CHAPTER 127: LUST & MAID VS NECROMAGE (1)

A catgirl maid materialised from a magic circle, her knee kneeling onto the rough ice towards Mel.

A grand army of over a hundred summons followed after her, their weapons settled to the side as they all bowed before their masters.

The other side remained still, their caution haywire at the awe-strucking scene.

Each summon settled their weapons aside, their eyes humbly closed in prayer to their god.

And none of them faced the Undeads, the army of lost souls and grudges dismissed as child’s play to their fierce loyalty.

"Raise your heads, everyone."

Thousands of heads raised, their shaky fingers dancing at the weapons with gratitude for witnessing their Master’s kind smiles.

Owl Knights’ neck threatened to crane to shoulder more duties; steel talons bulked up their shoulders to hope their armours shimmer for their Masters’ Glories.

And the Violin Clowns’ Smiling Masks tilted, wondering what ’oopsie’ they must fulfil to earn her Master’s sound laughter.

Yet only one maid’s knee stuck firm on the ice, her purple catching snows that glittered against her immaculate features.

"Nyxia." Mel patted her Maid, the one who kneeled closest to her.

"It’s... been a while, Master."

Hesitation, in her maid’s voice. That’s rare.

"How were you doing?"

As Mel’s palm tickled Nyxia’s purry ear, the maid shuddered with memories of the night she was teased in the toilet stall.

"I was... monitoring the merchant..." The maid breathed out. "The Spies we hypnotised were all stationed there, so I was arranging the information net with the skeleton Ed as the advisor..."

"Hoh..." Mel’s nail scraped against the tip. "Make sense. Anyways... there’s something I’m thinking of now."

With a little smirk, Mel bent her waist as she snuck her hands beneath Nyxia’s armpit.

And with a swoop, she lifted her maid.

"Hic!"

As Mel pulled Nyxia to her feet like a real cat, she smirked against the flustered maid, her grey eyes dodgy and aroused.

"Did you miss me?" Mel asked.

Yet her Master’s question elicited a pang of embarrassment in the maid’s chest, as she unwittingly nodded.

"Then I shall compensate," Mel chuckled. "Perform well, and you can ask me for any reward."

The Witch of Lust must treat all her workers well, especially a cute maid like Nyxia!

The maid peeked at her Master, sincere golden eyes locked on hers with a faint blush.

Realising her Master reciprocated her desire, the maid’s lips pursed as she nodded. "I understand... Master..."

Mel’s expression warmed at the maid’s reluctant whimper; she wondered how much she could make her maid beg for more later.

The cute perlude calmed both minds to a lull, their seriousness washed away to be replaced with confident frowns as they faced the Undead armies.

Other summons, with either sighs of jealousy or shrugs of ’you know this is how our Master was like, hoisted their weapons at the ready.

Swarms against swarms, weapons against weapons, and living against unliving.

Their numbers matched evenly, sharp glares fixed on hollow stares.

Then, each side hurried, steps clustering together on ice in a chaotic rhythm as they formed formations.

Owl Knights against Undead Knights on the front, with the back piled with Steel Talons and Violin Clowns.

The Undead Liches, too, lurked behind shields of minions as their foreheads tapped against their Skull Staffs.

"Ha-haha..." The nercomage laughed, her arrogant tone now laced with a tinge of doubt. "How much have you trained them, Mel Sakura?"

"Never!"

Mel’s face beamed, her face full of innocent pride. "They seemed to have already discussed amongst themselves."

Each summon usually belongs in a separate realm corresponding to their race.

Undead, for example, should all belong to the Hell Realm before their souls were resummoned, Volcanic Tortoise excluded.

So even as Mel’s thumb twirled idly to roll out a deduction, she’s supposedly clueless about how her summons already had tactical formations before she discussed it with them.

"A type of unnatural ability from your Sin, perhaps."

Nyxia seethed her teeth; her left half’s bone clattered against the skin on her right lip.

With a wave of her hand, the Expert Liches’ bone sockets flickered with blue, and their arms shot their staffs into the sky.

The gesture of command, the staff snapped up as flags of war, as the Undead Swarms charged forward.

Groans mixed with uncanny howls, stuttering against the cold breeze in defiance of being unreturned.

"Alright, everyone!" Lust stretched out her empty arm. "Do your best! The reward for a blow of kiss would be on the table!"

But you never fulfill your promise unless it’s with a beautiful girl...

The summons chilled against her Master’s order; their sons and daughters’ tears of regret, as the Master forgot the ’blow a kiss’ promise for their battles against Enchanted Monsters, lingered on their minds.

