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Chapter Fifty-Four
Crystal flipped the ice dagger as she waited in the dungeon with her squad. The fight was not going well.
“Crystal, one group is heading your way,” sent Smerta. “If you can annihilate them, I want you to move into the Labyrinth and see if we can't hit another group from behind. Make them pay.”
“Right,” Crystal said as she stood in the Frozen Room.
It was covered in ice, and the floor slippery. The enemy would have a hard time maneuvering in here. Crystal hoped it would matter. She had a good force that would make use of the forces. The wendigos hungered to feast on monster girls, while the yuki-onna would throw icy attacks at the slipping enemies. The yeti would leap, and the jotnar would crush their foes with their icy clubs. Lastly, she had Kugimasahalam. The Wind dragon might seem out of place, but her breath would send the enemy skidding around the room.
“They'll freeze their tits off in here,” Crystal sent back, ready for the fight. She grinned, flipping a dagger of ice.
“Good, because they'll be here in five, four, three, two, one,” counted down Smerta.
Crystal threw her ice daggers at the door.
The yuki-onna launched their own attacks.
The first one through the door was not a large target. It was an orange-furred fox that bounded low. The attacks went over her. The werefox landed on the floor and slipped at once. She yowled as she slid across the floor straight at a wendigo. Her legs scrambled to gain purchase.
Iovuskha, the wendigo, stabbed her claws down into the werefox, ripping through the furred body. She burst into sparks that swept through the air. Crystal, though, cursed, hating that the opening volley missed. She fashioned a new ice dagger.
A carbuncle fired a blast of ruby light from the doorway. It sliced through Iovuskha, sending her to the void.
“Bitch!” snarled Crystal as she drew back her arm to throw her knife.
A shade burst through the floor from beneath, her blue, ethereal body translucent. The Death monster girl tightened fear about Crystal's heart. A single touch would steal life. That would be enough to kill her.
Kugimasahalam breathed at the shade. The shade dove into the floor as the wind swept over her. It struck the carbuncle in the doorway, throwing her back as her next blast of red went wide. Crystal raised her dagger.
The shade burst out of the floor, surging up at her.
Crystal threw her dagger.
The elemental weapon took the shade in the head. It flowed through her, but the shade flinched at the icy touch. Crystal flicked another dagger, taking the shade in the breast. It passed through, but the ghostly monster girl screamed and dissolved into motes.
An asura charged into the room, the red-skinned monster girl holding four flaming blades in each of her hands. She slipped at once, sliding across the floor. A banshee, trailing a cloak of black mist, fell onto her belly as she followed. Both monster girls slid on the floor.
Crystal raised her dagger when a nightmare jumped out of the shadows nearby. The black-skinned monster girl landed on her hoofs on the slippery floor. She fell at once, landing hard on her ass, squealing in pain and indignation.
The banshee screamed.
Though sliding on her belly, her deathly wail slammed into three wendigo and Bolshoya the jotunn. The four monster girls collapsed, their skin blackening before the Death attack slew them. Their motes spilled across the floor.
“Fucking cunt,” Crystal hissed, raising her arm to throw a dagger at the banshee struggling to stand on the slippery ice.
Khraniti the jotunn beat Crystal, slamming a warhammer of ice into the banshee's back. A sickening crunch echoed through the room as the banshee burst into glitter that slid across the icy floor. So Crystal changed targets.
She struck the nightmare in the tit.
The Darkness monster girl gasped, glaring daggers at Crystal, but her next dagger took her in the open mouth. The nightmare fell back dead. Crystal didn't feel bad at all. The icy floor was not fair, and she loved it.
War shouldn't be a fair fight.
An erinyes leaped into the room, her wings flapping. She soared over the ice. She swirled her razor whip around her as she flew, lashing out at the monster girls. A wendigo jumped clear. Her whip gouged into Khraniti's icy breastplate, driving back the jotunn.
Kugimasahalam spread her wings wide. The erinyes flew at her.
The dragoness breathed.
The blast struck the erinyes. Her wings folded beneath the powerful wing. The blast sent her spinning. She hit the ice and slid across it. A wendigo jumped on the erinyes's back, clawing at her. Crystal smiled.
A dahu bounded into the room.
The pale-skinned woman with goat hoofs landed on the slippery floor and leaped again. Her gray hair streamed behind her. She gripped a sword of ice in her hand, at home in the environment. Crystal threw a dagger.
