Lord Of Puppets

"..."

(Something isn’t right.) – thought the black knight captain as he and two other black knights were dealing with the boss hound monster.

(Why the number of enemies joining in has decreased?)

(I saw them running off ahead of us.... But why?)

(This doesn’t make sense... What is the enemy planning?) – thought the black knight captain as the hound boss monster leaped at the man and crushed down.

But the man already got away from his position before the golem could notice and right in the very next moment, the man’s sword covered completely in bloody struck the hound golem right in right forelimb joint, fallowed up by the explosive burst of blood which came from the stabbed spot, causing massive amount of damage which damaged the creature joint.

Right after that, the two black knights attacked the back hindlimb, breaking it’s joint.

"DOWN! WE CAN MOVE!" – shouted the duo of black knights as they instantly leaped away as the creature tried desperately biting them with its jaws, only to miss and then lose balance, causing it to fall down.

The trio of black knights then went after the hound golems, cleaning up the space in front of the army alongside several soldiers who also lend their hand.

The path which was being blocked off was now being opened up.

The harassed sides were able to keep perfectly in place the hostile hounds and bomb hounds in place, giving an army some to room to breathe.

Not only that, the backliners were still able to somewhat hold off the hostile army of golems.

Obviously, there were now injured people popping up, including few unluckily people who either got impaled by the boss monster or poked out their head at the wrong time and got hit right in the face with a crossbow bolt... But overall? They were standing their ground AND they destroyed several golems by themselves.

Things are starting to look more and more in favor for the invader’s army.

(But something is still off.) – thought the knight captain as he knew that the golems were planning something upon remembering these weird golems just running off.

(Are they by any chance trying to form some sort of massive combined wave to put some pressure on us instantly?)

(But if that is the case, then does that mean they are planning on doing massive attack from both sides as well.)

"..."

But nothing of that sorts happened.

The golems attacks were growing weaker and weaker with each passing moment as less golems were now even attempting to do any form of attack.

There were still some golems on the standby, but nothing extremely dangerous.

The man was still confused.

(What the hell is going on?)

The man was awaiting an attack to come at any moment... But it didn’t came.

(Are they already running out of monsters?)

The man thought.... But even so, he didn’t let his guard down.

However, there is something he couldn’t ignore.

His army broke through the enemy line.

The path was now open.

"..."

"CHARGE!" – the man knew that something was off, but at the same time, he knew he couldn’t have his army stay in place.

The army avoided the fallen boss monsters as they desperately tried moving even a bit, trying to bite or stab people with their blade arms... But they were unable to stop the enemy.

The hounds from the sides and the army of the golems from behind tried slowing down the enemy, but their attempts didn’t worked.

The invading army was making a break for it.

"..."

(Huh... Did we just won?) – thought the knight captain as the army once again started moving at somewhat slow yet solid pace.

"!?"

But that sense of victory was short lived.

The reason?

Their path was blocked.

Several trees were chopped down and were blocking off the army’s path.

"!?"

"WAIT! THE FUCK!?" – shouted the knight captain.

(I copied that man.) – thought Thauma.

(That man with red bow. He used trees to stop my golems in tracks.)

(So I just copied him.)

(I had my hound golems rip, bit and destroy trees in the way it would cause their path to be blocked off.)

"FUCK!" – shouted the knight captain as he saw the fallen trees blocking off the way, alongside several hound golems over the fallen trees, ready to fight.

(So that is why they disappeared?!) – thought the captain as he desperately looked around, analyzing the surroundings

(Fuck... That ain’t good... Do we climb over the trees? Or we go around?)

(No. Climbing over the tress will be too risky.... So that means we will have to go around them?)

(Either option will be time consuming.) – thought the black knight captain as the gathered-up group of hound golems began charging at the soldiers and knights up front, resuming the fight.

"FUCK! DESTORY THEM! DESTORY THEM ALL!" – shouted the knight captain as in his rage unleashed a slash of blood which instantly sent the hound golem that was about to attack him into the sky.

(This ain’t good... This ain’t good one bit.)

(Just how many trees did those bastard cut down to have them block off our path?)

(No... Calm down.)

(We can still get out of here.)

(The fact that they did it proves that the dungeon master is desperate.)

