CHAPTER 78: DEVIL BAT EXPEDITION [3]

What it revealed froze every heart for a breath.

Hundreds of bats! Each one the size of a man or larger, their grotesque, leathery bodies clinging to the floor, the walls, and the arched ceiling far above. Their wings were wrapped tightly like cloaks, their heads tucked low, but their eyes gleamed. Waiting for them. Breathing in unison with a low, churning rhythm.

The torch’s light shimmered across their flesh like a ripple over oil.

And then...

SCREEEEEEECH!!!

A single, piercing cry tore through the air like a blade, shrill and deafening, echoing through the cavern in a wave of madness. It was followed by another. Then dozens. Then hundreds.

The walls themselves seemed to scream. The air trembled as the bones on the floor rattled.

Kaelor’s expression shifted instantly, a grim, sharpened edge carved into his features as he turned on his heel, sprinting back to the Guardsmen.

Their shields parted like a wall of wood, opening a temporary corridor. Without missing a beat, both he and Hound darted through the line. The moment they crossed, the shield wall slammed shut behind them like a massive stone door.

Inside the protective formation, Kaelor raised Keranous high, the blade gleaming even in the dim torchlight.

Ahead, the cavern shook beneath the deafening beat of wings. Hundreds, perhaps more of the screeching, leathery monstrosities were thundering toward them, a living wave of fangs, claws, and fury.

Kaelor gritted his teeth.

This wasn’t the place to stand at the front, not without a shield to hold the tide. This was no flanking maneuver. They were defending a choke point against a flood of darkness. He needed the wall, the Guardsmen, to take the brunt of the onslaught, to absorb the impact.

Even Hound, wild as he was, understood. For all their monstrous strength, they lacked full plate armor. A single mistake could mean a gash too deep, a wound too fatal.

"Prepare yourselves!" Kaelor’s roar boomed through the cavern like a war drum.

Titan, looming before the shield wall, inhaled sharply through all three heads before exhaling a hellish torrent of flame.

From three directions, the inferno roared into the charging swarm. Dozens of bats were incinerated in an instant, their screeches of agony swallowed by the roaring blaze. Fur crisped into ash, leathery wings curled and cracked, bodies plummeted in smoking spirals to the bone-covered ground.

But there were too many.

Even as Titan burned a path through them, the swarm surged forward, overwhelming the beast. They piled on, wave after wave, until Titan disappeared beneath a writhing hill of black wings and shrieking mouths.

Kaelor’s eyes flared. "Archers!"

At his command, a hundred arrows screamed through the air, slicing through the gloom in synchronized death. Bats shrieked and dropped as the volley tore through them. Another wave followed instantly, each arrow loosed with predatory precision. The Bloodstone Archers were relentless.

Titan burst free from the pile of bodies, slamming against the cavern wall with a thunderous quake.

The impact crushed dozens of bats, their bones shattering beneath its colossal weight. Flames licked from its maws again, scorching the air with an almost liquid fire.

Wherever Titan’s blood was spilled, it hissed violently against stone, melting rock like acid. Any bat foolish enough to taste that blood was doomed, its gut seared open, liquefied from the inside, falling mid-air in spasms of agony.

"Advance!" Hound’s guttural bellow rang out.

With a bestial roar, the Guardsmen surged forward. Shields clashed against talons. Sabers hissed against snapping jaws. The chamber exploded into chaos, metal, fire, and death blending into a violent symphony. Wings flapped madly. Arrows continued to thrum. Wolf-men snarled and howled. And over it all, the scream of dying beasts echoed endlessly.

Kaelor dove into the fray, Keranous a blur of silver steel. He cut a swath through the enemy like a master of the sword, every swing removing a head or cleaving a chest.

Blood sprayed across his face, soaking into his garments, yet he didn’t slow. Every scratch he received was answered tenfold, with brutal thrusts and vicious slashes that sent bats shrieking into the void.

By the time he paused, panting, surrounded by winged corpses, over two dozen of them lay dead at his feet.

He turned just in time to see a Guardsman, pinned to the stone floor. The soldier’s saber lay just out of reach, and a bat loomed over him, its jaws gaping wide.

Thwip!

An arrow split the air and buried itself in the beast’s skull, cracking it open like an egg. Kaelor’s eyes shot up, Soren stood amidst the chaos, already drawing another arrow. He released it a heartbeat later, and Kaelor couldn’t even follow the trajectory. Only the scream of another dying bat told him the shot had landed.

Kaelor clenched Keranous once more.

Burning, spectral chains erupted from the wounds of nearby bats, flaming serpents of mana lashing around their limbs, coiling tight, and slamming them to the ground. Pinned, they screeched and thrashed as Kaelor’s soldiers descended, dispatching the immobilized beasts with precise, merciless strikes.

"Advance!" Hound’s roar sounded again.

Kaelor turned toward it, and his breath caught.

Hound stood like a demon reborn, drenched in gore, his white fur soaked crimson. Both Mountain Sabers were slick with blood, chunks of flesh hanging from the edges. His chest heaved, wounded and bleeding, but his eyes still blazed with wild energy.

Suddenly, a shadow emerged from the darkness ahead.

Kaelor’s expression froze.

A bat, towering, unlike the others. Its body, pale as winter snow. But the most terrifying feature was the row of crimson quills that ran from its neck up across its skull, each one long, needle-like, pulsing faintly with mana.

It didn’t shriek, neither It didn’t flap. It glided forward, silent as death.

Hound lunged.

His Saber met the beast’s hide and bounced off, like steel on stone. Hound snarled, spinning to strike again, this time with a fist, slamming it into the creature’s skull.

The bat barely tilted its head. Then, Its head blurred, and before Hound could move quills exploded from its body, faster than lightning.

Hound gasped.

Dozens of crimson spines buried themselves into his torso, shoulders, legs, everywhere. Blood sprayed into the air like mist. Along with this came five gray bats, like royal guards following their king!