The Castle in the middle of nowhere.

Ian was woken up by a gust of cold wind that hit his face through a slightly opened window. It was morning already, but he lay on his bed watching the lower side of Iris's bunk. This wagon was incredible, and like always in such cases, it had been King Theon's idea. He had explained what he wanted to be made, gave them rough sketches, and allowed Ian, Bjorn, Ragnar, and Verni to do with it what they wanted. They spent three days deciding on the details, but finally, they created the first camper wagon in Cridia. It was two and a half metres wide, almost eight metres long, and nearly three metres tall. Inside, it had two double bunks, a small kitchen, a shower, and a toilet. Thanks to Verni and his artificer's magic, the wagon was wider inside than outside. Not by much, only half a metre, but it was enough to make it incredibly comfortable. Ian felt something extraordinary was coming and opened the cover of his bunk.

"Is that breakfast?" he asked, sticking out his head only to receive a well-placed pillow hit on his face.

"Stay there! Or you will not get breakfast!" He retreated behind the cover, closed it, and started laughing. "Or worse!"

He heard the hushed voices of Iris and Lilly, who had thrown the pillow. Sudden commotion, laughs, and quick movement confirmed his guesses. After a brief moment, a third voice joined, coming from the back of the camper where the bathroom was placed, but the thick cover muffled sounds very well, so it was hard to tell exactly what was going on.

"Ian? You may come out." It was Lilly once again.

"Let me guess." He said, amused, opening the cover entirely and standing up. "You forgot about me, and let's just say you didn't care much about unimportant things like... I don't know... Your clothes?"

"You saw!?" Lilly's face started turning red, but he raised both his hands in his defence.

"No, no! That was just my wild guess." He said, trying to hold his laughter.

"Really? Remember that King Theon can tell whether you lied or not!" Iris reminded him, but with a big smile on her face.

"So... what's for breakfast?" Ian changed the topic while lifting his mattress on its hinges to pick up his daily clothes and armour.

"Scrambled eggs, bread, and tea," Rose said somewhere from the front of the camper, and Ian was sure she was frying eggs on a small magic stove in the camper kitchen.

"Can you promise me you haven't seen anything, Ian?" Lilly asked again, with suspicion painted on her face, holding a second pillow as a weapon.

"I swear, Lilly!" Ian said with an amused grin. "I had my eyes closed because I was trying to sniff out breakfast."

"Hmm... I will let you off the hook for now." Lilly said and started laughing as well.

•••

Thor sniffed the chilly morning air and, with a worried voice, connected with Arani who landed swiftly near him.

"Yes, Thor?"

"Brother! I think we must retreat at once to Avalon. I can smell servants of other dungeons approaching; they are close. Can you check the northeastern forest?" the Fernir said calmly. "I will inform our friends."

"A forest? If they are approaching, covered by a forest, that explains why we haven't spotted them earlier." Arani spread his massive wings. "Retreat to Avalon and leave the enemy to me, brother! I will inform the King if I confirm the enemy!"

Thor leapt over a fallen tree and started running towards the camp at the same time as ordering his subordinates to scout the area. Fortunately the camp was nearby, just four kilometres away...

•••

I listened to the report with a serious face. A large invasion force consisting of at least ten thousand dungeon goblins was marching on Avalon. Fortunately, they couldn’t catch Ian and the Flower Girls. That was my only concern. Seriously, they think they can besiege Avalon with such a small army?

The whole idea of a castle is to withstand such forces. Contrary to what films depict, laying siege is not easy. An army ten thousand strong is not enough to even dream of laying siege to the main castle. The sheer size of the lower castle would deplete their numbers, not allowing for the encirclement of outer walls. If they tried, they would miserably fail, if they didn't I could simply deploy my foot soldiers using ropes and platforms. Spreading their forces between gatehouses would allow me to send out skirmishers forces to challenge them wherever I liked and crush whatever they planned. My garrison consisted of two thousand skeleton longbowmen, three thousand skeleton guards, three hundred paladins, and two hundred fairies. Additionally, I had about forty storm eagles and one hundred shadow wolves, frost wolves and six fenrirs. My field army consisted of the most elite units that would stay put, unless those goblins were much better than I thought, but Arani reported level thirty goblins, so they shouldn't be a problem.

Good fucking luck laying a siege with ten thousand goblins.

The smallest force to lay a siege to Avalon would be sixty to eighty thousand, and even then, they could only cut off Avalon. So fucking what? Avalon is self-sufficient; I don't need any external supply sources. These goblins were as good as dead. However, I think that's not the case here. Whichever dungeon sent these goblins is simply not aware of whom he was picking a fight with. Or was this just a scout party?

