They were clearly surrounding the building and ready for me to exit. I checked the window, but I got the same danger from the rear of the building as well. I guess I had made the dogs quite mad by killing several of them.

I tracked down the dog I had wounded when I had shot at them before. He was slumped against one of the metal storage racks on the ground. There was a pool of blood under him. His hand gun in his lap, but his paw wasn’t holding it anymore. I quickly and quietly made my way over, snatched up the gun.

“What?” he asked in a daze from the blood loss. He didn’t have long to live. I kept the hand gun bringing my count back up to three. I then lifted him up by his neck and shoulder from behind. He let out a groan. As I half forced him forward and half dragged him to the side door.

He tried to struggle a bit, but he was too weak. I gave him a very strong kick from behind. He want into the door and the push bar. It unlatched as I quickly moved away, so I wasn’t directly behind the dog. I quickly scaled up another metal shelving rack as the dog was gunned down by his pack.

There was shouting from outside and I waited. The hail of gunfire had distorted the door. “Both entrances at the same time.” I heard a voice shout. I made sure I was covered by a couple of boxes from behind. A gentle kick with my hind paw confirmed they were filled with something.

I slightly adjusted my position to get a better angle on the rear door. Two dogs rushed in. I breathed out and fired, four times. They both went down. Two more dogs rushed in through the side entrance firing blindly all over the place. I was at a higher elevation and off to the side, they didn’t even come close to hitting me.

Six more shots and both dogs went down, and I switched to a second gun. Another two had rushed in behind them firing everywhere they could as well. Idiots wouldn’t hit anything like that. Moving while shooting was how you missed unless you were at very close range. But they probably weren’t professionally trained in guns and rifles like I had been.

I unloaded five shots to take down both dogs. They were moving quickly, and my head was ringing from all the gunfire. That brought up my kill count to twenty seven so far. Probably about half to a third of their combat numbers.

No one rushed through the side door after that for the next ten seconds. Carefully twisting around on top of the metal rack and poking my head over the top of one of the boxes, I saw four dogs moving down the aisle towards me, scanning the tops of the shelves as well.

They would spot me for sure, in the next few seconds. My hearing had been messed up by all the recent gunfire. I pulled out my last spare handgun, and aimed around the boxes, where the pack of four dogs should me. Only exposing the gun and my paw.

I unloaded the entire clip at them. There were shouts as they panicked and fired back. I winced as several bullets struck the ceiling right above me. But none of them hit. Once I was out, they were out as well in their panic firing. I didn’t hesitate to flip off the top of the rack and land on the warehouse floor.

One of the dogs was bleeding from an ear, but the rest were fine. I rushed forward, claws extended. One brought a handgun up. Danger! I juked to the side as a bullet grazed past my whiskers. I ducked and rolled as more shots were fired over my body. As I am up to my hind paws, my claws slashed out. Two of the dogs went down as their legs were shredded.

One other dog leapt at me to tackle me, but I twisted to the side and my paw slashed out as he passed by, shredding his face. The last dog had already run away. I quickly turned and cut the throats of all three dogs I had downed to be sure they stayed down.

With that completed I rushed back to the crates near the window. I heard shouting and there was gunfire at the crates as I went up and over them and to the window. It took a bit of twisting to get outside, but the dogs guarding the back had disappeared. There was more shouting as I landed back outside the warehouse.

I raced into the field that was behind the warehouse. The wheat wasn’t that high, but it would conceal me if I ducked. That was it for the warehouse. There were too many dogs swarming the location now. That last bit had my blood pounding.

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As I snuck away, I had to force myself to keep clam my maintaining my breathing. That had been insane. I shook my head, I couldn’t afford to get distracted right now. I felt the urge to go back there and keep killing, but I needed to take the time to escape for now. I couldn’t get caught up in a blood rage. Breathe Mittens, I kept telling myself.

I circled through the field to the forest and towards the dirt road to the small community. The warehouse had been at away from the entrance. “This way, we aren’t letting them get away!” I heard a shout. The dogs were on my trail.

Foolish dogs, following a trail was a quick way to die. I turned down the road a bit and then doubled on my trail, going up a tree I had purposely circled closely around. I then climbed up the tree. It was late summer, so there was a lot of leaf cover.

