"Gee, Val, I'm really weakened right now. That Caron's Book is indeed powerful," said Graham rather weakly, "Should I remove the mist and regain our strength or should I just stay weakened like this?" he pondered.

"Nah. Let's just stay like this, so we remain undetected. The moment someone approaches, I'll remove the Concealment so we have a fighting chance... or running chance," he finally decided.

Graham turned his attention to the fight that was happening in the street below. It was getting more heated now that the four cloaked figures were joining in the fray.

One by one, they lifted the hood covering their faces to regain the strength that had been restricted by the artifact. They were two men and two women, one of whom was the corpse woman who had run away from Valentine the night before. The other woman might be Fear, judging from her figure while the two men were complete strangers to Graham.

One of the men looked younger than the other with blond hair and brown eyes that reflected the serious character of the man. He looked to be in his early twenties, not that much older than Luuk van der Meer. They even looked like they could be classmates at university. The way he was standing was a little tense but there was no nervousness shown by his body language.

Standing on the far right was a man in his early thirties with a mischievous look on his face. There was a slight smile that made him seem carefree and unbothered by the whole situation. His sharp eyes were observing everyone below him carefully, and Graham felt that if he weren't concealed, the man would have found his hiding location from all the way there.

"There you go. Now you can see our faces," said the mischievous man. His voice sounded devious and it rang right in everyone's ears, despite their distance.

"Since we will be fighting head to head now, let me introduce ourselves. You can call me Obscurity," he smiled and bowed, and then pointed at the corpse woman standing next to him while saying, "This one is Macabre, and the one next to her is Dread. The woman standing on the far left is called Fear."

Once he had finished introducing the three people standing next to him, he looked at the horizon and chuckled. "The one over there is called Horror," he said with a satisfied smile.

Caw! Caw! Caw!

Suddenly, there was the noise of countless crows rattling at the same time coming from the distance where Obscurity was looking at. Everyone instinctively looked in the direction and saw, flying towards them, numerous black crows in the air whose eyes were red and full of murderous intents. Those crows didn't look normal in the slightest. Behind the crows was a man with wings made of countless mangled bird wings stitched together in a grotesque manner carrying a lute in his hands. He was the source of the eerie melody and was still playing despite the Dreaded Baby's cries overpowering his music.

The murder of crows descended and started attacking the Police below, clawing with their talons and pecking with their beaks.

Swoosh!

With only a thought from Rood, the giant blood sword flew across the battlefield, cutting numerous crows in its flight.

"Tomio!"

Oranje commanded her giant lizard familiar to breathe fire at the flying crows while Paars' giant cat was busy hunting the crazed birds one by one as if it was a game. The smell of charred flesh filled the air and blood splattered as the birds were dying.

"Everyone, get away!!" shouted Roze urgently. She was also running as far away as she could from the corpses of the birds that she had shot down with her blood arrows.

"Explode!!"

Macabre used Corpse Explosion!

The dead birds all exploded one by one, injuring anyone not fast enough to get to safety. Tiny pieces of flesh and the stench of blood filled the area once more.

"Whaaaa!!"

Meanwhile, on the other side of the battlefield, the Dreaded Baby was still being attacked by zombies and the Ghoul. The worms had all been killed while there were only a couple of zombies left. The Ghoul also looked like it was on its last legs; its body was covered in deep wounds while its left hand had been badly mangled, albeit still attached. It was regenerating slowly, but with its current condition, there was too much to regenerate and it didn't have enough power to do so.

Amidst the chaos, the tiny mysterious black hole was still floating motionlessly in the air. There didn't seem to be any sign of another creature trying to cross to that side.

"Val, that's a large scale battle right there. Let's keep observing and learn about both sides' power while we're at it," he muttered with a smile, "That Horror person has power over birds, so it's most likely he who was monitoring us in the black market. If he sent only a normal bird, it would be possible not to alert the power in the place I think," concluded Graham while stroking his chin.

"The combination of his countless birds and the Corpse Explosion of that corpse lady is surely dangerous. I don't know what I would do if I were attacked by the two of them. Probably your illusion could work to send the birds somewhere else, but I'm sure it would take too much blood to use,"

"Explode!!"

Kaboom!!!

The more birds the Police killed, the more explosions happened. Although they were small, their sharp talons and beaks were still dangerous enough to pierce through flesh, not to mention the explosive power itself.

Groen was busy running around handing pouches of his herb mixture to aid the wounded, but with every use of it, the effect would be lessened. Those who had been injured repeatedly took longer to recover from their new wounds.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Roze gestured at Bruin to bring the box back and then cut off another finger; this time, it was the pinky finger on the right hand. She dropped the bloody severed finger onto the mouth of the Book of Curtailment and once it had started eating the finger, she shouted the new restriction.

"Corpses are not allowed to explode!"

The book didn't let out a loud cry like before, which meant the sacrifice was insufficient. Roze quickly cut off the ring finger of her right hand and dropped it to the still gaping mouth with bloody teeth and chapped lips and at once, it started munching on the fleshy finger.

"Whaaaaaaa!!"

The same terrifying shriek resounded in the area and made everyone's hair stand. The restriction had worked!

Bruin looked with concern at Roze who was putting back the gloves to cover her hands. The wounds had healed, but now she was left with only three intact fingers on each hand. Roze, who noticed the man's worried look, smiled at him.

"Don't worry. You know I can grow back fingers. It just takes annoyingly long. Let's make sure I don't have to sacrifice a limb because even I don't know if I can grow it back," she said.

She took out her short bow and held it firmly using her left hand that was missing one and a half fingers. Her right hand skillfully created blood arrows that she used to fire at more birds that were attacking everyone.

