November 2, 2022
Day 13
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6 squads took their positions around the avian bastion, bows, and swords at the ready. Rahul’s squad was one of them and consisted of 10 archers, 5 mages, and 5 melee fighters. Two reserve squads were positioned in the castle and would be able to join the battle within minutes if needed.
Rahul himself stood wearing light leather armor, holding a sword in his right hand, and a sturdy round shield in his other. The shield was a common fixture on every fighter - melee, ranged, or mage. It was there to defend against birds diving out from the sky at great speeds and attacking with their beaks.
There was no telling if that’s how they would attack, but it seemed most likely, and it didn’t hurt to be prepared. Rahul was also wearing a customized sword belt, which had a strap to hold his sword and two small pockets for storing his knives. Over the last week, Rahul had grown to prefer smaller weapons over swords. For now, he held the sword because of its superior reach but was ready to switch to knives at any moment.
To Rahul’s left stood Ivan, and to his right stood three other melee fighters holding swords. Rahul hadn’t known them beforehand, but he had taken the time last night to get to know everyone in his squad. The three guys were about his age and were called Andrew, Joshua, and Stefan. Daniel was the squad leader and was standing with the mages. All his other teammates were in this squad too, but only Rahul and Ivan were melee. Daniel and Maya were mages, everyone else being archers.
Rahul looked behind at the line of archers, saw his friends, and smiled encouragingly. Everyone had done all the preparation they could, and all that was left to do was to wait.
5 minutes later, Mark went to the bastion and interacted with it in some way. A few seconds passed as everyone waited, but nothing seemed to have changed. Then, Mark shouted to everyone “It is as we thought. The birds will soon come to defend their bastion. Get ready.”
Everyone raised their shield and got into defending positions, looking for an attack. For fifteen minutes, nothing happened. Then, they noticed a vague dark mass far in the east, coming in their direction. As it grew closer, the dark mass grew bigger and bigger, and more distinct.
Then, as the sheer scope of his mistake dawned on Mark, he called for a retreat.
“Everyone retreat, to the castle. Now!”
The march to the castle took only a minute, but in that minute, the flock of birds had come close enough to hide the entire sun and cast a dark shadow over the entire island. All eight squads were assembled on the castle roof and looked toward their approaching enemy. Their sights were filled with dread as the flock of birds blotted out the sun completely, and the day turned into night.
The sight provoked some childhood memories in Rahul. In his culture, solar eclipses were considered inauspicious. It was believed that an Asura named “Rahu” had offended the Gods by trying to steal the power of immortality. He succeeded in his theft, but the gods beheaded him, and he has been living a cursed immortal existence ever since. His thirst for power hasn't ended for eons, and he's been forever chasing the sun to steal its power.
Whenever he caught up to the sun, he would swallow it and cause an eclipse. At such a time, the heavens would lose their influence over the Earth and hell would have free rein. However, Rahu was a head without a body, and the sun would sneak free every time. As it did, the heavenly order would be restored on Earth. Rahul had never given much thought to the myth, except for a bit of annoyance at how similar the Asura’s name was to his own.
Now, he had a lot more sympathy for those humans who walked the earth thousands of years ago. How terrifying would it be for them to see the sun inexplicably disappear from over their heads in the middle of the day? It wouldn’t be a stretch for them to imagine that a demon had swallowed the sun.
As the morbid thoughts clouded his mind, Rahul kept looking at the approaching crowd of birds. As the flock grew closer, Rahul was able to see the outlines of individual birds. Even so, the birds were far enough to look like insects more than birds. Soon, the flock spread out to cover their island from all cardinal directions. The sun was still obscured, but as the birds closed in, Rahul’s mind abandoned the earlier imagery of the sun getting swallowed by a demon.
Instead, a different yet equally grave thought took its place. Surely, it was the biblical locust swarm that had come toward their castle. It had certainly come to reap his life.
As Rahul's mind dreamt up one horrible metaphor after another for his approaching doom, the birds kept closing in the distance.
First, they got within the archer's shooting range, and a part of Rahul expected something to happen. But when nothing changed, Rahul shrugged it off. He focused again on his approaching death, entranced, as more and more horrifying and vivid images kept making their way into his mind.
As the first birds came even closer, almost within fireball range, Rahul had another stray thought. Why is no one attacking? But he let that thought go too, it wasn’t important. Why would he care about such an irrelevant detail? What difference did it make?
No, these massive albatrosses and sleek hawks were messengers of death itself. He must welcome them with open arms. His journey had come to an end, and he should embrace his final rest. Everything must come to an end, and so must he. He had done all he could, and he could do no more. It was time to stop moving, to stop struggling, to just stop being.
NO
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Rahul’s chain of thought was broken by the quietest whisper. It was so silent that it was almost impossible to hear, yet Rahul heard the voice. As the words registered in his mind, he felt an incredible will behind them. A refusal to accept.
At that time, Rahul did not know how, but he felt he understood what the whisper’s intent was. He felt the urge to finish the thought.
No, I won’t stop
At that very moment, Rahul felt drawn into a vision, but before he could glimpse anything, it was over.
Rahul was confused and filled with questions but realized he didn’t have any time to ponder over what happened. The wave of birds was drawing closer every second, and everyone on the roof stood still as a statue, staring into the horizon. He acted immediately, running to Daniel and trying to shake him awake.
Daniel didn’t respond.
He went over to each and every one in the squad and shook them.
No one responded.
As the flock of birds drew nearer, Rahul's worry grew into an agonizing panic. He quickly flung a weak fireball point-blank on the floor. It impacted the ground with a loud bang, and a few of his squad mates lost their balance and fell due to the wave of force.
