We Are All Murderers, Our Hands Stained With Blood

Approaching the crow, its head tucked underneath its wing, Eidiri raised Steel Song, preparing to cleanly sever the head from the neck.

The blade cut through the air, an audible hiss coming forth from the speed that it cut through the air.

Then with a heavy thunk, the blade merely wedged itself in the crow's feathers, injuring it, yes.

But not anything fatal per se.

The crow, startled awake by the impact of the blade, quickly flapped its wings, clearly caught off guard by the surprise attack.

Not too surprised that this hit didn't kill it instantly, Eidiri struck again, dealing an overhand blow.

But this time, the crow was able to react, maneuvering out of the way with a short little hop, turning the initial deadly blow into one that was only glancing.

Shaking its head in the dark, the red beady eyes glowed a dark hue, then in an instant, the oversized crow lashed forwards.

Eidiri used one of the many bodies that were here as a shield, quickly grabbing it and tossing it in the path of the crow, tossing out a mental apology to whoever's body it happened to be.

This corpse was brutalized, the sharp beak cleanly piercing through the flesh.

The crow then drew its beak back, retargeting back onto Eidiri, but it didn't see him anywhere.

So it walked cautiously around, and not seeing him, it kept going around.

In the meanwhile, Eidiri was circling around the crow, always maintaining his position in the crow's blindspots, safely staying out of sight.

Based on what he had seen before, he had to practice the utmost caution, the beak and talons of this beast would easily rip him into pieces.

Clearly, the crow had some need or use for these corpses, why else would the crow collect them?

While it could be the real-world crow's innate fascination with collecting objects that capture its fancy translating over, Eidiri highly doubted it.

Since the crow was apparently attached to these corpses, Eidiri decided to employ guerilla warfare, and while he wasn't too knowledgeable in making use of this tactic, he figured that he should be able to pull it off without too much difficulty.

So Eidiri proceeded to continue to duck and weave between the corpses, popping out at times to land glancing blows on the crow.

By doing this, Eidiri ensured that not only would he be able to deal some basic chip damage to the crow, it would also aggravate the crow, driving its frustrations to the point until it slipped up and made some sort of mistake that Eidiri would hopefully be able to capitalize on.

As this cycle continued on, the crow's frustration at being unable to get even a glance at its attacker reached a breaking point, and its patience snapped.

When Eidiri was just about to go in for another glancing blow from behind, the crow started to glow a bloody red, the wisps from before leaving the bodies in the attic once again, rapidly being attracted to the bird in a strong gust.

It was almost as if a ghostly wind was ferrying the souls of the victims to the crow.

Then surprisingly, the crow spoke.

"Human. You know naught what goes on here. Now you have sealed your fate. You have seen far too much," the crow said.

As the crow said this though, the wisps that were drawn to it grew and twisted.

Quickly these little wisps had transformed into incorporeal, human bodies; Eidiri assumed that these were the bodies that the victims had possessed when they were alive and whole.

These wisps, now turned spirits, then began to echo the words of the crow in the center.

"Human. You know naught what goes on here. Now you have sealed your fate. You have seen far too much," they all said.

Confused by this sudden development, Eidiri could only charge forward now that the corpses had disappea-

Wait, the corpses had disappeared as well.

Nevertheless, Eidiri charged forward, hoping to try and attempt to interrupt this blatant attempt to power up.

But when Eidiri had gotten close, a shockwave burst out from the crow, or now rather, crows.

This shockwave shook the very foundations of the house, the windows and rafters vibrating unsteadily.

Eidiri was knocked backward, landing on his back, his hands skidding on the floor, leaving some nasty burns that stung at the touch.

Looking up, the spirits had now taken the form of crows, and they began to chant, "Abandon the mortal coil. Join eternity. We shall all welcome you."

To this, Eidiri had only 1 reply, since he had already gotten this deep, may as well keep going right?

"Screw you and your spirit posse!" he yelled while charging with Steel Song.

"Impertinent," the mass assembly of crows reverberated, they then scattered before repeatedly bombarding Eidiri.

Their little beaks and talons raked across Eidiri, Eidiri having to resort to abandoning everything else and cover his face with his arms after doing with futile swings into the murder of crows.

Helpless, Eidiri could only receive the bombardment as he weakly tried to protect himself, helpless to the relentless assault.

The beaks slowly turned bloody, the talons dripping with a crimson liquid.

Knowing that if things kept going on like this, Eidiri decided to abandon all forms of defense.

Surely somewhere within the flock of birds, there had to be the original crow.

Ignoring the mocking taunts of the crows, Eidiri lashed out wildly with his Steel Song, landing glancing blows.

With his Fury Fist, he batted aside some of the crows, causing them to collapse in a heap on the floor.

Blood dripped down his face, his hands already grisly, dripping with blood.

Blood spurted out of his mouth at regular intervals, the life seeping out of Eidiri at an exponential rate as the torture of the crows continued.

His vision was nothing but black blurs that whirled around him, and Eidiri collapsed in a pool of his own blood, his arm still weakly waving Steel Song around, praying to get the lucky strike on the original crow to hopefully disrupt this torment.