The dahu knocked the blade out of the air as she landed. She leaped straight at Crystal, horns lowered to gore.
“Fuck!” snarled Crystal.
She threw another dagger at the monster girl's face.
The dahu parried with her sword. Crystal gasped, stepping back. She had to dodge.
A busty yeti slammed into the dahu. The pair crashed onto the floor, rolling. The yeti's white hair whipped around them. A scream issued. Crystal raised another dagger, looking for an opening. The yeti was on top.
A sword thrust through the yeti's back.
Crystal threw her dagger.
As the poor yeti burst into motes, Crystal's attack flashed through the glittering hues and struck the dahu in the breast. The monster girl gasped in shock. Crystal grinned as her enemy died. Her gaze whipped around the room.
The dahu was a threat, but the rest of the enemy...
A thunder sprite screamed, but her attack missed as she slipped. The carbuncle screamed as the yuki-onna struck her in the doorway. The yeti finished off the thunder sprite. Crystal smirked. The enemy was all dead.
“Crystal, move your forces to the entrance of the Third Labyrinth and kill the reinforcements,” Smerta ordered. “Pick them off while they're strung out and not expecting an ambush!”
Crystal laughed in delight, loving the idea.
\ / *
Nina Naughty threw her pitchfork the moment the prism entered the Hellfire Room.
The flaming weapon struck the crystalline monster girl in the chest. She shattered into pieces, the motes spilling through the air. The Hellfire Room was a living furnace. Fire burned everywhere, the air dancing with the blistering heat.
A devil, looking similar to Nina Naughty, jumped into the room, immune to the flames burning around her. She had her own fiery pitchfork. She landed on the ground and aimed at a hellhound to kill her.
Kugkininduseg the Earth dragoness exhaled.
The hail of stones breathed by the dragoness slammed into the devil and ripped her to pieces. She vanished into a burst of motes amid the rain of stones. Nina Naughty smiled. Her forces held the Hellfire Room. She had fire sprites, hellhounds, salamanders, phoenixes, and seraphim, along with Kugkininduseg.
“Let's burn these bitches!” Nina Naughty shouted as she fashioned a new fiery pitchfork.
A tennyo soared into the room, trailing flowers. An ice sprite and a mermaid followed her in, both of them flinching from the heat. The ice sprite's body steamed while the mermaid wilted beneath the fire. The hellhounds tackled the pair, yanking them down and killing them.
A fomorian charged in on their heels. She raised her shadowy blade against the heat, her purple boobs bouncing. Nina Naughty threw her pitchfork. The fomorian battered it out of the air with a swing of her weapon.
The fire sprites, their curvy bodies made out of roiling fire, pointed their hands. They fired blasts of fire that struck the fomorian from two sides. She screamed as her body blistered and burned. She staggered into one of the active blazes.
Nina Naughty grinned as she died. She savored the death of her enemies.
Leo's foes deserved to die painful deaths.
A blast of light from a fairy's wand shot through the room and killed Hermosa, the fire sprite. Anger surged through Nina Naughty. She formed a flaming pitchfork and threw it at the hovering cunt. The fairy flitted forward, glitter trailing her as she dodged the pitchfork.
Behind the fairy, a cyclops in silver armor charged into the flaming room at the dragon. Nina Naughty trusted Kugkininduseg. She threw another flaming pitchfork at the fairy, but the bitch dodged it with a twinkling laugh.
Fire launched at the fairy from the sprites, but the nimble monster girl spun around their attacks.
“Fucking cunt,” muttered Nina Naughty.
Kugkininduseg exhaled her hail of stone at the charging cyclops. The blasts struck the monster girl's armor, her hammer held up before her face, and her large, vulnerable eye. Metal rang from the impacts. The cyclops staggered.
A beam of light flashed at Nina Naughty.
The devil flapped her wings and dodged to the side. She flung another pitchfork at the annoying fairy. Nina Naughty hissed as the fairy's lithe body spun out of the way of that one. Silver flashed to the devil's right.
She fucking survived? exploded in Nina Naughty's thoughts.
The cyclops, her armor battered and dented from the attack, closed the distance on Kugkininduseg. The hammer swung down and crushed the dragoness's head. A sharp thunderclap exploded, obliterating Kugkininduseg's head.
