My planet is infested with Goblins

The fresh Viridian formation reached the center before Colonel Alaric Veyne’s remaining reserves had completely taken their places.

The exhausted soldiers who had endured the first hours of fighting moved aside wherever officers could safely rotate them, but there were too few untouched companies to replace entire sections of the line. Men with blood running beneath their armor remained behind their shields because their wounds were not severe enough to justify leaving.

Spearmen whose arms had begun trembling from repeated thrusts shifted backward one rank and allowed fresher soldiers to take the front.

The brief reorganization helped, but Alaric understood exactly what he had changed by committing almost every infantryman he had left. He had given the Caldris line more time. He had not solved the problem facing it.

The next Viridian advance came in the same controlled manner as the previous one. The goblins did not rush forward screaming or throw themselves against the human spears in a mass.

Their shields advanced first, covering the formations behind them while ranged troops fired whenever exposed humans presented themselves. When they reached the Caldris line, the renewed strength of Alaric’s reserves immediately showed.

Long human spears struck over the shield wall and drove several goblins backward before they could close the distance. One section of the center even managed to force the Viridian front several paces downhill, and the sight produced a tired cheer from the Caldris ranks.

Captain Joren Bale moved behind the center, shouting for the men to maintain their positions rather than pursue.

"Let them come back to the spears. Do not leave the line just because they gave you three steps."

The warning prevented the momentary success from becoming another dangerous gap. The goblins recovered quickly, their front ranks shifting while fresh soldiers replaced those injured during the exchange.

Alaric watched the process from behind the line and felt his concern deepen. His own reserves had stabilized the center, but Viridian was still rotating entire groups with a regularity Caldris could not match.

A crossbow officer approached from the rear with a runner.

"Colonel, several companies are running low on bolts."

"How low?"

"Enough for several more heavy volleys, but not enough to keep firing at the current rate."

Alaric looked toward the Viridian ranged formations. Their rate of fire had also slowed from the opening exchanges, though he could not tell whether that reflected ammunition limits or deliberate conservation.

"Stop firing into their shield line unless they are closing. Prioritize officers, ranged formations, and exposed troops."

"Yes, Colonel."

"Send runners to the wagons for what remains, but do not strip the camp reserve completely. We may need ammunition after dark."

The officer saluted and hurried away.

The reduction in Caldris crossbow fire allowed the goblins to move more freely, but wasting bolts against protected infantry would accomplish even less. Alaric needed every remaining shot to matter. The battle had already lasted hours, and the battlefield no longer resembled the clean open ground where both armies had first deployed.

Broken spears, discarded shields, dead horses, bodies, and injured soldiers now covered the space between the formations. Healers from both armies worked behind their own lines, carrying away those who could still be saved while officers reorganized units whose numbers had been reduced.

Viridian pressure shifted again.

Instead of committing another heavy push exclusively against the center, goblin light infantry began moving toward the northern flank while smaller formations tested the stream crossings to the south.

The movements were visible, but that did not make them easy to answer. Every time Alaric shifted soldiers outward, another part of his smaller force became thinner.

Joren returned from the center.

"They are making us cover the whole field."

"I know."

"If they keep stretching us, one side eventually runs out of men."

"That is what their commander is waiting for."

Alaric looked north toward the cavalry. The first charge had proven that mounted soldiers could hurt Viridian badly on open ground, but the goblins had also shown that they understood how to respond. A second identical charge would only give their anti-cavalry troops the opportunity they wanted.

He called for the cavalry captain.

"Take most of the riders wide north. Do not drive straight into their front. Make their reserves move."

The captain understood immediately.

"You want them worried about the ranged troops."

"I want them looking at you instead of the center. Charge only if they give you something worth taking."

The cavalry moved several minutes later. Rather than attacking directly, the surviving riders swept across the open northern ground in a broad arc. Viridian officers reacted almost immediately. Ranged troops adjusted their positions while reserve infantry moved toward the threatened flank.

Alaric saw pressure against part of his center ease as goblin soldiers were redirected.

For a moment, the maneuver appeared to work exactly as intended.

Then the cavalry captain saw an opportunity.

A group of Viridian light infantry had become partially exposed during the redeployment. The human riders changed direction and accelerated, trying to strike before heavier goblin formations could reach them.

The charge hit hard enough to throw several goblins from their feet, and human spears drove through the first ranks. Unlike the earlier charge, however, the Viridian response came almost immediately. Polearm troops closed behind the light infantry while ranged soldiers fired into the cavalry from protected positions.

Two horses fell almost together. Another rider was thrown and disappeared beneath the advancing goblins. The cavalry captain recognized the danger before his formation became trapped and ordered withdrawal.

The surviving riders pulled away, leaving several men and horses behind.

Alaric watched them return.

The maneuver had forced Viridian to move reserves and had inflicted casualties, but the cost was greater than he wanted.

Joren looked toward the retreating cavalry.

"They are learning from us as quickly as we are learning them."

Alaric nodded.

"That is why tomorrow cannot simply be today repeated."

The word tomorrow remained uncertain. The sun had already dropped noticeably toward the western horizon. Its light stretched long shadows across the battlefield, and Alaric realized that only a few hours remained before darkness.

The fighting had consumed his attention so completely that he had nearly forgotten the time.

He looked across his army.

The Caldris line remained intact, but it looked nothing like the force that had deployed earlier.

