Lord Of Puppets

The explosion of magic occurred, blasting the entire black knight captain body and sending him flight and crashing right into the pile of fallen trees barricade.

"..."

"Fuck...."

"Uhg!" – the man tried getting up instantly after getting blasted right in the face... But his body? It wasn’t looking good.

The part of the man’s armor, specifically around his stomach was heavily damaged, with good chunk of it being blown away, leaving behind the shrapnel which caused the man to bleed at alarming rate.

(M-my armor was broken!?) – thought the alarmed man.

(Shit... No wonder there... That freaking dog was right in front of it when it exploded.) – thought the man, realizing how his armor was broken... But still, the fact that the man only suffered THAT kind of injury with a full body armor and didn’t received any more dangerous wounds from receiving the impact as the explosion detonated right on the man, straight up proves how truly durable the armor he wore is.

But still, it couldn’t be said that he was "okay" either.

The man used his arm which carried to sword to grab onto the fallen tree next to him and stand by, while using his free arm to grasp his bleeding stomach and use his own blood for the blood magic fuel.

The man aimed to deal with his wound as soon as possible.... But the cavalry golem was still here.

"!?"

The man rolled to the side, barely dodging the polearm’s pike.

The creature then tried biting the man, with its jaws and this time the man wasn’t given enough time to dodge as used his sword to stop the jaws of the creature from closing.

"WHY YOU!" – the man used his own from the stomach tried to fire off an attack... But right in the next moment, a long spear was launched from within the mouth of the creature, knocking away the sword and stabbing the man right in his hand which was trying to cast the magic.

The spear was launched at the such speed that there was no time to dodge to change the direction, resulting in the hand being smashed against the fallen tree as the spear gave pressure, piercing into the armored hand.

(SPEAR?! THERE WAS A SPEAR INSIDE OF THAT THING?!) – thought the black knight captain as he tried freeing his trapped hand... But he couldn’t do it in time.

The cavalry golem hound part was about to bit off the man’s head.

"[SHIELD ART: CHARGE SMASH]!" – but just in last second, the heavily armored black knight rushed in and knocked the cavalry golem away, saving the captain from the bit and even forcing the spear to detach itself from the man’s hand, freeing him.

"Shit! Tha-"

"NO TIME! GET UP! NOW!" – shouted panicking heavy armored black knight as he saw another wave of bomb hounds coming.

"Shit! Blast them! I CAN’T BLOCK THEM ALL OFF!"

(Blast? How?!) – thought the man as the blood continue spilling from his stomach.

(If I don’t heal this wound in time, I will lose critical amount of blood!)

(But if I don’t fire anything they will come at us!)

The black knight captain was straight up stuck between "Rock" and "Hard".

Do the man recover his own body and have his own blood return inside?

Or does he use the spilled blood as ammunition.

"..."

[Blood Magic: Repair Blood]

The man chosen self-recovery.

Or at least he tried to.

"..."

The man realized something was on top of the fallen tree he was standing next to.... It was a bomb hound golem.

(WHEN DID IT-)

Before the man could raise his sword or use his blood to cast magic, the hound exploded right in the man’s face.

"!"

"CAPTAIN!" – shouted the worried black knight tank... But he had his own problem to deal with.

Specifically, the boss monster he took over from the captain.

The cavalry golem swung its claws and blades at the tank, who in response used his shield to block off the attacks.

But while the man was dealing with the boss monster, a bomb hound came the man’s way.

The tank instantly swung around his great shield, blocking the bomb hound’s charge as it then exploded on top of the shield.

The man blocked off explosion... But the cavalry golem was still here.

It thrusted its polearm’s pike at the man.... But just in time, the man grabbed the blade just in time and completely holding in place the blade.

But there was yet another problem.

A second bomb hound behind the man.

"SHIT!" – the man tried moving his great shield, but it was too late as the man was hit with explosion from behind.... Before moments later, the cavalry golem launched its massive jaws.

"..."

*GASP*

"Fu - *Cough* -CK!" – the black knight captain stood upas his vision stared getting blurry from the blood... And noticing that he had a massive open crack in the middle of his helmet.

The man grabbed his helmet and just took it before throwing it away, which was then fallowed up with the man wiping off the blood he had on his face, allowing him to regain vision somewhat.

"..."

"What the fuck is going on?"

The man wasn’t the only one who got "blown up".

The army was screwed the moment they decided to stay and fight.

Thauma’s golems didn’t surrounded and blocked off path so they would end up getting attacked from all the directions.

No.

From the start to finish, its plan was to have invaders army to gather up, making them easy target for the horde of bomb golems to hit.

The soldiers and knights were all gathered close to each other... Causing each explosion by the bomb hound golems that landed in the middle of each group to straight up caused massive amount of damage.

Each blast of magic.

Each piece of golem that was shot as shrapnel.

Each explosion of just single golem caused destruction.

It wasn’t like before were few soldiers were getting hit by the explosions as the hounds were tried to be stopped by the soldiers protecting the rear... No.

This time the invaders took on the full blast.

And it wasn’t just one or two.

There were countless explosions going on.

The invaders weren’t ready for that nor they had ever expected for Thauma to unleashed so many bomb golems all at once.

It didn’t even cared if some of the blasts damaged or destroyed its own golems.

It was going for the kill.

So... What is the best choice here for the invaders?

