida, hiding in the shadows, lightly kicked Joel's large knee and said:
"We can begin the next step of the plan now."
Chapter 45 The Battle of Dorrey Territory 2
Chapter 45.
Upon hearing Niu Zida's command, Joel charged towards the firelight on the city wall, drew his kunai dagger, and instantly felled several archers. The people on the city wall did not expect someone to suddenly break in, and since the knights were below killing the thieves, the archers on the wall had no close combat ability. As Joel charged in, they were thrown into chaos.
Niu Zida, clinging to Joel's beautiful back, told Joel not to linger and to rush towards the archers. The archers scattered and fled, leaving only a tall, thin middle-aged man in armor in the middle. Without asking any questions, Joel went straight for him and killed him with a single stroke.
When the people around saw the tall, thin middle-aged man being suddenly killed, they all scattered and fled for their lives.
In the chaos, Niu Zida ordered Joel to continue the pursuit and kill, quickly scattering the dozens of archers on the city wall. Joel captured a fleeing archer, and Niu Zida asked him to point out Spring's location. The man, trembling, pointed to the armored corpse on the ground and said:
"The person you just killed was the Viscount."
Good heavens, no wonder the archers scattered and fled after Joel casually cut down a few people. It turns out he had just carried out a decapitation strike. But that's fine, it saves me the trouble. Niu Zida looked down at the situation and found it was quite lively.
The chaos on the city walls also affected the mob below. The thieves were squeezed at the city gate and had no chance to resist the knights who were better equipped with chainmail. They were about to be slaughtered, and many thieves began to surrender. After all, they had only been lured by Niu Zida to rob and had no intention of fighting to the death.
"Lord Spring has fallen in battle! Lord Spring has fallen in battle???"
Niu Zida forced the archer to shout from the city wall. The knights who had surrounded the remnants of the bandits began to waver when they heard the news of their lord's death from the city wall. At that moment, Niu Zida ordered the archer to hoist the city gate. The iron gate of this small city was not heavy to begin with, and it could be opened by one person driving the pulley mechanism. After the city gate was hoisted up again, the bandits outside rushed in, and suddenly there were many more people.
Seeing this, the remaining knights became even more disorganized and began to retreat. However, they were not like the poorly trained militia. They made their way in an organized manner towards the castle in the center of the town. As long as they could return to the castle and hold it, there would still be a way. There was food there, stone walls that were stronger than the rammed earth walls outside, and some small defensive machinery. With just a dozen or so men, they could even resist an army of several hundred.
The remaining thieves swarmed into the city, but their fighting strength was indeed lacking. Many had no intention of pursuing the foot knights and instead began raiding houses. Niu Zida ignored them; the city was now in chaos. He rode his horse, Joel, down from the city wall, and, with a few thieves who could still keep up, continued the pursuit of the remaining foot knights. When the dozen or so foot knights reached the castle gates, they demanded they open them. The moment they entered, two of them were beheaded. Then, a large horde of goblins leaped out from all directions, trembling in the darkness alongside the foot knights.
In a face-to-face battle, these dozen or so foot knights, if arrayed, would likely be no match for even a thousand goblins. However, in the chaos of the night, with the knights huddled together and completely mixed in with these short goblins who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, they were barely visible and dared not exert too much force for fear of injuring their own men. Yet, these short goblins specifically targeted the joints of chainmail or the less protected legs, and within moments, several knights had injured their legs and fallen to the ground. Once they fell, several more goblins would pounce on them and begin stripping off their armor. Without their armor, the knights, who would normally be difficult to kill in close combat, were like lambs to the slaughter in the melee.
Moreover, amidst the chaos, a beautiful girl with long black hair appeared like a ghost, ambushing the human knights alongside goblins. This was none other than Shizuku Misago. It turned out that at the beginning of the war, Ushiko Tatsu had instructed Shizuku Misago to lead the goblins to scale the wall and seize the castle in advance, in order to prevent the knights on the walls from retreating to this place and continuing their stubborn resistance if they were to retreat to this location.
The chaotic battle didn't last long before the dozen or so knights were completely overwhelmed, and several even died tragically. Especially after Joel joined the battle and killed several knights in succession, the remaining knights finally couldn't hold on any longer and asked to surrender their weapons.
Amidst the chaos, Niu Zida blew the goblin bone whistle, immediately scattering the goblins who had been locked in combat. He ordered a headcount: the knights had nine remaining, two seriously wounded and seven dead; the goblins had suffered 15 casualties. Niu Zida was quite surprised that the diminutive goblins could achieve such a high exchange rate against genuine human knights in the darkness. He felt that these small goblins, if used effectively, could be quite formidable, given their obedience, willingness to fight, and reliable fighting spirit.
On the contrary, Niu Zida was greatly disappointed by the human thieves in this battle. Although he had indeed used these thieves as cannon fodder in the previous battles, they were easily defeated in direct combat and unilaterally suppressed. In subsequent attacks, only a few thieves followed him, while the rest ran off to plunder. Even if he had promised to allow them to plunder, that was supposed to be done after the war. How could they go off to do this during the war? Niu Zida thought it would be a good opportunity to cleanse this group of thieves.
"Alright, order everyone to assemble inside the castle."
"I didn't expect Master's judgment to be so accurate. How did you know that the castle was the last place these people would retreat to?"
"The center of this kind of town must have developed around a castle, so the best option is to capture the king while the fighting is taking place on the city wall. It's just that I didn't expect that Joel would kill the lord on the city wall. This task was originally assigned to you. It would have been even better if you could have captured him alive."
"I'm sorry, Master???"
“No need to apologize. The war was so chaotic back then, we didn’t even know Lord Spring. What could we do? By the way, what about Aponia?”
