Marching out of the forest base they walked slowly and undisturbed for 20 minutes before Harken stopped the troops and spoke up.
"We are lucky they haven't spotted us yet lord. The goblin lair is only a hundred meters further ahead."
'Strange that they don't have any scouts or parties out so close to their lair'
Jack indeed agreed that if they haven't met any resistance yet, the goblins probably gathered their forces for a defensive battle.
"Lets wait here. Send out 20 troops to investigate."
10 minutes later the scout returned through the trees.
"Lord! The lair is heavily mobilised. We counted 500 common rank goblins."
'That many?' Jack was surprised.
"We need reinforcements my lord. We are only trash rank. Against 500 common ranks we wont win a head on assault in their home territory".
Harken bowed to Jack and awaited orders.
"Agreed. Send word to the main base and the palisades at home. Send every troop they can spare. Double tempo! I want to attack as soon as possible!"
Harken quickly sent out 20 fresh troops to deliver the orders.
The woods they had traversed so far was strangely free of wild beasts. They probably stayed away from the main army after they had slayed around 100 of them.
Another hour passed and Jacks main army of 800 troops surged to around 2000 troops.
But Jack hadn't been idle in that hour.
The goblin 'den' consisted of three huge trees that they had hollowed out and made their homes. Those threes had hills in between them, and those were inhabited as well.
These goblins were not much different than wild beasts, they had no form of defensive structures or the like. Just a mass of 500 common warriors, densely packed in the lair.
Jack had spread the initial 800 troops in a half circle around the lair, with five 'spear points' of gathered troops.
These five locations would hit the lair and aim to clear different targets.
One point for each of the three huge trees and one for the surrounding hills.
Jack would take the last point and wait for the goblin leader to show itself.
With about 2000 troops, each point had 400 troops. Jack felt confident as he gave the order.
"Advance! Claim the forest! Massacre the goblins! Leave none alive!"
Jack yelled loudly, Harken followed suit with additional shouts as about 1500 troops began to move at once.
The earth trembled and the forest air was heavy with human warcries.
The goblins reacted immediately, they had been waiting for this attack. Just as their godly leader had foretold!
They hissed and snarled. The small lair became an ant hill as they rushed out from hills and trees.
"Kill the humans, make sacrifices of their heads! Claim their women and take them to the chief!"
The goblins chanted a death song of murder and rape as the dense mass of them jumped out at the charging and screaming humans.
The human army was vast compared to the goblins, but they had poor armor, no shields or helmets and their spears were short and rotten.
The goblins were fierce and grinned as they killed with crude weapons and ate the humans alive in the midst of the chaos. They realised that this was just a heavenly sent feast of human flesh!
The humans streamed in their lair in an endless mass, they didn't seem to know how to fight at all!
'These trash! Eat them all, they are nothing but beasts to the slaughter!' the goblins grinned.
But Jack was watching everything go as planned.
He didn't expect his trash troop to fight in a professional line. He wouldn't even know how to properly command them himself.
Instead he watched as the four points, slowly and steady, reached their targets.
The goblin den consisted of multiple skirmishes and clashed throughout, but the hill dens was slowly and surely being cleansed.
Two of the three huge trees was nearly empty of goblins as the humans had rushed the 'spear points' in these locations.
"Lord! The last three in the middle! The leader has shown itself! It wields a godly power and killing your troops with the power of air!"
Harken appeared before Jack with a detachment of guarding troops.
"What do you mean by that Harken? How exactly does he kill them?"
Jack was curious, he had not encountered any other form of magic before.
"The leader is common in size but wields the wind. He forcefully blows away any troop coming near, and those coming inside... Many simply can't breath anymore."
'I see... So he somehow manipulate the air to form heavy gusts.. And blocking the air around my troops mouths and noses'
Jack understood what had to be done.
"Quickly, get me there! All of you, attack and clear me a path!"
The goblins fighting in a crazed blood-rush suddenly became overwhelmed. They had killed many troops, but had equally lost their dens and sacred trees to the intruders.
