Chapter 40: Cost of Survival

General Ashford and Asher looked up. The orange glow inside the Wyvern’s gaping maw grew blindingly bright, the air refracting under the sudden, immense heat wave. Even suspended dozens of meters away, the skin on their faces blistered.

Each had their own thoughts, but both knew the same truth: they couldn’t dodge this.

General Ashford gritted his teeth, his white Qi flaring. He still had to reach his children. He still had to get the students out of the academy.

He couldn’t die here—not when the world was just beginning to unravel.

Asher stood beside him, blood dripping from his shredded shoulder. His face was pale from the rapid drain on his Qi Core, but his grip on his narrow black blade never wavered.

The Wyvern’s crimson eyes locked onto them, pinning them with a suffocating weight.

Ratatatatatat!

The sudden, frantic roar of a mounted machine gun broke the paralysis.

But the Wyvern’s attack had already launched. A thick, concentrated column of superheated orange fire erupted from its jaws, rushing toward them.

Just before the flames could incinerate the pair—

The stream of fire abruptly twisted sideways, bending at a violent ninety-degree angle and slamming directly into the surrounding flock of mutated raptors.

BOOOOOOM!!

Dozens of winged beasts were instantly reduced to charred ash, their burning carcasses raining down like black meteors.

General Ashford snapped his head toward the lead helicopter.

His second-in-command, Noah, stood braced in the open doorway, his hand outstretched as his redirection ability flickered out. Noah offered a tight, exhausted grin. "Sorry for being—"

Shing.

Noah couldn’t finish.

An invisible, razor-sharp wind shear, thrown by the Wyvern, sliced cleanly through the cabin of the transport.

Noah’s head slid quietly from his shoulders.

Blood sprayed into the cabin air, misting the soldiers behind him. His headless body collapsed backward onto the metal floor, his severed head rolling out into the open sky. His eyes were still wide, holding the remnants of a shock he hadn’t had time to process.

"Noah!!"

Ashford’s roar tore through his own throat, raw and agonizing.

He couldn’t believe his eyes. It felt like a sickening, slow-motion scene from a film. One millisecond, his closest comrade, his brother-in-arms, was grinning at him. The next, his head was falling through the clouds.

Grief, sharp and toxic, flooded the General’s heart. Noah had a family waiting back at the fortress.

They had survived countless military deployments together. And now, he was gone.

It’s all your fault, Ashford thought, his gaze turning to the Wyvern. His eyes went completely dead, devoid of anything but freezing murder.

But the nightmare wasn’t finished.

BOOM!

A secondary colossal raptor slammed directly into the tail rotor of the third helicopter.

The transport disintegrated in a blinding explosion, raining burning metal down onto the streets.

Emboldened by the destruction, the remaining flock of mutated birds grew even more vicious.

Soldiers fell from the bay doors, torn apart mid-air, but those remaining in the lead helicopter kept firing. They knew the situation was hopeless, but their General hadn’t surrendered. So they didn’t either.

Asher and General Ashford dived upward through the swarm, ignoring the burning fatigue in their muscles. No words were needed.

Kill the boss. Now.

The Wyvern dived toward the lead helicopter, its maw flaring with orange heat.

Asher intercepted it. "You’ll stop right here!"

He swung his blade, unleashing a golden crescent of Sword Qi. Though weakened by his injured shoulder, the strike was precise, clipping the Wyvern’s snout and forcing it to halt its dive.

The split second of distraction was all General Ashford needed.

He plummeted from above, landing directly on the Wyvern’s back. He grabbed the base of its massive, leathery wings with his bare hands.

The Wyvern thrashed violently, outraged by the human on its spine, but Asher pressed the front, his blade executing a rapid flurry of strikes to keep its head turned.

General Ashford channeled every drop of white Qi left in his Qi Core into his forearms.

His muscles swelled, his uniform sleeves tearing as the veins beneath his skin bulged to the point of bursting. Blood seeped from his pores under the extreme physical pressure.

"Come on..."

He pulled.

Tiaaat!

The sound of tearing muscle and cracking bone echoed through the sky. Ashford’s bloody face twisted into a savage grin.

ROOOOAAAR!

The Wyvern shrieked in agony. Several high-level raptors broke from the swarm to defend their leader, but the soldiers in the lead transport covered him.

