Bocchan13

I'll be posting two chapters this week because of our ko-fi sponsor! Thank you to SyranAki for the delicious coffee! As another thank you, I'll draw an illustration of a character in NEET life. Once again, thank you for your continued support!

Chapter 60—Birds of Prey

by Bocchan13

Yu Ci paused as the bangs parted revealing sightless eyes. Quickly averting his gaze, he felt quite stupid. He couldn’t see, so he doesn’t know that I was staring.

“Were you staring?”

Eyes widening, he stuttered with flustered conviction.

“No.”

An Wei laughed, he pushed his bangs to the side, revealing both white eyes.

“Born not being able to see. When I became an ability user, I got better senses, so going places is not an issue. I can smell, taste, and feel things in a vastly different way.”

Song Yu and Lan Zhou were mightily impressed while Wang Cheng alongside Yu Ci gaped.

“Wow! Can you smell me? Am I smelly?”

An Wei took a small sniff and ruffled his nose.

“You smell like…roses.”

Wang Cheng closed his mouth and retreated. An Wei smiled and pulled his bangs down hiding his eyes,

“The spirit stone will be left with you. Anyone around these parts will know what that is and will let you in. Du Win is responsible for the care of the gas station, so if you need anything, tell him.”

Finally, both sides were happy with their negotiation, so Du Win took them to get their monthly stipend of gas. In less than an hour, they were ready to leave.

Xiao Zi and Lu Jingxiu reconciled and rejoined the group. Yu Ci was a little tired, so Lu Jingxiu took the wheel letting Lan Zhou to sit in the back with Song Yu.

“The safe house Song Yu mentioned will take another couple of hours. We will get there by night time. Wang Cheng and Yu Ci get some rest so you can take first watch. Song Yu and I will take second, and Lu Jingxiu and Xiao Zi take morning.”

The road was quite a bit bumpy, filled with potholes and dents. But there were no abandoned cars or broken bridges. The car ride got a bit bumpy when they suddenly felt a presence once again. Song Yu opened his eyes,

“Zombie’s.”

Lu Jingxiu nodded. There was a small herd of zombies walking around. They were low level, but some could run as fast as the car. One of the zombies screamed, it’s shriveled up head echoing that of a bat. Lan Zhou opened the top of the car, with only enough space for his body.

Condensing a small blue fire ball, he threw it accurately at the zombie’s mouth, muffling its cry while blazing it to smithereens.

A few other zombies tried to follow them, but Lan Zhou’s aim was accurate, stopping them in their tracks. A huge sigh of relief was felt when the last of the zombies were left behind.

When they were just about to go on another leisurely ride, they heard a giant scream. Not like a human zombie…but an animals.

“It’s a bird!”

“It’s a plane!”

“Shut up Wang Cheng!”

A gigantic eagle flew down. Unlike animals with spiritual awareness, zombified animals were bitten and transformed. The eagle had white eyes, its yellowish beak extremely sharp with residual blood from its last victim. One of the wings were featherless, exposing its bones. The legs which should have been talons had somehow mutated to resemble human feet with gnarly sharp toenails.

The eagle screamed, the sound creating a large echo. But unlike signaling for zombies to come, this was a threatening cry, as if saying ‘this is my prey’. Up in the sky, the eagle didn’t look too big, but as it swooped down, the size got larger and larger, until it was the size of their vehicle, its wing span almost as wide as a boat.

“Oh fuck!”

The eagles ugly feet scraped the top of the car, the nails like knifes, penetrating the top. The skylight that Lan Zhou had used before was scratched. The eagle glided higher in the air, its broken wing flapping.

“It’s using a wind ability to help it keep flying.”

“Shit.”

“It can probably lift up the car.”

Lan Zhou tried to open the window, but it was stuck due to the force the eagle put on it. Yu Ci seeing this, had no choice but to forcefully change the shape until the door opened. Lan Zhou got up, his entire upper body outside of the car. He threw several fireballs, but the bird avoided them easily. The bird was accelerating faster and faster before diving towards the car again.

Instead of condensing it into a ball, Lan Zhou let it free flow from his palms. In an instant a slash of fire lit up into the sky. The eagle, sensing danger dove sideways. Lan Zhou gritted his teeth before using his other hand to create another pillar.

The eagle stopped its descent and floated in front of the car. Lu Jingxiu had to stop the car. If they hit it, it would damage the car, causing their only means of transportation trashed. Skidding to a stop, the car was in the line of the eagles flight path.

The eagle flew straight to the car windshield, its legs stretching to take the car. Lu Jingxiu and Lan Zhou got out of the car and immediately started working on fighting the eagle. Spears of ice and fire dazzled the setting sun. The eagle had always eaten when it was hungry, and knew instinctively that this meal would be the tastiest it would ever eat. But the food did not back down.

The bird used its wind ability, creating a small tornado. The car flew up a few feet before Lu Jingxiu could avert its attention away from everyone else by throwing needle thin spears at the eagle, causing it to go through the feathers of its only operational wing.

“Now!”

With a flick of a wrist, Lan Zhou’s fire ability exploded from the needles, disarming the bird’s flight. Falling down, the bird screamed loudly. Another blast of explosive fire tore through the wings, eating it completely. Devoured in blue embers, the eagle screamed louder and louder, the esophagus finally turning to ash.

Lan Zhou and Lu Jingxiu were panting in exhaustion, whilst the crew in the car was waiting. Song Yu glanced at everyone in the car, and they looked so unbothered by the situation. Like they were just going on a stroll through a scenic route, having fun.

Song Yu knew they were powerful…but he didn’t know that they were this powerful. An eagle of that size and proportion would have needed at least ten level 5 people. The difference in levels was evident.

Song Yu could only smile as Lu Jingxiu and Lan Zhou got back into the car.

“Ahhh! I’m so exhausted!”

“You could have sent frost to its bones, but you had to look cool and throw ice spears instead.”

“What about you? You never go all out at the beginning. If you had, you would have easily beaten it before it crushed the car. Now how are we going to fix it!?”

Xiao Zi took over the driving and let them rest. Song Yu got into the passenger seat and read the map, realizing their rest stop was only 30 minutes away.

The rest stop was far from the road and was secluded in a hilly area. Song Yu discovered an abandoned shack well hidden in the shrubbery. Since it was long abandoned, there weren’t that many zombies. After cleaning it up and reinforcing it, the shack was turned into a small rest house.

Everyone was pretty tired by the day’s events. Opening the shack, everything was intact and looked like no one had found it. There was only one bed, so they split everything evenly. Since there was always two people on watch, there were two places to sleep. The back of the car could be converted into a bed, and the bed inside the shack could hold another two. So they would rotate their sleeping area throughout the night.

Song Yu expertly converted the car into sleep mode. Yu Ci, seeing the entire backseat resemble a military bunk was quite happy with the arrangement, but was promptly told that he and Wang Cheng had first watch.

Grumbling, he complied.

They set up a small campfire and ate dinner with cold rice, beef jerky and a small pot of vegetable soup. Song Yu and Lan Zhou slept deeply together in the back of the car. Song Yu was deep asleep snuggled in Lan Zhou’s embrace when he heard the sounds of feet shuffling outside…