“Fuck!” hissed Nina Naughty as she threw her flaming pitchfork.
The dragoness died, her motes spinning through the air. The flaming pitchfork struck the cyclops in the breastplate. The flames burst around her. The cyclops spun, still alive. Fire exploded down from the sky.
The seraphim attacked and roasted her.
Nina Naughty spun around. The fairy was on the ground, being devoured by the hellhounds who had managed to yank her down. The hellhounds were on all fours, petite women with black skin riven with glowing cracks like lava.
At the other end of the room, the lich was killed by the phoenixes. They were hard to kill monster girls, like the lich. Nina fashioned another pitchfork, but there were no more enemies. The attack wave had been defeated.
“Well done,” Smerta said.
“Where are the other groups?” asked Nina Naughty.
“The Gale Room. They... Shit!” Smerta's curse echoed through the telepathic bond. “They disabled the trap with ease. They're crossing the bridge.”
The Gale Room had a narrow bridge with winds that would gust unpredictably that would knock monster girls off into the pit to their deaths. But the trap had to be able to be disabled. They all did. It was a rule.
There's a djinn in that group, thought Nina Naughty. She had listened to the chatter. A Wind monster girl could have flown to the mechanism and disabled it. “So they are in the Deep Labyrinth.”
“No, they're holding at the end of the bridge. They must be looking down the stairs into the Deep Labyrinth.”
“Waiting for the rest of their bitches,” thought Nina Naughty.
“Yes, especially when they know there are still our forces on this level. They don't want to be trapped.” Smerta paused. “Back up, Crystal. She's going to ambush the first of the reinforcements coming in.”
Nina smiled. “Love it.”
\ / *
Crystal had her forces positioned by the stairs leading to the Third Labyrinth, her forces ready for the ambush. The first enemy was about to die.
The werefox again.
She bounced down the stairs from the Second Labyrinth without a care in the world. Crystal's dagger struck the werefox in the neck before she could leap again. She burst into motes, dead before she would even know what happened.
The shade coming down the stairs right after her gasped and dove onto the floor, dodging the ice attacks of the yuki-onna. Crystal cursed. That wasn't good. Of course, the shade would be second. That was how they died in the fight.
Moroz the yuki-onna screamed and burst into motes.
The shade vanished.
“Where is she?” Crystal sent, not wanting to make more noise.
Yesti the yeti died.
Crystal caught a glimpse of the bluish shade vanishing into the floor, distracting her as the asura charged down the stairs, flaming swords at the ready. Crystal threw a dagger at the fiery monster girl, but it was parried.
The asura charged at Crystal, slashing blades.
Crystal jumped back and rolled. The jotunn Lednika leaped over crystal and swung her icy hammer to crush the asura. The four-armed monster girl's blades streaked orange-red through the air. Steam hissed as she carved through the jotunn's armor.
Lednika gasped and died.
The shade burst out of the floor at the feet of Khraniti, draining the life from the jotunn. Crystal's anger surged through her. The jotunn was a Level 4 monster girl, and it took the shade a heartbeat longer to kill her.
Long enough for Crystal's dagger to take the ghostly bitch in the head.
The shade died with Khraniti.
Damn, damn, damn, Crystal cursed silently.
Flames crackled behind Crystal. She whirled to find the asura leaping at her. The last two wendigo threw themselves past the ice sprite, taking the blades. The flaming swords cut them down, killing them and buying Crystal a few moments more.
Crystal threw her knives as she retreated. The asura chased her down the corridor. Crystal leaped back as the asura stepped on a trap. The floor opened up beneath her. Shock widened the monster girl's eyes before she fell into the pit, trailing fire behind her. She screamed at the bone-crunching impact.
The ice sprite smirked.
The last jotunn, Vysokiy, swung her ice hammer at the dahu. The nimble monster girl ducked beneath the attack and leaped. She hit the wall of the corridor and bounded off it to strike at the back of Vysokiy's neck.
The jotunn staggered, blood spurting. The dahu landed and leaped at Crystal.
As the jotunn died, a flaming pitchfork slammed into the dahu from deeper in the dungeon. The dahu spun through the air, shocked. She hit the ground, dead. Crystal smiled as Nina Naughty strode into view.
“The monster girls are holding at the top of the stairs,” sent Smerta. “And the group holding at the Deep Labyrinth is turned back. They're coming toward you.”
