The Lustful Villain: Every Milfs and Gilfs are Mine!-Chapter 178. They Have a Pack and Flanking Strategy. I Have Two Very Dependable Girls.
The creature that had stepped out of the tree line was not the only one.
Rex knew this before it had finished deciding what to do, because the Foresight feed was still running, and it was showing him twelve more in the second layer of the tree line, seven in the third, and an indeterminate number deeper in where the foliage was too dense for even his foresight to resolve individual shapes from the mass of movement.
’Shit... there’s more than I thought it could be, but eh... I bet they’re weak as fuck.’ Rex thought. ’Since I do have privilege, then... this is the right time to be reliable for these girls.’
He had about four seconds before the one in front decided.
"Alright, listen up, both of you," Rex said in a commanding voice, catching the attention of Talyra and Aisella as they glanced at him simultaneously.
"Talyra," he said, maintaining a steady tone. "Aim your arrow at the center mass, not the head."
"We’re not sure if the head is the kill point, and this shot could serve as a warning for them."
"But I have other plans for that kind of attack... it will make the enemy think we’re weak and careless."
"Got it," she said, her voice embodying the quality Rex associated with Talyra in operational contexts: bright on the surface yet steady beneath, a steadiness derived from skill rather than emotional suppression.
"Shoot it when I give you the signal," Rex instructed. 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺
"Alright, Rexy~! You’re the boss!"
The creature made its decision, and it was not a slow one. One moment it was standing at the tree line’s edge, and the next it was moving, and the way it moved was what told Rex everything he needed to know about its classification level.
It was fast in the specific way of things whose bodies had been optimized over generations for the environment they inhabited, which is to say it moved through the gap between the tree line and the shore without any of the clumsy urgency that most ambush predators showed at the moment of committing.
The movement was deliberate and controlled. It had made a conscious choice to advance, executing its actions rather than merely reacting.
Rex allowed it to cover about two-thirds of the distance before he raised his hands.
The telekinesis spread out widely instead of being focused. A focused application against a fast-moving target at fifteen meters needed either perfect timing or a considerable margin for error, and the wide application addressed both issues at once.
He caught the creature in a field that was broad enough to reach its extremities regardless of its exact position mid-stride and applied enough lateral force to redirect its trajectory sideways rather than stopping it, which was better for several reasons.
This method was less energy-intensive, placed the creature in an unexpected position, and positioned it directly in the gap between Talyra’s sight line and the area where she had already started to adjust.
He shouted, "Shoot it!"
Talyra drew her bow and released an arrow, which struck the creature squarely in the center of its body.
STAB!
The creature went down with the specific sound of something that had been moving fast being stopped by something faster, and Rex was already reading the tree line for what came next because what came next always came next.
The next group consisted of the twelve from the second layer.
"There’s more. Let’s protect our backs and focus on which one poses the greatest threat to us." Rex held their hands together to shield their backs.
They came together, which answered one of the questions he had been holding since he first saw the organized movement behind the tree line.
This was not a pack in the loose, opportunistic sense of predators that hunted together simply because it was convenient. This was a display of coordinated behavior, indicating that someone in the group grasped the concept of group strategy.
Rex identified the coordinator within the first three seconds of the wave’s approach; it was the one that wasn’t moving toward him. Instead, it had shifted to the right, positioning itself at a forty-five-degree angle to the group’s approach vector. From that angle, it was adjusting its posture in a way that the others seemed to be responding to.
This indicated signal behavior and tactical communication.
He filed it as important and addressed the immediate problem.
"Aisella," he said, "the one at three o’clock is directing the others."
"If you can get a diagnostic read on it, I need to know if its signature is different from the ones in front."
"I’m on it," Aisella replied with a nod.
Aisella’s hands had been in the diagnostic position since the wave started. She was running a continuous passive scan and updating her read as new information became available, the kind of multi-threaded attention that made her exceptional at her role.
"It is different," she said, not looking away from her work. "The signature depth is at least two levels above the standard population..."
"It has the kind of energy reserve I associate with some older specimens." Aisella looked at him. "I know that because I was an elf, and some elves work with those."
"It’s some kind of a pack elder, huh?" Rex said.
"Yes, something like that," Aisella said.
’She’s fast... I fucking love this Elf. A fine addition to my collection soon.’ He smirks.
Rex appreciated that she didn’t overclaim. Something like that was exactly right.
"Then let me handle this myself..." He raised both his hands.
He took the six in the center of the wave, using a spread application to lift them and deposit them onto one another with enough force to interrupt their momentum without necessarily eliminating it.
At this point, the goal was to stop them; understanding their behavior came before any attempts to eliminate them, as he was particularly interested in the level of coordination they exhibited.
Three of the six managed to rise again. Rex observed their recovery rate and categorized it as "these creatures possess greater structural resilience than their body mass would indicate."
During the time he had been managing the center, Talyra had taken down two more opponents. She had not aimed for the ones he redirected, which meant she had the tactical awareness to read his intervention as intention rather than random effect and was targeting around it.
"Sorry, Rex, I don’t want you to have all the fun just like that." Talyra giggled. "At this point... it’s going to be a competition for you and me to see who can take down those monsters!"
"Well, that was good enough," Rex approved. "Most people with combat training defaulted to their own targeting and treated the battlefield as their own problem to solve."
"You start treating it as a shared problem, huh?"
"Just watch me on a roll!" Talyra used her plan to impress him again.
Rex glanced at her briefly. She had moved from the beach to a slightly elevated position on the rocks to his left, which gave her a sightline across the full width of the approach and removed her from the direct charge path.
She had done this task without him saying anything, and then he noted it.
’Another dependable girl I could use... it appears I’ve already discovered four of my Subordinate Vessels.’
The pack elder at three o’clock changed its signal. Rex caught the change in peripheral vision and watched two of the remaining creatures break from the main wave and begin curving wide to flank.
"Flank attempt, left and right," he said.
"Left side," Talyra called, and she was already adjusting her position on the rocks to cover the angle.
Rex managed the right flank with a concentrated pull that lifted both flanking creatures off the ground and held them there while he shifted his main focus back to the center. The held targets were neutralized, which sufficed for the time being.
The main wave had dwindled to four, still advancing, three of which were the ones that had recovered from the initial knockdown. The fourth was the largest and had not participated in the first charge, which Rex suspected was a deliberate strategy by the group’s leader.
It approached him more quickly than its size would suggest.
Rex took the impact across both arms, redirecting it rather than stopping it because stopping a mass that large at that speed required either time or significant energy expenditure, and he had neither in surplus.
He moved with it, controlled the redirect, and put the creature’s momentum into the ground at an angle that deposited it shoulder-first into the dark volcanic sand.
It was back on its feet in under two seconds.
"Alright," Rex said, and the tone he said it in was the one that didn’t perform the emotion it was describing.
"These are actually interesting."
