Lord Of Puppets

(This is a shitty fucking repeat.) – thought the black knight captain.

(Whenever we try to move, that fucker is throwing something weird at us.)

(His goal is probably force us into large scale battle… We are stronger than his monsters… However, this is his home and he set up traps which put us in tough spot.)

(Traps like logs and trap doors aren't the biggest danger… But these bomb dogs are.)

(Heck. Derum who go blasted right in the face at the start is still out of the game.) – thought the captain as he thought about the black knight spearman.

(These blasts are mana based… But the shrapnel is also going everywhere in each direction.)

(Some even hit me and made some visible scratches on my armor… But if I was closer, then the impact may had been way more dangerous.)

(As long as we keep our guard up when the explosion happens near us, we can somewhat defend ourselves, thanks to our armors… But if it catches us unprepared, it will end up badly instantly.)

(Blood magic allows me to use blood as ammunition… And the user own blood is the best form of ammunition for them.)

(However, I can't just randomly fire off blood nonstop.)

(There maybe few dead soldiers here and there, but I use my own mana while using it.)

(The fresh blood still carries some mana in it, so I can somewhat use it up more efficiency then dried up blood… But then again…. Fuck.)

(Things are not looking good.)

The man looked to his sides.

He saw hound golems doing suicidal ran at the soldiers.

The man looked behind himself

He saw his soldiers already fighting the golem army.

The looked in front of him.

He saw hound golems alongside the field which he didn't knew if it was filled with traps or not.

…

The man was nervous.

That was for sure.

But at the same time, he knew that he and his army is strong.

Thauma also understood it.

Thauma maybe have tricks, but the invaders army had rough power and they easily showcased it when they easily took out joints of the boss monsters in the matters of few moments.

The soldiers who also started having melee combat right now with the golems were also standing their ground right now, meaning that they were not something like "one sided beaten" by Thauma's golem.

No.

They were standing their ground and they were dealing solid amount of damage.

Even with the two boss monster knights leading the charge, they still held their ground AND the red bow archer was still able to somewhat hold down the enemy forces by blowing up trees.

The man had time.

But how much? Both sides didn't knew.

Thauma's plan was simple.

Force the massive scale battle and lock the enemy completely in place, then have the hound golems leap right in the middle of the enemy army and cause massive amounts of damage.

The captain instantly realized the enemy plan and tried moving forward… However, he then realized that the enemy made up some countermeasures.

Two hound boss monsters and another pack of the hounds.

Obviously, the captain knew he and his men would be able to break through.

They even managed to already immobilize one of the boss monsters which just appeared.

The problem was that the man didn't knew if the dungeon master had another set of traps or ambushes waiting for him.

While on the other hand, Thauma was panicking because they will soon leave the trapped zone if they move bit further.

Thauma had a large number of hound golems and bomb hound golems ready… But again, they were being quickly dealt with, even though the regular hounds were now elite type monsters and the bomb golems pretty much can only blow up once.

[Victory condition: Crow Watchers]

-Open up the path allowing the soldiers to run.

-Do not start up large scale battle.

[Victory condition: Thauma]

-Slow down the enemy and trap them.

-Do not let the enemy get out of the trap filled zone.

(Honestly, I don't know if it is still worth it.) – thought Thauma as it observed the soldiers fighting against the horde of golems.

(They are way stronger than I've had expected.)

(Holding them up in place will result in losses of countless golems.)

(But then again, offerings made using these people will fed the dungeon well… But is it worth it? I mean, I will need some army afterwords.)

(One of my strongest cards I had, the boss monsters, they were easily dealt with, even though they are extremely strong.)

(And the traps… They are one use only.)

(Expect pits… They can still make people fall into them.)

…

Both sides were wary.

But overall?

The one who will have easier time archiving their goal would be…

Crow Watchers.

They just need to push bit further and their path is open.

The number of traps they have to deal with is barely any…. And Thauma knows that if it just uses all the bomb hound golems, then the odds of it winning the battle will straight up nonexistence.

For Thauma's plan to work out, its needs as many bomb hounds as possible in order to bombard the entire army.

(Honestly speaking… The best move here would be to "let them go".) – thought Thauma as the fights continues.

(But I've already revealed way too many of my cards.)

(If they get out and create countermeasures for everything, I did… Then the next time these soldiers come here, I will be easily destroyed.)

(But then again, let's say I kill them all… In exchange I will only have very few golems left.)

(These soldiers will produce large amounts of miasma for me…)

[COST? – Not worth it.]

[DANGER? – Extremely high.]

[INFORMATION? – Still lack critical amount of it.]

[STALLING? – Very high chance I won't be able to stall long enough for enough monsters to fully manifest.]

(God fucking dammit.) – thought Thauma as it observed its boss hound golem being attacked by the black knights.

"!"

"SHIT! WE HAVE PROBLEM! THE TWO FUCKERS FROM BEFORE ARE UP!" – shouted the red bow archer as he saw the two still injured knight boss monsters with damaged legs moving to join the fight.

"SLOW THEM DOWN!" – shouted the golem user as he created a second earth golem, which tackled Thauma's earth golems, holding them in place and giving the soldiers bit a room to breathe.

(If I kill them all, I will lose all of my golems, meaning my defeat.) – thought Thauma as it started to realize that the situation is slowly starting to turn in the invader's favor.

(But if I let them go, then I will definitely lose as well.)

(Think…. There must be a way I can somewhat take them all down.)

(The enemy soldiers are much stronger.)

(The only way I can beat them is with bomb tactic.)

(This man… The one using blood magic.)

(He seems to be most dangerous foe.)

(I can definitely tell he can easily take on one of my boss golems all on his own and came out on top.)

(Not only that, but the boss hound golem is rank higher than knight boss monster.)

(And its joints are further reinforced…. Yet the fact that he broke them almost instantly straight up shows that this man is way too powerful.)

(There is also issue of control.)

(The further my golems are away from me, the harder it is to control them.)

(I can somewhat at least giving commands, but the direct control may be impossible.)

(Think… The attacks are working.)

(Golems maybe weaker then the enemy, but they are able to wound them and survive some of their attacks for some time.)

(I can win the war with bomb strategy… But only if it works in time.)

(But using this strategy will also cost me a lot of my other golems…)

(Is there any bloody way I can stop their entire army in tracks and completely lock them in place afterwords?)

[Use up all bomb golems? – Negative – The bomb tactic will fail afterwords.]

[Push enemy into traps? – Negative – They know that they are here and will be wary of any possible new traps appearing.]

(Dammit! Do I have only two options like these!?)

(Once they realize the real situation here, it will be instant lose for me!)

(AND I CAN'T AFFORD THAT!)

"…"

(Think…. Is there anything enemy did that shown their weakness?)

(Is there anything I can use against them?)

(Stop them in tracks, reduce the casualties to minimum…. Anything…. FUCKING ANYTHING!)

"!"

(THAT IS IT!) – thought Thauma as it instantly gave order to the hound golems who were rushing to the scene, to suddenly change up their direction.

"…."

"What the…." – one of the black knights noticed several hound golems running off.

"Hey…. HEY! SOMETHING IS GOING ON!" – shouted the black knights.

"SOME OF THE FUCKERS ARE RUNNING OFF!"

"!?"

"What?" – said the black knight captain as he then countered the hound boss monster jaw attack, before then knocking back the boss monster with a wave of blood.

The black knight captain looked around upon hearing his comrade warning… And realized that several hound golems were not joining the next attack wave, and instead were just heading in completely different direction.

"…"

(I don't like where this is going!) – thought the black knight captain.