Chapter 128 - Battle For Territory
This was a mess
Bats clouding the moon as they dived down at the different breeds of beasts, flesh balls with springs for legs launching themselves into the sky and impaling the bats with their straight horns, hyenas taunting them into sucking the blood from their rotten flesh and dying, roaring turtles biting at anything they could get with their slow maws, and angry thralls thrashing everything they see
Under the disorganized command of the confused thrall leading this charge the battle descended into various beasts ganging up on the invading side
An experienced leader would have used the beasts fighting each other to its advantage, after all the enemy of one\'s enemy is a friend, however when said enemy plunged into everyone\'s territory with only slaughter in mind then it should be expected to have them team up on you instead
"Kei! Kei!"
Yelling at the other thralls she received no response as they were madly killing whatever they saw, forgoing the chain of command that barely existed to begin with
Seeing as there was no use in giving out orders she took to the skies, charging at the nearest friend needing aid
Whoo!
Came a hoot? Before a pink figure passed by the thrall\'s descending figure, taking with it a piece of her wings
"Kieee!?"
In surprise and anger she messily landed giving the nearby half decayed hyena an opportunity to bite at her head
"Que"
Just before her new life ended on the first battle a blue figure came crashing from the sky, smashing the beast\'s head into black mush
Nodding toward the savior she turned toward that pink figure who sneaked up on her
Whoot?
Cocking that annoying head the creature stared I\'m confusion, why wasn\'t the dumb two legged beast dead? It should have pecked harder!
Getting the murderous vibe from this skinless breed of an owl the thrall had to take a deep breath and calm herself, if she didn\'t get a good grip over her own mind she wouldn\'t be able to handle the situation
"Kie kie!" "Que?" "Kie!!"
Ordering the other thrall to head over and help the rest despite its offer for help she matched the fatherless owl\'s beady black eyes
"Kei"
She tried to sound intimidating, alas the beast didn\'t want to leave its home for a mere pray\'s provocation
Rushing over with those fast ostrich like legs the beast wanted to nab another quick bite and end this, a major underestimation of the thrall\'s land speed
Pushing against her bent legs she showed agility that matched the owl\'s, rushing between the big legs at the last moment and clawing them with small yet sharp nails
Hoo!
Blood was drawn, but it was merely a flesh wound, nothing too deep or wide to affect the beast\'s fighting capability
This did nothing in mitigating the beasts anger however, turning around in its dash to engage once more
There was no annoying two legend creature close however, confusing it until pain struck once more at the base of its legs
Hoot! Hoot!
Realizing what the despicable creature was up to it started to stomp about in a mad bid to snuff it out from under, all it did however was tire itself out gradually and evolve further into anger
The thrall on the other hand was having an easy time dogging these dumb stomps with her superior agility, scratching them each time opportunity rose, though knowing how weak her attacking ability was it would take ages to actually cripple the big creature
"Kie!"
She yelled to her comrades to hurry, her intention wasn\'t to take out this beast alone to begin with but to stall until enough beasts were cleared barring the chance of them getting surrounded during the fight, a predicament that wouldn\'t have had the chance to surface if not for her reckless abandon
Hoot! Hoot! Hoot!
The owl had other thoughts in mind however as it ceased the useless stomps and allowed her to scratch to her heart while it called into the sky, one needed intelligence to know this was an ominous sign
"Kie!"
Telling the others to back off she herself sprinted as far as possible from the beast
There was a somewhat long yet short silence on the battlefield as beasts of all kind paused their battle and looked over, attracted by the loud calls, they expected it to call for its allies, use a skill, or do anything that would turn the tides of battle
Once the silence reached an awkward threshold the owl turned its darker than usual beady eyes toward the one that\'s been injuring its legs, giving out a deep hoot before charging out once more with nothing unusual about it
Was it a trick to get her out from under it or did it indeed call for reinforcements? These questions came to the thrall\'s messy mind but she quickly found herself asking the wrong question
Whoosh, whoosh, peck! Whoosh!
Out of every five or so attacks one seemed to land with deadly accuracy, no matter how quick or witty she dodged the owl seemed to see the trajectory and bless her with a new scar
It\'s the eyes! She thought, no wonder they looked darker than usual, this must be some skill that enhances the senses or something similar
Knowing the problem was half the solution, sadly the other part was unsolvable as she lacked the means to give herself a boost of her own
"KIIEEEE!"
Or did she?
Stimulated by the losing battle the thrall gave rise to a skill similar to that of her blood\'s originator, letting out a sonic attack that seemed to do extra damage to the owl whos ears were more sensitive than most
The owl quickly recoiled back in pain, the deep dark in its eyes all but gone, that wasn\'t the only thing about to disappear however
Slash!
With one huge swing directed at its unguarded throat she cut whatever her fingers could dig into, sending out a gush of blood flying as well as seemingly taking the owl\'s ability hoot since no sound came even as it shook in pain
The battle was thus tilted! Maybe now the others wouldn\'t even need to help her, all one needed was continuously distract it until enough blood was lost, putting it out of the fight
"Kie"
Happy with her achievement and newly acquired skill she moved to slash at the legs once more, this time without the intention to let it g- Hoot!
There came that annoying sound again, with this owl\'s throat producing mere gurgles however it could only mean….
A flash of pink affirmed her speedy guess, sadly it didn\'t come quick enough as her life once again seemed to face the end
Bam!
Was this dejavu? She couldn\'t help but think seeing a blue figure smash into the pink, entangling with it and saving her life the second time today
Hoot!Hoot!
The owls seemed to disagree, heavily disagree as the third one popped up with another just behind it, both homing in for her poor self
Puchi!
Came the sound of ripping flesh, it wasn\'t her\'s nor was it the owl\'s though, but yet another blue figure, this one with a single fully formed wing
Shrieking out the bloody basin of a mouth the thrall whose evolution fell behind others knew not pain, only blood as it clawed at the owl\'s eyes even with the beak inside of its abdomen, not even stopping at that as she opened her wings to stagger the other running owl, even but for a moment while it tore through the barely functioning wing
The struggle didn\'t last long however as the beak within was forcefully opened tearing her body in half, even so all she did was try to crawl toward the now blind owl and hurt it in any way possible
The last owl who was stalled but for a moment did not help its comrade or try to kill the injured, it kept charging at the leader who was the target since the get go, the scream from earlier must have made her look like the most troubling foe of the four
It wasn\'t like she just stood still after all this however for she had already dived under the one with a cut open throat, wishing to escape with a show of sympathy for the kin, or if not at least take down the injured with another\'s knife
The choice never had the opportunity to be made however as a white scrawny body dove under it from the side with its gleaming long claws, slashing open the belly like it was some soft fabric allowing the guts to fall onto the earth along a hooting death throe as the background before the rest of the body came falling down, life seeping throw it within mere seconds
The death of this owl marked the presence of all the fighters, both sides having lost one each with one party being nearly uninjured and the other blind, bleeding, and restrained, it didn\'t take a genius to know the outcome
Even so the leader didn\'t look happy, not in the slightest, her eyes were stuck to the half body of her comrade being swallowed into the blind owl\'s tummy, they might win but this loss meant that however good it would go from now the end was still a pyrrhic victory