“Fuck,” Nina snarled.
Crystal nodded, moving toward the stairs. She peered up it.
A banshee screamed.
Crystal died.
\ / *
Nina Naughty hissed as the deathly wail echoed down the stairs. Crystal and three of her yuki-onna moving in position at the base of the stairs died. Even a yeti. The echoing of that scream brushed Nina Naughty.
She shuddered at the chill.
Crystal's forces were all but gone. Only Kugimasahalam, the Wind dragoness, was still in the fight. The dragon rushed forward and stepped before the stairs. She breathed out her blast of powerful wind, slamming up the stairs. The banshee gasped, her cry cut off.
A flash of light and a beam of red struck Kugimasahalam, ripping through her body. The dragoness stumbled back and collapsed into motes. Nina Naughty cursed and darted forward. She crossed before the staircase and threw her pitchfork at the monster girls surging down the stairs.
She didn't see what she struck as her fire monster girls launched their own attacks. It was chaos. Nina Naughty spun around as her monster girls gasped. They spun around at Smerta's warnings, launching their attacks.
Fire erupted.
An animated statue darted into view, her chrome body reflecting the flames as her armblades attacked. Fire burst again. A djinn slammed into the hellhounds, throwing them into the walls and smashing their bodies.
Fire swirled through the djinn's whirlwind, and she screamed, going back to her human form. Her hair burned as she collapsed in pain. Nina Naughty readied another pitchfork and threw it at the white-haired maenad charging into view.
It skewered her.
A thunder sprite screamed, blasting apart a group of phoenixes. Motes spun through the air.
The tight quarters of corridors, each branching into different directions, made the battle a mess. There were no lines or sides. Nina Naughty killed a rakshasa, taking the snarling monster girl in the mouth with a flaming pitchfork.
Icy pain struck Nina Naughty in the back. She screamed and spun around to find a lamia slithering at her and spitting more ice. Nina Naughty threw herself down and landed on her back. Three of the hellhounds leaped on the lamia.
Salamander flames burst down a corridor. The lamia died as cheers echoed.
“They're defeated,” Smerta said. “They're re-entering the dungeon.”
Nina Naughty stood, her back aching. She had three fire sprites, three hellhounds, five salamanders, a phoenix, two seraphs, and a yuki-onna that had survived the chaos. This ambush was insane, but...
They could do better.
“Let's find a place on the Second Labyrinth,” Nina Naughty said, wanting to hold off. Leo had to wake up soon.
Please, please, wake up, she prayed.
Chapter Fifty-Five
Munjan studied his map.
He couldn't tell which of the three enemy groups was which. They fanned out again, but his dungeon was so fucking small. One of the groups hit his thundered monster girls. Cockatrices, sirens, and sphinxes.
All dead.
Light flashed.
Melin appeared with Lucas's companions: Bella, Maya, Alizee, Morana, Nina Naughty, Kitty Delight, Hagane, Garnet, Crystal, and Sweet Sasha all spilled off the teleport circle. They had been packed tight.
“Asud Gu!” Melin shouted and teleported back to Lucas's dungeon, ready to bring revived monster girls back to the fight.
“Where do you need us?” Bella asked. She was a lich, not an angel, a red gem between her bluish tits.
Munjan found it so strange to see so many of Leo's monster girls here, but remixed. Maya was a bird-like fenghuang with wings instead of being made of water. Garnet was a fairy, thought that fit her as much as a succubus. Even Munjan's own Kitty Delight was in Lucas's harem, the porn star popular. Instead of being a baku able to jump through shadows, she was a manticore with wings and a scorpion tail firing stingers.
Munjan glanced at the map and spotted another group heading for his fire monster girls. He pointed. “There!”
“Let's go, girls!” Bella shouted and charged off.
“Woot!” Alizee said. This one was a nixie with bluish skin and dripping with water.
Munjan shook his head as they charged off.
“Lord Munjan, it is Enemy Group C,” reported Luza the hellhound a moment before she died.
At least he knew the identity of one of the groups again.
\ / *
Bella Lucina led her husband's companions through the dungeon, Munjan's voice speaking in their head to guide them. Ahead, she heard shouts and cries. The battle was already well underway as she charged in to find a pair of salamanders and two phoenixes flying above them.
