Lord Of Puppets-Chapter 144 – Dungeon Raid – Part 15.

"..."

"Hey." – whispered Markus.

"Don’t speak loudly. Only whisper."

"What is it?" – whispered back Elizabeth.

"This maybe just theory.... But there is a chance that this guy maybe understands what we are talking about.... So just for safety, let’s try to whisper." – said Markus.

"Anyway-"

"Don’t you have some potions on hand to deal with that bleeding? Even weak ass potion will do." – said Markus, pointing at the wounds that the young lady had suffered by the hands of the golem.

"...I had...." – replied Elizabeth.

"But that bastard broke them." – said Elizabeth.

(Back then when he backhanded me, he accidently hit my potion pouch and shattered my potions.) – thought Elizabeth as liquid dropped from her belt pouch.

"...Here..." – said Markus as he quickly took out a small potion from and threw it to the girl as the golem watched.

"It is better than nothing." – said Markus as the young lady quickly drank the context of the potion.

"..."

(He is not doing anything.) – thought Markus as it realized that the golem was watching.

The young man looked around, noticing the damage stated of some of the adventurers.

(Honestly, one thing is waiting for that bastard to make a move.... And other for us to just bleed out.... Maybe he is even waiting for this.) – thought the young man.

"Hey.... Think we can approach the bomb site? We need extra potions just in case." – said Markus.

"...Doubt it." – replied Elizabeth after finishing drinking the potion.

"The explosion may shattered every potion they had on themselves.... I think it may be better if we would try to reach the exit."

"Even if it had killed the healers, the carrier unit should still have some potion on them."

"..."

"No." – replied Markus.

"That bastard knows."

"The reason why he had attacked the backliners must be because of the long-range attackers and supporters."

"And if that bastard understands what the potions are.... Then he may had made sure to destroy them."

"So, you are saying we could find nothing?" – asked Elizabeth.

"There is good chance that it is the case." – replied Markus.

"And.... The support squad is not showing up.... Even if they were lagging behind, they should had come here ages ago."

"I think that bastard killed ambushed them and killed them."

"Still.... We killed all the monsters in the dungeon...."

"Even if the dungeon would start devouring the corpse of the fallen, it would definitely take it some time to spawn new monsters." – said Markus, as the young lady with worried and annoyed looked towards the direction of her fallen comrade.

"...If there were some monsters left, he would have already used them.... Nah, he did used them up to stall us." – said Elizabeth.

"If he didn’t used golems, we could had fully focused on dealing with bombs."

"..."

"Yea...." – said nervous Markus.

(The messenger should by now reached the surface and informed the guild master about the situation.... But how long would it take for a support unit to arrive?) – thought the man.

(That golem... It is not strong enough to take us all.)

(Hell, the reason why it did an ambush in the first place must be because of that fact alone.)

(Still, we can’t ignore its earth magic.)

(It can be pretty deadly.... He can fire both close range attacks, long range attacks and attacks from the ground.... Which is problematic.)

(However, the fact that he didn’t fired off anything yet proves that the possible attack he is preparing doesn’t have long range.... Or maybe he needs to fall into the trap.)

(There is also the option he is just bluffing and is ready to fire off that attack.)

(....We need to somehow make that guy panic... And force HIM to make the first move.)

"..."

"Hey.... If that bastard.... Should we send one of ours to the exit?" – whispered Markus.

"....I see." – whispered Elizabeth.

"You want him to panic."

"....But would that work?"

"Depends.... Does he want to kill us all or not? Maybe he wants to just kill most of us or just defend the dungeon core." – replied Markus.

"But if he is really panicking, like completely.... Then maybe running away will make that guy slip up."

"..."

"...Worth it." – said Elizabeth.

"ELF!" – shouted Elizabeth, causing an eleven swordwoman to turn around.

"Get out of here and warn the people outside about this fucker!"

"?!"

"B-but-"

"NOW! RUN FOR IT! We will keep you covered!" – shouted Elizabeth as the elf tried to argue back.

"..." – the elven swordman looked around nervously, before then starting sprinting towards exit.

"!"

The golem instantly noticed the elf running away as it turned its head.... Which was noticed by the adventurers.

(There is reaction!) – thought both Markus and Elizabeth.

(Will it fire?!)

"..."

"..."

No.

It just watched.

It just watched as the elven swordwoman just ran towards the exit.... Without even moving one bit.

