That was, or so, he thought before staring more carefully at them and just noticing they were just some funny-looking undead. Specifically, zombies.
'They seem different though...' Damien saw them standing in an alleyway that was somehow not flooded. The way they stared at each other and the way their mouths moved suggested to him, 'Can we converse with one another?'
He also caught subtle stares from them. Damien couldn't help feeling suspicious. They were certainly undead, as half of their faces were missing flesh, their skull was visible, and their skin was already rotting.
Damien shook his head and decided to ignore them. He then looked back around to try to find Horwah's whereabouts. Fortunately, he was still in his sights, albeit just a bit far.
CREAK... CREAK... CREAK...
The degrading wooden boards beneath his rusted boots creaked in response to his movements as he began to clear enough space for him to leap.
However, just as he was ready to leap to the next rooftop, he was then suddenly knocked out of the air.
BAM!
Whatever hit him forced him to miss his landing and land on another rooftop. His armour clattered into the roof's surface and dented it upon impact, leaving splinters from his fall.
Damien rolled to his side, then knelt. He then looked up at the assailant and spotted something that sent a shiver down his spine.
FLAP FLAP FLAP
Brown feathered wings that span the size of a king-sized bed. Sharp, yellow talons with a metallic gloss and a bent beak like an eagle.
What had intercepted him was a predatory bird the size of a car. Its eyes, like those of a hawk, looked at him with desire before making one final flap and diving towards him.
Its body charged at him and began to approach quickly. Damien instinctively leapt out of the way, avoiding the bird's attempt to crush his body with its charge.
SWOOSH...!
He was just narrowly able to dodge it.
He pushed himself up into a sitting position with his arms once again and looked up behind him. There was the bird hovering in the air with its back to him.
It beat its wings and turned itself fluidly while launching itself at him once again. Damien's eyes flared with fright before he grabbed the edges of a tilted-up plank and ripped it out of its place.
He then got to his feet, both hands grasping the bottom half of the wooden board.
Damien swung hard at the bird that had just arrived at his position. The wooden plank smashed into the bird's face, splitting and snapping in two.
His eyes widened in surprise before being thrown back by the charge high in the sky. Damien's body wiggled in the air before getting caught by the bird's talons.
It suddenly turned round and began to move farther from the direction he had intended to go, causing Damien to flail around in frustration.
The bird ignored his attempts to flee, instead shrieking after feeling something pierce its right wing.
Due to that, it suddenly began to plummet, accidentally releasing Damien from its talons and leaving small drops of its blood as traces of their descent.
The two of them then crashed into a stone-bricked road that didn't seem to be very flooded.
THUD!
They both landed with a loud thud.
Damien pushed himself off the bird's body, fortunate enough to survive using it as padding; otherwise, he would've surely died from a fall of this height.
He got back up to his feet before stepping away cautiously from the bird; after seeing it not move, he decided to go around it and take a look at its conditions.
The middle of its right wing had an arrow coming out of it, albeit crudely. He then heard something jump from the rooftops of a nearby building to the ground.
He snapped his head back to the sound of what appeared to be footsteps and discovered that a skeleton similar to him was approaching them, specifically the bird.
It wore a brown leather quiver around its back and held a bow in its right hand before placing it on its back and gripping the hilt of something concealed inside a long sheath attached to its hips with its rusty metal gauntlet.
CLAP CLAP CLAP
Its rusted boots clapped against the ground with each step as it neared.
It then pulled on the hilt, revealing a chipped sword.
The skeleton then gripped the handle with both hands and stabbed the bird in the back of the head, killing it instantly.
After confirming that it was dead, it pulled the sword out of its skull, leaving its skull with blood on its blade.
The skeleton then swung its sword to the side, splattering blood on its blade and leaving an arc of red paint on the floor.
Damien couldn't help but stare at the skeleton in awe as it walked over to the arrow stuck in the bird's wings, yanking it out and placing it back into its quiver.
The skeleton gave him a brief glance before turning away.
Damien watched it turn around and start making its way to a ladder leaning against the wall, tall enough to reach the roof.
He decided it was a good idea to follow it for the time being and walked behind it, following suit. Since he had no way of defending himself, this seemed like the most logical thing to do...