Lying among a group of beast corpses, without his blade, his two companions probably just as injured, Sebastian smiled wryly to himself. He had zoned out during the middle of the fight, and he knew better than that. He should have known better than that, at least.

The bird had left a pretty nasty gash on his chest after knocking him down, but flew away whilst he was collecting himself, content with circling above for now.

The trio had noticed birds circling above prior, yes, but none expected a bird that was, apparently, a tier above? They didn’t even know that was a fucking thing, nor what the difference is.

The only good thing in this scenario was that most of the normal pigeons had died, the living ones doing their best to struggle on the ground with their wings broken. These birds would be all that was left of the pack if the ‘Demon Bird’ managed to wipe the trio out.

A dozen questions flew through Sebastian’s mind as he slowly pushed himself off of the ground. His body was littered with sharp aching pains, but all he could do about them was focus on breathing.

He had lost the sense of that warmth he felt within his body earlier, as well as any hope of controlling it for now, so he couldn’t rely on that. He doubted he’d do much damage without a weapon, either. That didn’t leave him with many choices.

“It’s.. It’s coming back!” Mariah did her best to speak, however hoarsely it was. She was the only one that could definitely tell it’s movements beyond a vague shape, and honestly that was the only reason Sebastian felt like winning was a possibility at all.

He gave Mariah an appreciative nod, looking towards Ken. “How’s your sword holding up?”

“Sharp enough for one more, I reckon.”

“Good. Attack it’s wing when you have the chance.”

“What chance? It’s too fucking fast, even for me.”

“You’ll know it when you see it.” Sebastian grinned. He readied his body and eyed the Demon Bird, waiting, and waiting..

Finally, when he saw the beast dive towards them again, the man’s body tensed. It flew straight down at Sebastian, it’s talons ready, and..

It turned straight towards Mariah.

Within seconds, it was within reach of the woman, and Sebastian had already jumped up, dashing over with all his strength towards the hulking bird. Mariah screamed, yes, but she also swung her spear towards it as fast as she could.

The bird tilted its body, avoiding the weapon with a small movement from its wings. It sped forwards and slashed its talons through her arm, leaving a few bone deep cuts. She screamed through her teeth at the pain, falling to a knee as she felt her vision go white, as if the world was cascaded in snow for nobody else but her.

The other two were honestly impressed as they saw her remain conscious, even from the pain. Ken’s agility allowed him to dodge more than get hit, so he was relatively fine, but only Sebastian knew what he had to go through to get the pain tolerance he had. It just goes to show how wrong first impressions can be.

The bird had returned to the skies, showing it’s attitude towards hit and run tactics as the triad finally had some time to gather back up. Sebastian, still weaponless, pressed his back against the swordsman’s as they stood beside Mariah.

Now that they weren’t spread out, the moment the bird dove down it would be grabbed and killed. Sebastian was confident of that fact. Even without his weapon, he could probably pin it for a few seconds, long enough for Ken to stab it somewhere fatal. The only worry now was the stench of blood filling the alleyway.

They could defeat a pack of higher leveled pigeons and their leader, yes, if everything goes right. That doesn’t mean they can beat another similarly strong pack immediately afterwards, too. Their injuries might not have affected their combat strengths too much, yes, but they were getting close.

His expression worsened when he saw the bird had no intention of diving down again, and the bad feeling growing in his gut was getting worse. “I’m going to go grab my saber. When it comes down to attack me, get ready to fucking stab the thing, alright?”

Without giving the teen a proper chance to react, Sebastian started slowly walking to his weapon, the muscles around the gash on his chest and the various holes from the pigeons spasming from the pain of every step. It exhausted him far more than the actual fight, his body dripping with sweat. All the while he had to be prepared for an attack, it was agonizing.

He stood over the saber, not hearing a difference in the movements of the bird. Deciding he needed to suck it up and take a hit, he finally crouched down to grab the saber.

It wasn’t long before he felt a sharp wind against the back of his head, a pressure looming over it like an angry devil. Not even grabbing the saber, he quickly twisted his body around and reached an arm up.

He felt a burning, stinging, yet dull pain fill his mind as the creature’s sharp talons carved their way into and out of his cheek, only narrowly missing his left eye. An attack that no doubt would have dug its way into the back of his head had he not turned.

His hand latched around the bird’s leg as it tried to ascend once more, provoking it’s angry screams as it’s large frame worked as hard as it could to escape back into the skies.

Sebastian felt blood flow into his mouth and down his throat like burning iron, the deepest cut from the demon’s talons having clearly dug straight through his cheek and leaving a gaping hole in his face. What was left of his mind roared internally and swung his arm down to the ground. The bird screeched before abruptly silencing as it hit the ground.

Ken had run over the moment Sebastian was attacked, and it left him at the perfect spot once the bird had been smashed into the ground. He quickly pierced the tip of the sword into the beast’s neck, silencing it forever as surprise filled his eyes.

The swordsman didn’t have time to be surprised forever, though, something made clear to him when he heard the bladesman’s coughing, an act that splattered the man’s blood all over the alley. Ken had moved over to help when Sebastian waved him away. “Grab Mariah, we need to find a building to rest in.”