"..."

(It isn’t trying to attack me?) – thought the elven woman as she ran towards the exit, while also at the same time looking backwards, trying to see if the golem is planning attacking her.

The elven woman instantly sped up and left the room.... But even so, the golem did not reacted one bit.

"..."

"..."

"She left." – said the dog beastman as he the footsteps of the elven girl became faint.

"Tch."

(I guess he ain’t falling for it.) – thought annoyed Markus.

"..."

"Maybe if we all would try to retreat, we could make him panic?" – whispered Elizabeth.

"...It could work.... But-" 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

"!"

"WAIT! STOP!" – shouted the beastman suddenly, alarming everybody in the room.

"..."

"There are.... Noises.... Something is going on in the corridor." – said the crossbow wielding beastman as he and the beast-human beside him started sweating.

The adventurers stared at the entrance of the room.... And before long, they also began hearing something.

Noises.... And steps.

"!"

"Wait! Is that support team?! Did the guild master sent them here?" – asked Adam, somewhat reliving the adventurers.

["We Won]

The adventurers were not expecting one bit for the support to arrive here so early.

They had thought that the scouts that was sent ahead ended up contacting the guild master, who instantly sent out a reinforcement.

With no monster being no longer present in the dungeon and with the threat of the traps being known, the reinforcement could quickly traverse all 3 floors and arrive at the dungeon master room.

The victory was theirs!

...

Or so they thought.

"?"

"Wait.... Wait! WAIT A FUCKING MOMENT!" – shouted the beastman as he went into full panic mode.

"THOSE AREN’T OUR GUYS!" – shouted the beastman, alarming everybody in the room.

And right in the very next moment, the group arrived at the dungeon master room.

A group of golems.

"!?"

"H-hey.... The fuck.... "

"THE FUCK IS GOING ON HERE?!" – shouted confused Adam.

"Why the fuck there are golems here!?"

To fully understand the current situation, let’s turn the wheel of time a bit.

Specifically, around the time the adventurers started heading towards the third floor after defeating the cavalry golem boss.

(Hm.... This isn’t good.) – thought Thauma

(Cavalry golem was a pure failure.... I guess I screwed it up completely.)

(Still.... It should have maybe heavily injured somebody.... At least it could had cut off somebody limb!)

(This is truly problematic.)

(At this rate they....?)

(Weird.... One of them is running away?) – thought Thauma as it saw the messenger going in the opposite direction.

(Why would they...)

"..."

(Message.)

(The only reason why they could send somebody back would be because they are planning on informing the forces outside.... Progress report? Or maybe are they planning on requesting a reinforcement?)

"..."

(Can’t have that.)

(Hear me and responded.)

The adventurers exterminated all of the golems they had encountered, leaving each floor completely desolated and monster-free.

...

That is what they think.

But in reality?

There were still monsters on the second floor.

But where?

In the hidden room.

There was never only ONE single passage in the dungeon.

There was more than one.

This secret room had a similar mechanism as the first passage way that the Thauma had created, which allows the passage to not be senses with any form of magic detection.

And what was inside of that room?

Golems that were not created by the dungeon, but instead personally made by Thauma.

The reason why Thauma had these golems prepared there was simple.

Enemy escape.

In case enemy ending up getting wiped out, but some of the invaders managing to escape, Thauma placed these golems to finish off any invaders that would dare to escape.

And the messenger? Well.... It didn’t ended up well for him as he was just shot down by the crossbow bolts.

(This should do it.... For now, that is.)

Now let’s turn the clock bit forward.... But not too much.

Specifically, to the point where Thauma was still cornered.

(Fuck! This isn’t going great!) – thought the golem as it was surrounded.

(I can probably go and kill C-ranks, but that’s it.)

(The B-ranks will just finish me off.)

(If I had just one more greater bomb golem on me then.... No... It wouldn’t work.)

(Shit.... The numbers! I need numbers! But how?!)

(I can summon golems, but that won’t be-)

"!"

(Enough!)

(There are enough golems!)

Thauma took a gamble it prepared itself, making it visible to everybody in the room that the golem was preparing to fire off a spell, which alarmed everybody as they were expecting a powerful attack being thrown at them.

And this was a trap.

The adventurers didn’t took action and gave time for the golems to traverse through the dungeon.

And like that.

The dungeon has once again the number advantage.