Anyway, remember when I wondered about buying this audio system? I had it. I already used it during the welcome party a few weeks back. I could use it again, except not only for shits and giggles this time.

The air raid alert blasted through the Avalon, followed by my voice.

"Attention to everyone in Avalon. The enemy army is moving toward Avalon and will reach the castle in less than two days. To all residents, citizens and guests, please do not be alarmed... Too much. Leaving Avalon is not advised at this time. Ten thousand goblins have been spotted in a day and a half distance from the castle."

•••

Lanka raised her head and looked in panic at Amber and Irene. That loud signal rumbled through Avalon and made her alarmed as hell, not at all calm. But when she saw that the Queens and Stella simply ignored the warning and still were focused on training, she relaxed a bit.

"Ten thousand goblins? That's just rude..." Queen Amber said, shaking her head and forming her spell once more.

"That's true. I'm not sure why Theon even bothered with sending that warning," Irene sighed, standing up and taking a cup of water.

"But ten thousand goblins is an incredible force... Will we be all right?" Lanka asked, a bit afraid, remembering the goblins that almost killed her and her friends last time.

"Theon is more than sure that anyone trying to even hope to breach Avalon walls will need at least one hundred thousand strong army, siege engines, or at least powerful wizards, and supplies to lay siege for at least a few years. As I now quote: any idiot stupid enough to lay siege to a proper castle will very quickly understand his or her folly." Amber shrugged.

•••

Ian was angry. No. He was furious.

"Fucking, shitty, bloated, green bastards!" He yelled toward the estimated goblins' positions.

"Calm down, Ian..." Rose started laughing.

"But they ruined our trip! We were so close to that other buffalo herd..." He glanced at Thor, who ran in front of the wagon's column as a spearhead.

"We can try next time... I think?" Lilly looked at Ian's back.

"Maybe... Only if the King allows us to go. Remember, we still haven't mentioned the Winter Beasts to him..." Ian said confidentially.

"Right! But I really wanted to see one," Iris said with a hushed voice as she fixed her warm hood. "If we play it right, he may let us go."

"I really hope so! Taming six buffaloes is a nice start, but we will need much more of them."

They were moving very fast since the ground was frozen solid, and shallow snow wasn't any real obstacle for the horses and wagons they pulled. The tamed buffaloes were loaded on the special wagon made precisely for this purpose. Ian technically could breed a bigger herd out of it, but taming was incredibly fun. Also, the trip out of Avalon was not that scary or tiring since they had the camper wagon, which was probably a few times better than anything people normally live in. They could already see Avalon when they heard a loud eagle scream and felt the ground shake.

"Ian! Take all wagons back to Avalon! My wolves will delay the warg riders!" Thor yelled while moving toward the rear of the column.

•••

After Ian and the Girls crossed the draw bridge to Everlight, I raised it, sealing the Town from the outside world. That was absolutely epic. Right after the last wagon was off the bridge, the metal grate fell, accompanied by swift metal-on-metal clicks of its mechanism. At the same time, louder and slower clicks of the bridge mechanism sounded in the empty gatehouse, followed by a loud thud of the massive gates closing shut. The gatehouse had two more sets of doors and grates- in the middle and leading straight to the town. The skeleton and fairy units disembarked from their wagons, reinforcing the previously symbolic Everlight garrison.

The outer entrance to Everlight was sealed, and good fucking luck opening it.

Thor wolves broke from the engagement with the goblin warg raiders and, covered by Arani and the eagles, retreated to Avalon. Right now, the eagles could freely use area-of-effect spells to deter goblins, and that tactic had been effective so far. I lost a few frost wolves during this little skirmish, which was a bit concerning. When all wolves returned, I closed three of four external gates, sealing Avalon from the immediate goblin threat.

•••

I held a small briefing that lasted about two hours with Everlight residents who seemed to be concerned. I couldn’t blame them since the goblin army potentially would attack Avalon through Everlight.

We were standing in the gatehouse watching the distant army. The Goblin horde seemed to prepare ladders in the forest outside of my archer's range. However, I saw goblins with my own eyes and I wondered if anyone in this world ever had properly besieged a castle. This was the most embarrassing joke. As soon as they made a handful of ladders, they started running. Even from here, I could see those ladders were way too short.

"What the fuck are they doing?" I asked Knys and Sigismund.

"They want to attack in mass! We must prepare!" Sigismund yelled like every second was now defining our future.

"Hold up. Hold up." I tried to calm him down. In the background, massive boulders fired from trebuchets situated at the medium castle wall towers, starting to decimate goblins. "What do you mean by mass?"

