CHAPTER 176: 176-THE SLUAGHS

Clementine:

The White Squad had run away, saving themselves and not caring about their own squad mate, who was still shaking and screaming under the attack of the things.

"Come on, Clementine!" I felt a grip around my wrist, Haiden trying to pull me away.

"No, wait!" I pulled free and ran to Nate, swinging my sword and cutting down a few of the things right above his head. Seeing me struggle and not give up made my squad mates return. They surrounded Nate, striking at anything that tried to come closer.

Slowly, in minutes, the things began to retreat. One by one, they left and gathered up in the sky like a swarm before screeching and flying away. We were breathing heavily, sweating in the cold, and not only that but we were also badly wounded, scratched, and clawed everywhere.

"Are you okay?" Yorick rushed to me, his hand on my shoulder as he pointed at my arm where I’d been clawed.

"It’s fine, it’s not that bad," I said, looking at him. He barely had any scratches though.

"Are you guys okay?" I asked Troy, who was shaking his arm because he had been clawed on the back of his hand. Haiden looked fine, just one bite mark on his bicep. And then there was Ian. He wasn’t scratched at all, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t helped. He fought with us. He stood beside us. It was safe to say Ian had come a long way, from someone who didn’t care for his squadmates to someone who stood with them through thick and thin and even cared about others. He had really shown improvement.

But then there was Nate. He sat on the road, eyes down. He was badly wounded, with scratch marks and bite marks all over his body.

"Are you okay?" I placed my hand on his shoulder. He raised his head, looking so teary-eyed that I felt bad for him.

"They left me behind," he muttered, smiling and shaking his head.

"It’s okay. They were worried about Suki. She got attacked." I didn’t want him to think his squadmates were so selfish that not even one stayed behind for him.

"Come on, Clementine, how can someone be so good at heart? We always bully you, and you’re still trying to save their reputation," Nate said as he tried to get up, only to fall again. He groaned, shaking his head and blinking his eyes repeatedly.

Yorick quickly came over, steadying him by placing Nate’s arm around his own shoulder. "I’ll take him to the shelter. We don’t know when those things will come back," Yorick said, and Troy moved to support Nate from the other side, lifting his arm over his shoulder as well.

Now that it was just Haiden, Ian, and me left, we looked around at the dead bodies of the things.

"What are these things?" I asked, staring at their skeletal bodies. If I had to explain their appearance in the easiest way possible, I’d say they looked like corpses that had grown wings. The space between their arms and underarms was filled with wings, almost like a bat. They looked like dead bodies, gray with thick skulls.

"What are they?" Even Haiden grunted, staring at them too long.

"They are sluagh," Ian pronounced, giving them identity.

Haiden and I shared a glance before looking back at him, waiting for more because it seemed like he knew about these things.

"They are the desperate souls that were once tortured and killed. They come out in swamps and they attack." Ian paused, his jaw clenching a little as he sighed, then added, "the weak ones."

He finished, and I began to think of Nate. Maybe he was the weakest among the others. I turned back to Ian for more explanation.

"The cold Nate felt was the effect of their closeness. When they are near, they send chills down their victim’s spine. They mostly pick a weak one, but once that target is gone, they move to another. They will attack anyone who gets in their way, but their main target stays the same," Ian explained.

Honestly, I couldn’t be more impressed with this guy. How the heck did he have so much knowledge? It was beyond me.

"How do you know?" Haiden asked.

Ian took a deep breath and sighed. "I’ve read a lot of books, like every single book around. Anyway, that’s not the point. The point is that the bite on your bicep, that’s going to be a problem." His tone shifted as he pointed at Haiden’s bicep, tilting his head and wagging his finger at it.

Haiden quickly looked at his arm, checking the bite.

"What do you mean? How is it going to be trouble?" I asked, worried for him.

"Their bite can cause hallucinations, to the point that some people don’t realize who to attack or who to trust," Ian explained, and I was already freaking out for Haiden.

"Then what are we going to do now?" I pressed.

"It’s okay. We can take Haiden to any building and make him sleep. Once they’re asleep, they’re fine. But that guy Nate, he’s the problem. They’ll come after him again, and he’s been bitten way more times than Haiden. I’m not sure sleep will help him," Ian admitted, making me glance toward Yorick and Troy, who were carrying Nate away.

"Clementine, was it the thing you saw last night? Are these the same monsters?" Haiden turned to me, asking about what I’d witnessed.

I stared at the dead bodies of the things and searched for tails. They didn’t have any. They looked like human corpses with wings.

"No, that thing had a huge scaly tail," I argued, already terrified. It wasn’t some game where we faced one monster at a time, we could be attacked by many at once.

"Anyway, let’s find Haiden a place to sleep before he starts hallucinating and it becomes harder for us to handle him," Ian muttered, grabbing his bag and picking up my sword I had dropped before checking on Nate.

I watched him carefully clean the blade and hold it for me, not even looking my way. His nonchalance sometimes made him look so sexy.