As the battle raged on, mere minutes having passed since the first life was claimed, yet, the sky grew darker at a rapid pace, the burning sun's light obstructed as all undeads called upon flocks of putrescent birds, carcasses that should no longer soar to the air, their blood drained or toxic, their feathers with beauty still, their entrail a stagnant mush if not hanging from their stomachs…
Murders of crows, bouquets of hummingbirds, wakes of vultures, gaggles of geese, hosts of sparrows, casts of falcons, flamboyances of flamingos, doles of doves… Countless species flew into a tight, disorderly formation, some of those avians reaching ridiculous sizes, some were even moving around on the ground, flightless volatiles were also represented, feathers rained down from above like a downpour.
So many that moving on the ground was becoming harder and harder, the combined weight of all them arising fears that the suspended village might be dragged to the corrupted depths, but that only applied to the livings, on the contrary- Nightbirds seemed to move with even greater agility, and certainly with less predictability as they dived through the slow rain, able to disappear and reappear into blast of more feathers without being noticed, forcing the westerners to pay even closer attention to the elusive undeads.
The exalted figures of this region fought without restraint, aiming to destroy the unliving creatures that threatened all that was built here, the others also fought with their lives on the line, here, there was no doubt that the enemy would not spare them, the enemy was specifically after what animated them, seeking to stop hearts from beating, to stop lungs from being filled with air. Continue reading at Freewebnovel
Many had already died, the nightbirds proving ruthless as they struck down all that got in their way, as well as those that did not, but in this little idyllic place turned hellscape in a matter of seconds… Only a single living was not engaged in fight with any undead, a young huntress vanished into a small cavern linked to the village, nearly sliding and tumbling down more than once as she treaded the way down to a special area, stairs nothing more than small slopes, one was not recommended to descend this path with hastiness of any kind, lethargic slugginess was typically more of the order.
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But there was no time to waste with carefulness, safety damned- The huntress not carried as she bumped her head and bruised herself at sharp turns, even having to roll as her momentum nearly caused her skull to be cracked open upon the ground.
Finally, she saw the end of it, the whole thing had only taken perhaps a minute or two as a whole, but she had felt like an entire hour had passed whilst she ungracefully rushed down.
Faced with many prison cells, bars made from bones, as well as a singular lid upon the uneven floor, her sights were first set on the cells, each and every one of them packed to the brim with all sorts of drylurkers, or at least, of those that could fit through the passageway, taking out her bone blade, the young huntress grasped it with shaky hands, the problem of this situation only dawning on her just now.
'Won't they tear me apart first things first? Will I even manage to unleash more than one cell? If that's so… Shouldn't I lift the lid then?' gripped with uncertainty at a most inopportune moment, the drylurkers noticed her presence, beginning to grow agitated as they pushed against the bars, clawing and gnawing at them, a meaningless affair, the cells had not been poorly thought-out.
But the clamour was loud, a clangour of shrieks, cries and roars overlapped onto one another, manifesting a truly irritating, disorienting cacophony in record time… Not allowing the tumult to overwhelm her senses alongside the already present anxiety, she approached the lid, also made from bones, although this one's size and weight was far superior to anything inside the region, instead belonging to the great creature that had arisen in the Central Plains some time back.
No sounds were coming from beneath its heavy surface, but it terrified the huntress much more than the rest, heart beating loudly, growing so large that it felt as though it was pushing against her chest, grabbing hold of the small handles, she bent her knees and focused intently, she knew that lifting this thing was not too difficult as long as you weren't trapped below it, but she herself had never done it before, and this thing weighed more than a dead horse, without the proper method, it would barely even move.
Putting her back into it, the young huntress barely even tried when she let go of it, a burst of feathers appeared right in front of her, a short blade narrowly missing… One second later and she could have said goodbye to her nose, two seconds later, and she would have had to say farewell.
A nightbird had followed, softly landing upon the lid, this one not bearing any one sort of feathers in particular, but she was perhaps the most vile the young huntress had gotten sight of so far, all of the undead's nails were missing, leaving place to blood red spots instead, part of the flesh nearby also missing, implying that they had been pulled off with much savagery.
As for her face, it was covered with bandages so drenched in blood that they had turned completely dark, only leaving one eye to peek out, an ocular globe without eyelids to cover it.
The huntress had not even known that eyes were this big before now…
Of course, this was just how this nightbird looked normally, taking on the traits of a woman killed through torture when she had emerged from the soil, the additional psyche damage was always welcome however.
Wielding a simple tanto as her primary weapon, the nightbird instantly moved in after missing the initial strike, bringing her foot down on the living's chest, aiming to drive the heel straight into her opponent's solar plexus, but stopped as the target rolled away.
As the westerner stood up, a blade was repeatedly swung at her, forced to move away in a panic, pointing the bone blade at her enemy in an attempt to keep the corpse at bay.
A useless action as the carcass, slapped the flimsily-held weapon away, landing a nasty cut to the living's side, staining her blade red.
One had to admit that the girl Jaral Cribler had chosen was awfully jumpy, always knowing where to run away to in order to evade attacks as efficiently as was possible.
But being efficient wasn't going to cut it, the nightbird attacked relentlessly, and space was hard to come by around here, it couldn't even be used to its fullest extent either as getting too close to one of the cells could get one caught by the mad drylurkers held inside.
Right eye brimming with a yellow shine, the huntress attempted to exchange a few blows with the undead, but still, the power of her transplantation was not enough to bridge the gap, her attacks too amateurish, the assassin seeing right through all of them.
The living could only thank her luck and proficiency in getting away from danger for having managed to avoid serious injuries so far, even with the many cuts already riddling her body.
She had to think outside the box, do something entirely unexpected, and perhaps even obviously idiotic to hope to not be completely made a fool out of from beginning to end.
'The chief gave this mission to me… I can't let a single enemy stop me… And certainly not one as weak as that!'
Backing up, she breathed in and out, deflecting one strike before immediately turning right around, showing her back to the undead, who instantly seized the opportunity and carved a cross upon the living.
The huntress brought the hilt of the bone sword down on the simple lock of one of the cells, allowing a tide of voracious drylurkers to pour right out.