Sigismund observed the giant boulders ripping through the air over our heads with a thundering WHUMM sound and he looked at me, terrified. It was not a particularly long-lasting bombardment, as only five boulders were shot toward the goblin horde, but that killed thousands of them. My projectiles hit the ground and started rolling four straight lines of death in the enemy ranks, painting the ground with streaks of sheared earth, goblin blood, and other remnants. The fifth rock shattered upon impact with the excellent effect of showering the unprepared goblins with millions of sharp shards. In shock, the goblin army stopped their advance and tried to hide behind the monstrous rocks that had killed their compatriots.

"Sigismund? What do we have to get ready for?" I was concerned as I didn't know what I should expect. Maybe he knew something important.

Right after this morale-breaking bombardment, my fairies, who had reinforced Everlight’s garrison, aimed their fire magic at the brittle boulders, turning them red hot. That fiery inferno set many goblins on fire, but when other fairies used their ice magic, my magic happened. The sudden temperature change caused rocks and boulders to explode into thousands of small splinters. It wasn't as effective as I hoped it would be. Adjustments had to be made in future projectiles. But the effect, for now, was enough. In the span of a few minutes, the previously ten thousand-strong army now had only two, maybe three thousand goblins left alive.

Next my skeleton longbowmen started showering them with arrows. I had brought two hundred archers, who started firing in organised waves of death, shooting every five seconds. This was too much for the goblins. They tried to retreat but my wolves attacked using the chaos in the goblin lines. The enemy riders were already killed, so no one was left to try to rally enemy troops and my forces routed them with ease. My shadow wolves emerged from nowhere, additionally increasing disarray as the frost wolves and fenrirs hit the escaping remnants from the flank.

"Sigismund?" I was still confused.

I put my hand on the dwarf's shoulder, lowering myself a bit, but he simply gazed upon the bloodbath my forces had brought upon the goblin army. The last goblins tried to desperately flee the battlefield but Arani and my eagles didn't give them any hope. Lighting rained upon the last groups and eagles darted from the sky to crush a few particularly strong hobgoblins and even the occasional goblin general. But in terms of the goblin army, there was no army.

But I still was a little nervous. Sigismund was still silently looking at the battlefield where a single flash of the wolves' magic or lighting highlighted the death of yet another goblin. I straightened and looked at Knys but he was just staring at the field, holding the rampart. I was a little confused right now. All adventurers were in a similar state and I saw their fear mixed with awe.

"What the fuck do you mean they will attack in mass?!" I shouted and shook Sigismund on the shoulder.

My shout seemed to break some trance they were in. Sigismund looked finally at me and cleared his throat. I saw him very quickly rethinking his life.

"My King... Ekhem... Normally goblins will run towards the walls and scale them using ladders. Dozens of cities or even military forts were taken by this tactic."

"And that's it? That was their plan we had to be prepared for?" I asked, terrified.

"Yes, my Lord. What luck we have that you had the means to destroy an army this big." He nodded his head, wrongly interpreting my terrified voice.

I looked at Knys who shortly nodded his head. Behind me, the last goblins were captured or killed. I moved my eye from Knys to Ikki, Ori, Warren and all others who also nodded upon meeting with my gaze. In silence, everyone was looking at my more and more sinister-looking face. This world is not what I was expecting.

"Hahaha!" I started laughing, thoroughly amused. "Are you serious?!"

"Well... Yes, my Lord," Knys answered, a little intimidated.

"Hahaha! They wanted to scale the walls of Avalon using ladders?! Hahaha!" I laughed so hard I had to hold on to the battlement.

"My Lord? Why are you laughing?" Sigismund asked in concern.

"PHEW! Ok, people listen..." I calmed myself a bit but still giggled from time to time. "Avalon’s moat is twenty-five meters wide, and twenty meters at the narrowest points. These walls are ten meters tall."

They looked at me but they seemed to not understand the significance of what I was saying. I summoned a sheet of paper and a piece of charcoal since I forgot about thick markers. I drew for them two lines organised in a straight angle.

"Ok, look. This longer line at the bottom is our moat. In the best-case scenario, it's only twenty meters wide." I looked at them and they nodded in agreement. "This shorter line, here, represents Avalon's walls which are ten meters tall. This means you will need to determine this diagonal length to build a ladder. Which is already a stupid idea at this point."

"Why? Using ladders is an excellent idea to scale any wall, my King," Ikki mumbled in confusion.

