Chapter 169: Ceaseless Battle (1)

Red decided to return. On the way back to make his report, he encountered the Kobold Scout. No, he found them, and they didn’t know he was above them. He was still quicker than them even without his blessing.

The thought of taking them down crossed his mind, but he decided not to. If they were farther than the main kobold army, then he might consider taking them down. Not when they were so close to the main army.

He had seen what those Elite Kobold Archers were capable of. Their arrow could pierce the thick branches. They were too dangerous, unless he could take down the Elite Kobold Archers. But again, he had to pass the Kobold Scouts first to reach the Elite Kobold Archers.

Red went at full speed, trying to go back as fast as he could. The patrol was not that useless. He got used to the slippery branch and never made the same mistake that might cause him to fall.

He spent half a day outside before encountering the kobold army, but it only took him less than an hour to return. He leaped out from the tree and realized that he had made a stupid decision to jump from such a height.

Red landed on his feet, but then he pushed himself right away, using the momentum from the leap to roll forward. He rolled once on the ground and back on his feet again. That was smooth for something he didn’t plan.

Then he made his run toward the village. Two hobgoblins were on guard with four goblins. They just stared at him as if he was an anomaly. But there was no more hostility toward him.

He went straight to the chief hall, and there he saw the Chief, one Goblin Champion. He recognized that one as Reasonable.

The Chief was sitting on his stone chair, closing his eyes, resting. He opened his eyes when someone rushed into the building. The Chief was surprised to see Red this early. The early return was an indication that Red had found the village.

"You have found the village?"

"No, but I found the kobolds. An army of kobolds. They are coming to us!"

The Chief frowned, but he didn’t immediately ask as he made eye contact with Reasonable. The latter understood what the Chief wanted and left the hall.

"Wait for the other two. They need to listen to the report as well! Unless they are very close to our village."

"Not close. They will reach the village before dark at the fastest, and at the latest after dark."

Reasonable returned with Observer and Fool. They quickly went to their spots and looked at Red.

The Chief started asking the question, "What about their number?"

"Hundreds! At least over two hundred, might be over three hundred. I can’t be sure because I can’t get too close. They have the scout, those cloaked kobolds. Can’t get too close to those around."

The three Goblin Champions had a change of expression when they heard the possibility of fighting more than three hundred kobolds. They had around one hundred and fifty combined hobgoblins and goblins. A little over one hundred hobgoblins and less than one hundred goblins.

The Chief maintained composure after hearing the enemy number. That was daunting, but not impossible to defeat. They still had Red, and if they held the enemy long enough, Red could kill most of the kobolds with the fire. That was why he prolonged the condition between him and Red. That was to motivate Red to fight.

"Is there a chief among them?" The Chief asked again.

Red frowned; he tried to recall the encounter. He focused on their numbers so he didn’t look for a specific one. "I don’t see a Kobold Chief, but maybe there’s one for an army that big."

He couldn’t give a definite answer when he was unsure. A silence followed for a moment, until the Chief asked another question.

"Do you think we will lose?" He asked Red, not the three Goblin Champions.

Red was surprised that the Chief asked him the question, not the three Goblin Champions. There might be a hidden intention in asking him the question. Or it could be the Chief had trust in him more than he thought.

"I don’t know. We can win, but we will lose a lot of our people for sure." He didn’t say that they would lose, but they could win. He didn’t say that to inspire the Chief. There was a reason behind his claim: "My fire... They don’t know about my fireball yet, and I can reduce their number by many before we clash against them."

"The problem is, how are we going to delay them?"

The kobolds could storm into the village because Red had destroyed the wall. Nothing could stop him from storming into the village.

The Chief frowned, then he turned toward the three Goblin Champions. He was asking for an idea from them, but those three were hopeless when it came to strategy. All they could do was exchange glances at each other.

"Or we let them take over the village, and I burn them from outside."

Red proposed an idea, letting the kobolds take over the village and trap them inside with the fire. The problem was obvious: they could not use the village anymore as a shelter. Worse, the kobolds came at night, meaning they had to sleep in the jungle for the night.

"Just like how they storm into the village, what stops them from leaving the village? That will force us to fight them outside, and we don’t have an advantage fighting outside. We are getting outnumbered!" Observer finally spoke instead of just observing the conversation. This Goblin Champion pointed out the biggest issue with Red’s idea.

"We will be relying on our ambush just like our first fight. We will ambush their archer first, then we fight the rest after killing the archers. But yeah, we will have to spend our night in the jungle."

Red couldn’t think of a better idea. He just wanted to move the battle inside the jungle, his home ground. The place where he thrived. He didn’t need to worry about delaying the kobolds because the trees would be his helper. He would wipe the kobolds slowly and surely with his fireball and arrows. That was why he wanted to move the fight to the jungle.

"The jungle is too dangerous, especially at night. The blood will attract the King of the Jungle. Our ambush will be pointless when the King of the Jungle gets involved."

The Chief also disagreed with the idea of burning the village: "We need a better alternative."

Red frowned, not insisting on his idea. He tried to think of an alternative idea, but that was not something he could come up with easily. No matter how hard he thought about it, he couldn’t come up with anything. However, there was something he could do other than just standing idle here.

"I can’t be wasting my time here. I should be out there and reduce the number of the Kobold Scouts instead."

Since he couldn’t come up with a better idea. It would be better for him to get rid of the Kobold Scouts. He never really fought them head-on, and he didn’t know how strong they were in combat. But it was always better to fight fewer enemies.

The Chief clearly hoped for Red to come up with their next strategy. But he couldn’t deny what Red just said. It was better for Red to kill the kobolds that could be killed.

"Go ahead! We will do something about stopping them from coming into the village."

Red nodded and turned around, leaving the hall. There was really nothing he could do while staying here. He headed toward the village with a ruined wall. He picked up his pace, hoping the Kobold Scouts were nowhere near the village yet.

On the way, he passed the destroyed house. A few of them were destroyed in the previous fight. Then he reached the entrance that remained intact, but no wall on the side. He suddenly halted his steps, looking at the ruined wall, then he looked back at the ruined house.

Red blinked his eyes a few times as he thought of an idea. That might not be as effective as the wall, but if they put the house debris up. That could be used to delay the kobolds.

He didn’t hesitate to turn around and run back to where the Chief was. He dashed into the hall, and the four Goblin Champions seemed to be in a discussion. They were surprised to see his return.

"I have an idea!"

Red approached the Chief in his seat and told him the idea, and the Chief agreed to it right away. They just needed to pile the debris, and if they didn’t have enough, they could destroy more houses. That was better than nothing.