The mercenary group followed the river bank and walked seven or eight kilometers into the depths of the decaying forest. They still didn't see a single specter when they set up camp.
The mercenaries started a large bonfire in the forest and dried the ground. They set up tents on the dried ground and hung hammocks in the air.
On this peaceful night that the mercenaries were used to, their camp was unexpectedly attacked by a group of goblins.
The attack happened in the middle of the night.
The attackers avoided the normal alarm traps, but they didn't avoid the magic alarm. When the mercenaries on night duty heard the alarm, they followed the mercenary's rules of night duty without hesitation and used scrolls to release a few illumination spells around the camp. They completely lit up the camp and exposed the ambushing enemies to the light.
This move was very effective and immediately negated the advantage of the goblins' night vision.
Now that the ambush had been discovered, the goblins chose to retreat or attack. The battle immediately began.
The first to charge were the goblin wolf riders.
The skinny and strong goblins riding on the strong wolves didn't affect the latter's agility much.
More than thirty wolf riders galloped around the perimeter of the camp. The goblins on the backs of the wolves took out the short-barreled muskets in front of the saddles and fired at the camp in an orderly fashion.
Qiankun Pagoda told Feng Chou that these goblin wolf riders maintained six wolf riders in every round of firing. They didn't fire randomly like a swarm of bees. This way, the sound of gunfire could continuously ring out and maintain pressure on the camp. If they were new recruits, they might break down under this constant pressure.
However, the members of the Sword of Salma mercenary group were obviously not new recruits.
The moment the magic alarm sounded, everyone except Feng Chou displayed their well-trained reflexes. They jumped up from their hammocks at the same time and reached out to take off their helmets in the darkness. They quickly put them on, grabbed their weapons with practiced ease, and rushed out of the tents. Some of them charged towards the empty space in the middle of the tents, while others pounced towards the shadows in the camp.
By the time the Goblin Wolf Riders charged over and opened fire, the mercenaries were already prepared to face the enemy.
At this time, Feng Chou hurriedly put on his helmet. Fortunately, Qiankun Pagoda's reaction was faster than Feng Chou's. It discovered the intruder a few seconds before the goblin triggered the magic alarm. According to Feng Chou's instructions, it immediately activated the magic scroll stored in Qiankun Pagoda and cast several defensive spells on Feng Chou.
Just as he put on his helmet, the continuous sound of gunfire echoed through the forest.
The harassment tactics of the goblin wolf riders did not scare the experienced mercenaries, but they did scare Feng Chou.
Firstly, Feng Chou, who came from Earth, had a natural fear of gunfire. Secondly, he had once suffered at the hands of goblin musketeers.
Amidst the gunshots, Feng Chou lay flat on the ground, not daring to raise his head for a long time.
Fortunately, he had Qiankun Pagoda's shared view of the scan, allowing him to gradually grasp the situation of the battlefield.
The mercenaries who charged to the empty space in the center of the camp followed their usual training tactics and formed a simple formation. The swordsmen and shieldbearers were on the outside, the heavy-armed warriors filled in the gaps, and the strong archers were in the center of the formation.
As for the wanderers, they had long since disappeared into the shadows.
After the goblin wolf riders' muskets began to roar, the strong archers in the mercenary formation immediately began their counterattack.
This battle was different from the previous time when Feng Chou and Hogan had been chased by the goblin wolf riders. That time, it had been a dozen goblin wolf riders who had chased after the two of them with muskets. Today, it was thirty goblin wolf riders who were harassing almost twenty mercenaries. Moreover, to ensure that the harassment was sustained, the wolf riders fired in succession. Therefore, the intensity of the firepower that each mercenary had to endure was completely different from the one that Feng Chou had faced.
Even though the bullets fired by the goblin wolf riders were blessed with divine spells, just like the last time, they did not pose much of a threat to the mercenaries. Most of these bullets hit the shields of the swordsmen and shieldbearers. A small portion of the bullets hit the mid-sized plate armor of the warriors, and the occasional bullet hit the chainmail armor of some of the warriors. The wounds caused were quickly healed. In the center of the formation, there was a warrior who held a healing scroll and was responsible for healing.
However, the counterattack of the strong archers in the mercenary formation was extremely fatal to the goblin wolf riders.
The strong archers all used heavy arrowheads made of high grade black steel and enchanted with high grade magic weapons. There were seven or eight of these strong archers who were at the warrior level, and they all used + 3 magic bows that had been enchanted with magic and had a draw strength of a thousand pounds. Not only did these magic bows have a terrifying draw strength that normal bows did not have, but they could also enchant the arrows with temporary magical effects such as elven hymns. This allowed the arrows shot from these magic bows to be temporarily unaffected by air resistance and wind.
When these effects overlapped, the sharp arrows shot by the strong archers had terrifying lethality. Basically, one arrow could kill a goblin wolf rider.
However, this group of wolf riders was actually just a smokescreen. Amidst the chaos created by the wolf riders, the reinforcements that rushed up were the true trump card of this group of goblins.
Amidst the chaos created by the wolf riders, five Troll charged up from the side of the camp, followed by a dozen Bear Goblin. Behind the Bear Goblin were six earth goblins.
According to the records in the Antalya Wizard Academy, the earth goblins and Bear Goblin were the products of the bloodline modification experiments conducted by the Goblin Empire.
The only difference was that the Bear Goblin was the product of a failed modification, while the earth goblins were the product of a successful modification.
Compared to the Bear Goblin that gained a strong body but lost most of its intelligence, the earth goblins retained the intelligence of the goblins while also gaining a strong body.
The earth goblins looked like the enlarged version of normal goblins. They were even larger than humans, standing about two meters tall. Compared to the short and wretched appearance of normal goblins, their bodies were tall and fit.
Compared to the Bear Goblin that had the strength of a level-3 warrior when they reached adulthood, the earth goblins only had the strength of a level-2 warrior when they reached adulthood. However, they had excellent agility and even higher intelligence than the average goblin.
Even the arcanists of the past had greatly praised the earth goblins' modification. They thought that this was a very successful bloodline modification method. Although the advantages were not that outstanding, there were almost no shortcomings.
According to the records, after the earth goblin bloodline modification ceremony was created, the nobles and rich people of the Goblin Empire all underwent bloodline modification on themselves and their descendants to become earth goblins.
Therefore, in the Goblin Empire of the past, the earth goblins were the natural leaders and nobles. The Bear Goblin was the soldier and cannon fodder, and the normal goblins were the low-level laborers.
Even today, the goblins of the Northern Continent had degenerated to a state of ignorance. The earth goblins were still the natural leaders of the goblin tribes.