My Goblin System : Levelling up with my SSS Class Devouring skill

Lyra felt the weight of command settle on her shoulders like a physical thing. Eight hundred seventy-three defenders against what she predicted would be two thousand attackers. The mathematics were brutal.

But they had advantages too. Fortified positions. Prepared defenses. Knowledge of the terrain. And Seraphina’s specialists held in reserve as a trump card that Elric didn’t know existed.

"Listen carefully," Lyra addressed everyone through the network. "My prediction is that Elric commits approximately two thousand soldiers today in a maximum-effort assault. Siege towers, artillery, alchemical weapons—everything he has."

"How do you know?" someone asked.

"I don’t know. I’m predicting based on tactical analysis of his constraints." Lyra’s mental voice was honest about the uncertainty. "I could be wrong. He might send another light probe. But I don’t think so. Everything points to him going all-in today."

"And if he does?"

"Then we make him pay for every inch. Use the defensive works. Concentrate fire on siege towers before they reach the walls. Rotate positions to avoid artillery and fire bombs. Fight smart, not just hard." Lyra paused, then continued with steel in her mental voice. "But understand this: we might not hold Second Line today. If casualties mount to the point where holding becomes suicide, I will order retreat to Third Line. Do not die trying to hold ground we can abandon."

"That’s admitting defeat," Vex protested.

"We’re outnumbered more than two-to-one. If Elric commits his full force and we try to hold to the death, we all die and Third Line falls undefended." Said Lyra’s

"Better to trade Second Line for preserved forces than to lose Second Line and our entire army simultaneously."

Mental silence greeted this assessment. No one wanted to hear they might lose the position they’d fortified and bled for. But everyone understood the logic.

"Seraphina," Lyra addressed the demon lord directly. "Your specialists stay hidden unless I give explicit deployment order. No exceptions."

"Lyra, if Elric commits two thousand soldiers as you predict, we’ll need every fighter—"

"No." Lyra’s mental voice was firm. "You’re our secret weapon. The moment Elric knows we have a demon lord and two hundred corruption specialists, he calls in the Four Heroes. And if those heroes enter the battle, we lose. Gattychan’s Villain’s Bane ability alone would reduce your combat effectiveness to one-tenth normal power."

"I can handle the heroes incase they decides to join the war today—"

"Not at one-tenth power you can’t. And not while defending walls under siege assault." Lyra’s strategic thinking was crystal clear. "We save you for the moment when revealing you changes the battle decisively in our favor. Today is not that moment. Today you watch, you wait, and you trust me."

Seraphina’s mental presence radiated frustration but acceptance. "I trust you. But watching my allies die while I hide goes against every warrior instinct I have."

"I know. But you’re not just a warrior. You’re a demon lord with years of tactical experience. You understand why we’re doing this."

"I understand. Doesn’t mean I like it."

"None of us like any of this," Lyra replied quietly. "We do it because survival requires it."

Hour Twenty-Five (Day Three, Hour One):

The sun broke over the eastern horizon, painting the battlefield in shades of gold and crimson. For perhaps thirty seconds, there was perfect silence—the pause before the storm.

Then Elric gave the signal.

Twenty artillery pieces—massive siege catapults positioned at First Line—launched their payloads simultaneously.

Rocks the size of a man’s torso arced through the morning sky, trailing smoke and the whistle of displaced air. They reached the apex of their flight, hung for a heartbeat, then plummeted toward Second Line’s walls with devastating force.

The first volley crashed into Second Line defenses with thunderous impact.

Stone struck timber with explosive force. One boulder punched completely through a wall section, sending wooden shrapnel flying and killing two defenders who’d been manning that position. Another struck an archer tower, collapsing the upper platform and sending three goblin archers falling to their deaths. A third hit the eastern gate dead-center, cracking the reinforced timber but not breaking through.

And this was just the opening volley.

"Artillery bombardment has begun!" Vex reported through the network, his mental voice tight with controlled fear. "Taking casualties from the first impacts. Estimate twenty catapults firing in coordinated pattern."

"All defenders, find cover!" Lyra commanded immediately. "Do not man exposed positions during bombardment. Get behind crenellations, inside towers, anywhere with overhead protection. Let them waste ammunition on empty walls."

The settlement defenders scrambled for cover as the second volley launched.

Twenty more boulders arced through the sky. This time, with defenders taking cover, the physical damage was to structures rather than people. Wall sections cracked. Towers shook. Gates groaned under impacts. But casualties were minimal—only one defender caught in the open took a glancing hit that shattered his leg.

"They’re targeting structural weak points," Thrak reported, his demon engineer’s eye analyzing the bombardment pattern. "Trying to create breaches in the walls before infantry assault begins."

"Can the walls hold?"

"For a while. My construction was solid. But thirty minutes of sustained bombardment will create weak points they can exploit."

Lyra made instant calculations. Thirty minutes of bombardment meant defenders couldn’t man the walls effectively. Which meant when Elric’s infantry advanced, there’d be a gap between bombardment ending and defenders redeploying to firing positions.

"All sector commanders—as soon as bombardment stops, get defenders back to walls immediately. Elric will try to exploit the gap between artillery ceasing and archers redeploying. We need to close that gap to less than sixty seconds."

"Understood."

The third volley launched. The fourth. The fifth.

For twenty-five minutes, the artillery bombardment continued with methodical precision. Every ninety seconds, twenty catapults launched in synchronized pattern, raining destruction on Second Line’s fortifications.

By the end of the bombardment:

Fourteen sections of wall were cracked or damaged (not breached, but weakened) , Two archer towers were partially collapsed, The eastern gate was heavily damaged but still standing, Seven defenders were dead (caught in the open or crushed by falling debris). Nineteen defenders were wounded (mostly from flying wood splinters and falling stones)