God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

Chapter 538: Hellflame.

Torrents of green, hellish flames fell from the sky like it was the end of the world all over again.

"Shields!" Steve yelled as he tried casting a magic barrier.

However, strangely enough, his barrier was not strong enough to stop the flames. The power of magic within them was strong enough to completely destroy the essence of his spell.

"What the hell is this?!" He mumbled as he cursed under his breath.

His eyes quickly looked through their description...

***

{Gulls of the Styx}: Level 95.

Strength: 6,000.

Agility: 19,500.

Defense: 1,000.

Magic: 6,000.

HP: 60,000/60,000.

MP: 90,000/90,000.

Skills: Hellflame, Body of Darkness, Harrowing Call, Greater Flame Resistance.

***

Steve gritted his teeth, "Don't use fire."

Sue snarled, "That much is obvious!"

Summoning the {Dust Devil}, a torrent of sand appeared behind her, coagulating into clawed arms, legs, and a bulky torso.

Her eyes glowed within the darkness as she commanded the beast. The creature turned into a torrent of sand, unaffected by the rain that swam towards the sky.

The torrent of sand tore into the part of the swarm of Mutant Creatures thatwas headed towards the ship.

Steve frowned, "This isn't good. These green flames aren't normal at all."

Waviyhis hand, he summoned multiple mana circles that shot out various spells into the approaching swarm. However, it did little in thinning them out.

Leah narrowed her eyes, her body sparkling with charged particles,

"They are coming. Everyone, prepare yourselves."

The moment she said that, the ship lurched to the side as the wind generated by these malevolent birds crashed into them, nearly capsizing the ship.

The Beastmen with tower shields charged forward with frantic roars, trying their best to hold the creatures down. However, the ghastly flames weren't the only scary thing any these creatures.

A series of loud caws was the beginning of the nightmare as the birds, with their curved beaks, and their terrifying talons tore into the line of shields like it was made of butter.

Very quickly, the first wave of humans fell apart amidst a rain of torn limbs and blood.

The first set of creatures quickly filled up the deck. Some of them landed on the mast and began belching their venomous fire down.

"Ahhhhh! Help!"

Some tired to scream out, but their skin, then their flesh, and finally, their bones were melted down and turned to dust before they could even get a proper scream out.

"Damn birds!" Kai roared as he dashed across the deck like a streak of white lightning.

Perhaps it was just her personality, but her clothes were made of crude mutant beast hide and only covered the bare minimum. In her hand was a bone spear, a few strange runes carved into it.

Everywhere she passed, a single one of the evil beasts fell with a single puncture wound to the throat.

Following behind her was Roselle. Ever the silent type, she brandished her rapiers, weaving in and out skillfully. Twirling mid air, she cut down five {Gulls of the Styx} charging at her in the blink of an eye.

Lin Lin's face was the definition of cold and calculating. She abilities allowed her shine the best in these situations.

With a simple {Rend}, she could split more than two of these creatures in a split second.

The many carcasses around her was a testament to her ability...

Leah was even more brutal and savage than her friends. With her speed, she made short work of the creatures flocking around her, quickly killing off the rest of the creatures that landed on the deck and on the mast of the ship.

"Just how many of these creatures are there?" Vincent said with a frown as he shot down another bird.

"There's thousands of them. We can't kill them all." Jenny said grimly as she fired a charged round into the flock, electrocuting and killing several of the birds at once.

Cocking back on the hammer, she quickly reloaded...

Susan stood beside her, trying her best to reduce their casualties with healing and buff spells.

Summoning an emerald alter, she seemed to have made her mind up,

"It's time to get serious."

Chanting under her breath, she began with casting multiple wide-area buff spells, severely increasing the abilities of her allies.

Like a charged shot from a performance enhancing drug, the Beastmen let out wild howls as they brandished their weapons and mowed down wave after wave of the dark flock.

