Mark was not exactly surprised when reports came back indicating that the bulk of Mareth’s forces had departed at some point in the afternoon on day 121. Nor was it surprising when their scouts picked them up on the most direct route just past midnight. At their current progress they would reach the dungeon well before the night was over.
Mareth choosing to attack during the night was not wholly unexpected. Constructs did not need the light to see like normal units did. His best guess was that they had some sort of spacial sense that they used to navigate although the specifics were unclear. Eh, might as well just say magic since there was no scientific explanation for it. Preparations had already been made for the assumed night attack. Hundreds of torches had been placed to cover the entire clearing.
Mark glanced back at the interface tinted in an entirely green hue. Mark had never actually used night vision goggles, but he had played a couple first person shooters that had a function that simulated what things would look like. The view currently only showed the trees. The high vantage point over his retreating scout units could not tell him much, but their positions on the tactical map were getting real close to their dungeon’s territorial boundary. Supposedly they were staying just ahead of the enemy force, so it would not be long now.
Mark went ahead and shifted the core tactical screen back to their dungeon. Lights were winking into existence all across the clearing as goblins set the torches alight like some candle sigil. Each of them would last several hours. Which should be long enough to get them through to day break. Provided the battle was not already over with by then.
Mark stood and made his way to their hut. It was time to wake her up. Amelia had exhausted herself making as many new enchanted items as possible the day before. While he had elected to just stay up and monitor things, her body had required her to get some sleep.
“Amelia… Amelia… Its time,” Mark said, nudging the sleeping form.
“Okay,” she replied, snapping up, surprising Mark. “I’ll be out there in a minute.” Seconds later and she was in the bathroom.
Mark retreated back to the couch. That had been quite easy. If he had known she would not grumble and protest as much as she did on the other occasions when he had to wake her up, he could have let her sleep another ten or fifteen minutes. As it was she joined him on the couch near the same time that the first of Mareth’s forces crossed the territorial boundary.
“Did you find out anything ahhhhw,” Amelia started, yawning midway through.
“No, I was able to see the forces briefly when they first neared the scouts position, but even then I could only make out a portion of them. Could not really discern the individual units very well. Still operating under the assumption that we are dealing with 2,500 units, with somewhere between two to three hundred being level 2 units.”
“And how many did we end up with?”
“Uh, just over 1,300 units, and 48 level two units. I built only a couple more arachnes to support the bugbear platoon, and a couple more patrols and mages to hold in reserve.”
“Geez, I thought having goblins would mean that we would always have the numbers in battle,” Amelia remarked sarcastically. “Instead we are losing in both quantity and quality.”
“Well I could have made another four hundred green goblins or so, but I doubt they could make much of a difference. Don’t worry I’m sure we will be just fine,” Mark said, flashing her a smirk. She just glared at him in response.
Mark’s attention shifted back to the main screen. Their scouting unit had just broken the tree line and was headed to join their main forces. In a couple more minutes the enemy forces would do so as well.
However, Mareth’s forces paused just beyond the tree line. They had become strung out over the long march, so Mareth was allowing them time to consolidate, so they could attack in force. The actual attack might not come for another 15 to 20 minutes. Which was just fine for Mark. While they were prepared for a night attack, daylight would be more optimal. Still they had well over an hour before first light. While units were still crossing their boundary even now, it should not be much longer, and constructs did not seem to need to rest as far as they could tell.
Their interface was updating the total number of enemy units. The single digit column was nearly constantly blurring as units entered, but as of yet individual units were not being identified with their own counters. Something that would happen when the units all became unveiled for an unspecified amount of time.
Mark checked in with his three linked units. For this battle, he intended to be more involved in directing the key components of his forces. Red hobgoblin #41 was the ground forces leader. He would direct reserves and plug up holes at the wall. There was nothing particularly special about him. He was just one of dozens of red Lieutenants that would be running around. Still Mark needed someone to be the guy, and at least number 41 was among the reds that had reached the regular experience level.
