Chương 15: Chapter 14

[DEBT - LIONEL] Owed: 15gc Asset total (estimate): 80gc Available funds: 3cc Due: 1 day The city was abuzz with activity. With Corin's ambush, there was no doubt that the goblins were planning to invade. They'd never send a scouting party, especially not with a Brute leader, so close to the city for any other reason. Corin had to spend a half day in the infirmary, the initial stabilization work having to be redone after they removed the various bits of arrow and metal embedded in him post-heal.

They didn't, at least, charge him for it. Knowledge of the coming invasion was worth far more than the cost of healing. It was there, finally still, that he had time to actually process what had happened. He pulled up his Skills, and saw it plainly: [Empowered Tether {Rare}] School: Spatial {Affinity} Creates a tether of solidified force, anchoring the caster to a target, or two targets to each other. Intensity scales with mana invested. Can bear physical weight.

Cost: {Variable} | Cooldown: N/A A Rare Affinity for Spatial. He had no idea what that meant, not really. Only that some fraction of people apparently had Affinities at all, and fewer still ever found out. He'd found his by accident, mid-panic, with two arrows through his shoulder. He wasn't sure if that made him lucky, or just further proof that life only ever threw him a bone while it was busy trying to break every other one he had.

Corin left the infirmary in a daze, no closer to figuring out how he'd pay off his looming debt, and fully aware he had no real opportunity to do so. Every adventurer present, no matter how dismally F-rank, had been enlisted to help defend the city - most of the high-level adventurers were dispatched to the ongoing border war, something the goblins may have gathered intel on.

That did at least mean the medics had fully patched him up, since they needed every able body they could get, and Corin had arrived very much not-able-bodied. Walking into the Guild headquarters, he was met with controlled chaos: battle plans being drawn, weapons distributed, supply carts loaded. He'd barely taken two steps in before he was grabbed by a harried-looking, high-ranking official.

"Corin, right? The one that got attacked by the goblin scouts? We'll need you on the walls," he said, roughly handing him a crossbow and a quiver of bolts.

"What's your crossbow proficiency like?"

"Abysmal," Corin replied, and the official shrugged.

"Good a time as any to learn, eh?" he said, slapping Corin on the shoulder in apparent camaraderie.

"Initial reports say that they'll be attacking come morning, so make sure you're prepared." Corin thought back to his vision, doing some quick mental math.

"You sure they're not planning at midnight?" Corin asked.

"Not a chance," the official replied quickly.

"Goblins can't see at night."

"Neither can humans." The official considered this briefly, then gave Corin another hearty slap on the shoulder. This earned another grimace from him, his shoulder having taken more than enough punishment for one day.

"We go on the intel we're given," the official said, before his enthusiasm faltered slightly.

"But best be prepared regardless." With that, he told Corin what his battle station would be, then turned back to the chaotic battle plans, the conversation clearly over. Corin slung the quiver over his shoulder, grabbed the crossbow, and headed for the wall. The invasion is at night. He reached the ramparts, wide stone walkways bristling with hastily-stationed archers and half-assembled ballistae, and looked up at the flurry of activity. Everything was still so disorganized.

They're going to take everyone by surprise. But what are they planning? Corin was at a loss for how to convince anyone the invasion was coming earlier than expected, but he was expected at his post regardless, so he could at least go up there to think. He arrived to find Perrin sitting on a bench, overlooking the darkening sky. Perrin looked up at him, his expression fighting to hide his fear.

"They got you up here too, eh?" Perrin said, a shade too casually.

"We're the lucky ones, us F-ranks. Too useless down there. Just incompetent enough to be firing bolts from up here."

"Perfect targets for their archers," Corin said, sitting down next to Perrin and briefly thinking back to the ambush.

"They're good with their arrows."

"How would you know?""'Cause I had three of them in me a few hours ago," Corin replied, and Perrin's eyes went wide." You were the one who got attacked?" Perrin asked, shocked.

"One and the same," Corin said, a brief shudder running through him at the memory of the spear's passage through his gut. This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"By the gods, you're lucky to be alive," Perrin said, and Corin let out a bitter laugh.

"I'm not sure if I'd agree," Corin replied, standing up and watching the last of the sun set over the horizon, a brief silence settling between them.

"I think they're attacking at nightfall, Perrin."

"Nonsense," Perrin said.

"Goblins can't see shit at night."

"Neither can humans," Corin repeated, and Perrin tilted his head, as if this were the first time that thought had occurred to him.

"Difficult to siege at night, though," Perrin countered.

"Trebuchets are tough enough to aim during the day." Corin scanned the thick forest, trying to get any sight of the goblins. The forest had always been a mixed blessing for the city. It had ample wildlife, and that meant ample monsters, meaning that at least the Guild was always profitable. It did, however, also mean that any attacks on the city were concealed until the last moment. Now, if they were attacking at night, then was it truly a siege, or did they have something else in mind? Corin had a sudden thought.

"Stay here," Corin said, and Perrin shrugged.