A blast of light from a houri killed one phoenix.
Two dullahans galloped through the fiery room. One threw her head at Bella. She charged forward and took the explosion on the chest. It rippled around her, full of death, but it did not hurt her. She emerged from the other side, searching for targets.
She threw spectral scythes at a demon. It cut the monster girl in half.
A whip of blood snaked past her while Maya sang, her voice beautiful. The houri swayed as the aria rippled around her. A dullahan gasped as her horses suddenly came to a stop, seized by Morana's roots, the goth dryad yanking the beast down. The rider spilled onto the ground.
Garnet's beam of fairy light from her wand killed that monster girl.
Kitty Delight fired a stinger at the bemused houri, poisoning her. She felt to the ground, spasming.
Hagane charged forward, the purple-skinned nerd holding a katana made of shadows. She leaped forward, only for a blast of lightning from a cherub to strike her. Hagane fell back and became motes at once.
Bella sucked in a deep breath. That happened. She would be fine.
She threw out her scythes, cutting through another houri while Sweet Sasha soared by on her black-feathered wings. The erinyes swung her bladed whip, ripping into the cherub that killed Hagane. Bella smiled and moved forward.
Light flashed to her right and smote her gemstone. The lich gasped as her phylactery burst. Bella died and fell into the Void.
She floated through the peace of it a moment before her husband's voice called out, “Bella Lucina, come back to me!”
She responded.
Bella spun out of the darkness before her husband. He glanced at her, clutching the Void Crystal. Then she was standing into the throne room next to Melin on the teleport circle. He grinned at her and spoke the words.
“Asud Gu!”
Light flashed. Wind whirled.
She was back in the throne room.
“Go, go, go!” Munjan shouted.
She ran back into the dungeon, retracing her steps. She caught up with Hagane, and the pair burst into the room. Alizee and Morana were missing. A sol phoenix, the only one of Munjan's monster girls still surviving, landed.
The enemy was gone.
“We won!” Maya sang.
“Big Slut Fairy Garnet shines bright!” Garnet squealed. “Kweh, heh, heh!”
Crystal groaned, the carbuncle shaking her head. Her gray-scaled tits quivered slightly.
Alizee and Morana burst into the room. They looked around, ready for a fight. The nixie dripped blood that she could use as a weapon while Morana's breasts jiggled, her toes flexing, ready to grow into roots.
“Oh,” Alizee said. “Well, we won. Go, Team Lucas!”
“Chiquita, lead Lucas's monster girls to the Metal room,” sent Munjan. “Enemy Group A and B are attacking there.”
“This way!” the surviving phoenix shouted and flapped her wings.
Bella led Lucas's women after the blazing beauty.
\ / *
Munjan stretched.
This was working out better than he thought. Melin was waiting to bring back Lucas's monster girls if they died. It did suck that his own metal monster girls were dying right now. They were trying—there were more Level 1 monster girls since Munjan had a bonus group of hysminai he gained when one of Sayf's companions followed her owner into the...
Well, whatever happened to builders when they died?
Damn, he was such an awesome guy, Munjan thought, smiling. Sayf had style. He had only recruited porn stars. Munjan almost regretted his cheerleader plan.
Almost.
Then noticed something disturbing on the map.
Enemy Group C.
“Shit!”
\ / *
Bella followed the phoenix, Chiquita, through the dungeon. They ran past a corridor and...
What?
Light flashed out of the corner of her eye and struck her. Bella was dead before she comprehended what had happened. She spun out of the darkness in the throne room. A moment later, Nina Naughty appeared. She reformed her icy armor, looking pissed.
“Hagane, Garnet, and Crystal, I need you back!” shouted Lucas.
Those three spun out of the darkness as Bella gasped, “What happened?”
“Fucking dullahan blew us up!” Nina Naughty roared, her blonde hair spilling around her pale face.
“Enemy Group C ambushed you!” Munjan sent. “Sorry! I missed them.”
\ / *
The explosion blew Maya off her feet. The fenghuang sang out in shock as she hit the ground. She blinked.
I have to sing, she thought. She was Lucas's slut, and that sexy, older man sent her to fight for Munjan. Not that she was a good fighter. Still, she had to release her song and bemuse the enemy. Her wings fluttered.
Another explosion rocked the world.
