My Goblin System : Levelling up with my SSS Class Devouring skill-Chapter 351

Human soldiers screamed. One took an arrow through the calf and went down hard. Another caught one in the thigh. A third took a shaft through his shoulder—not lethal, but painful and disabling.

The probe teams scattered immediately, falling back in semi-controlled retreat while dragging their wounded.

In the human command tent, Elric received the casualty report with no visible emotion.

"Three wounded at two hundred yards. Suggests their effective archer range is two hundred to two-fifty yards—standard for trained bowmen." He marked annotations on his map. "No pursuit, no follow-up volleys. They fired exactly enough to drive off the probe and no more. Disciplined."

"Orders, sir?"

"Medical treatment for the wounded. And adjust probe doctrine—no teams advance beyond two-fifty yards without prepared withdrawal routes and covering units. They’ve established they can hurt us at two hundred. Let’s see what else they’re hiding."

Back at the settlement, Seraphina monitored casualty reports through her network.

"Zero casualties our side. Three wounded theirs, all non-lethal." Her mental assessment was coolly analytical. "Elric now knows we have competent archers and fire discipline. Acceptable information trade for first blood."

"He’ll escalate," Lyra predicted, moving stones on her tactical map. "He’s learned our minimum engagement range. Next he’ll want to know maximum archer density, response time to threats, and whether we’ll sortie to protect flanks."’

"What’s your assessment?" Seraphina asked.

"He’s being exactly as careful as we expected. This is going to be a long day of incremental probing. Our challenge is making each probe cost him something while not revealing our full defensive capabilities." Lyra’s golden eyes studied the map like a chess master planning twelve moves ahead. "Jessica, status on medical preparations?"

Jessica’s mental voice joined the network, carrying her healer’s calm. "All three medical stations fully staffed and supplied. We’re ready for mass casualties if it comes to that. So far... quiet."

"It’ll stay that way for a while," Lyra said. "Elric’s not rushing. He’ll probe, assess, probe again. Might be midday before he commits to anything serious."

She was wrong.

It was the next hour that everything escalated.

Hour Three: Escalation

Elric had been patient for two hours. Now he was ready to test the settlement’s response to multi-vector pressure.

"Simultaneous probes," he ordered, spreading his hands across the tactical map. "Four teams—north, south, east, west. Each team advances to two hundred yards. I want to see if they have enough archers to cover all approaches simultaneously, or if they’ll have to choose which threats to address."

"Size of teams, sir?"

"Thirty men each. Include five battle mages per team for magical defense. If they start raining arrows, I want shields up immediately."

Within fifteen minutes, one hundred and twenty human soldiers were advancing on First Line from four different directions simultaneously.

In the settlement command tent, Lyra saw the pattern immediately.

"Multi-vector probe. They’re testing our coverage." Her mind raced through tactical options. "All First Line commanders—they’re coming from four directions at once. Do not—repeat, do not—try to stop all of them. Pick your battles."

"Which ones do we engage?" Captain Vex asked.

"Eastern and southern approaches only. Let the northern and western teams advance unmolested. I want Elric to think we can’t cover all angles simultaneously."

"That’ll let them scout our northern and western defenses for free," Captain Skar protested.

"Defenses they’re planning to see anyway when they actually attack," Lyra countered. "Better they see them now and think we’re understaffed than realize we can cover all approaches and adjust their strategy accordingly."

Seraphina’s mental presence radiated approval. "Good tactical deception. Do it."

The eastern and southern probe teams advanced to two hundred yards and were immediately greeted by archer volleys—not devastating, but enough to force them to deploy magical shields and fall back. Eight more wounded humans, all non-lethal hits.

Meanwhile, the northern and western teams advanced all the way to one hundred and fifty yards, took detailed observations of defensive works, and withdrew without being engaged at all.

Elric studied the results with satisfaction.

"Confirmed: they cannot cover all approaches simultaneously. Eastern and southern sectors have active archer positions, northern and western sectors appear either unmanned or undermanned." He marked the map accordingly. "This tells me they’re concentrating their forces, probably at defensive chokepoints where they expect our main assault."

A staff officer leaned in. "Sir, that seems like a significant tactical weakness. We could exploit the northern sector—"

"Or they want us to think it’s a weakness," Elric interrupted calmly. "Remember, we’re facing an enemy that’s shown tactical sophistication. These unmanned sectors could be deliberately left open to channel us into prepared kill zones."

"So we don’t attack the north?"

"We probe it more thoroughly first. If it’s genuinely weak, we’ll exploit it. If it’s a trap, we’ll identify it before committing forces." Elric’s finger traced lines on the map. "Next probe: northern sector only. Larger force—fifty men. Have them advance to one hundred yards and actually test the defenses. Throw rocks at fortifications, make noise, try to provoke a response. Let’s see if this is real weakness or manufactured lure."

Hour Four: The Trap Springs

Fifty human soldiers advanced on the northern sector in tight formation, shields locked, moving with professional caution. They passed two hundred yards—no response. One-fifty—still nothing. One hundred yards—silence from the fortifications.

"They’re coming to the northern kill zone," Captain Vex reported mentally. "Fifty men. Should we engage?"

"Let them reach the trap line," Lyra answered, her tactical mind cold as winter ice. "Thrak designed that sector specifically for this. Let the defenses do the work."

The human formation advanced to seventy-five yards. The soldiers were getting confident now, shields lowering slightly as they saw no defenders, heard no arrows.

Their lead elements stepped onto the prepared ground.

Thrak’s engineering was masterful. The pit traps weren’t simple holes—they were layered death zones. The first layer: false ground that collapsed under weight, dropping soldiers six feet onto sharpened stakes. The second layer: pressure plates that triggered spring-loaded spike barriers from the sides. The third layer: oil-soaked channels that could be ignited remotely.