Dan felt them before he even saw them. A dozen Low D-rank monsters were coming out of the fog. All of them were wolfbats and were led by a large wolfbat, which was high D rank. The leading wolfbat was around the size of Ingot and definitely stronger, even with his monster's latest upgrade. The only saving grace was that the monsters were not able to fly, just like the normal wolfbats. This was especially true for their leader, whose wings could not even help it glide like its minions were doing by jumping off trees. Even that small piece of news was not great as the smaller wolfbats were still in the lower tiers of D-rank and, due to their smaller size, were much faster than their boss. Well, that's what it appeared to be, but in actuality, Dan knew that its high-ranking status of the boss would probably let it move faster than his much weaker minions.
Knowing shit was about to get real as he watched the incoming monsters, Dan began recalling Xinos and the eight teams that had been helping the druids. He then told the druids that they would have to fend for themselves for a while as a rather problematic situation came up. Dena, of course, had asked about the problem, and Dan explained that they were suffering an invasion. The druid had wanted to help, but Dan would rather leave her with her family in case something else happened on that side of his territory. However, as he watched the invading monsters, he might come to revert the decision.
The wolfbats were slowly moving toward his core, which was intentional since they traveled in one direction with a singular purpose. Things got a bit worse when the leading wolfbat unleashed an aura blast that radiated across Dan’s first territory. At first, Dan was confused as to what the aura did since it didn't last long and was more like a sonar ping. Then he got the report from George that the already existing invaders were making their way toward the large wolfbat. It was clear then that the damn thing was calling for reinforcements which left Dan no choice but to start recalling his own monsters as a large battle was about to ensue.
Still, even as many of his monsters retreated, Dan commanded them to attack any enemy monsters since he still needed mana. He mainly wanted to have his tank full in case somehow all his monsters were killed, and the damn invaders made it to his core. At which point, he would be able to access that mana and attack directly. Dan doubted it would come to that, but it was better to be safe than sorry.
An hour later, all his monsters had returned to his base and lounged around his fort. Additionally, his mana was full, and he was ready to rumble. In total, he had 555 monsters that he could bring into the battle. Technically, he had more monsters in general, but his water-based monsters were not available to him for this battle, at least not if he wanted to conserve his mana. He had 15 D-rank monsters, but since his underwater monsters did not come for the fight, the number was brought down to 12. It was the perfect amount to counter the lower-rank minions that the large wolfbat had, which made Dan feel like the whole thing had been arranged against him, and in a way, it had. Even so, he knew his monsters were of better quality and had confidence in them. Next, Dan quickly took a look at the number of monsters available to him that would actually be able to fight.
31 Gorillas, 31 Bears, 62 Baboons, 62 Jaguars, 31 Panthers, 31 Cheetahs, 20 Hawks, 62 Eagles, 31 Doe's, 31 Stags, 26 Bats, 26 Spiders, 38 Worms, 86 Moles, 2 Blade Wolves, 2 Howling Wood wolves, 1 Vine Snake, 1 Spark Rabbit, 1 Poison Possum, 1 Bark Skin Boar.
His army was growing, but he still had some ways to go. Looking over the growing horde of invaders, Dan counted at least 250-something monsters. A decent amount that had united in around an hour, and that would only increase as the wolfbat boss made its way to the core. Though honestly, many came freshly spawned from the fog, Dan had just overlooked them. The horde was made of everything Dan had seen so far: the different wood beasts, the smaller magical beasts, and even the monstrosities along with the normal wolfbats. Dan didn't want to let the enemy build up too large of a force and was already mobilizing his monsters. The upcoming fight was going to be some nice practice for Dan as he planned to set up his monsters like a medieval army. The only issue that Dan saw was that the enemy boss was actually intelligent and kept itself and its D-rank minions back. From what Dan saw, the monster planned to use its recruited forces as fodder, leading Dan to believe that the monster had some prior knowledge of him. Not that Dan was worried just yet. At most, the horde would have around 350 by the time it got to him, letting him outnumber the forces.