Alizee, Morana, and Kitty Delight were just gone. From the black flames, lightning shot out and struck Sweet Sasha. The erinyes cried out in pain as she fell backward. She became motes before she hit the ground.
A houri appeared. Maya opened her mouth to sing.
A blade of light took her head off.
\ / *
“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” muttered Munjan as he stared at the map. All the metal monster girls were dead now, as were Lucas's companions. That ambush had killed them so fast. Dullahan explosions. They were fucking deadly Level 4.
Now Groups A, B, and C had linked up. Three new dots appeared at the entrance. The three who had died, killed fighting the metal monster girls, were not Lucas's companions. They hadn't had a chance to attack.
Light flashed. Lucas's monster girls appeared.
“Fucking bastard!” hissed Nina Naughty the valkyrie.
“That was not cool!” Garnet the fairy hissed, her gossamer wings fluttering.
“Where do you want us?” Bella asked.
Munjan opened his mouth to answer when the three groups broke back up again. “Why are they doing that?” His brow furrowed in confusion. “Your group can handle any one of them separately.”
“Unless they ambush us,” muttered Nina Naughty, holding her blade low. It was still bizarre seeing her as a blonde. Though she's usually a blonde in her pornos, but I'm just used to devil her.
“If the fuckers want to make it easy for us,” Crystal said, the garnet in her forced flashing for a moment.
“They think they have wiped out your companions,” said Hagane the fomorian answered. Though she was flesh-and-blood now and not made of polished chrome, she still had that cold intellect. “They believe you do not have the ability to reinforce.”
“Right, right, they were all dead by the time you and I regrouped,” said Bella. “And I doubted they realized the ones they killed were mixed in with that ambush. It happened so fast.”
Hagane nodded.
“That's something,” Munjan muttered. “Well, that group is heading for my Life monster girls. Reinforce them.”
“Let's go!” Bella said and charged off, the others following.
The enemies reached the Life monster girls a minute later. A satyr named Bhaala died first.
“Enemy Group B!” sent Aiyaash, another satyr. She died.
Others followed.
\ / *
Bella reached the room and, as Munjan predicted, the enemy was ogresses, giants, griffins, and kitsune.
Maya sang at once, her aria slamming into the quarter of kitsune. That disrupted their charming music. Bella smiled and sent spectral blades flashing out. Those cut through a griffin. She died in a streak of motes.
Kitty Delight fired darts.
Sweet Sasha slashed with her whip.
Garnet fires beams of light while Crystal unleashed beams of red.
Alizee threw lances of her own blood.
Hagane's katana hacked.
Nina Naughty charged in her ice armor, killing a giant.
Bella smiled. The enemy monster girls died. Even if they lost some of their own, Lucas would revive them. This fight was nowhere near over.
Chapter Fifty-Six
Muyang knew this would be tough.
The dahu actress held her blades of ice, waiting with Lei and Savurma. The maenad licked her lips, a wild gleam in her eyes. She was one of Olum Blackhand's companions, but she loved Siwang now. Like Muyang did.
Lei gripped her silver hammer, ready to swing it at the next wave of bitches and cunts that streamed into the throne room. The door was ruined, so they were on either side of the door for the ambush.
“They're here,” shouted Siwang. “Lightning arcs and sizzles, let the fury of Lord Enlil spread!”
The lightning shot past Muyang. Instead of screams, a lightning sprite burst out, her hair crackling with lightning. The attack did nothing to her. The dahu drew back her sword, but the enemy monster girl was faster.
She blasted Muyang with lightning.
Pain coursed through the Ice monster girl as she fell back. The actress screamed only to find herself floating in the peace of the Void. She closed her eyes, falling into a slumber. Maybe she would wake again.
Or maybe not.
\ / *
“Shit,” Siwang cursed at the lightning sprite killing Muyang. Of course, they're going to adapt to your spells.
Lei's silver hammer crushed the lightning sprite's head. Motes burst as Siwang found a different spell to fire down the corridor at the monster girls rushing toward his throne room.
“Metal missiles fly, let the spikes of Lord Nabu pierce!”
The fire dragon at the lead breathed flames. They did nothing. Her fiery attack cut off suddenly as she fell backward. The asura and the gorgon on her heels reeled, blood spurting from the volley of metal spikes.
They died.
An angel swooped through their motes, firing her halo at Siwang.
“Strong and durable, let the strength of Lord Nabu shield!”
