He had climbed atop an enemy pigeon that tried its best to make him fall down. His head began to spin as the enemy pigeon performed various aerobatic manoeuvres.
"Aaahh," Prakash shouted in pain as a claw tore open a vicious wound on his back. Other pigeons perfectly flapped their wings according to the pigeon's manoeuvres so that they always positioned themselves behind his back. They were making use of relative motion physics like it was child's play.
"…S-Shaggy," Prakash gritted his teeth and recalled Ugly Shaggy towards himself when purple smoke gushed out of the pores on his skin and coagulated to form a cocoon that wrapped around him and shattered to reveal a baby Gharial from within.
The baby Gharial, weighing 120 grams and spanning 40 centimetres in length opened its maws and clasped it over the wings of an attacking pigeon. Using its powerful neck region to torque its motion, the baby Gharial slammed its closed jaws to its right and removed a chunk of flesh and feathers from the pigeon's wings.
The pigeon he had been holding onto before transformation flapped its wings in the direction towards the floor and managed to slip away from under the baby Gharial's body.
Losing its footing, the baby Gharial could no longer attack its foes and began to fall down. The surrounding pigeons took this chance to peck at its body. Each of their beak attacks drew out copious amounts of red blood while the Baby Gharial couldn't even so much as scratch its foes. After its first successful strike, the baby Gharial had become a helpless target that was besieged from all directions.
Two pigeons directly clamped their claws over its body and tore out vicious pieces of flesh out of its body. Its defenses were lacklustre as compared to its adult self. The two pigeons flapped their wings and reduced their speed of descent to a crawl and hovered in the air a foot above the ground.
Suddenly, the two pigeons lost balance as the baby Gharial they held within their claws dissolved into purple smoke. The purple smoke vanished leaving behind nothing as the pigeons felt confused. They were looking all around their surroundings in vain when a tiny black dot stealthily placed itself atop a feather hidden from view on the pigeon that looked like the healthiest of the lot.
The healthy pigeon that was searching for its prey suddenly began to thrash on the ground while the surrounding pigeons gazed at it with confusion. But, after a few seconds had passed in such a fashion, the surrounding pigeons gazed at the healthy pigeon with greed.
Drool leaked out of their beaks as they stealthily hopped towards the healthy pigeon that still continued to thrash in place.
The moment a pigeon came too close to it in order to eat it, the healthy pigeon suddenly stopped thrashing as if its previous thrashing were an illusion and swooped with its beak towards its unsuspecting foe.
'Ptch'
The healthy pigeon pierced its beak into the eye of the nearby pigeon and viciously removed its eyeball out. Hurriedly swallowing the eyeball, the healthy pigeon took off to the skies while simultaneously escaping from a flurry of beak and claw attacks.
The moment it had flown up, the tiny dot dissolved its transformation and reverted back to its human form. Prakash heaved a sigh of relief while maintaining a partial transformation of Ant in his hands that he used for support and controlled the pigeon to fly towards the hole in the door leading into the cinema hall.
He had commanded Ugly Shaggy to continue its thrashing act after taking over the mind of the healthy pigeon just to gain an opportunity for a sneak attack which proved to be quite successful.
'Trrrrnnngggggg'
The flying pigeon abruptly stopped in its place upon hearing the sound. Prakash gazed at his front towards the hole in the door and at his behind when his pupils dilated in shock. He immediately dissolved his partial ant transformation.
Purple smoke gushed out of his orifices and transformed his eyes into that of a dog's when a sense of fear gripped his heart.
There were 30 crows flying in the air and engaging in a free-for-all battle with the tiny insects that darted to and fro between them in an effort to survive.
Some of the mini Shaggy that hovered beside the insects entered into the bodies of the crows but only managed to make its body shudder a little. The crow was still moving completely fine for the most part and continued to wound its insect foes.
"Damn, it," Prakash gazed at the hole in the door and at the sign plastered above it one last time before retreating.
'Screen-1'
The one that had been breached by the birds was just one of the 10 cinema halls but unfortunately, it was also the biggest of the lot. If they could have saved everyone inside it, they would have obtained at least 600 people which would have been a significant addition to their 2000+ members in the base.
Prakash controlled the pigeon to fly towards one of the crows and scratched its wings. The crow momentarily lost its balance that managed to give the surrounding insects enough leeway to escape.
Prakash then controlled the pigeon and darted to and fro, freeing everyone he possibly could.
"Brother, let us aggro these birds so that the others could escape first," Vikram shouted when he noticed the figure of Prakash.
"Sure," Prakash controlled the pigeon and harassed the other crows. Thankfully, most of the pigeons and all of the eagles had entered 'Screen-1' in the cinema hall, thereby reducing the pressure they faced.
But, it was still overwhelming to the point of causing them asphyxiation. There had been a steady increase in the number of crows who were calling in even more of them.
Crows generally acted as lone wolfs but the moment they spotted some food, they would call at least four other crows before swooping in to devour the food. This was the reason the number of crows had been steadily increasing.
The addition of each crow decreased their chances of survival.
Prakash and Vikram darted to and fro in the air and managed to catch the attention of most of the crows and a few of the pigeons that still remained behind and had not entered the 'Screen-1' in the cinema hall.
