Novel Full Chapter 1908 Flock of Problems
Chapter 1908: Chapter 1908 Flock of Problems
— Green —
Green had really hoped to be at the first building before now and it had only reinforced her idea that it was best she headed straight for the centre. The problem? This whole place was infested with monster birds. Apparently she’d managed to sneak up to the main level in one of the few places free of them. Though that might be due to the smell… so perhaps it wasn’t a coincidence.
Regardless, it had been slow going. Firstly, the city was much larger then it seemed. Secondly, after she’d travelled through two streets, she’d spotted one of the monsters. It was a large vulture like bird that shot poison quills from its neck fluff and had razer sharp claws. One good shot to the head and it went down. The problem? Despite missing a large chunk of its skull it was still able to scream before dying.
The other monsters nearby had swarmed the location and forced Green to hide away in one of the nearby ruined houses. It was a tense thirty minutes as the bird’s just refused to leave. They seemed to be fighting each other over the corpse from what Green could hear… but she didn’t dare sneak out and take a proper look at them while they were making such a racquet.
When they did finally leave, Green slinked back outside and found a good deal of extra blood along the street but no corpses. Bones, skin, any nearby scraps of it were gone. Of course, the poison spines all around the street told her what happened quite well. Still, for Green that was fine, she could keep moving…
For about a hundred metres. After that there was another round of monster birds hanging out waiting for someone to wonder by. *Are they nesting here or something? Why are there so many around? I don’t see any eggs… then again maybe I wouldn’t if they’re sitting down? But none of them seem to be paired up and they all have at least a few metres of space between each of them…*
Green tried to spot any good paths through the mess but they were somewhat lacking. The birds were packed… suspiciously well. *Hang on. Did… are there enchantments to draw them to these areas perhaps? They make an exceptional security force. Not too far away, not too close, very few dead zones and none I’d want to stick in long. Though… why would they want monsters like this around when the city was still functioning? What am I missing?*
Green shrugged and started to try and sneak around the birds. The first few were easy. Not as many looking in her direction and it was a relative dead zone. The problem was once she got past that first wave. Green needed to rely on the half destroyed houses to make her way through, making sure to keep an eye on all of the windows to ensure she wasn’t spotted through them. It made for slow going…
And eventually left her ’stranded’. She’d been trying to avoid it but eventually, Green found herself forced into a thoroughly destroyed section of street with only a few bits and pieces still standing… most of which had a monster sitting atop them. Now where do I go?
Backtracking was technically an option, but it wasn’t like she knew how long it would take her to go around the birds, they’d seemed to stretch for a good ways in all directions. *I can’t rely on sneaking around either. It’s too open. Unless I can dig my way through some of these rubble piles I’m not making any progress… so I guess I’ll have to take a bit of a risk.*
Green slipped out of the current house through the window and moved back to the previous one. It had two floors and she was going to make use of that. Slipping through the broken remains of furniture Green carefully made her way upstairs and looked around for holes in the ceiling. There were a few of them… none large enough for her. After five minutes of careful searching Green decided to bite the bullet.
Carefully pulling out a knife Green started to cut away at the remains of the ceiling. Green had needed to find a few somewhat intact bits of rubble to stand on for the extra height but it was working well enough. When she started to hear a creak, Green carefully pulled the knife away and then started to jimmy the loose bit of ceiling. Eventually, the repeated up and down motion caused it to come loose. With two hands on it, Green easily guided it to the floor before leaping upwards into the hollow roof space.
Working her way carefully across the beams, each creaking and groaning as her weight shifted, Green made it to the edge and looked for gaps she could see out of. Her goal was to find a monster somewhat far away from her current location and trigger another one of those monster swarms by killing it. Hopefully she could get one far enough away that the swarming birds wouldn’t be looking at her, but close enough that all of the nearby birds were distracted.
It took some doing to find a good angle. The first hole she’d attempted to use was blocked by a house a few streets over and didn’t let her shoot at anything far enough away. Moving to another section in the roof was nerve wracking. The house was old, falling apart, and not meant for someone in full armour to be standing on it. That was all before someone cut a big hole in it to get inside. More than one beam would bend dangerously when stepped on and Green was doing her best to keep her weight as spread out as possible.
Eventually though, she did find a good spot. The hole needed to be enlarged a tiny bit to ensure that the arrow would make it out fine but it was a tiny bit of work and luckily didn’t alert any birds in the process. A few cuts later and Green was ready. *Alright. I’ve got one shot and it can’t be tracked back to me.*
Green took in a deep breath as she waited for the birds that might spot her to long away, or start preening or just get distracted in general. A few moments later, Green released the arrow. It wasn’t perfect when the arrow was let fly, but she felt it in her bones. It was time.
The arrow flew true and just as the vulture thing she was aiming at went to take to the air, it was caught by her arrow, right in the chest instead of the head she was aiming for. If anything, this was better though because it let out an ungodly wail and every monster in the area had their heads snapped over to that direction.
Green quickly slipped back downstairs by throwing herself downstairs. It caused something above her to snap but she was done with that spot and the ungodly noise the monsters were making would disguise the sound of anything not too loud. When Green his the floor, she started to sprint to the nearest window and dived out, straight onto the top of the roof of the house next to her current one.
Green ran until she hit the edge of the roof and leapt, keeping a careful eye on the mass of birds all flocking around the one she’d shot. None of them were attacking yet, though plenty were circling, looking for weakness or the source of the injury. For Green’s part, as soon as her boots touched the ground she activated her enchantments, sending out a burst of air and launching her forward.
Green made sure to keep as low as she could without losing speed as she rocketed across the broken houses and open streets. A few birds glanced in her direction, or at least should’ve been able to see her… but none made their way over. Green wasn’t sure if she managed to avoid notice entirely or if it she wasn’t as interesting as the injured monster they were already swarming.
Green made some amazing time… for about the next five minutes. See, the plan was good. It worked out exactly as she wanted it to… but the problem was always going to be the limit. Her arrow shot certainly didn’t occupy every bird in the city. It had grabbed a good area, and kept them busier than she’d been thinking it would. They were still flocking to the area even now… but Green could see that there were more birds up ahead, and they weren’t too concerned with whatever the rest of the flock was doing at the moment.
*I suppose the question is… do I just keep using the same trick that’s already worked? Or do I need to shake things up. Are they smart enough to work out what I’m doing? If they are that smart… do they care enough to act on… what suspicions? Try and attack me instead? It’s possible… and the worry is that it’s not one that decides not to bother… but the whole flock. Hmm…*