Chapter 22: Chapter 21: A Major Offensive

Rose looked over her army as she prepared to send them to war. It had swelled to over one hundred strong, and Rose was willing to bet that the average soldier was stronger than the average goblin. The more elite backbone of the army certainly was – the greater foot soldiers made from goblins had had no trouble dispatching any goblin thrown their way, and the knights were head and shoulders above them.

It had been about a day since the goblins’ attack, and many of the swarm members that had been on the verge of evolution had done so, leaving that backbone stronger than ever. She had also managed to make two more kobold shamans and archers, as well as three more kobold lightborns and a bunch of goblin lightborns, something that the goblins were definitely unable to replicate.

Her raids had become bolder in that time, killing or bringing back even more goblins and thinning their numbers until, eventually, the goblins stopped patrolling. That probably meant that the goblins were either too afraid to send out more patrols or just didn’t have the numbers to do so, and either worked for Rose.

Either was a pretty good indicator that Rose could take on the goblins’ main base. They had lost a lot of their number when building their fortifications, trying to take them back, and during the interim, so Rose was hoping there were only about one hundred and fifty left. Two hundred was probably the most they could have at this point, given the numbers they had sent before, and even that was doable, so Rose felt confident in this attack.

Between the infiltrators’ information and information gathered from the patrols, Lily had been able to make a pretty good map of the bazaar, and they were able to pinpoint roughly where the goblins’ base was.

Which just left them to get started on their expedition. Rose turned to Lia, giving her a nod. Why don’t you give us a speech to raise our spirits?

Why me?! Lia complained. You’re in charge right now! You should be the one giving the speech!

I have to take into account what would raise the morale of my troops the most, and that’s having you talk. Rose said smoothly. So, go knock ‘em dead.

Fine, fine. Lia grumbled, turning to face the assembled swarm. Uh…look, I’m really not all that great at speaking, and I don’t know how much you all can even really understand or appreciate this, but…we’re gonna go do this thing. If we win, we get all you can eat food, and it’s good stuff too, not just the carcasses we’ve been having to make do with. So…go get out there and do this thing, we’ll eat like kings for it!

The swarm raised a cheer, though it seemed to Rose like it was more to be polite than it was because their spirits had been raised. Still, it raised Rose’s spirit, so it hadn’t been a completely wasted effort.

Very nice, Lia. Rose said. Let’s get this show on the road, shall we?

Yes, let’s. Lia said quickly. I’m ready to finally get some real food.

Rose smiled, and ordered the swarm to be on its way. It began to move through the bazaar, entirely uncontested by the goblins. The goblins didn’t even have the wherewithal to send out groups to harass the swarm…if they even knew that the swarm was coming.

Though, Rose was willing to believe that the goblins were preparing for an attack from the swarm. They knew there was a large, organized threat, and they knew that said organized threat had been getting bolder and bolder. If Rose was in their situation, she definitely would be preparing for an attack. That might have been giving the goblins too much credit, but it was better too much credit was given than not enough; she didn’t want to be blindsided by anything if she could help it.

Still, the lack of opposition made the march no less tense for Rose. She couldn’t help but worry about the what-ifs; what if there were a lot more goblins than she had assumed? What if their encampment was significantly more fortified than she was prepared for? What if, somehow, Lia got gravely injured or even killed?

She took a deep breath to calm herself. At this point, all she could do was believe in herself and believe in the swarm. She had the edge in unity, likely had the edge in terms of magic, probably had a greater number of strong monsters, and almost certainly had better tactics than the goblins. Even though she was assaulting an almost certainly fortified position, she had to remain confident that she could deal with it.

It took them about twenty minutes to reach the encampment, and Rose couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief when she saw it. It was better fortified than the fort they had taken, sure, but not by that much. The walls were still made of boards taken from the stalls, and, though there were fewer gaps, the construction was still shoddy.

The swarm had marched in darkness, so the goblins remained unaware until Rose commanded the lightborns to open their hatches and spew fire onto the wall. With a little help from the pyromancers and Lia, the wall caught fire, and the goblins manning it fell backwards, yelping as they scrambled back into the fort to alert their comrades.

