At the sound, every figure froze.
For a single heartbeat, silence swallowed the courtyard. Then the sirens wailed again, not in their usual short bursts but a continuous, deafening scream that filled every corner of the pit.
Guards moved first. Orders barked, boots thundered across the upper walkways as they scrambled to their stations. Spotlights flared to life, sweeping wildly across the field. Prisoners panicked — some dropping their tools and bolting for cover, others standing frozen in confusion. The clamor of chains, the shouts, the stampede of feet — it was chaos made flesh.
A section of the far wall shuddered violently, throwing dust into the air. The ground trembled beneath them again. Kael stumbled back, clutching his head as the siren's pitch seemed to pierce straight through his skull.
'This... this must be it!' he thought with his pounding heart.
The so-called trigger. The sign!
"But what the hell am I supposed to do now?!"
He spun around, searching for something — anything — that resembled a path forward. The guards were tightening the perimeter, shouting commands in a language he didn't understand. Prisoners were being forced to the ground, others trampled in the confusion. Whatever was happening, it wasn't part of the routine.
Then, something caught his eye.
Amid the chaos, a group stood out — calm where others panicked. Their motions were coordinated, as if they'd been waiting for this exact moment. And at the center of them, Kael saw him.
The old man from yesterday.
He moved with the group like a current guiding the flow, his expression was hard but focused. And when the light passed over them, Kael's eyes widened — the chains that bound their wrists hung loose, clattering freely against the stone floor.
'How the hell…?' Kael's thoughts stumbled over themselves.
'Those things don't come off without a key...'
The old man said something to one of his companions — a brief exchange, a nod — and then they began moving through the crowd, cutting a path toward one of the inner gates. They didn't run nor shout. They simply moved with purpose, as if they knew exactly where to go.
And somehow, Kael couldn't look away.
He didn't know who they were or what they were planning, but everything in his gut told him this wasn't coincidence.
"To hell with it…"
He muttered under his breath, forcing his way through the chaos — shoving past bodies that surged in every direction, ducking under flailing arms and swinging chains. His eyes locked on the old man's group ahead, weaving steadily toward one of the archways beyond the courtyard.
Then — a sound split the air.
A sharp screech, like steel tearing against stone, echoed from above. The noise was so piercing it sent a shiver crawling down his spine. Instinctively, he looked up.
Something cut through the dim grey sky.
At first, it looked like a shadow — thin, distorted — but as it drew closer, he saw the shape more clearly: long, jointed wings that stretched outward like torn sails, with their edges that were flickering with faint light. A body twisted between them, pale and slick as if carved from bone. Its face was little more than a void with rows of gnashing teeth where its eyes should have been.
The air rippled in its wake as it dove.
Kael barely had time to react before the man-size creature made impact — a thunderous crash as it slammed into one of the prisoners not far from him, dragging the screaming man to the ground. The scent of rust and decay filled the air as its claws tore through flesh and stone alike, wings folding inward like a grotesque cloak.
Soon after, the familiar screech came again from above. And then another. Within seconds, dozens of them could be seen circling the sky, dark shapes blocking out the faint glow of the torches below.
"You're kidding…"
***
The courtyard descended into chaos. Screams mixed with the screeching of wings and the dry clatter of rifles. Shadows dove from above, tearing through prisoners and guards alike. Kael stumbled backward, chains biting into his wrists, narrowly avoiding the claws of one that crashed into the cobblestone beside him. The thing's blood — thick and black — splattered his face as it was kicked off by another prisoner.
All around him, people were scattering — some trying to flee, others clumping together in panic. Yet one group, the same group he'd noticed earlier, moved differently. They didn't run aimlessly. Even in the chaos, they stayed tight, coordinated — ducking low, grabbing whatever they could find from the scattered weapon racks.
One of them snatched a torch, another yanked a broken rifle by its barrel, and together they swung and stabbed at the incoming swarm like they'd done this before. The smell of burning feathers filled the air as one of the winged things screeched in agony.
Kael could only stumble after them as his hands were still bound in cold iron. Every step felt like gambling with death. He ducked beneath a flailing wing, sidestepped a falling body, and tried not to trip over the corpses piling around his feet.
"What the hell are the guards doing?!" he shouted, though no one could hear him over the madness.
A glance upward answered his own question — the upper battlements were lined with riflemen firing in bursts, tracer flashes slicing through the night. The creatures went down when the shots landed, but there were just too many. For every one that fell, three more dived from the black sky. The guards were holding, barely — but even from here, Kael could see the panic spreading among them.
At least the winged rats seemed more focused on the men above. That gave the ones below — him included — a little breathing room. Not much, but enough for the group to force their way toward the inner gate of the fortress.
Kael followed, weaving through the debris and shadows, until they reached the entrance leading deeper inside. Relief almost hit him — almost — when a deafening crash split the air.
Something slammed down right in front of the doorway, sending dust and shattered stone flying. Kael immediately stopped. A winged abjection — its body mangled, one wing half-torn, its ribs jutting like broken armor — staggered upright. Its head twitched, and then its gaze fixed squarely on him.
"Shit…"
It moved — a clumsy, staggering leap, but fast enough to make Kael's heart stop. He threw himself sideways, hitting the ground hard as claws ripped through the air where he'd been standing.
"Go find someone else, will you!" he yelled, scrambling backward. The abjection turned, dragging one of its wings behind it like a cape of sinew.
That's when Kael saw it — a fallen guard, laid lifeless against the wall with his rifle lying just a few feet away. Without thinking, Kael went for it, brushing his fingers to the cold metal as the creature screeched again.
He didn't know how to fire the damn thing. There wasn't time to figure it out either. As the abjection lunged again, Kael gripped the weapon by its barrel, twisted, and swung with every bit of strength left in his body.
The impact was solid — bone crunching, wet and heavy. The creature reeled back with a guttural hiss. Kael swung again, this time striking its skull. A crack split the air. The thing collapsed, twitching once before going still.
Kael stood there as the rifle was smeared with dark blood in his hands.