Chương 62: Fighting Pit

Wind and rock pelted past Aaron's head towards the humanoid bat creature. He ducked to the side as an apple-sized stone grazed his ear. The enchantment Aaron absorbed was still attracting all of the stray attacks. The bat let out a deafening scream and took off into the air, using its four wings to hover in place. It strafed from side to side with unnatural dexterity, avoiding most of the projectiles. The occasional stone hit it, but nothing penetrated its thick, leathery hide.

The blasts of air hitting it whipped up ripples of dust from the surrounding wooden walls, but didn't seem to even stagger it slightly. It flew back and ducked down behind the wall. The dreadful droning of its wings hummed as it slowly circled the wall out of sight. The deep buzzing left an awful, sickening sensation on Aaron's teeth. The party huddled together with their weapons out, slowly turning to stay facing the direction of the droning wings. Three sharp talons suddenly penetrated through the wall.

The wood was so thick that just the tips poked through. The talons scraped along the wall as the creature flew round, leaving a three-pronged, jagged scrape through the wood. It was taunting them. Or maybe HE was taunting them. It seemed likely that the necromancer Selezar, who cursed the staff, was the one who created this beast. The talons retracted from the wall as the creature approached the door side of the pit. The marching footsteps halted, and a voice commanded, "HALT! Kill the beast!"

A loud thump startled Tim as a spear tip pierced through the door. It must have been destined for the bat, but missed. Loud grunts and the clanging of steel echoed through to the pit for a few heartbeats, then a loud shout drowned out the rest of the noise. He was screaming and shouting, begging for help. The creature flew up into view. It had one hand impaled into the back of the guard, who was significantly larger than the bat. It effortlessly held him up and flew around with the added weight.

The talons had penetrated through his plate mail armour at the back, and there was a large, three-pronged laceration across the front of it, with blood gushing out and dripping down its elbow. It turned to face them. Aaron swore it was grinning at them, but that could have been the adrenaline speaking. With an effortless underarm swing, it sent the screaming man flying over the wall towards them. He bounced off the rocky floor of the pit like a ragdoll and landed face down a few paces in front of them.

There was a splatter of blood on the ground where he bounced, and he lay there unmoving. One of his arms was twisted back and snapped in a direction it shouldn't go. The remaining three guards, mage and Thomas took the opportunity to join them in the pit, running through the door. Thomas panted and backed against the wall, but quickly glared and held up his sword as he caught sight of Aaron and Tim next to the broken relic.

"You better pray this creature kills you first, because Harrold is not going to be happy to hear this," he laughed.

"None of you will make it out alive, so there's nothing to worry about," Paige hissed. Tiny droplets of water bubbled up from the rock beneath the mage's feet and collected into five sharp shards of ice. The creature hovered above their heads, just outside the wall. With their combined numbers, they probably had a chance against it in a fight. It must have known as it hovered in place and watched them below.

"Let's worry about that beast first. If we fight each other, that thing will kill us all," Aaron said. Thomas and his men kept their swords raised and glared.

"Do you hear that?" Tim said. They all paused to listen, but there was no noise. Everyone stared at Tim blankly.

"Seriously, you can't hear that?! Get to the back wall now," Tim shouted. He looked so serious and afraid that his party went along with it. The five of them ran across the pit. To their good fortune, the beast stayed in place, hovering above the doorway. Tim looked terrified, wide-eyed and pressed flat up against the wall. That's when Aaron heard it too. A symphony of clicking echoing across the walls. The bats were coming.

"Do what he says, get against the wall," Aaron shouted. Thomas and his men were still standing facing them, looking like they were torn between listening to them and attacking them. The clicking grew louder. It sounded like a tidal wave, roaring and crashing around the mine. This must have prompted them to action. They ran to the wall, pressing their backs up against it. Within a couple of heartbeats, a bat flew over their heads towards the exit of the mine.

The creature caught it with its talon mid flight, tearing through its arm slicing the wing cleanly off its body. The bat let out a high-pitched whistle as it spun out of control and crashed to the floor below. Three more bats followed shortly after. The beast swiped at the front one and grabbed its head between the claws on its hand. It clamped down between the points of its talons and popped its head like a grape, splattering dark blood on the floor below.

It threw the lifeless body towards the oncoming bats, who quickly banked to the sides to avoid it. The smaller bats had one set of wings and glided along, rather than flapping like the beast. They were much less manoeuvrable mid-flight, but were still terrifyingly fast. The creature leaned back and raised its feet up. It had long fingers with talons the size of daggers where toes should have been. The two oncoming bats split either side, but one was too slow.

The beast slashed forward to one side with its feet, snipping the bat in half. Its wings and head dropped down onto the wall and bounced over into the pit whilst its rear legs carried on going with their own momentum. This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. The second bat, which was slightly smaller, evaded right and sliced into the beast's back with its sharp talons on its way past. It bellowed out a deafening screech as it was hit.

The noise was so painful, Aaron was forced to cover his ears. It felt like his eardrums were about to burst. It was difficult to comprehend why they fought amongst themselves. Perhaps the bats were corrupted by the cursed mana seeping into the mine, but weren't directly controlled by the Necromancer. They probably saw the larger creature as a threat and were acting on instinct. Perhaps Aaron could use this to their advantage.

It was easy to nudge them into acting on instinct, rather than forcing them to do something unnatural. Just as the thought passed through Aaron's mind, a torrent of bats flooded over their heads, like water breaking a dam. The clicking sounds were deafening. Giddeon was shouting something at them, but it was impossible to hear him. It sounded like they were in the middle of a hurricane, and the beating of wings and clicking drowned everything else out.

