"What in the four hells was that?", Agiros said while clutching his ears.
"Not sure...Izza says... something big...", I replied weakly while clutching my ears. The upside and downside to sharp hearing, you can hear everything but louder, especially if the source is close.
[Voxea, I need an exit].
The ice walls surrounding us began to rumble, as they began to part to form a small opening.
"Sir Agiros, where are you?!", a young sounding voice called out.
Agiros and I exited the makeshift fortress, only to be greeted by the sight of several battered and bruised binders and their monsters facing away from us and towards the sky and a fog of war as thick as ink surrounding us. A soldier binder in novice armor ran towards the two of us.
The soldier abruptly stopped and snapped off a salute to Agiros.
"Sir Agiros sir"!
"At ease soldier, what's the situation and why are all the binders here?", Agiros asked in a gruff voice.
"Sir! At some point during the onslaught, an ominous screeching occured and it spooked all the attackers. The moment it happened, all of the attacking wild monsters stopped dead in their tracks despite the fog of war. After the screech stopped, they all bolted away from the town, sir! The fog of war disappeared for a split moment, before it reforming into an even thicker fog surrounding the whole town. None of us knew what to make of it, so we retreated to your position to figure out what's the next step, sir", the soldier explained.
As the soldier finished explaining, another ear piercing shriek rang out. As I turned towards the noise, I felt my heart sank and a fire burn in my belly. Off in the distance, highlighted by the orange moonlight, was a huge monster with massive powerful wings.
[It's here].
"What the heck is that"?!
"I don't know but it's freaking huge"!
"Everyone who has ranged techniques, fire"!
At that single command, a dozen or so monsters began firing off one technique after the other. Line after colorful line of techniques containing the power of all ten affinities streaked across the night sky and at the flying invader. Quite a few techniques missed their marks, while a few other techniques hit dead on and did nothing.
As the monster got closer and closer, I suddenly heard the sound of deep inhalation coming from it. The others must have sensed it too, because as I was about to back away, the rest of the binders did the same.
[Voxea]!
[Don't worry, I sensed it. Permafrost Fortress]!
Voxea's hand glowed with a pale blue-white light as she began to move them in a strange motion. The permafrost walls from earlier turned back into normal dirt, but then reformed in front of Voxea into an elaborate shield structure. She built the shield just in time as a powerful scream echoed through the night sky and resounding boom hit the area where Voxea and the other monsters stood.
My ears at that moment felt like I was getting stabbed in them giant razor sharp needles, but the battle bond kept me focused enough to see the devastation that the technique caused.
Some monsters, like Voxea, managed to get their defenses up in time and blocked the attack to varying degrees of success with some looking quite injured. A majority of the monsters, however, didn't make it in time and were seriously injured. Some were slowly turning back into aether as a result.
"Gaaaah, what the heck kind of monster can do that kind of damage?!", a voice cried out in pain.
"I'm not sure, it needs to be closer before-". *Boom!*
Landing in front of us was the biggest monster I had ever seen up till now, comparing it to the Wooly Rammoth was like comparing a plow horse to a donkey in terms of size.
The monster's shape and stance reminded me of a lynx but scaled up to a much bigger size. It had a massive set of wings on its back that were full of muscles and feathers as black as charcoal. Its backside was like a lynx, complete with gray fur, but its front was absolutely misplaced. Instead of having a normal lynx head and fore claws, it had the head of an owl with eyes as big as plums and powerful claws that looked like they belonged to an owl too. Several layers of fur and feathers mixed together to unify the whole thing into a cohesive being.
I stared at the beast and confirmed with my Dragon's Eye that it was a Grim Shrieker like Voxea said.
"Sillllvviiiiaaaa baba...".
What it said next confirmed what I had feared.