Caw! Caw!

The birds were crying in pain as they were murdered. All the other ones, seeing their kinds being slaughtered, got even more crazed, and attacked with more ferocity. Their beaks and talons were now full of the blood of their victims and they kept flying up and down to avoid attacks.

The corpses now couldn't explode anymore, which made the Police able to fight without worries.

Swoosh!!

Rood's giant blood sword cut several birds at once in two, effectively ending their lives. Although it pained him to kill animals, their survival was still the most important.

"Can't let you kill off our cute little pets, can we?" said Obscurity, still with the voice that was reverberated right in everyone's ears.

"Val, isn't this ability quite dangerous? If he shouted, wouldn't we all take damage?" he said curiously and then took a short pause, "But since he hasn't done so, I'm sure this 'speaking-right-in-your-ear' ability has its own limitation," analyzed Graham.

After saying that, Obscurity's voice became inaudible while his hands were placed in front of him as if he was chanting.

Swoosh!!

Roze shot several blood arrows at him, but Macabre deflected them using a short sword that had an engraving of a cracked skull on the handle. There was a single dark purple gemstone embedded on its hilt that seemed to be glowing as she was swinging it.

Obscurity then slit his left wrist using the iron claw that he wore on his right index finger and after that, he let his blood flow out. The blood evaporated instantly once it touched the air, and the tiny red particles spread around the area quickly.

"Now everyone, please feel free to fight among yourself," he said, whispering gently right in everyone's ears. His voice was like a sweet temptation that was impossible to resist. Even Graham, who was far from him, felt the urge to attack anyone in his vicinity.

Roze's face was red from holding back her urge. The blood veins were showing and her expression twisted. She started chanting loudly.

"I, in the name of the Deity of Great Battles and Decay, declare harmful effects affecting my allies ineffective!"

After that, she opened her mouth as wide as she could.

"Roaarrr!!!!!"

She let out an ear-deafening roar that startled all that present there, including the birds in the sky. The angry faces of the Police officers were suddenly gone with one roar from their Lieutenant.

"Rood, finish off those creatures! Oranje and Paars, focus on the birds and the winged man! Groen, provide support, and tend to the wounded. Wit, Bruin, and Geel come with me! We'll deal with those four enemies!" commanded Roze.

Everyone nodded and uniformly got to their own assigned tasks. The three people that she called for followed closely behind her as she charged towards the building where the four enemies were standing.

Wit, the female Police Sergeant with purple hair and green eyes, had finished some kind of ritual before and now she looked to be chanting something. After that, her whole body started undergoing a transformation that was different from Graham's. It was much slower and looked rather painful. She started running on all four limbs when her upper body became heavier and light brown fur started growing all over her. Her body stretched and reached a length of almost two meters and a long tail grew from her back. After a while, Wit had completely turned into a Puma, the most dangerous big cat in the Republic of Tulp.

"Bruin!" said Roze as they arrived near the building where the enemies were.

Bruin nodded and ran towards the building while the other three stayed back. He put both of his hands on the wall of the building and seemed to be muttering something. The enemies were suddenly alarmed and they quickly tried to escape.

Rumble!!

The building started shaking violently and slowly, it started collapsing. Pieces by pieces of walls fell down on the ground as the four-story building was crumbling because of the man's ability. Geel, the female Police Sergeant with a calm look and demeanor, had a pained expression on her face as if she was reminded of an unpleasant memory.

"With that much power, why don't you want to become a Lieutenant?" shouted Wit from the back in her Puma form. Her voice was very hoarse and beast-like, and there was a ferocity in her tone despite her normal question.

Bruin didn't respond and kept on focusing on destroying the building to kill the four enemies all at once. However, he knew it wouldn't be easy as they surely had their own methods of getting away.

Macabre's body quickly turned into a pool of flesh and blood and entered one of the corpses of the giant worms that had shielded them from Roze's attack before. The corpse became bloated with her inside and after that, it returned to normal. She reappeared inside another corpse that was lying on the ground far from the Police and got out still in the form of a blob. After a while, she solidified and her body became that of a woman again, complete with the clothes that she was wearing.

Meanwhile, Obscurity turned into countless tiny snakes that slithered away in every direction, entering the holes and pores of the building before gathering back on the ground right next to Macabre. Dread and Fear entered two giant worms that had appeared from holes that appeared in front of them before reappearing on the ground near their companions.

Crash!!

The whole building finally collapsed, but Bruin had failed to take down any of the enemies.

"Roar!"

Wit dashed at a frightening speed towards the spot where Fear had just appeared. She was following her beastly instinct and attacked the weakest one in the enemy's rank. Just as Dread was about to help his fellow member, Roze shot a blood arrow at him, making him change his action to defending instead.

Kaboom!

The arrow was an explosive arrow!

The worm that he had summoned to defend himself was killed in a strong explosion, whose impact also sent Dread flying backward. He hit a wall and blood came out of his mouth while his skin showed slight signs of being burnt.

"Hah! You're not the only ones who are good with explosions!" shouted Roze. There was pride in her tone.

Fear was also wounded because of Wit's attack. Her animal form had boosted her physical ability tremendously, so Fear's pitiful defense couldn't completely block her attack. There were deep claw marks on her chest from which blood was flowing abundantly. There was hatred and rage on her face as she tried to get back up, albeit with difficulty.

"This doesn't look too good for us, doesn't it? I wonder if we can make it out alive, heheh..." said Obscurity right in everyone's ears. Although he was saying that, there was no urgency in his tone, only calmness and a hint of madness.