***
Meanwhile, the giant crow was still trying to reach for the hunters. The noise from the unholy beings cawing through the cave makes them unable to bear it. The giant crow's beak was stuck at the cave's mouth, and that makes the hunters and Ishy feel a slight relief despite the cawing noises.
Ishy was still covering his ears to avoid becoming deaf permanently. He murmured under his breath.
"The crows will never be sated; they want more food to fill up their stomachs. Damn those birds!"
He turned to the other hunters, those who were still covering their ears tightly. Then he got an idea and leaned toward Silas, who was sitting next to him. He speaks to Silas while yelling at him.
"HEY!! WE NEED TO GIVE THOSE BASTARDS A SHOT! MAKE THEM BACK AWAY FOR A MOMENT, OR ELSE THEY WILL TRY TO REACH US!"
Silas, who was still covering his ears, turned to him and tried to listen to what Ishmael said. Silas said, trying to speak with Ishy.
"WHAT?! I CAN'T HEAR YOU!! THOSE BIRDS CAN'T EVEN LET US TALK NOW!!"
Ishy sighs and reaches for Silas's hunter's Glock. Then he pulls it out of the holster and shows it to Silas with a shooting gesture; his hands were shaking because of the weight of the firearm despite holding it with both hands.
Silas looked at what Ishy was doing and nodded firmly; then he took the gun from Ishy's hands and pointed it at the invading giant crow. And he aimed the gun right at the giant crow's forehead and pulled the trigger. And the firearm let out a sharp bang as the bullet shot out.
The bullet shot and flew fast towards the unholy being's forehead. From that, the beings backed away as the bullet pierced through its skull, making it caw louder, and pulled back out of the cave's mouth.
It caws loudly as the excruciating pain grazes through its forehead, and the being falls down and slowly becomes lifeless when the bullet hits its brain.
As the noise from those giant crows recedes, the hunters finally let out a soft sigh of relief as the danger slowly disappears for a moment. Silas tucks the firearm back into his holster and faces Ishy and says.
"Well... That works well, I see..."
He chuckled after what Ishy had gestured to him had worked well. He clapped to applaud how fast Ishmael had made the decision in this tense situation. That move made him smile approvingly. He continues in a more approving manner.
"Ishmael, you saved us again... even though that won't be long enough since I have one mag left... but that's only one I have..."
Vale and Scarlet watch over the two of them in silence, trying to recover their senses after a long period of getting cawed at by those giant crows. Scarlet let out another soft sigh after she pulled away her hands from her ears, and she said.
"Why did you laugh? Do you think it is funny after getting cawed at by those bastards?!
She slammed her fist against the cave wall and pointed to the remaining scavenger crows outside the cave. Her teeth gritted while expelling her anger.
Silas counters her argument by saying.
"At least we were safe... for now... all thanks to this guy who told me what to do while you and Vale were doing nothing and just cupping your ears tightly."
The answer from Silas made Scarlet taken aback, and she replied with another argument.
"Then? Is that a reason for you to laugh about it because we were safe for a short time?!"
Her eyes were intense with anger as she lashed out with those questions while wincing from the pain from her bandaged wounds that Vale had tended earlier. She let out a hiss as the sharp pain erupted on her abdomen and arms.
On the other hand, Silas raises his fist to his lips and mockingly says.
"Oooh... I'm gonna act like a damn fool..."
And Silas couldn't help himself but laugh as he was mocking Scarlet for being too tense with him when she just got tended to by Vale. Then, Vale clears his throat to get their attention. From that, those two hunters stopped talking and facing the lead hunter.
Afterwards, Vale finally has a moment to speak while his gaze is fixed on Ishy, Silas, and, lastly, Scarlet.
He said with an authoritative tone.
"Well, to be honest, I didn't expect you to follow this prisoner's decision, and you should know that you didn't have enough bullets to survive in this realm..."
He paused and took a soft breath before continuing.
"Don't you know that... Silas?"
His tone turned grim, and his frown deepened as he was disappointed that his colleague wasted another bullet for that moment.
Therefore, Vale turned to Ishmael, asking him why he told Silas to do so. His voice shifted to grim and tense.
"So... your name was Ishmael, am I right? Tell me... why did you tell Silas to shoot that bird in the first place?"
Ishy sighs and lets out a soft breath, which he hadn't known he was holding.
He replied to Vale with a cold tone, trying not to get intimidated by Vale's authoritative presence.
"So, if I did not tell Silas to shoot that bird, all of us will become deaf. Don't you understand it?! It just takes only one bullet, doesn't it?!"
He pressed his words with more tensing questions to Vale to make him eat his own words. Then all of them become silent in the narrowed and deep tranquility of the cave.
****
All of them remained silent and tried to figure out why those damn birds weren't making a single noise. Their eyes slowly turned to the exit of the cave. Trying to find the reason why those birds become silent.
