Eventually, his eyes saw one of his cronies lying on the floor, groaning. Seeing as he wasn't dead, he looked at Piko, who immediately ran and guided Seto up. He wasn't injured, but he was filled with dust.
"What happened?" He asked and Seto shook his head, forcing some lucidity. "And why are there fewer slaves than I sent?" By estimate, even if they received this damage, it should've been mostly slaves. He saw a lot of his guards amongst the injured!
Seto took a deep breath before he answered. "A lot of them were eaten by mobs, milord."
"A beast mob was waiting right outside the array. Our people did not expect it, so even if the mob wasn't particularly strong, they caused sizable damage to our forces."
"We haven't even gotten near the sentry scope!" Ero yelled, while Baltimore was quiet, deep in thought.
Around him, people had tried to regain their bearings with the leading team trying to analyze what to do next.
Guia Village had thousands of population and due to the nature of its industry, most of these people were guards and their families. Slaves weren't counted as residents, but he also had thousands of them.
He had already mobilized a big part of his forces to deal with Alterra, thinking it was better to be safe than sorry, but what was this?
"These aren't monster injuries!" Ero said, looking around. There were many injuries that were characterized by burns. Lower leveled individuals were burned to crisps.
Alterra really had explosives!
Why would another village have one? Did they have the backing of a city?!
This made sense! How else could a village be as good as a town!?
But, during their investigations, there was nothing of the sort came out. They had only heard some hired individuals coming from the cities, but that was it!
Did they still underestimate their connection with the cities? Which was it?!
He wasn't able to analyze further because people around him started screaming again.
At this, they paled as they looked at the sky. "Flying rocks! More flying rocks!" they cried, struggling to stand up and run. "They're here again! AHHH!"
"There! Another one!"
Baltimore and the other strongmen moved by instinct, far from the landing spot. In their shock, they could only watch as the flying rocks landed on their people. Some exploded, while some did not.
They watched as dozens more of their people were hit, the weaker ones died under the explosion and a few were injured by the non-explosive rocks.
He noticed that the explosive ones were made of black rock, while most of the others were just earth.
A few more flew towards them and Baltimore immediately gathered himself, using a lot of his strength to create a boulder to meet the rock, catching it and softening its fall.
He had to do this because the rocks came with such force that it wasn't possible for him to use his ability to catch it directly. Fortunately, there were really no more explosives, just rocks.
The people watched as their lord took care of the damned things, feeling that things were finally gonna get put in place! "The lord is mighty!"
Several more words of praise flew around, though it stopped abruptly as another one screamed. "More!"
Baltimore quickly gathered his strength to push the large rocks aside. He did this a few times and he frowned because it was consuming too much mana too early in the game.
Finally, there was one last rock and Baltimore did the same. Because the space around had been occupied by people (with some more coming in from the array) as well as the rocks he had already taken down, the last one landed right next to them.
It settled down nicely and a few people started to relax, but the strongmen's instincts suddenly flared and they sprinted several meters away before—
Why? Was it hidden inside the rock?!
Their ears were ringing and they realized that a few had bleeding ears.
Baltimore looked around. The rest was fine, but they were imbalanced. In battle, this could mean life or death. "Get up!" He yelled, "Another one!"
This time it was of black iron and he was sure it was an explosive! He could not control metal and his earth would not be able to hinder it at all! He could only run, leaving his people behind.
After this explosion, everyone ran back out and separated, terrified of where the next one would land. They didn't know there was no more, however. So Sammy added a little something in the last shot.
Baltimore and the others walked back, hopefully far enough from the reach of their weapon. However, before they could take too many steps, the ground shook again, and realized all the noise attracted a mob!
Baltimore took care of those that attacked him easily, but a few Guians who were still weak from the explosion got eaten.
Even those already level 14 or 15 were eaten by level 5 monsters!
He looked at some of the less injured men. His teeth gritted a bit as he bellowed his order. "You. Go back to the array and call everyone within the level cap. Get them ALL here!!" he yelled. "And get more slaves!"
"Y-Yes, milord!" he exclaimed. At first, he was shocked, but seeing as how they were being crushed—
"Are you just going to stand there?"
"N-No milord!" he yelled, running back to the Array with a few others, spreading out the territory to gather as many people as they could.
Soon, a few hundred people arrived. On top of this were also a few hundred slaves. There were even dozens of goblins…
Seto looked at the men with a deep frown. "You realize goblins are expensive right?" They also added a minimal force in a war.
Not to mention, due to the losses they suffered from the last goblin war, many people enjoyed torturing a lot of goblin slaves to death. These people were charged with the cost of the goblins with interest, of course, but one could see how they lost a lot of goblin resources during this time.
The productivity of the mines halved compared to before the war and had yet to recover!
The injured man looked at the shaking goblins and then to the Lord, who was being eerily quiet. "S-Should I–I bring them back Milord?"
Baltimore paused in thought, shaking his head in the end. "No, let them. Get them to dig a path," he said. "It's time we get closer to that damned wall."