56 Pacts Shouldn’t be Forced

These two sheep were different from the ones I saw in the city center a couple days ago. The scene of people and beasts attacking the horse was an important source of information.

Now we can understand how is that Jamie was able to survive without any problems even when this place was flooded by beasts a week ago. His power obviously can work on either humans or beasts, so this event made him even stronger than before. The basics of his power is still a secret, so I don't know if the system or cold mind can block it, but my guess is that it's not going to work.

I moved away from the window to talk to Rose, the little bunny was still in her arms shaking.

'Is she gonna be ok?'.

'Yeah, she got scared by the sheep… could you see the chains?'.

'I can see them, but they are ethereal and I can barely see them'.

'I could see them clearly, they had a frightening dark red aura that gave me goosebumps'.

Could it be that Jamie's power is somewhat like Rose's? Rose was thinking the same and answered before I had to think about it.

'It's like he forces a pact of obedience to them, in my case my pet had to accept for me to make the imprint on the soul'. She seemed to have been thinking about her power too.

Everything started to make sense, originally, I thought that Jamie's power was a mind control power, like a more powerful version of what Ian can do, but actually, he forces a master-servant or slave kind of pact on the soul.

I wondered the reason why I could see the chains with my enhanced vision if they were in the "astral realm", but I got no clue about it…

Now that I made this discovery I was worried because Rose could be seen and affected by Jamie's ability. I forbid her to scout ahead like before and we had to change the strategy to move around so she wouldn't go too far from me. When moving around, we are going to rely mainly on my sight, and she would just peek inside the backyards and houses before going in.

I started to wonder about the side effects of those that were under the pact if Jamie dies, would they die too? The problem of how to deal with Jamie became more complex after seeing the presence of beasts. Outside, what I just called a "battle" ended with the easy capture of the horse and the group going back to what I suppose is their base.

We followed them, keeping our distance. Most of the beasts in the zone seemed to avoid them, just like Lucy, the beast's instinct warned them of the danger. I noticed that two of the guys leading the groups were the ones we fought when we were leaving, I used a stun grenade on them to escape.

The sheep acted weird, besides moving following the human they didn't do anything else. This was good for us, the beast had their senses more developed so the probability of us being detected was lower than if they were looking around.

Actually, now that I think about it the first time we saw someone controlled by Jamie. He had to complete his mission and nothing else, so even if they notice us they may have to go back and ignore us anyway. We can't risk Jamie knowing that there is someone in the area that is not under his control though, so this doesn't change anything.

While following them and looking at the sheep, I wondered how the evolution worked in different species. The alligator got his skin hardened. The goats I fought before one became stronger and bigger, the other had the horns improves. The boar is probably a pig that evolved and got a speed improvement. The chickens had an intimidation power. The crow had a sonic attack. And most of the sheep had a sleeping inducing power.

The improvement of the beasts wasn't as diverse as humans and it seemed that they got power accordingly to their strength. In the case of the sheep, I think that the popular knowledge were the ones that induced the evolution in that direction.

This means that I can have a general idea of the powers that a ranked beast can have if I know about them beforehand. The horse they catch didn't seem to run away so maybe it had some endurance or stamina related ability, of course, that is only if the horse is a ranked beast.

The group moved slowly without even bothering with other beasts when they saw one. The horse was sleeping and they were dragging it on some kind of platform with wheels, but they couldn't move too fast.

Following the group was easier than I thought, the beasts didn't get close to this area, as if they know that there was something wrong with it, and the group didn't even try to check their surroundings. This dynamic was the same for a couple of blocks, but it changed when they arrive at a certain intersection.

This place was guarded, there were two people posted as guards. Their presence was enough to know that I had arrived at the place I was looking for. I couldn't follow the group anymore, but my mission was half fulfilled.

I went to a house near and observed the situation. After a while, the guards, I could see two groups patrolling around.

One of the groups was formed by three guys and remind me of the fight we had before leaving, two with firearms and 1 had a baseball bat in his shoulder. The one with the bat was in a similar state to the guy I killed, probably beyond salvation.

'The guy with the bat is the one we saw at the warehouse'. Rose noticed.

"Yeah, I think they said something about him being fast".

The second group was 2 guys, a girl, and a dog. The fact that they had dogs patrolling made everything more difficult, none of this group was at the stage of the warehouse guy.

I regretted leaving the food behind, right now the house from where I'm peeking is excellent to gather information and I'm going to stay here watching the movement for a while.

After a while, Rose took my place to watch the guards and patrols in the meantime, I went around the house to see if I could find anything.

I was lucky this time, in a room that used to belong to a girl I found a bag of candies hidden under the mattress and half bottle of juice next to the bed.

Since I was planning to stay here now, I had to take some safety measure too. I don't have the time to block all like in the other house, so I just improvised an alarm at the stairs. If someone tries to get to the second floor I will notice before they got too close and hide or leave through the window.

'They are changing the guards'. Rose announced while I was finishing the alarm.

I went to the windows next to her and noticed that the guards left their post, they had a normal rifle each and gave the weapons to the guys that just arrived. Not even a word was exchanged between them during the whole process.

If it wasn't because of my eyes, I wouldn't even know that they were different people, same clothes, same weapons, and the exact same position.

After a while the patrolling groups changed too, there was a mismatch in the usual timing probably due to the shift change. Outside was becoming dark, so the guard change should be in twilight and dusk.

Even for Jamie, I don't think he is stupid enough to make them do 24 hours shifts right?

"Rose go back to your body to rest too".Rose looked back at me and at the little bunny on her hands.

"Try to take her with you it may work".

'But what about you?'.

"I'll be ok, you don't need to worry, go rest, eat and move your body a little, tomorrow you can come after some light training with G". It took more than that to convince her, but I manage to make her agree with me.

Since because of her power she was most of the time lying on the bed, I have to be sure that her muscles don't get stiff. She gave me a hug and the merge into me and used Astral portal to leave, as I thought the bunny had no problems traveling with her.

I kept watch for a while longer, but everything has been the same as before just with different people and beasts.

I felt bad for them, they were more like puppets or robots.