Lia, have the infiltrators try and cause as much chaos as possible while remaining unnoticed. Make them pick off goblins that are alone, and when they feel like things are getting too risky, try and have them join back up with our main force.

Yes, Rose!

While she did that, Rose commanded the terramancers and xylomancers to tear open a hole in the wall. The terramancers did so by moving the earth underneath the wall, while the xylomancers moved the wall itself, and soon, a sizeable hole had been opened up.

Magic really did make all the difference. Tearing down the wall had been a trivial task, standing in stark contrast to the difficulties the goblins had had to face when they attempted to tear down Rose’s walls.

Goblins were already starting to stream towards the wall, so Rose wasted no time. She had the knights take the front, serving as a shield for the rest of the swarm as they advanced, the archers and lightborns providing covering fire as the swarm advanced.

The two groups met just past the hole that had been made in the wall, and the screams of the dying began to fill the air. Lia had made it clear that, aside from notable goblins and situations where it would be trivial, conversions were not to be prioritized in this raid. Rose agreed with this; if their army took too much of a beating because they were trying to come out with greater gains after the fact, they risked being too weakened to be able to properly finish off the goblins.

This wasn’t a situation where they had the overwhelming advantage. It was still a raid on an enemy base, and they couldn’t afford to treat it as a trivial matter, not with an army that was fewer in number than their opposition.

The knights were doing their job admirably; the average goblin was little match for them, and they seemed to be doing what goblins always fell back to doing in a pinch – trying to overwhelm with numbers.

Perhaps that would have worked if the goblins were more numerous, or the swarm less organized, but neither was the case. Rose had taken pains to equip her army with rudimentary shields, things that were little more than boards from stalls stitched together, but they were more than enough to deal with the goblins’ crude clubs.

Those shields also allowed her to adopt a pseudo-phalanx formation, with the goblin foot soldiers guarding with their shields, and the rats darting out from within to strike out at their enemies. The ranged attackers and the mages would stay in the center of the formation, making life even more difficult for the enemies on the outside.

She had even managed to get a few crude spears made from sticks and rocks, but she hadn’t been able to equip all of her troops with them. Instead, she gave them to only the greater goblin foot soldiers, and used them as her first line of defense after the knights.

The tactic likely would not have worked on more worthy opponents. Rose didn’t have any mages specializing in countering magic, so a few well-placed spells would be able to devastate her lines. Furthermore, the equipment she had made was crude and made from random pieces of wood; it would be trivial for a metallic weapon to smash through them.

But these weren’t worthy opponents. They were goblins. Rose had yet to see a mage among them, and their equipment was about as poorly made as Rose’s own. So, her “phalanx” advanced like an unstoppable force, the wounded retreating back into the center of the formation and fresh soldiers taking their place as they progressed.

A few minutes later, Rose recalled the knights. They had done admirably, but as the goblins’ numbers swelled, they were getting more and more overwhelmed, and were beginning to take wounds. Rose wanted to save them for later in the battle when they would have to deal with the goblin leader, so it wouldn’t do to have them be put out of commission now.

The first real problem came about five minutes after Rose recalled the knights. The “phalanx” had been advancing slowly but steadily towards the heart of the goblin encampment, taking care not to get overwhelmed as they plowed forward.

But that also made them good targets. A group of archers began to let loose a hail of arrows on the formation, and the shields Rose had made were barely up to the task of defending. The inner ranks held their shields over their heads, providing decent cover, but arrows still found their way through the cracks, and her troops slowly but surely began to get battered.

To make matters worse, a spike of earth erupted underneath the feet of the soldiers at the front of the “phalanx”, badly injuring them and throwing them out of formation. The goblins had some sort of mage on their side, and Rose needed to deal with it ASAP.

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Lia, order the infiltrators to find the mage! Rose commanded. Once they have, disable it with your magic! I don’t care what you do, just make it stop!

I’m on it! Lia replied. Give me a few minutes!

While she waited, Rose ordered her own mages to start focusing on the archers. Even if she couldn’t take the mage out immediately, stopping the arrows would be a welcome reprieve for her soldiers and a huge blow to the goblins.

