Chương 99: Chapter 98. Dropping birds

There were four birds. Clearly undead, with their rotten feathers and unnatural red eyes. All of them shrieked as they burst through the hallway, wings beating wildly as they dove toward the warband. Rayne's arc of death mana tore through the air toward them, but the creatures moved unnaturally fast. Three of them twisted mid-flight, slipping past the dark crescent. One wasn't quick enough, and the edge of the arc clipped its wing.

The bird spun violently, losing balance, and crashed straight into a cluster of advancing undead below. For half a second, it flailed among them, then its body inflated and an explosion tore through the packed zombies, shredding limbs and throwing bodies against the stone walls. The remaining three kept flying.

"Take down the birds!" Rayne shouted immediately.

"They are going to explode!" Arrows launched upward instantly as archers saw them coming. They cut through the air in quick succession, but the birds dipped and swerved erratically. All the arrows struck stone instead, splintering uselessly against the walls. When the birds were almost upon them, Casper attacked. A condensed ball of flame formed in her palm and shot forward like a cannonball. It collided with one of the birds mid-air. The impact triggered an explosion right in the air.

Fire and gore rained down from above. Soldiers pushed their shields forward as burning feathers and fragments of flesh scattered everywhere. But the last two birds still broke through. They dove directly into the center of the formation.

"Scatter!" someone yelled. Every man reacted on instinct, leaping sideways and abandoning tight formation to avoid being caught in the middle. Rayne and his party jumped to the left. Behind them, the birds hit the ground and detonated. The shockwave rolled outward like a hammer. Rayne felt the force slam into him. His feet left the ground as he was thrown backward, armor scraping against stone before he crashed into the wall with a painful thud. For a few seconds, there was only ringing in his ears.

Then he heard shouts and groans echoing through the haze of dust and smoke.

"Fuck these birds," he muttered and forced himself up, coughing once and blinking against the burning air. His shield arm throbbed, but nothing felt broken. Through the dust, he saw two familiar figures on the ground right next to him. Nate and Kesh lay on their backs, both groaning. Rayne rushed toward them immediately.

"You two okay?" he asked, grabbing Nate's arm and pulling him partly upright. Kesh rolled onto his side, squinting through the smoke.

"Rayne? Is that you?" Before Rayne could answer, he heard footsteps right behind him. Two undead burst through the thinning haze, their swords already raised. One swung immediately, blade cutting downward toward Rayne's shoulder. He let go of Nate and sidestepped instinctively. The blade scraped across his pauldron and bounced. Rayne slammed his shield forward, smashing it into the undead's skull and sending the stinking monster stumbling toward the wall. The second lunged at him the very next second.

Rayne brought his sword up in time, steel clashing with rusted iron. Sparks flew between them as the undead pressed forward mindlessly. He simply shoved at it and the undead staggered back one step. That was enough for a gap to form. Rayne swung cleanly. His blade carved through the undead's neck in a single motion. The head separated and rolled across the stone floor while the body collapsed. Behind him, Nate was already pushing himself up, muttering curses.

The first undead tried to rise again despite blood coming out of its head, but Rayne stepped forward and brought his blade down through its face. Notifications immediately rang in his mind, and he exhaled before giving a good look at the hallway. In one word, it was chaos. Dust still hung thick in the air, but as it slowly thinned, the damage became clear. Several soldiers were still on the ground, groaning, some clutching bruised ribs or burned arms.

Others were scrambling back into position, trying to reform the broken shield wall while keeping distance from any undead still shambling forward. The worst part wasn't the number of undead left. It was not knowing which one would explode. Even now, explosions rang out every few seconds. The undead were no less than a kamikaze force, and they didn't care if their brethren were dying with them. They only cared if the soldiers were dying.

As a result, most able men were throwing knives and daggers at them and keeping their distance. Even Casper had shifted tactics completely. She held [Infernal Chains] in her hands and shot them forward toward undead, wrapping around their torsos and limbs before yanking them off their feet. She smashed them into the walls or flung them backward into open space, detonating them away from the core of the warband. Each explosion echoed violently, but at least it wasn't happening inside their ranks anymore.

Even with fewer undead remaining, the damage had already been done. Rayne was about to move to help out a few soldiers on the ground and look for the rest of his party when he heard it again. A high-pitched cry. He turned sharply toward the deeper curve of the hallway. Half a dozen birds burst into view, wings flapping as they shot toward them. Even from this distance, he could see their bodies already beginning to swell faintly and glowing red.

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"Fuck," Rayne muttered under his breath and looked toward Nate and Kesh, both of whom had gotten to their feet.

"Use your knives and daggers. Get them on the ground. We can't let them explode in the middle again." Then he looked back at the chaos behind him and shouted, "More birds are coming!" He didn't know if anyone else would be able to help out, but both men beside him nodded immediately. Nate pulled two throwing knives from his belt, rolling his shoulders once to steady himself. Kesh drew a pair of slim daggers, eyes narrowing as he tracked the birds' approach.

Rayne didn't trust them to aim well, but he didn't see any archers around and simply hoped they could kill as many as possible before they got any closer. Mana surged through his arm and into his blade, dark energy crawling across the steel like living smoke. He raised it up, keeping his eyes on the explosive birds. At the same time, Nate and Kesh moved. Knives and daggers shot through the air in quick succession. The birds reacted instantly, diving and twisting to avoid the incoming projectiles.