Looking up, it was impossible to tell one creature from another. The swarm of bats seemed to meld into one black creature with ripples of beating wings passing through it. The beast dived down behind the wall to avoid the onslaught of corrupted creatures. It was like a stampede of bison, all following herd mentality one after the other. One or two peeled off to confront the beast, but it could have easily dispatched a small number of them. Without warning, Thomas unsheathed his sword and swung it towards Giddeon.

Steel clashed as Paige drew her sabre and parried the blade upwards. Thomas' sword caught a bat in the air and his grip failed. The bat screeched and crashed to the ground, bringing the sword with it. It clanged across the floor and bounced into the centre of the pit.

"What are you doing? Stop. We can't fight each other with that beast still nearby," Aaron shouted. The noise from the bats was overwhelming. But even if Thomas could hear him, he probably wouldn't have listened. Giddeon grabbed the back of Thomas' head and conjured up a gust of wind. The resulting throw sent him flying in a somersault over the rocky plateau where the broken staff lay.

He regained control midflight, landing on his feet in a display of dexterity which looked only possible with a spell or magical enhancement. He picked up his sword and stared at Aaron's party as his men ran to his side. Thomas' mage fired a volley of icy shards towards them. To Aaron's horror, they all honed in towards his chest. He managed to block them all with his quickly raised arm, which was armoured in a pad of thick leather. Pain coursed through his skin.

He went to pull the shards out of his arm, but they had already turned to water and dripped to the floor. Blood trickled down the leather pad. Giddeon shouted something at Aaron, but the roar of bats made it impossible to hear. He released a beige sphere from his hand, which glided over and dropped down to the floor at Aaron's feet. A pillar of stone rose from the ground in front of him. He must have been telling him to take shelter.

In all of the stress of the day, he'd completely forgotten that he drained the enchantment which attracts attacks to him. Remembering Giddeon's words, Aaron made sure he could isolate the enchantment. As long as he could still do that, it wouldn't be permanent. If the opportunity arose, he needed to transfer it into something or someone else. Aaron started to heal the wounds in his forearm with Manipulate when he noticed a flurry of larger lances of ice hurl towards Giddeon.

They curved in the air toward him, bypassing the stone pillar. Aaron jumped to the side, barely out of the way. They shot past his chest and cracked into the wall behind him. Paige was hurling wind at the guards, which forced them on the defensive. They crouched down with one foot backwards, bracing the gusts. It was doing nothing more than keeping them away. Giddeon created a sphere of fire, similar to the one he used to incinerate the Mana Hound and break through the cave-in.

He sent it gliding towards the mage, but it was quickly neutralised by a gush of icy water. The ball evaporated with a torrent of steam, quickly rising up and disappearing in the horde of bats above. They needed to take care of the mage first. He was clearly trained for battle and, although probably not a master, was able to go toe-to-toe with Giddeon, whose magic was better suited for utility. The mage pulled water from the earth below.

It trickled upwards and swirled around, joining an ever-increasing large sphere of swirling liquid. There was a magical pale blue shimmer amongst it, which was different in colour and texture from the water itself. Aaron called an attack on the mage. He channelled his hostility through his aura and focused on the caster. The response from the bats was instant and monumental. Rather than flying straight over the pit's walls, they started swooping down as they flew past.

Not all of them did it, as there were more bats than space, but there were enough to overwhelm him. A bat dipped in and scraped across the man's shoulder with its talons. The speed of the impact knocked him sideways, staggering him briefly off balance. It didn't draw blood, but there was a tear in the top of his robe, and his shoulder poked through the gap. Ignoring the bats, the mage continued to channel the ball of water when a second bat swooped in and slashed his exposed shoulder.

He yelled in pain, but it was drowned out by the clicking of the bats. Three more came in, one after the other. The first two hit both shoulders in series, but the third never reached its target. With a powerful blow of his sword, a guard hacked the creature out of the sky. He swung his sword around to face the injured bat flailing around on the floor and stabbed it in the head. Sticky black blood tipped his sword. The water sphere crashed to the floor as the mage lost his focus.

The water flowed towards the centre of the room and pooled around the base of the rock plateau holding the staff. The bat attacks were regular and ferocious now. They dipped in at speed from the front with their claws outstretched. They were mostly the size of cats and rats, but their talons were long and sharp and they flew at back breaking speeds. One well-placed claw in the neck could mean death. All of the men were swiping at them with their weapons, however their attacks were panicked and inaccurate.

Giddeon took his knife and threw it with a powerful gust of wind. It didn't spin in the air in a natural way. Instead, it pointed directly forward and flew in a perfectly straight line. It sank straight into the mage's neck. The full blade penetrated his skin with only the green glowing hilt poking out. The man put his hands on his neck as blood spurted out through his fingers. He staggered away from the guards, retching and gasping for air. A bat flew into his face, tearing from his chin up through his face.

Deep gashes furrowed through both of his eyes. He screamed in pain loud enough that Aaron heard him over the sound of the bats. But it didn't last long. He collapsed onto his front and twitched on the floor for a few heartbeats and then went still. The swarm of bats was waning. They were passing straight overhead now the mage was dead. Thomas and the guards were no longer facing Aaron's party. They looked towards the entrance as the door lay broken on the floor.

Baring its hundreds of sharp teeth in a wide open-mouthed grin, the humanoid bat creature was standing in the pit. The bats above curved around the edges of the pit, avoiding the reach of its arms. They were backed against the wall with nowhere to run. But there were nine of them against this creature, if they could convince Thomas to fight with them.