As Jack appeared, it seemed as a final wave that completely shattered the goblins spirit. They began to back away, some scrambling and pushing each other to get away from the oncoming tide of fresh human troops.
Jack and his troops crushed the remaining resistance as they charged toward the goblin leaders position.
"Make way!" Harken shouted as they arrived at the entrance.
The troops backed up and formed a dense mass of hundreds of troops around the trees entrance.
Jack went to the empty middle space as the leader walked out.
Without warning Jacks lungs could no longer inhale the lifegiving air. But he understood instantly.
The goblin leader already looked tired after having killed so many.
Jacks fortitude was high. He found that he could hold his breath much longer after eating the legendary core.
'Are you sure you want to play this choking game?'
Jack sent a taunting smile to the leader and the leader felt the murderous intent crashing against it.
But it didn't have time to dwell on this strong foe that didn't seem to care about him closing it's airways.
Water rose in a steady stream around it. Coming directly out of the earth!
Harken and a thousand troops looked on the scene in pure awe of the godly power their lord possessed.
The goblin leader was floating in a bobble of water a meter above the ground, fighting to get out, but eventually drowning in front of them.
"Ain't karma a bitch..."
Harken looked at Jack with pure admiration and bowed deeply.
"The troops has been avenged." Was all Jack said.
[Lord System: You have killed an uncommon leader]
[Recieved: 1x uncommon Spirit Power Core]
[Mission completed: Your troops has killed 500 enemies]
[Received: Barracks blueprint]
[Mission completed: Kill the Goblin leader that roams in the forest]
[Received: Rare Treasure - Dimwag Farm]
[Lord System: Visit the lord mansion for new available missions]
Jack was delighted. He had fought a whole day to get these rewards! But now was not the time to check out the rewards. He was still in the forest, and it was not completely taken yet.
Though the wild best encounters had diminished and the goblins had been vanquished. He still needed to get through the forest before a safe area could be established.
"Harken take control of 500 troops and chase the surviving goblins. Kill everything in sight and come back to the base when begins to darken!"
"Yes lord!"
Harken left with 500 troops to chase the few surviving goblins.
Jack went back to the base camp in the middle of the forest. He had troops run for reports and quickly came to an understanding.
Today had lost him more than 1000 troops in total. From the beginning of the wild beast clashes in the forest and to the goblin lair raid.
A few hundred troops was guarding black mountain and the palisades below.
Another few hundred guarded the forest camp and the road from the palisades.
Five hundred troops hunted goblins with Harken.
That left Jack with about 300 troops in his own squad and he decided to end the day here.
The sun was already getting low, it wouldn't be long before dark. So he assigned the remaining 300 troops to reinforce the different key locations. They got the order to keep reinforcing the defences and clear the road to the forest camp.
At the palisades he gave the civilians order to focus on clearing the huge trees in the road so it could be firmly secure and easy to travel.
When Harken returned after hunting the remaining goblins, he got orders from Jack by another troop.
He was to stay in the forest camp and take control of the defence and work progress there.
'So busy my lord is..." Harken thought clearly impressed, when he found that Jack had already left.
"My lord! We have gathered 107 wild beasts in various forms. Most of them is edible and we expect around 9000kg of meat!"
'That's roughly 80kg edible meat per beast... And half a kg a day per mouth... that is...'
Jack wondered quietly as Gynda made her report.
Roughly 1500 troops and civilians could survive on this amount for about 12 days, give or take.
He now had time to focus on other things for a while.
"Make sure to give all the animal fat to Nisha. Also I want you to carefully carve all the proper furs and hides. They wont rot right away, and I will do everything I can to provide a tannery in the coming days."
Gynda was deeply impressed with her lord. In just a few days he had already mastered a huge army and claimed a part of the dangerous forest below.
But she still had one more concern to adress.
"My lord. The workload is becoming harsh. Will there be any new villagers coming? We could surely use the help with all the work in the forest, gathering supplies on the mountain.. And sorting all these beasts and cooking food for so many mouths is not viable any more with those three stone pots."
Gyndas worries was justified. However Jack already planned to expand heavily in the coming days.