Bones And Marrow VIII

Kies grabbed the undead's throat with his free arm and tried pushing it away, but the undead's grip was too strong. It wasn't going to let him go unless he ripped off its arm. Kies felt the undead's dirty nails go through his shirt and dig into his flesh. He couldn't feel any pain but he could still feel something as it tore through his skin.

While still holding the undead by its throat, Kies gathered the winds with his other hand and rotated his wrist so that his palm was directed at the undead's stomach, and let loose a concentrated jet of wind. It tore a hole through the stomach and the scent of rotting blood-filled Kies's nose. The undead staggered backward a little from the attack but still didn't loosen its grip.

*Growl* The other undead were closing in on him as well. He needed to break free, or otherwise, he would be surrounded and torn apart by the mob. While the undead was still stunned from the sudden attack, Kies pointed his free hand at the undead's head and chanted Wind Javelin. "WInds, gather, form, and pierce." A strong force of wind shot out of Kies's palm and blew the undead's head off. Its body fell forward and Kies felt it trying to drag him down as well. Despite not being able to act anymore, the undead still wouldn't let go.

Kies saw the undead around him getting dangerously close to him and began to pry the fallen undead's fingers off his shoulder one by one. After getting three off, the grip naturally loosened and the undead's arm slipped down Kies' back as its body was dragged down to the dirt by gravity.

Kies backed off from the undead that was crowding around him and put some distance between them before checking on everyone else's status. Ammine had recovered and was back to fighting the undead on her side. She was kicking and punching and overall, somehow moving a lot faster compared to before. Haro also looked fine and was back to fighting the lady. The only person that didn't look like they were okay and needed help was Bloodmane. The red werewolf was laying under the tree that he got sent rolling into.

Since everyone else was busy with their own fights (except for Issie who couldn't fight), there was no one that could help the werewolf out. Kies glanced over at the Bone Whistler and saw that for some reason, he wasn't walking towards Bloodmane to finish him off or anything. Instead, he was in a weird pose where he had his body hunched upwards, using his gigantic fists as support to prevent himself from falling over. It looked like he was going to do something big.

"Ammine, Haro!" Kies called out to the two.

"What!?" Ammine asked while keeping her attention on the undead.

"What is it, child?" Haro glanced over at Kies while continuing to bombard the lady with attacks.

Now that Kies had gotten their attention, he told them about what was going on. "The Bone Whistler is doing something weird. It looks like it's up to something."

"Be more specific, I don't know what 'weird' means!" Ammine yelled as she took out an undead.

"Hoot?" Haro looked over at the Bone Whistler to see what Kies meant and his eyes widened with shock. "Everyone, put up a barrier to protect yourself and then cover your ears as well, quick!" Haro also saw the werewolf unconscious on the ground and dove down to him. He landed next to him and quickly set up a wind barrier around them to protect themselves from the Bone Whistler's incoming attack. Even Issie was scared of what was coming and flew into Haro's barrier as well. Kies saw the lady in the corner of his eye running off as fast as her feet could allow her.

"Huh?" Ammine didn't know what was going on and looked over at the Bone Whistler and saw him in a strange pose. Seeing this, Ammine dispelled the magic coating her fists and covered her ears tightly. She didn't have a defensive spell that would protect her so covering her ears was the only thing she could do.

"No! You have to put up a magic barrier as well!" Haro yelled at Ammine in a frantic voice. "If you do not have one, run here, quick!" Haro beckoned for Ammine to run to him. But since Ammine already had her ears covered, she didn't hear what Haro was saying and continued standing where she was.

Kies was too busy putting up a barrier himself as Haro advised and was also too far away from Ammine to tell her that she was doing something wrong. He and Haro could only hope that Ammine would be able to endure the Bone Whistler's attack.

Kies put his barrier up just in time as the Bone Whistler's first attack went off. A loud low-pitched sound shockwave came from the giant undead's body, slamming into Kies's barrier at such a force that it shattered it and pushed him back a little. Kies looked over to Ammine and saw that she somehow managed to withstand the attack and didn't get sent flying away. On the other side, Haro, Issie, and Bloodmane were all fine in the barrier. But the same couldn't be said for the lesser undead around them. The shockwave had also sent all of them all flying away, blowing apart their bodies and limbs. It looked like the attack didn't differentiate between friend and foe.

Kies thought that the attack had ended and took his hand off his ears but Haro shouted at him to continue covering his ears. "Don't child! It hasn't ended yet! Keep covering your ears!" He then turned and yelled at Ammine to do the same thing.

Kies looked at the Bone Whistler who was frozen in place with his strange pose. Suddenly, the monster started making a high-pitched noise that shook the air and ground. Even though Kies had his ears covered as tightly as he could, he was still able to hear the loud noise. The noise continued to get higher and higher, causing everything to shake even more violently. At some point, the noise was so unbearable that Kies felt like his head was going to explode.

The ground split open and trees began to fall over. It was absolute chaos. Even Haro's barrier had cracked apart and he was now covering his owl ears with his wings, all the while also pushing Bloodmane's ears against the werewolf's head with his talons despite him still being unconscious.

Issie was fluttering around like she was in immense pain, and she wasn't the only one. Kies also felt his entire body flare-up in pain for some reason. Because of this, Kies theorized that the sound attack was imbued with magic or something close since otherwise, he and Issie wouldn't have been affected by it.

Is this what Haro meant when he told them that the Bone Whistler's magic was unique and hard to explain? Kies didn't understand how the magic worked and therefore, didn't know how to stop the giant boney monster. He couldn't ask Haro about it since he doubts either of them would be able to hear each other over the sound.

In a desperate attempt to stop the Bone Whistler's attack, Kies let go of his ears, enduring the pain from the sound blasting his ears, and put him in front of him. "Winds, heed my call and serve my will!" Kies couldn't hear his voice but he felt the winds rush to his hands, indicating that the chant was successful. "Clear a path for me this instant." Kies only bad enough magic for one Wind Cannon. He really hoped that this would be enough to silence that monster.

A powerful ball of wind launched from his palms and smashed into the monster's boney head. The Bone Whistler's head tilted to the side from the impact and stopped its horrid whistling. The attack had created a small crack on its skull. Kies had succeeded.

But it was too early to celebrate. Kies was caught completely off guard by his small victory and wasn't ready as the Bone Whistler suddenly turned its head back to its original position and resumed its whistling.

Kies brought his hands back up to his ears. His whole body writhed in pain as the sound vibrates the air. It was a lot louder than before.

The ground underneath Kies suddenly split open. Kies tried grabbing the ledge as he fell down, but doing so required him to move his hands away from his ears. The high-pitched sound hit Kies's ears and instinctively let go of the ledge in pain, causing him to fall down into darkness.

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