Forests Don't Support Idle Goblins

Green Skin stared at the goblin head stuck in the pillar next to him, his eyes as gloomy as water.

The head was rotting and emitted a foul odor. Many maggots crawled around the eye sockets and mouth, and many more maggots were pushed aside by their kind and fell to the ground. Several flies buzzed around the head, seemingly celebrating a "feast".

A plump, white maggot crawled up to the feet of the green-skinned creature, having been pushed off by its own kind, and was now trying to get back to the "feast".

"Pfft!" Greenie stomped on the maggot and crushed it. The sensation under his foot was just like his current mood—suppressed and disgusting. "That goblin looks like it's only just reached adulthood."

He sighed and stopped looking at the head. In the past, there were often heads stuck in the wooden sticks here, sometimes three or four at a time. No one paid much attention to the dead goblins. It seemed that the day when there were no more heads stuck in the sticks would attract the attention of all the goblins. As for the buzzing of the flies, no one found it very noisy. The only annoying thing was that when the flies landed on you, you had to go through the trouble of swatting them away.

Fortunately, it's winter now, and there aren't as many flies anymore, so everyone in the burrow is actually relieved that these annoying insects have decreased.

Greenskin glanced at the surrounding goblins; none of them showed any expression. The goblin summoned all the goblins out of the burrow, and a huge, dark mass of them stood there. No one spoke or made a sound; the only sound was the goblin leader scolding the goblins and flies for their annoyance.

He used to stand there blankly, just like the goblins around him, waiting for the goblin to come and kick him, watching his companions being dragged away with ropes around their necks, and then blankly returning to their burrows.

But now, after he had eaten several delicious meals and slept on a warm fur mat, he felt that this was what it meant to be alive. Someone told him that what he ate and wore was what he deserved for his hard work in the forest and for the development of his tribe.

When he first heard those words, he didn't feel anything. After all, he had been eating boiled rat meat for so long. Suddenly, he was eating delicious stewed venison fruit cakes. All he could think about was that he could eat these foods again. But when he returned to the Evil Throat Army's camp and saw those wooden sticks with goblin heads stuck in them again, and saw his thin companions in the burrow, and how they were fighting over a rat leg, something was stirred in his heart.

"This is all rightfully ours," Greenskin murmured. They hunted and gathered in the surrounding area every day. The larger prey had to be handed over to the earth spirits. Only rats, insects, and small birds were things they could eat every day. But why couldn't they eat the larger prey, the great deer, the grouse, and the fish in the river? Weren't those things rightfully theirs?

"Slap!" A slap landed, and a goblin looked down arrogantly at the green skinny. "Stand quietly, what are you muttering about?"

Greenskin staggered two steps to the side after being hit, his cheek visibly swollen and red. He slightly raised his eyes to look at the goblin's back in front of him. Reason told him, "Stand up straight immediately, head down," but a voice in his mind, a goblin's words he had heard before, rang in his ears—"Why don't you fight back? Why don't you run away?"

"Everyone, keep up with the ranks, move forward!" A furious shout came from ahead. Greenskin was pulled back by the goblin in front of him and stumbled. Like his companions, a rope was tied around his neck. All the goblins were strung together in a long line, following the pattern of the "military leader" team. The goblin walked arrogantly beside the goblin team, sometimes kicking the goblins who were walking too slowly.

"Where are we going?" Green Skin secretly glanced around, even looking up at the goblin in front of him a few times. His intuition told him that it seemed all the goblins had been driven out of the burrow. "This looks like a full-scale march."

The rope around his neck was being pulled constantly, and he could only keep up with the group to avoid feeling suffocated. A scream came from not far away. Greenskin glanced quickly and saw a goblin being dragged out of the group and having its neck severed in front of everyone. The murderer, the goblin, simply shook the blood off his sword and said casually, "Keep going."

"Where are they going to attack? My tribe, or the kingdom to the north?" Green Skin looked up at the sky and his surroundings. Walking in the middle of the group, he found it difficult to discern the direction.

"Bang, bang, bang," heavy footsteps sounded, and the tug of ropes came from behind, as if a goblin had fallen. Greenskin turned around and looked, then immediately dodged to the side. A group of ogres walked over quickly, and several goblins behind them were knocked to the ground by their waving arms.

