The Lustful Villain: Every Milfs and Gilfs are Mine! - Chapter 373. Another Ambush That I Planned To Manipulate The Druid’s Feelings

Chapter 373: 373. Another Ambush That I Planned To Manipulate The Druid’s Feelings

Nerith was still trying to manage her dream. The dream had done its work and the conversation after it had done its work, and the result was a version of Nerith that was considerably more complicated about Rex than the version that had been sitting alone at the waterfall two hours ago, which was precisely the version he needed her to be before they went into the canyon.

“I have to try and trust Rex for now…’

Nerith looked at her body, especially her private parts. ’It looks like that he didn’t do anything to me when I was asleep… but still that dream…’

’I can still feel itchy in some parts of my body…’ Nerith shook her head. ’No… stop… it’s just a dream…’

’Rex is someone that I can trust still… I just need to prove it now…’

The bypass joined the main road about thirty minutes later on the far side of the ridge. The road widened, the stone walls fell back, and the trees opened up on either side into the kind of terrain that told you a settlement was close.

The ground that had been cleared and cultivated and then left to partially recover, with the specific mixture of managed and unmanaged growth that came from land that people used but didn’t live on directly.

“The bridge is about twenty minutes ahead,” Elizabeth said from the front. “If we manage to cross it, then we finally get some good rest in Drevash village by nightfall.”

“Oh my gooodddddd… finalllllyyyyyyy…” Talyra said under her breath, and Aisella made a sound of quiet agreement beside her. “My feet have bad opinions about today.”

“Your feet can wait twenty minutes,” Aisella said.

The group moved on. The road was flat, and the light was fading from amber to the blue-gray of early evening, and ahead of them, the sound of rushing water was already audible, low, and constant—the way rivers announced themselves before they were visible.

’Alright… I think this is the perfect chance for me to ambush them with my undead army again.’ Rex had been planning what came next since he knew that Nerith still needed some punishment, but this time he wanted to make her vision of him change more.

The bridge was a natural bottleneck, a single arch crossing a shallow but quick gorge about fifteen meters wide, with the water rushing over smooth stone fifteen feet below. The path on the far side was clearly maintained.

They were approaching populated terrain, which meant that the area around the bridge would be perceived as low-threat, and the group’s focus would be directed towards the village, the rest, and the meal, rather than on the banks of the gorge they were crossing.

’This place is a good spot…’ Rex thought while slowly communicating with his avatar; he left off far away when he was walking alone with Nerith.

The Avatar sent the instruction through the same necromancy magic while waiting for Rex’s order, and it can feel the wordless command through the channel he kept open with the Underlayer’s dormant reserves.

Forty-three constructs were positioned on both banks, ready for simultaneous emergence.

He had timed it for when the group was mid-crossing.

“The bridge is just through those trees,” Apollo said ahead, and the group moved forward with the easy pace of people who were almost done with the day.

“I can hear the gorge,” Mireya said. “Water’s moving fast.”

“Shallow one,” Iris said from the front without turning around. “It’s a single-arch bridge, and I crossed it on the survey two years ago.”

“The stone’s old but solid.”

“Good to know,” Apollo said. “I’d prefer not to fight on something that isn’t solid.”

“You’d prefer not to fight at all,” Mireya said.

“That too,” Apollo agreed.

“Snow runoff from the upper ridge,” Nerith said. “The canyon system pulls it south this time of year.”

Rex kept his eyes on the tree line above the gorge banks and waited.

The constructs materialized exactly on schedule, climbing both gorge walls in the silence of things that didn’t need to breathe, and the group’s response was immediate and trained.

“Contact!” Iris called out, already moving. “Both banks, bridge approach, at least thirty of them!”

“Barrier going up on the near end!” Elizabeth said, both grimoires snapping open simultaneously. “Nobody cross until I say!”

Rex could see that Elizabeth can do two different things at once, with her mind split into two parallel tracks, which is something that very few mages can do without years of hard work.

The first grimoire made a wide-area barrier along the bridge’s near end, a see-through wall of compressed arcane force that stopped the three undead who were already crossing the bridge in their tracks.

The second one started a more complicated lattice-pattern working that Rex hadn’t seen her use in practice before, something that looked like environmental analysis, mapping the undead’s positions and movement vectors.

