The moment when the announcement was made sounds behind me from a distance. Why do I never get a moment of rest?

  Crawlers were coming towards me from a distance, but the woods were pitch black anyway, so I only needed to move forward zig-zag. I ran uphill into the woods, where there were many bushes, and it took a while for my eyes to adjust to the darkness compared to the city, which had a couple of lights here and there.

  My eyes got adjusted as I kept going upward in the steep woods, with my eyes only a little bit of something looking like objects, but I touched it before passing, not knowing if it was a damn bush or a tree.

  A clinging sound came from the left, and I tried to spot anything, but it was just a tiny light moving really fast.

  "YES, GOOD JOB, NO... NO... KEEP YOUR DISTANCE," The voice of Torfudge came from the left. At least he was still alive when the clinging continued, and something bounced on the ground, but I couldn't see anything.

  I should check what it is, I don't want to fall into a trap or anything. I went down on the ground and crawled, trying to find whatever it was until I found something round. I touched it and moved my hands around, realising it was someone's head with the sharp teeth in the mouth. I dropped the head, and someone fired a gun when I saw a white round light lit up the whole woods area in the sky, and I looked forward to seeing it with better vision now. I looked back, and only a couple of centimetres from my feet, a female crawler with black goo tried to bite the air. I made a back kick, knocking it back towards the rest behind it, and they went down like bowling pins from the woods.

  "Well, that was easy!"

  When I moved forward and was closing in on the castle, I saw trees suddenly fall one by one when someone yelled.

  "FOUND YOU!"

  Something big, looking like a chainsaw, moved through the trees, and I jumped up into a tree when it roared past me beneath. The thick tree fell downwards when I jumped off and bounced on the ground, and fell downwards as I managed to grab a thinner tree while my legs just hit the air right in the face of a Crawler who went down together with several like bowling pins...again. The tree took care of several of them, which looked like a suicide mission to escape the woods.

  "Eh, okay! I hope it won't be like...killing a lot of citizens."

  A lot of trees went down, and I saw on the left Mejni, and Torfudge was battling it out with a body lying on the ground without a head. Torfudge noticed me, but I shook my head because Mejni was still in maniac mode, with the sight clearer, as the damn chainsaw-looking thing had chopped down several trees. I moved forward and looked back, noticing that more Crawlers were approaching from beneath. Tried to hurry up to the castle when the chainsaw sound came back, but it sounded like it started twice, not sure though. Something swooshed behind me from the left as I couldn't react to the speed and hit my neck, causing a lot of pain as I fell on my knees. I felt my neck and saw all the blood, looked up and saw Mejni taking fast breaths, staring at me like I was his prey.

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  "Khill!"

  "Look, buddy! I promise that I will get you a psychiatrist, I will even get you a hot Witch, not sure about a hot Meerkat though. Can you calm the hell down and stop attacking everyone and everything?"

  I went up slowly from the ground, without any haste, as he stared me down. I thought he had just cute freaking paws, but it is a freaking sharp weapon. If he managed to hit me that well, I don't want to imagine what he will do to someone who does not see the attacks.

  Torfudge showed up beside me, breathing heavily.

  "Why did you not tell me that the Meerkat was from the Herkattona clan. It is so fast." He uttered while trying to catch his breath.

  "What do you mean? You are alive and keeping up with Mejni." I whispered in a low voice.

  "You can not be serious. While battling, Mejni smiled the whole time; he was toying with me. It is like he is using me as a plaything for fun. From the history I have read in the books that have little information about the Herkattona clan, I understand that they are dangerous, and here I see you travelling around with a Herkattona assassin as if it were normal."

  "Look, Torfudge! It is just a...cat that runs around, smiles when it wants, and sometimes does weird things, like deserting the team member. All he has done so far is annoy me, but the state he is in now is not the cat I know. Something is not right with him."

  "Hm...There was not much information about them. My father did mention he met one once, and both stared at each other, but that he was scared for his life as it looked at him in the shadows with glowing red eyes."

  Great, a hidden red-eyed combo of unhinged Meerkat assassins. My life cannot get any better than this.

  The sound of the chainsaw suddenly sounded like it was approaching fast when two blades were moving towards us with the intention to not only chop off the lower part of the body, but also the upper body. The blades were moving fast, and all three of us saw the two blades; it was not possible to jump over them because of their size. Torfudge and I started to run towards the two blades when something exploded not far away, and Torfudge dived headfirst between the blades. I was not taking that kind of risk. I leaned my body a little bit backwards and tried jumping as they do in the 'high jump' sport, with my body lying down position, but I noticed it was not enough speed, and my back would hit the blade beneath, shredding me apart when it stopped, and I bounced off the blade beneath and fell on the ground. The chainsaw stopped on impact, and the blade above fell onto the other blade as they clashed when Mejni climbed up on the blade above with the red eyes staring down on us, looking like he was ready for battle.

  "EIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII! I KILLED IT, BUT THE BIGGER PART OF THE BODY IS MISSING. ARE YOU ALL RIGHT?" I heard Tinker yell not far away.

  She may have screws loose, but that was close.

  "YEAH, WE ARE NOT FAR FROM YOU, BUT DO NOT COME HERE AND KEEP MOVING TO THE CASTLE, MEJNI IS HERE!" I yelled back as Tinker suddenly was silent, probably scared of the unhinged Mejni.

  "Look, Torfudge! You are still alive. Please keep him occupied while I move towards the castle. He seems to like using you as his personal plaything. Let us get past the troubles in the castle and then try to deal with him."

  "I can do that, but you are bleeding from your neck and are sweating a lot. Will you be able to battle much longer?"

  "Don't worry about me, kid! I will manage."

  He was right, the injury on my neck, combined with the injury on my stomach, could end my life, but it doesn't look like we have any choice.

  I started running up and noticed Mejni jumping down, but the sound of the chain seemed to stop him from following me, with the clashing sound continuing as before. Not far now to reach the castle.