Chapter 59: Waves – Splitpelt POV

We'd only managed another half day of travel before I senses something of murderous intent nearby. S signaled to Snowtuft who helped me silently lower Mapleshade to the ground. We could hear them padding nearby. They were circling us. Unfortunately for them, their attempts at stealth were thwarted by our enhanced senses. There were seven of them this time. I gestured for Snowtuft to make the first strike. He nodded with a confident look on his face before his own shadow seemed to swallow him. I could still see his shadow on the ground, and it walked with no host towards the unsuspecting attackers.

Snowtuft was barely out of line of sight when I heard what sounded like a cat choking on blood. He must have already gotten one. I felt another presence fade before some cat let out an alarmed yowl. Some cat must have spotted him. All at once, the remaining five cats came closing in, desperate to get in the kill before we could stop them. I was ready. The momentary rest I'd gotten between waves gave me enough energy to split into three. Two leapt into battle while one set to fortifying Mapleshade's position. The two attacking parts of me managed to take out two more attackers while Snowtuft managed two more. I was prepared to handle the last two, but suddenly they were snap frozen in a block of ice.

"Who told you you could have all the fun?" Sassed a familiar cat emerging from behind a tree.

Foamriver had caught up with us. Snowtuft came swiftly trotting up to her, brushing her with the affection only a former mentor knew.

It was only because we stopped that I noticed something disturbing. This wave of cats we killed was familiar, but that should have been impossible. I went sniffing around to confirm my suspicions. Sure enough, it was true. I couldn't deny it, so something that should be impossible is true.

Snowtuft must have noticed my sudden worried focus because he asked, "What's up?"

"These cats we just dealt with, about three of them we've seen before."

Snowtuft tilted his head. "How?"

"Because they were part of the first wave." I replied slowly.

"That's impossible. You killed all the first wave." He replied in confusion.

"And there lies the problem. They aren't staying dead. My only guess is that their desire to kill Mapleshade mixed with how Mapleshade is drawing in energy to force their souls to reform. I'm not even sure if they remember dying or if they're creating amalgams with the same desires. Either way, we can only expect the waves to get larger going forward." I replied in a factual monotone.

Snowtuft's eyes widened in shock as he stated, "Then we better move fast. I don't want to deal with a clan's worth of cats."

Foamriver giggled in response. "Come on Snowy. Even if there was a clan's worth, we'd still handle them. Here I was worried I missed the party only to find out it's only just begun."

The next wave was ten with six of them being cats we've killed before. Then it was twelve. I was losing steam and the breaks between waves weren't getting larger. We needed longer breaks to recover. By my estimate, we'd reach camp in about a moon. We needed a game changer. We needed more cats pronto.

Frecklewish had been uneasily waiting in the nursery, fully aware of the situation outside of camp. If she wasn't bearing kits at that moment, she'd have rushed out there to bring her mates home. Instead, she was forced to wait, helpless to help those she desperately wanted to protect. It burned her with frustration and fear. What if they really did manage to kill Mapleshade? Whoever did would receive god level powers and certainly wouldn't spare her and her kits. She felt she needed to be proactive. She needed to help somehow.

When the next wave began, this time fifteen, Frecklewish decided to act. She couldn't go out there to fight, but maybe she could do something remotely. Using Splitpelt as a focus, she envisioned the battlefield. Each cat was but a faint blip, but she could still tell ally from enemy. With a monumental effort, she lowered her paw onto the depiction of the battlefield and swiped sideways through the enemy army. It near knocked her out, but she could feel that her actions had somehow removed ten of the enemy cats. She just needed a nap now, and she could probably pull it off again.

I had preparing for the next wave, conjuring a dome around Mapleshade's sleeping form. Pillars of stone jutted out of the ground, casting long shadows for Snowtuft to use in his ambushes. Foamriver had created a shallow moat around Mapleshade's position to slow down the incoming cats. Then I felt it. Frecklewish had somehow locked on to my position. The enemy wave came charging forward, but what none of us expected was for something to carve a trench through the enemy, wiping out most of them. It was huge, and literally ripped some of the aggressors in half. After wiping out the rest, we went to investigate, only for the trench to appear to have been done by a paw, one bigger than a tree. I linked back to Frecklewish and felt her exhaustion.

"What did you do?" I asked somewhat worried and annoyed. She'd done something that could have risked our kits.

"Like it? I call it a long range strike." She joked between her tired breaths.

I couldn't help but chuckle in response. "You know, every time I think I've finally learned it all, you and Mapleshade somehow turn my beliefs on their head. That's a good thing. Maybe I'm too old to think up these new ideas like you two do, but this old cat can still come up with a few tricks."

Now with Frecklewish's aid in each attack, we managed to make some headway in our travels. Buzzardpaw found us next since Dawnstar needed to head back to set up a rescue patrol. You'd think he'd be weak since he's only ever focused on food and isn't the brightest, but what he had in spades was the desire to care for and protect his loved ones. He dealt with the next wave single pawed by literally starving them to death. It was kind of frightening how such a sweet cat could just send out this wave of energy that consumed their ability to live. Unfortunately, his attack seemed to take a lot out of him. He passed out and had to be protected with Mapleshade through the next two waves. Fortunately, the waves seemed to stop getting bigger. Only about twenty per wave. Usually only one or two were new cats each wave. It was starting to feel easy, too easy. I could feel something big was coming. Hopefully we got our reinforcements before the storm hit.