Transmigrated as a Ghost

Chapter 1177: Chapter 1177 Lyra’s Tactics

’Flashfire Step.’

Silvery blue flames swirled around lyra’s feet before she exploded with movement.

She crossed through over half of the chamber in an instant, and landed a few dozen meters away from the Umbrashnul General who had just made their presence known.

Before she had arrived, the giant shadowy man had been preparing to launch a devastating attack that would have torn through the Draayer army’s defenses.

However, when he noticed Lyra’s arrival, he aimed the compressed ball of shadows at her instead.

There were several other Umbrashnuls that locked onto her and were about to attack as well, but with a quick cast of an illusion spell, she confounded all of them. With the only one resisting her spell being her target.

The other Umbrashnuls began firing their attacks off in random directions, often time hitting their own allies.

This was not enough to kill any of them, but it did add some confusion and would slow them down.

"You have some tricks, but they won’t help you against me." The hulking Umbrashnul with four arms said before heaving his attack at Lyra.

If she wanted to, she easily could have dodged the raging mass of shadows, but that would have seen it flying towards the defensive structures that vampires were using to keep their opponents form advancing.

Lyra knew that the walls would not hold up to a strike from the level eighty Umbrashnul before her. So, she dug her heels in and prepared to block the shadow sphere barreling towards her.

’Awaken.’

Knowing that she would need to meet power with power, Lyra did not hesitate to embrace her awakened form.

Six more tails burst out from her back to join the other three, and her features became more bestial.

Feeling a surge of immense strength coursing through her, Lyra thrust both of her kukris forward and enhanced them with her flames.

Her weapons stabbed into the dense ball of shadows, and for a moment she held her ground.

Yet, after a few seconds she started to be pushed back.

Stone cracked in her wake as her heels dug into the ground, and if she was not reinforcing her balance with mana barrier platforms under her feet, she would have been sent flying.

Lyra was forced back nearly three hundred meters, but she did eventually stop the shadow sphere in its tracks.

Light began bursting out from within in it, and soon enough, silvery flames consumed the entire thing in dazzling blaze.

"You must be number five on our list. General Imdiirn." Lyra said, as she walked back towards the high level Umbrashnul.

She had not really been expecting a response when she said this absentmindedly. After all, she knew that the Umbrashnuls spoke their own language and did not really have any relationships with civilizations on the surface.

Yet, to Lyra’s surprise, he actually understood her and replied.

"You must be one of the assassins those Draayer cowards hired. I’m not sure where that empress’ agents found you, but you’re a lot stronger than any of us were expecting. Truthfully, I’m surprised that she brought someone like you into this. She’s either very brave, or very foolish to allow such a threat into her midst."

Imdiirn’s words were not lost on Lyra.

The Draayer Empress and her closets retainers were very powerful, and most forms of attack could not kill them.

Yet, just as Lyra’s flames could harm the Umbrashnuls, it was the same for vampires.

If she, Marcus, Quillon, and Roxene turned on the leaders of the Draayer Empire, they would likely constitute an even greater threat than the Umbrashnuls. Simply because they could actually kill the vampires.

"I was told to offer you eight times whatever the Draayers are offering to get you on our side. Surely, you don’t want to stay on those bloodsuckers’ side. Once you’ve served your purpose, they’re going to betray you and drain you all dry."

"Perhaps, but we’re prepared to deal with them if it comes to that. Also, I’m afraid that whatever your offering is not enough. Anyway, it does not look like to me that you want me to accept in the first place." Lyra said, having noticed the man emitting a barely restrained battle lust.

He had clearly not become a general because of his great tactical mind.

Lyra could tell that Imdiirn was the type that enjoyed fighting above all else and had become strong because of his nature.

When faced with an actually dangerous opponent, he was ecstatic to test his might against theirs.

"You’re right, but the king’s orders are absolute. But if you don’t want to take me up on the offer, then that’s perfectly fine by me."

