Greater in numbers, greater in strength, entranced with their resolve, Ethan’s current group of eight weren’t walking as slowly and cautiously like before, their eyes blazing with determination.
In about twenty minutes they arrived at a building that was once not more than two minutes of walking distance, approached by no one, it seemed like everyone had their fair share of trust in people proved wrong by the new world rules.
Standing in front of a three floors block with three entries that is still intact and surrounded by a patch of short trees, they suspiciously checked the tree, Ethan stretched his arm to his right, gesturing to quietly stop as an eerie sense nudged at him.
Looking at the tree line for too long, two people broke formation and ran towards the building.
With an exchange of silent stares, Rob validates Ethan’s assumptions about those two being the ones who asked to come here, understanding the benevolence and sincerity of Rob to put himself second because this place was related with two requests.
Silently and slowly following the two, he warns the rest to stay in formation, they volunteer to verify traps, as much as he rather avoided using his people for this, they were the ones to go rogue.
As they are about to reach the green tree line the calm of the environmental sounds of brushing leaves is overthrown to the back of their mind as a blur of dark blue followed by the sound of the wind whistling is heard, and one of the two rushing men's arms gets cut off.
Holding his arm, still not processing the situation they are in, the men step back almost falling on his ass, looking at each other the two sprints back to the group, narrowly dodging another blur from an unknown attacker, behind them a few more figures rocketing out of the tree line.
When joining the group, feeling the safety of the formation, adrenaline numbs just a bit - just enough for the pain to strike, he falls to his knees, holding his bleeding stump and groans surprisingly, keeping some cool headedness unlike the wild run he tried to pull through.
One of the quick thinkers in the group, took his belt off and created an improvised arterial tourniquet stopping the bleeding.
In front of a group, on the ground lands a flock of birds in a formation, 7 of them, each as big as a stray cat, long curvy Talons piercing the stone they stand on, and scariest part - external sharp bone covering their entire wing span, one of the birds on front has blood drops, slowly creating half a palm sized pool of red liquid.
They were also dark blue in color, had they been going to this mission at night, they wouldn't even know what killed them.
‘This is new..’ Ethan stiffened up, inspecting the Biggest bird on the back, its color resembling a starless night kind of a black and the bladed part on the wing is far more defined.
[Ding!
Name: severing wing
Level: 6
Race: avian
Description: flock bird of the hunt.]
“Everyone be advised, they are smarter than they seem!” Ethan warned, his hair stood on end. A bad feeling creeping up his skin - a strong enemy stood in front of him but dread and foreboding feeling poking in his nerve system was all encompassing, unlike when a dangerous threat was aimed at him.
Taking a fighting stance in a half circle shape, they clenched the weapon in their hands, preparing for a battle.
“Stay in formation!” Ethan shouted, taking the first nowhere specific, the severing wings scattered and circled above them, with the awareness and attention of the group in full focus, they no longer looked like a streak of blue, yet they were very fast nonetheless.
Just as Ethan looked around, acknowledging the tactical advantage of using the trees as cover, one of the men called out "Let's move towards the tree line".
Ethan agreed, still doubtful about the eerie feeling the forest and environment creeped in him.
His voice steady despite the unease churning in his gut. Something about that patch of trees felt off. danger sense sends a warning tingling at the edge of his awareness. He couldn't shake the feeling that they were walking into a trap.
Getting closer to the tree line, the birds slowly start to come down from above, in a practice and rhythmic manner - two by two.
The group working together for the first time barely manages to coordinate defenses against the birds, the birds’ attacks are irregular. They dive down, stop really close to their target, and break momentum by flapping their sharp wings causing the formation to recoil back, getting wounded by the flurry of slashes.
A spearman then manages to predict one the birds break and manage to pierce it with the spear. The second bird that came down with it stumbled upon the successful attack on its partner and miscalculated the distance, a man wielding a long knife manages to slice a bird’s chest in its moment of confusion, fatally wounding it, making it thrash on the ground for just a few seconds until its movements stops.
A short moment later, a bird comes for Ethan for the first time, danger sense points at the attacking bird’s estimated location allowing Ethan to land a clean slash on the bird’s chest, surprisingly, his blade cut deep, deeper than he anticipated, he almost cutting the bird in two.
