Chapter 36: Darkness Vs Shadow (2)
The eagle’s shriek pierced their ears, drawing blood and forcing them to their knees.
Dale felt his vision tremble as the cry attacked his eardrums and ruptured them.
To worsen things, his prediction came true.
Before they could hope to adjust, the bird sank into its shadow and appeared from Dale’s, claws out ready to rip open his heart.
He saw his life flash before his eyes as the talons reflected light into his eyes.
’Is this how I die?’ Rather than tearing into his chest, he felt a dull force shove him out of the way. Austin had managed to save him in time.
’What was the point though, it will immediately adapt and try again.’ Dale’s train of thought might have seemed pessimistic but it wasn’t.
Hope was the medicine of fools and he wasn’t one.
Trevor’s crown increased in splendor as he opened his mouth. "Halt." The command was simple yet its effect was tremendous.
The bird’s attempt at going after Dale seemed to halt. It was different from being paused — almost like it was merely unable to go after Dale.
Finally realizing it couldn’t kill the one with the blades while the other four were alive, it turned to Austin and threw itself at him.
The latter jumped back, pushing himself with his [Kinetic Thrust] while at the same time pushing the bird away.
Gary and Sarah were on the avenue attacking with both their weapons.
The former gripped his shield and threw it at the bird.
Midway through its flight, space flickered around it and Gary appeared in its place — they had swapped positions.
That was the power of the shield. It allowed one to swap positions with it.
In long-range combat, it didn’t have a lot of applications as one couldn’t be strong enough to heave the shield across kilometers but for a fight such as this, even the slightest distance could spell the difference between life and death.
Sarah gripped the shield and smiled widely.
Gary’s sudden appearance caught the attention of the bird and it tried to rip off his head with its beak.
Space rippled again and the bird struck the metal edges of the shield, shrieking as it dug into the ave’s flesh.
The shield vanished again but it was Sarah who appeared this time with a mass of ice coating her fists.
She threw it down into the charred flesh of the bird.
Upon contact, the ice exploded outwards, spreading and sending the beast into a world of pain.
It swung its wing at her but the limb struck the shield instead.
She appeared beside Gary as they both paused to assess it. What hope did it have against the coordinated efforts of three Awakened and two Dormant?
Dale healed himself with Blight, swinging the blade and unleashing a white crescent slash.
The attack flew at the bird, striking it on a patch of crisped feathers. Its eyes landed back on Dale, reminding it of the one responsible for the bleeding hole in its chest.
Its body blurred, the edges turning into shadow.
Blood burst out of the hole in its chest, forcing it to coalesce back into a physical form.
’So that is why it hasn’t been flashing around!’ It finally made sense. The beast was dying from the wound in its chest.
It opened its beak, blood trailing down the cartilage but before it could ruin their hearing again, "Be silent."
Trevor’s command made the call completely quiet. The bird trembled and turned its eyes on Trevor.
For some reason, it couldn’t focus its primal malice on him. No matter how much it tried it was as if the pest in front of it was meant to be safe.
An understanding — one that its limited mental capacity allowed it anyway — dawned on it. It was going to die.
The bird tried to flap its wings but Dale and Austin were ready.
Dale ran forward and jumped. Austin used his [Kinetic Thrust] to toss him further in the air until he was directly above the eagle.
He pulled back Decay and held his breath.
The world around him seemed to slow to a crawl as he used [Energy Pulse].
As the dark shot built itself around the tip of the blade, he could see the bird raise its head to meet his eyes.
Shadows stirred under the bird as it tried to flap its burned wings.
It was truly a sorry sight but Dale couldn’t care less. He thrust the blade forward, launching the attack with a bang.
His shoulder dislocated for the umpteenth time in a few days yet it was worth it.
The dark shot drilled straight through the head of the bird, nearly snuffing out its life.
Nearly.
With the last bit of life it had, the bird exploded into an all-consuming mass of shadows.
Dale tried to avoid landing in the shadows and failed. It gripped him and pulled him into its cold embrace.
He could just barely hear his teammates being swallowed by it.
’Did I just die?’ Despite all signs pointing to it, he doubted it. If the bird could have done that to kill them, it would have done so a long time ago.
No it was something else.
’Then what is it?’ He soon got his answer.
The world around him brightened and he found himself lying in a clearing alongside his teammates.
The lack of trees around them was enough of an indicator that something was wrong.
Dale forced himself to his feet and scanned his immediate surroundings. The bird was nowhere to be seen, most likely dead.
Even if it wasn’t, it wouldn’t be a bother for a long time.
The clearing seemed to stretch kilometers in all directions with no break except a small pool of liquid at the very center.
’Is that—?!’ Dale couldn’t be mistaken.
At first, it looked like a pool made out of the very sky but on closer inspection, it was a silvery liquid.
It was an Awakening pool.
’Why did the bird take us here?’
The others stood up and took note of everything including the pool. At least, they found a natural resource for the military.
All they had to do was find the Ascended beast.
A sudden wave of dread washed over Dale just as the surface of the pool rippled.
It first started as a pair of twig-like legs, then another and another until a 3-meter-long centipede crawled out.
The mere aura it released choked all of them. There was no mistaking it.
’The Ascended beast.’
