Chapter 201

The preparations turned out to be worthwhile. The rat-like creature, which had come running without its master, caused a commotion, and two dozen fighters were immediately sent out on reconnaissance. Almost all of them became the first prey for the vampires in this underground battle.

The goblins lacked strategic talents; there was simply no system for passing accumulated knowledge from generation to generation. They lived too briefly to gain much personal experience. Thus, both on the surface and underground, cave dwellers used the same strategy—charging in a mob to see who was stronger.

Leonid, standing right in the middle of a formation of fifteen fighters, threw another goblin behind him. The group of five mages stationed there also needed to feed. The fight had been ongoing for over five hours. The wounds received at the beginning had already healed. Before the vampires lay a real barrier of over a thousand corpses, and the enemies showed no sign of diminishing. Now, another pause had arrived, after which another wave of attackers would cross the terrible obstacle.

Catching an arrow flying at him, the commander deflected it and bent over the corpse lying at his feet, needing to drink the remaining blood. The first-line fighters performed almost the same procedure. The bloodless corpses were cast aside by "air punches," further increasing the terrifying wall a few dozen meters from the vampires. There was some movement at the top of the wall, but no one was visible. A "Fire Arrow," thrown by one of the mages, flew toward the movement—when it came to survival, it was better to act preemptively. A wild shriek announced that the spell had hit its target.

Suddenly, a fresh smell of blood hit his nose. And it wasn't the spilled goblin blood; it was the smell of a vampire. Quickly scanning the formation, Leonid noticed that one of the girls was nursing her arm. It seemed to be seriously injured, still bleeding. A stern shout was required to get the wounded one to leave the front line and join the mages, where one of them took her place.

— No heroics, damn it! Just calmly grind them down! Don't sacrifice yourselves; we're winning!

He repeated what he thought were basic truths several times an hour, but every time someone tried to continue fighting despite their injuries instead of switching out and calmly healing them from behind the line.

Another goblin climbed to the top of the pile of his kin and attempted to aim a blowpipe, but he wasn't well-hidden and was burned by lightning.

— Lenya, we're going to be standing here for another ten hours at this rate, — Eugene, standing to the left of the commander, drew attention.

— Do you have other business?

— I need to piss, — the triumvir said quietly.

— Pee your pants; there's no time for privacy right now, — Leonid turned away from his interlocutor, indicating that no other response would be given, and looked back at the pile of dead goblins.

Characteristic sounds and smells came from the left. Apparently, Eugene wasn't the only one who took the commander's advice.

— Oh, how nice, — the man sighed with relief and then, with a gleam in his eyes, looked at his comrade, — Already regretting giving such advice?

— I regret that the troll corpses are buried there and we can't get to them.

This statement was hard to argue with; the four trolls had been an assault squad that attacked the vampires at the very beginning of the slaughter. The giants had been burned by magic before they even got close.

Suddenly, a goblin's head flew over the wall of corpses and rolled to the vampires' feet. The obstacle of yet another corpse prevented the projectile from reaching its target. Without a moment's hesitation, Leonid took several steps forward and picked it up.

— Our opponents have had a coup and a change of leadership, — he loudly announced to his attentive comrades, — This is the head of the clan leader.

Returning to the formation, the commander examined the barrier of bodies and loudly sniffed the air.

— Marina! Climb down and see what's going on, — he ordered.

I've got more interesting stuff on patreon

patreon.com/Chill76