Silas is the first one to break the silence; he looks at the others with caution etching itself onto his face. The silence was unusually odd. A cold sweat is dripping from his head as he feels unease as well, and he gulps deeply as he asks.
"Well... that's odd... Those birds can't let us rest for a long time... Or is there something else out there?"
Ishy is swiftly facing the exit with widened eyes, and his heart is pounding as if he thinks those bastards have another plan to enter the cave. He hugged his knees tightly and whispered to himself.
"Please don't... not this time..."
The sudden silence makes him feel overwhelmed, as he thought those bastards would use the smaller one to force entry into the cave.
His mind was reeling with a lot of possible threats. He murmured under his ragged breath, his mouth cupped by his palms.
"Please don't be like that... not this one...!"
Ishy looks at the exit and sees a smaller figure, seeming like a half-size of the giant crows. His eyes widened as he noticed the figure from inside the cave. He began to loudly shout at the hunters to beware.
"All of you!! LOOK! They are coming in hot! Small ones are coming!"
He pointed to the exit and told the hunter to get ready. The sudden alert from Ishy made Silas and Vale take out their firearms immediately, just in case they had to shoot the foes outside.
The loud noise from the smaller version of the Unholy Beings. Suddenly, those beings began sprinting into the cave while cawing loudly. The sharp and piercing noise makes the hunters and Ishy taken aback. Ishy is the first one to recover from the noise.
He gets up and immediately takes the threaded cane from Scarlet's side and twists it to shift the cane into the whip. Then he swings the threaded cane towards that one entering the cave. The steel whip cracks and strikes the face of that being. The serrated whip gives a deep cut on its face, making it caw in pain.
His slash makes the front ones fall down and makes the rest of them follow and stumble on it. Then Ishy backed away to let Vale and Silas shoot the remaining Unholy Beings which are on the ground.
Vale's and Silas's shooting skills managed to kill the remaining Unholy Beings that had fallen down on top of each other. Their firearms let out a loud bang through the cave, making a deep and resonating noise. Then Vale's hunter pistol starts to dry fire; smoke leaves the pistol, showing that he has no bullets left. And Silas's Hunter's Glocks begin to slide stop, giving him a notice that he has no bullets left in the magazine.
Both of them have stopped firing and gaze upon the corpse of the Unholy Beings. All of them let out a relieved sigh as the threat was finally neutralized. Vale and Silas turned around to look at each other.
Silas is the first one to speak after the chaotic shootout. His breath ragged after shooting the beings that tried to eat him and the others.
"Well... It seems we both are out of ammo and juice... Didn't we?" Then he softly chuckled as he found this aftereffect event was funny. Of course, it is funny to him that he is just a casual-looking hunter.
Vale sighed with overwhelming stress that reeled in his head, and then he snapped out of it by shouting at Silas.
"THAT IS ENOUGH, SILAS!!"
Silas stopped laughing as soon as Vale started to get mad. Then, he turned himself toward the lead hunter that was infuriated by him. Soon, Vale continues as he gets Silas's attention.
"Do you think it is funny to laugh after what we just faced?! Huh!?"
The question makes Silas feel uneasy and answer with a simple word. The answer was heavy to speak of after having been scolded by the lead hunter.
"No... It doesn't sound funny..."
Meanwhile, Ishy was observing the two of them from behind them and slowly walked toward Scarlet, who was sitting on the ground, unable to move because the pain didn't soothe yet. Then, he extended his hand, holding the threaded cane he took from her, and gave it to her.
He said with a calm and cold demeanor that masked his face. The very same mask he usually used to talk with anybody.
"There... thanks for letting me use it..."
Scarlet takes it from Ishy's hand and places it by her side while resting under recovery. Then, she said with an annoyed tone and disapproval on her lips.
"Next time... Don't you dare take it with your dirty hands again... you filthy prisoner..."
Then Silas turned to Ishy and Scarlet, he sighed, and said to her with the same expression she used too: annoyed and disapproving.
"You know that Ishmael is the first one to react to make those bastards back off... If he did not do that, all of us would become their food... You should be thanking him instead... not talking down to him..."
Then he continued.
"And if you don't want to let him use it... then why don't you do it? Do what Ishmael has done...? And yeah, you were on the ground... moaning in pain because of that wound on your body. Am I RIGHT??
Those questions managed to put her in her place and slowly tone down Scarlet's attitude as the realization hits her like a ton of bricks falling from the sky and also reminds her where she was: on the ground, still recovering.
Vale clears his throat and begins to break off the argument; he sternly says to all of them.
"We need a plan to continue... finding a way to conquer this realm as soon as possible. If we don't conquer the realm within two days... all of us will bring the problem to the Waking realm... and also bring our loved one in danger. Don't you understand?"
***