Shields were dented. Spears had broken and been replaced. Officers had combined depleted groups simply to maintain useful formations.

Men who had begun the battle standing in the second line now fought at the front because those ahead of them were wounded or dead.

Viridian had suffered heavily as well.

The goblin numbers concealed the losses better, but Alaric could see damaged formations being withdrawn and reorganized. Their healers worked constantly behind the army. Several banners had shifted positions as reduced units were joined with others.

The humans had killed enough goblins to prove that their physical advantages mattered.

The battle was simply refusing to become decisive.

A messenger arrived from the southern flank.

"The goblins tested the crossing again, Colonel. We held them."

"Any sign of a larger force?"

"No."

"Then keep the men where they are. Do not follow if they withdraw."

Alaric looked toward the lowering sun again.

Joren noticed.

"You are thinking about ending it."

"I am thinking about what happens if we are still fighting when we cannot see our own banners."

Night fighting would be disastrous. Commands already struggled to travel through the noise of battle.

In darkness, formations could collide with friendly troops, wounded men could be trampled, cavalry would become almost impossible to control, and officers might lose contact with entire sections of their lines.

The goblins might suffer the same problems, but Alaric had no intention of discovering which army handled chaos better.

Before he could begin planning a disengagement, the Viridian formation changed.

Their ranged fire slowed.

Several battered front units withdrew and were replaced, but the replacements did not immediately launch another heavy assault. Instead, they maintained pressure without trying to break through at any cost.

Joren watched the shift.

"They seems to be slowing their attacks."

Alaric agreed.

The goblin commander had fifteen hundred soldiers to begin with and still possessed greater depth. If he wanted to gamble everything on breaking Caldris before nightfall, he could have committed every available reserve.

He was choosing not to.

That told Alaric that the enemy commander considered preserving the army more valuable than forcing a decision today.

The Viridian horn sounded again shortly afterward, and this time the goblins launched what appeared to be their last coordinated push. Infantry struck the center and northern wing simultaneously while ranged troops concentrated on exposed sections of the Caldris formation. Alaric ordered his crossbowmen to spend ammunition freely for the first time in nearly an hour.

Bolts tore through the approaching ranks.

The goblins continued.

The Caldris spear wall received them.

For several brutal minutes, the center became almost impossible to distinguish. Goblin shields pressed against human shields while spears thrust from behind both lines. Men used swords when broken weapons became useless. Goblins fought around the edges of shields, attacking legs and exposed arms while humans relied on strength to force them backward.

Joren entered the fighting personally when one section began wavering.

"Hold the line. There is nowhere else you need to be."

The Caldris soldiers around him steadied.

Alaric sent the last available reserve squad toward the northern side but refused to order a general counterattack. The goblins were losing men with every attempt to close through the spears. Chasing them would give away the strongest advantage the humans still possessed.

The Viridian push eventually slowed.

Then a different horn call sounded.

At first, Alaric thought another formation was moving forward.

Instead, the goblin front began stepping backward.

The withdrawal was controlled. One formation disengaged while another covered it. Ranged troops fired at intervals to discourage pursuit.

Goblin officers maintained their units rather than allowing the movement to become a retreating mass.

Several Caldris soldiers immediately began cheering.

"They are running!"

Alaric rode forward.

"Hold your positions."

The cheering weakened.

A lieutenant looked toward him.

"Colonel, they are withdrawing. We can press them."

"They are withdrawing because the sun is setting."

"We could still hurt them."

"And they could turn around while our exhausted soldiers are halfway across that field with no formation."

The lieutenant accepted the rebuke.

Alaric ordered the Caldris army to disengage as well.

Crossbowmen remained facing east while infantry sections withdrew in stages toward the ridge. The most badly wounded were carried first where possible. Cavalry gathered on the northern side in case the goblin retreat suddenly reversed. Officers counted banners repeatedly to ensure no company became isolated.

The goblins did not follow.

Viridian moved east toward its own camp while Caldris withdrew behind the ridge where the wagons and medical teams waited.

As darkness approached, small recovery parties from both sides ventured onto the edges of the battlefield to retrieve wounded soldiers close enough to reach safely.

Neither army tried to control the center after sunset. Too many bodies remained between them, and nobody wanted to restart the battle blindly.

Alaric reached the Caldris camp after the last organized infantry formation withdrew.

He dismounted slowly, his entire body aching despite having spent much of the battle directing rather than fighting personally.

Joren arrived several minutes later, blood covering one sleeve.

"Yours?"

"Mostly not."

Alaric nodded toward the healers.

"Get it checked anyway."

Joren ignored the suggestion for the moment and looked toward the distant glow beginning to appear beyond the battlefield.

Goblin campfires.

"They withdrew first," he said.

"That does not mean we won."

"The men will say it does."

"Let them tonight."

Alaric looked across the darkening field.

Caldris had survived.

The goblins had proven they could fight openly, but they had also bled heavily doing it. Human infantry could hold them. Human cavalry could hurt them. Their disciplined formations were dangerous, not invincible.

The problem was that the goblins had learned exactly the same thing about Caldris.

Across the field, Viridian campfires continued appearing one after another.

Neither army had fled.

Night had simply forced the first head-on battle between Caldris and Viridian to stop before either side could decide it.

Alaric watched the distant fires until darkness swallowed everything between the two camps. When morning came, the goblin army would still be there, and so would his own.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!