“I count forty, maybe more on the west wall,” Elizabeth said, her eyes moving between the two open pages. “Alex, right flank.”

“On it.” Alexander’s activation sequence was two seconds, his voice clipped and precise.

Fire swept the right flank in a horizontal arc that took four constructs simultaneously, the wind compression underneath it turning the area’s flame into something directional and controllable.

“Four down. The east side is regrouping.”

“I see them.” He was already pulling earth up through the bridge arch, a jagged compressed-stone barrier rising on the far side to cut the crossing angle. “Far end is blocked.”

Even with foresight running, Rex couldn’t have guessed how quickly Iris would react. Iris had both of her short blades drawn before Rex could have anticipated her reaction.

“On the left wall, three constructs are moving around Elizabeth’s position.” She went left, off the main path, into a group of three constructs that had come up the near gorge wall and were trying to get around Elizabeth’s position.

Her movements were tight and perfect where she stepped inside the first construct’s reach, one blade driving up through the joint where a neck would be on a living opponent. The second blade was already behind her, ready to stop the second construct’s arm before it finished swinging.

She didn’t bother cutting off heads, but instead she focused on the structural connection points, the specific joints of the necromantic binding that kept the constructs moving. She found them quickly, as if she had studied undead anatomy as part of her job.

“Two down.” She pushed the third construct with her shoulder, and its momentum carried it past her and off the edge of the gorge. “Third’s gone.”

“Left flank is handled,” she said, stepping back from some construct as it went over the gorge edge. “More coming up the wall below me.”

“How many?” Apollo called.

“Six! Give me thirty seconds.”

“You’ve got twenty,” Elizabeth said. “The east wall group is going to reach the bridge approach.”

Apollo stayed on the bridge’s near end, and Rex saw him make a conscious choice not to use his full activation. That was the correct tactical decision because using his full activation in this area would quickly eliminate the undead but would also unintentionally affect any of the group’s ongoing operations.

“Talyra, get high!” he called out. “I need eyes on the east wall!”

A construct reaching for Talyra’s arm was hit in the shoulder by a forearm strike, which shattered its shoulder assembly and sent it back into two others. “Watch your left, Mireya!”

In the three seconds since the fight started, Talyra had climbed to the top of the bridge’s arch crown. This was either rapid climbing or something Rex hadn’t seen yet about how she moved in the field.

“I’m up!” She called positions as she read them, arrows already moving. “Three incoming on Apollo’s nine!”

“Two more coming over the east wall!” Her arrows hit their targets in order, striking constructs that were about to reach other group members before those members had noticed the threat. “East wall clear!”

“Thank you,” Aisella said from below, not looking up, the containment barrier in front of her and Nerith holding the nearest constructs back.

Aisella was trying to cover Nerith.

Rex had anticipated the attack. When the constructs appeared, Aisella immediately moved to Nerith’s side.

“Stay behind me,” she said, her voice even and calm. “I have you.”

Her healer’s instinct translated into a physical escort posture where she put herself between Nerith and the nearest constructs and kept a containment barrier active at low cost, putting Nerith’s safety first. It also meant that Nerith had a clear view of the whole gorge and both banks, which Rex didn’t want.

’Good move, Aisella… that way it’s going to look natural.’ Rex smirked.

“I can fight,” Nerith said, and her staff was already up.

“Not today,” Aisella said simply, and adjusted the barrier without looking at her.

Mireya moved forward.

“Crossing!” she called, and then she was already past Elizabeth’s barrier, running across the bridge with her ice-affinity sword drawn and active.

The blade was already covered in spreading frost that made it several centimeters longer and the cutting edge less brittle. “Far Side has six!”

The constructs on the other side weren’t ready for someone to come to them, and she used that half-second of confusion to take apart the front three before they could coordinate. Her style was different from Iris’s.

It was wide, controlled swings that spread the frost as much as possible, forcing constructs to slow as ice locked their joints.

“Keep the bridge clear behind me!” Her follow-up strikes were clean and unhurried. “Four down. Two more!”

“Alex, support Mireya on the far end,” Elizabeth said, both grimoires still running. “I’m reading eight more climbing the west wall.”

“On it, sugar plum,” Alexander said.

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