Ben walked up to Ava and placed a hand of her side, "Are you okay?" he asked worried for her.

Ava quickly calmed down and nodded. 'I now know my weakness.' Ava said solemnly.

Ben looked at her, waiting for her to elaborate.

'Aerial close combat. Phoenix's mostly rely on our fire to defeat our opponents and don't fight in close quarters. Facing those eagles made me realize how useless I am when there is an enemy with speed that can avoid my fire.' Ava concluded, finally aware of her weakness.

Ben's brows furrowed in thought, he then said, "The way I see it you have two options. The first is to create a fire attack that an opponent can't avoid, rending his speed useless. The second is to learn how to fight in close quarters."

Ava nodded, agreeing with what Ben had said. She decided to mull it over before making a decision.

"Well might as well camp here tonight, Ava please make a fire. James scout the surroundings for any threats while I make us a makes.h.i.+ft shelter." Ben gave out commands and everyone sprung into action.

Ben cut down the surrounding trees and made a large lean to. He then cleared the ground under the lean to and took out blankets out from his storage.

James had appeared and said that there was few beasts that were around and none of them a threat to them. James had found some zombies and killed them immediately.

Ben also removed some food from his storage and pa.s.sed it to James. They both ate in silence as the fire crackled. Ava and Takon both laid down near then, sleeping.

Ben and James called it a night and crawled into their shelter.

The sun s.h.i.+ned down on Ben and James, waking them from their sleep. Ben sat up and saw Ava and Takon were missing but didn't think anything of it. They were probably off getting themselves some breakfast.

Ben noticed something in his soul realm.

Duke- Lvl 60

Demonic Blood Wolf (Evolving)

Vitality (VIT): 92

Strength (STR): 200

Dexterity (DEX): 190

Agility (AGI): 232

Intelligence (INT): 9

Loyalty- 100%

Skills-

Blood l.u.s.t

Soul Beast

"Evolving!? Already?" Ben blurted out.

James looked at him curiously. "Duke is evolving." Ben explained.

"Evolving? What does that mean?" James asked.

"It means that Duke is getting stronger." Ben gave him a wide smile, excited that Duke was getting stronger.

James looked at Ben's arm in surprise. 'These monsters can get stronger?' James thought.

*Thud!*

A large corpse fell from the sky and landed near Ben and James. It was large eagle, similar to the ones they faced yesterday. Burn marks covered its feathers, giving it a pathetic look.

"Looks like Ava got her revenge." Ben let out a light laugh.

Ava didn't respond and was preening her feathers.

"Yesterday when you and Takon were fighting them, I felt an extreme amount of angry from you. What did they say to you?" Ben asked.

Ava said nothing but a flash of annoyance appeared on her face.

"They said she was beautiful and wanted to bring her back to their nest to mate with her." Takon explained, causing Ava to shoot a fireball at his head.

Takon was. .h.i.t right in the forehead and immediately shut his mouth, afraid of the consequences of what would happen.

Ben and James both laughed loudly as they heard what Takon said. No wonder she attacked them so aggressively.

After cooking and eating the eagle, the four of them set out for the next town. Ava said the town was near so Ben and James ran.

Entering the town, normal zombies came out and attacked them in waves. Ben waited for the mutated ones but none came, only normal. Ben and James quickly cleared the town, still not finding survivors. They did find a grocery store and took some non perishable food items for themselves.

Ava and Takon flew above them, reporting to Ben what they saw.

Clearing out the town, Ben and James continued on.

The day progressed in the same fas.h.i.+on, killing zombies and clearing out the towns. What bothered Ben was that not mutated zombies appeared after that first town they found.

"Something is wrong James." Ben said.

"I agree. No mutated zombies in these last 3 towns and not that many zombies." James shared Ben's concern.

"Do you think they are all gathering at Winnipeg?" Ben said the idea he thought.

"That's a scary thought." James said, fear in his voice. "That would mean they are all gathering. But for what?"

"An attack." Ben said darkly.

James face also went dark when he heard what Ben said.

"If they all gather… we won't be able to defeat them." James said slowly.

"That's why we are doing this. Scout them and hopefully attack them before they are ready, decreasing their numbers." Ben said.

James looked at Ben like he was crazy. "You know they will be numbered in the millions. How can two guys and three beasts do anything?"

"They will be bunched in one area. Ava and Takon will release wide area fire attacks and burn them. If that fails, I will sneak in and killed their leaders. For a group that big there must be leaders. Kill them and the army is useless." Ben explained to James. He had thought long and hard about this and he came up with a couple a scenarios.

James was impressed but still didn't fully believe that he would be able to complete it. Their numbers would be to great and there would be too powerful.

Ben could tell that James didn't fully believe him but he didn't care. He knew what he had to do and still had a couple of tricks up his sleeve.

…

Standing on a hill, Ben was able to see the city of Winnipeg.

"Ava scout the west side of the city and Takon scout the east. Tell me what you see." Ben said seriously.

The city wasn't as built as dense of Ben hoped but he was thinking of ways to inflict lots of damage to the zombies. His plans would change accordingly with Ava and Takon's reports.

An hour pa.s.sed and Ben was starting to get worried, they should have been back. He knew that they were alive due to the soul link but they were too far to communicate.

Ben suddenly stood up, sensing Ava and Takon. 'What happened Ava?' he asked through there soul link.

'Enemies. Lots of them, it is worse than we thought.' Ava sounded tired.

'Explain when you get back.' Ben thought and then spoke out loud, "They are coming back."

James stood up and looked at the sky, searching for the two beasts. Soon they were able to see them in the sky.

Takon and Ava both landed, Takon even collapsed after landing too tired to stand. They were covered with cuts and bruises and looked haggard.

Ben touched both of them and started to channel Natural Energy into them, healing their wounds and restoring their vitality.

After a couple minutes of healing they both looked much better.

"Tell me what happened." Ben said.

"The zombies have somehow turned beasts into zombies." Takon said solemnly.

Ben's face darkened, he never saw this as a possibility.

"There was a group of flying beast zombies that attacked us after they saw us, over 20 of them. Takon and I fought them off, killing most of them but it was a close battle. Too close for comfort." Ava said darkly.

"They don't seem to be able to turn them to zombies quickly because they have lots of beasts in cages. They are concentrated in the middle of the city. They also seem to be avoiding the river for some reason that we were not able to figure out." Takon told Ben.

Ben's went deep into thought, he had to come up with a plan to weaken the zombies.

Everyone watched him in suspense, they knew their best chances rested on his shoulders.

"I'll scout the city myself tonight. Ava you will stay in the sky and out of sight in case I need back up. Takon stay here with James, rest up." Ben told them only what they needed to hear. He would reveal more after he scouted the city himself.