'Caaw' 'Caaw'
Some of the flying crows flew out of the shopping mall and seemed to call even more of their brethren while the ones in their immediate surroundings rushed in for the kill.
"Everyone retreat! Run fast! Go! Go! Go!" Vikram bellowed at the top of his lungs as all the insects rushed towards their base.
Vikram and Prakash tried to aggro the other crows but some of them still chased after the escaping insects.
In a pre-planned move, the two pigeons they controlled neared each other until they almost collided when Vikram jumped towards the pigeon Prakash controlled.
Prakash grabbed hold of Vikram's outstretched hand and pulled him up.
"What happened?" Prakash bellowed as he desperately manoeuvred the pigeon to escape from another flurry of attacks. The surrounding cacophony of noises made by the crows required them to shout at the top of their lungs to be audible to each other.
"My pigeon suddenly experienced a heart attack. Maybe the small wasp poison that had accumulated in its body might be the cause or maybe the injuries caused by the birds had been too much for its body to handle," Vikram said as he gazed at the pigeon that began to fall down like a puppet that had its strings cut.
But a second later, four crows besieged its body with their claws and held it afloat. The four crows then flapped their wings and dropped the pigeon carcass on the fifth floor. They then gorged on its flesh.
On noticing the mesmerising aroma wafting out of the pigeon carcass in excess, many other crows too swooped down and began to peck at its flesh.
Managing to gain some breathing space, the duo tried to escape towards their base. There were still about 10 crows that relentlessly chased after them.
They reverted to chasing after them when they found out that they couldn't push their way in through the crowd who were gorging on the pigeon carcass.
Some other unfortunate crows too took off to the skies and began to chase after the duo. There were also the birds that had chased after the insects in the first place that they had to watch for.
Prakash made Vikram control the pigeon as he used his Ugly Shaggy to disrupt the flight of the birds that neared them since the mini Shaggy that Vikram possessed wasn't developed enough to disrupt their flight. It was something they unfortunately found out in the battle when all of their mini Shaggy failed to disrupt the minds of the crows, not to mention failing to take control of them.
The pigeon flew on the long corridors of the fifth floor and took a sudden dive towards the fourth floor through a flail of steps that appeared on its right. The chasing birds that were a mixture of crows and pigeons maintained a steady distance away from the pigeon and didn't seem intent to close in.
"Those cunning bird heads, Vikram, lead them away from our base. They are probably waiting for us to lead them right to our base so that they can devour the lot of us," Prakash said while his dog eyes kept an eye on his surroundings.
"But, some of those birds might have already reached our base while chasing the others. Wouldn't they be killed without us?" Vikram retorted.
"Damn," Prakash cursed. On one side, he was feeling frustrated while on the other, he was feeling anger; anger at the fact that he could only run away the moment the situation turned even slightly unfavourable.
In their previous exchange, all they could accomplish was sacrificing two of their pigeons that they had converted after great risks and pains. Other than that they barely hurt a few birds, except for the one that had its eye ripped out, none of the others sustained any fatal injuries.
"Shit, from where the hell are they coming from?" Vikram raged when he saw 15 birds that were actively tearing down the spider net he had carefully placed around their base for defence. He also noticed seven zombies that calmly hovered in the air beyond the defensive net.
The warriors that had successfully retreated to the base made use of their mini Shaggy and mini Victoris to harm the attacking birds. The mini Victoris consumed the flesh of the birds little by little while the mini Shaggy tried to control their minds.
But their plan didn't work well due to the presence of the seven zombies whose body makeup made them the worst enemies in such a situation.
One of the zombies clenched its humanoid hands into a fist and sent it smashing down onto a serpentine figure.
Cracks formed on its body after a single attack as the mini Victoris cried out in pain. The mini Victoris retaliated by biting at its body but the zombie caught its mandibles without effort and broke them.
Opening its mouth to reveal a mangled jaw, the zombie crunched onto the severed mandibles while it delivered a knee kick to the face of the mini Victoris. The mini Victoris twisted its body to evade when another zombie sent a kick to its stomach and plunged its mouthpart into it.
The mini Victoris struggled in pain which was transmitted back to the man who controlled it. The man screamed out in pain when the nearby warriors rushed to his help. They immediately commanded their mini Victoris and mini Shaggy to help the wounded mini Victoris when they were blasted away by a huge zombie.
This zombie was as huge as a pigeon and possessed the head and legs of a pigeon. It had the stinger of a wasp on its left hand and a mouthpart of a mosquito on its right while there were ten pairs of dragonfly wings that continuously flapped on its back.
This huge zombie used its claws and clutched them onto the body of the injured mini Victoris and ripped it apart in a fierce display of brute power.
"Kekeke"
"Kukuku"
The surrounding zombies actually clapped at its display of power and sent a provocative gaze towards the dozens of mini Victoris and mini Shaggy that had been blasted away.
"Nooooo!" Vikram bellowed in rage as the multitude of emotions his Victoris experienced were transferred to him. They were a mixture of unbridled rage and unquenchable hatred as the eight amethyst eyes of the Victoris burned like eight mini suns as they etched the figure of the huge zombie into its being.
They were still a distance of 30 metres away from the base and couldn't reach to its rescue on time as the huge zombie sent a gaze filled with disdain towards Victoris and opened its beak wide and swallowed the mini Victoris it had killed.