Lord Of Puppets

(You got be freaking kidding me!) – thought pissed off Thauma.

(Regeneration?! THEY HAVE FREAKING REGENRETIVE ABILITY!?)

(For fuck’s sake! Why?!) – thought Thauma as the demon broke the tore off arm of the golem which it was using at the weapon, resulting in the demon throwing away the arm and then aiming to finish off the boss monster with its own claws.

But just as it was about to, the ballista bolt was shot at the demon, which ended up piercing and digging deep into the monster’s flesh, dealing critical damage to the creature as it screamed it agony.

"!?" – however, to surprise to Thauma, the creature still stood on its two feet after receiving such powerful blow, even when it was bleeding heavily from its wound, the creature refused to stand down and stop its rampage.

(Fuck... It is working... Honestly, I think my golems CAN take down these demons.)

(But it will take time... And a lot of sacrifices.)

(But the problem is the invaders.) – thought Thauma as it looked towards the original invaders with its scout golems and noticed the explosions going off in the distance.

(By the looks of things, they are still being held back by explosives... But did anybody died on that side yet?)

(Hm... Things are not looking good.) – thought Thauma as it noticed that a good number of bomb hounds were already used up.

(The enemy definitely took some damage from the nonstop explosives, there is no way their mages could perfectly block everything nonstop.)

(Not only that, but their leader, the man with the axe, he may had used brute force to create a shockwave that knocked back crossbow bolts, but there is no way he can do the same with explosions.)

(This is a battle of endurance.)

(The enemy needs as fast as possible regroup with rampaging demons.)

(However, if I hold them off long enough away from each other, I should be able to win.)

(But there is also their strategy.)

(The reason why they summoned the demons was to make sure that the long range golems couldn’t harass them, allowing them to quickly move forward without any problem.)

(However, they didn’t expected the bomb hounds to appear.)

(I’ve only used these bomb hounds once.)

(During the war against the Crow Watchers.)

(The enemy information was lacking about one of my most dangerous weapons....)

(And that lack of information is now putting them in danger.)

(They don’t even need to get directly hit by explosions.)

(I’ve made the bomb hounds the specific way, causing their shrapnel to fall in all direction, while also equipping them with special spikes that get sent flying alongside the shrapnel.)

(This war isn’t decided yet.)

Thauma speculation was completely accurate.

It was a battle of endurance.

The enemy may not came here in great numbers, but they were strong, every single member of them.

However, Thauma deduced that the enemy knew information about the dungeon, but not all of it.

They didn’t knew that the new generation of the golems was noticeable stronger than the previous one and they didn’t knew about the bomb launcher golems.

Thauma didn’t however knew that the enemy wasn’t planning on summoning the demons just now, it was desperate move that was caused by the bomb launchers putting too much pressure.

As of right now? The odds are still uncertain.

But the dungeon master knew what the enemy was planning to do.

Regroup.

However, stopping it won’t be easy.

From afar, Thauma could tell that the enemy was still standing because the explosions were still going off.

And the demons were not easy beasts to take down.

It was NOT an easy fight and Thauma wasn’t sure himself if he could hold back the two forces from regrouping with each other in time.

"..."

(Maybe THAT will at least buy some more time.) – thought Thauma as the war continued while the golem watched the chaos through its scout golems

.

"...Tch."

"This is annoying." – said Gerald as he was covered in wounds after receiving another explosions, which he this time somewhat blocked with his aura.

(Dammit. This isn’t good.) – thought Gerald as he swung his axe, unleashing a wave of energy from it in a form of a pillar that smashed right into one of the bomb golems.

[Axe Art: Smashing Chase]

The strike destroyed the golem, but it still caused the explosion to occur, which ended up sending the shrapnel and spikes at the man.

(Fuck!) – thought Gerald as he used his axe and his aura to defend himself from the incoming projectiles.

"...This isn’t good." – said Gerald to himself.

(Aura can somewhat block off the shrapnel... Somewhat.) – thought Gerald.

(But there is a problem.)