“Three birds got hit, two died in one attack, the third fatally wounded. They have high speed and high offensive ability, also, they are extremely wise, their weakness is their defenses” Ethan shared his thoughts with the group.
“Let’s try something, spearmen, stand behind the swordsmen, short ranged weapons behind shields” Ethan orders
The new formation improved the hitting rate significantly.
The defense of the shields or the long range of the spears render the birds’ ‘break and flap the winged blades all over’ tactics almost completely null. The birds’ flaps become inefficient against the shield staying open before taking flight, alternatively, they break momentum too far because of the long weapon’s range allowing the heavy hitters to send a direct attack to the weak bird body.
They are now almost by the tree line. in the clear blue sky of the late morning skies, only the big bird and two more avian lackeys circling them.
With a sense of relief, they all wait for those three to come and call it a day, certain of the new formation tactics, but they never came. What does suddenly appear is a wave of thirty mini versions of the severing wings from the trees.
The only bright side was that they were not only inferior in size and levels, but in speed as well.
Ethan noticed them first as the dread and danger he felt from danger sense condense into the flock of flying baby knives.
‘So because they were spread out so much, my danger sense didn’t know how to understand the pressure of 30 monsters, therefore I get an overwhelming sense as a response’ Ethan quickly managed to slip in a thought, ‘This skill is so full of intricacies and pitfalls’
“The four on the back, make sure the big ones don’t go for a surprise attack, Rob, don't die we are going in”, with a sign from Ethan the three on front pull bug spray cans, ‘shit! Using this really grind my gears the wrong way’
“Damn, floor it…” Ethan orders open fire, and a dense cloud of bug poison fills the space between the two groups.
The birds' animalistic senses give them a heads up about the gassy cloud, but flying too fast and being too close to change location, the birds break the momentum of the flight or try to change direction haphazardly causing friendly fire, cutting and even killing others avian brethren.
With the amount of assaulting mini severing wings decreasing immensely, the remaining flock is manageable and with Ethan using his skills to effectively do double kill with one slice on the flock that is still coming at them, he even managed to land a triple kill once.
With Rob and the extra person taking the sides, the flock of flying baby knives is dispatched with only a few shallow wounds.
[Ding! Level 2 severing wing defeated!]
[Ding! Level 1 severing wing defeated!]
[Ding! Level 2 severing wing defeated!]
…
The three big birds in the skies saw the surprise attack completely fail causing only a few slashes on the prey, they threw all caution to the wind and attacked once again.
The big birds' attacks are far more effective and heavy causing the formation to recoil and struggle a bit harder, but eventually, two of the big birds fall leaving the last one standing on the ground from a distance, glaring at them with hate.
Ethan, annoyed by the birds causing him to go so low as to use bug spray again, pulls the gun and takes two shots at the big severing wing trying to take flight.
One successfully hit, penetrating its wing and making it thrash on the ground failing in its ascent to the sky.
“The big one is mine” Ethan inching closer to the thrashing severing wing.
Seeing the knife coming at it the bird tries to slap it with the wings but only gets sliced by the blade, it screeches in pain.
The more he tried finishing it off the more erratic the bird became.
It was truly beginning to get inconvenient and sad to watch. Ethan took a spear for a party member to kill it.
[Ding! Level 6 severing wing defeated!]
[Ding! Level increased! Level 7!]
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
Taking a break after the fight, unsheathing one of the wider knives, they heat up the blade and burn the wounded guy’s stump to avoid further blood loss now that the threat is gone.
Before moving into the forest, Ethan looks at the group, “This is but a grim reminder, we are to always have our guard peaked, suspect everything and always stay tactical, wise and cool headed. We shall keep on moving to the forest, stay in formation, spearmen are to stay behind a swordsman and short range weapons are to stand behind shield wielders at all times. Our current most possible threat is more of those birds and ambushing beasts”.
Dissecting the small severing wings Ethan manages to find 12 cores, ‘the small birds didn't even form a core yet, what a waste’ Ethan shakes his head dejectedly.
Moving forward, Ethan is Being informed of 4 people they came to pick up. One of the members is looking for his girlfriend in an apartment they Rented, and the second, the one who got jumped by the bird and lost his hand, is looking for his wife and two children.
As they move past the small forest, they are getting attacked By a few more severing wings, but being already well versed in their style of attacks they succeed to win against them and move on and arrive at the building quite easily.