The ogre at the front carried a wooden frame on his back, and General Evilthroat sat on that frame. He kept his eyes fixed ahead, never looking down at the rows of goblins around him. On the contrary, the sight of these slave soldiers only made his big nose turn even redder.

The ogre following closely behind carried a large wooden barrel on its back. As it passed by Qingpi, Qingpi could hear the liquid rattling inside.

"General, turn right ahead." A goblin trotted up to the ogre and bowed respectfully to Evilthroat.

"It's three scars," Green Skin frowned, "He's giving directions to the Evil Throat Army."

General Evilthroat on the ogre's back never lowered his head, only waving his hand as if shooing away flies. Then, Three Scars ran to the front of the group again, seemingly searching for something in the surrounding trees.

"Are we going to attack the tribe?" Greenskin said in a low voice. He had previously performed the ankle-touching ritual and now considered the Sharl tribe as his own. Three-Scar seemed to be leading the group in that direction.

"What should I do?" A slight tug came from the rope around his neck, interrupting his thoughts. At this moment, he could only follow the group forward and couldn't think about anything else.

"Slip, slip," came the sound of goblin footsteps from the surrounding woods. Everyone walked numbly under the shade of the trees. They dared not speak or stop, because if they did, they would be pulled out of the group, killed with a single blow, and left to rot in the grass.

"Chief, the Evilthroat Army is here," Greenskin whispered. He was even begging that his words would be transmitted to Sharl by some god, even the Feathered Serpent God of the Goblin Kingdom. But all he got in return was the earth goblin's rebuke.

…………

"They've arrived?" Charles put down the intelligence report in his hand and looked up at Broken Tooth standing in front of him.

Broken Tooth nodded heavily. The chief had previously ordered him to expand the patrol area, so now he could go very far out. As long as he carried jerky, honey, and a wool blanket, he could even hide in the forest for a whole day.

Fortunately, while searching northwards, he saw several trees with scratches from iron tools, and he immediately realized that they were made by other intelligent beings.

Following these tracks, he then saw some man-made markings. Broken Tooth had tried to scrape off those markings, but when he found that doing so would still leave traces in the forest, he stopped and instead explored northward along the markings.

Fortunately, he spotted the group of goblins approaching from the tree. The Evil Throat Army marched through the forest, completely disregarding the impact these goblin slaves would have on their surroundings, except for preventing them from making too much noise. The birds constantly startled in the forest had already given away their tracks.

Before Broken Tooth was sent on guard duty for his tribe, he learned to hide in the shadows and listen to the birdsong. If a bird took flight or the birds were unusually quiet, then there must be an adventurer hiding nearby.

After confirming that the enemy was marching along the previous markings, Broken Tooth decisively turned around and ran towards the fortress, hiding himself in the shadows the whole way, afraid of being discovered by the enemy.

After running for a long time, he finally met the leader.

"It's time to see these guys for ourselves," Charles said, stepping out of the stone house and loudly instructing the goblins around him, while also sending someone to inform the centaurs.

Soon, Evita arrived before him with several centaurs.

"Are you here already?" The centaur girl asked immediately upon seeing Ciel. She was already dressed in armor, with Philip's lightweight steel breastplate on her upper body and several pieces of Valentine's Guard armor on her lower body, along with newly made iron armor, making her look somewhat mismatched.

"Yes, they're still quite a distance from us. Broken Tooth ran back ahead of time, and it took him a long time." Charles nodded and said calmly, "I think they've mobilized quite a few people. They'll definitely choose this huge open space we just opened up to fight."

"They are a race with a certain level of military skill and will have more confidence in their own judgment." The skeleton warrior Elton, standing to the side, also affirmed Sharl's point of view. "Group combat is difficult to carry out in the forest. With so many people, the enemy will only choose to maximize the capabilities of their slave soldiers on flat open ground."

"So all we need to do is wait for them in the open and crush the Evil Throat Army head-on," Charles said, clenching his fist as he looked at the group in front of him. "Although they outnumber us, we decide the battlefield. Those traps and portals will definitely surprise them."

"We also need to be careful of those crazy guys," Evita said, looking at Charles in front of her. "They're tough to deal with."

"Don't worry." Charles nodded with a smile. "They might be a bit more difficult to deal with in the forest, but these guys are too greedy and have chosen to attack first."

"Don't worry." Charles nodded with a smile. "They might be a bit more difficult to deal with in the forest, but these guys are too greedy and have chosen to attack first."

"The day of reckoning has come."