Lord Of Puppets-Chapter 183 – Forest Raid – True Start.

[2 days later.]

"Huh. That is fast." – said the guild master as she was sitting in her camp.

"The reinforcements will arrive here much faster than we had expected?"

"By the looks of things, yes?" – replied the city guard messenger who came to deliver the news.

(Honestly, I was expecting the reinforcement to arrive bit late, since I’ve already gather a lot of people from the area... But I guess there were some people left?)

"..."

(Still, one thing is that we can resume operation soon, and another is that bastard, Arthur.)

(He is keep working for us... But the tension between us.... You can feel it.)

(It doesn’t look like he is doing anything like a form of sabotage... By the looks of things, he also wants us to conquer this dungeon.)

(Still, what is he planning?)

(He suddenly stopped arguing and just wanted time.)

(Does the duke has some forces nearby he can lent him?)

(....)

(Well, I’ve told him the situation already.)

"Hey." – said the guild master.

"Did we received anything regarding the golems movements recently?"

"No ma’am." – replied the light brown-haired adventurer.

"..."

"Keep watch." – said the guild master.

"No. Increase the number of people keeping the watch on that place."

(One thing would be if those thing would be just mindless beasts.) – thought worried guild master.

(But instead? They are soldiers that can be controlled 24 hours a day by the dungeon master.)

(We also still don’t know how these golems are keeping watch on us.)

(...)

(Maybe they don’t?)

(If they did, then why did our traps we set up on the spot worked on them?)

(Maybe they instead have a detection based ability?) – thought the guild master as she stared at the old reports, with sketches of the several golems, including the scout golem.

(This one.... By any chance, he is the one behind the information?)

Several days went by, and the promised reinforcements has arrived at the camp.

Meanwhile, the golem forest did not shown any form of activity which could hint at the possible attack.

Even after being attacked once where several golems were destroyed and damaged, the golems kept themselves inside of the forest.

This would normally be a good sight for the adventurers.... But with the information they had on the hand, this lack of activity only put the adventurers on even higher alert.

But even so, they did not stopped their operation.

Upon the arrival of the reinforcements, the adventurers instantly started off their first proper attack on the forest, sending a large number of adventurers right into the forest.

"You got to be fucking kidding me." – said the bear beastwoman as she and the exact same group as before had made their way into the forest.

"I’ve thought we would do something else, but we are doing the exact same thing as before?"

"Well, splitting into four groups and straight up attacking the forest from the multiple directions is a straight up nothing more than a repeat.... But at the same time, this is the safest move as well." – said the dwarf leader by the name of Randolf, as he walked in front of the group, while holding a brand-new shield that was as big as whole body.

"Truth to be told, our biggest concern are these earth golems."

"Apparently the bastards can heal."

"It doesn’t matter how damage we do to them."

"If we don’t kill them, then they won’t die."

"And I bloody get it now why they were the frontliners."

"They were meat shields."

"Yes... This is the major problem."

"These golems can use their own bodies to protect their allies, while the crossbow golems from afar began their shooting their crossbow volleys."

"So, what is the plan then? Do we just ignore the earth golems?" – asked the bear woman.

"..."

"You were not bloody listening, were you?" – asked the youngest party member.

"Nope." – replied the bear woman instantly, which visible pissed off the youngest member.

"..."

"In short." – said the blond-haired leader.

"We want the golems to split up, like before."

"The earth golems are noticeable slow, so the moment they come, we will just run around, trying to get away from them as far as possible, while trying to reach golems that are behind them."

"Our main goal is to reduce as many of the regular golems as possible."

"Take down the golems that cannot heal themselves and reduce their numbers."

"We will use the fact that the golems lack ability to do any form of recovery for our advantage by attacking the forest several times."

"Each attack will not last long and we won’t kill many golems all at once."

"But as they say."

"Slow and steady wins the race."– said the blond-haired party member as like during the first attack, all four groups of adventurers arrived at the exact same spot where they met the golems.

And just like that, a total repeat had happened.

The golems unleashed a volley of crossbow bolts as well as ballista bolts.

The adventurers blocked off the attacks and counter attacked with their own volley of long attacks.

Then like before, the adventurers ran away, causing the golems to fallow behind them.

So far, the story was playing out the exact same way as before.

However, instead of setting up a trap, the adventurers set up an ambush.

The moment the golems walked far away from the center, the adventurers who were lying in wait instantly jumped out from their hiding spots and attacked the golems backliners, which stopped these golems in place.

And while they were dealing with them, half of the bait group took on the role of distraction and keeping the earth golem busy, while the rest of the bait group ran around the golems and towards the back liners.

"Get the fuckers! Don’t let them prepare another volley!" – shouted the human warrior with axes as the crossbow golems suddenly began shooting again, surprising and alarming the adventurers who instantly raised up their guards or hid behind the trees.

"Shit! They had more shots ready!" – shouted the female dwarf warrior with great axe.

"Mage!"

"I’m on it!" – replied the mage with eyepatch.

[Wind Magic: Wind Cutter: Barrage]

The mage unleashed a barrage of small blades made out of wind that collided against the golems’ bodies... However, the damage it did was by no means effective or impressive.

"What the fuck are you doing?!" – shouted pissed off dwarf.