The second link was with the bugbear platoon’s captain. Mark had allowed the bugbears to fight it out on who would be in command bugbear # 52 had been the one to come out on top. The captain rank gave the bugbear a 50% boost bringing him up to a 4.3 power rating, making him the strongest unit that Mark and Amelia had ever fielded, not counting their dungeon defenders. On top of the captain, the platoon also had the associated boosts for lieutenants, and sergeants. Mark was placing a lot of hopes on this platoon.
The third link was with Nasal. Mark could help Nasal direct their efforts to maximize their most valuable resource. They had well over ten thousand enchanted arrows in the tower. Mark had organized them into four general categories of special purpose, flame, piercing, and bang arrows. Mark had chosen to rename the firecracker arrows for a couple of reasons. In a moment of clarity a week ago, Mark realized during a drill that using the word fire for two different types left it up in the air on which of the two the goblins would actually choose. Perhaps they had a preference for one over the other, or perhaps one type was just closer to them. Regardless, allowing the goblins room to choose during the heat of battle was not the best idea.
The special purpose arrows included the high shelf double enchanted arrows that would be delivered to the archers as the need arose. The new light enchanted arrows were also included in this category. It had occurred to Mark that being able to shoot a bunch of lights to any area of the field during a night attack, might be pretty beneficial, so he had a small stock of them made and put aside.
The non special purpose arrows included arrows of all quality level other than poor quality. The four categories were already stretching the goblins' capacity to effectively use correctly. He did not want to add another factor in the equation for arrow selection. In reality most of the non special purpose arrows were either at average or below average quality, since most of the good quality became dual enchanted. The poor quality arrows were not allowed in the tower. There were a good 50 odd archers that were a part of the ground forces. They would handle those.
The enemy unit counter froze at 2,431. Mark and Amelia watched as the constructs bunched up and started to organize. It only took a few minutes, before the construct army surged forward. The battle would be fully underway in a matter of minutes.
“Nasal, first lines seem to be made mostly out of the block and clay constructs, carrying shields. Start with a volley of flame arrows,” Mark ordered through his own personal interface to the side that was focused in the tower. They would watch the battle through the dungeon core interface and use their personal interfaces to follow key areas or units.
Nasal cried for flame arrows. The archers on the second level acquiesced. Ten seconds later when the constructs broke the tree line over a hundred arrows streaked out into the night. Seconds later the tips of the arrows all burst into flame before streaking down. The clay and wooden constructs only made it ten steps out in the open before they were forced to raise wooden shields to catch the flaming projectiles. As far as they could tell, not a single unit was adversely affected by the volley, save some having to abandon their shields, but that was few and far between. The better quality the flame enchantment the longer the flames would last and the more easily the flames would spread to the target. Only the higher level quality arrows had the staying power to catch the shields at this range.
“Unlike last time. It seems Mareth had come to play,” Amelia noted. Mark nodded. The last time Mareth had attacked, most of the golem constructs maybe had a spear,, and there had not been a semblance of armor. Now shields looked to be quite common and many units had hide coverings.
The bottom level of the tower joined in on the second volley resulting in a full 300 arrows streaking toward their enemies. Once again more shields were cast aside and the enemies continued on seemingly otherwise unaffected. The front ranks started getting funneled by the various earthen works, so the archers fired several fire arrow volleys on those that came behind.
Mark did not need to say anything. Nasal was already hollering for the archers to switch to bang arrows before the units emerged more closely packed on the more narrow paths of attack. A rolling wave of small explosions rocks against the closely clustered golems, sending flicks of clay and wood flying.
“Damn,” Mark cursed after seeing the results of the first firecracker arrow volley.
When his goblins had encountered the firecracker arrows whole swaths of them had fallen in an instant, but the golems were proving to be far more resilient. While a handful went down. The majority continued forward with pocket sized chunks missing off their clay or wood bodies. Although Mark did note that more than a few had lost their arms. The smaller diameter appendages had not fared as well through the hundreds of explosions.
After that volley the constructs charged ahead. Now there was nothing between the front ranks and the earthen walls. The top level of the tower continued to fire on the second and third ranks while the bottom level shifted to firing straight on at the targets closing the walls. Piercing and fire arrows zipped into the foremost of the enemies, who now without shields started to fall supposing the goblin chose the right arrow for the very different constructs.
