Thanks to Rakim’s alarming efforts, the trap situation had progressed from “reasonably effective” to “bad for you on a spiritual level, never mind physical.”

“Wait till a clump of the armored monsters hits the trap, then pop it! Pomoroi, hold fire until ordered!”

The lead monster was coming fast for the first gap in the stakes. It hurt to let him through, but I needed to make those traps count.

The description of the Tar Pit trap was bare bones- “Stops all movement of any limb that touches the trap for a short time, then the trap slows any creatures that touch it for a longer period, depending on the trap placement skills of the deploying Awakened Soul”

Do I have to mention there are no stats visible for “Trap Placement?”

Besides, tall, dark and nasty wasn’t alone for long.

The armored monsters boiled out of the forest, scrambling over fallen trees and bullying aside their unarmored cousins. The bony plates and long spikes didn’t seem to do the “ordinary” monsters any favors. Long rips appeared in monstrous flesh, spilling blood before they had even reached our front line.

It was horrible, and it made me smile. The “ordinary” monsters had a head start on the faster moving armored variant. They were going to hit the tar pit at the same time.

“Rakim, launch the trap… NOW!”

There was a green-black flash between the barricades, a half second before the monsters hit it. It was a glorious catastrophe.

The first monster’s paw/hand hit the field- and stuck. The second paw came down short of where it expected, resulting in the beast doing a front flip and landing on its back with a horrific crack. Trapped belly up, the other monsters started scrambling over and, quickly, through it. Then they got stuck. Their flailing limbs ripping at each other, ripping at the monsters trying to climb over them.

“Pomoroi, shoot the ones stuck on the trap!”

“Pomoroi, By Imperial Decree!”

The cannon thundered across the battlefield. The iron ball crushed through the dense mass of monsters, before dropping and rolling along the ground, shredding yet more bodies in the process.

It was a cruel irony- the mangled flesh cleared away gaps for more monsters to get a paw down- and get stuck.

Thirty seconds later- “Pomoroi, By Imperial Decree!”

The ball ripped through the flailing heap once more. God, what I wouldn’t give for some grape shot. Well. Solid shot was doing well enough. Should I redirect Radz? No, she was better off working at long range. Thinning them out before they reached our lines.

More and more monsters piled in, breaking limbs when they stuck, clawing at each other, goring each other.

“Pomoroi, By Imperial Decree!”

Just as the ball hit them, I saw some of the monsters starting to pull loose of the tar pit. Ninety seconds, near enough. The Tar Pit kept them stuck for ninety seconds.

The monster tangle took a bit to get untangled. In part because they were moving very slowly between the debuff from the Alpha Skull trophy and the trap’s secondary effect. The other part was the other monsters.

Later, I would take great pleasure in remembering them shredding each other. Now, I was just wishing like hell they would do it more. Best of all, sort of, was that more monsters kept piling on to the back of the clump, making it even harder for them to get sorted.

Screw it. “Radz, focus fire on that clump at the trap for the next two rounds, then return to firing on the targets in the woods!”

“Targets marked. Radz raining death.”

God, she sounded so happy when she was saying that. Something sickly eager in the flat monotone.

The round shot and the air-burst mortar hit at almost the same moment. It was glorious. A blood-piñata filled with gorey candies. I gave the heap a hard look.

From what I could see, the round shot could smash through the armor, but the air burst seemed to just… shake them up. It probably tore up the unarmored bits. Definitely some limbs missing due to weakly protected joints. Still. Not ideal.

And the monsters were getting through the trap now. Another dilemma- Radz could drop shells in from almost straight above her target, but Pomroi had a much flatter curve to the projectile when she fired. In other words, she couldn’t really hit them between the barricades without smashing the barricades. She would need to wait until they were in a gap.

I didn’t want these armored freaks running through my lines without taking some damage. There were still smoke streamers rising from the woods. Plenty more monsters incoming. Fortunately, Rakim had been busy. We had a little something cooked up for them.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

“Rakim, get ready on Fire Trap Number One!”

The monsters went charging through the gap between barricade numbers one and two. They had to run halfway across the clearing to get to the next “gap” thanks to the repositioning work of Rakim and the workers.

The caltrops that filled the gap were, however, all Rakim. You know where those monsters don't have armor? The undersides of those freaky paw-hands.

Slow ‘em down, shoot ‘em up. If we can’t increase the damage per second, increase damage over time and SLOW. THEM. DOWN! They were moving real, real slow now.

Pomoroy was continuing to hammer them at the first Tar Pit. There was a bit of a standing pile up there, so I didn’t redirect her. It was a balancing act. Where to put my limited DPS for maximum damage. The monsters were almost…

“Rakim! Activate Fire Trap One!”

The trap went up in a sheet of flames just as the lead monsters were all the way inside the trap. The mobility damage had spread out the clumps, but they were still moving like an extra thick milkshake through a straw.

