Following the fastest track towards the Lowly Mountains, they were now at the base of the five blockade hill that separates the border between Rust-Irons and the Canarys. A dense forest was ahead, and centennial trees towered all over the marching army of Undead. With the packed canopy overhead, no light from the moon was able to reach the ground, and yet Delica's eyes shown brightly against the shadows.
At most three thousands were moving as one unit in the path. The front lines were filled with low-level Skeletons and Archers. The Vanguard was made up of cavalry, Dullahans and Familiars riding their Slepneirs. And the Main Unit has been marching on foot. They do not get tired or needed food or water so they were the perfect army for any stretched war tactics.
The surprised attacks from the two houses were sloppy and ill-prepared, but they were still levels ahead of them and Delica do lack experience. Prolonging the battle was the greatest advantage they have however, this war needs to be dealt and be done with at this very night. Because as luck has it, they were currently in the Higher Districts, which was at the very center of the Cessine City Fortress. They were surrounded by enemies! There was no way they could get out of here if the whole Fortress was raised into alarm.
With all these into consideration, Aiven put the majority of their forces to face the Bronze Army. Madness. The Gold has greater numbers and better armaments. It was questionable why he would make Simos with only Ilium and more than half of the Vanguard Unit battle their greatest obstacle. And now, he did the unthinkable. He—hung up on Mistress.
The moment the glow from the runes besides Delica's face disappeared, the ensuing dimness felt amazingly cold. Trembling with indignation, Ulna who was eavesdropping *cough, overheard the conversation was just as frigid.
"The impertinence! Mistress Delica, this is an outrage. He should be--" Delica suddenly stopped her mare, halting Ulna on her tracks.
She forcefully reined her Sleipner, an impressive giant of 2 blocks with black fur and flaming black mane that amazingly doesn't even tickle the skin. It has black sunken eyes where smokes of miasma permeates, creating a creature straight from a nightmare. They both looked as majestic as death.
The night air hung loosely all around them, swaying with the listlessness of battle. Delica's eyes stared at her followers.
The other Undead also stopped and awaited their master.
Expressionless, Delica pointed at Radius and murmured, "You," distinctively, she made a plain smile, "would you please Radius throw the one your left? As hard and as far as possible?"
Radius, the lean muscle head who was standing not far from them and on his left, a small thin child with a face of an cherub and the body of a quick-footed rabbit, were suddenly called out. They exchanged glances and without second thoughts, the rabbit knelt and asked, "which direction Mistress?"
"Um, there!" And she immediately pointed at the hills.
""Yes My Mistress!""
The Rabbit curled into a ball, but instead of a throw, Radius raised his leg back, he packed miasma upon miasma into his outstretched leg which bulge with dangerous aura. And with a swift move, he kicked the curled beastial, creating a thunderous cackle and a splendid curve. The aftermath left a wound on the ground large enough to fit a man. For the rabbit, he was gone in an instant and not a single sound was uttered.
"Tsk, too far." Delica said following the direction.
"Apologies!" the spiky-haired Undead murmured feeling regret.
Delica unhorsed herself and started to walk towards Radius. "Nothing biggie," she declared and after awhile she let out her Staff. Creating a large circle around the staff, she started chanting and the majority of the Undead Army started to look unease.
Delica created a motion with her arms raising, she announced for everyone to hear, "Anyway, disappear for now!" She used a wide range [Unsummoned] spell and one by one her army started to dwindle.
[Grrrraaagggh]
[Ngghhhuuuuuhh!!]
[M-Mimimistress!?]
The screams and groans of twisting Undead as they get dragged beneath the earth still rings in the whole forest. 500 Blood Corpse, 1000 Skeleton Warriors, 1500 Undead Skeleton, 600 Dullahans.
And somehow this appeases Delica.
Only her familiars remained who were utterly confused on the spot. Was she venting her anger to them? But that was normal, most Summoners have been using their familiars and summoned in a variety of things, and if this was the only way for them to be able to please their Master then it doesn't matter much. What they hate, was the fact that the reason their Mistress was going in a silent rampage was because of that manchild!
They were waiting for their turn, but Delica only walked forward, her aura visibly getting stronger with the return of her miasma from the unsummoned, "Nee, Ulna."
"Yes, my Mistress?" the calm voice of Delica made Ulna snapped out of her indignant rage. She was already following her Mistress on foot.
"Did you ever heard Aiven says anyone's name aside from me, Simos and Maou-chan?"
