I Am Not Goblin Slayer

Chapter 453: The Grand Mage Arrives

The Green Dragon Queen's appearance abruptly shifted the previous standoff, where both sides had been locked in a stalemate, their momentum evenly matched.In this world, the role of an ultimate individual was decisive.

"Boom! Boom!"

"Moo~"

On one side of the forest, the army began beating war drums and sounding horns.

The monster army quickly sprang into action.

At the very front of the formation were the most numerous of all: the Goblins.

They were also the worst-equipped unit in the monster legion.

Their weapons were mostly short knives, short swords, and wooden shields. They rarely wore metal armor, relying instead on rattan armor. Only a few stronger individuals, appointed as charge squad captains, wore leather armor.

As a temporary auxiliary unit forced into the Green Dragon Army, their greatest function was to serve as the first wave of cannon fodder in battle.

However, their poor equipment was partly a result of resource allocation and partly a limitation of reality. High-quality weapons and sturdy armor were heavy. For the vast majority of Goblins, who weren't physically strong, their advantage lay in Agility, not Strength and endurance. Even if given fine gear, it would only be a burden.

"Roar!"

"Kill the humans!"

Although the treatment of the auxiliary Goblin legion was mediocre, their morale was exceptionally high.

Clutching their worn-out weapons, they glared viciously at the human defenders on the pass wall.

Once they crossed this natural barrier, they would have a clear path straight to Barry City.

If they breached the city, they would also enjoy the fruits of victory.

The wild Goblins were willing to be conscripted by the Green Dragon Army, not just out of their bloodline's reverence for Dragons, but also because of their restless, savage nature driving them.

Their genes seemed to crave violence, slaughter, and the release of physical urges.

Yet, as individuals, they weren't particularly strong. Only when gathered in groups could their savagery be fully ignited.

And the Green Dragon Army before them was undoubtedly the most powerful monster force for hundreds of miles around.

"Roar!!!"

A majestic dragon roar echoed from within the clouds.

Every monster that heard this sound was shaken.

It was the attack order from their mighty master.

The first to act was the Goblin legion in the front.

Under the command of relatively elite Goblin squad captains, streams of Goblin troops, like scattered ants, advanced toward the pass.

Meanwhile, in the vanguard, the regular Green Dragon Army troops calmly retreated toward the entrance of the plains.

From a high vantage point, the plains before the Low Mountain Range and Emerald Forest were gradually being swallowed by a chilling tide of darkness.

The entire ground trembled slightly under the monsters' march.

Hidden throughout the mountain range, the magic cannons slowly adjusted their aim.

Each magic cannon was concealed within the mountain itself, shielded and protected by magical formations, making them impossible to detect by sight alone.

Teams of personnel swarmed around the magic cannons, performing final calibrations. These were the dedicated operation crews for the cannons.

War had ceased for over a hundred years. Although minor skirmishes had never stopped throughout that time, none had ever necessitated the use of magic cannons.

So, for this generation of army mages, this was also their first time truly using a magic cannon outside of practice drills.

"Internal acceleration formation check complete!"

"All good."

"Charging formation functioning properly!"

"..."

Though their voices were orderly, in this mountain space, everyone's breathing unconsciously grew heavier.

Their heartbeats involuntarily began to race.

An indescribable emotion—tension, fear, or excitement—surged uncontrollably from the depths of their hearts.

The war's arrival was so sudden.

Half a month ago, they were living a peaceful military life.

After receiving the orders, before they could even truly process it, they found themselves on the front lines, facing the monster legion.

No one knew what would happen next, or if they would see the sun tomorrow.

But to claim they felt a profound, real fear would be a lie. After all, standing here now, they hadn't even encountered a single monster up close.

So at this moment, it was more a tangled mess of complex emotions.

They could only suppress their wandering thoughts with busywork.

"Clank... clank... clank..."

After completing the calibrations, the magic cannons slowly extended a section out from the mountain.

Then, specialized ranging mages locked onto angles and targets.

These army mages were different from ordinary mages. They didn't have overwhelming direct combat abilities, but instead possessed highly specialized spell configurations.

[Linkage Spell], [Eagle Eye Spell], [Ranging Spell], [Premonition], [Chant of Cooling]

Most of these spells would be of little use in daily adventuring combat, but now, paired with the magic cannons, they could unleash destructive power far beyond imagination.