(We can-)

"ANOTHER BIG FUCKER COMING FROM THE RIGHT!" – shouted the black knight as the massive shadow was spotted in the forest.

"..."

"Oh... Fuck me." – said the black knight.

The soldiers and knights thought it was a hound boss monster like before... But as it gotten closer, they realized that the figure size was way bigger compare to the hound golem.

And as it finally came close enough, the group realized it wasn’t the hound.

Or more exactly, it was a hound boss golem, which noticeable thicker appearance, alongside a humanoid knight part sticking out from the top, which was equipped with two massive polearm arms and crossbow arms.

It was a fusion of both the boss knight golem and the boss hound golem.

[Cavalry Golem – Boss Model 1]

(The originally cavalry golem was a completely failure.) – thought Thauma.

(There was no denying that.)

(It was beyond pathetic and weak in the real battle.)

(It was not fast enough nor it had enough power to be really considered dangerous.)

(But this one?)

(This one had dealt with the original cavalry golem problems.)

(Specifically, I added several artificial mana organs to make sure that the golem has more than enough power to move at the top speed, even with its extremely heavy body.)

"Shit! Another new boss monsters?!" – said pissed off knight captain as he gotten ready.... Before then he started hearing screaming coming from the rear, alarming the man as he instantly turned around and saw even bigger figure approaching.

(And obviously I didn’t forgotten about my earth mana research.) – thought Thauma.

(I’ve improved my design over and over again, creating new experimental golems and what not, trying to make most powerful earth golem as possible with materials I had on hand.)

(And this was my creation.)

[Earth Golem Champion – Boss Model 1]

A massive earth golem which towered over all the golems in the area, including the other earth golems.

"Hey, hey, hey.... The fuck is this?! THE FUCK IS THIS?!" – shouted the black knight mage as the massive earth golem grabbed the ground, before then ripping off a chunk of it as it then the picked-up earth at the soldiers, alarming the mages as they instantly deployed their barriers to protect the army from the bombardment.

"SHIT! WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS?!" – shouted the panicking mage.

(A failure.) – thought Thauma.

(This massive earth golem is a failure.)

(The reason is simple.)

(Its core isn’t strong enough to support this massive body.)

(Not only that, its recovery ability isn’t strong at all.)

(The mana flow is adapted to the earthy body and can be reconstructed when the golems repair itself, but the mana flow inside of that golem is still too weak, causing the golem movement to be one of most affected things as it straight up became slow like hell.)

(This was a experiment meant to see how powerful I can make earth golem right now and this is my best result.)

(However, this golem can’t handle its own body.)

(If I had just a little bit stronger materials, it would be made into a proper golem.)

(And a golem I can make into my boss monster.)

(But as the things currently stands? This thing still needs a lot of work before it can be made into a proper boss monster.)

"..."

(But even so, it has a power.)

(Even if it can’t fully handle its own power nor it can repair itself fast enough, it has enough power to crush a human body.)

(The pure mass of its body gives it additional power and it makes it harder to reach the core as the enemy have to blow away way more earth in order to deal a "real" damage to the golem.)

(But still, this experimental golem is s still a failure.)

(There is a good chance.... No.)

(They will destroy this golem no matter what.)

(It will be destroyed.)

"..."

(But even so, it will be worth it.)

(Honestly, I planned on using him from the start, but they started moving way earlier than I’ve had expected... Causing this massive guy to start lagging behind.)

(But still, it caught up to them.)

(It will be destroyed, but it will put pressure on them.)

(Not only that, but my new cavalry golem is a finished model this time. A proper one which had its main weakness dealt with.)

(The cavalry golem is way tougher compare either hound or knight boss types, since this golem is my protect of the third dungeon’s heart.)

(But then again... I knew it wouldn’t be good enough.)

(Considering how fast they immobilized the hound boss types, I knew that the cavalry will also be quickly dealt with, even though its much stronger......)

(I knew from the start it would fail no matter what.)

(It would fail no matter if that boss monster went alongside other hounds or not, it would fail and they would go past it.)

(But then you show me a nice way to halt your movement!)

(So thank you.)

(You let me learn something I can use in the future.)

(And something that now turned the tides of battle completely in my favor.)