Lord Of Puppets

The enemy maybe unknown and everything about their methods and powers are mystery.

But one thing is clear.

Their goal.

And it was the dungeon.

There was no point in attacking.

There was no point in searching.

All they had to was to defend.

And wait for the enemy to come to them.

With that said, Thauma gave new order to its golems, ordering full on retreat, abandoning the whole Mevon territory and only protecting the dungeon and the territory around it.

(Why the hell we didn’t done that from the start?) – thought Porai as she was using her flying golem once again and was observing as the golems from all sort locations, all marching in unison towards the dungeon.

(...Yeb. I don’t think I’m really good at wars myself.)

(I know how to make weapons of destruction, weapons that can counter shit and weapons that can be useful in wars.)

(But I guess it and the actual war is different.)

(Welp, I don’t really have much experience in leading the wars, I’m mainly research and what not.)

(Still... Maybe that was the enemy tactic as well.)

(Those flames I mean.)

(I think they were trying to lure us in, trying to have the golems separate.)

(Or they could just had wanted us to look at the flames while they make their move.)

(Either way, I fell for it like a freaking idiot, that is for sure.) – thought Porai as she turned around her bird and began having it head back to base.

"Still, there is one unanswered question." – said Porai to herself as she took off the headgear device.

(Where are they?)

"..."

{"Shouldn’t you rest Porai?"} – written the messenger golem.

"..."

"Honestly, don’t know if I should rest."

"I can last few days without any sleep... I have spare blood and some potions as well."

"The enemy may had fooled me, but I know they don’t have time."

"Soon they will launch their attack."

"So, get freaking ready."

"Since we will be definitely a tough fight."

The golems were on the full-on retreat, abandoning the Mevon territory and aiming to only to protect the dungeon.

And afterwords? Hours went by.

Several new explosions occurred, devouring the villages in fire... But even so, Thauma did not sent any real military troops and instead Porai used her flying scout golem to observe from afar the rising smoke.

"They are trying to bait us." – said Porai while wearing her headgear.

"..."

{"What if they are just trying to see our reaction instead?"} – written the messenger golem.

"Probably it too."

"..."

"Still, considering how our enemy is scheming like this... It means one thing."

"They know you are intelligent being and that you are somewhat smart."

"They are not looking down on you."

"And this will only make the upcoming battle much harder."

"..."

"And if I’m understanding this correctly, they also know that there is army of golems here."

{"So, they are ready to face it?"}

"Probably..." – said nervous Porai as she used two rings she had on herself, creating black smoke that covered her entire body... Before few moments disappearing and revealing Porai in her battle outfit, equipping her white coat which had the pockets filled with liquid metal, alongside a biking

"Thauma. A real question now. How far can you be away from the dungeon?"

{"I should be able to freely fight around the entrance area. I should be able maybe somewhat move somewhat further away from it if necessary."}

{"Should I go out?"}

"No."

"I’m just asking."

"Since there is no telling what sort of bullshit could happened."

Afterwords, an entire day went by.

And the silence was the only thing present.

For the 24 hours that just passed, there was nothing at all.

No attack.

No burning down villages.

Nothing.

By now the golems already set up their defensive formation... And yet the enemy didn’t done anything to prevent that from happening.

(Were they not taking the bait?) – thought Thauma.

(Honestly, I thought that they would had attacked as soon as they realized that we realized their plan... But the fact that they didn’t done anything is... Worrying to say the least.) – thought Thanatos as it was using it scout golems to look around... But not noticing anything weird anywhere near its golems.

(Did the enemy given up after their plan to bait me failed?)

"..."

(Or am I still getting played right now?)

(Either way, the empire knows about the attack by now... But Porai said that the enemy must had known about that passivity as well.)

(Depending on which direction you can, it can take you days to get here.)

(From the direction we were attacked from, it can take between 2-5 days, depending on the travel method and speed.)

(2 days passed so far...)

(If the enemy plans on defending me, then they would also need time to get away before the empire forces arrive here.)

(3 to 4 days.)

(This is their upper limit.)

(If the enemy doesn’t attack during that time... Then it means they had retreated.)

It was a game of waiting.

No matter what happened, Thauma was not allowed to make their first move.

The moment the enemy make their move; it would be the start of the battle.

Still, the enemy even now was still hidden.

Porai was using her flying golem to scout the territory, but even so, she still couldn’t find the enemy.

[Day of invasion: 3]

The final time limit has come, the day of the expected attack to appear.

An army of golems, forming a massive wall of bodies stood around the building site, forming a defensive line as they were all prepared for combat.

There was no openings or anything like that.

The only way to go to the dungeon is to break right through them.

(A solid line of defense if I say so.) – thought Porai while once again using her flying golem, this time flying above the army of golems and checking their surroundings.

(The golem’s main point is their defense if I say so.)

(Especially the stronger variants, they won’t end up easily destroyed.)

(Still, we shouldn’t let our guard down.)

(Since-)

However, while Porai was patrolling with her golem, the vision of her golem suddenly caught in the corner of its eye a something.

Something bright.

And as the Porai turned the head of golem around, it was too late.

A massive sphere of fire flew right towards one of the golem defensive wall, before then crushing right into them and blowing up, unleashing a massive blast of fire which instantly caught attention of Thauma.

(ATTACK?!) – thought Thauma as it saw the blast from afar with one of its scout golems while the alarm golems were sending the alarm signal to the receiver.

Both Thauma and Porai instantly tried using their golems which they share vision with to find out what is going on.

(Fuck! This ain’t some half assed blast!) – thought Porai as she looked down and saw the massive destruction below, noticing that a large number of golems ended up suffering critical amount of damage.

(This is at least 4 tier magic!) – thought Porai as she and Thauma began looking around with their golems, trying to find the mage who unleashed this devasting strike.

And it didn’t took long to find the culprit, as they were already preparing yet another massive sphere of raging fire which was growing in size, resulting in them being easily spotted by the golems.

"!?"

(AGAIN?!) – thought Porai.

(And he can fire it from that far away too?!)

"THAUMA!" – shouted Porai to the messenger golem, but Thauma was already on it as it gave order to the golems to back away.

[Fire Magic: Explosions Fire Sphere]

The man unleashed the massive sphere of fire, launching it from the great distance towards the golems.

The golems ended up receiving the command, but they were not able to move away to completely move away from the blast radius, as the massive explosion did ended striking several golems.

(Fuck. It takes time for Thauma order to reach from that far away the golems in great numbers... Still, who is that guy?) – thought Porai as she was observing yet another blown up site, before then looking towards the mage and enchanting the vision of the bird golem, giving the golem somewhat closed up view on the mage.

(He is really that far away and by him-)

"?!"

"WAIT! THAUMA! SOMETHING ISN’T RIGHT! THE ENEMY IS ALONE!" – shouted Porai as she realized that the mage was the ONLY person that was spotted.

And reason was obvious.

The mage was nothing more than distraction.

"!"

In the distance, with one of its scout golems vision, Thauma saw a group of people who have already noticeable closed the distance as they aimed to assault the army of golems.

(The mage was distraction?!) – thought Thauma as it instantly gave order to its golems.

However, the moment Thauma did that, it saw yet another group through the eyes of its scout, who also used the moment of distraction to quickly close up the distance.

(Shit! There is two of them?!) – thought Thauma as it realized that the time of war has now began.