Obviously run away and split up to prevent the explosions from doing the maximized damage.... But here is the problem.

Golems were straight up surrounding them.

And it is not like they could just focus on a single point and break through.

No, no, no, no.

They would get "blown up" the moment they tried to do that.

Even worse, Thauma was still not letting its guard down.

It wasn’t confided in its win.

It was keeping it guard up until the enemy was annihilated.

"..."

(What in the bloody hell is going on?) – thought the black knight captain as he watched his soldiers and knights getting blown apart by the nonstop wave of explosions... Which in turn gave the golems a chance to not only counter attack, but to start breaking apart the enemy’s line.... The current situation could be somewhat called the repeat of the past invasion where the general of the new Garmfon kingdom had died.

But this time?

Their escape path has already been destroyed.

And the man leading the army realized something upon witnessing the scene before him.

HE CHOOSE THE WRONG POSSIBLE OPTION.

"Fuck...." – said the fainty voice coming from the side, which caused the captain to turn around... And see the tank black knight surrounded by the remains of the hound golems... Alongside the cavalry boss who towered over the heavily armored man who not only had his entire armor heavily damaged, but was also bleeding extremely heavily from several places.

"..."

"Is this the best you got?" – asked the tank before then noticing a bomb hound coming his way.

The tank raised his shield and blocked off the bomb hound explosion.... However, the man’s injuries piled up to the point where he couldn’t exactly stand still after receding the impact.... Which in turn gave the chance for the cavalry golem to rush in and try to devour the man while also trying to impale him with the polearms’ pikes.

"[Grausamkeit Art: Blade Rage]!" – but before they could connect, the knight captain stepped in and unleashed a wide slash that countered all 3 strikes, giving the tank a chance to breath.

"Damn... You don’t look so good..." – said the knight as he was breathing heavily.

"Fuck you.... You ain’t doing good either." – replied the black knight captain as the duo saw more hound golems coming their direction, teaming up with the cavalry golem.... And even worse, some bomb hounds were also in the mix.

(Okay... This isn’t good...) – thought the black knight captain.

(I’ve used up a lot of my mana.)

(I’ve lost a lot of blood.)

(And I have barely any stamina left.... Probably I can’t fire off any big weapon arts....)

(Pros to the situation?)

(Well... This fucker already suffered a lot of damage... So maybe we can destroy him....)

(Bad news?)

(We are fucked.)

(Even if the armors given to us were top class, there is a limit what they can do when the freaking bomb exploded right in our faces.)

(Heck... If it wasn’t for that armor, my limbs may had been torn off by that first blast.)

(But again... What do we do now?)

(Forget that we are stronger... Forget that we took down one of most probably dangerous golems before it could make a single move.... We are taking way too many fucking casualties.)

(Even with our armors... Even if some guys don’t get blown up right in their faces few times... They are still getting hit with blasts or shrapnel... And it won’t take long for our armors to start falling apart... Before then we are killed.)

(...Can we turn this around?) – thought the man as he looked around in panic.... And saw the army of golems just marching over the remains of the fallen soldiers and knights.

"..."

(No... Even if we were to survive the bombs, we would have enough strength to finish off renaming golems.)

(They maybe weaker than us, but what the hell does it matter if we lose all of our freaking limbs?!)

(Is this it?!)

(Are we going to just die?!) – the man into the full desperation mode, trying to think of any possible way of dealing with the situation.

[One point focus? – Restrict our own movements for a worst possible time - Will die.]

[Spread out? – No room – Will die.]

[Use others as meat shields? – Won’t work, not enough space – Will die.]

The man’s answerers would only lower the chances at survival... And he knew it.

"...."

"..."

"No.... I refuse." – said the man as he suddenly grabbed something his belt.

It was a gun.

But not a normal looking gun, but a one with somewhat large barrel... Which he then fired in sky, unleashing a red sphere of light that then exploded at one point, unleashing a bright reddish light and smoke which instantly caught everybody attention.

It was a flare gun.

Specifically, a flare gun which signalized a retreat.

...

This.... It should be the most logical decision right now.

However, this time the desperation process completely took over the man’s mind... And he stopped thinking at the worst possible timing.

Because this retreat order was the worst possible decision he could made right now.

"!?"

"R-retreat signal!?" – shouted confused tank.

"Do you really fucking think we can do that with those freaking bombs on our assess!?"

(We will fucking get hunted down the moment we try to escape! This is freaking insane and beyond stupid!) – thought the tank.

(It is just better to just stand and fight! It will give us better chances at survival than this shit!)

"..."

"EVERY MEN FOR THEMSELVES! RUN!" – shouted the knight captain as he then started running away, leaving behind the tank.

"?!"

"HEY! YOU FUCKING BASTARD! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! COME BACK-"

"!?"

The tank raised up his shield, trying to protect himself against the cavalry golem’s assault, which he barely survived.... But in the next moment he realized that he was completely surrounded.

The tank tried standing his ground by swinging around his shield, knocking away the hounds... But one by one he was surrounded and completely swallowed by the wave of monsters... As the sound of his flesh being torn apart started being the moment cavalry golem joined in.

And now?

Many other will join the man’s side... But not because of the bomb golems alone... No, no, no.

That signal flare may or may not had screwed up the remaining survivors... And may had completely destroyed their chance at survival.