It was almost morning and the sun was about to come up. Keneric was sprinting across the swampland, clutching his bedsheet bundle against his back. Behind him, the Art's building was slowly disappearing into the distance.
From time to time, students and student guards would shout as they were still chasing after Nick. But Keneric did not feel sorry for the guy. Instead, he was rather happy with the loot he was able to secure with so little effort.
Now he just needed an appropriate ride and information of the outside world to charge back at home. As for what vehicles could traverse the swampland—well, that was a thought for another day.
And for the food, it was for Joy and Rune, because even if they increased his burden a lot, Keneric didn't mind their company and would prefer to stay with a group because of his extroverted nature.
His mind had already forgotten about Nick, and his feet were now focused on navigating the familiar path back to the vined clubroom—or so he wanted to.
With the sound of a whistle, Keneric stopped mid-stride. His mutated senses immediately looked for the source of the noise and assessed the danger levels. There he saw that about fifty yards ahead were a group of three people, two men and one woman, directly blocking his path.
Keneric's first instinct was just to change directions as they were still far away, but instead, he slowed down his pace to a walking level and tried to push through.
"Hey you there!" The tallest of the three scouts called to him. "Stop where you are." And Keneric stopped.
The three people blocked his path, and even if he could circle around them and escape, based on his footprints and how close they were to his hideout, they'd find it. Fighting wasn't ideal either if the situation could be resolved through a quick chat, not that Keneric was afraid of it. So he decided to comply, at least temporarily, and allowed the other group to move closer.
"What's going on?" Keneric asked when they were almost twenty steps away.
The three were carrying weapons, but they did not take Keneric for a threat because they approached leisurely, and maybe that was a good thing.
Another thing he noticed was these people were also using makeshift weapons like a metal pipe, a sharp wooden pole, and the woman appeared to be hiding a short garden tool on her back.
She also turned out to be the leader when she stepped forward and stated, "We are from the Law Campus," and later added, "and we heard some commotion coming from this way and were checking the perimeter. Then we see you running like you don't care about attracting monsters, so we had to stop and ask."
But Keneric did not say anything and thought to himself: so there are more student groups alive, hmm…
However, the law students got a little uncomfortable with the silence, and one of the guys said, "So what are you carrying in the middle of nowhere?"
Keneric's expression was neutral. "Just some clothes. Nothing important."
The female scout snorted and looked back at the others and nodded. She now stood firm at her place and took out her weapon from her back, and the other two students slowly rotated around Keneric to surround him. Later she said, "Nobody runs around that fast for 'carrying nothing important'. I bet there's some food in there."
Keneric sighed. "Look, I am just trying to get back to my place, and I'm in no mood to hurt humans today."
But the female only sneered like she was seeing a mad man. "You are the one surrounded here. It's one versus three too. I like my chances a lot, so just open the bundle."
The other two circling Keneric also gripped their weapons tighter and started shortening the distance from all sides.
Keneric thought to give these lawless buffoons a last chance, so asked, "You hear the chaos behind me?"
The three stopped moving, and the female student said, "What about it?"
"I ran from the Art's building. There's some kind of mutant loose there, and I am not sticking around to see what he will do to the students."
"A mutant?" The leader was a little bit curious and scared now because there seemed to be some screams and shouting coming from where the Art's campus used to be. "What kind of mutant?" she asked. "Is it one of those green monsters?"
"No. Porcupine-looking guy. Guards are handling it," Keneric threw Nick under the bus again. "You should probably head there if you want to help. Also, they have a lot of food."
The female scout moved closer, but her eyes were more fixed on the bundle. "You're from Professor Nawatt's group, aren't you? And why should we help him? Our supply group was attacked many times by his men. Instead we should repay the favor, shouldn't we?" She instantly lunged at Keneric.
The other two scouts also attacked him from the other two sides, and Keneric was now regretting bringing up the hateful professor's name into the conversation. Now he knew nobody liked the guy.