Without waiting for any further conversation, Imdiirn rushed towards Lyra. A grin barely visible on his large face as shadows rolled over his body.

Lyra could have met his charge, but instead she flitted away and started leaving her clones in her wake.

She did not have them engage directly. Each one kept their distance and launched flames in the hulking Umbrashnul’s direction.

Imdiirn did not pay her clones much mind, only chasing after her.

No doubt he sensed how much weaker they were and hardly considered them a threat. He wanted a good fight, so he chased after the real Lyra. Or at least, what he perceived to be the real her.

When he finally caught up with her, his rapid barrage of punches connected with nothing. The Lyra he had been chasing had already been an illusion for nearly the last ten seconds.

Once her opponent had committed to an attack, she invisibly struck along with three of her clones.

Except, despite her plan working as intended, Imdiirn responded immediately without even looking at her.

One of his four arms twisted around and sent a backhanded blow directly at her real body.

Avoiding it would have been possible, but she was not about to abandon her assault.

Rather, she switched places with one of her clones who Imdiirn had disregarded.

The powerful hit blew her duplicate apart, but she considered the loss worth it as she dug her kukris into the man as if they were giant fangs.

Lyra was surprised by the amount of resistance she felt when striking the shadows wrapped around the general’s body.

It did not feel nearly as flimsy or immaterial like the shadows used by the first group of Umbrashnuls she had fought.

Imdiirn’s shadow armor felt a lot more akin to hitting a wall of adamantine.

Nevertheless, Lyra’s blades pierced through, and she felt the tips that were clad in her flames eat into something soft beath the armor.

She carved a deep wound through his side, before jumping back as the shadows around him erupted in a field of spears.

"Gah! It’s been a long time since I’ve felt true pain. Those flames of yours must be special. Normal fire would not hurt me like this." Imdiirn said, truthfully sounding more ecstatic than hurt.

Lyra did not give a response and instead disappeared as dozens of illusory clones of herself sprung into existence.

She had already determined that her adversary could not track her while she was invisible except when she was right about to attack, and she felt no need to exhaust herself fighting the brute head-on.

He was not the only Umbrashnul that she and the others had been tasked with taking out.

There were sixteen more powerful members of the species that the Draayer empress wanted them to deal with.

’I can feel a gaze on us from afar. One of the other strong ones must be watching. They don’t seem to be able to track me while I’m cloaked in illusions, but I’m sure that they’ll make a move before I kill Imdiirn.’

After having been sitting around so long with only her own thoughts, Lyra had started to become agitated.

She hated being here and having to fight for vampires against shadow people.

It was all just crazy. Even for Mirrion.

What she would have much rather been doing was continuing to advance her domain in Tralenstein.

They were finally started to make real progress in recovering after the civil war. So many people had died during the horrid battles, that she had only recently learned were actually orchestrated by a demonic cult.

A part of her had wanted to hunt down Ardesen and his collaborators immediately, but she knew that focusing on her people was more important.

Tralenstein was going to be incorporated into Borealia in just a few years, and there was a lot to prepare.

She was going to be retaining her title as a duchess, but the transition was still undoubtably going to be fraught with difficulties.

But instead of working on what needed to be done, she was tens of thousands of kilometers away from home and deep underground. Fighting in a war she really did not care about.

She wanted to just go all-out and blow everything around her away to get everything over with quicker.

Still, she kept her more violent impulses in check and counted to fight against Imdiirn, carefully, and methodically.

The Umbrashnul general was no weakling, but Lyra was confident she could beat him if she exerted herself.

That would leave her vulnerable to reprisal from one of his allies though, and she refused to allow that to happen.

So, despite wanting to swiftly tear her opponent apart, she kept her distance and struck only when there was a good opening.

It was not going to be fast, but she would slowly chip away at him while reserving her own strength. Only delivering the finishing blow when her opponent could no longer offer any resistance.