Chương 47: Target Practice

The bat's wings were torn and decayed. Aaron doubted it would fly well in its state. It would be useless for target practice if it couldn't get in the air. To make matters worse, one of the wing bones was snapped in the middle. Channelling Osteokineses, Aaron brought the broken ends of the wing bone into alignment and melded them together. It felt satisfying to carve the runes out from memory. This felt easy as he had plenty of practice with the dagger, so he pushed himself a bit harder.

Aaron didn't just focus on the melding of the bone, but healing it stronger and leaning into his augmentation abilities. The bat's wing bone was like a skinny arm. Except it had two thin long fingers projecting backwards supporting the wing's leathery flesh. Where it was broken, Aaron angled it forwards slightly to bring the wing into alignment with the other side. Perfect symmetry seemed important for balance when flying.

When he used Blood Bond on Cuthbert, he began to understand what it meant to be stable in the air. He lengthened the bone as well, layering bone over the old break, without adding too much weight. He positioned the bone to pull the wing more taut and repeated the modification on the other side. He watched as the slack pulled out of the wings, like a boat's sail catching the wind. Now focusing on his Manipulation skill, he focused on repairing the holes in the wings.

It was ragged and full of rips, but they quickly grew back and joined up to his will. Aaron's True Sight told him the weakest points in the wing which were under the most strain from flight. He went over them a second time with his ability and strengthened them in alignment with the wing bones. The last thing he needed was for them to rip open again under strain. The wing was attached to the entire length of the bat's body and ended at its feet.

It then linked back up to the furthest point of its wing bone forming two smooth crescents. Aaron ensured that each part of the wing attached to the body was strong, yet also mobile and flexible. It needed to be able to flex and move quickly in response to changes in direction and wind currents. [Teratogenesis talent improved] Augmentation Mastery: Rank 6 (+2) Aaron smiled proudly at the notification in his mind's eye.

He had spent the best part of the last hour meticulously going over the bat's wing, repairing it and optimising it for flight. Augmentation Enhancement made such a big difference to the process. He had felt exactly where the best improvements were and could visualise how they would affect the creature in the air. With both spells complete and mana infused through the bat's bones, muscle and heart, Aaron was ready to use Animate Corpse. He channelled the runes, carefully following the page in his tome.

On completion, he suddenly felt a flood of cold mana shoot out of his mouth and into the bat. It sucked the air out of his lungs and almost knocked him off his feet. He felt a chunk of his mana go all at once; the spell was still extremely difficult to pull off, particularly on a new creature. [Skill proficiency increase] Animate Corpse: Level 3 Seeing the notification, Aaron remembered how little practice he had with the skill compared to his other abilities.

It explained the mana cost for a relatively small creature. The bat's bones creaked and popped as it unravelled its coiled wings. It sat stiff upright and started clicking rhythmically. Its dark sagging ears perked up as if scanning the area. A wave of fatigue shot over Aaron. He briefly felt dizzy, but quickly re-centred himself. Holding onto the metal door for balance, he willed the creature to take flight. To his astonishment, it hopped up and flew in circles around the silo, exactly as he had intended.

He didn't have to micromanage movements. He simply told it to fly and it did. His training in Dominion Over Undead made all the difference. Its wings looked magnificent. Where they were broken and ragged before, they were smooth and complete. The bat glided around the silo with minimal effort, beating its wings once only every few heartbeats to maintain its height. It was effortless compared to when he saw them flying around the farm. Aaron wanted to push it further.

Speaking in his mind's eye, Aaron willed the creature to dive out of the sky and catch itself at speed. Cold mana escaped from his chest and the reaction was instant. The bat beat its wings twice to straighten its path and propelled itself downwards with a third strong flap. It pulled its wings in and dived down towards Aaron and Paige. Its beady black eyes looked straight at them.

"AARON?" Paige yelled. Aaron grinned and continued his commands. It was almost instinctive, but he knew what he was doing. Just a few feet from the floor, it engaged its wings, lengthening them as wide as possible. It caught the air instantly, bringing it level with the floor. It swooped over Aaron's head at breakneck speed. A powerful gust of wind blew past his face as the bat shot over, barely an arms length above their heads. Paige ducked down and covered her head.

"What in Ouromor's name are you doing Aaron?" She shouted. Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings. Aaron chuckled as the bat swooped across the field in front of them at monumental speed. The grass beneath it flattened from the gust from its wings. Paige punched Aaron's shoulder with her fist.

"Alright, stop showing off. Bring it back." Her hands ignited with balls of light. Aaron willed the bat to return to the silo. It turned around and flapped its wings to gain height again. Paige fired two bolts of light as the bat returned. They were pointed, like small spears rather than balls. One missed completely but the other hit it directly in the chest. The let out a high pitch whistle as a chunk of flesh on its body burned off, leaving a hole all the way through to its rib cage. No blood came out.

The light must have cauterised the vessels before it could spill. This was a good thing as other bats were attracted to blood and they he didn't fancy another close call. Aaron felt the bats instincts fight his control. It wanted to fight back, or flee. Doubling down, he pushed more mana through his will and commanded the bat to glide around the silo. It took another significant chunk of his mana, but the creature listened.

It was easy for the bat to follow its instincts like flying around, but to make it fight a primal desire, like survival, took a lot of strength to overcome.

"I can't hold it back for long when you're shooting at it," Aaron said.