Things proceeded in this manner for another couple of minutes. The goblin mage would wreak havoc on her formation, while she did the same to the archers. Finally, Lia turned to Rose, a pained expression on her face. Bad news! She said. That mage is apparently the boss of all these goblins! I’ve got a bead on it, but I can’t just…instantly disable it like I have the other commanders. Its Mental Fortitude is actually high enough to resist some of my spells, so my only options are the rat queen stuff, but I also need a bunch of rats near me for that to be effective.

I think making it flee is only going to delay the issue, and making it want to fight more isn’t going to help much, so I can only really make it hungry. Should I try that?

Can’t you just dump modeling wax on it? That should do the trick, right?!

I don’t have the Mana left to do that at this long of a range. If we get closer, I can do that, though!

It’ll probably just retreat further if we do that, so…go ahead with the hunger, it’s better than nothing! Rose responded, sending a bunch of foot soldiers to gather up near Lia. Are there enough rats?

Plenty!

Good. Also, point out to me where it is, I want to keep an eye on it!

It’s behind that stall over there. Lia said, pointing with a paw. It ducks out of sight while it’s not casting, so I’ll need to wait for it to pop up again to hit it.

Let me know when you do. Rose replied. I want to be able to see how it reacts.

Got it.

It took about half a minute for the mage to pop up again, and Rose was able to watch as Lia’s magic hit it. It froze for a moment, then dashed out from behind its stall and started running deeper into the encampment.

It’s probably going for the food dispenser. Rose mused. But that’s actually advantageous for us. Have the infiltrators wait for it there and knock it out while it’s distracted getting food.

Yes, Rose!

Without the mage messing things up, Rose was able to remake her formation, and the battle began to tip back into their favor. A few minutes later, Lia informed her that the infiltrators had been successful, and Rose breathed a sigh of relief. That was the main threat to them gone, so now it was…well, just cleanup again.

That went well. A few goblin commanders popped up, but they were no match for the knights, and soon the tide of goblins stopped. Rose wasn’t sure how many goblins had been taken care of, but…the ground was littered with the bodies of dead and dying goblins, so it was a lot. She still saw the occasional goblin pop up and attack them, but that was becoming less and less frequent, and they were no threat individually.

A familiar sense of satisfaction filled Rose. She had beaten a larger force with relatively few casualties, and had dealt with a threat that had been present since the moment she was reborn. It was…something that she had done before, she felt. She could almost hear her old armies shouting her name, something they had taken to doing near the end of the war.

She focused in on that sensation, letting the words flow back into her mind. Conqueror, mastermind, savior, and then…Reuben.

Yes, Reuben had been her old name. It was something of a startling realization; it was a name that was both incredibly familiar but also…distant, something of the past. She felt more strongly about the name Rose than she did Reuben, but it was still…nice to know, like she was making significant progress in remembering who she was.

Gleefully, she turned to Lia. Lia, I’ve remembered my old name! She shouted. It’s Reuben!

Lia froze, turning to face Rose, a stunned expression on her face.

There was silence for an uncomfortably long time before Rose spoke up. I-is that bad? She stammered? I wasn’t a bad guy, right? Please tell me I wasn’t bad.

Lia blinked, staring numbly at Rose. Are…you sure? She asked, an element of hoarseness to her tone.

Y-yes? I…yes. I’m definitely sure my name was Reuben. Why?

R-Rose, Reuben was the Ruby Emperor. You were the Ruby Emperor.

T-that can’t be! Rose protested. I don’t feel like someone who would have been an emperor. I’m just…I’m happy not being the one ultimately in charge, and that’s not part of the swarm’s conditioning!

Lia shook her head. No. There’s no other person who fits your descriptions. It…you…you were him.

W-well, I’m still me. Rose said. It’s not that big a deal.

Rose, you don’t understand. The Ruby Emperor…you were the single most important person in recorded history. He…you saved the world from the most powerful Lord of Monsters ever, and brought about a new era. That’s…I just…I’m having a hard time processing this.

I– Rose stopped, her head starting to pound. Yes, she…she had been the Ruby Emperor, a Hero. It…she could feel that fact emblazoning itself into her, Preserved Soul preventing the knowledge from being tampered with. It was something that she couldn’t deny, even if she wanted to.

And then, a set of windows popped up in front of her.

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