The World Dragon's Heir

Chapter 439: Hunting Tactics

Dominic tried to stay out of sight, so he could hunt the mages, but he wasn’t seeing any magic being hurled at the Trolls.

Either the mages weren’t here, or they had gotten smart and ran away when the Trolls arrived.

Dominic climbed a tree to get a better view, and saw the issue.

The portals that had sent the Goblins here were all near Baron Keith’s place, and a larger group of mages had gathered there. It was six hundred metres from where he was fighting, but he had a solution for that.

Setting a Mortar launcher in a tree was not optimal, so Dominic knew that he would be firing blind. However, he had enough experience with the weapon that he knew he could adjust the rounds to drop within fifty metres of his intended target.

One after another, Dominic tossed mortars in the tube.

It was nearly five seconds of flight time, and ten mortars in the air by the time that the first exploded.

Dominic jumped back up into the tree to scout his target, and then dropped to adjust his tube and continue.

Chaos reigned among the mages as they tried to understand what was attacking them. They couldn’t see Dominic beside the tree in the distance, and there were no airships overhead close enough to target them.

There were plenty in the air, supporting the armies. But none paying attention to this remote Barony.

The mortars didn’t break barriers most of the time, but they made the mages focus on keeping the barriers active, and destroyed their camp supplies, which had arrived in a wagon.

It was also exhausting to continually defend against artillery, and they breathed a sigh of relief a few minutes later when Dominic stopped shelling them.

But he had only climbed the tree so he could shoot.

He wasn’t a sniper, and that was a long shot, but the mages had gathered for safety, and even if he missed a kill shot, he could break barriers and severely injure them with every rifle shot.

Imbuing the rounds with [Fireball] let them shatter the barrier, then explode in the groups of mages, and the death toll rapidly grew.

Then, someone finally calculated the direction that the attack was coming from, and an army of Gnolls began to run in his direction.

They were just in time.

The Trolls had nearly finished with the Hobgoblins, and they were coming his way, drawn by the magic of the rifle reloading.

A mournful wail split the air in the distance, and the Trolls began to run, charging into the Gnolls with their clubs flailing. Bodies flew everywhere as the Trolls ignored tactics to get to the sound of the call.

Dominic couldn’t tell what had happened, he could see both Trolls at the Manor still standing, but they must have taken a loss, as they were still heavily besieged.

The advance of the Trolls confused the mages, but Dominic didn’t stop shooting, and they couldn’t do anything to stop the carnage of rampaging Mountain Trolls.

There was a very good reason that the human nation had been terrified of the Dragon Kings working with the Trolls in combat, and this was why. They simply healed too fast, and with the magic of the Dragons, they were even more terrifying.

The [Lightning Bolts] that had been ineffectual against Minotaurs were enough to cripple a Gnoll, and with the spell cast on a spiked club, even a glancing blow would shatter bone and burn muscle tissue.

Dominic saw a group of mages frantically gesturing through the portals as he eliminated their support, then the dejected look when they realized they weren’t getting the support they had been begging for.

Instead, a group of ten Ogres came through, then the portals were closed from the other side, leaving the mages here trapped.

"They must have learned their lesson." Dominic muttered to himself as he realized what they had done.

If they cut off the portals before the location was overrun, they didn’t have to risk him hurling mortars through this time. That had worked beautifully last time, but it wasn’t a trick that they would allow him to just use with impunity.

He would have to use stealth.

The last of the mages in this group fell to his rifle, and Dominic moved to collect the Monster Cores from the Gnolls, and to finish off the wounded monsters that the Trolls had left in their wake.

Pistols did the job efficiently as he ran through the carnage, but the work needed to tap all the bodies for loot greatly slowed his progress.

So, Dominic made a detour. The Trolls would do their best to save the Baron, and they had the Priestess with them.

Instead, he made his way to the mages’ location and searched the bodies for storage items and valuables. There was no reason to let the enemy recover their belongings after the battle, even if he couldn’t open the storage rings without help from the Duskblade Sect.

"Let me." A familiar voice came from behind him as Amie made her way through the grass, covered in blood.

"What happened to you? I thought that you were at the Manor."

The little mage nodded. "I was. But Alexis needed a runner. We need the Trolls back. There are too many mages and monsters coming from the other side of town.

The attacks on the Barons were just a distraction."

"And I fell for it. Dammit. How are the other Daves doing?"

Amie smiled. "They’re still fighting with the army. Someone made them a stack of metal plates, and they’re setting up forward bulwarks by pounding them into the ground."

Well, that was one way to use Trolls.

"Follow me and loot the bodies. We will let the Baron know we’re leaving. I got the mages here, and the portals closed."

With two of them, the process was much faster, but they were only getting what was close, and Baron Keith could send someone for the rest.

"Trolls! How is the battle?" Dominic shouted as he approached the hill that the Barony House was built on.

"Clear!"

The scene in the yard was grim, with a dozen wounded soldiers, and an exhausted Priestess slumped down against the well.

"Baron. Good to see you. This side was the diversion. We’re being recalled to the battle at the Manor. However, I will leave you and Baron William a few Trolls each to help defend, in case the monsters return."

The Baron shook his head. "We will be fine after a bit. The Priestess saw to that. Take your men to war."