The scale of the battle instantly tipped in their favour the moment the horde of insects joined. Hundreds of wasps instantly ganged up on the surviving zombies and destroyed their bodies in a matter of seconds.
The zombies had been in a constant state of conflict against dozens of Skill manifestations for a long time and had been weakened to a considerable degree. Unlike the huge zombie and the six-armed zombie, the remaining zombies had strength only capable enough to fight against a few Skill manifestations at a time.
What they excelled at was their speed which they made ample use of till now and survived. Moreover, unlike the huge zombie and the six-armed zombie, consuming the bodies of the Skill manifestations didn't strengthen them in any way what-so-ever.
In a matter of seconds, all of the remaining zombies were killed off, and their corpses dismembered into numerous pieces. Finally gaining the chance to launch a decisive counterattack, they were venting all of their rage and frustrations on their foes that were the cause of death for numerous comrades.
Many insects that possessed a mini Shaggy converged together before a pigeon and unleashed their mini Shaggy upon it.
The strength of the Skill manifestations varied directly with-respect-to their distance from their bearers. The farther they are from their bearers, the weaker they become and conversely, the nearer they are to their bearers, the stronger they become and could display their maximum strength.
Manoeuvring a foot in the air around the pigeon, all the surrounding insects unleashed their mini Shaggy into its head. 30 mini Shaggy entered its head within a single moment that led to an instinctual fierce resistance from it which disoriented its flight and sent it tumbling down.
The moment it fell on the ground, 50 people who hadn't transformed pounced towards it and also sent their mini Shaggy into its head. The other 30 insects too hurriedly dissolved their transformations the moment they landed on the ground.
They were all warriors who had participated in the expedition and had already over-transformed. The skin colours of most of the warriors surrounding the pigeon were of a deep shade of blue, almost trotting on the edges between human and zombie.
The moment their mini Shaggy entered the head of the pigeon, they collectively heaved a sigh of relief. The pigeon was thrashing in resistance but through their mini Shaggy, alongside the torrent of purple smoke, a trace amount of blue smoke was also being transferred from their bodies into the pigeon.
The other insects that fought against the birds were faring worse as, after each of their powerful attacks that made ample use of their huge bodies and the wind force generated from each flap of their wings, dozens of insects fell on the ground like rain and had their transformations dissolved.
They were mostly kids and elderly who hadn't accumulated much Karma and also didn't possess much battle capabilities. So, the moment they were hit, they could no longer maintain their insect mindset and had their transformations wear off.
The moment they reverted back to their human forms, a team of people swiftly carried them back towards the primary Lego structure and hurriedly inspected their skin colour. They were then sent to rest inside for safety after they were confirmed to not possess enough blue smoke in their bodies to activate a zombie transformation.
A minute passed in such a fashion as the group of 80 warriors emitted raucous cheers after having successfully tamed the pigeon and also at the fact that their skin colour had returned to normal. Meaning, they could now transform once again.
Purple smoke suddenly formed an expansive cloud in the base and coagulated into a huge cocoon that collectively enveloped the 80 warriors and shattered to reveal 80 wasps from within. The wasps then sped towards another pigeon and attacked it.
Their wasp bodies swirled in myriad ways around the body of the pigeon and managed to distract its attention and sent their mini Shaggy into its head. The moment the 80 mini Shaggy entered its head and fought control for its mind, the pigeon lost control of its body and fell on the floor.
'Thud'
The body of the pigeon shivered from pain after experiencing the fall. Thankfully, its height of fall wasn't too steep, otherwise, it would have broken its bones and have had its internal organs crushed into a mush.
Seeing that the pigeon had lost control of its body for the time being, the 80 wasps split into four teams and flew towards four other birds and harassed them. They had to support the other battling insects that were significantly weaker and also lacked necessary Karma and experience to maintain transformation for a satisfactory period of time.
Since their distance from the pigeon increased, the pigeon showed signs of regaining control in its body as it tried to flap its wings and take off to the skies once again. One fo the wasps promptly noticed the situation and buzzed towards its comrades.
The wasps rapidly communicated in the air through a series of bizarre motions mid-battle and then proceeded to aggro the four birds towards the pigeon and maintained a safe distance from it.
Now that their distance had decreased, the pigeon once again began to lose ground in its mental fight against the 80 mini Shaggy that tried to wrestle control of its body and could only continue to thrash in place.
A man held onto the neck of a pigeon and took off to the skies. This pigeon emitted a foul rotting stench as sections of its body looked to be decaying. This was the pigeon the 80 warriors had first converted and also poured all of the blue smoke that had accumulated in their bodies into it.
The man controlled the zombie pigeon and collided it towards a bird that was overwhelming a portion of their transformed warriors. The bird cawed in response and twisted its wings and dodged to the sides.
It took some difficulty to manoeuvre the zombie pigeon as its feathers began to fall off one by one during the flight that made it progressively difficult to turn, but the man still persisted against all odds and chased after the crow.
As he closed in on the crow, the crow suddenly spread open its wings that increased the air resistance it faced and almost seemed to stop in the air. It was too late to react as the momentum of the zombie pigeon carried it forward that allowed the crow to arrive behind it.
"Sorry leader," The eyes of the man despaired as the elongated shadow of the crow loomed above him.
