An Army of Dogs and Cats

"What happened?" Kai asked. "Isn't this a bit too soon?"

Deer threw Kai's talisman back at him so that he could be part of their little telepathic chat group again. Due to the high speed of telepathy, Kai had received a lot of information in just a short time. Telepathy could be similar to regular speech, but if the goal was to exchange information quickly, it could also be done.

Bear had already engaged the lower-tier demons and killed a few dozen. It wasn't unconventional for a higher demon to travel with a small army following in the outer perimeter, staying close by in case any mishaps occurred. The third party who was attacking the forest was also a City Lord.

"It couldn't be him, could it?" Kai thought to himself. "I doubt it, what's the point in sending me to my death, then?"

Luckily for Kai, he managed to not share these thoughts with the Skinwalkers due to the high information traffic exchanged between four people. Kai would sometimes lose focus and miss some of the information, but he understood enough.

"Holy shit," Kai mumbled to himself. "This is, like, really efficient!" Even though he spoke out loud, he also accidentally sent it as a mental message to the witches.

The three Skinwalkers stopped momentarily to shut Kai up before resuming their information exchange. Kai felt like he received a slap in his mind. He almost felt a stinging pain even.

The witches were currently keeping each other up to date with the happenings in the forest. As far as Kai understood, Crow was right outside the oasis, observing possible enemies. Deer was gathering the spirits of the forest.

Kai would never have guessed his life would turn so crazy in a matter of days. He looked at his skeletal hands again and glanced at his UI. This was indeed his reality.

He had experienced unbelievable events in these last few days and lived more as an undead creature than he had lived throughout his 25 years of life in his own world.

So what if he died in 15-or-so hours? There were likely innumerable people who would give their lives for the chance he had been given by Dipshit Lenny. He was almost thankful to him. It was also at this point that it dawned on him that he had already killed someone minutes after he was turned into a skeleton and brought to this world!

As Kai was getting lost in his own thoughts and appreciating this world more, albeit its gory details, he heard a yowl from what sounded like one of those lower-tier demons. The voice was quickly quietened, followed up by the sound of feet. A lot of them.

Defeated by his curiosity, Kai put his head through the dense shrubbery hiding the oasis to see what was outside. Otherwise, he figured, he'd just get more and more anxious. At first, there wasn't much in sight, only some more trees. He then saw an odd creature.

"Oh, a wolf-deer," Kai sneered. "Obviously!"

"Forest spirits," Crow corrected him. Kai had almost forgotten they could know some of his thoughts, as long as he got too careless. He was getting the hang of it, even though slowly.

"Right," Kai replied, sending a mental message to the Skinwalkers as he quickly added, "So what are those giant kitties coming right at us?" If Kai could gulp, he would. These giant tigers looked ferocious.

"Older forest spirits," Crow quickly replied again.

"Bullshit," Kai added, "So the wolf-deer hybrid becomes a huge tiger when it grows up even further?"

Younger forest spirits were still almost as tall as regular humans without standing up. Older forest spirits could look down on even Kai, who stood at 2.5 metres. As time passed, Kai got shocked even more.

Younger forest spirits numbered hundreds while older ones were still a few dozen. On their backs, there were a lot of corpses as the sound from the steps of these creatures shook the ground.

Bear and Deer followed right alongside this army of beasts. As the duo got closer and closer with tens of corpses, Kai slowly stepped back.

"Right, you guys got this covered," Kai sent a telepathic message to the Skinwalkers and then did a 180°, turning behind instantaneously, "I'll be back there for emotional support."

He turned around, but Deer was already there, waiting for him.

"What, you were just there!" Kai exclaimed.

Deer put his hand on one of Kai's ribs in a friendly manner. As soon as he did, his hand started almost boiling. His skin was already melting in mere seconds.

"Dude, your hand!" Kai exclaimed once more. Deer didn't seem to be fazed at all. Kai knew that even a fraction of that pain would be enough to turn Kai comatose as a human. He didn't like pain, at all. It was one of the few things he didn't miss about being a human. Everything hurt so easily.

"Nevermind my hand," Deer spoke in a mocking manner. "We brought you some presents."

"Deer, witch guy, whatever, your hand is going to melt off!"

"No, it won't," Deer replied calmly. "Wait here."

Indeed, his hand was still fine. Deer's healing aspect was powerful enough that his skin never actually melted thoroughly. Deer then vanished and quickly returned in a few seconds. He had brought back the rock poison.

"Take this," he said. "It's effective enough."

Kai was fed up with these Skinwalkers. "Again," he said, "I have no pockets here."

Deer threw Kai a satchel that he could let hang from his shoulders and added, "I also put some other poisons in there for the future."

"Yeah, these will probably work," Kai surmised and added in a joking tone, "Just gotta make sure Bear doesn't find the bag, am I right?"

Kai heard a growl echo in his mind. It unmistakeably came from Bear, who would be here in mere moments with an army of forest spirits. Kai slowly turned his head to look at the talisman in his left hand.

"Fuck."