The main gunner, linked to the magic cannon, calmly watched the front-line monster troops advance slowly under the magnified effect of the Eagle Eye Spell.

His field of vision became extremely vast.

He could see the entire plain. Upon closer inspection, faint dotted lines appeared in his vision, a built-in effect of the magic cannon indicating its optimal attack range.

_They're not yet in the cannon's best firing range,_ he silently recited.

Furthermore, as he had learned in training, the monster legions had evolved with the times.

The monsters were spread out in a cross-pattern of squads and battalions.

Scoring a direct hit on a dense main formation with a single shot seemed unlikely.

_Did they somehow know the magic cannon's firing range?_ The main gunner suddenly had this thought.

But there was no time to dwell on it now. The first wave of monster troops had already crossed the firing line in force.

"Clank... clank... clank!"

With the seamless coordination of the operation crew, a magical glow slowly began to flow through the several-meter-long body of the magic cannon.

Countless streams of mana rapidly converged from the base, along the cannon's barrel, toward its muzzle.

"Whoosh!!!"

A powerful wind surged from the front.

The light at the cannon's mouth grew brighter and brighter, finally reaching a terrifying intensity.

The next moment.

"Boom!"

Without any warning, that beam of light shot out violently.

In an instant, the projectile formed a straight, purple rainbow in the air, crossing a distance of over ten kilometers, and finally landing in a large Goblin battalion.

"Boom, rumble!"

The moment the shell landed, it exploded instantly. A violent shockwave enveloped a hemispherical space hundreds of meters wide.

When the light faded, only a massive, deep crater remained on the ground.

A battalion of several hundred Goblins had been obliterated by this single shell, leaving only a pit filled with minced flesh.

And all of this happened in the blink of an eye, in less than a second.

Witnessing the magic cannon's combat power, even the operation crew members were momentarily stunned.

During their daily training, they would also operate the magic cannons, but they never had so many live targets to shoot at.

Moreover, due to the high cost of use, their practice sessions were few, let alone having the power dialed up to the maximum.

The first operation crew launched the attack, firing the opening shot. Soon, one dazzling impact shell after another rained down on the plain before them.

The earth was torn apart. Trees were uprooted and flung dozens of meters into the air. Bodies lay scattered, mixed in with the mud.

"S-so... so powerful!!!"

The soldiers and adventurers watching from the pass wall all swallowed hard.

Their hearts, which had been racing with panic at the start of the war, now surged with renewed vigor.

With such powerful magic cannons stationed here, the enemy couldn't possibly cross the plain and reach them.

Only some high-ranking officers and adventurers kept relatively calm expressions.

First, the magic cannons set up in Barry had only a decent attack range; their core power wasn't that terrifying.

More importantly, the magic cannons had their limitations.

Their positions were relatively fixed, and the enemy could target those positions for destruction. Also, the cannons had a coverage zone; they couldn't aim too high, too far, or too close.

There was only a specific mid-range attack interval.

And their biggest flaw was the direct consumption of intermediate Magic Crystals, plus a lengthy cooldown time.

Their power was indeed good, but thinking they could use them alone to keep the Green Dragon Queen's army at bay for dozens of miles was a pipe dream.

Furthermore, the first Goblin legion to be killed was just cannon fodder. If they could deplete the Magic Crystals and force the cannons into cooldown, they had already fulfilled their mission.

Thinking this, some experienced officers began commanding their subordinates to move.

"Crack!"

The mountain suddenly trembled.

Nearby soldiers steadied themselves, quickly looking toward the source of the commotion.

Those with good memories couldn't help but change expression. That was the spot where a magic cannon had just fired.

"Is the magic cannon malfunctioning?"

"Squad Castor, all of you, grab your weapons and follow me."

Captain Castor frowned deeply, quickly commanding his subordinates.

That sound probably wasn't a cannon malfunction. After all, it had only fired once, far from the point of overloading.

To his senses, it felt more like an explosion caused by another attack.

In the sky, several massive Wyverns were rapidly crossing the battlefield, diving down from the clouds at extreme speed.

Nearby magic cannons quickly locked on, but the Wyverns' maneuverability was too high. A few twists in the air shook off the incoming shells.

"Thud!"

A Wyvern landed precisely at the location of a magic cannon.

Once an attack was formally launched, the effect of the concealment formation around the magic cannon rapidly weakened.