Ratatatatatat!

Machine-gun fire tore the incoming birds to shreds, buying their General precious seconds.

Ashford screamed, throwing his entire body weight backward.

Tiaaaaaat!

The Wyvern’s massive leathery wings were ripped completely from its torso, black dragon-blood spraying across the General’s face.

Ashford didn’t waste a breath celebrating. Gathering the absolute last dregs of Qi in his Qi Core, his body trembling from exhaustion, he drove his fist straight into the back of the Wyvern’s skull.

BOOM!

The armored bone cracked.

"Asher!" Ashford bellowed.

"On it!"

Asher materialized beside him, his narrow black blade flashing in a golden line.

SHING!

The sword drove straight through the cracked skull, piercing the Wyvern’s brain.

SPLAT!

The Wyvern’s shriek cut off instantly. Its massive body went entirely limp, and the two men, along with the giant carcass, began plunging toward the ground.

Without the Wyvern’s intelligent command, the aerial flock’s coordination shattered. They devolved back into mindless, chaotic beasts, scattered by the wind.

As they fell through the clouds, Asher looked at the free-falling General in panic. "General!"

"Don’t worry about me!" Ashford’s voice boomed back as he clung to the massive Wyvern carcass to break his fall. "I’ll use the body as a shield! See you inside the academy!"

Before Asher could argue, the thick crimson clouds swallowed the General.

Asher gritted his teeth, executing a mid-air step on a golden Qi platform to slow his own descent. Suddenly, a cold, digital chime echoed in his mind.

[You have slain a Level 3, Tier 2 Mutated Wyvern.]

[You have gained 100EXP.]

[Breakthrough requirements fulfilled.]

[Congratulations. You have reached Level 2, Tier 1.]

A fresh surge of pure, golden Qi flooded his Qi Core, healing the torn muscle in his shoulder. Asher swung his blade, a massive golden wave clearing the remaining airspace around the lead transport.

"Land the helicopter!" Asher ordered the pilot. "The ground team is completely surrounded!"

——————————

Down below, the gateway had become a meat grinder.

"Leah, don’t worry! I’ve got you!"

A young student, Senh, stood behind an overturned delivery van. He gripped a heavy, bent iron rod with blood-slicked hands, keeping himself positioned directly in front of his younger sister, Leah.

"Okay, Senh," Leah whispered, her voice trembling.

A grey-skinned zombie snarled, leaping over the hood of the van. Senh stepped into the strike, swinging the iron rod with all his strength.

BOOM!

The rod crushed the zombie’s skull, dropping it into the dirt. But the impact vibrated up his arms, nearly disarming him.

"Leah, we have to move toward the steps!" Senh gasped, turning to grab her.

But a second zombie, its jaw hanging loose, lunged from the side of the van, its claws reaching straight for Leah’s throat.

Leah whimpered.

Faced with the rotting teeth, she didn’t freeze. Instead, her fingers wrapped around her brother’s jacket, and with every ounce of strength her terrified body possessed, she yanked him directly into the path of the claws.

"Leah—"

Senh’s eyes widened in absolute, paralyzed disbelief.

"Didn’t you say you’d protect me, brother?" Leah sobbed, her face pale with terror, but her eyes held a cold, desperate survival instinct. She truly believed he should die so she could live.

Puchi!

The rotting claws sank deep into Senh’s shoulder.

A burning, freezing sensation immediately flooded his veins. Venom.

His knees buckled, the metal rod slipping from his fingers. The zombie pinned him to the ground, its foul breath washing over his face as it opened its jaws to tear his throat open.

Senh tried to raise his hands, but his muscles refused to contract. His vision was already beginning to blur.

He let out a dry, bitter laugh. If anyone had told him his own little sister would throw him to the monsters, he would have fought them. But the ugly truth was staring him right in the face.

The rotting teeth came down.

Then—

A dark steel blade covered in a brilliant, humming aura of crimson Qi pierced straight through the back of the zombie’s skull, exiting its mouth.

The infected’s body went completely limp, collapsing harmlessly onto Senh’s chest.

Through his fading vision, Senh looked up.

A young woman in a black lab coat stood over him, her hand gripping the hilt of the Blood Moon Sword. Her cold, crimson eyes looked down at him.

Seana and they rest had arrived.​