Lord Of Puppets

(They are struggling.) – thought Thauma as it observed the fight via its scout golem.

(It was good idea to use up the hound golem types and hound golem boss types.)

(The hound golems are keeping them from moving too much, while the fear of traps is probably making them second guess trying to make any reckless movement…. And although this is reality for them… It is quite different for me.)

(The traps I've set up are mainly focused around the inner ring of the forest.)

(Meaning that if they move bit further away, they will leave the danger zone.)

(Not only that, but to operate the traps I'm using an underground system of ropes, which is operated by simple machine I can control.)

(The machine itself has a simple purpose:)

(Attach and release.)

(The purposes is clear and the mana presence and usage within that object is small, so it won't be easily detected.)

(However, the problem is that it is a key factor.)

(I did hid them around, but if the enemy destroy one of them, then several traps in the area will be instantly disabled.)

(The more chaotic battle gets, the higher chances are of the trap mechanism being accidently destroyed.)

(But I'm worried about something else.)

(These soldiers and knights are good.)

(Now that I'm seeing them properly in action I can definitely say that they are strong.)

(Not only that… They suddenly gain a sudden burst of power out of nowhere?)

(Did they finished up preparations for the mass enchantment spell?)

(Or… Something else?)

(Either way, my golems are catching up to them now.)

(Sooner or later.)

(And two knight boss monsters are slowly finishing up their recovery… They will be able to re-enter the fight sooner or later.)

(I honestly would want them to fully recover, since the self-restoring ability is still weak… But I don't really have time now here.)

The soldiers tried moving forward once again, but the mix of the regular hounds alongside bomb hounds was making it impossible.

Obviously, the soldiers by now realized that the new basic hounds were not a bombs, but still, they were not easily going down.

The first and the second hound boss monster had their joints already taken down, which wasn't in Thauma plan…. But then again, it still had traps in stored.

Thauma used the remote to have the mechanism release ropes, causing a spiked logs to start coming and then hitting the already panicking and confused soldiers, resulting in the several soldiers having their parts of defensive line broken instantly.

And that in turn gave opening for the hound golems to rush in and blow-up, right-on top of the soldiers again, releasing an explosion of mana as well as firing countless parts of shrapnel around, causing yet another wave of dead soldiers to occur.

Obviously not all bomb golems managed to went in, as the black knights were able to keep them at the bay, with some bomb golems being destroyed from afar with their range attacks…. But again, the situation wasn't improving for the invading forces.

They were still "stuck".

And the golems behind them finally started catching up, causing a close-range combat to occur, with the two boss knight monsters leading the charge.

"PREPARATIONS READY!" – however, the soldiers weren't obviously not done either, as the golem users used the combination of earth magic and golemancy to create several earth golems to boost their ranks instantly.

"!"

(They can do the same thing as me?) – thought Thauma as the newly made earth golems were used as the new meat shields against the hail of crossbow bolts, allowing the close-range combatants to deal with the hostiles golems that ran up close.

"WE CAN HOLD OUT HERE A BIT LONGER HERE! BUT HURRY THE FUCK UP!" – shouted the mage controlling one of the biggest earth golems.

"We are fucking trying here!" – shouted the black knight captain.

(Although I say that…. I have no fucking idea what to do now.) – thought the black knight captain as he was tackled by the regular hound golem, which he blocked off its jaw with his sword, before then knocking it back.

(We are still in the trap filled zone.)

(And I don't know if the traps are condition traps, or are they manually set off!)

(Not only that, these fucking suicidal dogs are keep appearing!)

(What the fuck?!)

"…"

*Sigh*

"Well… I still have this." – said the man as he lifted up his arm, causing the blood from the corpse of the dead corpse to rise up.

[Blood Magic: Blood Blade]

The man used up the gathered up to unleash a powerful and massive blade of blood, which hit several hound golems at once.

"THIS WAY! COMMON!" – shouted the knight captain as the soldiers tried moving forward once again.

However, just as they tried to resume the progress, another wave of hound golems was approaching.

A regular hound golems alongside 2 brand new hound golem boss monsters.

(Oh, fuck off!) – thought the man as he started gathering the blood once again and then coiling it around his sword.

[Blood Sword Magic Art: Blood Roar]

The man swung down his sword, unleashing a column slash of blood which struck one of the boss monsters and instantly knocked it down.

