“Of course I’m bringing it.” Tobias hissed, and the wagon bucked for a second as the zombies started forward, dragging it through the field.

“It doesn’t have to ride in the back, does it?” Eve stared down. I would estimate her to be approximately the same age as Tobias, using conventional markers, though she was much shorter. The size difference may have been a sign of malnutrition, rather than a difference in age. It was unknown if these genetically modified humans possessed extended lifespans.

//NEGATIVE. I WILL BE ABLE TO KEEP UP

The zombies on the harnesses glowed, then rapidly accelerated. They moved animalistic-ally, throwing themselves forward. I kept up with the side of the wagon, scanning for threats.

It was still dark out, only moonlight to cast light for normal visual sensors. I was relying on infrared, thermal and radar. Tobias’s eyes glowed as he swept his view over the plains. The zombies driving the wagon moved at a respectable pace, averaging to 45 Kilometers an hour, nearly 30 miles.

We arrived near our destination in only a few minutes.

I detected the signs of battle before our arrival. Corpses were scattered— often in pieces— around the field, buried in craters and cut cleanly off. Some of them were clearly dead long before the battle started. More than just Tobias’s men had died. Seven corpses adorned in heavy armor were also scattered, though, from here, I was unable to confirm if they possessed the insignia and colors that would mark them as Templars.

I filed all of this information away as only mildly consequential; the most important observation, by far, was that something was currently eating the recently deceased corpses.

//HOSTILE AHEAD

“What is it?” Tobias hissed, jerking in his seat. He signaled in some invisible way to make the zombies driving the carriage stop.

//UNKNOWN QUADRUPEDAL ANIMAL, APPROXIMATELY 4 METERS TALL AT HEIGHT, CARNIVOROUS

I replied, slowing alongside the wagon. I was staying parallel with Tobias. Blue sparks of light flashed in the direction of the monster.

“Any other details?” Tobias asked, his face a snarl.

“How do you know its carnivorous?” Eve asked, leaning over the side of the wagon. Her hair fell over her face.

//IT IS CURRENTLY CONSUMING THE CORPSES

“Shit—“ Tobias whispered, and the zombies started forward again, even faster.

I leaned forward, following for a moment more before the wagon slammed to a stop a few hundred feet away. Tobias pulled a latch, freeing the reigns, and all four of the zombies charged the monster chewing on the corpses.

From here, I could see that it was some kind of cat-analogue, but closer to prehistoric tigers. It was a glowing, electric blue, and sharp metal pyramids emerged from its back. Electricity arced between them. It moved in jerky, telegraphed ways, slowly twitching its head to the side before committing its body to moving that direction in a jump.

“Kill it.” Tobias hissed at me. I raised the Nova-3, but the four zombies arrived first, throwing themselves at it. The lightning-cat responded with a bolt of power that burned a hole through two of the zombies, leaving it a smoldering corpse on the ground.

I needed to avoid direct confrontation with enemies possessing electrical magic.

It roared as the second grabbed onto its back, digging its heels in and twisting to slam the cat to the ground. Electricity arced outwards from the cat. It seared the flesh from the zombie pinning it to the ground, causing its flesh to melt off in wet slags. The second zombie pounded its fists on the cat, inflicting minimal damage.

I fired the Nova-3, a beam of energy arcing across the horizon and cutting through the cat’s neck.

A strange feeling filled me in the moment between the shot connection, the millisecond of time in which I felt a rising anticipation that the monster might survive the shot, get back up, and run towards me, using that lightning to destroy me. I squashed the feeling. Nothing of the sort happened.

The monster fell over, dead.

///XP: 300/300

///EXCESS XP DISCARDED

///LEVEL UP: LEVEL 6

Tobias hopped off the wagon.

“You killed a Qilin…” Eve whispered, leaning over the side of the wagon. It still sparked blue, though blood leaked from the hole in its chest. The zombies sat still, eyes glazed over and staring at nothing.

