My Goblin System : Levelling up with my SSS Class Devouring skill-Chapter 360

Jessica’s healer voice joined in, exhausted but determined. "Medical stations are overwhelmed. Thirty-two wounded means we’re running through supplies faster than expected. At this rate, we have three more days of medical capacity."

"Loki’s Extra reinforcements arrive in three days," Lyra calculated. "The margins are getting tighter."

"Then we make them hold," Seraphina said firmly. "Today we proved Second Line can survive a major assault. That’ll make Elric cautious. He’ll probe more carefully tomorrow, maybe give us a day to recover."

"And if he doesn’t?"

"Then we adapt. Again. That’s what survival looks like—constant adaptation to impossible circumstances."

Lyra nodded slowly, accepting the demon lord’s assessment. "All commanders—get your wounded to medical stations, redistribute surviving fighters to cover gaps, and prepare for tomorrow. Elric’s learned his lesson about frontal assaults. He’ll try something different next. We need to be ready."

As afternoon faded toward evening, both commanders sat in their respective command posts and reconsidered their approaches.

Elric studied his maps with the patience of someone who’d fought years of wars and learned that haste killed soldiers—but also knew when patience became liability.

"New strategy," he announced to his assembled staff. "We stop trying to take Second Line by force. We need to end this faster."

"Sir?"

"Look at the geography. Second Line is a fortified position, but it still needs supplies. Food, water, arrows, medical materials. They’re sustaining eight hundred to nine hundred defenders. That requires constant resupply."

He pointed at routes between Second and Third Lines.

"We hit two fronts simultaneously. First: cut their supply lines. Send cavalry and light infantry to harass any movement between defensive lines. Make it dangerous for them to shuttle supplies forward."

His finger moved to the settlement’s core.

"Second—and more important—we destroy their food reserves directly. They have to have a central warehouse or storage facility. We find it, we burn it, they starve within days instead of weeks."

Lieutenant Thorne looked uncertain. "That requires infiltration, sir. Getting past their defenses—"

"That’s exactly what it requires." Elric turned to a shadowed corner of the tent where three figures stood in dark leather armor, faces concealed by hoods. "Which is why I’ve brought specialists."

The three figures stepped forward—members of the Royal Shadow Corps, elite infiltrators trained in sabotage and assassination. Their presence had been kept secret from most of the army, revealed only now when their skills were needed.

"You’ve been observing the settlement’s defenses for two days," Elric said to them. "Assessment?"

The lead infiltrator spoke with a voice like gravel scraped over stone. "Second Line is heavily guarded. Walls manned, patrols active, good visibility. Penetrating there would be high-risk with low success probability."

"And Third Line?"

"Incomplete construction. We’ve observed gaps in the walls, unfinished sections, areas where work crews ran out of time before your army arrived." The infiltrator pulled out a sketched map of the settlement’s interior, drawn from long-distance observation. "Northwestern sector has a fifty-yard gap where the wall is only six feet high. We can penetrate there, navigate to the settlement core, locate food storage, and burn it."

"Timeline?"

"We move tonight when they’re focused on defending Second Line. Three hours to infiltrate through the Third Line gap, navigate inner districts to locate the warehouse. One hour to destroy food supplies—we’re carrying alchemical incendiaries that burn hot enough to ignite wet grain. Two hours to extract using pre-planned escape routes. We’ll be back before dawn."

"Casualties if discovered?"

The infiltrator’s voice was flat, emotionless. "We’re expendable, Commander. The mission succeeds even if we don’t return. Destroying their food supply is worth three specialist lives."

Elric studied the three killers—professional saboteurs who’d been doing this kind of work for decades. Each had conducted dozens of infiltration missions behind enemy lines. If anyone could pull this off, it was them.

"You understand the priority?" Elric asked. "Food storage is primary objective. If you encounter arrow supplies or medical stations as secondary targets, excellent. But food comes first."

"Understood, sir. A fortress can’t hold without food. They can fight hungry for a day, maybe two. By day three they’ll be too weak to man the walls properly. By day four they’ll have to surrender or abandon their positions to forage."

"Exactly." Elric’s finger traced the settlement on his map. "And when they abandon Second Line’s fortifications, we catch them in open ground where our numbers and cavalry dominate. This infiltration mission could end the entire siege in four days instead of four weeks."

Lieutenant Thorne cleared his throat. "Sir, what if their leadership anticipates this? Sets guards on the warehouse?"

"Then the infiltrators adapt or withdraw. But I’m betting their leadership is focused on Second Line defense and night raid preparation. They think in terms of walls and arrows. They won’t expect a surgical strike at their logistics heart." Elric looked at the three infiltrators. "You move out at full darkness. And remember—even if you’re caught and killed, the chaos and fear of an infiltration is valuable. It’ll make them pull guards from Second Line to defend the interior, weakening their primary defensive position."

The lead infiltrator nodded once, sharply. "We won’t fail, Commander."

"Then dismissed. Prepare your equipment and move when night is full."

The three shadows departed as silently as they’d appeared.

Lieutenant Thorne waited until they were gone before speaking. "Sir, you really think they’ll succeed?"

"I think they’re the best chance we have to end this without losing more soldiers in a Second Line assault." Elric turned back to his maps, already planning contingencies. "If they succeed, we win in days. If they fail, we’ve lost three specialists but gained intelligence on the settlement’s internal security. Either way, we learn something valuable."

"And if the settlement conducts their own raids tonight?" 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

"Then we defend. Double guards, magical wards, increased patrols. We can’t prevent them from trying—we can only minimize the damage." Elric’s weathered face showed the weight of command. "This is war, Lieutenant. Both sides hurt each other until one side can’t continue. Our job is to make sure we’re the ones still standing when it’s over."