Thanks to cold mind, I was again able to notice a couple of things, apparently the fact that I was in danger was able to pump more adrenaline into Hope system and even if she was a little scared by Hayley’s presence she could act normal.

“Spence!!” She kneeled next to me and noticed the blood coming from my ear.

“I’m ok”. I said a little dizzy “Hayley can you check if Dante is hurt? Take care of him for tonight”.

In the end, Dante killed the crow, so he had blood on him and I was worried since his hearing is better than mine he could be in a worse shape than me.

“We can’t let the blood smell attract more beast, help me cover it” I put the corpse of the crow in a bag and throw it in the septic tank, then we throw the same soil back in.

I took the rifle, leaving behind the empty bullet shell and went inside the house under the worried looks of Hope and Rose. Last time I was hurt, they were both unconscious, so it was the first time they saw me bleeding after a battle… I hope it doesn’t become a common thing.

I closed the backyard door and blocked it, then went to the living room and saw G still sleeping. I know that he is tired and without energy during the night, but even after all that he was in deep sleep… lucky bastard.

I took a bottle of water from the ones we could not take with us, cleaned my neck and ear carefully with the help of the girls, after that using the first aid kit I covered the ear with an improvised patch to protect it. I couldn’t hear anything with that side, it was a horrible disadvantage, also my shoulder hurts a little because of the recoil of the rifle, but it should be fine by tomorrow.

I went to Hayley’s room to see Dante. He had a headache, but nothing as bad as mine, and Hayley has cleaned him, I left him to rest.

“You both should go to sleep, we are leaving early tomorrow”. They seemed reluctant and Rose said that she wanted to sleep on my side to take care of me since both of them were worried in the end, I slept in the same room as Hope, so she could keep an eye on me.

I was once again lying on the bed. I closed my eyes, but before sleeping, there were a couple of things in my mind that I want to understand before I going to sleep.

‘System can endurance shorten the recovery time of my ear?’

[Yes]

‘Use the stat point on Endurance’

I would like to improve my Dex, but in theory, since it was lower it was easier to improve it, also if I raise my endurance I’m going to be able to recover a couple of days earlier… and if I keep getting hurt the effects are not going to be that bad.

[User endurance raised by one]

‘Why did Dante’s kill count toward me?’

[The cat is considered the user’s pet by the system, therefore the cat kills count toward the user].

That’s… kind of obvious after I heard it… but unexpected.

‘What means that a beast is F-Ranked?’

[It has an F-Rank power]

‘Are the power tiers the same as the humans?’

[Yes, but since some animals have different capabilities than humans the result are that the strength also is different, in general, an F-Ranked human is weaker than an F-Ranked beast, but it will depend on the power and the original race].

‘Then that crow had an enhanced ability for his scream?’.

[It’s quite possible]

That battle taught me something important, I can’t underestimate or doubt from now on… any of the beasts we found, even a mouse can potentially be an A-Ranked beast capable of killing us easily.

Shot first, ask questions later…

The bright side of this battle was that at least I got some system points.

I felt pretty beaten, so I fell sleep fast.

_____________________________

In an office in the center of the city.

“Sir most of the scouts have already come back and confirmed your guess, the animals in the surrounding are attacking the city”.

An old guy had a glass with and an amber liquor on his hand, he looked pensive while looking from a window on the fifth floor, this use to be his master's office, but now the overlord of the place was the old man.

“What do you mean with most of the scouts?”

“We lost 3 of them, In the sectors 2, 8 and 10”

“Mmm, that’s odd send someone to verify what happened tomorrow, you can go sleep” the man took a sip of the glass.

He was alone again and was gazing at the stars.

______________________________

I woke up and it was a little later than the time I usually wake up, Hope is already up and nowhere to be seen.

I got out of bed, and for a second I felt that I lose my balance, it was an after effect of the eardrum, I left the room leaning a little on the wall just in case lost my balance again.

I went to the living room, G was verifying that he got everything, he saw me come and was surprised when he saw my patch.

“Holy s**t Spence what happened to you?”.

“We were attacked by a crow”

“A little bird did this to you?” He had a mocking tone

“Yes, a little bird with a sound attack that woke everyone in the house… or maybe it was the shootings what wake them up I’m not sure” I didn’t like his tone, so I showed it in my answer

He went pale.

“Are you ok… wait, what do you mean with we got attacked… are the girls ok?” His mocking tone was completely replaced with a worried one.

“It was me and Dante… he is fine, I took the worst part apparently and got my eardrum perforated by the screeches”.

“Where it happened?”

“In the backyard”

“… And I didn’t wake up even like that…”

“There is nothing we can do about it, are you ready?”

“Yes, I was waiting just for everyone to arrive”

“Good I’ll get the girls to leave”

The girls were ready too, we took our last breakfast in the house, after a night of sleep Dante was much better.

I took my backpack and a bag, the bag had the first aid kit, the knives, besides them, I had a star-shaped piece of metal that I found when I was a kid while playing around with everyone, and some pictures I found.

Finally, before leaving… Rose’s helped me patch my ear correctly… everything is easier when you can see what you are doing.

“Everyone ready?”

Everyone nodded.

“Our first stop is going to be in Hayley’s home, do you guys have anything important in your house?”

“No, I took all the important last time”

“Rose?”

“Yes, there is something important to me”

“Ok, then we will make a short stop at your house and then Hayley’s”.

We left the house… I looked both sides of the street where we grow up, both to reminisce the past and to make sure that no one was near, we started to move to the north, Rose’s and G’ House was on the way, so it wasn’t a problem to stop by.

Dante was walking ahead of us, since their home was near it took us less than 10 minutes to arrive.

G had forgotten about something and went to his room to look for it and rose, went to hers, in the meanwhile Hayley rested and took out everything she had on her face to breath better.

G came back, he put something in his bag, but I didn’t notice what it was.

“Hey, G did your dad had any weapon?”

“Not that I know of”

“Too bad.”

Rose came back hiding what she brought back and put it on her bag as fast as she could… probably something embarrassing.

Hope didn’t get the message and asked her out loud.

“You came back to get Mr. Cuddles??”

“It’s not my fault!!! Spence asked if there was anything important left, and I can’t lie!! Mr. Cuddles was the first gift he gave me!!”

To be honest, just by the name I had no idea who Mr. Cuddles was… but when she said that it was a gift I gave her I remembered… it was a teddy bear… I gave her when we were kids. I had about nine years, it was the first time she was staying at our house… for a sleepover with Hope. In the night there was a Storm and I couldn’t sleep, when I went to the bathroom in the night I heard her crying scared by the thunders, I calmed her and gave her teddy bear and told her that he would protect her.

I was a little moved that she considers the teddy important enough to come here to get it in this situation.

“Hope, don’t tease her I’m sure you brought with you those panties with kittens that you say are for luck”.

“Waaah!! And you!! I’m sure you also bring with you… something embarrassing? …” She got nothing.

G interjected at that moment

“Shouldn’t we keep moving?”

“Right, Rose, can you go get Hayley? We are leaving” I’m pretty sure G doesn’t want anyone trying to guess what he came here to get.

Just like that we left their home and continued toward the west in Hayley’s house direction.