Setting up his monsters would be rather simplistic. The bears and gorillas would act as the main heavy infantry, followed by the jaguars, panthers, and baboons, which would act as the light infantry. Then, behind them would be the stags protecting the doe’s who would be healers. As he looked over his battle plan, Dan realized he had made a crucial mistake. All of his doe’s still had their healing skill as touch base. This meant that they all had to be near the front lines to perform their duties, which was something he did not want. Thankfully, he could fix the issue without paying mana. And he quickly switched out his doe’s abilities from touch to beams like their boss. Other than this initial change, he wasn't planning on changing any more of his common monsters. He had planned to change some of them when he made them as D rankers. However, he wanted to have a balanced dungeon, which meant leaving his current monsters as his, at least for the most part. This first area of his dungeon would be a starting location. It would be the place where nonrankers could come and join the ranks. While also being a place for D rankers to progress. It would take some work to get his plans into motion, but he believed in himself and knew that his dungeon would be the best.
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That was for later, as he now had to deal with the horrible monsters approaching him, continuing his former train of thought. He wanted the incoming horde to crash into his monsters. It was better for him if they had a much more straightforward fight than just having an outright brawl. This was mainly so he could have his doe’s support his monsters from a relatively safe distance, as if it was just a brawl, anybody in the fight could get pulled into it. However, if the fight was more controlled, the doe’s could do their duty and keep his forces alive for longer, reducing their losses.
Dan wanted to fight near his core, but not too near. As such, he began sending out his monsters.
When they arrived at a location about a mile from his fort, he began to set them up. Dan quickly set up a clearing around the size of his fort by deleting some trees. He knew the best chance that he had at winning the fight was to have the advantage all the way through. So, with the clearing, he also made walls to either side of it in order to make it harder for enemies to strike at his monsters from the side while at the same time funneling them toward his monsters. The plan was to make the monsters battle out in a controlled environment. He knew that the enemy monsters could climb over the walls as they were only around 10 feet tall, but it was still a deterrent and would hopefully cause the enemy boss to make the monsters follow Dan’s plan and just rush into the meat grinder. It’s not like the enemy boss should care for some random monsters.
With the clearing done and the enemy monsters only around an hour away from their current location, Dan began setting up for real. The gorillas and the bears would be at the very front of the formation. In a perfect world, all the enemies would smash head-first into them before breaking through and making contact with the rest of his monsters. Just in case that perfect scenario didn’t come to be, around 10 feet behind the bears, Dan set up the jaguars and the panthers.
The next line of defense was the baboons, who were set up in a curved shape, with the front of the curve right behind the big cats and the two ends bedding backward like the limbs of a bow. Inside the bow's curvature were the stags and the doe’s. That way, they had the easiest access to the front line so the doe’s could shoot their healing beams without issue.
Naturally, Dan was worried about getting flanked; as such, the back of the formation would be guarded by the cheetahs. They would be roaming around the back of the formation, taking out any enemies that could strike the doe’s. However, even if some enemies got through the cheetahs, the stags still protected the doe’s.
That was the formation of the standing body of his small army. Of course, there were still the underground parts of his army and his air force.
The worms and the moles would act as unseen defenders. Their job was to ensure that the walls where his main formation found itself did not get breached as easily. They were also to help out any of his monsters that might be struggling in a fight. Finally, his air force would be the first to engage the enemy. In fact, he had already sent them the horde's way to ensure they came to the exact spot Dan wanted them to. The birds were ordered not to engage heavily and simply harass the horde enough that they would follow them to the chosen spot.
Finally, there were his bosses. Every single one of them except for his underwater bosses was there, including George. Though Dan hadn't sent the spiders and the bat minions as he wanted them as a final form of defense, he had sent their bosses. Dan was already struggling with fielding enough D-rankers and wanted to ensure the playing field was as even as possible.
In terms of his boss's position in the fight, that was more complicated. Dan wanted them nearby in case the enemy rankers joined the fight but not too close that they would cause the enemy to react and send their rankers prematurely. The fact was that Dan had the common enemy monsters beat in sheer quality. It was just that Dan was overwhelmed in terms of rankers. So, letting the enemy horde kill itself against his normal minions would give Dan an edge as he could use the minions left alive to aid in the battle against the enemy rankers. As such, Dan had left his bosses at the very back of the formation, a bit behind the area where the walls created the final part of the funnel. It was also the area where the cheetahs were going to do their thing, but his bosses had orders to refrain from interfering with anything until Dan ordered them to.