She didn't expected this question, "...No, no I have not."
A broad smile lit up on the Lich's face and she started to lift her staff. "Even before- Do you know that not even to our Maesters and Trainers, Aiven had never once greeted them by name." Her tone has the same bubbliness they were used to, as if she have not destroyed her summoned mere seconds ago. "So, the moment he said my name, he was already giving me the greatest respect he could give to anyone. Be nicer to him, okay?"
"I-if he said...the name?"
Ulna was probably thinking that Aiven's rudeness was because he was testing them. And what their Mistress was telling them was that the only way for them to be recognized was if that gloomy silent child started addressing them as equal. "Understood, I will make him say my name, this I vow in your name."
"Eh? No, I don't mean it like that...But nnn, that doesn't sound bad. Hmmm, okay Ulna, I'm rooting for you!"
"Ah, to have your confidence...I will not fail you my Mistress."
"Mn, Mn, little Aiven is really popular, huh? Ehehe." she giggled. "It looks like all preparations are now in place. Ten minutes, hah! I'll get there in less than five!" she promised outloud and continued to draw something on the ground with the blunt end of her staff. When finished, she puffed out her chest and said to her familiars, "Yosh! That settles this, now I'll go ahead then!"
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Light covered the drawn out circle on the ground, she stepped in the middle and with a clumsy thumbs-up towards Ulna, she activated the magic circle.
[Embodiment Transference], the circle brightened and the lines started to move and intertwine until it became smaller and smaller. Gust of wind came from the spell, and when it became so small it that it reach the feet of Delica, blinding light covered her whole being and she was gone.
The used circle dimmed and someone stood in its place.
"Distal! You're back!" Radius, the dog-inherent went towards the staggering being at the center the moment he realized who it was.
Dragging his massive broadsword, Distal was suddenly surrounded by the high-ranking Familiars. He was the rabbit that was just sent flying earlier. He seems fine, though his black ears were still shaking and his curly ashen hair were littered with leaves.
Distal didn't said anything but nodded slightly towards Radius and the others. Then as if stricken he started to stutter, "N-nuu, M-Mistress." as he glance towards the hills.
"It seems Mistress Delica have used body swap," Lamina said, playing with her braids as if bored. Those who heard her readily agreed. It was a unique and yet effective way of transportation. Forcing one of her familiars to breach that much distance and followed by [Embodiment Transference] that enables the caster to swap places with one of her familiars, she would be able to go to the top in no time. All they need to do was wait until their Mistress summoned them. As expected of their Master!
"M-Mistress, i-if I only knew, then, then I could...I would have," Distal continued lamenting, his ears still pricked with gooesbumps. "We need to go to Mistress!"
"What do you mean?"
"I was...there was, the place I landed."
Ulna's face has darkened by alarming degrees, the other Familiars were getting agitated. "Where did you exactly land, Distal?
"I've landed on the enemy's camp."
The forest was suddenly engulfed in massive amount of dark mana. The moment they've heard Distal, all the familiars started to move as if possessed by demons.
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When the light subsided, Delica's eyes finally adjusted to the darkness. She was expecting empty trees and dirt but what she saw were wounded warriors with the distinctive vermilion coat of arms. Three warriors were unconscious on the ground and the remaining ten have their swords and axes on hand, with bewildered faces as if seeing a ghost.
And after what seems like minutes of uncomfortable silence, a youth with the tell-tale signs of puberty suddenly bellowed, "Y-you're dead."
"An undead." She automatically replied. Eh? No this feels off. It feels like she already had this conversation before. Anyway, she noticed the area where there were signs of struggle. The wounds from the warriors looked like slashes from a huge sword, and there were even paw-prints that embedded the dirt so deep, as if a heavy creature was here a while ago.
Distal has been playing with them didn’t he?
She could only smell human blood so that means they weren’t even able to scratch him? How weak were they?
She was always surrounded by her familiars that she didn’t have a chance to encounter a human for her to be forced to fight.
Maybe, just this once? But Simos would definitely get angry. Her role has always been on support and curses. She has never fought anyone at front, especially with that overprotective brother of hers. But she’s a Lich now. A strong existence unto itself. But then again, she can’t be too cocky, it might become her downfall. And she was still level 1. Though her spells has already reached Superior Tier, her overall levels was still too unbalanced that she hasn’t level up from the start! Her unbalanced stat gives her almost a maximum two digit defense and attack from any melee and range attack. But when it comes to spell and skill, then she was already on par with the 3rd Tier magicians. That was if she survived long enough to cast it.