Mark and Amelia watched for a moment as flame arrows streaked out from their side. The surviving front ranks crashed into the sloshy mud of the moat. The difficult footing only delayed them a few moments before they started clawing at and up along the earthen wall.
War drums began to beat furiously from within the fort, and the goblins on top of the wall began to answer with iron axes and spears. Knowing what opponent they were about to face, Mark had summoned them all with either axes as their main weapons or at least with a hatchet if they came with a spear. Spears might not be as effective at eliminating these enemies, but they did help them keep enemies at bay, so Mark made sure every patrol still had a fair number of them as well.
For a minute the battle held there in a relative stalemate. Then from out of nowhere cries sounded out from within the fort and several of the goblin counters ticked down. Amelia immediately shifted her tactical screen to investigate. Seconds later more cries sounded, and this time, Amelia found one of the sources right after it had happened. A green goblin lay pierced by a javelin that pinned the small creature to the earth. Amelia scrolled around the inside of the fort finding more. Many had missed and stuck ineffectively out of the earth, but others had found their mark. Seconds later they saw a body fall down assumedly from the tower. Once again they found a green goblin run through with a massive javelin.
Mark scanned the battlefield. He could not find any javelin throwers. Sure hundreds of the lesser scarecrow archers were closing in, but the javelins were coming from further out. Mark noticed that all of the torches in the furthest reaches of the field had been snuffed out including everything set alight by the flame arrows. Only half of the field was now illuminated.
“Nasal! I need a wave of light arrows. Then have the archers target the strawman with fire arrows.”
A half minute later a hundred arrows burst into light at the peak of their flight and started raining down in the blackness. Immediately the whole section was faintly illuminated once again. Dozens of hulking gray and black stone golems had posted up with a large supply of javelins. Mark watched as several reared back and launched their projectiles forward.
“That is way too far away,” Amelia exclaimed incredulously.
“No, It looks like we aren’t the only ones with enchanted items. Might be the same with the…” Mark trailed off. He had been about to say that their arrows were also likely enchanted, but the sight of the second wave emerging out from amidst the trees caused the words to stick in his throat.
Flesh golems, jack o lanterns, stone golems, and a literal horde of creepers emerged into view. There were green and orange lights that were clearly visible even without zooming in any further. There seemed to be 3 types of jack o lanterns. The standard unit and the ones with their pumpkin heads seemingly set a blaze by green or orange flames. Similarly the stone golems had three main types. The standard normal gray units. The stone golems with the evil green eyes. Finally, there were stone golems who seemed to have live magma trying to burst out from their core. Orange light burst from cracks throughout their body. Then there were rows of lines of flesh golems and creepers. Perhaps there were about a hundred flesh golems, but there seemed to be four times that number of creepers. Most of which carried long wicked looking scythes.
“Wow this kind of makes the first wave seem like some kind of joke,” Amelia said, her eyes glued to the interface.
“You aren’t wrong,” Mark said, sifting his fingers through his hair. It was unbelievable. Mareths whole second wave consisted of level two or peak level one units numbering over 700 in total. “Nasal shift fire of the second level on the next wave. Give em’ our best.”
Nasal hollered in correspondence. Soon goblin runners were grabbing bundles of arrows from safe boxes toward the center of the tower and carrying them out to the archers. The lower level continued to fire in support of the ground troops. The second wave surged forward.
The creepers quickly outpaced themselves from the rest. Some even seemed to blur into black shadows and whirred forward. They did not seem to even require touching the ground as they easily transgressed the uneven terrain. In less than half a minute they would be amongst the ranks of the first wave.
“Whoa, how are they doing that?” Amelia wondered. “A skill?” she then postulated.
It was not a bad guess. There was a swift skill that would likely offer that type of movement, but some sort of essence ability made more sense. After all, it was only being completed by the pitch black creepers. The normal creepers or those at a green tint had fallen well behind.
“Mareth is fielding more creepers than should be possible with a unit cap. Which likely means she has a way to make a net set of base units. Based on what I’ve seen I would guess it involves a couple different essence sources.”
