The charge came from both sides of the village at once, a tidal wave of Hobgoblins being chased by clusters of Ogres.
"Well, it’s been nice knowing you." The old gunslinger sighed as he reached down into his wagon to grab another bandolier.
He methodically loaded the rounds from boxes of ammunition as they sat on the roof of their wagons and watched their doom approach. Going inside the village was unlikely to change much except their time of death, and their skills would be needed on the battlefield.
The gates of the city slammed shut, and Dominic heard something being piled against the back of them. Most likely wagons full of rocks to keep the Ogres from smashing in the gates.
But that also meant that the slower moving farmers had nowhere left to hide. So, they all turned towards the Capital and continued to run.
The attackers wouldn’t care about a few unarmed families, and if the threat was here, then anywhere else should be safer.
Dominic placed his sceptre on his legs as he sat on the roof of his wagon and ate a meat bun.
But there was something he could do to increase his odds of survival.
Bella had traded him for Enhancement Cores of mana recovery, Spell Power and Endurance along with the recipes when he traded her the pistol.
Endurance would be necessary, but one level worth of enhancement would be enough to get him started.
All the other Mana Cores, other than the Ogre Cores that Advisor Morgana had given him for the project, were dumped into the Spell Power Enhancement gem.
The Magitech item lit up with power as Dominic enhanced it. Through Level 1, then Level 2 and Level 3. Dominic stopped there, as he only had two Ogre cores left.
Those, he put into the [Sorcerer’s Spellbook] and hoped for the best.
Nothing, still somewhere in Level 3.
But with the sceptre, and the Level 3 buff of the Spell Power gem now hanging from Dominic’s necklace where the [Minor Illusion] Spell Gem used to reside, he was as ready as he was going to get.
The tide of monsters were still nearly three hundred metres away when the crack of rifles began, and multiple Ogres staggered, then collapsed. That was when Dominic truly understood the name of the blueprint. Ogre Hunting Rifle, not Ogre Hunting Rifle
So that was the power of a Rare Quality Rifle made with the strongest Ogre Cores that they could find? Only a few shots per monster, and they were falling dead from hundreds of metres away.
When the Hobgoblin tide made it to two hundred metres, more rifles joined the battle. Then, at a hundred and fifty metres, the first wave of arrows arched through the sky.
For one glorious moment, it seemed that the battle would be easily won.
Then, the counterattack began.
Massive fireballs hurled from the Ogre lines exploded among the Reservists, shattering formations and morale at the same time. The riflemen of the Royal Guard focused on the Ogre Mages, but they couldn’t all be eliminated before another wave of [Fireballs] could be launched.
Over half the Reservists were dead, and they hadn’t even gotten to draw their swords.
Then the Hobgoblins raised a wall of shields in front and above themselves, letting the waves of arrows crash harmlessly against thick wood.
"Fuck, who taught them to use a Phalanx?" The old gunslinger muttered as the enemies on both sides changed tactics.
Nobody on the battlefield that day had ever heard of such a thing as Hobgoblins using trained military formations as a cohesive unit. Most assumed they didn’t even have the intelligence to manage it.
The Ogres were falling fast, but the Hobgoblin tide crashed upon the wall of reservist spears as Dominic began to unleash a barrage of [Arcane Blasts] upon them.
With the upgraded damage, where the spells hit, Hobgoblins died. But there were thousands upon thousands of them, and the second rank was climbing over the bodies of the first to overwhelm the spearmen.
Dominic activated [Mage Armour] over his Cogwork plate, and prayed to whoever might be listening that this went better than he was expecting it to.
Blades crashed upon blades, and the smell of burning leather came to Dominic’s nose as the Gunslinger reloaded his pistols again, the barrels faintly glowing from rapid firing, and his gloves burning from the heat as he reloaded.
Soon, he would have to dunk the pistols in water between reloads, to keep the ammunition from overheating.
The defensive line was falling into a smaller circle around the core carriages, where Dominic and the Gunslinger were firing as their numbers dwindled.
The enemy was well inside the range of the archers and gunners on the wall of Aramos Village, but with their numbers, it didn’t matter. They were cutting through the defenders so fast that no amount of archery support would change the outcome.
The gunslinger dropped his pistols into a bucket and grabbed another pair, ones that weren’t overheated from rapid firing. Dominic fired out [Arcane Blasts] as fast as bullets from the pistol, but he could feel himself becoming lightheaded from the exertion.
Well, he was sitting down anyhow. There was nowhere to collapse to except the roof of his forge.
At least it was warm.
The fight ground to a stalemate as the riflemen could now cover a smaller area, so Dominic took a quick breather and began to toss the Royal Guard fresh bags of shot as they paused to reload.
They had to be running low by now, but they were becoming incredibly proficient with the charging levers, and they had even learned to operate them one-handed with the rifle against their legs as they reloaded the lead balls.
Then, Dominic saw humans on horses racing their way at a full charge from the side opposite the city. Could they be saved? If this was another of the Royal investigation teams, they would only need to hold out for a few more minutes.
The sound of hooves brought renewed hope to the defenders, and after tossing a chewy trail mix ball in his mouth, Dominic rejoined the battle.
Just a few more minutes to salvation.
The cavalry was close now, close enough that Dominic could see a very familiar, cruelly scarred face. A face he would know anywhere.
After all, he had been ten years old when he put those scars on the man’s face with his own claws after that monster had burned his village to the ground.