After informing Khuno of his intended plans with Findlay, Frost discussed their measures in handling the late stage waves. Dealing with smaller hordes but with greater individual strength required a different kind of strategy after all.
Once everything was set Frost teleported to the private space, leaving Khuno and his officers to handle to change in protocols among his forces.
"Loki, Nanna are you both ok?" The moment he arrived Frost asked about their status, the shaking was prevalent everywhere and was violent enough to knock someone unprepared off balance.
"We're fine master but our cups and plates fell over and smashed." Nanna responded back while her eyes darted to the remnants of broken ceramic which Maya was currently in the process of disposing -couldn't have the two children handling something so sharp and dangerous.
"Good, good." Frost walked up to Nanna and Loki and ruffled their hair with affection before kneeling down, placing himself at their eye level.
"The late stages have begun which means the most intense phase of the monster stampede is over and we're close to the end of this war." Frost said with a smile.
The mid stages of the monster stampede were always the most dangerous for the regular inhabitant of Furano and the other bastion towns.
The number of monsters present during that stage as well as their diversity, their aggressive intensity and of course their attack frequency was unsurpassed when compared to the early and late stages. The mid stages always resulted in the most deaths among the defenders as well as took up the vast majority of ammunition, supplies and even time.
For most it was accepted that once the late stages arrived they had already won. Reinforcements would be arriving and only the best of the best would be taking to the field, the average military man or woman as well as adventurer would serve solely as back up from that point.
This situation was true for the dungeon as well. A solid unpassable bulwark wasn't needed for the late stages and quite frankly would be pointless. The dungeon's impromptu defences were nothing in the eyes of the higher ranked monsters, a simple jump, step or light swing could see them annihilated. In fact utilising such defences would likely serve as a limiting factor rather than a boon.
It was far more effective for the upper ranked forces such as the ronsos, ice revenants and yuki-onnas to face down the invaders in open combat.
Furano and the other bastion towns behaved in the same way. At the late stages the upper C-rank fighters as well as the B-rank fighters primarily take position in front of the northern wall as despite it being over 10 metres high it wouldn't last long against the monsters present at this stage. They were the wall, the last and pretty much only defence line.
If the monsters made it past them then there wasn't much the people of Furano could do.
The same held true in Frost's mind. If the late stage invaders made it past his C-ranks then his D-rank monsters would be nothing but cannon fodder.
"Are you two ready?" Frost asked with a serious expression, Nanna and Loki would have to be on point while relaying information between himself and the officer class monsters.
"Un" The two nodded their heads with gusto, they were ready for such responsibility.
"Khuno the first wave is here and it's a strong one, 5 entry C-ranks, two mid and one upper rank, a war ursa.....dealing with that one will fall to you Findlay...last chance to back out."
"Would never dream of it master, let me at it." Findlay responded back while slamming his forearm against his chest, he was ready to fight.
"Very well, Khuno you know the plan. You, me and the other C-ranks will deal with the majority of the forces in the dungeon's first section while the upper D-rank officers provide support. Nanna and Loki will serve as go-betweens keeping us abreast of how everyone is doing, and Findlay will take care of the war ursa, any questions?"
"No."
"No." Findlay and Khuno both replied firmly, they knew all they needed to.
The reason the fight was being brought back to the first section; the winter highlands environment was for a few reasons.
First it gave them a lot of leeway in regards to a forced retreat. They could fall back several sections and not involve the weaker forces holding up on the lower floors.
Second, the traps installed would do very little against the new intruders thus waiting lower down and hoping for them to pick them off or cause injury was pointless. If they are going to die it'll be by the hands of Frost and his C-rank forces.
Third the winter highlands room suited their battle plans better than the other sections. It was practically an open field right at the start of the dungeon, easy for them to keep an eye on each other's situation and reinforce one another quickly if need be.
The ice revenants, frost revenants, their knight variants as well as the frost troll lieutenants would form a pseudo wall grabbing the intruders attention. Frost would also stand at the forefront here emitting his aura and unbridled bloodlust making for an attractive target.
The yuki-onnas would be behind them casting from the rear while the ronsos taking advantage of their colour scheme would hid under the snow like the frost goblins and ambush the unsuspecting enemy.
However Frost didn't place much hope on such an ambush working, the invading monsters were of high enough rank to have good instincts after all.
Frost ended the communication and looked upwards at Maya.
"Looks like I have to go to work." His smile was full of reluctance. The feeling of comfort on the back of his neck was quite blissful.
Maya replied with an enchanting smile before leaning down and planting a peck on his forehead.
"Be safe and good hunting."