A Changed World - Book I | The Howling Winds

Chapter 14: The Sorrowful Night

The battle raged on in the dead of night. Artimas's army continued their assault on the furs, killing hundreds already. But the furs tried their hardest to keep the humans outside of the Aviary walls, creating blockades by the fallen gate. It was nothing short of carnage so far, and it seemed to be a clear losing battle on the fur's part. But even with that knowledge, the furs fought. Refusing to give up, even in the face of defeat... they would fight to their last breaths.

"Push them back!" Shira shouted, tirelessly firing arrow after arrow from her bow. Each and every shot she took never failed to find its target in the body part of a human soldier.

Ivan grunted as he dragged a huge log along the ground after chopping down a tree, the bear carrying the massive weight by himself before dropping it in front of the collapsed gate, followed by immediately retreating back behind cover, preventing their vehicles from making it through.

"Uhh, guys... we have a problem!" Luna yelled with panic, right after slashing her razor sharp claws across a human's neck who charged in.

Everyone's attention was directed to Luna's warning, their hearts dropping. The bottom floor of the Aviary building was on fire, and it was slowly spreading its way up to the other floors.

"We have to put it out!" Yelled Shira, desperately trying to come up with a plan while she continued sending arrows towards the humans.

"We think about that later." Ivan stated simply before he slammed an unlucky human down onto the ground with just one brutal punch. "We have bigger problem right now."

Luckily, it seemed that the weather was on their side that night. The winds began to pick up, and were blowing very strongly, and effectively against the fire. But that wouldn't be enough alone to put it out, only to slow it down.

"Where are the Avians?!" Luna exclaimed, flicking a dagger from her thigh sheath into her hand so that she could jam it straight into a human's eye.

Panic was rising with the furs since all of them now fought desperately to push the humans back, who were now charging in, armed to the teeth.

But luckily, just before the first wave of troops could begin unloading on the furs, the huge flock of Avians swooped down from the night sky gracefully. They flew directly over Artimas's army, tossing a gust of specially made throwing knives for Avian flight. The knives worked in such a way to dart through the air like a bullet with the momentum of an Avian's flight after being thrown.

The knives tore through almost all of Artimas's first wave of troops, creating screams of agony as the tiny blades stabbed through their bodies.

"Fuck Yes Avians!" Luna yelled, pumping her fist in the air as she watched the flock fly back up into the night sky, likely to prepare for their next attack.

With the time that the Avians just bought them, the furs on the ground quickly got to work on creating a more effective blockade, throwing whatever they could in front of the collapsed gate while others got to work on gathering up many buckets of water to combat the slowly spreading fire.

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Bill, who was still in the underground cells of the Aviary was the first to feel the heat of the fire. He was concerned just listening to the battle outside... but more concerned when he realized that he was going to be cooked alive in there if he didn't get out.

"Hey! Let me out!" He yelled desperately, shaking the iron bars that confined him back and forth as sweat built up from the heat.

As his panic built up and his heart started racing from the gradual buildup of heat, he began to violently kick the bars... which did nothing but cause him pain.