On the top of a freshly built wooden ramparts.
"These binoculars sure are handy," said a goblin soldier.
"I have to admit, those scientists are the best of the best. With their inventions, I'm sure our line of defense won't be penetrated," said another goblin soldier. This soldier was a daywalker vampire.
"I hope those bastards walk here by tomorrow," said another vampire goblin soldier.
"Who the hell said that?! Do you want us to die sooner??" Yelled another non-vampire goblin soldier.
From the intel gathered by Oer Trading Company, around 100,000 goblin soldiers were marching towards Oer from nearby noble territories.
To most normal people, it was a death wish to want them to come sooner.
"I said it," said the latter vampire goblin soldier.
But to the vampire goblins, high on their own strengthened bodies, they welcomed such ludicrous numbers.
"A-ah, oh uh.... Sorry captain," apologized the normal soldier goblin.
The power gap between the normal goblins and the vampire ones were massive. The vampires also held higher rank.
This would pose to be a societal problem in Oer, but that would be far into the future.
****
After hearing the news of the marching army, Lucky immediately ordered Elena to establish a line of defense around 2 KM away from Oer.
It was a semi-circular line guarding the Outside District of Oer.
The line of defense, though thin, boasted an elite unit of vampire soldiers every 100 meters.
But the vampire goblins weren't enough, and thus new soldiers were recruited from the normal goblins to help with logistics and other tasks not requiring combat.
And to handle enemy flanks from inside the Mutant Forest, the non-military and non-police vampires volunteered for its defense.
Meanwhile, the police force would handle the security of the city, in case a small covert group of enemies were to sneak in.
Lucky on the other hand, was helping the researchers with the invention of gunpowder.
In total, around 50% of the now 15,000 or so goblin population were part of the defending forces.
Of the 15,000 goblins, around 5,000 of them were refugees. This meant that a whopping 75% of the original 10,000 or so goblin population were drafted into the war, whether voluntarily or through their jobs.
The rest of the original population were either still children, the elderly goblins who didn't become vampires, or the researchers.
This also meant that construction of the city had to be periodically halted as the manpower wasn't enough even with the help of refugees.
It had also been just a week since Lucky had set the line of defense, and it had been more than half a year since he tasked the researchers with the invention of gunpowder.
'At this rate, we'll be doomed to perish before we invent guns. If only I had known its recipe beforehand, I should've began this task by myself if I had the chance to go back in time,' thought Lucky.
After all, hindsight was 20/20.
Now, some might ask why the refugees weren't part of the defending force. Well, they weren't naturalized yet.
Not to mention, the total refugees from other races were also numbering around a thousand.
Adding that number to the goblin refugees, it'd total to more than 6,000 people. More than half of the original population of the city.
Most of the refugees have only been in Oer for a couple of months on average due to hearing about the rumours.
If given the chance, they could stage a riot and switch sides. Although that would be highly unlikely.
This was also why the police force, which was temporarily under Elena's orders as well, was tightly guarding and patrolling the city.
By now, some intel of the city's forces were probably already leaked through carrier pigeons or other birds.
But that was fine, as long as the secret of there being vampires weren't out yet, they still had the upper hand.
But for how long would that secret last?
The enemy spies could find out at any moment.
The intel gathered by the trading company over the past few days had concluded one thing, that the nobles' army were going to reach Oer by at least a month.
Why a month? Well, they were going to consscript new soldiers and lightly train them first before gathering with the other noble armies and marching towards Oer.
The total of 100,000 goblin soldiers might seem excessive for a city of around 16,000 people.
But due to the nature of sieges, the defending side usually had the upper side even against such large numbers.
Even with just some hastily built log walls, wooden ramparts, and shallow moats, Lucky's line of defense could theoretically be able to defend against an army twice the size of his city's population.
And with the vampires, they could probably win against quadruple or quintuple the size of their city's population.
With the addition of Lucky and the sisters after their training, 100,000 might not be impossible to defend against.
The sooner Lucky invents guns, the sooner they could be mass-produced, and the sooner they could be used in the upcoming war.
****
More days had passed and the intel gathered by the Oer Trading Company's regular visits to other villages and towns were increasingly more concerning.
"They found out about our vampire situation," stated Erina in a newly built war room located near the ramparts.
In the room were Lucky, the 3 vampire elves, Brutus and his fellow disciples Rocks and Macks, Aroi the mayor of Oer, and a few high-ranking police and military personnel.
"Because of that, we have good news and bad news," Erina further stated.
"The good news, they halted their march indefinitely."
"The bad news, they're requesting the royal army for support now that they found out about us."
"Is that all?" Asked Lucky.
"No. Because they requested support for eradicating us vampires, it is very likely that the royal palace would also send their mages...." she added.
This silenced the whole room.
After all, mages were the epitome of any race.
Sure knights could learn Aura after years of training to wield mana, but what could Aura do?
Aura was merely a shoddy imitation of magic. It was merely wielding mana in the most primitive and raw form.
Whereas magic on the other hand, could freely shape, change, and go beyond natural phenomenon.
The only problem with magic was that only a talented few could wield it.
You'd have to be born with talent in magic in order to properly wield it.