“Wow we need to figure out how to do that,” Amelia said in amazement.
Fires erupted to the east of the fort drawing both of their attention. Mark glanced over. Dozens of constructs were setting the buildings ablaze. Mark sighed. It was not wholly unexpected, but he had hoped Mareth was too confident in wiping out their dungeon and would pass them by. They would lose a day's worth of progress after all.
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Mark’s attention was about to shift back to the main battle, before he saw a ten foot tall nutcracker burst through the research lab siding. The enemy constructs immediately shifted their focus on it, but they were immediately… disintegrated? Blue pulses surged forth from the wooden robots' palms. Any construct that got hit directly turned to ash. Any that was just grazed started falling to pieces.
“Holy hell,” Amelia said in awe. “At least that mad scientist is good for something.”
“Yeah, it sure is something,” Mark said forcing his attention back on the main battlefield. Ezekial’s mad sideshow might be able to handle the few dozen weaker enemies setting fire to the buildings, but it would not really affect the overall battle. Not to mention the buildings were already on fire, so what would it even save?
The shadow creepers had reached and mounted the earthen walls. Their scythes rose and fell sending bits of goblins flying. Mark gripped the couch armrest hard enough till his knuckles became white, when a handful of flame arrows sailed right through the shadowy forms. The hit shadow creepers,, staggered a bit before reassuming their stance. More shadow creepers were cresting the walls at every moment. If he did not do something immediately a whole section of the wall would be lost.
“Number 41, have the spiritualists engage the shadow creepers on top of the wall,” Mark ordered the ground commander.
The red hobgoblin immediately yelled to a group of reds waiting off to his right. The ten spiritualist reds started toward the potential breach. Dark shadowy shapes started to spring from existence around the spiritualist. Each of them had a capacity of 5 power rating worth of shadows under their controls. Dozens of shadow kobolds and lizardmen soon joined the fray. The one sided slaughter was almost immediately stifled. However there were more shadow creepers joining every moment. Units equivalent to a 50 power rating would not be enough against a hundred high 1 power rating opponents.
“Nasal, have several squads start firing light arrows into the shadow creepers!”
Luckily, Nasal did not need any clarification. It took a bit for the goblin runners to deliver the appropriate arrows. During which the spiritualist’s summons started to get overwhelmed, but the light arrows started at just the right time. This time the arrows stuck inside the targets. Whatever shadow phase thing the creepers had been able to do with other attacks did not work against the pure light arrows. Even better, they seemed to be a critical hit. Several shadow creepers were instantly dropped. Others were put in such a destabilized state that even normal goblins were able to engage.
That was one fire prevented, but there were sure to be other areas that were heating up. Mark forced himself to once again reevaluate the battle as a whole. The field was littered with hundreds of golem and strawman corpses, with many mini fires burning throughout the field.
From all appearances they had killed a lot of the enemy units, but the counter still showed that Mareth still had 1,532 units fielded. They still had a ways to go. Fortunately, most of the unit types now had numbers. They were delineated by however Mark and Amelia had decided to delineate them. For example the shadow creeper counter was down into the 40’s with another dying every moment.
Just like Mark thought there were four categories for Mareth’s units. The regular stone, magma, and green eyed golems were all pegged at 40. However Mareth had apparently only summoned five of the black stone golems. The jack o lanterns only had one shadow unit. Whereas there was not a single flame type creeper. There were not any variants of the flesh golems.
Either Mareth had a limited amount of essence or certain essences worked better with particular units and not with others. The shadow creepers were one such example of an essence complimenting a unit perfectly. Mark shook his head. He could ponder on the implications afterward. For now he needed to focus.
The flesh golems were shoving their way into the front, evidently intent on taking over the breach the dwindling shadow creepers had made and were struggling to hold. Several hundred feet away, the rest of the creepers attacked their own section of the wall intent on starting their own breach. Green acid balls blazed from dozens of palms, and scythes whipped from side to side. The goblins manning the section were dropping at an alarming rate.
