The skies had turned gray, blocking out any advancing sunlight. The sun itself was seen, but through a lens of thick black color. If it wasn’t ominous enough, Kenan knew that the shadow producing specter was unnatural. Power mingled and furthered the growth of the cover. He was positive that it was Shells doing.

Kenan was confronted with a large, cat-like creature. It had no nose, slicked back and pointed ears. A slimmed body that had no clear sign of separation between its head, neck, and body. Vine crawled all over the creature, its muscles bulging and veins popping. A long forked tongue hissed at him.

Noctis weaved away from a bite, and further backed away from a swipe of claws. He responded by maneuvering his blade deep into its side. He let it go as he realized it was stuck, and the cat-like creature had no signs of slowing down.

It tried to pounce at him, but was hindered by the blade. Then, a large globule of saliva was jettisoned out of its mouth. As the projectile honed in on Kenan’s face, suddenly, he wasn’t there. Dion came from under the attack. The dirus then jumped to the side of the foe and grabbed the sword with his maw, swinging his head violently in an attempt to set it free.

Meanwhile, Noctis was transported in front of a large rabbit, as tall as himself. Horns flowed from its head. It backed up, trying to thump but failed to do so. Dion had successfully hamstrung the thing. A large vine sent its intent of killing. Kenan side-stepped and caught it. Using Qi, he gave it a hard tug. Making the rabbit lurch forward. The next moment, he bolted behind it, wrapping the vine around its large neck. He then jumped on its back, twisted the green limb around his knuckles and pulled. The rabbit flayed and convulsed as it failed to breath. Eventually losing its life.

Dion managed to rip out the blade. Holding the sword like a stick, with the handle in his maw, and blade to the right and facing outwards. Dion faced the creature head-on. The cat-thing let out a hiss, vines started to repair the damage. The dirus lowered his head and growled. They both charged forward. Dion veered left, and sent mana into the sword on pure instinct. Flame built and held on the spine of the sword. As the two closed in, the cat went to sink its teeth in Dion's neck. The attempt ended very poorly. The black blade's tip hooked on its mouth. Then the spine exploded in flame. Propelling both the sword and Dion. It ended with the monster cut in half and disemboweled.

Breathing heavy, Noctis relaxed his hold as he felt the life finally drain from his prey. He looked around the battlefield. The area was filled with animal bodies. Much of the land was destroyed with magic, a lot being burned with his flame. Not many mutated-monsters still stood, the ones left were being slayed. Oz and Ozzy went hunting on those that still breathed. Not twenty yards away from himself, was a battle battered separated unit of a different squad. Clearly, they had lost a lot of numbers.

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Kenan walked over, grabbed his sword from his companions mouth, and wiped away the saliva. Both of them were absolutely caked in a thick layer of blood, mud, and mostly ichor. Dion looked at his master and communicated. “I think so too.” Noctis said. The connected walked over to the brothers. Oz kicked in a dying animal's skull, Ozzy lazily dropped his hammer, crushing a spine.

“Ken!” Oz Smiled. Which was terrifying. The blood spatter on his face with lightning crackling from his skin made him quite terrifying. Not nearly as much as Kenan, however. “How many did you kill?”

Noctis shrugged. Smirked. “More than you.”

Ozzy laughed, on the other hand Oz crunched his face. “Yeah right. I’ve been killing since you were still…” Ozzy elbowed his brother. “Since you were born.”

“And I escaped…” Dion woofed. “Never mind.” Kenan sliced a struggling animal's throat. Or was about to. The vines withered away, and its body shriveled at an alarming rate. Mana flowed and traveled. All of the corpses infected with the curse turned into a whisper of what it was when they were alive. “Oz.”

“Right o’” The Goliath reached for something in his belt, and pulled out a horn. He blew into it, a second passed. It was responded with a plethora of other, similar sounds. Another moment, a larger call sounded out. The four turned, and started to make their way to Banburn’s gate. So did the rest of the weary warriors on the battlefield. Kenan's did so at a quickened pace, knowing something was coming. The other three matched his pace.

Soon they stood in front of the entrance. Closed. Noctis backed up and yelled. “Bring us up. Something is wrong.” Doco leaned over and looked at his nephew. The next moment, all four were slowly being lifted. Oz cursed along the way. A few short moments later, they landed on the wall.

“What is it?” Doco asked. Kenan looked at the ground, and took mental inventory of the arrows left. Not many.

“They should’ve been way harder to put down towards the end. Also…”

“Shell purposefully left out anything avian.” Doco said.

“Yeah…” Oz said. Kenan tuned out his voice.

Noctis twisted his head, ear upturned. Dion’s twitched. The echoes of a screech entered their hearing first. Then it reached the rest. The connected heard faint cracks of trees bending under force. A faint gust of wind, and another.

A louder, impossibly loud roar deafened everyone. They all turned. Coming out from the woods, heading straight towards them, was a creature. At first Kenan thought it could’ve been a cloud, but it moved far too fast. It passed them, casting a dark shadow on them for a brief second. It turned quickly, and swooped over the town. Releasing a breath of green liquid. Melting a large line of buildings and stone. The creature rounded again. It flapped its large wings and hovered over Banburn, turning its gaze towards Kenan.

Its color was dark brown mixed with black decayed patches. Two large wings and another smaller pair sat just lower. Muscled legs with sharp talons. Scaled and draconic like maw. Vines wrapped tightly around it. The green limbs completely replaced its bigger right wing, and covered large gouges in its body. A broken jaw repaired with the tightly bound cursed vine. The top right of its skull lacked an eye, skin, and flesh. With it only being bone.

It roared hellishly as it flew up.