(Huh. Welp, that was obvious outcome.) – thought Ariava while using the bug eye familiar to fallow the beast dungeon progress as it just destroyed the first line of the defense belonging to the golem dungeon, before then continued marching through the dungeon.
(Probably his first line of the defense was probably to see how strong then enemy are.)
(But the 3 grey bears must had definitely shocked him as they just demolished everything in their path.)
(Grey bears aren't E rank monsters.)
(They are consider as D ranks.)
(They may not be some sort of strongest D rank monsters or anything that, but they are still extremely dangerous.)
(The wolve monsters you had fought were E ranks, just like your golems, but nobody said that I'm not allowed to use D rank monsters.)
(What will you do now?)
(The first real attack isn't some "messing around", but a proper attack that is meant to destroy your dungeon.)
(Honestly, I didn't wanted to peek what he was making, since I didn't wanted to spoil the surprise….. But I do wander, what sort of other golem he had prepared…. All though, should the beast encounter a second line of defense by now?)
(Did he by any chance changed his tactic and focused on heavy defense in one location?)
"?"
"Oh? I guess I was wrong?" – said Ariava as she spotted a group of golems blocking the beast dungeon monsters path.
"And by the looks of things, he deployed something new as well."
The invading monsters suddenly stopped in tracks as they were confronted by the golem army that consisted of both hammer and blade golems.
However, the golems that stood out on the front were neither of those golems.
"?!"
"WAIT A BLOOD SECOND!"
"ARE THOSE CROSSBOWS?!" - said shocked Ariava as she spotted several humanoid golems with a single limb arm in a form of a crossbow that was sticking out from the front of the golem.
"Oh…. This little bastard!"
"Eh? You want to know how to use a bow?" – Ariava started remembering the past conversation she had with Thauma.
"Yes." - replied the puppet.
"These so called bows are quite good."
"Not only they don't use magic, but they are quiet deadly."
"They can use long range attacks, allowing to attack for the user to fight from afar."
"However, is this really it? Can bow be only this strong? Is their potential limited? Or they can be made better just like sword from wood is easily overshadowed by iron sword?"
"Honestly, I wanted to research the bows long time ago, but I kind of never got any time to really learn how to improve it, besides learning how to use it….. But now I'm curious."
"Is it possible to make it better?
"…"
"Well…. You can make it better." - said Ariava.
"The bow you are using is pretty much you can even make by hand with ease."
"HOWEVER!"
"Bows are not the only long range weapons that does not use mana."
"There are other weapons that can also fire projectiles just like crossbow."
"Like weapons called guns that uses gunpowder to send flying a tiny steel bullet with so much power and speed that it can penetrate a human skull and kill them on the spot."
"Or there is a slingshot, a thing that uses rope and leather where you put a rock inside of it and use the sling shot to swing this thing around before then letting go, launching the rock with enough power to bash somebody head."
"And there is obviously crossbow."
"Crossbow is pretty much very similar to the bow, but there are few differences."
"Crossbows are usually much easier to operate AND they are consider more deadly weapons than bows."
"However, crossbows usually takes a long time to reload, while with bows you can fire more often."
"But this really the case with all the long range weapons."
"All of them have upsides and downsides."
"Same with axes, swords and spears. You chose your weapons."
"Oh! There are also weapons you can throw!"
"Like tomahawk, javelin, daggers and all sort of stuff."
"You could use them at close range, but you could also throw them as projectile weapon."
"So honestly, there is extremely lot of options when it comes to the weapons."
"…"
"I see…. But for now, could we focus on the long range weapons?" – asked Thauma.
"I wish to understand how to properly use them and how I could make them stronger."
"I mostly want to focus on the bow, but if possible, could you also tell me about other weapons?"
"Especially that "crossbow" that you said is very similar to the bow.
"…"
(I've showed him both crossbow and slingshot…. As well taught him how to make them…..But if I'm being honest, I did not expected this!)
(The bloody bastard made a firing squad!)
The wolves began charging towards the golems that just line up and instantly began firing, unleashing a wave of crossbows bolts at the beast that shot took down several wolves instantly, killing some of them while injuring the others, before moments later the blade and hammers golems stepped in, confronting the wolves, finishing off the injured wolves while also blocking off the wolves path to the crossbow golems.
