Chương 52: Yearn for the Mines

It had been a while since Aaron stopped channelling rage through his aura and influencing the corrupted creatures, but there had clearly been some kind of chain reaction. Whilst initially they were reacting to Aaron's will, they were still in a frenzy and perpetuating their own aggression. Twenty bats was only Aaron's best guess. Despite fires lit all around the camp, illuminating the area well, it was impossible to accurately count them against the dark sky. The sea of clicks echoing around the camp was deafening.

One bat making the noise was creepy and harrowing. But a flock of them made a sound so monstrous, it made it difficult to hear the person next to you. There were few peacekeepers around the jail tent. Most of them had run towards the entrance of the camp, grouping together to fight the creatures. Many others had run off west to investigate the fires. Either way, anyone left in the area was too focused to notice them. The guards weren't their biggest problem at the moment.

It was the bats, particularly the large, humanoid bat which looked like it had been stitched together. Initially, Aaron had suspected there was a necromancer in the camp messing with them, but they seemed to be attacking the peacekeepers rather than working with them.

"It's coming!" Paige shouted as she pointed up to the large flying humanoid creature. Sure enough, it was diving down towards them. These creatures hunted with sound. They were effectively blind. Could it have heard them? Or perhaps it was attracted to Aaron's magic. Either way, this particular creature was more intelligent and sentient than the others. And also larger and more dangerous.

"GET INSIDE!" Aaron shouted. They clearly heard him over the clicking from the bats as they ran back into the tent.

"Get a pike!" Aaron said to Paige, "Tim, get behind us!" Aaron and Paige picked up a pike each and moved forward towards the entrance. If he stood in the entrance of the tent, he could touch both sides with his hands, making it a nice defensible position. It didn't take long for the creature to arrive. It flew in at speed, parallel to the ground and stopped suddenly mid-flight. Its two sets of opposing wings gave it unnatural agility in the air, like a hummingbird.

It was able to hover and fly sideways and backwards. Stopping in front of them, it stretched out its arms, displaying its talons. It hovered outside the tent entrance, making a horrible, deep droning sound with its wings, like a hornet. Aaron and Paige held the pikes out in front of them, towards the beast. Unlike their daggers and swords, the pikes were longer than the creature's arms and gave them the range advantage. If it tried to swipe at them, they could easily impale it first. Unfortunately…

or fortunately, the creature seemed to notice the threat and flew off. They couldn't see where it went, but the horrible buzzing sound of its wings circled around the tent. It was so deep that it was very difficult to pinpoint exactly where it was. Everything around them hummed and vibrated. Suddenly, a claw burst through the top of the tent, ripping a slit through the fabric. The beast hissed and let out a high-pitched whistle, showing off multiple rows of jagged teeth. The creature would be fit for a nightmare.

Its face had no eyes, just a wide mouth full of sharp teeth and huge fox-like ears.

"LEAVE!" Aaron shouted, reaching for as much mana as he could force into words. Icy cold air burst from his mouth. The creature peeled its lips back to bare its fangs and then flew off.

"You can control it?" Paige gasped.

"No, it's not listening to me at all. It's still here," Aaron replied. Holding the pike in one hand, he rotated slowly, aiming roughly towards the buzzing noise. With the other hand, he reached down towards the dead blonde guard—the one without the enchantment which attracted blades. He didn't know what kind, but the peacekeeper was some sort of weak magic user. His body had plenty of mana; much more mana than the grunt he drained at Harrold's mansion.

He used Drain Remnant until the corpse was shrivelled up and destitute. He absorbed so much mana that his Drain Vitality levelled up twice, bringing it to rank four, and his Drain Remnant reached level four as well. It must have still counted as draining living creatures, as he was so recently deceased; otherwise, it should have worked on his Corpse Draining. The droning of the beast's wings still circled the tent, with occasional bursts of clicks and snarls. Aaron had mana overflowing from his fingertips.

At least that's how it felt. He was almost surprised when he looked down and saw his hands appearing completely normal. He wished he had access to some sort of boost for his Dominion Over Undead, but there was none in novice rank. If there was, he would have taken it immediately and called down a swarm of bats to attack the creature whilst they escaped. But he wasn't so lucky.

He desperately wanted to get a point into Curse Lore, but the plan was to quickly pick something to help get them out of harm's way and use the burst of mana regeneration to his advantage. Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings. There was nothing immediately useful he could pick, and he barely had time to think. Last time he invested his mana through a talent, his mana regenerated rapidly for a few minutes.

A burst of power might just be enough to exert more control over the bats. Forced to make a quick decision, Aaron just picked what he wanted: Curse Lore. The burning in his fingertips relieved, and he felt lighter and as if the air was easier to breathe. But he felt mana flooding through his bones. He'd never felt so much power. One of the wooden poles on the far side of the tent cracked, and half the tent flopped over. It stopped just above their heads, suspended by the fabric tent.

The buzzing suddenly came closer.

"It's taking the tent down. Let's get out of here now," Aaron shouted. The three of them sprinted outside, hanging onto the pikes as they did. They barely made it out the exit before the entire tent collapsed. A burst of clicks rained down on them as the creature flew above their heads. The beast had the advantage out here where it could fly around. It must have meant to draw them out into the open. Aaron lunged up in the air towards the creature with his pike.

