Chapter 44: Blood Raven

They all took a stance and waited for the shapes to come into view...

When they stepped out, Ethan saw that it was Beowolves. But they looked more alert than the ones he had handled before.

Ethan counted. Four monsters.... He had seen a fifth earlier...

His eyes moved upwards and above them, circling through the dark was a fifth monster that they had not encountered before.

Ethan squinted his eyes...

Was that a pair of wings?

```

[Ding]

[You have encountered: Blood Raven]

[Rank: C]

```

Ethan narrowed his eyes, and Lila’s head tilted up. "What the fuck is that?"

"Blood Raven," Ethan replied. "My system says it’s Rank C."

Nora’s head snapped towards him. "That’s the highest Slave rank."

"I know." He turned to her. "This shouldn’t be a problem for you since you’re both rank A. We’ll need a better plan if we’re going to beat this thing."

Lila thought for a moment. "As long as it isn’t the type to attack the weakest, we should be fine, right?"

As if it had heard her, the creature flapped its wings once, and dove towards Nora first.

She formed a blood blade and clashed with the creature’s talons, the impact sending a jolt up her hand.

The best circled back, then went high again before diving towards Lila this time.

She took a step, reeled her hands backwards and shot a torrent of flame towards the beast.

The Raven veered sideways, and the blast hit the stone wall behind it.

The beast didn’t circle back like it did before. Instead, it turned and dove towards Ethan with a speed that was hard to track in the darkness.

Ethan gave a command on instinct, and the iron golem rushed forward, slamming the beast with its forearm with enough force to flip it over.

It tumbled back several times and stopped when it hit the wall with a force to form a crater.

Just then, one of the wolves howeled and the rest followed behind it.

"The golem will draw the wolves. Lila, keep the Raven occupied for as long as you can. Nora, help the golem with the wolves. We finish the pack, then the bird."

The Iron Golem stepped immediately dashed forward and kicked one of the Beowolves high in the air. It slammed against the ceiling and whimpered as it fell to the ground and went limp.

Two came in low, third ran towards them from the right, and the Raven shrieked and shot upwards before Lila could notice.

"Shit."

"Nora."

She threw her hand forward, and blood threads began weaving together, forming some sort of net. The Raven hit the net at a speed that tore through it but lost enough momentum that they were able to move out of the way in time.

Lila came running towards them but didn’t notice the Beowolf charging behind her.

"Lila, on your right."

She threw a flaming lance at the beast, and it tore through its side and pushed it back. It crashed in a pained howl and Nora used her blood to create needless that pierced it’s head, killing it.

Ethan nodded, marking as recoverable and turned to the Raven circling above.

He gave another command, and the Iron Golem caught the first Beowolf by the throat and slammed it into the ground.

"Incoming," Nora said, already moving with her eyes glued on the Raven. Fresh blood ran from a cut on her forearm, and reformed into a spear.

The beast dove down, and Nora threw it towards it.

It veered sideways dodging it and when it did, the iron golem appeared at the side and punched the Raven with a force that sent it burrowing into the stone wall.

In the next instant, the golem dashed at the wall, and slammed into it with enough force to destroy the wall.

Silence followed, broken by the sound of stone crumbling downwards.

Ethan stood still for a second, his eyes moving across the bodies that lay around them.

He turned. "Corpses," he said. "I need the corpses."

Lila scoffed and shook her head. "Can’t believe dead bodies are making you this excited..."

When she left to help Nora collect Aetherite, Ethan turned his head to one of the Beowolves.

***

He knelt down next to the Raven...

```

[Raise Undead (Basic) activated]

[Corpse Quality: Excellent]

[Energy Cost: 42]

[Result: Rank C Undead (Blood Raven)]

[Control Capacity: 5/54]

```

The body jerked once and the wings twitched as the Blood Raven rose under his command. It flapped its wings once, displacing stone and dust and rose fully in the air. Its eyes changed to green, and Ethan felt the link lock in heavier than Bef’s, and denser than the Iron Golem’s.

So far, he was able to raise two of the Beowolves and the Raven. The cost was more than he wanted to admit, but it was worth it.

Ethan felt himself smile. He just scored a rank C undead...

Lila looked over, and her eyebrows went up. You’re making a face."

"Hm?"

"You’re making a happy face. You’re happy, over a corpse..."

Ethan looked at her with a smile of his own. "Someone sounds jealous..."

She rolled her eyes. "Fuck you."

Nora soon walked over and Ethan saw that she had finished collecting the Aetherite.

He sent the newly raised Blood Raven to hover near the ceiling, testing the control response.

It was the smoothest he had see so far and he nodded in satisfaction.

When he asked for the time check, he found out that they had used forty-one minutes overall.

Under an hour, and two chambers cleared.

They had secured Aetherite and Ethan got himself a new ranked undead.

Lila hummed, a sound that made Ethan turn.

"Third chamber is still possible," she said. "What are we going to do now?

Ethan thought for a moment he had used a lot of Death Energy. Though it was still a bit large, it was lower than he liked— the reason because he had wasted an amount on corpses that were useless.

Would it be smart to push forward, or turn back.

He glanced at Nora. They had a meaningful amount of Aetherite already collected, probably enough to give a decent score.

But some reason, looking at it didn’t give him the satisfying feeling he was looking for.

He turned to Lila. "We go into the third chamber..."