[Water Magic: Water Surge]

Right after, the black knight mage stepped in and unleashed a wave of water from his magic circle, which hit several hound golems alongside the second boss monster… However, it didn't stopped them per say.

[Ice Magic: Quick Freeze]

However, the mage quickly fallowed up by unleashing a breezing blast of icy wind, which not only froze everything around the mage instantly, be it grass or trees, but also the manifested water which then began freezing over the golems, hindering their movements.

This in turn gave the soldiers and knights a chance to strike down the golems and re-open their path.

But just as they rushed at them, another two sets of logs suddenly swung by.

"I'M GROWING SICK AND TIRED OF THIS SHIT!" – however, both logs were repelled as the pissed off captain alongside mage used their magic to knock away the objects that were coming at them.

"SCREW EVERYTHING! MAKE THE FUCKING PATH! NOW!" – shouted the captain as he used his blood boosting magic, increasing his speed once again and ramming into the ice-covered boss monster.

"…"

(This isn't good.) – thought Thauma.

(They are breaking through again… And I'm running out of the cards to play.)

(Should I just sent all hound golems… No. If they cause explosion, it could result in possible chain explosion between hounds, taking them all down.) – thought Thauma as it starred activating traps left and right, causing logs and traps door to open up… However, the logs didn't caused enough damage to stop them, nor the trap door caught many people, since they were already wary of it.

The invaders started finally making their casualties go down…. But there was a problem.

The earth golems which they had made in hurry couldn't hold long at all as they were already torn apart.

The army of golems finally caught up to the fleeing soldiers.

"Shit! They are here! Hey! What about the fucking path?!" – shouted the panicking mage as he was forced to deploy arcane barrier to defend himself against a barrage of bolts.

"WE ARE TRYING TO MAKE ONE!" – shouted the soldier in the middle as the hound golems did not stopped for even a moment harassing the invader's army one bit.

"Limbs down!" – shouted the black knight, as the group of them alongside their captain ganged up on a single boss monster and instantly took out two of its limbs, making the creature lose its ability to run.

However, it still had its blade arms which it tried to use to attack black knights, but they instantly backed away.

But just as they did, the first hound boss golem rushed at them and knocked down one of the black knights while biting into their arm, causing the knight to scream.

The two black knights tried to attack the boss monster, which had some effect on the monster… However, it was still not letting go, if anything, it just clenched its mouth more, causing the man's bone the trapped knight to scream even more as they trashed around.

The black knight captain stabbed the ground golem in one of its four eyes, dealing critical damage… But even that wasn't enough to make the creature let go as it continues tightening its grip.

The boss golem began trashing around while still holding onto the knight arm, swinging the armored warrior around, causing the knights to back away, while also using its two blade arms to attack things around, causing even more annoyance.

(FUCK!) - thought the black knight captain.

(Do I just leave him?)

(That thing ain't letting him go!) – thought the black knight captain as he noticed as the chaos on the backlines was growing nonstop, to the point where the captain could easily see it happening from his current location.

(There is still a lot of blood around, which I can use… But at the rate things are going, I will just waste it all up.)

(Not only that, but I'm also using my own mana while using magic.)

(At the rate things are going, we will have a large-scale battle happening right now.)

(We are stronger than golems, we are!)

(But those fucking traps and bombs are the problems!)

(Heck! They already took down several of our people!) – thought the knight captain as he tried stabbing the creature in between the jaws, trying to break it using the blood magic and weapon art combination…. However, the creature was still not letting go after taking a critical damage.

"FUCK! LET GO ALREADY!" – shouted the pissed off captain as he swung at the golem with his sword covered in huge amount of blood that was able to stack up enough damage and force open the golem's mouth for just split moment, causing the golem to let go of the bitten knight as they were sent flying and crushing into one of the nearby trees.

"…"

(We are stronger than these golems.) – thought the black knight captain.

(We can beat them.)

(But the problem is their fucking gimmicks, their armor and their tactics.)

(We can overpower these golems with our own offensive power, but their fucking armor!)

(FUCK ME!)

(Are these regular golems also this annoying?)

"…"

(We can't waste more time.)

(The more time we waste, the more we will be trapped in place….)

(We need to fucking do something here.)