But still, no one woke up.
The birds would strike within seconds now, and Rahul didn’t know what to do. He looked for Mark, but couldn’t find him anywhere.
He threw fireballs all around, but that didn’t seem to help either. The birds were almost upon them, and as a final straw, Rahul drew a dagger, steadied his nerves, and stabbed the palm of a random nearby guy.
Still no reaction.
Suddenly, half a dozen hawks shot forward from the approaching swarm, dove into the roof and pushed their talons into the closest targets. Then, in a display of power that defied everything Rahul knew, they flapped their wings and flew off, carrying the 6 still unresponsive bodies with them, until they dropped them off. The bodies hit the ground with a thud.
While all this happened, Rahul just stood and watched, flabbergasted. The loud thud was like a splash of cold water to his face. One look around the roof told him that he couldn’t possibly hold off all the attacking birds. So, instead of drawing his bow, he rushed towards his squad and pulled Ivan and Daniel onto his shoulders, and ran towards the staircase into the castle.
Before the integration, he couldn’t run while carrying two adults on his shoulders, but as he dumped the two on the staircase, he realized he could have carried more.
While running back to his squad, he watched with horror as at least 20 more of his colleagues were picked up by the hawks. He steeled his resolve. He would save as many as he can, but he couldn’t save them all.
This time, he pulled Alex and Maya on his right shoulder, and Charlie and Helena on his left. As he ran by, he shoved everyone on the way so they would fall down on the floor. He hoped it’ll make it just a little bit less convenient for the birds to grab them. Every extra second he had could mean more saved lives.
He dropped the 4 on the staircase and ran back out again. Matt was the only one from his team that was still outside. But as he rushed towards his squad, he noticed Matt was already in the grip of a hawk which was about to fly off of the roof.
When Daniel was being attacked by the frogs, Rahul had been standing frozen in fear.
When the first hawks attacked and flew off with 6 people in front of his eyes, he stood frozen again, only this time in disbelief.
Rahul had practiced again and again on how to act decisively in a moment of crisis. He had practiced various scenarios, when to fight and when to flee. Yet so far, all he had done was freeze. This time, he would make a decision. The wrong one.
Rahul knew this was a moment to flee. He had time to pick up 4 more people and make one last run to the staircase. But Rahul was sick and tired of standing by and not being able to do anything. This whole situation was just crazy. They had all overcome so many challenges to survive so far, and worked so hard over the last few weeks to get strong. All for nothing. They were being picked up and dropped to their deaths like a sack of potatoes. Rahul had had enough.
By now, the hawk had carried Matt outside the roof. In a moment of sheer stupidity, recklessness and insanity, Rahul ran towards Matt, jumped off the roof, and grabbed the hawk by its left wing.
To the surprise of no one, The wing was instantly ripped off the hawk’s body. And Rahul found himself falling, holding on to a detached and bloody wing. At the same time, the now one-winged hawk realised he could no longer carry Matt’s weight, and let go of him.
Rahul and Matt were now both free falling through the air, and the hawk was trying to fly away.
“You’re not getting away”, Rahul furiously shouted as he fired 5 consecutive fireballs in the direction of the fleeing bird. His fireballs flew all over the place, but one found its mark. At the same time, Rahul felt the blast from the fireball push him back a bit. Rahul didn’t have much time to think as they were about to impact the ground any second now. He closed his eyes, pointed both his hands on the ground, and condensed fire mana around both his hands. Then, as he felt fireballs forming on both his hands, he shot them towards the ground. Then again, and again, and again.
He felt waves and waves of hot air buffeting his fall and slowing him down, and opened his eyes just as his feet touched the ground. He bent his knees immediately, and landed in a crouch. A wave of pain shot up from his ankles all the way up to his neck, but thankfully, nothing was broken.
Matt crashed a few feet to Rahul’s side, with an audible crunch. The pain from the shattered bones was finally too much and the effect of the trance was overcome. Matt came to his senses with a deafening scream.
Rahul had no time to explain anything. The hawks had run out of easy prey to throw off the roof, and he could feel their attention drawn to him. He pulled Matt on his shoulders, and sprinted towards the door of the castle. As soon as he made it inside, he dropped Matt inside the cellar, and ran up the staircase. When he reached the top of the staircase, he scooped up all 6 of his teammates on his shoulders, and slowly made his way down to the cellar. The door to the castle was getting shredded by the beaks of the hawks and albatrosses.
It won't hold for much longer, he thought, as he threw everyone into the cellar, and then pulled the thick metal door shut. This would buy them some time, Rahul hoped. But he also realised they were stuck here. The only way out would be through that same door, and the birds would certainly be waiting there. Unless something changed, he was only prolonging the inevitable.
Matt was still screaming in pain, but there wasn’t anything Rahul could do to help. He brought him up to speed on the situation, and then checked his notifications.
You have killed a Level 11 Hawaiian Hawk. 110 experience earned.
3910/20000 experience to the next level.
That wasn’t very surprising to Rahul, as he expected the hawks to be at least level 10. He was a bit disappointed to see that the experience gained had scaled only linearly, from 10 experience from a level 1 enemy to 110 experience from a level 11 enemy. In contrast, the experience needed per level was rising exponentially, doubling every level. Every new level up would take longer and longer.
Then Rahul reminded himself that a metal door was the only thing separating him from certain death. This was not the time to think about levelling. He immediately cleared his head and looked at the next notification.
Your bastion has no representative. Please elect one within 24 hours or the bastion will be marked as unclaimed.
Mark was dead.