'Pichh'
The crow swooped in on him and tore his head off, pulling sections of his spine along with it. The crow used the zombie pigeon as a foothold in the air as it greedily devoured his body in a second and took off.
The very next moment after his death, the mini Shaggy controlling the zombie pigeon vanished from existence as if it had never existed in the first place. It gazed towards a certain Lego structure in its final moments as a trace of unwillingness flickered across its dog eyes.
Without a mini Shaggy to control it, the zombie pigeon looked like a lifeless object as it plummeted through the sky and fell into the reddish-brown waters along the first floor. It was immediately devoured by the fishes in the water that further spurred the cancerous sprouts growing on their bodies.
'Swish'
Purple smoke gushed out of his body and transformed into the hulking figure of Victoris as Vikram once again partially dissolved the transformation to his face and bellowed. His voice travelled across the entire base and rang in the ears of all the fighting humans loud and clear.
"Lend me all of your pigeon Karma and crow Karma. I'll end this battle now!" All of the 200+ surviving mini Victoris opened their mouths readily in response and send a stream of purple smoke that impacted the body of Victoris like a laser. The laser looked like a torrent as it illuminated the surroundings with a purple hue and raged on for 5 seconds before trickling to a stop.
Purple light flickered throughout the surroundings in response to the one-foot tall cocoon that had formed in the middle of the battlefield. Traces of blue, purple, and black coursed all over the surface of the cocoon that shattered into numerous light fragments and revealed a crow from within.
What was different about this crow from the other crows was the portion of emerald skin that filled its neck region and the line of emerald feathers that were scattered all across its feathers. The bird was also slightly taller than the other birds due to its longer legs while also possessing slightly longer claws that looked sharper than normal.
The head of the emerald-black bird swerved in all directions as it spotted the figure of a thrashing pigeon and sped towards it.
'Chiii'
Releasing a shrill cry, the emerald-black bird landed atop the pigeon and used its long claws and pressed its neck to the ground. The pressure it applied through its claws on its neck made it impossible for the pigeon to continue its thrashing. The moment its thrashing decreased to a pause, its eyes immediately turned vacant as the mental battle within instantly tipped to the favour of the invaders.
10 seconds later, 79 mini Shaggy emerged out from its mind while a trace of intelligence returned to the eyes of the pigeon.
On noticing such rapid success, the emerald-black bird flapped its wings and flew towards a crow that was being harassed by 20 wasps and collided into it. The pigeon that was converted just now also appeared before the crow and attacked it.
As if they had practiced beforehand, 79 mini Shaggy travelled through the air and entered the head of the crow. Immediately, the emerald-black bird clutched its claws around the legs of the crow while the pigeon clutched its neck. The two worked in sync and sent the crow crashing into the ground.
The pain of having its body crash into the ground momentarily blanked out the crow's senses that the 79 mini Shaggy who had entered its head made ample use of to launch an attack. Unsurprisingly, they managed to gain control of the crow within 5 seconds.
The numbers of foes were decreasing while their strength continued to be on the rise as they converted one bird after another by making use of the above tactic by overwhelming their foes from both the physical and mental aspects at the same time.
The vision transmitted to him instantly became clearer as compared to before when purple smoke gushed out of his body and transformed into Ugly Shaggy who took on the role of providing him the vision.
Prakash suddenly experienced the feeling of pseudo-flight as the relative distance between his sight and his body rapidly increased. His vision travelled across the hall in an instant and proceeded into the building wall of the Lego structure.
Prakash instinctively raised his arms before him in a defensive posture only to realise after a second that it wasn't his body that was about to collide into the wall but that of Ugly Shaggy's who turned transparent and phased right through the wall.
From the image of the wall of the Lego structure up close to its interior that was filled with hollow spaces, and grain structure and finally, to its exterior where the scenery of a battlefield came into view, Prakash relished in this novel experience.
Ugly Shaggy then proceeded to fly towards the last bird that was fighting against almost a hundred insects.
On the ground below it, hundreds of people gasped for air and hurriedly retreated towards the primary Lego structure. They had expended all of their Karma reserves to stall the birds and had no other choice but to retreat from the battle.
The 80 or so warriors who possessed a mini Shaggy were also part of the retreating group as they had expended all of their Karma while converting the birds and even the mini Shaggy they controlled turned sluggish after being in a constant state of battle against so many foes.
They first had to suffer under the attacks of the zombies who were capable enough to wound them in a single blow and desperately survive. After that, they continuously wrestled for control in the minds of powerful birds one after the other that exhausted them.
One-by-one, the exhausted mini Shaggy dissolved into purple smoke and entered into the bodies of their bearers while the bodies of many birds rested on the floor like statues. Their eyes were vacant as the mini Shaggy that controlled them had disappeared from their heads due to exhaustion.
The emerald-black bird was the only bird that was currently flying in the air amidst the wasps that too were descending to the ground one after the other and dissolving their transformations. All the able warriors had expended all their Karma in this battle and could only gaze at the transformed figure of their leader who was now the sole fighter in the air.
It was at this time that Ugly Shaggy appeared on the scene and entered the head of the last bird, signifying the end of their first Raid.
Their first Raid was a resounding FAILURE!