Mark groggily shifted in his sleep due to the blaring alarm. It was 0341. He had been up late into the morning hours dealing with the battle’s aftermath, so it took him a few seconds to come around. Realization finally hit him and his eyes snapped open. A dread hit him as he pulled open his tactical map. Had the orc band returned? He had done what he could to prepare for that possibility, staying up till past midnight and even converting day 20’s DP to bolster defenses.
Post battle, their forces had still retained 14 mages, 9 legionnaires, 36 frogman, and just over 5 goblin squads. Mark had spent the MP gained post battle and converted DP to buy 11 new legionnaires and 6 squads for numbers. Certain that this amount and the dungeon would be able to deal with the remainder of the orc army should they return. Not much else he could do since they currently did not have any MP coming in from production.
It was still alarming to see dozens of red dots pouring in from the west. Zooming in only made the sinking feeling grow. It was not readily apparent since it was nighttime and it was even darker due to the foliage shielding units from the faint celestial light, but the first appraisal immediately dispelled the fear of the return of the orc army remnants. The unit was a wooden block golem with a power rating of 0.9. Other appraisals brought revealed more block golems as well as clay golems with a power rating of 0.45
It was an entirely new force from one of the other dungeons. Why now of all times? What horrible luck. They had just weathered and survived due to a seemingly lucky break, but now had to undergo another assault. His mind quickly came to the realization that it was precisely the reason that they were being attacked. One of the other dungeons must have noticed that they were being attacked the day before and decided to send their army to clean up. This was not a one on one chess game, but a battle royal. They were just unlucky.
Mark quickly got to his feet. Less than half a minute had passed since the alarm first went off, but every second counted when another army would arrive on their doorstep in another 10 minutes. Mark’s mind was already blazing through what he needed to do.
“A different dungeon is attacking us,” Amelia said in a disbelieving stupor.
“I’m leaving to rouse our forces,” Mark said, darting to the door before pausing. “Amelia, I need you to grab 28 manna recovery rock licks and bring them up to the mages.”
Mark did not wait for a response. The mages were important for their defense. Mark could only hope that the mages had recovered from the prior battle. When he had left just after midnight the mages had all been basically unconscious, resting due to the overuse of their manna and Eres rock licks. Over 9 hours had passed since the point where they had exhausted themselves, so hopefully they had recovered enough.
Mark flew through the core room door and out of the dungeon entrance. He almost stepped on a frogman that was lying right through the entrance. Mark had packed them into the entrance fortification, thinking that if the orc army returned they would have to fight. Their morale had dropped into the 30’s at some point, perhaps based on his orders for the last battle. Mark was not quite sure since he had not thought to check before battle. Regardless, they would have their backs against the wall tonight. They would have to stand and fight if they did not want to die.
Mark hoped over their lumbering figures, roughly nudging each one that he passed calling for them to ‘prepare for battle.’ The frogman started to rouse, but Mark was already up and over the wall running down the gangplank toward the main fortification. The goblins were in a similar state. None had been on watch and they slowly roused due to Mark’s calls.
“Sir, what’s going on?” Nasal said as he met Mark halfway between the center raised platform and the outer wall.
“A construct army is approaching from the east. Prepare everyone for battle. They will be here in less than 10 minutes. Will our mages be ready?”
“Yes sir, I’ll make sure of it,” Nasal said as he started to bark for the goblins to prepare. The goblins started to rouse, but not without grumbling. Mark ignored them.
It was still dark, so Mark called for them to light as many torches as they could as he followed Nasal. The mages were all grouped up near the raised platform. ‘Ma heads still poundin’ several of the mages remarked as they groggily stood. Mark could not make out their features, but most seemed a bit unsteady and held their heads as they stood. Exhausting their manna and use of the Eres rock licks seemed to give them hangover-like symptoms. Scanning their statuses showed that they at least had recovered all of their manna, so as long as they were physically good, lack of manna should not be the hang-up.