"I was planning on it." Corin ignored him, walking instead along the long wall surrounding the city, dodging frantic guards hauling equipment into place. They'd assume the goblins would launch their attack from the front, since the city gate was a far more tempting target than the surrounding walls, but there were at least sparse scouts posted along the entire encirclement. Corin thought back to where he'd encountered the goblin scouts. Was it just chance that they'd been there, or something more deliberate?

It was the thickest part of the surrounding forest, meaning siege equipment was nearly impossible to bring through... but it also meant it was the best place to hide an assault. Orienting himself, he walked toward the exact spot he'd been ambushed, trying to peer through the trees. Something proving to be almost comically pointless, given the entire area was now bathed in darkness, the sun having already fled the oncoming battle.

All he could see was the flickering light along the battlements, and beyond it, the great void. He strained his ears, listening for any movement, any sign that something was out there, but the chaos around him drowned out anything he might have caught. If not a siege... then what? Corin knelt down, pressing his whole body against the city wall, ear to the stone. He held his breath, straining to feel any vibration through it. Nothing. No digging, no scraping, no climbing, not even a tremor.

Whatever he'd expected to find, the wall was not providing it. He let out a long breath, relief flooding through him. Maybe he'd been wrong. Maybe it really was just a siege after all. Archers, ladders, siege weapons, the kind of straightforward horror the city actually knew how to handle. Then, something slammed into the stone beside his head, hard enough to make him flinch backward. He looked over to find a grappling hook buried into the edge of the battlement beside him, the rope already pulled taut.

They're scaling the walls. He moved to alert the guards, then froze. A second hook, further down the wall, had already long-since found purchase. A single hand curled over the stone edge beside it, fingers digging in. They've scaled the walls.

"Ambush!" he cried, swinging his crossbow toward the hand and firing - the bolt going wide and catching the hook instead, the sudden impact tearing it loose and taking the climbing goblin with it, a single cry marking its brief descent. [Goblin (Lv. 5) slain!] Guards snapped to attention as dozens more hooks flew over the walls and caught hold. They desperately slashed at the ropes, but more and more hooks kept coming, some lodging directly into the guards themselves and dragging them screaming off the wall.

A goblin hand hit the edge of the wall next to him, and Corin smashed his hammer onto it as hard as he could - a cry of pain the last he heard of it, until a few seconds later: [Goblin (Lv. 4) slain!] After that, goblins began streaming up the walls, more and more grappling hooks lodging into the stone with every passing second. One leapt onto the wall, brandishing a rusted dagger at Corin and squealing in dazed glee, clearly under the influence of some potent goblin narcotic. It slashed at him as he jumped back.

A narrow dodge, the fact that he was barely capable of dodging an inebriated goblin not filling him with much hope for the ensuing battle. [Bolt cast!] [Empowered Tether cast!] The bolt shot the goblin backward with enough force to send it over the edge, and Corin Tethered the falling goblin mid-air to the nearest hook on the wall, the sudden weight ripping the hook loose and dragging it off the side too. He watched them fly off the wall, fatally attached to each other. [Goblin (Lv. 4) slain!] [Goblin (Lv. 5) slain!] Two birds. One Tether. That was the significance of a Rare Affinity, apparently. His moment of quiet triumph was immediately interrupted by another goblin leaping at him - which twisted violently in mid-air as a crossbow bolt caught it in the shoulder, sending it crashing to the ground. Corin turned to see Perrin standing there, crossbow in hand, looking as surprised as he was.

"Perrin? I told you to stay there!"

"There's goblins there!" Perrin exclaimed.

"There's goblins everywhere!" Corin countered, taking his hammer to the crossbow-bolted goblin before it could recover, smashing its tiny head in. [Goblin (Lv. 5) slain!] [XP shared!]"They're really there," Perrin said.

"Like, a looooot there." Why are they all th- The city gates shuddered, then began slowly opening. The gate winch. Corin barreled past Perrin, who took the opportunity to retreat further from the danger thereafter. Guards and goblins were fighting, shooting, dying all around him, but Corin had to push past all of it toward the winch.

He arrived to find four dead guards and eight goblins still standing, all hauling at the winch to force the gate open further, a mass of movement gathering below as more and more goblins converged on the widening gap. The goblins quickly glanced at Corin, one wrenching its dagger free of a dead guard's chest and stepping toward him. The others kept working the winch, tiny muscles bulging with the effort.

Corin stared at the scene in frantic desperation, reaching for his trusty hammer (what remained of it), then hesitated for a half-second, looking at its deformed remains, thinking of every awful thing he and his hammer had been through. Then, he hurled it directly at the mechanism, the unheard apology trailing it as it clattered down through the gears and lodged itself firmly inside, jamming the winch completely. The other seven goblins turned on him at once, rage plain on their faces, weapons rising.

Eight goblins and no weapon, Corin thought with grim clarity. A spark and a bolt won't be enough damage. Corin watched as they approached, taking a few unsteady steps back, before turning to see another two goblins closing in from the rear. If I fight, I die... but I die well. The nearest goblin thrust its dagger toward him - and something else hit his shoulder first, hard enough to spin him half around. He looked down to find a hook buried in his shoulder. A hook attached to a rope. A taut rope.

For one brief moment, Corin flew.