We enjoyed a quick lunch together. I had brought sandwiches, the perfect food when you were hiking. Or patrolling, I guess. Sadly, I did not have much time, no matter how I tried to justify it, I had a job to do.

We only spent about 15 minutes eating and talking. I did not have time to really tell her everything that had happened. But duty was calling, so reluctantly I prepared to move out again.

Just as I waved goodbye someone arrived.

"What happened here?" Lieutenant Karl asked, as he emerged from the trees.

"Lieutenant Karl? What are you doing here?" I asked. He led the response squad, I suppose. But did those explosions really warrant his deployment? And how did he get here so quickly? The base camp was not that close. Or was he on patrol as well?

He pointed at the craters. "Clearly something bad happened here."

"No, something awesome happened! I blew up a bunch of worms with the Iron Beaks! Sadly there are no corpses left to loot though." Cassie added.

"What?" Karl looked genuinely confused. "Iron Beaks? You caused those explosions?"

"Explosions are my speciality." Cassie replied.

Karl's expression changed. He nodded at her. Then he walked over to me.

"Have you secured the area? Ensured the danger has passed?" He asked.

"What danger? Cassie blew everything up. I have kept watch to see if any big creature appears. So far this destruction has not summoned anything. I do have scouts deployed to…" I was pointing at the craters, while Karl stood behind me. My sentence was interrupted by Nyx.

"MEOW!"

It sounded panicked and I turned around, just in time to see a dagger coming for my throat. I quickly tried to jump back and dodge but he managed a small cut. Karl was the one wielding the dagger. I tried to talk but I suddenly felt a burning sensation and began to choke. Poison!

Karl tried to stab me again. My torso was protected by a chain shirt so he came for my throat once more. But before his blade connected an enraged undead cat landed on his back.

I fell to the ground, losing control of my limbs. I could feel the poison attack my body. I could feel it enter my blood. I focused on the mana circulation. I was already enhancing my blood, maybe it could help deal with the poison.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

I lost track of my surroundings, just focusing on survival. I heard screaming in the background. I ignored it. I kept pushing mana towards the circulation. Then I felt a hand touching me.

"Koyuki! Drink that!" Cassie shouted. I felt a bottle on my lips and began to drink. The pain stopped and I regained the control of my limbs.

"What happened?" I croaked, trying to look around.

The students were all huddled together, looking frightened and confused. Karl… Karl had been torn apart. The soldiers he had with him had their weapons drawn and were surrounded by my undead goblins. They looked uncertain and were not engaging.

"That lunatic tried to stab you! Now he is cat food. He sort of gave me a nod before he pulled that dagger. I have no idea why. I gave you a healing potion. I am glad it worked." Cassie replied.

There was no way to get answers from Karl. Nyx had sliced him to pieces. And Kasai was currently eating a leg. But his squad was alive.

Cassie helped me stand and together we approached the nervous looking soldiers. My own squad was also surrounded by zombies. It seemed as if Nyx had decided to not trust anyone.

"We… we had nothing to do with this!" One of the soldiers pleaded.

"Really? I guess if you become cat food we won't have anything to do with it either." Cassie replied. She sounded angry.

"Why did you arrive so quickly? Weren't you supposed to be in the camp until needed?" I asked.

"I don't know ma'am. Lieutenant Karl spoke with Lieutenant Melvin, then we deployed. Captain Sarah was still at the students' camp. All we were told is that there might be a problem. That we had to move to a more central location to deploy if needed. Lieutenant Karl was checking his watch periodically. I am not sure if that means anything…" A soldier replied.

"Did he know where you were? Seems like he wanted to kill you. Maybe catch you during lunch?" Cassie suggested.

"I suppose that is possible. He could have caught us at our lunch break if the explosion had not led us here." I mused. "But what was his plan? Stabbing me and then getting eaten by zombies? Killing me might destroy some of the weaker undead but a tier three like Nyx would simply be unbound. And then there would be witnesses…"

A soldier paled at that thought. If they were truly not in on it, they would have been witnesses. He would have needed to kill me, neutralize the undead and dispose of the soldiers. He would have needed help. Of course, all the soldiers could be in on it. But they had not really reacted that way. None of them had been in a great position to intervene.

"Meow."

I turned around and looked towards Nyx. She was still busy with the dead body but her paw was poking something. We walked over to the corpse to see what she had found. I was feeling a lot better again. Cassie's potion had been great.

As we got closer I could see what Nyx was poking, a piece of paper. It was a bit bloody now but I could still see the ink. Unfortunately I could not read anything…

"What language is that?" I wondered. Cassie peeked at the paper. "No clue, but this looks like a time."

Part of the paper said 13:00. It could have been a time. I took out my own watch. It was 12:59.

"I suppose if it is a time it's about right. But what…" Before I could finish my thought we heard an explosion. I looked at Cassie.

"Not one of mine." She responded.

The explosion was not too far and I could see smoke rising from it. Actually, it looked like the explosion was in the direction I would have been if I had continued my patrol. My eyes widened. There was no way that was a coincidence.

"I would have been in that direction had I not stopped here…" I said.

"You think he mixed up the explosions?" Cassie asked.

"Maybe. If he was expecting backup his actions would make more sense." I replied.

"That means this other explosion would be the trap he was expecting you to walk into? But he saw that you were unharmed here." Cassie pointed out.

"Maybe the explosion is meant to draw me there? And the ambush is supposed to happen afterwards? He thought his people were ready to act once he stabbed me?" I wondered.

"I guess there is one way to find out." Cassie said, her gaze looking murderous. "You up for it?"

"I do feel good, your potion was great. I am not sure if we can trust the soldiers but I have quite a few zombies. And there are the Iron Beaks you have left. Let's see if we find someone at this other explosion. I could do with a bit of revenge, and some answers." I said.

"Meow." Both cats agreed.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.