God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

Chapter 539: Time.

Hunter frowned, 'Time, huh...'

He could easily see their situation turning out for the worse.

While they might be able to survive, the others and the ship might not pull through.

Even their survival wasn't guaranteed. Just after that entire debacle, more than half of them had a decent portion of their energy reserves drained.

Things were about to get very bloody. But somehow, they had to buy time...

Jenny leaned on the butt of her rifle, her beautiful face scrunched up,

"That's a tall task. We aren't even certain we'll endure the next wave."

Leah nodded in agreement, "She's right, you know..."

She stared into Evangeline's eyes without backing down,

"We can expect the next wave to be even more severe than this one. How do we buy time?"

Evangeline's smile was laced with concealed coldness as she spoke,

"We have no choice. It's either we buy time or we die. There's no in-between and I'm certain no one wants the latter option."

Vincent chuckled, "Maybe we can find a way to fight the flames off. Like, I don't know... water?"

Evangeline turned her gaze on him, forcing him to take a step back,

"It won't work. Its the same with the barriers. The Hellflame isn't your magic flame."

Kai let out a coarse yell,

"What the hell is this?! What's all this talking going to do?! All we can do is fight!"

Hunter sighed, "As stupid as it sounds, I agree with her. All this talking is taking us nowhere. Instead, let's discuss how to coordinate our attacks better."

Evangeline nodded, then narrowed her eyes,

"You are right. In that case, let's do this..."

Quickly, before the next wave of {Gulls of the Styx} dove down to feast on the delectable prey, they split up into more cohesive until that would be able to defend for longer against the terrible creatures.

***

Meanwhile...

Swinging his sword, Cain let off a wave of energy that sheared through multiple flying beasts at the same time.

Feeling scalding heat on his back, he hissed. The acrod scent of charred flesh hit him a second later.

Summoning the star-tipped blades, they swam through the air behind hi,m creation a rain of feathers, flesh and blood.

Surrounding him was Manny, Blaze, Li and Stan, each with different degrees of injuries and burns on their bodies.

"Fuck. Fuck. This is a suicide mission!" Li loudly cursed. However, due to the loud piercing cries from the mutant creatures and the flapping of wings, his words barely made it to the others.

Thanks to {Wind Weaver} they were able to maintain a steady position midair, constantly moving to avoid being encircled and devoured in the blink of an eye.

"This doesn't make any sense. They shouldn't be able to harm us this bad." Blaze said through gritted teeth.

Cain couldn't agree more. It was strange. Even him with his incredible flame resistance was suffering from terrible burns that had a hard time healing up.

It had been a while since he had had his life threatened this much by creatures lower than the First Tier.

And to make matters worse, despite how much they tried thinning the flock out, more seems to appear out of nowhere.

"Just how much are they?!" Li cursed as he shot a fist of compressed air at a bird, turning it into mulch.

Stan grunted as he swung his heavy saber,

"We just have to push through. I'm sure we can do it!"

"Love the optimism, but our odds aren't looking good right now. Not even a single bit." Li responded through clenched teeth.

Meanwhile, Manny was having tej absolute time of his life. Ignoring his wounds, he cut through the flock flying at him. It was almost impressive... if not for the fact that Cain had to constantly activate {Blood Restitution} on him to prevent him from losing his life.

Still, it was impressive...

Cain himself had racked up a decent kill score. However, that wasn't where his focus was.

'Where the hell are you, bastard?'

Indeed, he had realized that there was a coordinator within the flock. The mastermind, or rather, the birdbrain.

He had noticed it when he first noticed the flock of darkness with the {Eye of Clairvoyance}.

Buried within the flock was a strange figure. Determined to find it, he had decided to bravely take to the skies.

However, for what it was worth, the creature was incredibly intelligent and had managed to hide from his eyes.

Even with the power of the {Eye of Clairvoyance}, the darkness was took thick for him to see through. He had no way of pinpointing where it was within the flock.

Not only that, but the mad beast seemed determined to make sure he died here.

Even after activating so many spells and abilities, he was still having a hard time. While he had yet to pull out all the stops, it didn't chaneg the fact that it would all be for naught if he couldn't catch the beast.

In order words, he was in a tough spot...

Cain thought for a while before turning to Blaze,

"You lot need to buy me some time."

Blaze pushed a pair of stretched out talons to the side, suffering a deep cut, before cutting the beast down.

He snarled at Cain, "How the hell do you want us to do that?!"

Cain shrugged, "Figure it out."

Without saying anything else, he retreated to the center of the four.

Li and Stan exchangef glances, unsure of what to say.

"Damn it!" Blaze roared as he wildly brandished his spear, killing many, but suffering a few injuries in return.

Tej exhaustion was creeping up. It was only a matter of time.

The others seemed to think the same way as they began fighting more defensively.

"These guys are really tough." Manny said with a wild grin that stretched across his blood covered face as he also withdrew. Even he knew he had his limits.

Blaze let out a deep breath,

"Don't over expend your energy. Ward them off and buy time for Cain."

Li laughed derisively, "This is insane. Drag us up here to our deaths and now he expects us to fight to defend him."

Cain snorted, "I heard that."

Li yelled, "Why do you think I said it?!"

Blaze brought his focus back, "Focus. They're coming again."

Now that they had almost finished this wave of mutant creatures off, a fresh one, hungry for blood and flesh charging at them, their wings spread, and their talons extended viciously.

Meanwhile, Cain was trying his best to stay focused...

Drowning all the noise out was difficult as he needed to think.

Right now, he was very limited in what he could do. They all were.

'If I can't find that bastard, this will never end.'

But the skies above were vast. The thing could be anywhere within the flock.

Cain focused hard of the {Eye of Clairvoyance}. With the skill, he could see in all directions. Thanks to the overwhelming darkness, his sigh was no longer as clear.

'My sight has to pierce through the darkness.'

Heaving a deep breath, he opened his status screen...

'I have a little before very twenty-five thousand Free attribute points.'

Armed with that information, he did the only thing he could think of in the moment.

He poured half the points into his perception.

Almost immediately it was as though his eyes had been truly opened...

He felt like a blind man that had gone his entire life seeing only darkness, then suddenly, he could see the rising and setting sun.

Like a man who had never known the sweet taste of water, coming across a lake...

It was exhilarating...

'I... can see... Everything!'

Pouring so many points into a single stat at a time was incredibly stimulating. Before this, he had a little over eight-hundred stat points assigned to perception.

With almost thirteen thousand points being allocated at once, the initial eight-hundred shot about two thousand.

That was more than a hundred percent increase!

The darkness became much more bearable. Not only that, but he could vaguely see how powerful every living being around him was. It was as though they were enveloped with a faint aura. However, the strength of this aura rose according to their strength.

And right now, within the flock, moving at speed that would put a hypersonic jet to shame, was a creature enveloped in a bright aura.

Cain grinned, "There you are!"

Amidst all the fighting, Blaze turned to look at Cain. What he saw awakened a deep seated fear in him.

Cain's eyes swirled like a pool of darkness, and within that pool were thousands of stars.

The darkness was so thick, it could be seen despite the darkness of the sky. It made this thick elemental darkness look luminous. It made no sense, and yet there it was, unfolding before his eyes...

Saying nothing, Cain shot out of their midst like a missile...

Struggling to keep a {Gull of the Styx} at bay, Li spoke through gritted teeth,

"Where the hell is he going?!"

Blaze exhaled deeply, his eyes turning cold,

"He's going to put an end to this."