Lord Summoner's Freedom Philosophy: Grimoire of Love

"Again... What a horrible sight. It seems that it's true that most of the villages got wiped out at this area, huh..." Emilia uttered at the scene of a ruined village in front of them.

(But again, no single corpses, found, huh...) (Lyan)

Along the way, they have already encountered several villages that are connected to the highway, and all of them had fallen into a state of ruin. Strangely, there are no single corpse could be found inside all of the villages.

"The women must be used by them for breeding, while the men are forced to labor or maybe eaten, I guess. Considering that the goblins are omnivores, it's not a surprise if they took the villagers as their food since they have such a large number of goblins on their ranks as well," (Alice)

Alice's deduction is sound and logical as always. Everyone who heard her words nods in agreement and gets ready to continue their advance.

It's already afternoon, they'll be entering the forest route soon. But according to Alice's plan, the goblins most likely wouldn't prepare for a siege, and intercept them when they started to enter the forest. The elite team will then separate from the main army after helping fight the first wave army of goblins.

(The goblins have accurately pinpointed the location of our army for a while now. It means that they should have their hobgoblin assassins following the army, but my Hobu hasn't met a single them until now. Are they looking at the army with other means? Some kind of magic? Or it's just that the hobgoblin assassins are strong enough that Hobu couldn't find them?) (Lyan)

Lyan has his doubts, and he's sure that the Small General must have thought the same thing as him. But considering how smooth the advance of the army had been, it'll confuse the others if they suddenly went on a different strategy that is much safer but takes more time.

After a while, they arrived at the big hill that is their sign for entering the forest to went straight towards the goblin king's lair. As if the goblins are fulfilling the main army's expectation to act according to the Small General's plan, Ravia and Raine that got sent to scout slightly deeper into the forest return while galloping their horses as quickly as possible.

"Army of goblins spotted!!" (Ravia)

The army immediately readies themselves. But as Ravia and Raine retreated, Lyan noticed that their expression are solemn.

"Hobgoblins! All of them. All are hobgoblins!" (Raine)

"Hobgoblins...?" (Alice)

Lyan, Alice, and the others had already noticed the absence of this kind of goblins at the battles and ambushes before, but they never expect that they would meet such an army right the one before them.

*Step!* *Step!* *Step!* *Step!* *Step!* *Step!* *Step!* *Step!* *Step!* *Step!* *Step!* *Step!* *Step!*

The sound of countless footsteps resounded throughout the forest, together with some shrieks from the goblins. Soon, the silhouette of the approaching army of goblins finally entered their line of sight.

"An army of hobgoblins..." One of the mercenaries uttered in stupefaction.

That's right.

In front of the army of mercenaries, an army that only consisted of hobgoblins could be seen before them. Considering that a goblin army having 50 hobgoblins is already rare enough, but before them are more than 800 hobgoblins lining up with different kinds of weapons and are formed into neat groups.

"Prepare for battle!!" Surena's voice brought the surprised men back to reality. They are in battle, a moment of hesitation and mind absence could bring a great damage to the army.

"Archers! Loose!" (Alice)

*Whoosh!*

Hundreds of arrows rained towards the hobgoblins, but at two meters above them, the arrows looks like they hit something solid and fell to the ground.

"Five hobgoblin magicians spotted!" (Ravia)

"They are being protected by two red goblin champions!" (Raine)

Ravia and Raine already climb the trees to take a greater look at the goblin ranks and relay their sight to the commander.

"Surena," (Alice)

"Okay! Let's go, Emilia! Jean!" (Surena)

"Infantries, ready for attack. Two company infantries standby. Heavy cavalries, Pincer them," Alice continues to give orders calmly without getting agitated. As the enemies are getting closer to those of a human army, her strategies and thoughts started to enter a much more serious mode as well.

Leading half of the elite group that stationed together with the infantries, Surena joined the heavy cavalries for the pincer. Their target is the magicians and finishing off the red goblin champions behind, while the rest of the elite group together with the infantries will take march head-on towards the army of hobgoblins.

