Lord Of Puppets

(Okay…. This… Isn't nice.) – thought Thauma.

(They didn't replied to my question… Like at all… And instead, straight up went all out on me, possibly brining all of their forces into the forest from the get go.)

(They came and during the same day they attacked.)

(This is…. New…. Definitely new.)

(And… They have golems… This is first time I'm fighting against golems.)

(I mean, not against my own…. Ah… Fuck.)

(This is nothing what I was expecting.)

(I mean, I wasn't really completely caught off guard, since I did expected attack to come at any moment. I did had my golems ready and everything…. But the way these people do things? It is… Different.)

(They are not careful.)

(They are not taking things slow and steady.)

(They are just heading straight for the goal?)

(Why?)

"…"

(Based on what I see… They must had known that the golems weren't in the outer ring of the forest… Did they obtained the information from the adventurers? It would be the only logical explanation behind their action…)

(While on the other hand?… I have zero information about these people. They are brand new enemies….I want to send my golems there to see things, but I still have no idea how strong they are… If I play this poorly, I may have my own army of golems wiped out.)

"…"

"…"

(Still…. It doesn't matter how strong they are or not…. They are my enemies.

(And they need to be completely exterminated.)

(And I will make absolutely sure that all of them not manage to leave this forest alive.)

"…"

"Anything?" – asked the black knight captain as the silent forest surrounded the army of soldiers.

"No sir… The enemy isn't moving… By the looks of things, they are fully preparing for the defensive battle." – replied the archer with red bow.

"…"

"Can we start firing at them from our position to bait them out?" – asked the black knight captain.

"Negative. We are too far and there are also a lot of trees in between us." – replied the archer.

"Not only that, it seems the enemy set up defensive wall using their own earth golems."

"The enemy weapons posse quiet long range based on the exchange we had, so the moment they enter our range, so we will enter theirs."

"…"

"Sides?" – asked the knight captain.

"Nothing as well." – said the man in the ropes.

"By the looks of things, the enemy isn't trying to flank us."

"Don't let your guard down and continuous watching. The enemy maybe trying to stall us in order to create a cage which would trap us completely."

"According to the past report, there was a situation where the golems just did that, setting up an ambush."

"They are maybe waiting for the signal to approach us… I think dungeon master maybe understand the concept of 'detection'. It is trying to have its troops stay out of sight."

"So shouldn't we retreat and force the enemy out?" – asked the man in the robes.

"Nah… It would work out for them instead." – replied the black knight captain.

"If the enemy really split their forces in order to surround us, then they ended up weakening their front."

(So far? All of the information that was provided to us seems to be accurate.) – thought the knight captain.

(Like during the attack which was led by the adventurers, the golems focused on the defensive play, trying to have us come to them….)

(The biggest problem is the enemy range forces.)

(While their golems are keeping us in place, they will fire from afar…. This the info provided to us by adventurers.)

(The best strategy here is to rip opening in the middle of the enemy frontlines, giving opening for our mages to unleash a bombardment which would go past the enemy defenders AND screw over the enemy range fighters.)

(It may not work on the first try, but it will definitely put a huge burden on them.)

(We can repeat this multiple times if we have to, as long as we destroy enemy backliners.)

(But there is good chance that the whole 'defense' is a bait.)

(Enemy maybe trying to surround us.)

(According to the report, the previous report that the Amelia Smith had obtained about the elven guild master who led the attack on the dungeon before us, the monsters set up an ambush where the golems surrounded the adventurers from all directions, trying to trap them…. Yet during the previous attack, the enemy didn't do that.)

(Why?)

(Is it related to the peace talk?)

"…"

(I think the golems were willingly holding back and were not using all of their strategies against them.)

(But this time? They will go all out…. And they may use that tactic. The golems are probably outside our detection range and are waiting for the exact moment when we start fighting these bastards there.)

(The moment it does happened; they will start moving and they will try to trap us…)

(The dungeon master is really smart foe…. Not some mindless orc or goblin… We shouldn't be letting our guard down against him…. But still, he screwed up.)

(Even if the enemy is bit stronger that the information to us says, we still will be able to destroy them.)

