Too many things happened in the few moments of shock. The Crow burst forwards, towards Sarge and the other members of that group. Orca was the first to go. With one slap she was sent flying straight into a wall, her head a bloody and unrecognizable mess. Imila went at nearly the same moment, being pummeled into the ground by the Crow's fist.

While all that was happening Ilaria had tried to attack the Crow but to everyone's surprise, her greatsword was currently pressed against the bar counter, the only thing holding it there... one of the black bird's feet. A bird, many times smaller than Ilaria was currently holding her weapon in place as if it were nothing. When she was about to hit the bird with her free hand the bird blurred and appeared right behind her, pecking her neck. Blood splattered across the floor.

As much as I would have loved to keep an eye on her, I couldn't. The Crow had finished off Sarge and Cole as well. Cole's entire torse looked like a canon had been placed against it and fired off while sarge was missing both arms and a half of his face. The Crow stood over their dead bodies, chuckling like some maniac. When he turned to us I felt a cold shiver go down my spine.

The smile on his face, only one side of his mouth was slightly raised mocked us, called us weak without any words. There were a few droplets of blood splattered across his face and in his eyes there was this... hunger, hunger for even more blood.

Screams quickly filled the hall, some out of shock or sadness and some were more akin to war cries. But none of that even mattered. With every step the Crow took the ground split, some of us were barely able to move at this point.

"Dal! Get the girl out of here!" I heard Ilaria yell.

"Wha-" I began.

"Just do it! You might be able to outrun him long enough for me to deal with this bird!" she yelled.

I nodded, uncertain whether or not she would even see that and activated my magic mark. It was something I wasn't proud of. It was simple haste magic, all I could do was increase the speed of me and others, something that had essentially turned me into an errand boy for Pergament. But that didn't matter now. I activated my mark and whispered: "[Max Speed]" under my breath.

My vision blurred as I ran, but something was off. The Crow, for a second it felt like he was following me with his eyes as if I were moving in slow motion only for him to continue on his slaughter.

Since I didn't have time to focus on that I just ran up the stairs, opened the door in the very back and stepped into the room. Inside, hanging from a wooden contraption with many chains was a beautiful blond girl with deep blue eyes. Her clothes were torn apart and she was crying. She had also been gagged.

Stolen novel; please report.

"Well then dove, time to get you to safety," I said as I removed her shackles.

My hands were sweaty and it took me some time. There was also the fact that the room shook from time to time and then there were the screams I heard from downstairs. And the laughter coming from that one man. When I had finally freed her from her restraints I put her over my shoulder and ran out of the room.

The entire hall was in chaos. Ilaria was still trying to deal with the bird while the Crow had killed nearly everyone else here. Right now he was holding two black daggers and behind him, I could see multiple mutilated corpses with either their throats cut or their heads missing. Repressing the need to throw up I ran through the room and had that feeling again, the feeling that the Crow was easily following me with his eyes. Gritting my teeth I made my way towards the exit. I went through the broken doorway and entered the usually dark corridor. Right now it was flooded with light. Instead of using the ring, we knew he had, he had simply destroyed the entire wall.

When I reached the outside multiple people were staring at me but I had more important things to do. I needed to figure out where to go. And then I remembered, Bullhead was still out, looking for locations we could use to attack the paladin. He was my only hope right now.

And so I began running and running. To my dismay it had started to rain, disrupting my vision. The girl had now also begun to let out muffled screams as she noticed we were outside, she was hitting my back but that was nothing compared to what either the Crow or Ilaria would do if I couldn't get her to safety. I ran and ran for what felt to me like hours but could have only been minutes in reality. I turned around another corner, into some long alleyway. It was dark and I felt exhausted, having almost used up my meagre mana reserves. When I deactivated my magic I leaned against a wall, not caring about the girl that hung over my shoulder. She had long given up resisting me.

"M-Maybe I outran him?" I said to myself as a way to encourage me, but that was soon proven false.

I suddenly heard the Crow's voice, singing something.

"Dream a dream fall asleep, fall asleeeep. Hit the hay, hit the hay, don't wake up, don't wake up my little sheeeep," he sang.

His voice came from the roofs. With no other choice, I began to run for my life. Those few lines had driven fear into my body. I knew exactly what he could do and he knew exactly where I was. I quickly began panting from exhaustion but I pushed myself, never slowing down.

"Hit the hay fall asleep dream a dream my little sheep don't wake up, don't wake up from your eternaal reeest!" the Crow sang.

The way he delivered it sounded overly dramatic as if this were all some theatre play to him. I tried to be faster but then I suddenly felt a burning pain in my stomach.

"Don't wake up, don't wake up, die in peace on this street, don't wake up, don't wake uup!" the Crow sung as he drove his hand, surrounded by mana, through my stomach and pulled it back out. I fell to the ground, blood leaking from my stomach, I fell onto the hay of the nearby stable. I was almost there, this was the area Bullhead was in...

I began crawling towards the main street of the town, but I couldn't move. My entire body was limp and I suddenly felt cold... very cold, my eyelids were heavy and I felt strangely sleepy. The last thing I heard were some words from the Crow.

"No... that's not it, guess I need to rework it a little," he said with a slightly crazy-sounding tone.

I saw him move through the darkness, the girl hanging over his shoulder. Those were the last things I saw before everything went black and I fell asleep, at that moment I fell into my eternal slumber...