Chapter 132: The First Gunshot

Chapter 132: The First Gunshot

The first Draeven soldier had barely stepped clear of the airship when Noah realized that the ten invaders doesn’t move like previous enemies.

They did not gather into a line or form around a banner. Instead, they spread apart almost immediately, using the landing craft, shallow ground, scattered stones, and the slight rise beside the field as cover while maintaining enough distance between one another that a single attack could not easily catch several at once.

Noah watched from above as the squad established itself with practiced speed. One soldier moved toward the edge of the road and took position behind a broken stone wall, while another climbed onto slightly higher ground where the surrounding farmland could be seen for a considerable distance.

The soldier carrying the heavier weapon lowered himself behind part of the airship’s landing structure and began arranging ammunition beside him, leaving Noah with little doubt that the position had been chosen deliberately.

The goblins approaching from the nearest settlement were far less certain about what they were seeing. Noah could observe a Viridian patrol of several dozen soldiers moving along the road toward the landing area, their formation loose enough for travel but still shaped by centuries of fighting enemies armed with bows, spears, and crossbows.

They slowed once the foreign airship became visible and stopped well outside what they would normally consider dangerous bow range.

A sharp crack broke across the field. Noah saw one goblin jerk backward and collapse before anyone around him understood what had happened, and the sound reached the patrol only after the projectile had already struck.

No arrow crossed the space between the two groups, no visible spell formed, and no bowstring was drawn to give warning.

Several goblins turned toward the fallen soldier while the Draeven rifleman adjusted his aim. A second crack followed, and another goblin dropped with blood spreading across the front of his armor.

The patrol finally reacted, breaking away from the open road and rushing toward ditches, trees, low walls, and whatever cover they could reach.

Noah narrowed his attention on the rifles. The weapons had done exactly what the academy description implied, but seeing their effect on his own soldiers made the difference far more concrete.

Their projectiles crossed the distance too quickly for ordinary troops to follow, and the Draeven soldiers could fire again within seconds without the long preparation associated with bows or crossbows.

The goblins did not charge. That decision pleased Noah because his earlier warning had at least prevented the patrol from wasting their lives charging mindlessly.

Several soldiers dragged the wounded into cover while others began moving back along the road, almost certainly carrying word of what they had witnessed to the nearest military post.

The first serious attempt to approach came through an irrigation ditch that ran across part of the field. A small group of goblins crawled forward below the level of the surrounding ground, using the ditch to reduce their exposure while another group moved between scattered farm structures farther to the side.

Noah watched both movements develop and wondered which one the Draeven squad would notice first.

The answer came when the heavy weapon opened fire. Instead of the single cracks Noah had heard from the rifles, a violent series of reports tore across the field so rapidly that they almost merged together, and dirt erupted along the edge of the irrigation ditch. Two goblins were struck before the others dropped flat and stopped moving forward.

Noah’s expression hardened as he watched the machine gunner shift slightly and fire another burst toward the farm structures.

Wooden boards shattered, pieces of roofing broke loose, and one goblin who had exposed himself for only a moment was thrown backward.

A dense formation crossing open ground against that weapon would not merely take losses; it could be destroyed before reaching the enemy.

That realization was exactly why Noah did not interfere. He could have explained magazines, firing rates, fields of fire, and the importance of dispersal through another divine message, but doing so would only replace the goblins’ learning process with his own knowledge.

Ten enemies were few enough that mistakes could be survived, while later rounds might not offer the same mercy.

More Viridian soldiers began arriving before long. Noah saw several hundred troops spreading through the countryside, but the officers leading them did not gather everyone along the main road.

The first patrol’s survivors had clearly communicated enough for the reinforcements to approach through woodland, drainage channels, hedges, and groups of farm buildings instead.

The difference in behavior appeared almost immediately. Small groups moved forward separately and exposed themselves only briefly, allowing the Draeven soldiers to fire at scattered targets rather than a single mass.

Some goblins deliberately appeared at the edge of cover and withdrew as soon as rifles turned toward them, while others used those moments to move closer from another direction.

Noah realized what they were doing after watching the pattern repeat. They were testing the unfamiliar weapons without knowing the technical principles behind them, learning which distances produced accurate fire and how quickly the humans could shift from one target to another.

Every bullet taught them something even when they could not yet explain the mechanism that fired it.

The invaders remained dangerous despite their small number. Their squad leader kept the soldiers spread around the airship while using hand signals and radio communication to redirect fire, and the marksman punished goblins who remained visible for too long.

The mounted machine gun on the airship also joined the fight when a larger Viridian group attempted to move around the western side of the landing zone, forcing them back behind a line of trees.

Several crossbowmen eventually reached positions concealed among trees close enough for their bolts to threaten the landing zone. Their first volley missed because the Draeven soldiers were spread out and partially protected, but the attack forced several of them to shift.

A second volley came from a different direction before the humans had fully settled again.

One bolt struck a Draeven soldier in the upper arm and knocked him sideways. Noah saw the others drag him behind the airship while returning fire into the trees, and for the first time the technological advantage no longer seemed completely one-sided.

