Dungeon of Niflheim

173 Chapter 173: Dungeon war (12)

Time continued to pass, and both Gobuske’s forces and Frost’s forces steadily made their way deeper into one another’s dungeons. With Frost’s team faring a good deal better. The speed wasn’t too different given that Gobuske’s second area was far more complicated to navigate, but the loss in forces was far more substantial for Gobuske. The defences prepared in the winter forest were just too well defended and he struggled to come up with a decent method to deal with the charging boars.

His forces weren’t well matched against such a foe, with the boars causing the majority of losses. But his hob goblin commanders pushed on and eventually reached the operations centre, the heavily fortified glade wherein the frost troll lay. Unfortunately, Gobuske ordered his forces to stay clear of this area, not willing to even attempt breaching its defences. And unlike his second room, there were other avenues to explore. Gobuske just hoped that the entrance to the next room wasn’t within the glade and had to be wary of attacks in his backline by leaving it untouched. His forces were now a paltry sum, less than 40% were left, and morale was at an all time low. They barely succeeded in killing the defenders, with only the goblin wolf riders showing decent results, but all their kills were F-rank monsters at best.

Gobuske sat in his private space with a deep frown, his hands were clammy, and his back was drenched in sweat, things weren’t looking good. Bala behind was smirking evilly, he could see through the dungeon menu what was happening and was getting ready to gloat. Gobuske had very little chance of winning now, the goblin loses as expected. To be honest if Gobuske won Bala didn’t know what he’d do. Accept that he was wrong haaaaah impossible, his pride would never allow that. Apologise to a goblin fat chance in hell.

‘What should I do?’ Gobuske asked himself, he didn’t have anyone to discuss the situation with. He lacked helpers such as Nanna and Loki plus his highest ranked monsters were only D-rank. Their intelligence limited; they still needed his directions to function properly. He was stymied, unsure on how to proceed, he couldn’t think of the best way to combat Frost’s defences with his remaining forces plus the problem that was Findlay.

Findlay at this moment had led his team to the end of Gobuske’s second room but there was an issue. By this point Findlay still had around 60% of his team left, more than enough to proceed through a third room. They suffered through a couple more of those ambush caverns along their path but since they were wary of the situation and had preventive measures in regards to the poison, it didn’t delay them for long though a few monsters were inevitably lost.

However, the ambushes using the hidden tunnels never stopped, it was a tried a proven method that not only had low risk of death for the ambushers and even if a kill was not made it’d keep them on their toes, slowing down their momentum. One ambush a little earlier was rather different than the rest and resulted in a mutual destruction of both sides.

As Findlay moved closer and closer to the next room, Gobuske and his forces grew more desperate. Knowing the situation with their invading force, they had to work harder to take down Findlay, so as to level the playing field. One of Gobuske’s hob goblin commanders came up with a plan on his own and Gobuske struggling to think straight agreed. The hob goblin commander ordered for a larger ambush force and armed them with poison flasks before sending them into the tunnels. The original plan was to attack in mass before tossing out the flasks while retreating and or pick a couple goblins to suicide bomb certain groups. This however didn’t exactly work out.

At the first sign of attack, Findlay’s forces were ready, quickly assuming a defensive position and preparing for the ambush. Aiming not to kill their opponents but simply weather the storm. After tried and tested means this was the best situation. Focusing on eliminating the ambushing goblins would usually end badly. They’d likely be unable to even wound their targeted aggressors, all while leaving a gap in the squads defences. Findlay assigned certain monsters including himself to be the ones on possible counterattacks, ones that weren’t integral to the defence of the group i.e., the frost wolves. Findlay was fully expecting a larger ambush force eventually, given how far they’ve travelled in this section they were likely reaching the end.

“Hold positions, frost wolves aim for any stragglers.” Findlay gave his orders while preparing the cast some ice bolts at the suddenly appearing tunnels. Deeper in, some of the tunnels were visible as though taunting, while others were covered by flaps, blending them into the wall.

.....

