Lord Of Puppets

(They are retreating!? NOW?!) – thought Thauma.

(But that... What?)

(If they make a full-on retreat like now, they will never be able to get another opportunity like this?)

"..."

(Shit!) – thought Thauma as used the messenger golem which was running after Porai.

(She is nowhere near it!)

(What do I do?)

(FUCK! IF I JUST HAD A FREAKING VOICE AND SHE HAD THE COMMUNICATION DEVICE, I COULD WARN HER!)

(I really need – NO! NOT NOW!)

(SHIT! THE HELL IS GOING ON?!) – thought Thauma as it was using all of its scout golems, having each of the golems share the vision with the dungeon master, checking the surroundings from all directions.

"..."

(I don’t see anybody... Any hidden attack or anything.)

(The enemy is truly retreating?)

"..."

(Honestly, I want to give chase after them... But there is no point.)

(These hounds and cavalry golems will only end up getting exterminated if they go one by one.) – thought Thauma as it gave the order for its golems to give up the chase.

(As much as it annoys me to admit it, there is no way I can stop them or even slow them down... I really can’t.)

(Still, I can’t let my guard down yet.)

(Not only that, there are still these demons.)

"..."

"They given up?" – asked the hooded woman as she noticed the number of the golems which was chasing the group started decreasing, before several moments later completely stopping, as every single one of the fast-moving golems that were still functioning had stopped the chase and turned around.

"...Are you sure about this?" – asked Den.

"Yeah. I’m." – replied Gerald.

"Honestly, we could had done that job, even after suffering some heavy losses."

"But, at the rate things would be going, we would waste too much time."

"And you know what would happened afterwords."

(The explosions are not annoying at all, but the poison... This is the worst possible situation for us that we didn’t predicted.) – thought Gerald.

(One thing would be limitation... But this?)

(Heck. I wouldn’t be surprised if the moment we would step foot in the dungeon; we would end up being floated with poisonous gas.)

(The information wasn’t wrong about one thing through.)

(The way the golems fought, it wasn’t a mindless fight.)

(No.)

(Somebody was clearly commanding them.)

(Somebody who knew how to fight non the less.)

(And that only makes things far more dangerous.)

"...Welp, honestly speaking, it was a doomed mission from the start." – said Gerald.

"?"

"What do you mean?" – asked Den.

"Just what I’ve said." – said Gerald.

"We could had done that mission, but it would obviously result in our extermination in the process by the hands of empire."

(We do have means of dealing with poison... But not enough.)

(If we had knew about the poison, we could had made some heavy countermeasures and what not... But this?)

(We looked into everything regarding the dungeon and found nothing about the suicide golems, the bomb projectiles or poison.)

(All of this must be brand new.)

(We knew about the explosive traps that they were using and had countermeasures ready for them... But only for them.)

(But this?)

(Yeah... Fuck no.)

(I rather run away like a cowards than do a suicidal mission like this.)

The Brutes... Well?

They just given up.

Thauma knew and the Brutes knew that they had a chance at beasting the dungeon.

They were just that dangerous.

But they lost.

They lost the moment they realized that the enemy defenses were far high for them breakthrough in time.

The cost of complaining their mission just as Gerald predicted? Their lives.

But he didn’t wanted to do that for this cost, so he just left, leaving behind the three demons all alone who continued their rampage.

However, by just abandoning these demons, Thauma could focus all of its golems at the trio of demons.

And pretty much, they were already getting screwed over.

These demons maybe gifted in attack power, defense and regenerative power, but even for them fighting non stop waves of golems would wear them down.

And not only that, the bomb golems could now focus on them, resulting in the demons now getting blasted.

The time went by... And the two massive were finally forced on their knees, giving the golems a chance to start overwhelm them in the way they couldn’t properly fight back.

As for the third one?

It refused to go down.

Even as its body was now covered with deep wounds everywhere, the beast roared and screamed.

However, there was a problem.

The vampire.

[Metal Magic: Metal Lance]

A metallic lance flew at the demon and pierced its chest.

"!?" – the demon was caught off guard by the attack... But it wasn’t given any time to even remove the lance that was stuck in its body, as two more lances stuck the demon’s shoulders.

"I’m really not going to play around here."

[Blood Magic X Ice Magic: Sharp Slash]

A thin blade of frozen blood flew at the demon and slashed it across its chest, dealing a massive critical damage that caused the beast to scream in agony as the blood burst from the deep wound.