[Aura]

[A.K.A - Physical Manifestation Of Power / A.K.A – Inner Spirt]

[Aura is a manifestation of physical power of the user’s own strength.]

[Simple put, image that the person uses their own muscles to create some kind of magiclike effect. This would be the laziest explanation behind it all.]

[There are countless ways the spells can be cast and so, there are countless ways how weapon can be used. As for aura? It is the same, you can use it in many different ways. You can include it in your battle arts or not too, you don’t need to learn it or you may really want to use one specific form of aura.]

[Aura most common usage is a form of enchantment that boost specific aspect of the power, for example make the blade somewhat sharper and durable.]

[Or maybe they can use aura as medium, to for example fire off their sword slash, making it into the projectile.]

[However, there is a side effect.]

[Just like arts require physical strength to use them, STAMINA for example, the aura uses the user stamina.]

(And the way I’m fucking using it is annoying.) – thought annoyed Gerald.

(One thing is knowing where the attack would come at me from, for example I could grab a shield and use aura only on it to perfectly block off the attack... But I have no bloody idea where the shrapnel would strike.)

(I’m covering my body somewhat behind the axe, but fuck me. I need to use aura to cover rest of my body that isn’t covered, and I’m doing this nonstop, resulting in me wasting my strength each time explosion happens near me.)

(My defensive skills and muscles can somewhat handle some attacks.)

(But those freaking spikes that are flying at me are the main problem.) – thought Gerald as he looked around.

(If I knew they had those bastards, I would had at least wore some chain mail.)

(Still... It looks like the number of explosives are dropping... I think they are finally running out of those suicidal dog things.)

(But it is better if we don’t drop our guard down, just yet.) – thought Gerald as he saw another wave of hound golems coming, but this time in noticeable smaller numbers them, which included both regular and bomb hounds.

(The projectiles are still not coming our way, that means the enemy is still dealing with demons too!)

(WE STILL HAVE THE OPPENING!) – thought Gerald as he lifted up his axe, before then swinging it.

[Axe Art: Brute Axe Shot]

Gerald swung around his axe horizontally, unleashing a massive wave strike that smashed and cut the approaching hound golems, dealing critical damage to them all, including the bomb golem that ended up detonating.

"?" – but Gerald quickly realized that something wasn’t right.

The golem did exploded, but it wasn’t explosion that caused any real damage beside flying shrapnel.

No.

Instead, a massive cloud of greenish yellow smoke suddenly burst out from the bomb golem, covering a large area.

Gerald instantly realized the danger and backed away before the smoke got to his previous location.

"The hell is this?!" – shouted Gerald as nearby, another cloud of greenish yellow smoke appeared, before then another and another near the two other groups of invaders.

*Cough* *Cough*

"T-the hell is this crap?!" – asked the masked member as he emerged from the smoke.

"F-fuck! It hurts! It HURTS!" – shouted the heavily armored member as he got on his knees while all 3 groups of invaders instantly backed away from the weird clouds.

"IT’S POISON!" – shouted the younger brother, Wan, as he instantly realized what unknown clouds were.

"EVERYBODY! BACK OFF! DON’T GET CLOSE TO THESE FUCKING CLOUDS!" – shouted Wan as his group backed away further, while the two other groups did the exact same thing on their end.

However, not all of the members obviously came unscratched.

Several of their members were stuck by the poisonous smoke, resulting in them coughing extremely heavily while also experiencing some kind of numbness on their body.

And there was another problem.

"AAAAAAAA!" – the screams began occurring.

Yes.

The golems were unaffected completely by the poison, allowing them to just ran through the clouds of poison and attack the poison infected invaders.... Resulting in some of them being slaughtered.

The invaders experienced their very first losses now.

And not only that, but they were held long enough, for the second wave of the fast-moving golems to arrive, as not only hound golems arrived, but also the new cavalry model type golems also made their appearance.

(I’m going to have reveal a lot of my cards in this battle... But there is really no choice here.) – thought Thauma.

(Kill or be killed.)

(I rather use and reveal every single card that I have, then let these bastards ever think about walking out of this place alive!)