Dozens of goblins swarmed in from the different tunnels at Findlay’s shout, attacking with fervent aggression, far more than usual but Frost’s offensive team was prepared. The frost dwarves utilised their shields to endure the sudden attacks before pushing them back, while the frost wolves moved to strike the stragglers.

However, a couple of the goblins tossed poison flasks overhead, landing amongst the dwarves and exploding. The poison liquid doused some of the dwarves and frost goblins causing their skin to burn. Findlay’s eyes opened wide, surprised by the goblins actions, this was clearly devasting to both sides. The fumes would infect both the goblins and his forces in such a small area. Thankfully they already knew how to deal with the fumes, each of the monsters in the area withdrew herb infused cloths and wrapped them around their noses, preventing the fumes from entering their lungs.

Gobuske’s forces unfortunately lacked such masks and suffered the effects quite drastically. Their faces turning blue as they struggled to breath through the agonising pain. The large noses of the goblins served to exasperate the problem. But the hob goblin commander didn’t care, a few loses were necessary, he continued to order the goblins under his command to attack and launch their poison flasks whenever able. The goblins carried out their orders without hesitation, gladly sacrificing themselves in the name of their king, much to Gobuske’s pain.

With their diehard advances and aggressive use of poison, Findlay’s troops couldn’t escape suffering casualties, but the ambushers were much worse. With Findlay in command and the fast frost wolves acting, many of the goblins were dealt with before they managed to launch their flasks resulting in only friendly fire. And eventually the ambushers ran out of troops, even the hob goblin commander wasn’t spared. Choosing to die with his men and risk his own life he charged into the swarms of dwarves and goblins, successfully taking out a few with his machete before Findlay arrived and decapitated him. The large amount of blood help counteract the pools of green poison dotted around the floor, but the battlefield was a mess with both sides losing men.

Bang!

Gobuske smashed his fist against the wall when he heard the report from another hob goblin commander, he didn’t have the stomach to watch the event go down, too painful. So many of his monsters died today and it filled his body with pain and grief. He felt guilty and anger towards himself, as though it was his fault. Because of his weakness and inexperience his monsters had to pay the price, his heart was no longer in this war, too much death without many prospects for victory. He slumped down into his chair, his lip bleeding from him biting down in frustration, he was out of options and didn’t want to sacrifice anymore of his men. He looked up towards the large screen that showed his father, pain in his heart, looking for clemency.

Dark saw the look in his son’s eyes and couldn’t help but be momentarily moved, clenching his fists as he tried to calm down his emotions. No, he won’t end this battle, the sapient races or god forbid the Church of Light wouldn’t show mercy. Now that the one month safety barrier was removed there was a very good chance that his children could be killed. He needed them to be ready for whatever challenges they came across. He would not reinstate the barrier no matter the cost and would limit their guardians to a single save. He’d treat his children like the rest of the races in Nova, their life was theirs to live, and he would not intervene. Determined in his decision he shook his head towards Gobuske knowing that it wasn’t what he wanted to hear and would hurt him emotionally. But if his kids didn’t understand the severity of their existence in Nova there’d be even more likely to be killed, the world was not a safe and fair place especially with the God of Light disagreeing with their existence.

Gobuske received his father’s rejection and felt the last vestiges of strength in his body escape, his body curled up and his eyes grew red. He was silent for a fair few minutes, even ignoring the calls for orders by his monsters, his father’s rejection hit him hard. His timid personality coming back to the forefront. While Bala behind continued to grin evilly, thinking that such a posture was fitting for a lowly goblin.

Although a large part of Bala’s aggression towards Gobuske was due to him being in the form and specialist of goblins, another feature was the under the table battle between the guardians. Each guardian was a powerful monster in their own right, and many knew of each other. Combat between their charges was another method to identify who was better. Bala felt that he got a dud when he was assigned Gobuske. How was a goblin to compete against all the other dungeon cores. He was so fixated on this possibility that he didn’t even register the fact that Gobuske actually entered the top 25 in terms of income and had so far put up a fairly decent fight against Frost. No, he’d already given up, only performing the very minimal of duties required of him, counting the days until he could leave as his guardian and return to his regular life. But in the meantime, given his petty personality he’d take out his grievances on the innocent Gobuske.