"An excellent question, Ikki!" I pointed at him with a smile and giggled a little, still amused. I marked lines with 'a' equal to twenty, 'b' equal to ten, and 'c' equaling a question mark. "This diagonal is absolutely easy to determine knowing the dimensions of the moat and walls. So! Knowing that a squared plus b squared equals c squared, we just take twenty square plus ten square which gives us five hundred. Now the square root of five hundred is almost twenty-two-something. So our ladders, to be effective, have to be about twenty-five meters long. TWENTY-FIVE METERS LONG!"

They still seem to not understand but judging by his facial expression, Sigismund was the first one to start putting the pieces together. I continued, still giggling from time to time.

"Ladders this long would be insanely heavy. And while you might build such a long ladder, placing it over the wide moat would strain it to the limits. If anyone would try to push any combatants over such a makeshift ladder, it would simply collapse under its own weight or the weight of anyone using it." I make a huge x mark on the triangle diagonal, symbolising the destruction of the hypothetical ladder. "This will leave us with the moat itself. In the water are hidden sharpened stakes and sticks, making falling into the water near walls an instant death experience. The moat itself is six meters deep, so good luck trying to attack without filling it first. Yeah, you could try to build some kind of bridge but good luck with that. My fairies can use telekinesis and fire magic. It’s fucking convenient."

"Ooohhh!" Sounded through the ranks of adventurers when they realized the goblins never posed any threat to Avalon in the first place. I started laughing once again, but this time many more people joined me.

•••

I left fifty archers, five fairies, fifty guards, and nine knights commanded by a paladin as Everlight’s garrison. This way, Everlight was guarded all the time so the Adventurers would have time to organise defences during an emergency. I called out a warning, and after receiving confirmation from the patrols, I opened the gates. The goblin corpses just crumbled conveniently into dust, leaving behind some loot that my forces picked up. Most importantly, however, I received mana. Tons of mana! Almost two million mana flowed to my vault, and thanks to that, I now had enough mana to survive four months.

I had also taken prisoners to interrogate, but to be honest, I just had three questions. Who sent you? Where does he live? And why? And since my interrogators are high-level, the goblins stood no chance. The dungeon that sent them was called, very poetically, "The Goblin Dungeon" and to be honest I was not sure if that was a joke or a legit name. That dungeon was located about four maybe five days away towards the mountains, so I was sure the goblins that ambushed Ragnar and Verni's party were some of its denizens. Or maybe they were somehow connected, since my Dwarves were sure that they were called wild goblins. And lastly, here comes the bomb. The Goblin Dungeon was trying to avenge The Blood Dungeon's demise so it sent its main field army to destroy me.

In normal circumstances, I would have sent a retaliation force to explain this misunderstanding, and after brutally murdering everything in that dungeon, I would drag its core on a chain, allowing it to properly beg for mercy under my feet. But here was the deal. Or problem. Cores can't leave their dungeons. But most importantly, I wanted more mana. More invading armies means more mana. So knowing exactly where that dungeon was, I killed the last goblin general, personally suggesting that I don't have any extra forces to spare and we were just lucky. Would he/she/it buy it? Dunno. With a little bit of luck, it would send another army for me to crush and get free mana.

•••

Josla was terrified. The scouts had informed her that a ten thousand-strong goblin army was seen marching towards Eriar's Dungeon, but supposedly it had been annihilated. Not just beaten or decimated, but utterly destroyed. Not a single goblin fled from Eriar's Dungeon. And that was terrifying. Her husband, after reading the report, was furious. He screamed and destroyed everything around him in fury, but she now understood his wrath. This new dungeon was extremely dangerous.

•••

Nadi met with the women from Gorn after the warning was called off. It scared them to think their new home could be destroyed, but now the King's voice told them everything was all right. Most of the men from the village went straight to the guild, asking for work or how and if they could register. Women, on the other hand, explored the town, finding many incredible things. When Nadi told them about the gift she received from the Queen, everyone was visibly jealous, but also they were happy for her. Everyone so far wanted to stay in Everlight, and given a few days, they would ask the Mayor himself for permission.

Today was special for Nadi since Master Seamstress Wendy would visit her to start teaching her. This was outstanding since she could live off of her own work from now on. Her husband woke up before sunrise and went to the guild to get registered, returning home when the warning was signalled, but mostly to drop his loot. Afterwards, he quickly went straight toward the wall to help defend the Avalon. Nadi was a little afraid, but he just kissed her and, with a very serious facial expression, told her he must help protect their home. When her initial fear passed, she was proud of him because he was right.

This was their new home. A place where their child could not just survive but thrive and live a happy life. This was a home that was worth fighting and dying for.

The town of Everlight in the blessed shadow of Avalon.