CHAPTER 154: WAR ZONE 5

The first creature crawled into view, its limbs were disgustingly long, its face was split with jagged teeth. Its skin was a stretched taut over its bones, grayish and cracked like leather that is left too long in the sun.

And behind it, another emerged and another. Within moments, the treeline seemed alive with them, dozens at least was hunched and twitching, their hungry eyes were fixed on the three intruders.

Lyra notched an arrow without hesitation and said. "They are not rats." The first beast shrieked, with a piercing, throat ripped cry that echoed through the ravine. And at that signal, the forest erupted.

The Swarm Descends and they came in a tide from the cliffs above, from the trees, from the very earth, the beast swarmed with inhuman speed with claws raking the stone, jaws snapping.

"Hold the line!" Kelvin roared, drawing his blade as the first beast lunged. Steel flashed, and the creature’s head separated cleanly from its body, tumbling into the dirt.

But for every one that fell, three more pressed in. Lyra’s arrows whistled through the air, each strike was finding an eye, a throat, a skull. She fired faster than breath, her movements were precise, deadly, but the swarm kept coming, scuttling over their own dead like insects.

Darius let out a bellow and swung his axe in a wide arc. The weapon cleaved through two beast at once, sending their limbs flying, ichor sprayed. He used his bulk as a wall, anchoring their formation against the tide.

But even his strength faltered as more ghouls hurled themselves from the cliffs above, which slamming into his shoulders clawing at his armor, trying to drag him down.

"Darius!" Kelvin leapt to his side, blade cutting a ghoul clean in half. Another raked claws toward his throat, but Lyra’s arrow skewered it mid-leap.

"They are too many!" she shouted. "I noticed!" Darius barked, smashing a beast against the rocks that hard enough to crack its skull.

The ground was slick with black ichor now, the stench was choking. Every breath burned their lungs, every swing of their weapons was slowed by the press of bodies. The ravine had become a trap narrow walls that funneled the swarm directly onto them, with wave after wave.

The first few rushed blindly, but now they began to flank, climbing the cliff walls, dropping down behind Lyra. She spun, loosing an arrow through one’s skull, but another slashed her arm before Kelvin cut it down.

"Stay tight!" he yelled. They formed a triangle, Kelvin was in the front, Darius covered the flank, Lyra fired from the center. It held, barely. But the swarm was not thin.

Minutes were dragged like hours. Their breaths grew ragged, sweat stung their eyes, muscles screamed with the weight of each swing.

Kelvin’s blade was slick with blood and gore, his arms was heavy. Every strike mattered now, one miss, one stumble, and the beast would tear through their formation.

Darius’s axe was slower now, his armor was shredded and scored with claw marks. He fought like a wall of iron, but walls crack were under enough pressure.

Lyra’s quiver was running thin. She cursed under her breath, loosing another arrow into a beast skull. Only five left. "Kelvin!" she shouted. "We can not hold this forever!"

Kelvin’s jaw tightened. "Then we break through." But before he could give the signal, the ground beneath them shifted.

A fissure split open in the dirt and from it poured another wave like smaller, faster beast were crawling on all four legs, their bodies were twisted like hounds. They shrieked as they surged forward, a fresh tide against the three already worn thin.

Lyra’s face drained of color. "Gods... they were burrowing." The swarm closed in tighter, their screeches were deafening, the smell of rot was unbearable. Teeth snapped inches from Kelvin’s face as he parried, his blade was nearly ripped from his hands.

Darius staggered as three leapt onto his back, dragging at his helmet, claws raking for the gaps. He roared, spinning, smashing two against the rocks, but the third sank its teeth into his shoulder. His bellow turned to a cry of pain.

"Darius!" Kelvin cut the beast free, but blood poured from the wound. The wall was crumbled. The swarm was pressed harder. And for the first time, Kelvin felt the whisper of something he despised more than death, which is the feeling of being helpless.

The road to the den was already cursed. The very earth seemed weary beneath their boots, and the forest groaned like a wounded beast.

