Tessa woke up when the blissful smile frozen on her face covered the palm of the guy. Waking up, she looked with incomprehension with sleepy eyes at the silhouette barely visible in the darkness of the tent.

- Do not be noisy.

After waiting for the girl's nod, Rey let go of his hand, giving her the opportunity to finally ask the obvious question.

- What's happening? Tessa hadn't fully recovered yet, which wasn't surprising, given that she'd only fallen asleep a few hours before, after working hard.

- Something interesting. – looking through the fabric of the tent, he noticed several dozen people in the distance, some of them holding torches in their hands.

"ABOUT. And there are quite a few of them… I hope there are no people loyal to Tessa in this squad, otherwise it will be a little inconvenient.”

Turning to the girl, he calmly said:

- Your people started something like a riot.

- Eh?

Looking at him with surprise, the girl got up and, standing next to him, also looked out. Disbelief appeared on her face the moment she saw a crowd of smiling mercenaries walking slowly towards her tent. Unlike the guy, she immediately understood what they were up to.

- Like this.

- Realize everything quickly, as you can see, time is running out.

Ray's words seemed to have some effect, because Tessa immediately asked a second, no less obvious question.

- Wh-what should we do?

- Finally.

Once again stealthily glancing at the steadily approaching and gradually growing crowd of mercenaries, the guy turned to the girl and spoke as seriously as possible:

"I'll help you if you promise you'll just stay here," Ray added a little sternness to his voice, "and won't look at what's going on outside." Even briefly. Just sit here with your ears closed.

- What? What are you talking about? Let's just run away. They won't be able to…

- I'm not going to run away. - interrupting the meaningless statement, the guy thought for a moment about the words of the girl. “But you could, I’ll distract them for now.” Take the cat and leave the camp.

- You are crazy? There are hundreds of warriors there! What will you do?

The girl was not even going to listen to his words. Realizing that in this way he would not achieve anything, Rei without further ado drew his dagger and hit the hilt in the temple of the mercenary. He didn't know how hard to strike, so he did it quite gently, but it was enough - Tessa's body instantly went limp and fell on a soft sleeping bag.

"Sorry. I wouldn't want to kill you either."

Mentally apologizing, the boy took the form of a snow kite, instantly slipping out of his armor. Turning into a forest one again, he put it in Inventory and, after a little thought, nevertheless gave the order to Tsess to return and kill everyone who would run away from the camp, and he had no doubt that there would be such.

Immediately afterwards, he again turned into a snow kite and slipped out of the tent. Making sure that he had at least a few more minutes - the mercenaries decided to gather as many people as possible, he rushed at full speed to the horses. Most of them were tied to carts or small wooden poles. There was simply no time to let them all go, so Ray acted differently. Assuming his forest form again, he grabbed the nearest torch and threw it at one of the wagon trains, which blazed almost instantly, carrying a few blankets and spare tents. Deciding that this was enough to frighten the horses and make at least some of them escape, or even just burn in the fire, Rei changed his form again ...

***

- I don't care about your opinion. It was my idea, so I'll be the first. Having said this, the tall mercenary in front of him licked his lips contentedly. There was no man in this detachment who would not want to spend the night with such a beautiful girl, and he himself was no exception.

Looking at the crowd moving behind, who were constantly swearing and scolding, discussing, it seems, exactly their place in the queue, the mercenary decided to somehow coordinate them.

Let's take care of the tiger first. Our dear leader will not be difficult to deal with, but the cat can create problems.

Everyone nodded in understanding, most of the crowd separated and went to the back of the camp. The remaining eight people slowly surrounded the tent standing almost in the very center of the parking lot. Three of them held torches in their hands, dispersing the surrounding darkness. The men were in high spirits, and thanks to a fertile imagination, something else was upbeat. None of them even suspected that they had only a few minutes left to live.

The unspoken leader of the uprising, was already a few steps from the entrance to the tent, when he heard a loud hiss behind him. And the strangest thing was that it seemed to him that the sound came from near his ear. An uncontrollable wave of goosebumps ran through the man's body and he, not daring to take a step further, slowly turned his head.

At the same moment, his heart was gripped by such a strong fear that he could not even find the strength to scream. My knees buckled, and the torch fell from my hand. It was worth paying tribute to the warrior, despite the fact that his body was convulsing, his palm, trembling like a leaf in the wind, reached for the sword. Somewhere in the back of his mind, the man understood that it was useless, but he could not help himself.

- N…n-no.

The frightened voice broke off almost instantly - with one jerk the monster tore off his head, and the flow of blood that had hit from the neck stopped almost instantly, because with a low hiss, the wound melted, turning into an even more impartial sight.

The fact that one of the torches had disappeared did not go unnoticed. Two mercenaries with the same satisfied mines went to check if their comrade was too hasty, wanting to take all the fun for himself. The torch lying on the cold night grass gradually smoldered, but the men could see the headless body. One immediately reached for the weapon, but at the same moment he heard a soft sliding sound, he only felt how the hand that did not have time to reach the blade tightly pressed against the torso, and a second later the six men who were still alive heard a loud crack of bones, and a chomping sound, with which blood escaped from the throat of the mercenary's body compressed like a tube of toothpaste.

- What the!? - as soon as the partner standing next to him said this, his body flew up a good ten meters, and the cry of the poor fellow guaranteed that there were no more sleepers left in the camp.

Another of the mercenaries, who held a much-needed source of fire in the current situation, watched the previous man fall to the ground and, if he survived, broke enough of his bones to lose the ability to move. Drawing his sword, he ran to his comrade, but after taking a few steps he stopped. What he saw before him would undoubtedly haunt him in the worst nightmares for the rest of his life, but he did not have long to live.

At the level of his head, swaying measuredly from side to side, was the head of a snake. Black, as if the night itself, it was at least a meter in diameter, and its green-shimmering eyes seemed to look directly into his soul. The mercenary froze, trying to calm the horror that pierced through his mind. He lifted the blade, but it shook like the fire of a torch, which he clutched like the last, life-saving straw. The last thing he managed to see was the mouth of a snake that dug into his chest. The sternum broke instantly, piercing the lungs and heart. The hand holding the sword fell powerlessly down, along with the already lifeless body of the man.

Momentarily transformed into a woodsman, Rey immediately absorbed the soul of the mercenary - in the body of a snake, he could not use any skills. Leaving the soul, hoping to pick it up later, was also not very reliable, the gray souls disintegrated too quickly, and he was not sure that he would have time to kill the mercenaries during this time. Once again turning into a Sun Eater, the boy continued his hunt.