Despite my worries nothing happened the next day. Of course, the students had only just arrived. Sadly we did not have time to visit their camp. It would have been nice to spend some time with Cassie and Skadi. I still had the headless corpse and wanted to brainstorm possible undead.

The following day we received an early briefing from Captain Sarah. We met inside her tent, where she had a map on a small table.

"Today the students are out hunting. The groups are going to be spread out in a wide area and it will be impossible to monitor everything. The good news is, with the arrival of the teachers we have significant firepower in case something does happen." Sarah explained, while showing us the hunting area on the map. Then she looked at the squad leaders.

"I will have a meeting with Irene later and we will discuss possibilities to ensure everything runs smoothly. Lieutenant Melvin will be in charge of the camp while I am gone and Lieutenant Karl will lead the response squad. Your job is to react to any problems that occur. Koyuki, Helena and Hatsumi will patrol the outer perimeter. Your job is simply to stop anything from entering the cleared area and stop students from leaving it. Provide support if you see anyone in trouble." Sarah ordered.

"Ma'am, what if something dangerous has entered the area at night?" I wondered.

"There is no way to keep the hunting grounds completely safe. We just don't have the numbers. Even if we did, some monsters could always find a way to sneak by. All we do is make sure the area is reasonably safe. The students are all mages with some combat training. If they fail in this environment they likely were not cut out to be in the military." Sarah replied.

I nodded. Of course, the unsaid problem was outside interference. Someone knowing our patrol schedule could easily sneak a monster into the hunting grounds. And there was not anything we could do about it.

After the meeting we formed our squads and headed out. I split the zombies once more between myself and Helena, while Hatsumi got the skeletons. But she also had the undead ibex, Chariot and her own thrall.

"Good luck!" I said to Helena and Hatsumi. "And don't trip and poke yourself." I teased Helena.

She stuck out her tongue in return.

Then we were off. It was a nice day with clear skies. Thankfully, the trees provided some shade. It could get awfully hot wearing a chain shirt. I used a bit of my water magic to ensure I was more comfortable.

We were about ready to take a lunch break when we heard an explosion. It came from inside the students' hunting grounds. I also felt a link to an undead disappear…

"Iron Beaks." I stated.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

"What?" Finn asked.

"They are undead chickens with explosives. Cassie brought them along. I am not sure what she has found that needed them. Usually she just throws exploding potions at problems. Hm… I am not feeling anything problematic from Kasai. I don't think there is a real emergency but we better investigate." And take care of the fires, I added in my mind. Cassie could be a bit reckless at times.

"Who is Kasai?" Mac asked.

"Tier three undead cat." I replied, then I addressed my squad: "We are going to move towards those explosions, they can't be that far. Undead go first in case there is something dangerous on the way. Jeff and Brie, I need you to scout behind us."

"Behind us?" Jeff wondered.

"Someone could use this as a distraction. It could also attract more monsters from outside the cleared area. I know Cassie is involved in those explosions so it's not someone setting a trap for us." I explained. The scouts saluted and left.

"Move out!" I commanded the remaining soldiers and undead.

While more explosions followed I did not see any fire. We just heard the explosions. Of course, the forest limited our vision. But I would have expected to see something, like smoke.

We moved quickly but it took us about 15 minutes to reach the area. The explosion had stopped by now and I noticed that 7 Iron Beaks were gone.

"Undead, zombies are attacking!" An unfamiliar voice shouted in front of us. The zombies were our vanguard. I suppose I had not entirely considered how they would look to students.

"Ow!" The same voice complained.

"Stand down!" I heard Cassie shout.

We broke through the tree line to see a small clearing. A clearing with a lot of holes, or more like craters, in it. A few trees had fallen as well. Cassie was standing at the edge of the clearing together with 4 students. One of them, a human man with fiery red hair, had his sword drawn and pointed it at a zombie. Kasai was on his head pawing him in the face.

The other three students were women. They looked slightly frightened and confused. I was not sure if the zombies, or the explosions, were the reason for their discomfort.

"Cassie!" I shouted as I saw my friend.

"Koyuki! I suspected the undead were friendly when Kasai ignored them." She replied, while walking towards me.

"Who is this?" One of the women asked.

"Get this cat off me!" The man complained.

"Meow." Kasai replied. She was still on his head but stopped pawing him.

"This is Koyuki, she is my friend and a necromancer." Cassie explained. "It's great to see you! Did you notice the Iron Beaks? They were amazing!"

"Um, what happened?" I asked.

"We found some tunneling worms. They always flee underground into their tunnels. It was frustrating. So I sent the Iron Beaks into the tunnels." She said with a grin. I noticed that there were still 13 Iron Beaks left.

"You brought 20 Iron Beaks on a hunt?" I asked.

Cassie nodded. "I have 30 more in camp! Irene said bringing all of them would be excessive…"

"She is mad…" I heard one of the women whisper.

"I guess everything is under control. We came to investigate the explosions." I said, surveying the area.

"Meow." Kasai had jumped off the man and was now sitting in front of Nyx. She was pointing with her paw at the craters.

"Meow." Nyx replied.

"What are they doing?" One of the women asked.

"Talking." I replied. Not that I had any idea what they were talking about. Important cat things, probably.

"That cat assaulted me!" The man complained.

"If Kasai assaulted you, you would be on fire." Cassie replied with a sigh. "See what I have to deal with! You got lucky."

"My squad is pretty good." I admitted. "Hey, I have my scouts deployed and we were about to have a lunch break anyway. We could eat it here. Maybe the explosions will attract a monster, making sure your squad is safe is part of my job." I might have stretched things a bit there but my argument did have some merit. And it would not matter if we ate here or elsewhere. Soldiers needed food to function.

"Great, let's catch up!" Cassie replied.

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