Hive Queen by Sinclair, Grayson (ereader iphone .TXT) 📗

That makes two.

One of them tripped over the supine form of his dead-undead friend and met the tip of my sword as I shoved it through his brain.

The remaining two were close now, forcing me to take a step back and goad them toward me. When they moved parallel to each other, I moved. I ducked under their outstretched arms and shoving them into one another, causing them to crash to the ground together. One quick adjustment later to line them up, and my sword slid through the nose of the top roamer and out the back of the head of the second.

Two for the price of one, and that makes five.

Raven gave me an exasperated sigh and shook her head as I pulled my sword free.

I wiped the rotten and blackened brains from the steel. “Got something to say?”

“Not at all. Far be it for me to tell you when you’re being impetuous.”

I tossed the torn and now soiled piece of cloth from the roamer. “Good, because I don’t need another nag in my life. C’mon, we’ve got some more zombies to slay.”

“Zombies?” she muttered as we edged toward the rest of the horde.

I’d created a gap to start whittling away at them from the side, but we would end up biting off more than we could chew if we strayed to close and the others sensed us.

There were a small group of six or seven farmhands that were the closest to us. I slunk along until I was as close as I could be from them without straying into the horde itself. My lifeforce tempted them, and they turned, coming for me, and breaking away from the oblivious horde as I kited them back a good ways.

I was about to engage when a ruffling came from behind me and a shadow passed overhead. Raven floated about fifteen feet in the air in her human form, her black wings stretched out and flapping in lazy rhythm as she stared down the horde.

“Can I take them?” she asked.

I thought about it and shrugged. “Be my guest.”

She nodded, and I danced out of range while they shuffled after me. Raven flapped her wings harder and rose a few feet more before bringing her wings down sharply. Dozens of heavy feathers shot out from her wings, spinning end over end like throwing knives as they descended on the unsuspecting horde. She’d put enough force behind them to cause major damage to the seven roamers. A few missed or landed on the soft feather side, but plenty struck properly, sinking the entire shaft into the undeads’ soft and weakened bones.

A few took out eyes and hit the brain, killing them instantly, but she’d only managed kill shots on four of the seven. Huh, not bad for one attack, though. Raven glided back over to me and withdrew her wings, dropping to the ground. “My apologies. I wasn’t able to get them all.”

“Don’t worry about it,” I said, raising my sword. “I’ll finish them off.”

I ran forward, and with a few quick slashes, I slaughtered the remaining three. That makes eight.

One of her feathers stuck out of the sand. I crouched and picked it up. It was heavier than any feather I’d ever held before. I prodded at the tip of the white shaft, drawing a bead of blood. Holy shit, that’s kind of impressive.

Though sharp, they lacked the heft needed to perform as a true weapon, but Raven had bypassed that by using extreme force. Damned impressive.

Before I could do anything else, the feather disappeared, fading away to nothing along with the rest of the ones that lingered over our small battlefield. Faster than a corpse, but I guess they operate similarly because they’re organic.

I stood up and walked over to Raven. “How many times can you use that trick?”

“Only a few times in short bursts. My feathers grow back quickly, but if I lose too many, I won’t be able to fly properly.”

“Well, then ballpark it for me. How many times can you use that again right now?”

“Twice more, at best.”

“All right,” I said, pointing at the largest groups of roamers. “Fly over and see how much damage you can cause.”

She nodded, unfurling her wings. “What are you going to do?”

I smirked and summoned my Chitin Shield. Thankfully, I had the wherewithal to unbuckle the vambrace and push the leather higher on my arm. I stowed the armor piece away just as the inky darkness slithered out from my pores and coalesced into a round shield on my arm. The shield was muted tones of black, rough, uneven, and the edges sharp as shale. Wonder if I can take a roamer’s head off in one swing.

“I’ve had a lot put on me the last few days, and it’s only going to get worse from here, so I’m going to go blow off some fucking steam.”

Instead of pushing my anger down and letting it fester, I let it come to the surface and boil over. I let out as loud of a war cry as I could, and I charged into the mass of undead.

My shield raised, I barreled into the nearest roamer. I shoved it with enough force that it toppled over into the crowd and took half a dozen out like a row of dominoes. Two walking corpses were right in front of me. I bashed one with the edge of my shield, sinking it just under its nose and crushing its face in until I hit its brain and it stopped moving.

The other tried to take a bite of me but chomped down on my sword instead. With a flick of my wrist, I filleted its skull open. It spilled rancid gray matter and viscous black blood to the sand.

I