27 The Oasis Becomes A Zoo!

*16:03:58*

Kai looked at his timer with sadness. It had been hours, yet they had yet to find Arthur. If that wasn't enough, Crow had told him that the demons were marching from every which way, and they had to return to the oasis

She wasn't detected by any of them, but according to her deductions, it didn't seem they'd break formation to pursue her if they had seen her, either.

"Where are you, kid?" Kai rambled worriedly, kicking a patch of grass to the side.

"He is alive," Crow replied again, sending him a mental message. It didn't seem like she was as repulsed by Kai anymore as before.

Kai felt puzzled as to why she didn't just speak as she was currently standing right next to him, but he didn't insist as she didn't seem the type to have much patience. He didn't want to make her angry if he could help it.

"Why should I even have to look for a random kid I don't even know of?" Kai said with a scoff, heading out of the oasis once more.

"Where are you going?" Crow sent a reply. The message this time seemed like it shook his head somewhat. Not enough to disorient Kai, but enough to somewhat bother him. Perhaps this was her way of yelling at him.

"I'll walk a bit by myself," Kai said, scratching his head. "Don't worry, I'll rush back as soon as I see those demons."

"Fool," Crow sent yet another message and added, "take your drones with you."

Crow's magic had helped repair some of the corpses. Along with the ones he had never raised, the number of zombies Kai had was now 12.

"You know," Kai said as he went through thick shrubbery and trees hiding the oasis with his zombies, "you have a beautiful voice, you should speak more."

Left alone in the oasis, under her mask, Crow had a sorrowful expression. She used her own voice again and spoke,

"I know you are looking for that child whilst your vessel is breaking down. Kind-hearted fools like you are always the first ones to be destroyed in this brutal land."

She reminisced about the thousands of corpses she stood atop of, friend or foe, just to have the right to survive. From her experience, life was not a right, it was a privilege that had to be earned.

In deep contemplation, she meditated quietly for mere minutes until she was startled by the hurried footsteps of a skeleton as well as a series of footsteps that unmistakeably belonged to zombies. She disappeared from her spot in a flash and appeared on one of the branches of the trees racing into the sky.

She had immediately spotted her comrades, Bear and Deer about to launch an attack against Kai. Deer was especially affected by Kai's immunity against Crow's spells, he was the most cautious. Bear, albeit being slower, was powerful and durable.

Crow instantaneously vanished from the top of the tree and appeared next to Bear who was about to land a hit on the terrified Kai. Such a hit when Kai was increasingly getting closer to the 12-hour mark could mean a big chunk of his time lost.

Crow landed in front of Bear with a divine roar that resembled the screech of a Phoenix rather than a crow, stopping him from attacking the skeleton. Deer was also quite puzzled to see Crow choose to defend this creature, both of them entered a silent exchange.

None of these mental messages was directed at Kai, but he picked up on some of the words here and there still. As his zombies were weak and still far behind him, at least they hadn't bothered destroying them. His 12 zombies stayed as 12 for now.

Kai almost lost his mind in such a frantic rush. He hadn't quite seen these guys fight, but Gort had told quite a few stories about their incredible feats.

Kai initially thought Gort was exaggerating to make himself look tougher, but his mind did an absolute 180° when a punch from Bear disintegrated a boulder right next to Kai. Then they had started chasing him.

He tried to focus on what they were talking about and pick up more words,

"Kill… Skeleton Lord…" Bear was saying. Kai felt it was very similar to talking on the phone with someone in a place with bad reception.

"Prodigy… New witch…" Crow had said. She had sent a few more messages, but Kai could only pick a few more words such as "Demons" and "Scholar".

"Perhaps I am picking up on everything," Kai thought to himself, "maybe these guys are kind of retarded."

The three witches simultaneously turned and looked at Kai just as he finished that train of thought.

"Heyyyy!" Kai straightened his back and reached a hand towards Bear. "I'm Kai, what's your name?"