Clear signs of battle are visible on the ground outside of the fancy grey building, some of the windows are shattered, Looking a bit deeper into it, the fences of the balconies have scratches marks on it and some blood stains are also visible in the inner tree line in front of the building.
It doesn't take long for a group of armed men to make their appearance in the lobby entrance.
Looking at the bruised up and overly geared group, the four men take guard standing their ground at the lobby entrance, but soon recognize two of their neighbors - their hostility numbed down significantly.
Letting Ethan take the stage, he gestures to the two residents to head for their apartments with one companion each.
“Hey, Ethan, nice to meet, mind me ask about the situation here?” Ethan asked the oldest looking man, he looked like in his late 40’s but he was well built, and wielding an empty metal brook stick with a knife lodged in like a spear - it was a decent improvisation.
“You..my name is Leo, How did you make it through this forest? These damn birds didn't let us get closer to the forest at all! They also come and attack us quite often”
“luck, I guess. How are you all doing?” Ethan said, downplaying his skills, making his cohort to chuckle.
“Half the people sprinted to who knows where when this weird earthquake started.
Following a sound of weird glasses shattering, Those who left too late could be heard screaming in the forest. Since then these weird birds have been knocking down the walls and windows. Some even saw a few birds as big as street cats and dogs. We managed to gather some food, and this place is still intact, if not for the birds, that could've been a great place to stay safe” Leo signs.
“And how many are you? If I may ask” Ethan asks farther.
“Who are you? Why do you even ask?” Leo asks with doubt, the realization he doesn't know who he is speaking with yet struck him. The fact he met a group that managed to move around the forest made him forget the current setting he is in.
“I am but a random man surviving in a crazy world with some friends, are you good with supplies?” Ethan honestly asked for their safety.
“I am having a hard time with your theatrics, our numbers, our resources, i can’t disclose this information willingly in such times” he says sternly.
“Okay, this is fair. As I said, the name is Ethan, I took the shopping center from a few dozen green humanoid monsters that wreaked havoc there. I turned the whole shopping center to my fortress with a few friends who are not present and I ended up being chosen as its commander” Ethan speaks truthfully trying to gain some trust from the group.
“a few dozens of monsters? A fortress? Does that mean? The birds guarding us from leaving? You-” he asks and gets comically interrupted.
“Yes, we took care of about 30, give or take” Ethan admitted.
“I wish to speak with you on helping us and take us under your wing” the man suddenly asks, his companions taken by surprise jumps on the fray and states that they want to join too. Reading between the lines, Ethan understands that Leo is the one who kept this place in order.
“That's why I wanted the information about your numbers and resources. Building a safe haven is not simple, we need people, resources and proper management. We have no slackers. Before we left we started putting even kids to work and study useful fields, can you and will you contribute?” Ethan asks sternly.
“This doesn’t sound simple, be right back” he turned and walked inside the building.
As Leo left, Ethan’s two companions came back and they were not alone, luckily all designated four targets in tow. The young man that came for his girlfriend, his eyes clearly showing that there are some murky waters between them.
The young family guy came out carrying his little daughter on his one good arm, his family looked worried for the arm he lost, but relief was clear on their faces.
He must have told him about Ethan in a quite positive manner, this was easily reflected in how the decently brunette woman found him very easily in the crowd and locked eyes with Ethan and Rob giving a solid nod of gratitude.
A quick introduction was made between the guards' families to the rest of the group. Catching up on how decent the treatment they received here was, there were informed that food was sufficient and the birds, although locking them in the forest that grew around the block, prevented the entrance of evil people. At some point they were wondering what’s the hold up in leaving - A wonder that was answered by the arrivals of almost everyone from the building, to the lobby.
Led by Leo, a surprisingly large group of 24 people arrive.
‘My calculations are immensely inaccurate. If only by taking 4 family members, 24 extra people want to join us. I wonder what would happen if we would find someone’s family in a crowded plaza or something’ Ethan furrowed his brow. Looking at Rob wearing the same gaze, it looks like he had also figured something on the same wavelength.
“As effective as this recruitment method is, it seems like we are gonna be fully booked sooner than later. We should consider silent and more discreet rescues when in populated areas” Rob whispered to Ethan insinuating his thoughts, hoping he also figured the glaring issue.
