The World Dragon's Heir-Chapter 58: Those Aren’t Goblins

The sound of the driver’s shotgun, followed by dozens more guns firing, was all the warning that Dominic needed to tell him that the fighting around the wagon had recommenced with brutal intensity.

The shouting and sounds of steel on steel began seconds later, while he was climbing out the window to move to the roof of his carriage.

"What the hell? I thought we were under attack by Goblins." Dominic shouted at his driver.

"No time to warn you, just kill them." He replied as he reloaded his shotgun.

The pump action weapon only held five rounds, but they were five deadly rounds. The downside was that in a long fight, there were long downtimes unless you had a second shotgun and a loader.

The group attacking didn’t have a single regular Goblin in it. Instead, it was entirely Hobgoblins with a trio of Ogres backing them up. Against an enemy at that level, even the shotguns of the drivers weren’t a sure kill, they just wounded the attackers.

"Focus on the Ogres and I’ll work on the Hobgoblins." Dominic instructed as he sent an [Arcane Blast] into the face of one of the huge green humanoids.

"Got it. But we’re not going to have enough guards here to hold them off forever."

The sound of the drivers’ guns paused again as most of the team had to reload, and the Ogres began to push forward, trying to move the guards back enough that the Ogres longer reach could attack the carriages. They knew that if they crippled the humans’ mobility, they would be able to encircle them and claim all the loot for themselves when the survivors fled.

Horns blared in the distance, the sound of reinforcements that had been drawn by the noise, and for a moment the Ogres hesitated. But their numbers were high enough that they were certain they could take care of this convoy and still get the loot before the distant horns reached them.

Dominic heard screaming from the next wagon up, and realized that the Hobgoblins had managed to get past the guards behind him and tear one of the shutters off the camp supporters’ carriage.

Dominic decapitated a hobgoblin with a well aimed spell, then smashed the skull of another when it tried to jump onto his carriage. The driver finished it off, and the body fell to the ground, but even more of the creatures were getting past the guards as their numbers increased.

"Where are they even coming from? There should have been scouts in the woods to send up a warning, but these Hobgoblins just keep coming." The driver of the carriage behind them complained over the screeching of terrified workers beneath him.

Dominic’s driver laughed. "Well, that’s what we’re out here to find out, isn’t it? How is your ammunition doing?"

"About half. Then I’ll have to get down and start using the sword."

Dominic chuckled. "No need for that. Hobgoblins are tall, stay there, and they’ll come to you."

The driver laughed as he continued to fire.

"Aye lad, that’s the one good thing about being overrun, you don’t need to go anywhere to find a target."

The noncombatants were gathering their belongings now and preparing to flee as soon as there was a gap in the battle lines. It was Cygnia standard procedure, to get them out of the way so that the guards didn’t have to deal with protecting them during a last stand. It wasn’t always possible, but against bandits and smaller numbers of powerful enemies, it worked well enough.

They were also still fairly close to the city, and if they could make the tree line around the farms, the guards from the city patrols would see them.

They were gathering near the rear, where there weren’t any attackers at the moment, and a small group of guards had surrounded them to stop anything from following them.

Things were already taking a turn for the worst, as the guards were now pulled to both ends of the caravan, with just the drivers and the apprentices left in the middle. They had a good pair of apprentices, with the gunfighter in the next carriage happily firing out of the open windows at anything that got close to them and Dominic on top of his with Arcane Blast.

It didn’t make up for the lack of actual soldiers, though, and the excess Hobgoblins were beginning to turn away from the guards to come back to the middle of the caravan, which was now unguarded.

They weren’t the only ones though, the sounds of fighting at the front were getting closer, and Dominic could see the golden glow of holy magic being used only a few wagons away, coming in sight around the corner.

The cleric with the chain mail and glowing mace led a group of charging guards coming to their relief, and Dominic recognized them as Aramos Village guards, including Bella and Wiz.

He fired off a spell on a Hobgoblin that got too close to the big Crusader, who smiled up at him while hacking the head off the wounded Hobgoblin.

Bella was snapping off shots with the Mana Pistol as they advanced in the lead of the guards, who were running to keep up with the two villagers and the cleric.

"Keep going, they need the help at the back." The gunslinger in the carriage in front of Dominic yelled to the guard when the cleric paused.

"The three of us will stay here, the rest of you move along." The Cleric agreed, sending the other twenty men forward toward the fight.

Bella and Wiz gave the group a casual salute, then moved to engage the Hobgoblins that had come from the side to attack the centre of the line.

"Do you have any idea where they’re coming from?" Dominic called down to the Cleric.

"The Aramos Guards think that they do. I don’t know the details, but they’re almost cleared up at the front as long as no more show up."

There were nearly a hundred bodies in sight along the roadside, just in the centre section of the convoy, enough that it would have made a solid reinforcement group for the battle that was ongoing around the city. Someone on city defence would be delighted they never showed up, but the numbers were greatly concerning for everyone else.

Dominic slid down from his wagon to go loot the Hobgoblins with a wink at Wiz, who smirked as he realized what the little blacksmith was doing. The Cleric didn’t mind, and the gunslinger was only a step behind him once he realized what Dominic was doing.

"No point in letting the Royal Guard get all the chances at good stuff." He whispered as he joined Dominic in looting the bodies.

"Exactly, call it an employee benefit. But if you get any blacksmithing recipes, I’ll trade you for them." he agreed.

The veteran cowboy laughed. "If I get one, it’ll be a miracle. The Monster Blessing has a way of giving you what you need, and I have no use for a recipe I can’t use."

They checked all the bodies in the area while the Cleric waited patiently for them to finish.

"I reckon that the gods won’t mind, as long as you share with the drivers." The battle Cleric informed them as they returned.

"Got it, holiness. We’ll split the loot with them." The Gunslinger agreed.

Not an even split for sure, but the monster cores certainly would be split somewhat fairly, as well as the Common Grade magical items.