Chapter 201: Vampire Vultures
Immediately Lukas finished yelling, the screeching multiplied.
More shapes dropped from the dark sky, wings folding as they dove, their bodies almost invisible in the sky. This was the special skill of a Vampire Vulture. They knew how to hide themselves in the sky, even under a full moon.
However, the reason they were named Vampire Vultures was because of what they did when they attacked their enemies. They drain them dry of every drop of blood in their body first before slowly savoring the flesh.
The only warning the group had now was the sound. All they could hear was a rush of air and a shriek above them.
Karrakas tracked one by sound alone, releasing an arrow into the darkness above him. A pained screech confirmed the hit, but the vulture didn’t drop, pulling up and circling back into the night sky.
"They’re fast," Karrakas said, already nocking another arrow.
Akira activated the headband and fired two [Death Bolts] upwards in quick succession, aiming for the targets the way the headband had shown her.
The first bolt hit a vulture in the middle of its dive, the necrosis spreading through its wing and into its body. It spiraled, screeching, and hit the sand several meters to the left.
The second bolt missed as the vulture it was aimed at banked sharply at the last instant.
Another shape dropped toward Lukas, and even with its cloaking ability, he noticed it.
He stood his ground, tracking its descent, and waited.
The vulture came in fast and low, talons extended, aiming for his head. At the last possible moment Lukas bent at the waist to the side, letting the talons pass close enough to feel the air move past his ear.
Melody made a sound of surprise, as the bird had flown in from her blindspot.
As for Lukas, he simply fired a [Death Bolt] directly into the creature’s underbelly as it swept past him.
The rot spread immediately. The vulture crashed into the sand three meters ahead of him and didn’t move.
[You have killed a D-rank Vampire Vulture.]
He looked up, just in time to see Melody step forward, her head on a swivel. She’d let one beast get past her. She wouldn’t let it happen again.
Her [Hex Shield] snapped up again, just in time to block off one of the vultures trying to catch them off guard. The beast hit the barrier, bounced off, and flew back before Melody could attack.
Lukas would have killed it himself, but Melody’s [Hex Shield] was still up.
Melody drew her sword and waited.
Just like she’d expected, the bird came back down.
She gave a short yell, stepped forward, and thrusted her blade upwards.
Her sword plunged into the beast’s chest, drove in deeper by its own momentum. She twisted the blade before yanking it out, blood spraying into the air as the bird crashed to the ground.
[You have killed a D-rank Vampire Vulture.]
Karrakas’ eyes narrowed as he spotted one of the shadows, and after a few short seconds of studying it, put an arrow through its body.
The arrow punched through one wing at the joint, sending it plunging downwards with a screech. It hit the sand hard, one wing folding uselessly, and scrambled towards him on its talons.
He put a second arrow through its skull before it could even begin to move close the distance.
Above them, only two of the beasts remain, and they were intelligent enough to be cautious, pulling back up into the dark sky, circling wide over them.
They were more quiet, screeching as if they were trying to whisper. They’d lost enough of the group to understand that diving blind wasn’t working.
Akira activated the headband.
She tracked both shapes through the fractured preview, watching their lines of descent play out a few seconds ahead of real time. She waited until the headband showed her the exact moment both vultures committed to their dives simultaneously.
The world sealed up, time resumed, and Akira held both hands up, a grin on her face.
The moment the shapes dropped from the sky, she fired.
Two [Death Bolts] left her palms in different directions at the same instant, each one streaking across the dark sky like a missile.
Both bolts hit. The necrosis moved through both vultures before they’d covered half their dive distance.
Their wings locked and their screeching cut off. They hit the sand within two seconds of each other, neither of them moving after impact.
[You have killed a D-rank Vampire Vulture (x2).]
Silence filled the air once more.
Everyone instantly turned to Akira, who activated the headband again. She watched a few seconds ahead, verifying that the vultures were truly all dead.
After confirming it, she lowered her hands and exhaled slowly, giving them all a thumbs up.
Karrakas looked over the fallen vultures, moving from one to the next, assessing quickly.
"Several of these are too far gone," he said. "The rot’s taken too much flesh. There’s almost nothing worth storing."
"Leave them to me," Akira said.
She raised both hands and activated [Resurrect].
Two of the vulture corpses responded, the animation taking hold of them. They were the ones that had been killed without the rot, and their body was still intact enough to function.
One had been killed by Melody, the mark of her word in its underbelly, while the other had been killed by Karrakas, but still retained most of its body, including its wings and legs.
They rose to their feet, moving awkwardly, before spreading their wings.
They began flapping them and a few seconds later, lifted off, rising into the cold night air above the group until they became shadows in the night sky, almost indistinguishable from the living vultures they’d been minutes before.
Akira watched them go, grinning.
"Now we have two sets of bodies in the sky," she said.
Karrakas watched the two shapes circle overhead for a moment, then shook his head slowly and pulled out his compass.
"Give me a minute."
He spent the time recalculating the straight line before speaking.
"We’re still straight," he said. "Let’s move."
They set off.
They’d covered no more than a few minutes of ground when the screeching started again, rolling across the dark desert from somewhere above and ahead of them. It was another group of vultures, circling.
Akira looked up.
She was already smiling.