"She has taken control of the lord's family as ordered by her master."
Chapter 46 Amelie
Chapter 46.
Niu Zida's original plan was to take control of Spring's family while Aponia raided the castle, so that they could be used as hostages to force the enemy to surrender if they couldn't quickly capture the castle. Now, it's as if they've directly captured Spring's family.
"Spring has no children, only a wife, Amelie, whom he has been married to for two years. She is the adopted daughter of Duke Maybach of the Kingdom of Altaïr."
"Isn't she the old king's adopted daughter?"
That's just a popular misconception.
"Speaking of which, where's that bastard Compaq who screwed us over?"
"We haven't found it yet. The city is still quite chaotic. Master, do you want to go and stop them?"
"Yes, I'll handle things outside. Misato Shizuku, you just need to guard the castle with your men. No one except me is allowed to enter. Also, make sure that woman named Amelie is safe. She's a viscountess and will be very helpful to us later."
"Hmph, that woman is quite pretty."
"Huh? Misato Shizuku, that's not what I meant."
"I didn't mean anything by it."
"You're no fun."
"So, what do you mean, Master?"
Misato Shizuku rolled her eyes at Niu Zida, who could only back down, knowing he could never win an argument against this proud, cunning, and sharp-tongued beauty.
The gathered knights were handed over to Misato Shizuku to guard with the goblins. Niu Zida rode Joel out of the castle to stop the thieves who were already looting in the small town. At first, he only tried to stop them, but it didn't work. Later, Niu Zida simply stopped talking and rode Joel. Whenever he saw a thief looting, he would kill him with a single blow. He finally suppressed the thieves by killing them.
Finally, the robbers were stopped. Since most of the militia had fled and the knights had been captured, the city defenses were now weak. Niu Zida used the Goblin Bone Whistle to summon dozens of goblins to control the city gates. The Goblin Swordsman and the Goblin Mage led them to temporarily take over the city defenses. Other issues would be dealt with at dawn.
After quickly setting up the city's defenses, Niu Zida rode Joel back into the castle. He first reassured the disarmed knights, telling them:
"Lord Spring's death in battle was an accident. As long as you do not put up futile resistance, I will not endanger your lives. Your property and territory will remain as they are, and I will release you soon, provided you can ensure that you do not cause trouble."
The knights never expected to receive such a promise after being captured by a goblin. Goblins were always portrayed as a particularly cruel, ruthless, stupid, and short race. The conditions offered by this goblin leader were even better than those offered by human armies. At least if they were defeated by a human army, they would have to pay a large ransom to be released. But this goblin didn't mention ransom at all and seemed to be releasing them without asking for anything in return.
Seeing that the knights had no objections to his proposal, Niu Zida ordered the goblins to imprison them in the castle's prison. This place was originally for the people who could not pay taxes or grain or violated the laws of the territory, but now it was used to house these knights. Niu Zida pardoned the prisoners in the cell and made them the cell guards. However, Niu Zida also strictly ordered them not to mistreat the knights, after all, these people were still an important asset for him to rule the Dore territory in the future, and he could not afford to neglect them and cause too much hatred.
After settling the knights in, Niu Zida rode Joel into the inner chamber of the castle. This was the second floor of the castle, usually inhabited by the lord's family and maids. Dorrey was just a small city, so the castle was not large, with only two floors. If it were the castle of a lord from a wealthier or larger city, it might have four or five floors, with even more rooms inside.
At this moment, Aponia was guarding a pretty woman holding a baby, with two maids behind her. The three of them became uneasy when they saw Niu Zida enter. After all, the rumors of goblins' cruelty had long been ingrained in people's minds. It was said that captured women would be turned into reproductive machines, or even cruelly eaten. They never imagined that goblins could break into a city guarded by humans, and that other humans would be commanded by this goblin. It felt like a dream.
"Master, has the situation outside been calmed down?"
"Yes, the situation is under control. Is this Baron Spring's wife?"
“Yes, Amelie, this is my master.”
"Um...ah..."
The beautiful woman, referred to as Amelie, was about twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old. She had a good figure and wore a long dress. She was currently holding a baby who looked to be a few months old. Her beautiful eyes, filled with a hint of fear and surprise, looked at Niu Zida, who was clinging to Yormey's back. She hadn't expected goblins to speak human language. Niu Zida, on the other hand, recognized her as the eldest sister-in-law from "Don't Mess With Me, Eight Sons."
"Lady Amelie, hello. I am Niu Zida, the Goblin Lord. I have come to take over the Dore Territory. If you can cooperate with us, I can guarantee the safety of you and your child. I am deeply sorry for your husband's death. Swords have no eyes on the battlefield. It was just an accident. I will give him a proper burial."
Amelie, holding her child, looked at Niu Zida with terrified eyes, thinking she was about to be subjected to some kind of brutal abuse. But to her surprise, he spoke to her very politely. If he had covered his face, she would have thought she was talking to a human nobleman.
"Is my husband really dead?"
"Unfortunately, yes."
Upon hearing the news of her husband's death, Amelie took a deep breath, but unlike Niu Zida, she didn't lose control of her emotions. She simply said in a slightly somber voice:
"If that's the case, you've occupied Dorrey City. Please treat its residents well."
"Don't worry, we won't go too far. I will deal with any people who plunder the people first thing tomorrow morning. I also hope that you can cooperate with us to restore order in the city as soon as possible, which will also benefit the people in the city."
"You mean to use my name to appease the people in the city, is that it?"
"You are very clever, Mrs. Amelie."
Since the other party was truly clever, Niu Zida felt relieved, at least he didn't have to beat around the bush so much.
What good would that do me?
"First, I can assure you and your child of your safety. By the way, is your child a boy or a girl?"
"It's my daughter."