Twisted trees leaned inward as though whispering secrets to one another, their branches were clawing across the pale light that managed to slip through the ashen clouds above.

Kelvin kept one hand on Xerion’s reins, while the other was brushing against the haft of his weapon, his eyes was scanning the crooked path.

Lyra walked a step ahead, bowstring half-drawn, with every step she took, she was often glancing upward. Something had been stalking them since dawn; she could feel it in her bones. The wind carried a foul scent of rot and feathers that were sharp as burnt iron.

Darius trudged behind, with his hand gripping the great sword that was strapped across his back. His broad frame was marked with scars from dozens of battles, but his unease was plain. He spat on the ground, his voice low as he said.

"The silence around here is wrong. Forests don’t usually lay quiet like this."

Kelvin’s jaw was tightened. He had felt it too, with the strange weight pressing down on them, the way even insects had stopped buzzing. He slowed his steps and raised his hand, signaling a halt.

Xerion, his beast companion, tilted its head and hissed softly, with his nostrils flaring as though tasting something poisonous on the wind.

"Something’s above us," Lyra muttered, eyes narrowed as she pointed toward the high canopy. The three of them looked up.

At first, there was nothing. Only branches swaying. Then a ripple. A shiver across the sky, as though shadows themselves detached from the clouds. They saw wings, hundreds of them.

The sky was darkened in an instant. Out of the gloom poured a storm of Flesh Crows, creatures that were once ordinary are now twisted by necrotic essence.

Their feathers were patchy, exposing raw, pulsing flesh beneath. Their eyes were glowed with an unnatural crimson hunger, and their beaks dripped with strands of congealed black ichor.

Lyra swore under her breath, pulling her bowstring taut until it creaked. "We have been found." The first wave of crows dove towards them.

Kelvin barked the order. "Form up closely! Don’t scatter!"

The horde descended like a living arrows. Dozens of them slammed into the ground around them, snapping beaks and tearing claws and lashing at their throats.

Lyra loosed her first shot, piercing one through the skull. It crumpled midair and it’s feathers scattered like ashes. She didn’t wait to see it fall, already reaching for another arrow.

Kelvin swung his blade in a wide arc, cleaving through three at once. Their bodies disintegrated into black mist upon death, but not before claws raked across his shoulder, drawing blood out of it.

Darius bellowed, ripping his great sword freely, and met the charge head-on. The blade carved a massive arc of steel, severing wings and necks in a spray of foul liquid. "To me, vermin!" he roared, stomping forward with brute force.

But for every crow they struck down, five more swirled in from above, the sky was filled with them.

The Flesh Crows were not mindless. They coordinated themselves, while swarming in shifts, forcing Kelvin’s group to divide their attention. The first wave distracted, while others circled behind, trying to blind them by clawing at eyes or tearing at legs.

One slammed into Lyra’s back, its talons raking across her armor straps. She gasped, stumbling, but Kelvin was already there, Xerion lunging upward like a shadow made flesh. The beast snapped its jaws around the crow’s body, crunching bones as it thrashed before dissolving into mist.

"Stay sharp!" Kelvin shouted, voice was stressed as he parried another diving beak.

Lyra nodded, her breath was sharp, but her eyes were burned with focus. She planted her feet, pulled three arrows at once, and let them fly.

They streaked like silver darts into the swarm, each pierced its mark. Three birds were spiraled out of the sky, hissing as they broke apart.

But it wasn’t enough. The ground was littered with twitching wings and black ichor, yet they came an endless tide blotting out the sun.

"They are herding on us!" Darius growled, his chest heaving. He swung again, splitting a crow in two, but another slammed into his arm, dragging sharp talons across his skin. "They want us in the clear pit!"

Kelvin’s eyes snapped to the trees. The swarm was not random; they were funneling them toward an open patch of land ahead, where they had be surrounded with no cover.

"We will hold on here!" Kelvin barked. "If they box us in, we are finished." The crows changed tactics. A shrill cry ranged out from above, sharper than the rest, like a command.