Mark did not have to give any orders. Nasal was already on it shifting a whole section of the tower to focus on the creepers, and number 41 barked for the 10 mages, 50 legionnaires, and reserve patrols to reinforce that area. That was about all they could do, so Mark shifted his attention to the 125 stone golems slowly approaching the wall. The group that had been throwing the javelins had evidently run out. They had joined up with the others intent on hitting the fort like a slow moving rockslide.
“Captain, it's time. The stone golems are making their move.”
Forty eight units emerged from behind the earthwork to the side of the attacking army. Since the attack had commenced they had slowly crept into position to be able to shoot in and engage the stone golems. Three dual sword wielding arachne with armor covering their goblin half immediately separated from the 45 bugbear platoon that moved at a light jog toward their target. The three arachne’s jobs were simple. They had to eliminate and hold other unit types at bay while the bugbear engaged the main purpose for their existence.
The battle inside the fort was heating up. Flesh golems had successfully infiltrated the walls forming a solid wall of flesh where the weaker units could now amass behind them safely. Not that the weaker units were really required. The flesh golems were difficult to stop by any unit’s beside the mage lieutenants. All of the reserve mages had already been sent to reinforce the creeper breach. Even the archers in the tower were having difficulty at halting the flesh golem’s progress.
The creeper breach was fairing even worse. The reinforcements and concentrated fire might have evened the odds against just the creepers, but the Jack o lanterns had joined the creepers. Translucent orange and green pumpkin heads formed in their palms before they were sent sailing into patches of goblins either bursting them into flames or melting them down like the witch on the Wizard of Oz. The regular jack o lanterns joined in the melee, scythes sweeping through the goblin ranks, but there was little else they could do that breach was already receiving their utmost attention.
Mark’s attention was pulled back outside the walls. The arachne were practically galloping through lesser straw bowmen. With them focused on the arachne, the stone golems would practically receive no support when the bugbears engaged them, but the fact did not seem to matter to the golems. They had stopped and turned to engage the bugbears closing their position.
Mark had wrestled with how to ensure this engagement happened and whether it would even be as effective as he hoped it would be. It had been months since, but he remembered sending another unit behind enemy lines on a mission, only to have them cower and refuse to fulfill the mission. However, Mark knew the bugbears had to be the ones to hit the stone golems. Mark could not afford to have the archers concentrate fire on the sturdy golems like they had in Nehemiah’s dungeon, when there was so much else going on during this attack, and all of the other units would have difficulty damaging a stone golem let alone killing one. Mark could not afford for the bugbears to get pulled in by some other force. They were strong and durable, but mages and archers would still be effective against them.
Starting the bugbear platoon outside the fort was the only way Mark could think of to ensure the confrontation of the two forces. As he could see it, if Mareth kept them as a group she would either deploy them at the very front of the attack as a moving shield wall since they were almost impossible to bring down, or she would hold them in reserve saving them for the dungeon. The stone golems were unreasonably slow, so Mark doubted she would imbed them within her other forces. Luckily, he had guessed right, and even more fortunately Mareth had held them in reserve. The other option would have required the bugbears to rush in and engage right outside of the fort while the rest of the goblin forces tried to keep the rest of Mareth’s armies at bay.
The other worry was that the stone golems would prove tough even for the hammer carrying bugbears. While the bugbears would still be effective, the battle would last too long and there would not be enough bugbears to engage a hundred plus units. In which case the bugbears would lose the engagement despite taking a heavy toll on the stone golems.
The captain of the bugbear platoon put those worries to rest moments later with a single swing. This platoon was not a cowardly group of frogmen, nor were they opportunistic goblins. No, they were far more like the ferocious orcs, born to do battle.
The bugbear captain was several paces ahead of the rest of the platoon when the two sides met. His massive hammer swung down in an overhead arc, slamming down on the stone golem’s arm it had raised to catch the attack, but the hammer continued right through the gorilla sized stone arm sending pieces flying in all directions, before cratering into the golem's head. The head fared little better than the arm, and the associated counter ticked from 40 to 39.