Argh what to do!
Then a status suddenly went up.
Mind Fortification Activated
You have leveled up.
You have leveled up.
You have leveled up.
You have leveled up.
You have leveled up.
You have leveled up.
You have leveled up.
You have leveled up.
Eiih? What? What happened?
Then she noticed that a man in a cloak at the far back backed away then started to cough up blood. He stumbled for a while and was on the ground even before anyone could assist him.
"Ah, I see. Mental attacks would have worked with Mindless Undead." Delica murmured. Undead were stupid and can get easily confused, so it was the typical pre-battle debuff spell used when dealing with her kind. But since she has high intelligence from her Lich class, a low attack like that would have caused [Mental Backslash]. from the caster. Poor stupid guy.
"So you are saying you are not an ordinary Undead?" the youth who talked to her earlier asked again. He looks too young, but he seems to be the leader of this band of warriors.
"Of course human!"
"Telmar! He-he is dead!" Another warrior shouted, he was kneeling beside the lifeless mage.
What!? Seriously!? "Pathetic!" she burst out, then she realized she said that outloud. It was just a backslash so she didn’t thought it’ll be that lethal!
All the warriors that could stand began to regroup and became more wary of her. They looked apprehensive. Especially the one they called "Telmar".
Oh, maybe she could scare them? Maybe with that they would leave her alone long enough to chant her Summoning spells. She could use some strong spells but with ten to one disadvantage, she’ll get easily overwhelmed. Even if she has a half minute-long spell, they just need a second to cut her to two! All her spells and chants needs a lot of time to release. Transporting and Summoning meat shields was out of the question since they need minutes (emphasis on plural) to prepare. Transference was still on cool down.
Just a simple explosive spell then. She could use, Superior Mana Potion but that was hard to handle. Aiven was the only one who could moderate the potion that it won’t explode in your hand or worse, become expended in the thin air as if nothing happened. Hayts. Mumbling mumbling.
"This is quite a chore." She said, how could she explain that they were free to flee? Her speed was also useless and if she runaway, it’ll be a sign that she’s weak and if they catch her...
Ah whatever! She’s going to fire something! Anything!
Then swords started to appear infront of her.
Uwaaahh! They started already!
Fortunately her [Guardian of the Grave Robes] nulled the dark-attribute mana swords when it got into contact, almost forming a set of hands and grappled it into non-existence.
Three warriors descent on her, and more on reflex she used [Hell Blaze]. She toned down the level to minimize chant-time but she has just noticed that her miasma was getting out of control! Her [Phylacteral] has been storing an army-worth of miasma and since she was not used to having so much miasma, she was not able to control the outpour.
A huge fire levelled the whole area. When she opened her eyes, everything turned to charcoals and her status has been ringing in her ears.
Her first kill.
She stood there and for once she was a bit...disappointed. She doesn’t feel anything. Maybe some guilt, palpitations, or anything, but she didn’t feel remotely anything about it. She has always been emotional.
Hmmm. What a curious thing.
Then with haste, she started running away. Careful that the enemy might be on its way because of the mess she created. She needed a faraway place to settle and summon her familiars. Mission. Focus on the mission.
"Delica?" the rune communicator suddenly activated. Oh, she almost forgotten!
"Aiven! Aiven, did you see that?"
"No." a quick reply. As usual.
"Did you hear it?"
No answer, then that means he did. She has no idea where the belief that Silence means yes but it has always been the case for Aiven.
So that means Malar’s scout was close.
That was reassuring.
"3rd path, on the dawn side of the mountain, I’ll wait for Maxilla there."
"Hmmm?"
"It’s the one spying the Rust-Irons."
"..."
So he agrees. Good.
"Delica."
"Yeah, yeah. I’ll be careful next time!" It’s the way he worded her name that she knows he was scolding her.
Thankfully Aiven didn’t tried to contact her while she was still confronting those humans. If the rune suddenly activated it could have distracted her. Not that she was not always distracted by little things around her. She has to work on that.
So far, the band of warriors were obviously scouts. If not, then reinforcements should have come. But she saw and noticed no one following her, so that means they were surveying far ahead of the main Rust-Iron Army. Also they were carrying an unnecessary amount of communication spells. It would be a miracle if the other side hasn’t been notified of this small encounter.
She keeps on running and running. She was familiar with the hills so she didn’t get lost.
When finally she reached the summit, almost an hour have passed.
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