With the ambush over and the zombies wiped out, Bertrand could actually focus on what they looked like rather than on staying alive.

Looking at the dead body of one of the zombies revealed a grisly sight, Bertrand had thought Césaire was bony but this corpse completely changed his perspective.

They were missing the flesh on their fingers, the fingerbones having fused together to form horrific bone claws, the rest of them was hardly any better. There were hardly any muscles on them, all Bertrand could see was the bones enveloped tautly by the skin. He half thought that if he cut them open all that would spill out would be air.

The ribs looked like they were half fused as well, forming a sort of bone chest plate. It didn't look very thick though, somehow their bones had become thinner as welll, it was bizarre.

How had fragile creatures like these completely crushed the infantryman with their weight? Was it just because they were very high up? The pine trees were rather tall, reaching nearly two hundred and fifty feet in height.

Feeling bile rise up in his throat, Bertrand chose to walk away rather than keeping on inspecting the corpse.

Moving over to where Francois stood, not wanting to leave them alone. As despite having defeated the ambush they still looked rather uneasy, glancing up at the trees and suspiciously eyeing the surrounding shrubbery. All the while their fingers nervously drummed on the wooden handle of their beamer.

Not really knowing what to say Bertrand just stood with him, carefully watching the trees, as he swapped mana cubes, it was another lesson he would have to remember, always look up.

After what Bertrand judged to be about five minutes, everyone was patched up, bandages wrapped around wounds and medical ointments applied to prevent infection.

It was a bit risky, but if there were any more of them out there, surely they would have come running when they heard the battle first begin and, since no more zombies had joined in, they were probably safe.

A cry of alarm rang out from his left and Bertrand let out an internal curse for jinxing them with his optimistic thoughts.

Bringing his beamer around to bear on whichever threat had dared to spring up, he saw a horrific sight.

One of the remaining few light infantrymen was letting out a shuddering gasp, looking down at their chest, as a bloody yellow hand slowly emerged from their abdominal region. They had been pierced cleanly through, by a hand?

With a horrific screech, they were hurled to the side, sliding off the hand and slamming into the trunk of one of the trees, with a sickening thud.

And Bertrand got his first look at the monstrosity that had killed them, it was tall, maybe six foot seven and extremely thin, he had thought the clawed zombies were skeletal in appearance, but this creature was somehow even bonier than they were.

Looking almost like a moving skeleton, the only displays of flesh on it were paper thin layers of skin spread across its inhuman bones and elongated arms. Its stomach was just a shallow pit.

Something like this was supernatural, a creature like this simply couldn't exist. It was humanoid in shape sure, and even if he was no doctor he was pretty sure those were the bones of a human, albeit heavily mutated, or perhaps modified.

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What made Bertrand think that, was their bloody yellow hands, they were shaped like scythes. The forearm being the handle and the fingers being the blade, making the creature perfectly capable of swinging from tree to tree.

It was like his life was flashing before his eyes, except it was details of the creature, almost as though the Seer was gazing through his eyes, using him as an instrument to determine what new threat had risen up in their plane.

It was such an ominous and overwhelming out of body experience, but then it was shattered and he could move again. Unfortunately, as he drew in a shuddering breath of air. The aberration moved forwards. With its paper- ike skin it didn't have a mouth, so there wasn't a lot it could do other than grin, but if it had had lips, Bertrand was certain it would still be grinning.

It didn't so much as walk as it strutted, moving exactly like the actor Bertrand had seen at his first play. They had acted out a romance character though, so it was rather unsettling to see the abomination walk the same way.

What was even more distributing though, was when with shaking hands, one of the infantrymen fired their musket and a shot of pure force hit the monster with the power of a ten horse chariot. It didn't even flinch, like it was only hit by the fist of a child, rather than one of the greatest technological marvels created in history.

Merely stumbling back a little, though Bertrand could have sworn it did that more in mockery than anything else, it came right back at them. It lurched forward with long legged strides, its strutting gait abandoned.

Closing the short distance unnaturally swift, its scythe like arms swiped sideways and cleaved the infantryman who had fired at it into three separate pieces. Its right arm decapitated the poor man, while its left bisected them.

Then as though its display of violence was a mistake, it leapt back in feigned shock, another two shots of pure force slammed into it though, putting a stop to its façade before it could even truly begin.

It acted almost like it was faking being enraged, rushing the nearest soldier head on as they fumbled with their musket, then stopping just before it collided with them, bowing down its head to get a better look at their expression.

Then it swung its arm upwards, its scythe limb raking up the man's chest, then, as they screamed, it backed up and kicked out with its long leg, sending them flying into another tree like its first victim.

The screaming stopped instantly. In the dreadful few seconds of silence that followed, the monster curiously observed them, not unlike how a sadistic child would stare at some ants he was about to squash.

With trembling hands, Bertrand snapped out of his shock and raised his beamer, it almost felt like he was dreaming, which would make his death hopefully less painful.

Checking the mana vein he had reinforced and repaired, he prepared for the end, noticing with his peripheral vision that his comrades were doing the same.

In its arrogance, it simply stood there. It was strange though, despite its apparent emotions, Bertrand didn't feel like it was playing with them, but rather testing them. Trying to figure out how they would react to its various strange displays.

The answer was with overwhelming firepower, as almost simultaneously five blasts from muskets rang out, as well as the quiet hum of the beamer rays.

It just stood there, arms hanging limply by its side as it was battered from every direction by pure force. The amount of blunt force trauma it endured was enough to shatter solid castle walls and bring entire mountainsides crashing down.

It didn't even react, still gazing at them as though their best attempts to harm it meant nothing, then, slowly and confidently it stepped forwards, towards Césaire, even as he kept firing his beamer directly into its chest.

Bertrand tried to direct his beamer upwards, towards its head, but he simply couldn't. His limbs felt like they were weighted by lead.

It was a monster so utterly beyond them, the worse part though was that it was intelligent. No doubt their deaths would be covered up and their bodies dragged away. Nothing would be gained from this, their brothers would remain unavenged, the details surrounding their deaths a mystery.