A metal shield appeared. The halo struck it.
Savurma leaped onto the angel, biting her throat. The pair crashed onto the floor. A red beam from a carbuncle lanced through Savurma and the angel beneath. Both died, their motes spilling into each other.
A lich rushed into the room, only to get hit by a beam of light from Aotro. The fairy, once owned by Anders, fluttered to the right, dodging the carbuncle's reprisal attack. The lich staggered, her phylactery cracking from the attack.
She died.
\ / *
Baoshi, Siwang's other actress, fired her beam of red light, striking the erinyes that burst out. An ice sprite followed on the heels, throwing a dagger through the fluttering motes. Baoshi fired off her own beam of light.
Baoshi's attack bored through the ice sprite's breast and heart.
The ice sprite's dagger struck Baoshi on her forehead. Right on her garnet. The gem shattered, killing the carbuncle.
\ / *
Guang fired blasts of light from her eyes, striking the dog-like adlet.
It was a glancing blow.
The monster girl snarled and leaped back for the entrance where the simurgh lurked. The healing aura restored the adlet's leg. The enemy monster girl's wounds healed as Guang focused her eyes on the Life monster girl.
She blasted the simurgh in the throat.
The simurgh dodged.
“Lightning arcs and sizzles, let the fury of Lord Enlil spread!”
Siwang's Arcing Lightning struck the adlet before arcing up into the simurgh. Both died while the lightning arced on to kill a nue and a selkie. They both fell to the ground, but only the nue died. The selkie whimpered, burned.
Guang finished her off with a blast of light.
Just as her eye-beams vanished, a shade reached out of the floor and grabbed her leg. The lampetia gasped as her light drained. Deathly cold washed through her. She staggered and fell into the Void to sleep.
Chapter Fifty-Seven
The shade vanished into the floor.
Dammit, thought Siwang, wanting to kill her again.
Static electricity burst around him, blocking a beam of light. The second fairy attacked a moment later. His defenses down, this beam burned a hole through his breastplate, exposing the stony flesh beneath.
“Night devours, let the corrosive shadows of Lord Zuen burn!” Siwang roared.
Dark, dissolving shadows engulfed the first fairy. She shrieked.
The shade burst out of the floor before him and grabbed his leg. A deathly cold swept through him. Endure Pain devoured the sensation. He didn't hurt at all, even as she stole his life from him. He was dying, but his healing aura slowed it down.
“Life revitalizes and mend, let the restoration of Lord Dumazid mend!”
The positive energy from Bow of Life struck the shade and killed her. He felt dizzy for a moment, weak, but the magics on him replenished what she had drained. She could have killed him without the protection.
The two faeries distracted me, he thought. He had to be more careful.
He felt Kyuuma, his erinyes, die. A redcap leaped through her motes, grinning as she darted away. Siwang wanted to attack her, but movement out of the corner of his eye caught him. The Light dragon inhaled her breath, staring right at him.
\ / *
Kao would not let her new owner die.
She leaped and slammed into the side of the dragon. The sigbin opened bit down hard on the dragon's neck, her fangs piercing through the golden scales. The impact twisted the dragon's body. Her breath of light shot past Siwang.
Kao wrapped her legs around the dragon's waist. Since her knees bent backwards compared to a human, she was able to hook around the dragon's legs and yank, tripping her. Blood flooded her mouth.
She savored blood.
A Death monster girl, she was like a vampire.
She suckled on the dragon, drinking the blood before suddenly her mouth was empty. Motes spilled around her as she collapsed fully on her side. She grinned in delight and pushed herself up, glad to do her part.
A tiger snarled behind her.
She spun around, glimpsing the rakshasa's open jaws before it crushed her head.
\ / *
Chaos boiled through the room as Mei slithered forward. Her red-scaled tail surged her toward a sylph darting through the sky. The shesha spread her cobra-like hood wide as she felt the fiery venom ready to spit out at the bitch.
Nameusmabimuda breathed out ice. Mei ignored the attack, focusing on the sylph drafting through the throne room, white hair streaming behind her. A redcap, rakshasa, and the second fairy screamed as the icy breath ripped them apart.
The sylph darted to the right.
Mei spat.
Flaming venom shot out and struck the sylph in the side. She screamed and veered to the side, her flesh burning and dissolving. Mei smiled, her serpentine lower half twitching. She spun to find another prey.