Amelia arrived with the Eres rocks and started to distribute them. This only made the mages grumble even more. Using the licks would only make them feel worse, but they were hardly in a situation to refuse. The alternative was likely certain death, since a mage who could not use manna could only wait for death. Nasal hollered that ‘they would have to poison themselves to the point of death if they wanted to survive.’
Mark mentally confirmed it when his attention shifted back to the tactical map. Unlike during the other attacks he did not have numbers specific to the types of units. The interface likely did not provide it since Mark could not easily discern the difference of the approaching units, but the interface still gave a total tally of the approaching army, 256.
It was alarming to say the least, being even bigger than the orc army. Mark could only hope it was due to being made up of weaklings. Still the constructs would have its own advantages and disadvantages. Mark continued to scan through the enemy units as he thought. Within a minute he had revealed several more types of units.
The biggest units amongst the dark approaching figures were called flesh golems with a power rating of 1.5. The tall narrow ones were scarecrows with a power rating of either 0.5 or 0.8, with the weaker variety being called straw scarecrows and the stronger just plain scarecrows. Who could say what the second variety was made of?
Confident that he had identified most if not all of the unit types in the approaching army, Mark gave his orders. “The enemy army is made out of constructs. Mages target groups of scarecrows and wooden golems with fireballs when able. Then use your magic bolts for the other types. Archers target the clay and flesh golems. Warriors should use their secondary tomahawks, knive, and club weapons to hack or smash all enemies to bits. Piercing attacks from spears likely won’t do too much damage, but can be used to keep enemies at bay”
The red dots were approaching the tree line, so Mark grabbed Amelia’s hand and started to rush back toward the dungeon. Perhaps it was not a great morale booster for the leaders to run for safety, but it is not like they were going to stay here. They quickly made their way across the set of gangplanks and back to the relative safety of the dungeon. Mark repeated his instructions for the frogman, but since they did not have archers or mages there was not much variance on what they could do.
Mark and Amelia made it to the core room moments before the construct forces reached the clearing. There was no pause, constructs did not need time to rest. They instantly started their assault, albeit at a slightly slower rate than the orc army had been capable of. The constructs were clearly less agile than the previous army.
It was still dark, but once out of the tree cover, Mark with slight adjustments to the contrast was able to make the enemies' features apparent. Soon the hundreds of units were displayed in a night vision green.
The clay and wood block golems made up the majority of the force. The clay golems were crude five foot tall humanoids, but looked more like snowmen with a round clay head set on oval shaped bodies. The arm and leg appendages each had two joints. One formed the elbows and knees and the second allowed for the simple hands and feet. They only had black inlaid stones for eyes and no other facial features on their round stone heads. They lumbered forward carrying clubs and spears.
The wood block golems were similar in that they were humanoid and they did not have a neck. Their bodies seemed to be made up of a bunch of logs bundled together vertical to the ground. Their heads however consisted of a bunch of smaller sticks bound together with the ends cut to form an almost perfect block like head. Black rock eyes with an apparent superfluous wooden protrusion for a nose made up the creature’s facial features. They moved fairly robotically with crude limb joints for their arms and legs.
There were a couple of seven foot tall flesh golems interspersed throughout their ranks. They were humanoid, but looked more like some sort of stretched playdough or taffy frankenstein-like amalgamation. They were grotesque and carried long and powerful wooden maces capped with heavy stones at their tips. These three unit types formed the vanguard and majority of the army. They lumbered forward at a moderate but tireless pace.
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Following behind the golems were the scarecrow constructs. All around five feet tall with the majority being made of straw, but a good number had heads and other appendages with their stuffing seemingly contained by a burlap sack. Both these scarecrow types wore rough flannel clothes. Their movements were far more fluid than the awkward gaited golems ahead of them.
However there was a third type, Mark had failed to find earlier. There were only a handful, but they were perhaps the most intimidating part of the force. They were called a creeper scarecrow with a power level of 1.6. The figures were covered with black brimmed hats with black cloaks concealing their bodies. The face almost looked human except more skull-like. However, there were the standard facial features although they were super… well creepy. They were registered as scarecrows but looked like they could just as easily be a horror movie villain.