We must have caught an easy dozen of them in the initial burst of flame. More as they kept shoving each other forwards, into the fire. I kept a close eye on the armored monsters.

It was hard to spot in the chaos but… yes. The fire was getting to them. I could see them burning as they tried to scramble clear of the fire. No need to redirect Pomoroi. Time to let DOT do its thing.

The big clumps were now broken up into a thin, slow moving stream. A stream that really didn’t seem to appreciate the caltrops Rakim had generously scattered between the second and third hedgehog wall. The monsters were clearing the caltrops with their body, but I was prepared to accept the trade.

Saved me using all the rest of the traps for the moment.

The first of the monsters made their way past the third barricade and into Mika’s range. Unsurprisingly it was an armored monster, though a lot of its bony plates were now cracked or broken.

The Mikas opened fire. And the bolts pinged off the bony carapace. My blood went cold. Then Rakim’s rifle started ripping out shots, and they were pinging off too.

My metaphorical blood didn’t run cold any more- it had frozen solid. I kept my eyes riveted on the monster. More and more shots were landing. It looked like- yes, they were chipping away at the armor! A big piece of the backplate fell off, and very quickly afterward, was filled with bolts.

One down. Dozens more to go.

“Mikas! Focus your fire on one monster at a time. Try to aim at the same spot!”

Not how I wanted to do this. Not at all. But needs must. “Rakim, fire at your extreme range. Aim for any damaged or broken looking bits of bone armor. ONLY TARGET THE ARMORED MONSTERS!”

I took a deep breath. “Kim, buff Versai, then keep buffs going on everyone shooting from the wall. Don’t worry about debuffs for now. Versai, once you get your buff, deploy to the moat. If anything falls in the moat, rush over and kill it. If a bunch of them do, hit and run. Don’t get tangled up with them!”

My eyes galloped all over the clearing, trying to keep track of everything- where Rache was marking targets, where Radz was shooting, where Pomroi was shooting, the kind of damage the monsters were picking up, rough percentages of armored versus non-armored.

I forced myself to breathe. “Breathe.” Whatever I was doing, it calmed me down enough to focus.

Right now, we were only getting a trickle of monsters reaching Mika-Range. That number was going to increase as they used up the caltrops. Right now, the Mikas were able to capitalize on the damage the monsters had accumulated and burned them down pretty quickly. Versai was having a very boring time in the moat.

But I could see the number of healthy-ish monsters increasing in the channel. The fire trap had reduced to a low, hot ember bed. The monsters were moving like congealed molasses, but they were moving, and in a big enough clump to be a real threat.

My head whipped back and forth. Do I pop another trap now, or wait? There is still smoke rising from the forest. How many of these slow, wounded things can Versai kill by herself? Should be a lot, but I can’t afford to test her limits the hard way.

I steeled my guts and waited. This should be within the limits of what Versai, Rakim and the Mikas can manage. If nothing else, I had a huge new wall, a moat and armored doors. That had to count for something.

They can handle this. They can. I repeated it over and over. They can handle this. If they get hurt, Maria and Pammy are right there to heal them. Kim is buffing them. They can do this.

The monsters seemed to laugh at my optimism. Moving a little faster, now that they were not taking damage from the caltrops. Every time the Mikas’ bolts went “ping” off a monster’s armor, I flinched. I tried not to count how many rounds Rakim was firing into the shuffling horde.

Come ON lady, you are a Four Star! Start dropping bodies!

You know. More than your traps are already.

I tried to breathe again. Returns were limited.

The first monster reached the moat. Unarmored, so it hadn’t gotten the long range DPS’ attention. Versai was on it.

It was like watching a particularly sadistic food processor in action. Versai hacked that thing apart with no chance of retaliation, or even defense, on the monster’s part. It was just too slow. That being said, I immediately realized I had messed up.

“Versai! Up and out of the moat! Hit ‘em before they fall in if you can. Only get in the moat if they start climbing the wall or something!”

Mobility! She was so much faster and more mobile than they were. Wasn’t I being a fool by trapping her in a moat with the crippled monsters? I was practically feeding her to them!

She jumped out and got stuck in on the next monster up. This one was armored, and she took what I was now learning was a classic Versai approach to the problem- she didn’t try to kill it. She attacked the joints, popping off the legs and wings like she was Martha Stewart running behind on dinner party prep.

Once it wasn’t moving any more, she either put her blade in its eye, or left it for the Mikas. The wisdom of a Six Star. She got the problem, and as far as the game would allow, worked the solution.

I heard a crash from the far end of the clearing. A half dozen trees got pushed down, smashing a new gap in the forest. Armored monsters, tens of them. I tried to count, but everything was too chaotic, too frantic. Forty? Too many. Far, far too many.

“Radz, Pomoroi! Hit that clump coming out of the woods. Rakim! Get ready to fire the rest of the traps. This is it! This is what we were waiting for!”