Lord Of Puppets

(Another signal!?) – thought extremely alarmed Thauma.

(A different one too!)

(But this looks like that sparky signal from before!)

(So does that mean the enemy is planning on summoning more demons?!)

Porai who also saw the signals ended up also becoming far more alarmed, causing the vampire woman to boost further her enchantment spell, making her speed up even further.

As for what enemies did?

They... Hesitated.

They weren’t sure if they should do "it" or not... But the orders were orders, and so they did it.

And so, suddenly, the golems started being pushed back and destroyed at the extremely fast rate.

The enemy started unleashing far more devasting weapon arts as well as spells, resulting in them being able to quickly overwhelm the enemy forces that they were facing.

And that was obviously quickly noticed by Thauma’s scout golem who observed the fight from afar.

"!?"

(What the hell is going on there?!) – Thauma got alarmed and instantly ordered the bomb launchers who finally were in position again to launch their bombs at the invaders.

The bomb flew through the skies and some of the soldiers noticed them... SOME, as they had their hands busy with the golems.

Some of the explosives were stopped with magic... But not all of them, as several invaders were hit by the bombs.

It also ended up somewhat friendly firing some of the golems in the process, but Thauma didn’t cared.

The golem did not wanted the enemy to pull out yet another extremely dangerous card like the demons, and so, it was willing to go as far as to destroy its own golems with its own two hands in order to kill the enemy.

"SHIT! THEY BEGAN BOMBARDMENT AGAIN!" – shouted the panicking man in knight armor.

"FUCK IT AND FOCUS ON GETTING RID OF THE GOLEMS HERE! NOW!" – shouted Gerald as he swung down his axe as a bunch of hounds were coming his way.

[Axe Art: Eruption]

The man’s axe smashed into the ground, unleashing an explosive shockwave blast all around him that stopped in tracks all of the hounds while also dealing damage to them, before moments later he swung around his axe, dealing critical damage to all the hounds and sending them flying.

"KEEP GOING! DON’T HOLD ANYTHING BACK!" – shouted Gerald as he was using devasting attacks with his axe to the point even a single strike from his axe could deal a critical damage to several golems all at once.

The massive muscular man fought like a beast... But, so did they others.

They didn’t used anything like drugs to boost their strength... No.

They were just using everything they had, not holding anything back as they were even dealing critical damage to the boss monsters and making sure it would be destroyed as fast as possible.

It was alarming to say the least.

The amount of chaos started increasing in the distance, but Thauma could tell that it wasn’t ITS chaos.

And as the number of golems started dropping, Thauma could somewhat spot what was going on.

The enemy started unleashing more of their powers.

(DO THEY AIM TO REGROUP WITH DEMONS AT ALL COST?!) – thought Thauma as the golem thought the enemy was desperate to regroup with the demons as soon as possible.

However, it wasn’t it.

No.

The enemy... They were moving backwards.

"?"

(Wait... What is going on?) – thought Thauma as it saw its golems moving further away from the main army while at the same time noticing more and more destroyed remains of the golems pilling up.

The dungeon master was confused.

It instantly realized that something wasn’t right.

The enemy started moving away from the army?

(Are they injured? Are they trying to recover?)

Those were questions that the dungeon master asked itself, wondering if the enemy was trying to regroup and then launch another powerful push once again.

Thauma wasn’t having it.

The demons were starting to get somewhat held back and damaged, causing their rampage to somewhat calm down... But they were still there, destroying the golems.

Thauma was still restricted what it could do, but it was still at least sending any and all hound and cavalry come that arrived to chase after the invaders.

"Shit! I see more fast-moving ones!" – shouted the man with the crossbow.

"DOESN’T MATTER! JUST FOCUS ON YOUR CURRENT TASK!" – shouted Gerald as number of fast-moving golems started dropping to the alarming rate... However-

There were still some bomb and poison bomb hounds present in the mix, which were blowing up.

Most of the bombs were being blow up from afar, but some managed to blow up close enough to deal some damage.

However, when the poison bombs blown up and caught somebody in the blast... Well, they were in trouble.

"Shit! We have to save them!" – shouted the man in the hood.

"Stop it! We don’t have time!" – shouted the man in heavy armor as he stopped the hooded man from saving the poisoned victims... Which resulted in the cavalry golems impaling the victims with their polearms.

The enemy was still taking damage and they were experiencing some losses.

Some people managed to not die, but the number of wounds they had suffered started becoming alarming, to the point their speed started to noticeable drop in turn.

The invaders were using at the alarming rate their healing magic and potions, recovering just any wounds that would hinder them.

Still... What they were doing could be called... "Wasteful" in a way, with how they were using their healing options.

Not only that, but there was another weird thing.

They had destroyed pretty much almost all of the fast-moving golems that were after them, expect for the ones that were still beginning their hunt.

"GO!" – and instead of trying to focus on the recovery now, just as Thauma had predicted, the enemy just... Turned around and started running further away from the main army.

"???"

(What?) – the golem was confused, and for the very good reason.

The distance that the enemy was making was... "STUPID", to say the least.

If they are planning on moving that far away, they could once again be forced to endure the barrage of the long-range attacks from the further range possible, straight up starting from the very beginning.

This was "stupid", snice not only the enemy would need to restart from the start their charge, but their surprise effect which allowed them to have much easier time running forward was gone.

Still, Thauma was still not letting its guard down.

Even thought its army was originally 3 times bigger than the invader, it knew that it could still be possible... No.

It knew that there was a high chance that the enemy may had been able to break through and get to the dungeon.

They may had not been able to yet the reach main army... But Thauma could tell.

They are beyond dangerous!

(DON’T LET THEM ESCAPE!) – Thauma gave order to its fast-moving golems to chase after the enemies.

However, the demons were still here, going on the rampage.

(For crying out loud! How much these ones can take before they drop down!?) – thought annoyed Thauma as it realized that some of its boss monsters were destroyed, as well as several of its knight golems were smashed into the bits against the battle with the demons.

The ballistae golems fired their shots at the demons, dealing critical damage to the wounds covered demons.

But again, they were not letting up.

The demonic beasts swung around their claws, brining nothing but pure destruction around them while Thauma watched.

(Fuck!)

(They will fall! I know it! But why won’t they fall sooner?!) – thought Thauma as the golems were attacking from all directions the demons, causing the annoyance to the demons.

...

But even so.

The enemy was still not coming back.

Thauma was getting more and more confused as well as worried.

At this rate the demons will die and the enemy may lose their perfect opportunity to break through.

Sure, they had few losses here and there, but they should had a chance with the demons supporting them.

(SO, WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?!) – the dungeon master screamed inside of its head in confusion.

(It doesn’t make any sense!)

(Is it distraction!? Maybe there are more hidden enemies nearby?! Maybe they want us... NO! IT DOESN’T MAKE SENSE STILL!)

(The way the enemy are fighting, I can definitely tell that there are no additional forces in waiting!)

(A small army which only consists of elites!)

(THAT is what the enemy is! Nothing more! Nothing else!)

(But I don’t get their strategy)

(The empire was already informed about the true goal of the enemy and if they would waste....)

"..."

(Wait.)

(There is no way they could had won.)

(Even if they were to destroy the dungeon, they would also need to run away before the empire gets them and exterminate them.)

(They are racing with the time, meaning they cannot really hold anything back, but they also need to be smart about it.)

(...)

(Shit.)

(I know what they are doing!)

(THEY ARE FUCKING RUNNNING AWAY)