Arrows sailed into the front ranks. Their flight was lost in the dark, only to become visible when they struck. The arrows either thudded harmlessly into the earth or seemingly as harmlessly thunked into the bodies of the golems. The golems continued forward not faltering even a step, some with arrows now protruding from their bodies.
The golems were far slower than the orcs, only approaching the goblins at what could be described as a very fast walking pace. The goblin’s had plenty of time to send four more volleys of arrows toward the approaching army. Most arrows fell harmlessly, however a few seemed to hit a lucky spot on the clay golems causing them to collapse. The rest continued on unabated.
The mages had a far better effect. Magic bolts caused far more damage on the clay golems causing even more to drop. A few fire bolts lanced out and set clumps of the wooden golems alight. Which did a lot to illuminate the battlefield since there were only a couple dozen torches held amongst the goblin ranks. It would only be beneficial since the constructs did not seem to need them. If they survived, Mark would have to have them make a lot more to improve their ability to see at night. They had not done anything to really prepare for being attacked at night.
A good portion of the scarecrows started making their own ranged attacks. The goblins ducked under the cover of the wall when a magic bolt streaked their way, but the unseen arrows struck without warning. Luckily there were only a few hits every now and then so the losses were tolerable.
The majority of the golems reached the wall. The smaller clay and block golems started digging into the sides of the earthen wall, apparently unable to climb. The flesh golems also bashed the wall with their mace like clubs, but also struck at the defenders when able. Luckily the defenders were quicker and able to avoid the blows for the most part. Between swings they jabbed their spears into the flesh golems, causing sludge-like substance to ooze from the wounds. All the while the scarecrows traded ranged attacks with the golems.
How things stood did not particularly worry Mark, but it would change quickly if and when the golems broke through the earthen wall. Based on what he was seeing it might happen sooner rather than later. Earth was falling away from the wall at a prodigious rate.
The battle had only been ongoing for about two minutes when the goblins mages started to collapse. They had used the Eres rock licks, but apparently were not recovered enough from the prior battle to get a full effect of even one of the two rocks each of them carried. Every now and then goblins were able to hack the clay golems enough for them to collapse into a pile of their pieces, but they were few and far between. The archers really had nothing to shoot since the scarecrows were not really affected by being hit by arrows not that some of the goblins had not tried.
In a few minutes the mages had done quite a bit to trim the numbers. It was a shame they had been previously expended. Mark should have summoned a lot more of them, since they were the unit that was most effective against this enemy. The legionnaires had been critical to hold the wall against the orcs, but since the golems could not readily pass the wall they were not as necessary. Even when the constructs broke through the melee warriors would not be able to devastate the enemy ranks. Besides the clay golems and perhaps the scarecrows, the constructs were very resilient and hard to kill with melee weapons.
Everything changed with a few shouts from Nasal. Soon the goblins on the wall were dodging spear thrusts and using their torches to try and set the wood golems on fire. It worked a couple of times, but what really changed the battle were the archers. They were ripping off parts of their clothes and jabbing their arrow through before setting it aflame and firing toward the scarecrows. While the wooden golems were not easily set alight by the torches occasionally bashing against them, the scarecrows were a different story.
The straw scarecrows immediately went up with a hit. It was only about half the time for the burlap sack scarecrows, which was still pretty good since the construct army was halted by the wall. The goblins ran out of clothes and started pulling pieces from blankets and anything else they could find. They might have been to dumb to think up the idea themselves, but once they started they were persistent in their efforts.
The stalemate was shattered a minute later as the enemy responded to the new tactic. Several of the creeper scarecrows hands illuminated in green before green balls of energy streaked toward the defenders. They splashed like water balloons against the walls and defenders. At first Mark thought that they were the scarecrows equivalent of the fireball, but the scarecrows were performing the attack too often, and the green liquid-like substance ate away at the things it landed on like acid.
