Chapter 181

Chapter 181

There were thousands upon thousands of ravens in the tree. Some were perched on branches, others in nests, all of them watched us.

Wow, Maxwell said. What is this place?The most uptodate novels are published on n0velbj)n((.))co/m

I looked from the ravens down to the ruins. I would guess it has something to do with Shadehki.

Raven snorted a laugh. It would be weird if it didnt have something to do with them.

We approached the ruins, the path leading us between a small berm. I didnt even realize it was there until we passed through. It was far too straight to be naturally occurring. Evenly spaced mounds and fallen over stones were all around us, and the roots narrowed until we came to the building. I dismounted Shadow, the others dismounting as well. We let the mounts roam. They would not wander off without us.

As we entered, there was a sound of thousands of wings, and I looked up to see a cloud of ravens departing the tree. Thousands more remained looking down at us.

It was hard to tell what the ruins had been. The stone structures had collapsed and been covered in thick layers of moss and detritus from the tree. It was so thick, the only reason I knew it was ruins were the pillars of stone still sticking out of the moss.

I used Mercy in a wide shovel-like blade to scrape away the mostly moss coverings at what I thought was the center of a large structure. I quickly cleared a spot, Mercy clicking against stone underneath. Thinking to speed up the process, I released a torrent of death magic into the ground. It would cause the moss to decay and collapse. To my surprise, nothing happened. In fact, the moss seemed to fluff up a little.

That didnt seem right, but when I looked at it closely, probing it with my magical sense, I realized it was a death-based. This is the death biome, I said, drawing the others attention.

What? Maxwell asked in surprise. How is something like that here? I cant imagine Olattee wouldve let it stay.

I have no idea. Help me dig this out real quick, I said. I suddenly want answers really bad.

With Shamgar and Maxwell helping, Raven only sniffed when I asked her to help, we excavated the mound in no time. At first it looked like nothing more than a pile of stone bricks, but when we removed those, it revealed an altar. I placed a hand on it, sensing for whatever was there. It took a long moment before something triggered.

Dilapidated Altar

The form finished taking shape, standing on the coffin, the swarm of tiny ravens disappearing inside of it. I didnt have time to get a scan of it before it struck. It was tall and lanky, with birdlike feet and a scaled torso. Its arms had rows of feathers it used to propel itself forward. The head was mounted on a long skinny neck and had a beak that was longer than my arms.

Shamgar met its charge. The beak stabbed through his shield, penetrating Shamgars arm. Overall, the creature didnt appear intelligent, even in the slightest. Nor overly strong.

His beak was stuck, but before Shamgar could land a blow, it braced its back feet on his shield and shoved itself back, pulling the beak free. Music from Maxwell spread over me as I cast a spell. Eldritch power crackled out, slamming into the strange bird creature. Raven also dove at it, but it nimbly dodged away.

My bolt drew its attention and it dove towards me. Mercy deflected its beak, but it still managed to score my armor, leaving behind sizzling venom. That wasnt good. I was certain it was death-based, but venom often had a way of still working, especially if it was acid.

Shamgar had likely received a large dosage of it. As I tried to disengage from the creature, Shamgar arrived, slamming into its back and driving his hammer down. The creature screamed out in pain, its bones just as weak as a normal birds bones were. Raven joined in, her sickles tearing a nasty gash along the creatures chest.

Suddenly it broke apart into a swarm of ghostly ravens that passed through us. Raven screamed in pain, the death magic tearing at her, desiccating her flesh. She disappeared into a shadow. The creature reformed atop the coffin, and I noticed the gashes left by Raven were healed. When it dove back down, its beak led the way.

I used the opportunity to cast a healing spell on Shamgar. I doubted my magic got the venom out of his body, but it would suppress the effect. If he had been living, I was certain more than just the caustic nature wouldve been causing problems.

Shamgar was wise to the attack coming his way, and he manipulated his shield so when the beak punched through, it did not strike his arm or body. Instead, he twisted and threw his shield. Caught by surprise, the toss took the creature flying across the room with it. When it struck the wall and slid down, I was surprised when I saw a rune on its back left by Shamgars hammer. Hed not hit it in the brief engagement, that meant the rune had carried with the creature.

Shamgar, hit it with your hammer as many times as you can, I called. Not necessarily for damage, just enough to leave a rune behind.

Magic flowed from my hands, amplified by Maxwell. A bolt of eldritch power crackled across the room, hammering into the creature just as it pulled itself back to its feet. A moment later, a wave of force slammed it back down as an attack came from Maxwell. It had been a long time since wed fought with only a few of us. With less people around, his buffing magic wasnt as useful, having grown used to buffing thousands. Clearly, he had learned a new way to use his strange harmonic magic.

Once again, the boss disintegrated into ravens. They swept around the room, passing through Shamgar and me. Maxwell wisely used his agility to dodge, and I was certain Raven was doing the same, though I did not know where she was.

I rushed forward, the ravens were no threat to me. As the figure reformed atop the coffin, I found Raven already slicing up with her sickles. This time she scored two long gashes along the back of the bird creature. Mercy stabbed through its chest. Shamgar arrived a moment later and began to strike as fast as he could with his hammer.

The creature broke apart, then reformed elsewhere, sporting four new runes. The battle became straightforward from there. Like I said, it wasnt a very smart creature. Though it completely healed every time, it also seemed to be getting slower. When the entire bird creature was covered in runes from Shamgar, he struck his shield.

The boss screeched in pain as every rune flared with eldritch light and began to siphon its energy into Shamgar. It withered and tried to break apart. Even as it did the individual ravens were drained at an even faster rate. It finally managed to reform, but it could barely move. I let Shamgar have the honors of caving its skull in.