(Not only that, there is also a simple answer to destroy the dungeon master's whole tactic.)

(A precise and powerful strike will make all of his defense's crumble to dust.)

(But still, we should be wary of anything. There are still a lot of information we don't know about the enemy and there are is a chance that we may encounter brand new types of enemies as well… We are strong and we should win, but I don't want to lose my men lives like freaking idiot either.)

"We are going with the original plan. No changes." – said the knight captain.

"But keep eyes pilled for all directions. We are definitely walking into the enemy trap… And we need to destroy it before we are swallowed by it."

"Move out." – ordered the knight captain as the Crow Watchers once again began their march through the forest…. And as they headed deeper, the crossbow golems instantly opened fire at the enemy, unleashing a hail of bolts which ripper apart the hostile earth golems' bodies… But not fully as they were able to endure the countless amounts of shots.

However, the crossbow bolts weren't the only projectiles that came their way.

As the army approached further, the ballista bolts began flying and piercing the earth golem bodies, which resulted in some creations suffering catastrophic amount of damage or straight up destroyed one or two golems.

"MAGES! GET READY TO DEPLOY BARRIERS!" – shouted the archer with red bow as the army continues moving forward, enduring countless amounts of projectiles that came their way thanks to the earth golems acting as the army's meat shield.

"!"

"Enemy spotted!" – shouted black knight as from afar the soldiers were able to have some glimpses at the enemy,

"Get ready! We are going all out from the start and breaking their formation instantly!" – shouted the knight captain as the army started getting closer and closer, allowing some soldiers to somewhat now get a good look at the defensive wall of golems from afar.

"…"

"!?"

However, as the army was about to get within the running distance, the ground beneath earth golems straight up opened up right beneath, causing the earth golems to fell down alongside several soldiers which were near them.

"!?"

"STOP! FUCKING STOP!" – shouted knight captain as the soldiers looked down and spotted a giant and hole beneath them.

(What the hell happened!?) – thought the red archer as he quickly jumped on top of the tree and looked down the hole, spotting the fallen soldiers and golems inside the hole which was few meters deep.

(A trap?! But there was no mana!) – thought the archer as he spotted on the sides of the door, a set of two split trap doors.

"Fuck! Raise up shields! Rise up shields!" – shouted the knight captain as he ordered the remaining earth golems and defenders to raise up their defenses as the hail of the projectiles did not stopped for a moment.

(A pit trap?!) – thought the knight captain.

(Clever bastards!)

(But why is it so massive!?)

(Was it a weight type trap?!)

(It was definitely not magic based since our mages didn't said anything!) – thought the knight captain as the soldiers tried backing away from the pit…. But as they did, a giant log equipped with spikes suddenly swung by from above and smashed right into the army's flank, smashing several soldiers and sending people fly.

"!?"

"WHAT NOW?!" – shouted the knight captain.

"LEFT! WATCH OUT LEFT!" – shouted the archer with red bow as a second massive log suddenly swung by.

"[Sword Art: Blade Rage]!" – however, this time the knight captain stepped in and attacked the massive weaponized log, hitting the armed wood and somehow managed to stop it in tracks.

(Dammit! This thing is hard?!) – thought the knight captain as he saw the log equipped with metallic end and spikes, which was attached on the rope.

"ANOTHER TWO COMING!" – shouted the red bow archer as two more logs came swinging by, but this time the mages were able to put up their [Arcane Magic: Sphere Barrier] to block off the attacks.

(Traps?! They are using traps?! There was nothing in reports about this!) – thought the knight captain.

"…"

(Don't tell me…. Did the dungeon master evolved when it comes to tactics?)

"HOSTILES INCOMING!" – shouted the black knight as he alongside other soldiers spotted the golems in front, now heading towards the enemy.

(Fuck! So, they weren't playing it defensively?! They just set up such obvious ambush instead?!)

(And we just fallen for it?!)

"…"

(We should be much stronger that the enemy…. But there is no telling what sort of other traps they have set up.)

"Tch!"

"RETREAT!" – shouted the knight captain as some of the soldiers were able to climb out of the pitfall, thanks to the golems below them.

"THE ENEMY FILLED THE FIELD WITH TRAPS!"