To that, Ethan replied with a stern nod, “Those folks on the other side found quite a lucky place, size of area, a side they are nicely located, even the birds can be a source of levels, maybe even food…”
Coming closer to the 25 people, with Danger sense, he feels a strong nudge on his focus from the crowd that is not happy with him, to say the least. ‘Jealousy? Greed? I wonder, if not for the time limits, this could’ve been a good chance to fill the ‘danger sense’ evolution requirement’, just then a light bulb lit in his mind.
‘Why not let them in? I will allow them to instigate more hostile people in-house, I then could do a clean up to filter the trash, solidify my hold and have more people to try to read out for the skill evolution’ he hand punched his palm, like a judge’s hammer call of attention before a verdict pulling everyone attention, a decision was made.
“I need you to help me with all of those random people you brought. In the fortress, there are about 65 people who trust and believe me. Your group looks doubtful and hostile, I dare say. Why should we take them in? The only useful thing I see here is how you managed to craft a fancy functional spear and we happened to have a man who did a better job” Ethan asks Leo in a disrespectful tone in order to check out the group mentality.
“Those are people's lives! Why do you filter which one to save and take along based on who you deem fit based on your whims and standart?!” baffled by Ethan's cold and strict calculative mind he made a frustrated remark.
“I fought to death against 2 giant wolves, about 30 goblins - one was extremely nasty, and your little birds nest, and of course, 6 people. Do you think I have any mercy left against people who want to be pampered and be given roof and food without any contribution? Here is an idea, go and fight to death against a horde of monsters that took over a mall or something, become the manager and make it your charity organization” Ethan states calmly.
Hearing their exchange of hard words between the two, the crowd opinion split almost evenly, half was not happy with his humane-lacking attitude, the rest looked at admiration and excitement to be led by a strong, decisive and capable leader.
“Let’s do it simple, two rules,” Ethan approached the crowd, “our community is military like hierarchy, due to this, two things must happen. First, no slackers, from young to elderly, either a weapon or a tool must be held and mastered in order to progress and contribute as a community. Secondly, we work by a strict system of rewards and punishments, you help out, you’ll get more food, better food, better housing. Dare you betray or harm our trust, even death is not off the table. Before coming here two people went against me, they came at me with the intention to get my weapons and role, killing me. With me here I will let you guess the results”
Before he even finished his explanation, 10 people - 2 families and a young couple joined Ethan’s group.
The rest was too shocked to react as fast so Ethan urged those who didn’t react, “I have to help those 18 new people get to the base so I’ll give you a minute to decide, there are still more rescue runs we must do, also, do you think there are only these birds roaming this planet?”
Leo's resolution to join deteriorated, his idealistic point of views didn’t sit well with selective picking who gets in and who is not. This being said, he understood Ethan, a strong conflict starting to rise within Leo’s heart, slowly and weakly he too became noticeable by the danger sense.
3 more joined, a family of two parents and their young teenager son, the rest who stayed were 3 young couples and 5 individuals obviously scared of their freedom getting stolen from them.
Funnily enough, everyone who was triggered his sense danger chose to stay, so the plan to intentionally recruit some instigator failed, no harm in this outcome either way.
Before he left, as a token of goodwill, he taught them of the ‘status’ command, and took leave.
Assuming there is more information he held back from them for not joining, which was true, danger sense picked up how they have all designated him as enemy to a higher degree, such was the emotions and hearts of humans when encountering the unknown and unwanted, they fought against it.
Those who stayed were idealistic people, tainted by greed and ulterior motives that could only imagine the picture Ethan drew as a tyrant’s military base, speaking so freely about killing didn’t sit straight with people who haven’t seen what the streets look like or knew better to not come there if they greed for power and individuality.
Arming the new recruits with the extra knives the group brought along, they take formation and leave through the forest, a few failed attacks from severing wings ended up causing a few minor cuts on the group, but not something that shook their world.
Leaving the forest and walking through the road of uneven stone and concrete on the destroyed city view in which they came from, they were back at the shopping center faster than when leaving, not getting attacked by the big birds, and knowing the right tactics against those and the general mentality of knowing a way making it looks shorter.
Looking at his team approaching the gate, he was more than satisfied by realizing that five of the seven were level three already due to the fight against the severing winds.
Slowly and surely he is raising a force not to be reckoned with.
