Bertrand didn't exactly feel confident in his leadership abilities, but he still tried, emulating how his instructors had acted and even saying the occasional anecdote that he remembered them saying.

The person he looked up to most was Césaire, but it took him getting into a life or death situation to actually gain respect for the man beyond his rank.

Maybe if he was in a team of other skirmishers he would act like Césaire but he wasn't, he was in a team of infantrymen.

Professionalism and discipline mattered far more greatly to them than it did to any skirmisher.

Not as much as it mattered to the linemen but they still cared for it a great deal. They were semi linemen after all.

Walking through the forest for what should be the last time was quite a nerve racking experience. Nearly a hundred well trained soldiers had died in here.

So Bertrand moved extremely cautiously, even if there had only been a sparse few zombies encountered in the woods yesterday more may have arrived recently.

This caution of his ended up paying off as the small team encountered a small group of zombies.

Hurriedly aiming at them Bertrand was just about to fire when they exploded.

The musket fire from his comrades obliterated their heads and in an instant they were wiped out.

There were three zombies and they weren't exactly far away. Being only a few dozen feet away when they opened fire.

After this short and easy battle, Bertrand kept watch for the next few minutes as the infantrymen repaired their mana veins.

The cost of such overwhelming firepower was that the mana vein tended to be severely damaged if not outright destroyed.

Line infantry were specially trained to repair their mana veins quickly in order to negate this weakness and although the infantrymen were not as talented as the linemen, they were still able to do it in three minutes.

It was a harrowing three minutes though, with Bertrand staring wide eyed at every piece of shrubbery that shuffled in the wind and straining his ears to ignore the birdsong and focus on any footsteps.

Thankfully soon his teammates had repaired their veins and were prepared to depart once more.

For the next four hours they encountered no further zombies and found nothing out of the ordinary.

The forest seemed utterly devoid of anything hostile, they were mainly focused on making sure there were no possible ambush spots.

Unfortunately they did two possible ambush sites, a few hidden caves created by some earthquake that they nearly walked over.

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As well as a small ravine likely created by the same earthquake, the ravine wasnt overly wide but it was quite deep. A horde of zombies could very easily hide in there and clamber their way up, striking the legion from the side.

Thankfully both sites were unoccupied, everything seemed to be going well.

Then just as they were coming to the edge of the forest they found a corpse.

Not a humans mind you, so that was fortunate. It was a deer corpse.

Utterly torn apart, bones shattered by pure physical strength, flesh compressed into gruesome clumps.

If it weren't for what he had already experienced early in the week it easily would have been the most horrific thing he had seen in his life.

However thanks to that twisted abomination it was only ranked second.

The only thing that he knew that could have done something like this was a bear but obviously it wasn't a bear. None of the meat had been eaten and he didn’t think even a bear had this level of physical strength.

With a grimace on his face he waves over one of the infantrymen, they were called Jax and they would be his messenger.

“Jax, run as fast as you can back to the camp, tell them that we’ve found two possible ambush sites that were empty as well as, this.” He said gesturing at the corpse.

Nodding his head, Jax ran off, not even wasting time on speaking.

Seer Bertrand hated this, they still had some more areas they had to scout, while watching out for a potentially mage level threat near them.

Worse case scenario though, the officers would know there was another monster in the area if they failed to return.

Unless poor Jax was picked off as they ran back to deliver his message but it was the best they could do.

They had a duty, if they backed away now an ambush site could go unlocated and cost them everything.

“Onwards.” He shouted out, false bravado inflating his voice and hopefully the others morale.

Though glancing over at them, it was unlikely. They looked like vampires.

Each one of them had paper colored faces even with their tans.

But they had a duty and they intended to fulfil it, so with some hesitation they followed after him.

It was a strange feeling being a leader, Bertrand just hoped he wasn't leading them to their deaths.

With each successful area of woodlands they scouted their fear increased, until the tension was so palpable you could cut it with a knife.

Finally though they were done, they had reached the end of the forest and they were alive.

Hurriedly they all retreated, ensuring they were eyeing up the tree tops while on their return journey.

When they heard a twig snap everyone's heart’s temporary stopped but then they spotted the lone zombie that had stepped on the twig and their fear dissipated.

It was still unsettling watching it charge at them without uttering a sound but a single shot quickly ended it, putting an end to their second encounter with the creatures.

Moving forward once more they were attacked by no further zombies and managed to successfully make it back to the camp.

Entering through the small gap in the wall and giving their reports to one of the officers runners.

They also found Jax there as well, leaning against the side of the wagon as he talked to one of the other runners.

While his infantrymen teammates went over to join him Bertrand chose to instead go and have a quick nap.

They had arrived back rather early and so dinner wasn't quite ready yet.

Arriving at his tent, he opened the flaps and took off his boots, throwing them in the corner, then he laid down on his bedroll and let the sweet embrace of sleep steal him away.