Lilith stared at the interface with growing tension as a stream of notifications about the destruction of her servants flickered past. In just two minutes, she had lost over 20 skeletons. Usually, such messages appeared rarely - one to three at most - and only when an unlucky bone-walker ended up in the path of a falling tree trunk and was crushed. In the first two days, local wolves had also occasionally wiped out single squads, but ever since Lilith and her succubi cleared the forest of predators, there had been peace.
Lysandra, her wings trembling nervously, gave a crooked smile, a flash of predatory amusement in her eyes. "Only five hours since the protection was lifted, and the local heroes have already decided to test us," she noted.
Lilith nodded, trying to steady her trembling hands. She immediately opened the BONE HOUSE building menu and began mass-rebuying the fallen skeletons. Newly summoned units automatically took over the same orders as their predecessors, meaning the Monarch didn't have to be there in person to issue commands; the skeletons headed into the forest on their own to continue their work.
"I've rebought everyone who fell," Lilith said with determination, watching her gold reserves melt away, but it was for moments like this that she had amassed such a fortune.
Lysandra nodded in approval. "We don't know the enemy's strength or their numbers, so for now, we'll flood them with these dim-witted bones," the succubus directed. "In the meantime, you, Mina, and I will fly overhead to scout and see exactly what is happening in the forest."
Then Lysandra turned to Kala, who was already clenching her fists, itching for battle. "You stay here," she cut her off short.
Kala opened her mouth to protest loudly, but Lysandra silenced her with a single, grave look. "If the Altar is destroyed, it's over for us," she explained sternly. "We don't know if this attack isn't a trap. Heroes might try to sneak in from behind while we're occupied with the fight in the woods. We need someone strong to guard the Altar at all costs."
Hearing this, Kala stopped protesting and merely nodded, taking up her watch at the core of their nest. Meanwhile, Lilith noticed more loss notifications and again rebought the skeletons without hesitation.
"Let's fly," Lilith said, spreading her powerful wings. "Let's see who dared to disturb the peace of our valley."
***
Over 50 minutes of non-stop slaughter had passed. Only four Heroes remained on the battlefield - Korgath, Vrak, Grul, and Mila - as Skitter had vanished somewhere into the gloom of the forest. Though they were confident at first, genuine fear now peeked through their eyes. They looked at their army and saw only a shambles; of the 70 goblins that had set out from the village, barely ten terrified survivors remained.
The Heroes were furious and completely disoriented. They couldn't fathom how, after slaughtering entire squads, new, identical waves of skeletons kept emerging from the darkness of the Darkness Woods. "How many of these dead-ites was this Demon King able to summon in just seven days?!" Korgath snarled, feeling the numbers defy all logic.
Initially, the Heroes tried to conserve mana, relying on the physical strength of their bodies, but as their meat shield began to vanish, they were forced to use their most powerful abilities. Korgath, feeling the mounting pressure, lunged forward: "[SKULL CRUSHER]!" he roared, performing a mid-air flip and striking the ground with monstrous force. The shockwave pulverized ten incoming bone-walkers.
The others were not to be outdone. Grul activated [TITAN SHELL], becoming a living wall from which the skeletons' blows deflected. Vrak desperately hurled [SULFUR FIREBALLS], but to his frustration, the fire did little damage to the skeletons - it only caused their bones to turn red and glowing, which didn't stop their attack.
Vrak hissed in pain as one of the skeletons slashed his forearm with its bony blade, and hot, greenish blood splattered onto the dry earth. His fiery attacks only made the attackers' bones glow with a fierce crimson, without taking away a shred of their mobility.
"Mila!" he screamed, stepping back and nearly tripping over the charred remains of a goblin.
Mila, despite being trapped in the short, stocky body of a goblin, moved with unnatural calm amidst the battle chaos. She grabbed Vrak's arm with one hand, and a soothing, bright light shot from her fingers, beginning to seal the cut skin in the blink of an eye. Simultaneously, her other hand shot out toward the incoming wave of bones.
"[BONE WEAKENING CURSE]!" she rasped, her eyes glowing with an ominous violet light.
Black, writhing strands of energy erupted from her palm, coiling around the skeletons like ravenous vipers. The effect was immediate and terrifying. The machinery holding these beings together simply ceased to exist. Instead, they heard the dry, rapid-fire snapping of hundreds of joints. The skeletons didn't fall like they'd been hit; they simply lost their structure mid-step, collapsing into heaps of white bone.
Mila didn't stop. Her lips moved in a silent trance as wave after wave of the curse hit the gloom of the forest, turning the organized army of the undead into piles of rubble. She was like a one-woman dismantling machine, rendering the skeletons' endurance stats completely irrelevant.
Meanwhile, high on a nearby ridge, the three succubi watched the entire engagement with their sharpened, demonic sight. Lilith sat to the side, nervously clicking through the system menu to rebuy fallen units from the BONE HOUSE every second. Muttering under her breath, she tallied the losses: "I've already spent over 700 gold coins on this..."
Mina spat with disdain, looking down. "Ordinary, disgusting goblins dared to attack us?" she hissed with revulsion, stomping her small foot in frustration that such vile creatures even had the courage to approach their territory.
Lysandra, never taking her grave gaze off the fight, slapped Mina with an open palm to bring her to order. "Don't be fooled by their appearance," she said coldly. "Those four are undoubtedly Heroes. Did you see them for the first 20 minutes? They were holding back. But since their army melted away, they've started fighting in earnest. Those skills are no joke. Despite their weak race, they have quite good abilities."
Lysandra narrowed her eyes, locking her gaze on Mila, who was currently pulverizing another squad of undead. "That goblin woman needs to be eliminated first," she declared with icy calm. "She's too dangerous. Without her curses and healing, that group will fall apart quickly."
Mina, feeling the demonic energy surging in her veins, nearly bounced in place. Her wings quivered with excitement. "So what, do we attack? Now?!" she asked, baring her fangs in a predatory grin.
Lysandra slowly shook her head from side to side, her eyes never leaving the four Heroes. "Not yet. Let's wait until they start to retreat. Eventually, they'll realize they're fighting an infinite wave of skeletons and that retreating is the best option. That's when we'll catch them."
Mina wouldn't give up, trying to persuade her to strike immediately. "We can already see what skills they're using! We know how strong they are! Why wait until our Lady loses more gold?" she huffed, pointing down.
Lysandra furrowed her brow, her expression turning stern. "Keep a cool head, Mina," she cut her off sharply. "We don't know for sure if those are all their skills. Every intelligent being hides something for a rainy day. Remember, we don't have healing abilities. Every wound is lethally dangerous for us. I won't risk your lives for a few minutes of haste."
Hearing this, Mina pouted and crossed her arms over her chest, muttering something under her breath about a missed opportunity.
Meanwhile, Lilith sat beside them, authentic pain visible in her eyes. With every click in the system menu, she felt her hard-earned fortune evaporating. She had just seen Korgath perform a mid-air flip, the massive shockwave from his club turning another ten of her skeletal warriors into dust.
"Ten... ten again," Lilith whispered, her finger trembling over the buy button.
With every subsequent notification of a servant's death, the terror in her eyes slowly faded, replaced by pure, cold hatred. She looked at the goblins not as a threat, but as pests shamelessly stealing her gold. She clenched her teeth so hard they ground together. These "Heroes" were making her dream of a luxury bed and peace drift further away with every strike of their disgusting clubs.