(The crossbows retreat while the front liners protect them and give them time to reload?) – thought the demon as she observed the crossbow golems slowly reloading and preparing their crossbows to fire again.
(Damn! This is really interesting. It may be a simple tacit, but I never taught him that.)
(Honestly, instead of the crossbow golems or anything long range related, I thought more of a kind of gorilla like golems, since they are most basic, but also quiet good golems types. He made a that kind of golem using dirt before as well.)
(I thought he would send out these golems and have a brawl between them and the bears.)
(Or I expected something like a bomb maybe?)
(He did showed quiet interested when that he got blowed up by the overloaded mana crystal back then.)
(Maybe something like suicidal golems? That is a scary, but possible interesting idea.)
"…"
"Welp, I've got to say, he got me."
"…"
"But he doesn't exactly "gets" the situation."
"And right he is about to."
The wolves were being taken down by golems…. But then the bears turn came as they instantly began once again smacking around the golems, smashing and crushing them to bits.
However, as the bears were fighting the frontline golems, the crossbow golems had finally finished their reload and fired a volley of bolts at the bears with one of the bears at the very front taking on most of the crossbow bolts, resulting in the bear death.
But there was a problem.
The other two bears were still alive and so their rampage did not stopped.
"…"
(I see. So those golems aren't really that good, eh?)
(By the looks of things, they really take a long time to reload… Not only that, but they have definitely a limited ammunition.) – thought Ariava while moving around her familiar.
"…"
(I also don't see any other weapons on them…. So, I guess they only exist to fire crossbows and stuff? Beside that they must be pretty useless.)
(But even so, they do look quiet promising.)
Even though one of the bears were easily taken down, it did not stopped the other beast from fighting.
Especially the bears, as they continue rampaging, destroying the golems left and right with ease.
Even with that first successful attack, the fight was nowhere near finished.
However, as the time went by, the amount of damage suffered by the bears was slowly stacking up from all the stabs, slashes and bashes they had received from the golems.
And not only that, but these golems had bought enough time for the crossbow golems to finally prepare their third volley.
Their weapons aimed and fired, unleashing a volley of crossbow bolts that pierced bears entire bodies, with resulted in the bears finally taking enough damage to permanently stay down.
And with the bears getting defeated, it was quiet easy for the golems to now hunt down and exterminate every single remaining beast that was in dungeon….. Which resulted in the second wave of enemies being completely destroyed while the second line of the defense still stood.
A first real victory for the golem dungeon could be said….. But even so, the dungeon master wasn't happy.
No.
It was scared instead.
(Dammit!) – thought Thauma.
(Even after deploying the crossbow golems, I still suffered so much loses?!)
(What is up with those bears?!)
(Even when they got stabbed by the blade golems and were bleeding everywhere, they were still fighting.)
(Hell! I saw one of those bears losing both of its eyes from getting them slashed by the blade golem, but even so it is still rampaged.)
(I thought the crossbow golems would be able to take down easily those bears…. But it only took down one of them!)
(….)
(And to make things more problematic…. I don't have any monster that could possibly go head to head with that bear on their own.)
(This is not good….. If anything, this is far worse than I've had predicted!)
(Even without holding back the second line of defense is pretty much in half destroyed state.)
(The crossbow golems cannot fire often and have limited amount of shots, but their attacks were effect against the wolves…. But the bears are the problematic one.)
(It took several shots to take down at least one golem and if they are not shot enough, they will just keep rampaging…. If the beast dungeon sends more of these bears, then this could end up problematic.)
"…"
(And if I were to attack that dungeon…. My own invasion force may end up being wiped out by them.)
(Then should I mass create the crossbow golems?)
(But these golems aren't perfect.)
(Recreating the crossbow did took some time, but I managed to make a functional model.)
(However, making it stronger and creating suitable golem for it wasn't….. Easy.)
(Once these golems fire, they don't have any other means of fighting back.)
(So I need blade and hammer golems to fight at the front…. But the bears easily destroyed these golems…. And if I can't bear just those bears, then what about the dungeon master of the beast dungeon?)
(I will need to kill him in order to win this war.)
"…"
(Waiting to create a large army of monsters won't do this…. Creating large enough army will take time and enemy can do the same.)
(….)
(There is only one way out.)
(I need to finish the other golem project.)
(And with it, the beast dungeon will be no more.)