"!"

"ENEMY COMING FROM BEHIND!" – shouted the red archer.

"!?"

(What?!) – thought the knight captain.

(But this is way too early!)

(They shouldn't have time to trap us yet! Our scouts and mages confirmed it!)

"…"

"…"

<<Honestly speaking, after sometime after the attack with elves happened, I considered a "peace"… I mean, I didn't really seen any point in conflict if all I want was to do my own research while also understanding the outside world.>>

<<But that didn't meant I stopped for even a moment developing my golems.>>

<<I knew sooner or later the war may happened, either I like it or not.>>

<<I didn't wanted to die. I wanted to live…. So… If the peace would never really come, then I would make sure that I would fight for my freedom and survival no matter what.>>

<<All this time I've been preparing and experimenting, trying to improve my dungeon power.>>

<<And that didn't just included golems.>>

<<I've also researched how to make new weapons and even traps.)

<<And after the last attack, I set up the traps I've had already made beforehand, which only needed to be deployed in order to be used.>>

<<Some traps were already present before when the adventurers attacked this place, but I didn't used them during the adventurers' attack…. Because I didn't wanted to reveal them.>>

<<Because if I did…. I had a good chance at exterminating them all. Because I've tried to be peaceful about the whole situation and only focused on defense and one of the main reasons why I did the whole attack on the camp back there was to just scare them.>>

<<But now? I don't need to hold back.>>

<<These are enemies that only want one thing.>>

<<My enslavement.>>

"WATCH OUT! ANOTHER LOG!" – shouted the mag as few people were struck by a giant log.

"Fuck! Move it! The next thing we need is to get surrounded!" – shouted black knight captain as he swung his sword and cut in half the giant piece of wood.

"Don't stop! Full on retreat! If the enemy gets us now, we will be in real trouble!"

<<Magic and mana…. A main power source of my golems and weakness.>>

<<The enemies who posses ability to sense mana can use that ability to spot my golems, which ruins any form of ambush I can make with them.>>

<<However, what about traps that are not made using magic?>>

<<A fully mechanical traps that does not use any magic or very special materials?>>

<<Simply put, it will turn the enemies detection magic against them.>>

<<They will rely on their mana detection too much and they will let their guard down.>>

"RUN FOR IT! WE NEED TO BREAK THROUGH THE ENEMY IN OUR REAR IF WE DON'T WANT TO GET SURROUNDED!" – shouted the black knight captain as the army was on the full retreat, while the earth golems were being used as meat shields to slow down the enemies who continues shooting their crossbows and ballista, giving enough time for the army to run away.

(Fuck! The hell is going on here?!) – thought the black knight captain.

(The information was correct; the golems are using the tactics and what not…. But this?)

(There was never mention about them using traps even once!)

(Based on the data, we should be more than strong enough to one sided defeat the golems if we were to play our cards right…. But with the traps in the mix?)

"…"

(It is stupid.)

(We can beat golems, but I ain't planning on having pointless loses and injuries which can be easily avoided.)

(Even though we haven't had any real losses, we still had suffered some damage… And we don't know how many traps are there.)

"!"

"SHIT! WE HAVE PROBLEM!" – shouted the archer with red bow.

<<I knew that there was no way I can ambush the enemy with golems, if they can detect their mana…. But what if they can't?>>

<<Most common form of nana detection traves via open space.>>

<<It is harder to detect something from thick walls with this method, especially ones that are not very compatible with mana.>>

<<So, I've had my golems do something simple.>>

<<Make a deep hole.>>

<<A hole deep enough to somewhat make the golems be somewhat outside the detection.>>

<<And then cover the hole entrance with earth.>>

<<The enemy will be not expecting the reinforcement from below the earth, so they wouldn't try to use any detection magic in that direction either.>>

<<…>>

<<Still, there was a limit of what I can put.>>

<<There is limit of time regarding how big of a hole I can make while cleaning up evidence as well as sealing the entrance…. Meaning that there is limit how many golems I could put inside of that hole.>>

<<But, I've made sure that the things which are put inside of the hole will be more than enough to put on some pressure on these bastards.>>

<<My boss monsters.>>