It slashed its claws at the incoming metal, parrying it to the side with a twang. The force almost ripped it out of Aaron's hands. It was clear that they would lose if they tried to fight out here.

"Stand your ground. Don't attack it unless it tries to fly towards us," Aaron commanded. He stood side by side with Paige. Tim was tucked in closely behind their shoulders. Aaron focused his aggression towards the beast into his aura. Whilst it wasn't as strong as directly commanding a single corrupted creature, it was much more mana efficient. The sheer number of bats in the area was too many to command individually, even with his temporary mana boost. He channelled as much as possible into the command.

Where usually it didn't cost any mana to project emotion into his aura to influence corrupted creatures, it drained him quickly this time. It was probably because he was extending the field of influence to cover the entire camp. And whilst he was projecting his aggression into it, he must have accidentally slipped a command to attack in there as well. It was difficult not to when he was flailing his pike at it. The effect was instantaneous. The clicking grew louder, like a tidal wave crashing over them.

A bat flew over and dug its talons into the creature's back, slashing it as it went past. The beast let out a high-pitched screech, which made Aaron tense and grit his teeth. Little by little, more flew past, each taking a swipe at the creature. It turned its attention away from the trio and swiped its claws towards the oncoming bats. It hit one of them dead on, severing its wing from its body entirely. The bat came crashing down just over Aaron's head.

And its wing landed a few paces further up, splattering black blood across the floor. The swarm grew into a funnel of bats circling around them. Aaron felt the hatred these bats had for the creature. It had crushed and killed them in the barn for no reason. He got the impression that the bats were afraid of it and saw it as a threat rather than a leader. It was obvious that they naturally wanted to fight it off when they responded so well to Aaron's aura.

If they didn't want to attack it, it would have been impossible to force them, even with the mana boost. About fifty bats were spiralling around them. Every now and then one would break off and lunge at the creature. Nine times out of ten, it would swat the bats away with ease, but they gradually inflicted wounds on it.

"Let's go," Aaron said. They had a short window of time where the creature was distracted, and the peacekeepers were still disoriented by the attack. If they waited any longer, they might have come to their senses and headed over to the swarm. Aaron let Tim and Paige go first. He walked backwards behind them, holding the pike up in case the beast decided to go for them, but it was too engaged with the bats. After a few steps backwards, Aaron turned and ran with the others.

It was only a hundred paces or so to the entrance to the mine. Just as they started to run, the beast took off. It flew west over the camp, in a desperate bid to escape. They chased after it. Instead of following any sort of neat formation, they split up and darted around the tents, vaguely all flying west. If any peacekeepers were near the mine, they would have needed to take cover to avoid them. Not that Aaron could see any guards left in the area. Tim and Paige were a few paces away from Aaron.

They stayed close to the ground and ran towards the mine entrance, shielding their heads with their arms. It was a square hole in the side of the hill, reinforced open with thick wooden beams. There was a small light coming from a lantern inside the mine, illuminating the surrounding area with a warm yellow tinge. A gust of wind brushed over Aaron's head as a bat flew over. If it was a tiny bit closer, it would have smacked straight into him.

Aaron crouched a little bit lower and covered his head as he ran towards the mine He decided to sprint the distance and get it over with. The quicker he got out of there, the better. At least that's how he rationalised it. In reality, he would be lucky if he didn't run face-first onto a bat's talons. He made it into the mine. The trio stood in the rocky archway for a moment and watched in horror as a hurricane of bats shot past the mine door. It only lasted a few seconds before it died down.

The chaotic clicking echoed through the mine at first, but soon petered down to a distant tapping.

"That was close," Tim laughed.

"Yeah, we're lucky those bats hate that creature so much. I don't think I could have made them do that otherwise. Do you think anyone saw us run this way?" Aaron replied.

"No, I don't think they did," Paige confirmed, "But they'll be back soon. There were guards stationed here before."

"What about Giddeon? We need him if we're going to survive down here," Aaron said.

"He'll meet us here. Or he might have even snuck past whilst we were fighting in the tent. Come on, quickly." Paige ushered them to follow her down the mine. A white orb followed, hovering above her head. The main passageway of the mine was a sharp slope downwards. Every few paces, wooden beams encased the walls in a square to reinforce the tunnel.

As they got deeper, the dirt walls were replaced by solid grey stone and the warm yellow hue from the lantern was replaced by the cold white light from Paige's light spirit. They stopped as they reached an intersection. The tunnel continued as normal straight ahead, but there was a branch off to the left which was blocked off with a thick rope. A sign hung below it saying, do not enter. Paige frowned at the rope and stared intently for a few seconds.

"Giddeon was here, he left us a trail," Paige said, climbing under the rope. Aaron and Tim followed. Something about the mine felt off. There was mana oozing out of the rock along the walls. It felt cold and familiar. Perhaps it was his Curse Lore hinting at the mine's true nature. The deeper he delved, the more he was certain that not only the humanoid bat creature lived down here, but so did its creator. There was another necromancer nearby. What was more unsettling was that he felt the curse in Tim growing.