Chapter 239: Opening Fire (1/2)
The first thing Mike noticed as he left the tent was an unusual droning buzz that seemed to be filling the air. As far as he could tell, it was coming from the west, and was growing louder. In fact, it was quickly starting to overwhelm the sound of the signal horn, not that it seemed like it was necessary anymore.
A crowd had gathered on the western side of the encampment, many of the soldiers milling about uncertainly. After a few seconds, Mike realized what the problem was. They'd mobilized as part of the general alarm, but there was no clear enemy, simply the droning sound which was growing increasingly ominous.
[So they didn't actually see the enemy, and were just spooked by the strange noise? Are they really that unsettled by the circumstances?]
Glancing around, he spotted Emmanuel moving purposefully forward, brow furrowed in thought.
”I'm going up for a better look.” He yelled, taking off into the air before his teacher had a chance to stop him.
Moving quickly, he shot out past the wall and began scouring the region to the west of camp for anything that might be causing the noise. He'd gone maybe a kilometer when he noticed the anomaly.
[Some kind of cloud?] He thought as he noticed a dark mass which stretched across the horizon, but was clearly moving in his direction. [Its a little too low for a storm cloud and too dark for fog or mist. At that scale, its probably not smoke either...]
Something about it was tickling at a memory he couldn't quite recall. For some reason he had the mental impression of being trapped in a phone booth, but he couldn't find the relation. On impulse, he used Appraise, not expecting to get any results back.
However, he did, and the implications were horrifying.
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Unnamed
Age: 2
Race: Crow (Zombie)
Class: Exploding Zombie
Title: None
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[You've got to be kidding me...]
By this point, they had approached close enough that he could start making out the individual creatures. From all outward appearances, they looked like normal birds, albeit with unnaturally swollen abdomens. They flew with stiff, jerky motions, which gave the cloud a disturbing, undulating appearance.
He tried to estimate how many of the creatures he was facing, but found himself balking at the task. Judging from the size of the cloud alone, their number at to be in the millions, at the very least. After all, the swarm stretched as far as he could he, and they still kept coming.
He stopped his forward momentum, and began flying in reverse, already chanting his tried and true fireball spell. As soon as it was ready, he let it loose into the oncoming swarm. The missile streaked forward, bypassing the leading elements of the cloud and detonating in their midst. As he expected the birds had no resistance to the blast, and many were quickly incinerated.
Alarmingly, the zombies who were a little outside the radius of the fireball's flames, but close enough to experience its concussive effects, exploded themselves. They burst into clouds of hissing bone shards with all the force of a hand grenade. A part of him expected that to set off a chain reaction, but the rest of the birds simply shrugged of the rain of shrapnel and continued on. Evidently their creators had already created a counter measure for that issue.
[These things shouldn't be able to hurt me, but they will tear the coalition army apart.] Mike thought. [I need to warn them.]
In response to his attack, large sections of the cloud broke off and began streaming towards him with lethal intent. While he was sure they lacked the power necessary to actually harm him, he didn't want to put that to the test by simply ignoring them. Redoubling his efforts, he rushed back towards the encampment while sending a mental message to Red. He would need the dragon's cover in the coming moments.
Spotting Emmanuel near the crowd of increasingly confused soldiers, he descended quickly and landed in front of him. ”We got trouble! The Lacotians sent a swarm of exploding bird zombies!”
His teacher stared at him for a beat, obviously trying to work his mind around Mike's statement. It was admittedly a bit outlandish. To his credit, however, he didn't waste time asking inane questions. Swiveling in place, he yelled in the general vicinity of the group he'd brought from Almirn. ”Harnik! Can you get a barrier in place around the camp?”
The mage in question glanced around before shrugging, ”Maybe? I've got the materials for it, but it will take me a few minutes at least. Even then, I'm not sure if it will hold for long.”
”Start working on it, and take whoever you need to get it done. The rest of the mages follow me! Everyone else stay out of the way.”
”What's happening?” Morris asked while running up. Mike could see the rest of his command team in hot pursuit.
”Exploding zombie birds.” He replied with all seriousness.