The rest of the bugbears slammed into the stone golem force. While not as strong or as effective as their captain, even the weakest of units had a power rating at the same level as their opponents. Any boosts that the golems gear brought was likely negated by the bugbears receiving the same or better boosts. From what he could see Mareth did not have the military organization tech. Which meant she was fighting at a distinct disadvantage, and likely did not even know about it based on the way the encyclopedia was hesitant to unveil the benefits of techs and other features.
The sight brought up an old memory for Mark. It was during his freshman year during a discussion about a group project for engineering 101. The professor had based the whole class on choosing the right tool for the job, and how much more effective things would go. The class had been pushing for them to be innovative and think outside of the box, but the words came to mind in their more practical application for Mark now. There was nothing better for smashing rocks than a giant hammer.
Two dozen stonemen fell before the bugbears hit their first snag. The regular stone golems were falling seemingly defenseless, but the bugbears started reaching golems of the other types. A magma golem seemed to pull out all the heat from its core causing the orange glow emitting from the cracks across its body to fade making it look like the standard unit. A second later the orange ball of heat slammed into the closest bugbear.
The bugbear dropped screaming soundlessly. The metal breast and back plate melting into his body. The bugbear squirmed for a few moments before the body went basically still, except for an occasional twitch from one of its legs. The bugbear counter dropped down to 44.
What was worse was that the orange glow was starting to grow again from the magma golem. Another minute or so the golem might be able to perform the exact same feat once again. Not that the bugbears would give him a chance. A bugbear turned the top half of that golem to rubble moments later. Still the bugbears pushed into golem ranks, doing their best to dodge orange balls of pure heat from the magma golems or green globs of acid from those with green eyes.
Mark's eyes shifted back to the fort as one hundred flaming arrows duplicated into four times as many raining down on the creepers and jack o lanterns. Dozens of enemies were knocked back a step. More than a few fell, but they would not be brought down so easily. Then a rain of piercing arrows zipped right through black cloaked figures dropping even more. More arrows fell every few seconds cutting the attackers to ribbons stalling any progress.
For a moment, Mark thought the battle might be over then and there. The stone golems numbers would be severely reduced. Assuming the bugbears could not just finish the job. The flesh golems were progressing slowly, but they were little more than slow moving tanks.
But Mareth’s forces had their own answer. Seemingly instantaneously each and every one of the surviving jack o lanterns removed their heads. This was different from the palm sized ones the flame and sulfur types summoned at their palms and lobbed at his forces. They were likely three times the size. Seconds later the pumpkins were set loose.
“On no,” Amelia stated as the pumpkins sailed toward the tower.
The breach had gotten them close enough to target the tower, but it was still a difficult feat to accomplish and half of them fell short sailing under the tower. The other half slammed into the lower level eviscerating that section in orange and green flame. A good thirty or forty goblins evaporated in an instant.
Moments later the payloads that had fallen short landed on the surface wreaking havoc. Amelia’s interface winked to a different picture as Red Hobgoblin #41 disappeared. The spiritualists who had retreated to the same area were decimated along with a handful of other recovering mages.
Mark’s eyes shifted back to the jack o lanterns. God forbid they could pull off a second like attack, but the panic was soon alleviated. While the jack o lanterns fought on now headless, it was clear they were doing so at a reduced capacity. Like the daisy’s petal storm attack it was a one time special move that damaged the unit. Mareth had likely been hoping to not have to use it outside of the dungeon, but the situation forced her hand.
Nasal and a couple of the other yellow hobgoblins were able to keep some groups of archers on task, but most of the lower level was in pure anarchy. Nasal was able to maintain some form of semblance on the top level despite the flames and smoke that would make being on the second level a death trap in a minute or two. Perhaps the goblin lieutenant was that loyal, or he was just giving too much credit to the many defensive inscriptions that Mark had added to the tower for just such an occasion. It did not last long.
Mark was not the least bit surprised when it happened. In fact after witnessing the first level go up in flames he had almost expected it. The situation had reminded him of another older memory from his childhood. His older brother had lit one of those bee fireworks that corkscrewed through the air. The bee had done as advertised, but unfortunately had done so right into the large brown paper bag holding the rest of their fireworks. Both boys had immediately run for it as the backyard erupted with fireworks flying and popping all over the place.