Using my Stillness and Focus skill I forced myself to calm down. I had already done this a couple of times already. I just hadn’t been thinking of the skills specifically. Just like I hadn’t thought about Proprioception while moving around the crate and the window. Or how Dancing helped me dodge the bullets that had been fired at me.

Mes was right, combat was the best crucible to hone my skills. Training helped, but fighting like this was the most important aspect of improving them. My claws were ready and sharp. The celestial ore, not allowing them to dull. At least the ringing in my ears had gone away from all the gunfire. Also, the smell of the bullets firing made my nose itch.

I didn’t like them, but they had been critical for me to not expose my position. I would need a range attack from Mes. Something that worked better than a gun. Well it was almost time to act as the pack of dogs got closer to my position.

Listening closely, I heard six dogs below me as they moved to follow the false trail. I could visualize where they were in my head. They passed under my tree. I breathed out and dropped down. Aiming my hind paws, I touched down silently, behind the rear most dog.

Reaching behind him, I ripped out his throat and quickly moved onto the next. I took that dog out and then a third. Unfortunately he dropped his gun right away and it went off with a bang. I was already moving and dove behind a tree as the three remaining dogs spun around.

They unleashed a hail of gunfire. “Spread out. Behind that tree!” One of them shouted. I quickly climbed up the tree and moved across a large branch just as the dogs finished flanking the tree. I dropped down and took the fourth dog out of this little pack that had chased me.

“There!” They fired their hand guns some more, but I was already behind another three. “You are so dead, you…you cat!” That wasn’t a very good insult. I pulled out a handgun and dropped to one knee. I then stuck waved a paw around a part of the tree higher up and quickly pulled it back as more gunfire was unleashed in my direction.

I then spun around the other tree, on one knee and aimed. I could only see one dog and fired three time. He went down to the ground. I quickly rushed to another tree as some more gunfire erupted. I then heard a click.

Rushing around the tree I was behind, I raced for the last dog. He tried to back away while reloading, but he was too slow. He could tell that as well and pulled out a second gun. The one in my paw sprang up and I unloaded the remaining seven bullets into him. He collapsed to the ground, dead. I was breathing heavily and looked around for any more creatures to kill.

That was thirty-six dogs. Almost half their total number. I tossed the empty handgun to the side. I made my way back to the road and heard a vehicle rapidly approaching. I hid behind a tree. Peaking around, I saw Mousethief driving way too fast. I stuck my head out and waved my paw.

The car spun around in the middle of the dirt road creating a cloud of dust. I went through the passenger door. I didn’t know why my father liked the sun roof, but that wasn’t for me.

“You look dirty,” Mousethief said. “We need to flee?”

“No, water,” I replied. He quickly pulled out a bottle of water which I drank. Feeling a lot better. “Killed thirty six dogs. Compound. Maybe ten or twenty with handguns left unless they arm the women and children,” I replied.

“A bit slow, you haven’t killed them all?” Mousethief asked and I gave him a glare.

“They all have guns. It wasn’t easy and quite stressful. Now are we sitting in the road or what?” I asked.

“Ah, I was hoping the mission was done on your end. Well go on and finish the rest of them, I will wait,” he replied.

“What?” I asked.

“High pace Mittens. They were building bombs for other rebel groups. That is why they were stealing the fertilizer.”

“Not for their crops?” I asked.

“That too, but they are all getting purged by the Covenant Church. Guns, bombs, and theft? If it was just one or two of those things, some might live, but all three. Killing them is a kindness,” Mousethief said.

“I…I really don’t feel up to it,” I replied. Mousethief glared at me.

“Well, you better. This is the job. And I have already arranged our next one. But we need to get moving. Go wipe them out. That is the deal. I get you good missions, you kill everything,” he replied. I felt like crying. I was just so tired and there was so much death.

Taking a deep breath, I bottled it all up. I could cry and complain later. I had chosen this lifestyle. I had no right to complain now. “You are right Mousethief. I need to kill them all,” I replied, and he nodded at me. I felt dirty and tired, but I had a job to do. I had to do it. No matter what. I hesitated for a long moment before getting out of the car.