Soon the earthen walls sizzled and goblins fell back clutching their faces and appendages, screaming. Goblins who were hit directly had their flesh and sinew dissolved. The acid ate down to the bone, leaving the affected skeletal parts atop a puddle of goo. The process only took 10 or 15 seconds for the green goblins and twice that for the stronger legionnaires and hobgoblins. However there were only a handful of the direct hits, most were only caught by the splash. Soon several goblins sported burns on their upper torso, arms, and skulls. It was usually enough to down low vitality green goblins, but the stronger units were able to withstand to a certain extent. The attacks cut off after a minute, but dozens had been affected.
It was about fifteen minutes into the battle when a portion of the earthen wall collapsed into a mound that the constructs could now traverse. The breach was only around five feet wide only allowing a couple to enter at a time. A couple legionnaires joined together to stem the tide effectively stopping the advance. They used their hatchets to hack as they dodged the construct thrusts.
The clay golems were agile enough to occasionally score a hit, but the block golems movements were far too robotic to hit the more agile goblins. However what they lacked in attack they made up for in defense. As far as Mark could tell there had not been one that had fallen to melee attacks. Their heads and bodies were only marred with wedge chips from the goblin hatchets.
Regardless, the real melee did not begin until a few minutes later when a whole fifteen foot section of the earthen wall collapsed. Three large flesh golems immediately advanced in. The rest of the golems worked to dig themselves out of the dirt. The flesh golem received a hail of arrows before they reached the awaiting goblin forces, yet they hardly seemed affected. So far, not one had fallen in battle although many were covered in wounds oozing a black syrup-like substance.
The flesh golems also had a very stout defense, but unlike the block golems they had a powerful attack. Nasal directed the goblins to target the limbs. Soon several of the golems were rendered immobile as the goblins encircled them, hacking at the legs. Only a handful got brained by the mace wielding golems during the attempt. However the goblins soon had to scamper back into their lines as more flesh golems and smaller golems finally made their way through the collapsed dirt and into the fort.
The breach was too big for the goblins to defend and they were quickly pushed back since most of the enemies were difficult to bring down. The fight quickly started to become one sided, although not as quickly as it had been during the orc raids. The golems could only progress slowly. Which resulted in something Mark had not expected.
The goblins had been reduced to about a third when the goblin resolve finally broke. Nasal went down. This time, Mark knew it was for good, since a flesh golem had bashed him with a mace. Their leader down and a slow enemy advance that the goblins could outrun resulted in the goblins deciding to make a run for it. Soon they were up and over the earthen wall on the opposite side and were running for the trees. A few of the scarecrows broke off to follow, but the majority of the remaining force made its way for the dungeon entrance.
The frogman squads were already in the thick of it. A good portion of the constructs had made their way over to them early in the battle. The frogmen had only managed to slay a handful. The rest of the constructs soon had to join and cut off any avenue of escape for the frogman.
Five minutes later several small breaches were made in the wall and the flesh golems entered. Unlike the goblins the frogman were far less agile, and the flesh golems made short work of them. In total the 3 frogman squads had maybe brought down around 10 clay golems.
“That's it then,” Amelia said with a downcast expression. “They have almost 4 times the amount of troops that we have in our dungeon.”
The enemy had 114 units left to storm the dungeon, although about eight of them had veered off in pursuit of the goblins. Of note there were 6 flesh golems and 5 Creepers left. The rest of the enemy forces consisted of the lesser scarecrows and mostly the block golems. Most of the clay golems had fallen already, since they had proven to have the weakest defense.
“Not yet,” Mark said resolutely, watching as the constructs cautiously entered the dungeon.
“That seems awfully optimistic,” Amelia looked at him skeptically.
“Well, last night I was sure we were doomed. What was left of the orc army would have torn through this dungeon. Besides that acid attack and maybe the flesh golems I don’t think there is anything to worry about thanks to our overpowered floor boss.”
“I hope you’re right,” Amelia stated as they both turned their attention back to the screen.