Talking felt especially difficult to him at the moment as he bent down to pick up his Saber for real this time. His left eye was practically forced closed due to the damage to the tissue, something he could only hope his constitution would heal at some level. He gazed around the alleyway at the struggling pigeons still remaining.

He took the time to crush the skulls of every living pigeon beneath his boots as Ken was quickly bandaging Mariah up to leave, an act that apparently benefited him quite a bit.

[You have slain Lv. 6 Corrupted Pigeon]...

[You have slain Lv. 5 Corrupted Pigeon]...

[You have slain Lv. 6 Corrupted Pigeon]...

[Congratulations on reaching Lv. 5]

[You have slain Lv. 4 Corrupted Pigeon]

[Awarded reduced xp for lower level]

[Awarded 10 xp]

[You have slain Lv. 6 Corrupted Pigeon]...

[You have slain Lv. 4 Corrupted Pigeon]...

Sebastian cackled lightly at the level up, something that came just a tad bit late, but was still basically free anyways. He had to constantly spit out or swallow down more blood as he walked back over to his companions.

He had a lot of questions about whatever the fuck that bird was, but the triad needed rest right now more than anything, not more theory crafting. They were still in the residential area. They hadn’t even reached the barrier yet, which wasn’t a good sign for them. Stronger groups are already moving towards the supermarket, filling the gaps the patrol team previously created. It had only been a fucking day. They’d barely earned hours of respite.

This trip alone might last much longer than the supermarket as a group would, but if Dallas’ Deals did last, this medicine would be integral for it afterwards.

Sebastian lumbered his way over to the other two, leaving a trail of his own blood in his wake. “Got any plans, Zen?” He spoke with difficulty, the blood making his voice sound distorted and garbled.

“Well, we’re in a residential area. We can get into one of the homes, preferably an apartment. Give us some height, and a bit of a maze for anything to get through if it followed us. Is that okay?” Ken gave Sebastian’s wounded body a look, as if worried it would fall apart any moment..

“I’m fine. Worry about treating me when we have the luxury, yeah?” He smiled, though the missing flesh in his face made it look terrifying more than comforting.

The group spent five or so minutes trying to find an appropriate building, only to find an apartment complex down the street, closer to the barrier. Lucky them. Ken broke a window on the lowest floor, the power outage rendering the alarms useless.

The trio climbed in through the window, found the owner’s office and rummaged through their keys. Finding the keys to an apartment rather high up, they made their way to the fifth floor, opening room 507.

Not a single person in the group knew how to treat wounds. At all. Mariah’s arm was definitely not stitched up, and Sebastian had a variety of holes and gashes that would need actual treatment and not just bandages.

With the loss of blood gradually, he was already feeling weaker, and constantly having to spew your own blood into a bathtub wasn’t a good feeling. No medicine in the medicine cabinet, either, just some random painkillers that he happily tossed a few of into his mouth.

He was so damn happy he found those painkillers. God only knows how bad it would feel once the adrenaline wore off.

Sebastian sighed as he felt some of the pain fade away. He sat himself against the wall of the bathroom. The bandages Ken and Mariah wrapped around him hastily as soon as they got the chance gave him the illusion of a warm embrace, and he felt his mind slowly sleep into a deep sleep.

“Please, take a deep breath.”

“You mean the light took him? Why, why would the light.. We thought it was just..”

“We don’t know… We don’t understand it..”

Sebastian heard quiet voices coming through the doorway of the bathroom. He recognized two of them as Mariah and Ken’s voice, but the other was a new woman’s voice.

“Do.. do you guys have a group?” A second unfamiliar voice spoke up, a man’s voice. His voice was shaky, but he was doing his best to speak calmly and clearly.

“We do, but we’re out on a task right now.. We’re..” Ken’s voice faded out, Sebastian finding it hard to hear the conversation. He groaned, the painkillers having worn off as he slept, but the pain itself had died out slowly as some wounds healed a little, turning into a weird itchy feeling.

He pushed himself up off of the tile floor, his body a little wobbly as he stumbled trying to stand. He knocked a glass off the sink, probably one meant for taking medicine, and it shattered on the floor beside his feet as he held himself up.

The conversation outside the room turned silent immediately. The door had been left open slightly, so Sebastian just pushed the door open slightly.

He identified the sources of the two new voices immediately

[Human, Lv. 0]

[Human, Lv. 0]

How the fuck did they survive at Lv. 0? The man was a rather tall, black haired fellow. Nice jawline, eyebrows like knives. He clearly took care of himself, and he did seem rather calm, even with the panic hidden within his eyes.

The woman was much shorter, but seemed to be just as physically appealing. Sebastian didn’t want to go in depth into describing her, but he felt they were a good match for each other. Even their hair colour was the same.

He looked around the room quietly as the couple stared at his face in silent horror, the long gash in his face having stopped bleeding, but could still be seen through to the inside of his mouth. He saw a small child standing beside and looking out the window, who couldn't be older than nine or ten.

Sebastian sighed.

Poor kid.