"I.... Hit them?" – replied confused mage.

(Weird.) – thought mage.

([Wind Magic: Wind Cutter] sent a weak blade of wind at the enemy and the barrage version increase the number of the blades sent.)

(It maybe barrage of weak shots, but the damage should had accumulated.)

"Shit! Stop fucking wasiting your time and move it!" – shouted the giant man in full body armor, as he then started charging forward with his massive shield, proticeing himself and the warriors behind him as he was pushing forward through the volley of shots.

"NOW!" – shouted the heavily armored man as he suddenly used [Shield Art: Charge], suddenly speeding up and ramming into the golems, which gave oppening for the warriors behind him to launch their own fallow up attacks.

"Attack the ones with crossbows!" – shouted the crossbow wielding dog beast-human.

"We need to take down these first!"

"Already on it!" – shouted the female dwarven warrior as she swung her massive axe, hitting several puppet soldiers at once and sending them flying.

"..."

"!"

"Damn. They are really not some trash made, huh?" – said the worreid female dwarf as she puppets getting right back up.

"DON’T FUCKING HIT THEM LIGHTLY! FULL POWER!" – shouted the heavily armored giant man as he swung down his shield like a hammer.

[Shield Art: Shield Smash]

"They made out of fucking metal! And they are like proper fucking armor! Or are they armor?! I don’t fucking know! Just hit them hard!" – shouted the shield wielding adventurer, as he then an axe came his way, forcing the man to defend himself with his shield.

"!"

The man looked past his shield and saw a tall golem, which appered to be like a knight, clashing its blades against the man’s defence.

"Heh."

[Shield Art: Counter]

However, the man was waiting for it, as he then charge forward with his shield and unleashed a powered up attack agasint the knight golem.

"!"

(What?!) – however, the attack barely did anything to the golem nor did it send it flying, only pushed it a bit.

"AAAAAHHHHH!" – the female dwarven warrior charged in and swung her axe while using [Axe Art: Heavy], landing a hit against the golem knight’s stomach area.

"!" – but even that was not enough to deal any form of critical damage to the golem, as the both fighters quickly realized that as the knight monster began swining around its axes, forcing the tank to step in and take on the barrages of hits.

(What was that? He took the attack head on from Helga! That should had left some proper damage!) – thought the tank as he tried keeping the knight golem busy, but quickly realizing that there was some force behind each of the golems hits.

"Shit! Hold him! I need to deal with these guys!" – shouted the female dwarf warrior as several puppet soldiers apporched the duo from the side, forcing the female dwarf to try and keep them away from the tank in order to not get surrounded.

"!"

"OLD MAN! YOUR RIGHT!" – shouted the young cat beastman, warning the giant tank of the knight golem with crossbow arms that was aiming their weapon at the man.

[Crossbow Art: Piercing Shot]

But right before the golem could fire its own shot, a crossbow shot flew past the knight and hit the crossbow knight right in the head.

But the bolt did not dug into the golem’s head and instead just bounced off, scrapping the golem’s knight helmet.

"?!"

(What the fuck?! How tought is that armor?!) – thought alarmed dog beast-human as the crossbow knight golem was about to fire its own shots.

[Defence Stance]

The man used his skill, increasing his defence a bit as the golem fired off his shots.

The man thought that it would be somewhat enough alongside his thick layered armor.... But the golem’s crossbow pierced the man’s armor, landing a solid hit.

"!"

"Shit! Old man!" – shouted young cast beastman with a spear as he rushed towards the tank and thrusted his spear forward.

[Spear Art: Thrust]

The man’s spear connected with the golem body.... But it didn’t dug into the body of the mosnter at all, which instantly put the spearman on the high alert as the crossbow golem then tried swining its blades attached to the bottoms of its arms, trying to slash the man.

The cat beastman was able to dodge all of the attacks... But in the next moment, the crossbow golem aimed with its crossbows at the man.

(Ah.... I’m dead.) – thought the cat beastman who realized he will die.

But just in time, a wave of heavy wind came in that hit golem and the bolt it just fired, causing the golem to be stopped in tracks and even making the crossbow bolt go off the track, missing the vital spots and just hitting him right in the shoudler.

"Don’t fucking rush in you idiot! You ain’t a tank!" – shouted the wind mage as the crossbow golem was about to fire another shot, but once again, the cat beastman was saved by the female dwarf warrior and her axe, as her blade struck the golem and pushed it back.

"Damn! Those things are really WAY more durablae compare to the small flies." – said the dwarven woman as the golem was able to take on the attack.

"..."

"You okay kiddo?" – asked the dwarven woman.

"Y-yeah!" – replied the cat beastman as he tried pulling out the bolt from his shoulder.

"Don’t." – said the dwarven woman, stopping the young man.

"Its deep, isn’t it? You need medic have a look at it."

"If you can’t fight with one hand, then back off."

"I will be honest with you mate."

"These knights right here? They real fucking dangerous."

(I’ve landed the [Axe Art: Breaker], but even that wasn’t enough to take down that bastard.) – thought the worried dwarven woman.

(Not only that, it was able to pierce and somewhat wound that bastard.... Is it using different weapon models?)

(Either way.... I can definitly say that.)

(These knights maybe one of the biggest pain in the butts we may have to deal with.)