But the army of goblins didn't passively wait for them to get attacked as well. They respond to the movement of the mercenary army and split into three groups as well. The red goblin champion that was supposed to be guarding the hobgoblin magicians behind followed the two groups that will be facing the pincer from the heavy cavalries, while the last group took a defensive stance to receive the attack from the infantries.

As they started to get into contact, suddenly Hobu whom Lyan instructed to watch their backs transmit his thoughts, alerting him of danger from behind.

*Shiiing!*

"Hm?" William, Borton, and the other mercenaries saw Lyan drawing his sword.

"Army of red goblins approaching from behind!!!" (Lyan)

Lyan's voice reached Alice, and Alice immediately respond.

"Defend the supply unit. Light cavalries, circle them and charge from their back," (Alice)

The two companies of infantries ordered to standby by the Small General is precisely for this moment. The infantries swiftly rush to defend the supply unit and take their battle stance, while the light cavalries rushed to the sides and went a little bit deeper into the forest to let the infantries draw the attention of the goblins from them.

"Seems like some big ones are coming to this side as well. Ready to make some show again, rookie?" (Borton)

"If you want to face them all, I won't interrupt you, Borton," (Lyan)

"Heh! It won't be good if I stole all of the spotlights, wouldn't it?" (Borton)

"I don't really mind, though," (Lyan)

"This time, I'm joining the fray. You won't mind, right?" William approached Lyan from on top of his horse.

"Of course. I'm not that much of a battle maniac, after all. Unlike this guy, though," Lyan pointed at the black horse that neighs excitedly as he saw the army of red goblins charging.

The ones that are charging toward them are an army of red goblins. Their number is about 400, and 4 normal goblin champions are accompanying them from behind.

"Let's go. We're supposed to make raise the morale of the men, right?" Borton kicks his horse and joined the infantries together with the other Brave Rings' members.

Lyan followed him slowly together with William and other cloaked figures that were always together with William.

Not long after, the two forces met.

"Don't get too excited and get killed, you hear me?" Lyan reminded the black horse under him that is excitedly stomping and sending the red goblins flying with its hooves. In fact, it seems that the black horse is killing more red goblins than he is.

(Just how much of a battle maniac this damned horse is?) (Lyan)

Seeming to get bored from clashing with the red goblins together with Lyan, the black horse's eyes met the eyes of one of the goblin champions.

The goblin champion let out a deep growl as if challenging the black horse, while the black horse replied with a deep neigh as if saying 'You'll regret it'. Then the goblin champion suddenly made a big grin on its disgusting green face, looking at its expression, the horse raised its upper legs and let out a loud neigh, getting riled up by the goblin champion's provocation, startling Lyan that is on top of him.

"Ah... Now you've done it," Lyan uttered helplessly as the black horse started to sprint through the goblin champion with terrifying speed. Even the goblin champion showed a startled expression when he saw how fast the black horse is.

The aggressive black horse Lyan is riding is famous for its aggressiveness towards people and how it didn't want to obey anyone. But the reason why there are lots of people that still attempt to tame the horse is that despite of its huge size that is a size bigger than usual war horses, the black horse's speed is magnificent enough that the rider could feel powerful winds when riding it.

*Clank!*

Lyan blocked the goblin champion's greatsword with his sword, and the black horse turned its body and kicked the goblin champion with powerful force with its hind legs, sending it flying and breaking some of its bones.

The other infantries assigned to guard the supply unit cheered and roared as they let out their battle cry when they saw the horse sending a goblin champion down.

With the Small General giving precise orders, the battle ended quickly, and it was time for the elite group to separate from the main army.

___________________________________________________________________________

Name: Lyan Arkanium Evocatore

Occupation: Gold-ranked Mercenary

Money: 49,722,400 Elnes

Weapon: None

Equipment: Black leather cloak, Leather Armor, 1 (Decent) One-handed Sword, 2 (Good-Quality) One-handed swords, 2 Health potions, 2 Poison Vials

Grimoire's Companions: 8 High Spirits, Shadow Hobgoblin, Papilio Slime, Galewing Butterfly, Rock Golem, Deadlight, Moonlight Butterfly, Ice Golem