Chapter 98
“Sienna, give that to me!”
Oliver stretched out his hand when he thought of it. He had already been hit by Blood Malediction
anyway. Like Sienna, it didn’t matter whether he touched it or not.
Sienna gave him the Eye Sculpture without thinking. Oliver looked it over again after receiving it.
It was true that it hadn’t been swapped.
In fact, besides Oliver who knew the importance of the Eye Sculpture, the others didn’t recognize it at
all and could not see its value.
Simon and Wayne were ready to push aside the burning firewood at the cave entrance to free the
opening. Their n was to carry a machete each and rush out to get the difficult part over with as fast
as possible. They would cut as many trees as possible, then drag them into the cave.
As long as they could hold on until dawn, they would live for one more day. Otherwise, everyone would
cease to exist at midnight that night.
“Wait a minute!” Oliver raised his head and quickly stopped them. “Don’t be rash. Let me think about it.”
Wayne and Simon stopped to wait for Oliver. There was no present danger anyway, and the firewood
couldst for an hour
or two.
Oliver mulled over it with the Eye Sculpture in his hand. A few minutester, he waved to Wayne and
Simon and said, “You two guard both sides. While we make an opening, the others will stay back.
When we’re done, find a ce to take cover. Mr. Hayes and Yoseph will protect the others.”
Everyone immediately stood at Oliver’smand. Wayne and Simon armed themselves with
machetes and took their positions to guard the entrance.
Oliver was about to take a cane to push the firewood away, but Wayne and Simon simultaneously
stood in front of him. When they got to work, the fire at the cave mouth was quickly brushed aside to
reveal an opening that was roughly two feet and two inches wide.
By pushing the me barrier aside to create an opening, they had also exposed a weak spot to a
sharp-eyed Nocturna Heron/ outside. As soon as it saw its chance, it flew over as fast as lightning.
Simon acted the fastest. He saw the Nocturna Heron hurtling toward them like an eagle and shed it
with a knife.
The Nocturna Heron looked like an eagle but was slightlyrger and looked fiercer.
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Sparks flew in all directions, apanied by a loud noise like shing metal.
Simon stumbled back and fell with a muffled grunt. The Nocturna Heron was not akin to the stgmite-
like Blind Viper; his sh did not injure it. Instead, he was the one who was shaken by the Nocturna
Heron’s power. His machete-wielding hand trembled, his strength sapped from the encounter.
The machete also fell to the ground. It was chipped where the de had met the Nocturna Heron’s
w.
Simon retreated. His machete was broken, and his hand was numb.
But the Nocturna Heron seemed to be unscathed. It paused for a mere moment before attempting to
lunge toward the gap again.
In those few seconds, Wayne gripped his machete with two hands and gathered all his strength to
sh the bird again.
The de hit the Nocturna Heron’s head with another loud crash. This time, the Nocturna Heron was
cut. It jerked its head away and screeched shrilly before copsing outside the cave with a thud. It
rolled on the ground several times, then got up to stare crookedly at Wayne in the cave.
All the strength was sapped from Wayne’s hands, and the machete had snapped into two pieces. He
didn’t have the energy to swing his de a second time.
That one sh had exhausted his strength. Most importantly, his hand was shaken so badly it was
drained of power.
However, the Nocturna Heron also suffered a considerable loss. It was dizzy and stared
dumbfoundedly at Wayne at the cave entrance. It did not dare jump in again for fear of receiving
another blow.
It still knew what that pain felt like.
Wayne and Simon were startled and drew a sharp breath. Both of them had swung their machetes with
all their strength, but even though the Nocturna Heron was scared, it didn’t die or even get hurt.
These two strong blows didn’t even hurt the Nocturna Heron. They had to begrudgingly admire the
might of the bird.
If the Nocturna Heron gathered the courage to rush in again this time, Wayne and Simon would not be
remotely able to stop it.
However, the Nocturna Heron had been given a scare by Wayne’s strike. Its eyes shone with a fearful
glint. Like a simpleton, it stared dumbly at Wayne in the cave.
But right then, there were three other Nocturna Herons on the tree. They rushed straight to the
entrance of the cave with a gust of wind.
Wayne and Simon felt their souls leave their bodies in fright. The one at the entrance of the cave at that
moment was Oliver. They automatically rushed to both sides of him. Their hands were still numb from
the enormous force they had exerted on the Nocturna Heron. They had no strength tond another
blow with their des, so they could only use their bodies to protect Oliver.
But either because of the fear they had experienced facing the Nocturna Heron, or the power they put
into their strikes, they realized that they couldn’t extend their hands. Moreover, their reflexes had
dulled, and the speed at which they rushed toward Oliver had slowed by a few beats..
In desperation, Oliver picked up the Eye Sculpture and raised it to the cave mouth, swinging it toward
the Nocturna Herons.
The bodies of the three Nocturna Herons swooping over suddenly stopped. Their eyes met the Eye
Sculpture in Oliver’s
hand.
Suddenly, the three Nocturna Herons seemed to lose their strength in mid-air. With a thump, the three
of them fell to the ground.
Oliver was overjoyed. In his heart, he eximed, “That works!”
The three fierce Nocturna Herons were knocked down in mid-air by the Eye Sculpture in his hand. This
meant that the sculpture could affect them.
Oliver scrambled to the entrance and raised the Eye Sculpture in his hand, aiming it at the outside of
the cave and waving it about.
At that point, many Nocturna Herons were itching to rush over to them. But when their eyes fell on the
Eye Sculpture in Oliver’s hand, countless Nocturna Herons seized and fell from the sky.
In an instant, the ground outside the cave was covered in a carpet of Nocturna Herons.
It seemed that the birds were genuinely afraid of the Eye Sculpture in his hand, but the Nocturna
Herons that had fallen to the ground didn’t die just like that. Instead, they crawled upright and stared at
the sculpture in Oliver’s hand.
Oliver didn’t know precisely what the Eye Sculpture did, but the Nocturna Herons were clearly afraid of
it. Once again, he swiftly raised the sculpture and waved it at the cave entrance.
The Nocturna Herons on the ground paused for a few moments. Then, something out of Oliver’s
expectations urred; they began beating each other up.
Oliver was stunned. The Nocturna Herons weren’t y fighting but ferociously lunging at each other.
As if fighting for their lives, they snapped at each other with beaks as hard as nails and assaulted one
another with ws.
The hide and feathers of these Nocturna Herons were resilient beyondpare. Wayne and Simon
couldn’t wound the birds even with immense effort. But as they fought amongst themselves, in an
instant, their feathers fluttered down from the sky, and blood sttered everywhere.
Wayne and Simon were dumbfounded. What happened to these man-eating Nocturna Herons?
Were they turning to cannibalism?
For a while, agonized screeching resounded. The battling Nocturna Herons came away mutted;
some fled, some bolted into the woods, and some couldn’t even run or crawl away. They would be
pecked at if they were caught by their kind. Not a single bird would show a shred of mercy to one
another.
Even Oliver was astounded at this scene!
Could the Eye Sculpture harbor any magic?
These birds were caught in a-lose-lose situation. Some had broken wings, some had been blinded, and
some had cracked beaks. None of the Nocturna Herons were still in one piece!