I Received System to Become Dragonborn-Chapter 857: Shared Chaos

The first scream cut through the battlefield like a blade through cloth. It was sharp, piercing, and unmistakably filled with terror.

Some of the adventurers flinched at the sound, their instincts screaming to turn and look but they couldn't do that right now. Their weapons were locked against their own relentless enemies. One glance away could mean a sword in the gut or an arrow through the throat.

So they stayed locked in battle while gritting their teeth and thinking the worst, that one of their healers had simply dead to an opponent's blade.

Darel's party didn't slow either. The rhythm of combat demanded their full attention. Every swing, every spell, every dodge was survival. The scream was a loss for them but not an unfamiliar one.

"Damn it… probably one of the healers," muttered one of Darel's fighters, not daring to look back from Kaela's movement.

But then came a second scream.

The sound of flesh tearing and something inhuman screeching in delight. This time, it was clear that it wasn't steel that killed her but something else.

From above, the flapping of grotesque wings could be heard.

The second healer ripped from the ground by a winged abomination with bloated arms and sagging leathery skin and was carried for a few seconds before being slammed into the earth.

The creature descended upon her, its jagged fangs sinking in as more grey creatures pounced from the mist to join the feast.

Now, the realization hit Darel like a hammer. They had no healers left.

He glanced at Hund who was still pressing him in brutal melee, both swords flaring with Magic and their strength.

"We're in trouble…" Darel thought grimly. The tide was shifting.

"THE MONSTERS ARE CLOSING IN!" Yara's voice rang out across the battlefield.

Darel turned as Yara landed beside him, her breathing heavy. There was no trace of anger for the enemy now only signal of sharp danger in her eyes.

"We have to stop this fight," she said quickly, eyes scanning the fog. "There are too many of them. They're everywhere. If you keep this up we all will die!"

Hund's ears caught her voice. He stepped back from Darel with sword still raised, confusion flaring in his eyes.

"What?" he muttered.

But then he indeed heart it. The sounds behind the mist. Wet and heavy footsteps, then low and guttural growls.

He also start hearing the flap of wings, the gnashing of teeth and the hiss of slithering movement.

His expression shifted in an instant. Eyes widening. Sword lowering just a bit. He looked around and finally saw shifting silhouettes moving in the swirling white.

"Shit…" Hund cursed under his breath.

He cast one last glance at Darel then turned and bolted back toward his party.

Selene was already shouting warnings as he arrived. Her voice was steady but loud enough to cut through the chaos.

"The grey creatures are surrounding us. They're already breaching the edge of the fight."

"Of course," Mark said with a grim tone, jaw set tight. "We should've expected this. All this noise was bound to draw them."

Despite the urgency, Mark kept his composure, his mind already shifting from offense to defense.

"Disengage!" he barked.

Kaela who were in the middle of her own clash with the spear wielding opponent, immediately dropped low and rolled out of reach.

Thorne who had just landed a blow, pushed off his opponent's shield with a grunt and dashed backward.

Both of them sprinted toward Mark without hesitation.

The fog around them thickened and shapes began to move within it. More glowing green eyes. More claws and hunger.

There was no more question. The other battle had arrived and this time the enemy were not a party of human but grey creatures from another world that here to devour them.

"To me! Regroup, now!" Jan's voice cut through the chaos like a captain through a storm.

His party reacted immediately with their instincts that honed by countless battles. Hund, already ahead of the call, sprinted back and arrived just as Selene descended, floating down in a half-hover with wings of Magic dispersing behind her.

Annette emerged from the underbrush. There were dirt on her robes. She had been hiding since Yara attack Selene, waiting for the chaos to shift. Now, her face was pale but focused as she joined the regrouping cluster.

The full force of Jan's group finally stood together again.

Across the swirling mist and shifting chaos, Darel's party had done the same. The moment their second healer died the reality set in fast.

They didn't need their leaders to tell them what was happening. The sound of approaching horrors did that well enough.

Now both parties stood surrounded by thick curling fog, eyes moving to the places around them. The hostility still lingered between the two parties but for now it had to burn in silence.

The two sides faced each other across the battlefield like the last breaths before a storm, tension humming in the air.

Then Darel raised his sword and gave the order.

"Ready yourselves! Here they come!"

A second later, ten grey humanoid creatures burst through the mist, sprinting at unnatural speed to them. Their limbs jerked like broken puppets but their momentum never faltered. Their single green eyes glowed with hunger.

Darel's group met them head-on. The sound of blades clashing against claws erupted again, joined by the feral snarls and human grunts of effort and pain.

The creatures didn't care. They kept coming.

On the other side of the battlefield, Jan, Mark, and the others saw them too moving through the haze. First the humanoids, just like the ones that hit Darel's party. Then came the other kind of monsters.

The lion-snake-headed beasts slithered and prowled from the fog—shoulders as high as men, twin serpentine necks writhing while the lion's head in the middle roared.

Jan didn't even need to speak.

Mark stepped forward and shouted, "Get ready for battle!"

Kaela raised her twin daggers, Thorne's sword began to glow, Selene started chanting, and Annette crouched behind them readying her support spells.

Then the grey tide hit them too.

The battlefield once again erupted, no longer divided by factions of the two opposing human. They all now swallowed in shared chaos between them.

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