Out of the shadows, a baku appeared, leaping straight for Mei. She filled her mouth with the fiery venom to spit, but it was too late. The baku's short horns gored Mei, ripping through her breasts and piercing her heart.
She hissed in pain as the baku ripped the horns out. The evil monster girl bounded at Siwang but vanished into the shadows. Mei clutched at her chest. She was dying. The Void called to her. She just had to wait for a moment more, focusing on the shadow Siwang cast. Mei had to time this perfectly. She waited until...
Now!
She spat.
The baku burst out of the shadows behind Siwang. Fiery venom struck the bitch in the face, engulfing hair and horns. The monster girl screamed. Mei smiled and relaxed. She didn't have to fight against her death any longer.
She saved Siwang.
Mei fell into the Void.
\ / *
A terrible scream erupted behind Siwang a moment before something struck him. He stumbled and turned to find a baku, her head burning and melting, rolling on the floor. She vanished into a burst of motes as Siwang felt Mei die.
Thank you, he thought to his shesha.
Aotro died, too, their connection vanishing.
He whipped his head around to see her motes drifting through the air. His eyes focused on the ice sprite beyond, who was forming another dagger. The spell popped into Siwang's mind, and he cried out the words without thought.
“Hurtling down the mountain, let the boulder of Lord Abzu crush!”
A boulder appeared above the ice sprite's head and crushed her flat. Motes burst out around the rock, which vanished with them. Siwang panted and surveyed the battlefield. Nameusmabimuda's icy breath caught a devil, a tennyo, and a shesha. The Ice dragoness dropped to her belly, dodging the fiery venom from the enemy monster girl.
The enemy was defeated.
Again.
He turned, surveying, counting beneath his breath. “One, two, three...” He had eleven left. He had lost eight monster girls in this exchange. He had twenty-seven at the start, and now he had lost more than half.
Xiongbu appeared beside him, mist spilling down her back. “We are not going to survive the next battle.”
The balance had shifted. He stared at the map, cocking his head. As he studied the map, he refreshed his defensive spells.
“Lightning crackle and hiss, gird me in the love of Lady Uttu.”
Anji should be safe. She was bound to Leo. Even if he died, it would not matter. Siwang glanced at his monster girls. Maybe he would survive the next attack, but after that, it would be him alone. They would overwhelm him. He needed a plan for that.
He could not hide because his Void Crystal was behind him. If they reached that, it would be the same as dying. He considered his possibilities when a shout echoed through his mind.
A smile crossed Siwang's lips as hope burst in him.
\ / *
Barany revived the monster girls and sent them to Siwang's or Munjan's dungeon.
Over and over.
No thought.
No hope.
His third group of Level 4 monster girls, composed of the Earth, Metal, Wind, and Thunder, were taking heavy losses. Already, Barany was reviving the ogresses, giants, griffins, and kitsune as they died.
“Munjan has another group of companions,” sent Tanca, a kitsune in the group. “A fomorian, carbuncle, erinyes, nixie, valkyrie, dryad, lich, fenghuang, manticore, and fairy.”
She died.
That sounded familiar. He focused on the leader of his first group, a dullahan, and sent, “The group of monster girls you ambushed. What were they?”
“A lich, fomorian, dryad, nixie, fairy, fenghuang, valkyrie, manticore, carbuncle, and erinyes, my Lord,” she answered.
The same companions?
Barany focused on Therodin before hesitating. Should I tell him?
A brash sense of defiance rushed through him. If he concealed this, it might lead to the Company's victory. He touched the collar and shivered.
If the Company prevailed today... I'll be punished.
Terror whipping at Barany's soul, he focused on Therodin and sent, “Sir, there is a problem in Munjan's dungeon. He is reviving a group of ten monster girls. All different elements. They appeared after I had wiped out his initial companions. They have been killed once by my forces and revived.”
“There is a fourth builder allied with Leo?” Therodin said, musing on it. “Is it just that ten?”
“Yes, they are defeating my monster girls,” Barany said.
“Just keep invading,” said Therodin. “Forty-eight monster girls of Level 4 can handle ten companions.”
Barany nodded and kept revving them. Therodin was right. It was good that Barany had mentioned this. He would not be punished. He shifted his monster girls to Munjan's dungeon. That was all he had to do.