With their Ki, not only were they able to enchance their physical abilities, they could also coat their weapons in it, increasing their damage potential.

Brandishing his giant war axe, the almost seven feet tall Floki was like a god of destruction as he mowed down the creatures, leaving a mound of broken ice sculptures in his wake.

Working together, Dan and Hunter were the most efficient of duos.

Stabbing into the eye of a deranged gull, Hunter calmly dug deeper, penetrating its brain and killing it. Behind him, Dan was already done with his target, moving to the next.

They worked like a well oiled machine, assisting one another in the most efficient way possible.

"Dropping the sails was a good call. You saved us a disaster." Dan muttered to Hunter.

Hunter responded clearly, "That doesn't matter right now. Getting out of this mess isn't going to be easy in the slightest."

He then frowned, "Cain probably saw something within the darkness, perhaps the leader of the flock, I'm not sure."

Dan glanced at him, "Your telepathy skill..."

Hunter sighed. Creating two clones, their split up, one wieldimg two daggers, and the other drawing back on a compound bow.

Moving like a spectre, the dagger wielding clone tore through the feathers and flesh of several birds before stabbing the final creature through the heart. Before the creature died though, it managed to belch out a torrent of the green flames, reducing the clone to ash.

The bow wielding clone turned more than a dozen of the creatures onto pin cushions, before suffering the same fate.

However, at they were killed, Hunter burned through his mana, producing more of them.

Hunter finally answered, "The darkness coming of these things is severely limiting the effect of the spell. I can't use it now."

Dan frowned, "That's not good."

Hunter shook his head as he found a moment to catch his breath,

"We don't have much choice. We can only wait."

The {Gulls of the Styx}, perhaps having realized the humans were incredibly tougher than they looked, withdrew briefly to thedark skies above, circling around the ship.

"Shoot them down!" Steve said through gritted teeth as he cash a healing spells on a terrible burn across his arm.

Using this brief moment of respite, Susan went around the ship healing the wounded.

Evangeline walked towards Hunter sporting a calm expression.

Hunter frowned, 'I didn't get a glimpse of her during the entire fight.'

Evangeline was the first to speak, "We need to regroup."

Suki who was the interim leader of the Lightslayers was behind her, a scowl on her face,

"We've lost too much. Many don't want to fight anymore."

Hunter's face was cold, "Bullshit. If they don't fight, then we'll die. All of us."

Suki sighed tiredly, "What do you want me to say? They... We are all scared!"

Hunter shook his head, "Then get over it. It's do or die now."

Suki's face turned red. However, Jenny walked over and intervened before it got out of hand,

"Calm down. We can't start fighting now. This is the worst time for any of that."

Hunter shook his head and turned to Suki,

"I have else nothing to say. Tell your men to man up."

Suki sneered, "Heh. Whatever."

Jenny sighed. Sue stood beside her and said calmly,

"For one, I'm down to half of my mana pool. We have a decent amount of mana regen potions onboard, but it will not be enough if we want to survive this hell."

Jenny nodded, her face was grim, "The Hellflame is the most annoying thing we need to deal with."

Evangeline spoke up, "We can't do anything about it. From what I can tell, most barriers can do nothing against it, regardless of how much mana your pour in."

Vincent walked up, "Thank goodness most of the ship is covered with those runes. If not, we all would be swimming with the leeches right now."

Leah cut in, "So what are we going to do? The ship might be safe from the flames, but even that might be temporary. The others can't bear the flames."

Silence descended upon their small group, each person with multiple thoughts running through their minds.

The situation was very bleak. To escape the Death Zone, they would have to sail straight through. Because the water within the Death Zone was stagnant, it meant they would never sail through with regular means. Even the wind wouldn't be able to move them.

Luckily, the magic engine within the ship is what they rely on for propulsion. Eventually, they would be able to sail through this Death Zone.

However, that would take a lot of time...

Eventually, Evangeline sighed,

"Time... We need time."