Chapter 202: Night Banshees

Corvell looked torn. He glanced at the terrifying silver trees, then back to his Princess, then at the armed Knights. But the weight of his duty anchored him. "Cori... we are the Hero's Party. We cannot flee before we have even seen the enemy."

"Enough of this cowardice," Aethelstan declared, raising his broadsword high. "We march on. Keep your eyes peeled and your weapons ready!"

A sudden, ear-piercing yell echoed from the bruised sky above them.

It was a sound so unnatural, so saturated with pure grief and malice, that it silenced the entire party instantly. The mist around their ankles began to swirl violently.

"What's that?" Steppard asked, his voice trembling.

A string of red system notifications materialized before all of their eyes.

⸢Threat Encountered: Night Banshees⸥

⸢Level: 40⸥

Stenya gasped, clutching her staff. "I can feel something strange in the air. The mana here is… It's an evil king of magic... And it's coming here fast!"

Instantly, through the canopy of the skeletal silver trees, a swarm of something unseen descended upon the Party.

These things look like spectral women, but their bodies were sickly and colored a translucent green. They swam through the air as if the atmosphere were water. Their long, blindingly white hair trailed behind them like ethereal currents, and their hollow eye sockets glowed with a hateful, dark light.

"What in Azrael's name are those?" Vadrian yelled.

"Form up! Attack!" Aethelstan roared, his fear masked by sheer volume. "Vanguard, strike them down!"

The Awakeners erupted into action.

Steppard roared a battle cry and leaped forward with his massive Barbarian axe. He swung the heavy steel with enough force to cleave a boulder in two, aiming directly for the torso of the leading Banshee.

The blade hit the creature… and passed right through her.

There was no resistance. No impact. Steppard stumbled forward from the momentum of his own missed swing, his eyes wide in disbelief.

"What?!"

Calarin, the Elven Knight, thrust his enchanted lance upward. The silver tip phased effortlessly through the spectral woman's chest.

"It's true!" Nessa screamed. "Physical attacks don't work! Fall back!"

But the Banshees did not give them the chance.

The leading Banshee halted mid-air, right in front of the stumbling Steppard. She unhinged her jaw like a snake preparing to swallow something larger than its own head.

Her throat was endless, like an evil, hope-devouring tunnel. Then she unleashed her scream.

A concentrated, rippling burst of dark sonar shot it. Warping the air itself, the shriek sent cracks racing across the bark of the nearest trees.

It was visible for their eyes to see,a shockwave of malevolent energy pulsing outward.

The shriek bypassed Steppard's physical armor completely and tore directly into his Soul Core.

Steppard didn't have the chance to do anything. Only accept his fate.

His eyes rolled back, and in a horrific, instantaneous flash, his flesh, bone, and armor turned to fine, gray ash. The ash collapsed into a neat pile on the damp forest floor.

"Steppard!" Teson screamed in horror.

Ugmar, the heavily armored Dwarf Knight, raised his massive iron shield to block a swooping Banshee.

The spectral woman simply swam directly through the shield, phasing into his space. She shrieked at point-blank range. Ugmar's sturdy dwarven body instantly crumbled into a shower of gray dust.

Panic completely shattered the formation.

Selor, the Elven Archer, desperately knocked three enchanted arrows to his bowstring, firing them in rapid succession.

The arrows whistled through the air, pierced the Banshees' bodies, and passed through harmlessly, leaving only wisps of green smoke.

A Banshee lunged for the archer. Jorik, the Dwarf Earth Mage, slammed his hands into the dirt, erecting a massive wall of solid bedrock between Selor and the monster.

Rather than just phasing through the rock, the Banshee screamed at it. The dark sonar wave violently vibrated the bedrock until it exploded into shrapnel, the concussive force of the dark magic carrying straight through.

The shriek washed over both Selor and Jorik, shattering their Soul Cores simultaneously. Two more piles of ash joined the forest floor.

"Fall back! Magic only!" Aethelstan was yelling now, panic finally breaking through his arrogant facade as his sword passed uselessly through another Banshee. "Mages to the front! Everyone else behind them!"

Calarin turned to run, abandoning his lance, but a spectral hand reached out, its chilling touch slowing his movements.

A Banshee descended right above him, her jaw opening. Calarin was reduced to ash before he could take a third step. Teson, trying to drag Vadrian away from the frontline, was caught in the reverberations of the same scream, his human body crumbling like dry sand.

Everyone was dying left and right.

Nessa and Corisande watched the slaughter in absolute, paralyzed horror. In less than a minute, six of their comrades had been erased from existence.

"Princess, help them!" Corvell yelled over the chaos.

The Elven Healer Mage saw Bromm struggling, barely dodging a swooping Banshee. Corvell abandoned his safe position at the rear, his hands glowing with his healing magic. "I'm coming! ⸢Light of the—⸥"

"Corvell, no! Don't move!" Corisande shrieked, her voice tearing out of her throat.

Corvell's glowing hands made him a beacon in the dark forest. A Night Banshee, its white hair whipping wildly, snapped its hollow gaze toward him. It swam through the air with terrifying speed, closing the distance in a fraction of a second.

Corvell froze, his healing spell dying on his lips as he looked up into the cavernous, screaming maw of the monster.

He turned to his friend. Corisande's face was better fitted to be the last thing he saw before he died.

The Banshee's dark sonar burst point-blank into the elf's chest.

Corisande watched, helpless, as her friend's body turned gray—his golden hair, his pale skin, his green robes, all draining of color—before violently collapsing into a pile of fine, drifting ash.

Corisande's face contorted into a mask of absolute, soul-tearing pain. She wanted to run towards him but ended up falling to her knees in the damp dirt.

Overwhelmed by the pain, Corisande threw her head back toward the bruised-purple sky and let out a devastating, heartbroken scream.

"Corvell!!!"