Upon exiting that passageway, Trisha immediately used a warp scroll to get the hell away from this place as she knew something that hasn't been mentioned yet to her transporter while Walter changed once she was gone before taking control of Quinn's body, then flew upward to the air thanks to how dark the skies were, it was a bit easier for Walter to sneak around and blend in with the crowd of other blood hawks that mindlessly minded their business as well as not only were they not hostile to him but they also acted strangely subservient towards him.
other than a few that hissed at him, as if trying to keep their group under control and remained as their troops or minions.
Walter who had other plans simply ignored the dumb monsters and flew away in a different direction towards a withered tree that had a vast amount of mana while there were countless fallen minions that had blue skin, failing to notice the few Blood hawks that still followed him.
even stranger thing about them was how much smarter they appeared compared to the ones that Hairy had they were practically mindless idiots compared to them, well equipped too, as they also seem to have a large community of hundreds of these monsters.
They had farms, tents, hell one part looked like some kind of marketplace just that the products sold were... human meat, weapons, and mind broken people made into slaves.
There wasn't much that he could do since there was a large number of well-armed guards and archers, so Walter grit his beak before returning his attention towards the mana filled tree but the way there wasn't without problems, there were Vile hunters that noticed him thanks to his 4 new followers that insisted following him as one of them a particularly gray one, decided on shitting on one of the women's heads.
Which by the way, the poop was the size of a damn football, with them being problematic, then being strangely cocky led to this situation, it was like someone was trying to copy the Persian army from how many arrows were being fired at them, since most of the following blood hawks lacked the capacity to dodge, out of four of them the only one remained had a grey tint to its wings with a couple of arrows stuck to its body, the little bugger, that caused this mess, was still trying its best to follow Walter.
While he wanted to help it, Walter had his own problems to deal with as a large number of these flocks of birds were heading towards them, well him more specifically, as the skies turned even darker from the sheer number of them as the formerly silent night became noisy from the cawing from the approaching birds.
Once he was able to get a good look at them it turned out these birds were undead crows...
yes undead!
hundreds if not more swarmed the area as they pecked at anything that were alive.
Vile hunters fell to the ground dead as these Undead crows were faster than their arrows rendering them unable to run by the time they noticed the flock of death.
The marketplace of blue-skinned fallen monsters was overrun, nothing was spared not even the mind broken slaves or the freshly caught prisoners they were all the same to these death bringers.
Anything that they attacked and killed was picked clean of flesh leaving countless skeletons littering the area, the last living blood hawk that was struggling to follow Walter earlier had fallen into the pond some distance away, while He activated a specific skill to make them avoid him.
HOWL!
Luckily for him the skill worked on the undead crows as the effects seemed to spread to the rest causing them to avoid him like a plague!
He was heaving from the fearful moment there as the undead crows were still flying towards his direction yet they kept their distance the sight of them making a pseudo-orb-like space as they flew past him was kind of exciting for the ten seconds it had happened before they went on their way.
Leaving him to see the damage that the bird brought upon the land!
It was like seeing an old painting that depicted the arrival of death and his army and what they could bring about if they were set free!
The marketplace was ruined in less than a minute, blood and bones littered the area leaving only him and possibly the blood hawk that followed him earlier the only creatures that were alive in this vicinity while the situation begs the question as to who had sent out the flocks of death, a familiar carving of stone in the marketplace made him descend.
He had found another waypoint hopefully this can make things a little easier as he wanted to rest and collect some supplies since a certain headhunter made him lighten his load to somehow escape it.
He also wanted to have his summons available just in case another uncontrollable situation occurs yet again.
Since Balter was currently unavailable to provide some support thanks to that deathmatch that message had told him at least it will be for a few hours, as Walter changed back to his human form something was heading for him undetected before it landed on his head as the portal activated and returned him to the encampment that looked so much better than before, better defenses covered in magic runes to defend them from regular and magical attacks.
Walter, on the other hand, was confused as one he was sure that Quinn was summoned back yet there was a familiar weight on his head, so he grabbed the creature by the scruff of its neck then brought it to his face to see what it was...
It was the damned blood hawk that almost got him killed!
Oddly enough, it didn't do anything else other than having a weird staring contest with him, Walter squinted then the bird brain did so as well!
The really weird thing that happened next was that Walter and the monster he was holding became connected like his summons before the bird cooed in... satisfaction? then it used its paws to cover its face like it was either embarrassed or something else.
So he immediately tried unsummoning the creature which did nothing as the blood hawk remained hanging from his hand, his face twitched before just placing the damned monster on his shoulder then headed towards Akara to get some potions.
Upon seeing him, however, the healer rushed to him before nearly twisting his neck and limbs off as she was asking if he was injured or bitten by the flock of death.
He wasn't sure what she meant at first but he asked her just to be sure.
"are you talking about the swarm of undead crows?"
Her eyes widened before resuming her examination of him, stripping him nearly of all of his clothes other than his underwear, that he was desperately trying to keep on.
Seeing that she wasn't stopping he screamed out!
"WA-WAIT! I was able to escape them by using that Howl skill! I wasn't harmed but I can't say the same for the inhabitants of the area"
Her eyes turned sharp before asking him in a grave tone that made him uneasy as her hand was on his shoulder and it felt like a damned mountain was resting on it as his knees nearly buckled under him.
"Where and how many were killed by the flock?"
Walter gulped as he was trying to stand his ground while the blood hawk was scared of the healer trying to hide behind his head thanks to the amount of mana as she had compared to it before the man replied.
"Hundreds of monsters and a good number of humans w-"
His word was cut off as she made a magic spell form on her hand then threw it into the air!
As Akara's echoing words roused everyone in the encampment.
"THE CORRUPTED DRUIDS HAVE RETURNED! I NEED ALL AVAILABLE PEOPLE TO HELP STOP THEIR SPREADING CORRUPTION!"
Corrupted druids are capable of using nature just like a regular druid, but there was a big difference in what they do compared to regular ones.
One, they will use any means to clear any filth that entered their territory even if it means becoming monsters themselves to protect mother nature.
Two, they are EXTREMELY aggressive to those that aren't of their people and those killed by them become 'glorified' eternal slaves to their magic even if they are rotting corpses.
three, those that die by their blade gain the ability to shapeshift like druids as they pick their enemies clean of anything to restore their rotting bodies to stay at their peak.
On the bright side, at least the enslaved can die by magic or a blade it is just that they use their numbers to overwhelm their targets and it takes 3 days for the dead to return as well as serve their corrupted masters.
So yeah, they are a real pain in the ass!
But still manageable enough to cull with the right people which happened to be the sisterhood of the sightless eye, so now a familiar look formed on her face causing Walter to understand what was at stake and that he had another quest again.
"Walter it looks like I will have to impose another task upon you again"
He grits his teeth as the man really didn't want to accept but Walter managed to control himself before forcing it into a smile as he asked something he quickly came to regret.
"What will the task be?"
He was mentally crying now as the heavy burden of a request was explained.
"You will need to reach the largest tree in the dark woods, this is where the Corrupted druids tend to camp your task is to clear the area with the rogues that will be coming with you since the rest will ensure that their numbers won't grow more than it already has."
It was good news that he will be having some company but the next thing she said made his face warp in a strange manner.
"You will have to kill Treehead Woodfist, he is the local druid-turned-monster leader of these irredeemable druids, as by doing so will prevent them from further expanding their territory."
Walter asked no practically begged at this moment.
"Can I rest for the night?"
Akara looked at him before shaking her head.
"no, there is no time!"