Nearby adventurers and soldiers tried to block the Wyvern.

But the Wyvern, nearly ten meters long, simply swept its tail, sending dozens of people flying.

Then, it flapped its wings, unleashing a gale that slammed into the magic cannon's position.

In the distance, numerous spells and arrows rained down on its tough hide. They were either deflected outright or exploded without leaving a scratch.

"So strong..."

Some low-level adventurers slumped to the ground, their faces etched with despair.

Faced with such a colossal beast, ordinary people were utterly powerless.

Fortunately, high-level adventurers quickly came to the rescue.

"All professionals below level 3, get out of here!"

"Leave this to us!"

From a giant eagle, a warrior clad in golden armor leaped down, crashing onto the platform. He then swept his hand, ordering the others to leave.

Seeing the Wyvern summoning another gale, the warrior surged forward. His great sword swung, sending a dozen-meter-long blade of wind at the Wyvern.

Across the various hilltop battlefields, before the main monster army had even drawn near, battles like this were already erupting everywhere.

Some soldiers and adventurers had their lives taken before they even knew what hit them.

Magic cannons began to be lost, but the charging flying monsters didn't gain much advantage either. Many high-level professionals were already stationed nearby, waiting for these agile monsters to get within their attack range.

On the main battlefield, the magic cannon's barrage continued.

Crater after red, gaping wound scarred the land. Each wound represented the death of countless lives.

Deep within the clouds, the Green Dragon Queen, the monster leader, showed no change in expression. The death of thousands of Goblins wasn't even worth a downward glance.

She also didn't look at the flying monsters destroying the magic cannons, hurling themselves into the fray like moths to a flame.

She simply stared blandly at a spot in the distant sky.

But there was nothing there.

A flicker of mockery passed through her gem-like eyes.

"Still hiding, even now?"

"You didn't really think you were hidden well, did you?"

The moment she finished speaking, the empty space she was looking at suddenly trembled.

Then, it was as if the space itself shattered.

A figure slowly walked out from within.

It was an old man, emanating a decaying aura.

The moment he appeared, his eyes locked onto the distant Green Dragon Queen, and his body began to tremble.

"I have been waiting for this day... for far too long," the old man said, a smile spreading across his face.

"So it's you, Erich Xavier."

"A sneaky ant hiding in the shadows. So, you're still alive."

The mockery in the Green Dragon Queen's draconic eyes grew even stronger.

During the tail end of the war over a hundred years ago, it was this mage, known as the Spellweaver, who fought against her on the front lines.

But a few decades after the war ended, according to her intelligence, word spread that he had died.

Did he really think he could deal with her using these petty tricks?

She was a genius among True Dragons.

Over a hundred years had passed, and he had grown old and frail, while she, a noble True Dragon, had advanced to an even more powerful realm.

The Spellweaver, Erich Xavier, stared fixedly at the Green Dragon. His eyes flickered with a bone-deep hatred. On his weathered face, cloudy tears streamed down from his eyes.

During the last war, to draw him away from the front lines, this Sneaky Green Dragon, using information from a mole, had found his family.

That day, his wife, children, and their guards all perished in her poisonous mist.

And even though he had received intelligence about it in advance, he never left the front lines. He simply continued to slaughter a massive number of the Green Dragon Army's mid-to-high-level forces silently, thereby saving countless others.

It could be said that the Xavier family's post-war standing in Coldjade Province was founded on the decision he made that day.

"Of course I'm still alive. For over a hundred years, I've been scheming on how to kill you, this beast."

A flash of pain crossed Erich Xavier's face, but his words grew increasingly cold.

As a leader, he believed he had a clear conscience. But as a husband and father, he could never forgive himself.

After the peace treaty was signed, countless times he had thought of going alone to assassinate this Green Dragon, but he was always dissuaded by the high command for the sake of the greater good.

If he tore up the treaty on his own, it could restart the war around Coldjade Province, causing tens of thousands of people to lose their homes and families.

By then, the war had already lasted far too long. Too many humans were weary of it. He couldn't become that sinner.

He had to use every means possible to cling to life until this day, over a hundred years later.

Luckily, he had finally lived to see this day.

"Humans. Such shallow creatures. A mere hundred years, and you talk of it as if it's something unforgettable?" The Green Dragon Queen shook her head lightly.

"Laughable! Truly laughable!"