The demon looked towards the attack and saw it.

A woman in white coat who wore nothing but bikini underneath.

The demon without hesitation rushed at the woman, straight up leaped at it while its body was beyond wrecked.

"I don’t have time for the half dead bastard like you." – said Porai as she started pouring out liquid metal from her coat pockets, before then unleashing the three spheres of liquid metal at demonic beasts, smashing into the creature and dealing damage.

But the demon didn’t stopped... However-

The sphere of metal splattered over the demon’s body like regular liquid, before then extremely quickly fusing with the metallic lances that were stuck in the demon’s body.

[Metal Magic: Metal Ramage]

The liquid metal combined with the lances, transforming them into rampaging objects that unleashed countless blades and spikes which ripped the demon’s body apart from inside out, destroying the demon and killing it right on the spot.

After killing the demon, Porai looked around and spotted two more fights in the distance.

However, Porai didn’t focused on them and instead tried moving forward.

"?" – But as she did, the golems stopped her in her way.

"What is the meaning of this, Thauma?" – asked Porai.

<<The demons were exterminated.>>

<<They were honestly annoying and tough opponents to bring down... But I’ve managed to make them hit their limit.>>

<<Porai also helped out in exterminating one of the demons with her metal magic... The demon was already wounded and exhausted, but still, for her to rip its flesh apart like that after I saw how durable it was... It was straight up scary.>>

<<Not only that, what was that blade attack she used with blood?>>

<<She barely needed any time to prepare it before then firing it.>>

<<And yet, that spell dealt massive amount of damage to the demon.>>

<<...I will ask it about it later.>>

<<But for now, I’ve managed to have somewhat have her talk with the messenger golem in order to explain the situation to her.>>

<<It was bit bothersome to have her turn back, since it was quiet chaotic just now, but when she realized that this was important, I was able to properly contact her and explain everything to her.>>

"They left!?" – asked surprised Porai as she after she turned back, she encountered the messenger golem which Thauma used to relay the whole situation.

{"No enemies in sight."} – written the messenger golem on the notebook, relying Thauma’s message.

{"The enemy seems to have completely abandoned their operation."}

"...Are you sure about that?" – asked doubtful Porai.

"Honestly speaking, based on what happened, I wouldn’t be surprised if this would be another scheme."

{"I also believe that, but the enemy completely left the battlefield."}

{"If they were to attack now and possible succeed in destroying the dungeon, the empire would had been able to hunt them down and exterminate them."}

"...Okay, what the fuck?" – asked confused Porai.

(They just left the battlefield!?) – thought Porai.

(That is... Unexpected?)

(I mean, I came here in hopes of fighting them myself alongside the golems... But they given up?)

"...Did you... Do anything weird?"

{"They retreated somewhat after the bomb hounds - poison type, started blowing them up."]

{"It seems the poison ended up causing them to suffered some first losses too."}

"Poison...."

"It is the one that was made with red clovers and fang flower, yeah?"

{"Correct. They released the poison gas that we had been developed."}

"...Huh...."

(Was that enough to make the enemy back away?) – thought Porai.

(True, the poison we had developed with the usage of the red clovers and fang flowers as the main ingredients is somewhat deadly poison....)

"..."

(No. It may had really been enough.)

(This dungeon never used poisons before, so it may had been enough to make them scared.)

(Maybe they realized that the golems would cover up the whole battlefield with poison or maybe they expected something like the dungeon to be filled with it.)

(They were not prepared for it and realized they may end up getting fucked by being not prepared for it... The enemy is smart and quickly came to this conclusion by the looks of things too.)

"..."

"Still, don’t let your guard down."

"I will return back to the dungeon, but keep watch."

"I honestly don’t know if the enemy will attack or not... But considering what we had just experience just, there is a huge chance that we may another wave of bullshit heading our way."

{"Understood. I will order my golems to restore the formation and keep the watch so nobody will be able to approach the dungeon."}

"..."

(Still, this is worrying to say the least.) – thought Thauma as it was using its scout golem to observe the surroundings, noticing the destruction and countless deaths of his golems.

(This was them falling and retreating?)

(They took down so many golems and there were also these demons....)

(For crying out loud.)

(Why the hell am I still ending up even now with dealing with stronger and stronger enemies each time I’m raided?)

(Am I cursed or something?)