A minute later, the entire camp stood on their ears. The screams of men dying here and there, the neighing of horses burning in the fire and the distant roar of the tigress merged into one. Rey stopped collecting souls, it took too long, and there were not so many of them, because when the horses were calmed down, many mercenaries would simply run away. It was only while some of them were still dressing, equipping weapons, others were figuring out what was happening, and still others were staying in tents.
The only thing was that every living organism in this camp in the eyes of the snake was a large luminous spot. Rey did not attack those who had not yet had time to really wake up, killing only that part of the warriors who had already managed to understand what exactly was happening.
Right now, he was aiming for one of the biggest heat pockets in the camp. Only a few jerks were needed for the twenty-meter body of the snake to get to about two and a half dozen mercenaries, who had already beaten the tigress Tessa pretty badly. The cat did not have time to escape, and now one of its paws was seriously injured, almost losing mobility. A sword protruded from his stomach, and an arrow was in his left eye. But even in spite of this, she managed to bite one of the mercenaries to death, and another one with a torn stomach was still giving up the ghost.
Without thinking for a long time, Rei tensed his body and with one blow of his tail literally swept away a dozen mercenaries standing in a heap. The bodies broke with a crunch, and the serpent, paying no attention to them, once again grouped itself and rammed the second group of warriors uncontrollably. To the accompaniment of frightened screams, the bodies scattered in all directions from the serpent raging in the very center of the battle. Both whole mercenaries and separate body parts flew in the air, pouring bloody rain on the ground.
The worst thing was that most of the warriors simply did not understand exactly how they died. In the darkness of the night, the body of the snake, which did not reflect an ounce of light, was barely visible due to the speed at which it moved.
Not even a couple of minutes passed, and heart-rending cries gradually subsided. Having turned into a forest, Ray began to pull to himself all those who had time to free themselves from the mortal bodies of the soul. He missed a few, which means that some of the mercenaries were still alive. Unfortunately, there was no time to finish them off, so the guy immediately turned back, heading to another “hot” place, to a huge fire, next to which a considerable number of people also gathered. Watching all this, the bleeding tigress only growled in her gut, in her only eye, a spark of surprise flared, but after a few seconds she died out, and the look of the beast lost focus.
When the guy arrived at the place, three especially smart mercenaries were already on horseback, and two were even a few dozen meters from the camp, they didn’t even think to help their comrades, although it would be strange to blame them. A dozen more tried to calm the horses and put out the fire, which was already creeping up to the tents.
Crashing his head into the body of one of the horses, Rey threw the rider to the ground, ceasing to pay attention to him. He did the same with the other two and immediately rushed in pursuit of a pair of fugitives. He caught up with them in a matter of seconds. The body of the snake was so swift that the poor horses had no chance.
Ray didn't hesitate. Having broken the legs of the horses with his body, he was convinced that the mercenaries had died falling off the animals galloping at full speed and rushed back to the camp. This direction of escape was worth guarding especially carefully, because it led directly into the open plain. The opposite side of the camp faced the forest, but Rey didn't worry about that. There they will be met by Cess, who now had to return to him faster than the wind.
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Most of the horses had already fled from the fire, turning over several carts and freeing themselves, but he did the same with the rest - with one blow of his tail, he swept away a slender row of frightened animals, depriving them of the ability to move due to the fractures received, and some even died on the spot. After dealing with several more yelling mercenaries, who could clearly see the gigantic body of the snake thanks to the flames of the fire, Rei rushed forward again.
Now his path lay in the very heart of the camp, where small groups of mercenaries had already begun to form, still not understanding how their comrades died, whose bodies were scattered around the entire perimeter of the camp.
The extermination did not take long. Within three minutes, Rey was slowly making circles around the last group of six mercenaries. Four of them held weapons, two swords and two spears with trembling hands, another huddled into a ball crying like a small child, the last one simply lost consciousness.
The guy was just playing with them. He was sure that no one else was alive in the camp except them and Tessa, who, as far as he could see, was still lying in her tent.
Pausing for a moment, he lifted his upper body into the air, stopping at the five-meter mark. One of the warriors had a torch, so they could more or less clearly see the monster that had killed their squad. Ray was sure that each of the men understood that one way or another they would die, but not one had the courage to attack the monster. So the guy decided to help them. The speed of his movement was like lightning. With one throw, he grabbed the upper body of the nearest man in his mouth. Shaking his head several times, he threw the hissing corpse at the feet of the mercenaries. This body had some very powerful acid instead of saliva, so the upper part of the dead mercenary looked incredibly ugly.
Now every one of them was yelling and roaring. One of the warriors dropped his weapon and rushed in the opposite direction. A second later, without taking even three steps, he flew back as if hit by a train, and the silhouette of a huge tail that arose in the darkness of the night again disappeared somewhere in the distance.
Deciding that he got a little carried away, Rey finished them off and turned into a woodlander. Concentrating, he made all the souls in the area, which had not yet had time to disperse, fly to him. If the soul had already left the body, it was at the mercy of the Soul Lord, but even so, some of the souls melted while he killed the mercenaries, another part disappeared right during the rather slow flight to Ray. He could make a certain soul fly faster, but that would stop the others.
Among several dozen souls of mercenaries, at least a dozen horses flew, which pleased him a lot, it seems that the souls of these animals could exist outside the body longer than human ones. Another surprise was the soul of the tigress.
When he finished he sighed and looked around. The surrounding space was more like not a battlefield, but one of the circles of hell.
There was blood everywhere. It was hard for Ray to take a step without feeling the sticky liquid on his bare feet. Fortunately, the body itself would have been cleansed over time, so he only had to put up with the annoying champing of wet grass.
Having reached Tessa's tent, he made sure that the girl was still unconscious, and having wiped his hands here with a piece of cloth he had found, he left. He immediately transformed into a Desert Hawk and took off into the sky. Rising higher, Ray realized that the bird's eyes see quite clearly and flew in the opposite direction from the forest. He moved in large zigzags, trying to inspect the largest possible area. As a result, having examined everything in this direction within a radius of five kilometers, he returned empty-handed. Or rather claws.
By this time, the heavily breathing Cess was already waiting for him in the camp, who also did not find anyone on his way, and Ray was sure of the cat's hearing, if his pet did not find anyone, then there was simply no one there. Stroking the soft wool, he pointed out the direction in which the horses were. He quite roared and ran there, obviously and without instructions from the owner, smelling the fried horse meat.