Regardless, they roared against their Master’s injustice, and the Owl Knights charged to preserve their Master’s beauty.

Cracks splintered the ice beneath as heavy steps neared each other; the Owl Knights raising their swords before chopping the Undead Knights into pieces.

A few seconds, and the Undeads’ formation broke as they mingled into the crowds of Owl Knights.

A team of brown feathers was painted spots of black, as they cut down the intruders into their formation one by one.

Mel’s brow raised in interest, the Undead Knights’ corpses ground into bone marrows, carried into the night’s passing breeze.

Her golden eyes pierced through the bone fog, as the Liches’ bare teeth clattered.

Then, magic circles spawned from all of their fronts, before more Undead Knights materialised.

"Spawners, huh?"

With a narrowed gaze sweeping over the newly summoned Undead Knights sprinting forth, she now noticed Nyrel’s strategy.

Nyrel summoned Liches, and Liches summoned more Undead Knights.

As the Summons themselves never consumed more mana after being summoned, Nyrel effectively created infinity loops.

Downside, of course, was that only Undead Knights or Lower-ranked Undeads could be summoned by the Liches.

"Trying to either overwhelm me with numbers..." Mel mumbled to themselves. "Or maybe to exhaust my mana..."

Either way, it was clear Nyrel’s strategy was a long-endurance stalling.

With a slight smirk, she raised her hand.

Steel talons’ beak perked up, their gazes glowing with a yellow determination as they plunged their large steel bow (almost their size) onto the ice.

A slight tilt of their waist, as they aimed at the sky and shot the great arrows.

For a moment, the moon was covered in edged steel as arrows filled the sky, before falling like rain to the liches.

Yet as if on cue, small minions shielded the liches with their bodies, dull blades and bodies impaled and ground to dust as they dissipated.

"Hm..."

Mel noticed that only Undead Knights were attacking so far, as no minions rushed for defenses.

"Ah. Using the cheap minions as baits to conserve the stronger forces for pressures..."

A foxy smile curled up on Mel’s lips. "How smart. I will copy that someday with Ka-broom."

Every summons, even the chaotic Violin Clowns, shuddered against their Master’s comment.

No one in the field liked those self-exploding maniacs; if they chose, they would rather face a hundred more Undeads than meet a single Ka-broom for dinner tonight.

"As expected of Master. To be so considerate of their summons’ wishes."

Except Nyxia, who has seen through Mel’s ’true intent’.

"Hehe." Her neck scratched Nyxia’s chin. "Thank you, my maid. But now’s not the time."

With one last sweeping gaze over the liches, she ordered. "Nyxia. Prepare Void Siege."

As a Void user, her Maid possessed Mastery over Dimension and Shadow abilities as well, the former’s capability close to a half-awakened Gluttony.

Nyxia, with a slight bow, then glared at the liches.

Her palm stretched out, then slammed onto her shadow where the moonlight veiled; the ice fracturing against the impact.

Then, the black shade writhed and stretched across the ice, stopping just before where Owl Knights slashed open the Undead Knight Armies-

Before widening into a black wall, a barricade circled all of Mel and the Steel Talons.

"Now."

With a single order, arrows bolted again and sank into the black wall.

Arrows disappeared, and from the tiniest transparency of the black walls, Mel smirked as she observed the Liches, casually readied to summon-

Before a flash flew straight through their skulls, their sources from beneath where their shadows lay.

Protruding gaps linked from the skulls’ chins to heads, as the liches plopped to the ground in silence.

Nyrel could merely watch in disbelief; her expectancy for surprises once again forced open.

Another Void user? As if Samantha alone was not enough?

She gritted her teeth, slight frustration bubbling as she glared at the smirking Mel at a distance.

To be rude to a child younger than her would be in bad taste.

Unfortunately, pettiness soured her mind as her bony fingers furled into a fist.

Yet, as if not giving the Necromage time to rest, the maid immediately turned back.

"Master."

Nyxia’s demeanour, frighteningly calm, only spurred excitement from Mel.

"Yep. Don’t worry, Nyxia!"

She smirked; the maid only refused to leave Mel’s side to protect her.

However, there was always a quicker way to end the war.

"Go all out, my maid."

With permission from her Master, Nyxia bowed with a slight frown.

She should end this quickly.

And, from plain sight, she vanished.

No trace, no sound, no smell. Nyrel froze as every tinge of the maid’s presence erased itself from the World.

Her body jolted; the fluttering of the skirt briefly caught in her ear as she dug.

SLASH!

A claw briefly passed her skull from behind, as her head twisted and glared.

Nyxia’s eyes narrowed with disinterest, her opponent unworthy to be granted her Master’s personal attention.