After my dogfight with a flying tentacle monster and getting a healer mage to fix me up, I survey the battlefield. Demons have won, but the monsters dwarves unleashed put a serious fight and there are considerable losses. The whole area is littered by corpses, pieces of corpses, pieces of pieces of corpses... Here and there are craters left by hellfire and its variations, with sandy ground turned into glass by extreme heat or corroded and left smoldering by caustic blasts. The empty tundra has been thoroughly scarred by the short but intense battle, and the absolute devastation it left in its wake looks almost beautiful in a twisted way.

And the real battle between imperial army and dwarves is yet to even begin in earnest! Dwarven forces retreated right before their monsters had all been defeated, and collapsed their main entrance after filling the area with traps. They seem intent on minimizing losses and maximizing advantages. Only way in now is a narrow tunnel, which no-one is yet to approach. Claustrophobic close combat in trap-filled deep dark tunnels? Mm-mmm, I can't wait to hear all about it after it's over.

"Umuuu~, dwarves always~ manage to suck all the fun~ out of battle..."

Not a single dwarf has fallen yet, and Celica is growing increasingly frustrated. She's not the only one. I tighten my grip on the swordstaff, which I found sticking from the tundra a distance away. I too have a pointed argument for them, if they dare show their faces to me.

Preparations for the assault on main Dwarven fortress are currently underway. Demons may happily jump in any battle, but no officer or demonologist is going to anger one by expecting them to menially clear traps for them. Besides, it would be wasteful to potentially lose that great fighting power for mere traps.

Which is why the earlier roles have been reversed when the poor imperial troopers go in first, and the demons follow right after them, ready to kill the dwarves right after the traps have been cleared. Devious traps created by devious dwarves ahead, demons with questionable grasp on concept of avoiding teamkills behind... I hope their job at least comes with good pension benefits.

The first trap they failed to defuse was a classic: a pair of razor-sharp blades swing from a hidden opening in the tunnel walls, right at level of average human's neck. I think I spied a scribble 'who's the shorty now?' on the fake wall that revealed the blades.

"This wasn't a serious trap, only a welcome."

Yes, I have the questionable honor to be present too. I was content to stay far away from any trap-filled deathtraps, but the general responsible for the campaign had other ideas. He suddenly decided I should do my advisor job by advising at the very front line, and since my contract had a troublesome article that obliged me to take part in battles like that, here I am. I'll need to remember bully Holoster to change the contract to be more favorable for me.

Apparently there is no magical geas or anything to actually force a demon to abide by a contract, but a clear breach (not one brought by abusing exact wording) is greatly frowned upon by both other demons and summoners. Dealing with them is troublesome enough without the added stigma, so it's path of lesser annoyance to just roll with it.

The tunnels are complex and form almost a labyrinth, and several teams like this had been sent to scout a way into the main Dwarven halls. I'm with one such team - though it's rather just a bunch of demons going to same location at same time than an actual team.

"Hmmm~ hmmm hmmm humm-di~ dummm hummm-di dummmmm~..."

Celica is of course with me, as usually. She is humming with a happy voice completely at odds with her blood-thirsty smirk of anticipation. The rest of the group consists of six other demons whom I'd describe as... unique individuals.

There's an arachnid demon with humanoid upper body who has been unnerving the imperials with his ever-hungry gaze. We’re flanked by a pair of imps still sniggering about that one soldier who managed to walk several steps without his head before collapsing. Vanguard consists of a big, fat red demon half walking, half rolling onwards, armed with a weapon that looks too much like a giant fork to be a coincidence. And last but not the least is a formidable looking humanoid-lizard demon, who has been arguing with himself non-stop. He has two heads, so I counted him as two.

This rag-tag bunch arrives at a bridge that has been checked for traps by the imperials ahead. The human soldiers had tapped each stone in it with butts of their weapons and got across it with no problem, and no mechanisms were in sight, so it seemed clear.

It was not.

When the bridge supports themselves collapsed as majority of demons were on the bridge, the trick was revealed. I assume it had been rigged to collapse in a chain-reaction when certain weight threshold is passed, one that a human couldn't trigger but a bulkier demon would. I'm looking at you, fatso. Yes, you, the greed demon who's currently falling into the moat below.

I and Celica are fine since we can fly. So are the imps who had been flapping around since the beginning, and the arachnid that was quick enough to leap out of the harm's way. But two of our biggest demons fell, and are currently swimming in the lovely moat below. It's bubbling nicely, but I sort of doubt dwarves set up a hot spring down there.

"Did they put piranhas in the moat?"

"*Sniff* It smells bad~. Bad bad~, not smelly bad~."

"Maybe we should lift them out of the--"

"IIIIIAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGH!"

The fat demon of gluttony starts melting like piece of hot butter in the bubbling liquid while the lizard guy screams inhumanely with both his heads and splashes wildly in the liquid, which turned out to be...

"--acid?!"

"Celica's~ going nowhere near that~!"

"Agreed."

"Oh well~... They'll reform anyway~..."

"...so, if you look at the big picture, they'll be fine."

That disturbing sight motivates the soldiers to look for traps with increased intensity. The arachnid gave an additional motivational boost by eating the imperial officer who let this happen. I guess he believes in 'management from hell'.

After various traps, ranging from classic rolling boulders to chambers of poison gas, we descend into a tunnel that combines with several others and then arrives to bigger chamber. Other groups sent to scout the tunnels have found here as well.

The dwarves are finally present, peeking at the invaders from a thin opening in a wall blocking the way forward, and firing crossbow bolts at random times.

"Silly dwarves~, you can run but you can't hide~! So~ why don't you DIE~!? …Pretty please~?"

Celica tosses a ball of hellfire at the dwarves, but the minimal opening in the thick stone wall doesn't let the flames in, and it does little damage. She gets tad bit more emotional than usually when it comes to dwarves. ...Which I'm beginning to understand very well. We have gone through all these hazards and still haven't gotten any closer than this to those little bastards.

"Calm down Celica. The imperials will bring earth mages to magic the way open. And then..."

"...Then big sis~ will twist~ their thick fat necks~ all the way around~!"

The soldiers with shields make a defensive formation, protecting those without. Few demons push soldiers aside and jump at the opening in futile attempt to claw at the dwarves. The wall is too thick for anyone present to breach, so everyone is waiting for mage reinforcements to come and break through.

Is this really the end of the dwarves' traps? If my idea about dwarf mentality is even close to home, answer is 'not a chance'. Everyone likely knows this, but there's no choice but to go through here. The chamber is pretty much empty though. It has quite low ceiling, just above the slit in the barrier, but neither the walls nor floor had any hollow parts when soldiers searched for traps.

Now that she has calmed down a bit, Celica seems to have realized this possibility too. She is looking around warily.

"Ais~... I have a bad~ feeling about this~."

"Celica, don't jinx-- Huh?"

I just heard one of the dwarves just chuckling. He heard what Celica said? He knows something! Uh oh...

"Everyone, retreat! This chamber is a trap--"

My warning is too late. The room was checked thoroughly, but the trap wasn't here, it was in tunnel before. The dwarves had calculated that invaders will pass closer inspection on the tunnel where the end of their gauntlet can be seen. And now that tunnel is glowing red.

A stream of lava is creeping towards us, filling the only unblocked way out this chamber. ...Seriously, fuck the dwarves.