Their movements were erratic but precise, wings snapping mid-flight as they veered off course. One of Kesh's daggers still managed to clip a wing. It wasn't a clean hit, but it was enough. The bird shrieked as its balance broke. It spiraled downward, crashing into the stone floor and detonating in a violent burst. The explosion ripped outward and knocked the birds ahead of it into disarray. Two of them wobbled, struggling to regain balance in the sudden turbulence. Rayne followed it up immediately.

Instead of gathering everything into one massive arc, he adjusted. The birds were fragile and easy to kill. Several small attacks were better than one big one. He controlled his mana and swung his blade several times, letting out small bursts of energy. Three smaller arcs of death mana shot forward in rapid succession. The first sliced through the middle of the formation and struck the far wall, cracking stone with a dull thunder. The second hit a bird square in the face. It exploded mid-air.

The blast threw another bird sideways, slamming it into the wall with a crunch of bone, and it detonated as well, taking out a chunk of the wall. Rayne allowed himself the faintest smile, but the third arc vanished inside the explosion's smoke and he frowned. There were still three of them left, and they were getting closer.

"Shit," he murmured. Nate and Kesh hurled more blades, but their aim suffered under the pressure. One dagger spun uselessly against the wall. Another missed by a wide margin. The birds cried out as if mocking them. Rayne gritted his teeth and pushed more mana into his sword, but this time he didn't aim at them. That strategy hadn't worked as well as he had hoped. Instead, he pivoted and slashed upward. The arc struck the ceiling ahead of the flock.

Stone cracked immediately and a heartbeat later, debris rained down. A massive chunk of rock dropped straight onto one bird, crushing it toward the ground. It hit the floor and detonated in a blast that shook the stone beneath them. Another bird was clipped by falling rubble, one wing snapping as it smashed into the wall and burst apart seconds later. Now only one of them remained—the one that had been leading the flock. It flapped hard, navigating through the raining debris with unsettling precision.

It was faster than the others and, with every second, it covered more distance. Two more daggers flew toward it. The bird twisted left at the last second, blades slicing empty air. It cried out again, its body growing red as it dove lower. Rayne began gathering mana once more, but stopped when he realised he wouldn't be fast enough and would simply be wasting it. His gaze flicked downward to the broken debris scattered across the floor. An idea formed instantly.

"Move back and help the others," Rayne said sharply. Nate blinked.

"What the hell are you saying?"

"It's an order," Rayne growled, not taking his eyes off the incoming bird. Kesh hesitated only half a second before grabbing Nate's arm. The two retreated toward the rest of the warband, where explosions still rang out. Rayne didn't have time to care about that right now. The last bird was already closing in. Its red eyes were locked onto him, wings cutting through the dusty air as it descended in a controlled glide.

Instead of attacking with another [Death Strike], he sheathed his sword and bent to grab loose rocks from the shattered debris at his feet. He needed more than one projectile to hit the bird, and his mana was already running low. Stones were perfect for that. He hurled the first one, but the bird twisted mid-air and it missed. The second rock followed immediately after. It clipped nothing but air as the creature dipped lower. Rayne didn't stop. He threw again and again.

Each rock missed, and the bird cried out every single time. But the closer it got, the easier it became to aim. The seventh rock left his hand with more force, aimed slightly ahead of its path. This time, it hit. The stone smashed against one wing with a dull crack. The bird shrieked in fury, its body swelling visibly as the red glow deepened to a violent blood hue. Then it dove straight at him, even as one wing no longer worked properly. Rayne frowned, but didn't retreat. He couldn't show his back to the bird.

Instead, he raised his shield and braced. The bird reached him— —and exploded. The blast hit like a hammer against his chest. The shield absorbed the first wave, but the force was monstrous. Cracks spread instantly across the metal. The next second, the shield shattered. Rayne was thrown backward, boots scraping against the stone before he was lifted fully off the ground and slammed into the wall. Smoke forced its way through the slit of his helmet and into his lungs. For a moment, everything rang like before.

But soon, he felt [Lesser Regeneration] activate, warmth spreading from his core outward. The worst of the damage was on his shoulder. It throbbed violently, but nothing felt dislocated. Still, he didn't take a chance. He tore off his helmet and pulled a potion from his belt. The vial was intact, as always. He briefly wondered, not for the first time, what in the world those vials were made of that they survived blasts like that. The thought passed as quickly as it came.

He downed a quarter of the potion and pushed himself upright. The smoke was thinning now. He scanned the hallway and relief hit him. Most of the undead were gone—either killed by a blade, spell, or blasted apart by their own detonations. Jason, Hobbs, and a few others were finishing the last few, slamming them against the wall with a kick. Fortunately, those didn't explode. Rayne's gaze lifted toward the curve of the hallway, and he saw no birds flying at them. The battle seemed to be over, and he exhaled.

Then he looked at the ground. It was filled with men. Some were burned and groaning in pain. Others were bleeding. A few weren't moving at all. His jaw tightened before he saw Captain Edran walking in the center of the battered formation, his expression just as bitter.

"The undead are dead," he called out firmly, taking all their attention.

"Rest up and tend to the injured. Those who can still walk will help the fallen. We carry their ashes back." A heavy silence followed his words. Rayne frowned, walking forward to check on his own party, but he couldn't help but wonder one thing. How many more such undead waited before they reached the core room?

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