The first to go off was a lone piercing arrow that shot through the first floor, a goblin on the second level, and out the tower's roof, but the lone arrow was only a warning shot. Goblins had come to the same conclusion and scattered in all directions. Arrows erupted into fire and exploded all across the tower as more arrows found other arrows. Goblins were sent sailing over the edge railing to plummet 30 feet to their likely death. Nearly all 300 of the towers inhabitants were caught up by the hundreds of deadly projectiles or flames except for a few on the lower level who had immediately decided to climb down the stairs after the initial blast. Nasal was not among them. Mark watched in horror as their counter dropped from over 700 to the 400’s in half a minute.
The battle continued. The constructs were not affected by fear or surprise so they pushed on with creepy fervor, while the tower blazed. Most of the arrows had already become unstable and fired off or exploded, but throughout the rest of the battle lone holdouts would fire off randomly into the night. If it was not to their detriment, Mark might have thought the situation was a bit funny, but their surface forces were in grave straits.
The creepers and now weakened jack o lanterns had done their part, but they no longer had the numbers to be a threat on their own. Instead they fell into pincering a section of defenders to join up with the flesh golems advance. There were still 72 flesh golems fighting on with a good 300 strawman, block and clay golems supporting them from behind. Another 400 level 1 units were set up outside to join from outside the outer wall. In total, Mareth still had 859 units.
The only saving grace for Mark was that most of the remainder would be level 1 units. Even if their numbers persisted they would never be able to get through all four floors of their dungeon. Dragon might eventually succumb, but the scorpions and arachne on floor 4 should be just fine. Mareth would have to send for more units to finish the job. Real question was whether the game producers would not allow Mark and Amelia to summon units for the days it would take for Mareth to bring a sufficient number of her stronger units, if Mareth even decided to wait for reinforcements.
While the situation inside the fort looked bleak, things outside were wrapping up rather nicely. The arachne were still picking up lone or small clumps of units. The bugbears were finishing up their mission, although only six were left on their feet. A couple others lay panting amidst the rubble, too tired to continue. Regardless, the captain and 2 of the lieutenants were among those still up. They would finish the job, however it was clear they would need a breather before they could even attempt to rejoin the battle. The battle would probably already be decided by that point, but Mark could hardly fault them. The 45 unit platoon had taken down three times their number, and swinging the massive hammers repeatedly had to be tiring.
Another five minutes passed and the captain of the bugbears had fallen to one knee in exhaustion after slaying the last of the stone golems. Another 2 bugbears had gone down leaving six on the counter. The rest of the defenders had been pushed back to the dungeon entrance, although only about 200 hundred of them remained. Through the pedestal, Mark had been able to shift the untouched entrance guard out with tired soldiers to delay the inevitable. The 5 mages from the entrance were fresh so were able to take down twice as many flesh golems, but they were soon as worn down as the other mages still on their feet. Hundreds of empty mana potion vials were littered throughout the fort. Cast aside as soon as their contents had been drained.
The mages were tapped out. Each kept enough for a bolt or two for their last defense, hoping that something else could turn the tide of the battle before they were forced to use them and collapse after doing so. The only saving grace was that the enemy mages and acid ball attacks had seemingly also been tapped out, so the fight had become a pure melee. The downside was that the flesh golems and remaining creepers were the dominant units in that regard.
“Seriously,” Amelia said pointing.
Mark eyes instantly glued on the ten foot tall wooden nutcracker cresting the hill behind their forces. It was a welcome relief, but Mark was still skeptical about how much of a difference the contraption could make, after all the numbers were now 600 to 100. But blue pulses lanced out striking flesh golem after flesh golem. Each golem dropped their body turning to a pile of goo. The loan goblin drum emboldened by the feat soon started beating his drum more furiously. The goblin spirits lifted briefly.
“Tkkk,” Mark scoffed as the nutcracker clearly tried to send out one of its blue pulses, and failed to do so. “I guess it ran out of life essence,” Mark remarked calmly as the several creepers swarmed the wooden construct. The nutcracker swiped at them, but its movements were far too sluggish. After that brief respite, the wholesale slaughter of the goblin forces continued.