"That's fine, let it come," Paige said, with a ferocious look in her eyes. The glow from Paige's hands intensified, illuminating the black underbelly of the circling creature. The burned wound in its chest healed up as the leathery black skin melded back into place. As it looped round, Paige shot another flurry of spears of light towards it. The bat tucked its wings in to make itself small and dodged through them.

The spears were faster and better weapons than the orbs, but the small flying target was difficult to hit. The bat screeched and stared down at Paige, now circling above her instead of the silo. Aaron felt his control slipping.

"Send it down," Paige said.

"Are you sure?" Aaron replied. Paige gave him a look akin to a wolf hunting its prey. She was focused and ready, almost to the point of obsession. Rather than commanding the bat to attack, Aaron simply stopped telling it not to. A wave of relief lifted off his shoulders as he stopped fighting it. It circled further out then stopped dead in the air, hovering for a moment. It turned around and fell into a dive. It spread its wings wide and swooped at speed towards Paige, talons at the ready.

Paige stood at the ready, unfaltering. If the creature caught with its talons at this speed, it could easily sever an artery and kill her. But she stood still, making Aaron nervous. Aaron stepped forwards with his dagger ready, but Paige held out her hand as if telling him not to worry. Just before the bat reached her, she threw what looked like a wind spirit at the ground. A gust of wind pushed past Aaron's face and dust flew up into the air in a wall in front of Paige.

It was within a few paces of them with its claws open, but the updraft knocked it off balance. It flapped frantically to steady itself and almost spun upside down. Aaron was torn between feeling worried and impressed. The bat continued over their heads in its own momentum, flailing to regain its balance. Paige spun round and launched a spear of light towards it. It was a direct hit. An explosion of light erupted, hurting Aaron's eyes and it tumbled to the ground and rolled over in a cloud of dirt and black smoke.

It didn't take long for the bat to recover. It picked itself up and tried to take off, but was hit by a flurry of shards of light before it could escape. Each one left a small scorched mark on its flesh.

"Again!" Paige ordered. The flesh re-joined over each of the small holes and sealed off, but it was slower this time. There must only be a finite amount of mana in the spell to repair injuries. Listening to Aaron's will, the creature took off and started circling again, but this time it was clicking frantically and letting out high pitched screeches. Hopefully nothing, or no one was close enough to hear it. Aaron readied himself and gripped onto the door handle of the granary anyways.

They needed to be ready to shelter inside at a moment's notice. The bat dropped into a dive again to build up speed then swooped towards Paige, but this time kept its head forwards rather than presenting its talons. This gave it more speed. When it was a few paces away, it flapped to gain a height and then tucked its wings back against its body. It hadn't done this last time. Paige slammed her wind spirit onto the floor, creating a powerful updraft, but it wasn't enough.

Without the wings out, the small body shot through the wind, barely disturbed from its path as it slammed straight into Paige's chest. She flew backward and landed onto her back. The bat opened its wings and flailed around to catch itself in the air. Paige groaned as she lay on her back on the floor. She held her head in her arms.

"Paige, move!" Aaron shouted as he ran over. He was at least twenty paces away and regretted hiding so close to the silo. He put all his strength into controlling the bat, but nothing was working. It was frenzied and locked on. A shot of black darted across Aaron's vision as Cuthbert flew over and landed on the flying bat's back and pecked at it frantically. The creature whistled a high pitched screech as the crow attacked it. Black smoke erupted from the pecked areas on its back.

It aborted the attack on Paige and writhed around in the air, trying to shake the crow off. It spun in the air with unnatural agility, knocking the bird loose and slashed it with its talons. Cuthbert went limp and fell out of the sky. Aaron's world ground to a halt as the bird thumped down on the floor in front of him. A flurry of spears of light shot past him striking the bat several times in the chest, burning through to its ribcage. Several of them pierced the wings, leaving large holes.

It flapped harder but it was no longer effective. The bat fell into a spiral of teeth and wings. It crashed down to the floor in a smoking heap. Its wounds were no longer healing and it stopped moving. Aaron ran forwards towards the bird.

"Give me light!" He shouted to Paige who promptly emitted a white glowing orb from her hand. Cuthbert was laying on his side on the floor, breathing agonising breaths, but still alive.

"You stupid bird! Why did you do that?" Aaron shouted, looking at his injured companion's wounds. Aaron checked it for injuries with his True Sight. There was a mark over his chest where the three talons had struck him. Thankfully the wounds were not too deep. There were a couple of broken ribs where he had landed. Aaron used Manipulate to quickly heal up the claw wounds on his chest and recalled the Osteokineses runes to mend the broken bones.

Aaron made a point to reinforce his skin and bones and strengthen his muscles as much as his power would allow. He also sharpened and lengthened his talons. They were only the length of a grape, but big enough to blind someone. The bat had demonstrated a scary amount of intelligence avoiding Paige's wind attack and he suspected the crow was also not ordinary. His connection with him, or his mana flowing through him must have enhanced his intelligence. It put itself at risk to help Paige.

Its attacks burned through the corrupted creature's flesh. This must have been the light spirit inside of him, there was no other explanation.

"HORSES!" Paige shouted. Sure enough, the sound of galloping feet closed in from the distance. Paige and Aaron ran into the silo and slammed the door.

"AARON!" Giddeon's voice called, "Your brother has gone missing!"