Firearms extended range and increased killing power, yet the humans still needed to see enough of their targets to use those advantages effectively.

The Draeven squad answered the growing pressure with another unfamiliar weapon. One soldier pulled a small object from his equipment, removed something from it, and threw it toward a cluster of goblins moving behind a stone barrier.

Noah recognized the general category a moment before the explosion tore through the position.

The blast threw dust, fragments of stone, and bodies into the air. Several goblins died immediately while others stumbled away wounded, and nearby troops scattered farther from one another after seeing what a single thrown object could do.

Noah watched that adaptation happen within minutes, another small change in behavior produced without any divine instruction.

By then, the Viridian forces had established positions around almost the entire landing area.

The ten Draeven soldiers still controlled the open ground directly around their airship, but every attempt to fire in one direction allowed goblins elsewhere to move closer.

Their ammunition was also visibly finite, and Noah could see discarded magazines accumulating near several firing positions.

The goblins did not understand magazines yet, but they understood pauses in their attacks. Whenever a rifle stopped and its user reached for fresh ammunition, nearby troops advanced more aggressively, forcing the humans to shorten the time available for reloading.

The observation was crude, but it was enough to begin anticipating the next attacks.

Heavier Viridian equipment arrived as the encirclement tightened. Noah watched several portable ballistae and large crossbows being moved forward behind wagons, walls, and earthworks improvised from farm materials.

Against Caldris, such weapons had been used against fortifications and dense formations, but the goblins now aimed them toward the stationary airship.

The first heavy bolts struck armor plating and failed to penetrate deeply. Later shots were adjusted toward exposed engines, control surfaces, and external structures, areas that required less brute force to damage. One bolt tore through a support assembly near the rear engine, while another struck a section of exposed machinery and produced a burst of smoke.

The airship’s engines continued running, but Noah could see that the damage had made any safe departure increasingly unlikely.

The ten soldiers were losing their easiest route of retreat while the Viridian troops continued tightening their positions instead of wasting lives on a direct rush across the field.

Another Draeven soldier fell to a crossbow bolt while firing from behind the landing gear. A third was struck soon afterward when goblin archers saturated a section of cover with enough arrows that precision stopped mattering.

The humans answered with grenades and bursts of machine-gun fire, inflicting more casualties, but their perimeter was visibly shrinking.

The final phase began when several Viridian groups reached positions close enough to threaten the airship from different directions at once.

The Draeven soldiers concentrated their fire on one advancing group, only for another to move through a drainage channel and emerge much closer to the transport than before.

The machine gun swung toward them and fired, cutting down several goblins, but that movement exposed the opposite side.

Crossbow bolts struck another soldier while goblin infantry rushed from behind a farm wall, crossing the remaining distance before the rifles could be brought fully around.

Once the first goblins reached spear and sword range, the character of the fight changed rapidly.

The Draeven soldiers still fired at point-blank distances and killed several attackers, but they no longer possessed the open space that had made their rifles so dominant.

More Viridian troops entered from multiple directions, and the shrinking squad could not cover every approach.

Noah watched the last machine gunner disappear beneath a rush of shields and spears while two remaining soldiers attempted to withdraw toward the damaged airship.

Crossbow bolts struck one before he reached the ramp, and the other fired several final shots before goblins overwhelmed him beside the landing structure.

The field became quiet gradually rather than all at once. Viridian troops continued searching around the airship and surrounding cover until the academy interface finally changed, confirming that all ten Draeven invaders had been neutralized and that Round One was complete.

Noah’s score increased by one hundred points for surviving the first round at Difficulty Five.

He barely looked at the points. His attention remained fixed on the goblins cautiously approaching the dead soldiers and gathering unfamiliar equipment from the field, because the objects left behind could prove to be more valuable than the score attached to the victory.

Rifles were collected without anyone knowing exactly how they functioned. Ammunition magazines, grenades, body armor, radios, the heavier machine gun, and pieces of the damaged airship were separated and prepared for transport to military workshops, while officers prevented curious soldiers from handling unfamiliar objects carelessly.

Noah had no intention of explaining the technology for them. Reproducing a rifle required understanding metallurgy, chemical propellants, precision manufacturing, ammunition, and mechanisms that the goblins had never needed to develop in the same form.

The captured weapons were examples to study, not shortcuts capable of transforming the civilization overnight.

The recovery interval began while the dead were removed and the wounded were carried toward nearby settlements. Noah watched the battlefield empty slowly, seeing the marks left by bullets across walls, shattered timber around the farm buildings, and dark patches where grenades had torn apart ground that goblin soldiers once considered safe.

Ten invaders had been enough to force changes in tactics within a single afternoon.

Noah could already imagine what would happen if the same weapons appeared in the hands of thousands, supported by heavier equipment and enough ammunition to maintain fire for days rather than hours.

The academy interface brightened again before the recovery period had completely faded from Noah’s attention.

A new notice appeared, informing him that the next wave would contain one hundred Draeven soldiers and that Round Two would begin after the allotted preparation interval.

Noah looked from the number back toward the captured rifles being carried away from the field.

The first ten invaders had taught his civilization what a firearm could do. Noah hopes his species has learned enough.