“It’s exactly what we need.” Tobias said, rubbing his nose. “Get the blanket.”

Eve stopped dead.

“You can’t be serious… if one of them find out…”

“Get. The blanket!” Tobias said, turning to bare his teeth and shout at Eve. She withered back, making herself small, before digging through the supplies in the little wagon. Tobias walked towards the bodies without further note. He sniffed, rubbing at his nose. “One Qilin. And 23 bodies. 7 Templars, we can raise those as Wights. But the other corspes will have been purged by them. We can combine the bones and make abominations…” Tobias whispered to himself, walking around the field and surveying the bodies.

He meticulously observed and cataloged every piece as Eve brought out what Tobias referred to as the blanket. It was a folded, blackened tarp of strange leather. The crease-lines and wrinkles in it indicated that it was well used, but as Eve unfolded it, it was free of holes or tattered edges.

She unfolded it in the middle of a field, staring nervously between the corpse of the lightning-cat— the Qilin, she had called it— and the horizon. She looked like she expected something to bowl over the horizon and assault them.

I kept my radar scans at high frequency, ready for anything. My core was still at a solid 88%.

Nothing came.

Tobias laid out the blanket, putting a finger to it. Silver-gray lines criss crossed the folded surface, writhing like snakes at Tobias’s contact before reforming into another set of complicated circles and glyphs. Tobias whispered to himself the entire time.

“Pull the Qilin here.” Tobias said.

“You can’t do that.” Eve stepped forward. “What if one of them find out? That you raised one as a Wight?” Eve hissed the last word as as if it were a curse word.

“Its barely related to them.” Tobias replied, pulling reagents from his pouch. He poured a silvery power onto the blanket. It reacted like liquid when it touched the surface, pouring out and filling in the silvery gray lines with glittering dust. “They would be more insulted if you called this one of them than if you killed one.”

I pulled the monster to the center of the blanket, setting it in the center of the circle. At the edge of the circle was a glyph I recognized, shared with the ritual used to summon skeleton soldiers. It was like a pointed arrow, meant to be pointed to the central location of a ritual. For an undead, that was the head.

I dumped the Qilin with its head facing the arrow.

Tobias evaluated me for a moment, leveling a calculating look towards me. I acknowledged it by keeping my head looking towards his. A display automatically activated, showing a forest teeming with life and waving in the wind.

“Tobias!” Eve shouted this time. “If you resurrect that thing— we will all die. And it will be your fault. Again!”

“Shut. Up.” Tobias turned to her instantly, hands gripping into fists. The glow of magic flowed through his face, slightly brighter, as his face flushed.

“I didn’t sign up for this.” Eve paled.

“You did.” Tobias sneered. “No power comes without cost. No action without consequence.”

“You can repeat his lessons as much as you want, but you’ll never be him.” Eve spat.

Tobias moved with inhuman speed and strength, lifting her off the ground with one hand. One moment, he was a few feet away, the next, he was burying a dagger in her stomach.

I reassessed his threat assessment. He considered to have possessed, at some point, considerable wealth. It was likely he had accumulated a large amount of stats. He seemed only slightly slower than the Templars. I was just glad he was not brave enough to fight directly, endangering himself. Judging by his whip-thin frame and gaunt face, it was unlikely he dedicated many of his points to Vitality or Endurance, meaning a low health pool.

Tobias stabbed multiple times, panting and shaking, before dropping both Eve and the knife. Her heartbeat had stopped. I followed Tobias with my head, the image of the forest still on display. He looked away, hands shaking. He rubbed the blood on his robes.

“Fuck...” Tobias said, voice low and full of dread, eyes darting over the blanket, before he dropped to a knee. The lines on the blanket moved again, a smaller circle appearing at the side of it. “Fuck.” Tobias repeated, this time with mirth in his voice instead of dread. Tobias rubbed his nose. Then he started to laugh.