Oleg approached Alexander and handed him a spear. The vampire held it in his hand for a moment, then decisively tossed it aside.
"I'll work with the mace, stunning the animals. You'll carry them, and the girls, with the help of Yevgeny and Kostya, will start skinning the bear. Gennady will ensure order, and if anyone decides to eat before the children and women, he will use force to ensure everything is done correctly. Understand?"
Gennady nodded confidently.
"I'll go with you, an extra pair of hands won't hurt," Yevgeny said, picking up the spear previously discarded by Alexander.
Alexander shook his head and, grabbing the man by the elbow, roughly pulled him aside and whispered directly into his ear.
"Watch how that jerk organizes people; he's hungry too! That's why I'm leaving you three here."
Yevgeny nodded understandingly and twirled the spear in his hand even more decisively.
"I'll take care of everything."
It was the strangest hunt he had ever heard of. Well, of course, Sharik's hunt from Prostokvashino (anime USSR) was even wilder, but this one could certainly compete with it.
Two elk, a deer, a family of boars, and another bear. They were all caught, stunned, or killed with strong blows to the head and carried back to camp by assistants. Nobody even counted the rabbits. It was surreptitiously discovered that the bodies of the warriors they left in the forest had disappeared.
All that was found was a campfire and gnawed bones. Clearly human ones. Apparently, the goblins had been busy. Not wanting to touch anything and trying to cover their tracks, Alexander returned to camp.
"Why are you flapping your mouth? They're telling you in plain Russian, stick your hand in and that's it. The blood will be absorbed through the skin! It has the same effect as if you were drinking it!"
Gennady lectured another vampire on the intricacies of their food consumption.
Each time Alexander returned to camp with his prey, he observed this scene in its various versions. So now he didn't bother to show interest and went straight to Yevgeny.
"Did they divide the bear among our people?"
Unnoticed, the group that drank human blood together with him became "theirs" to him, in contrast to the other two groups—one openly supporting Alexey Gennadyevich and the other mostly consisting of the undecided "gray" mass.
"Yes, just as you asked. I made sure. All ours," Yevgeny emphasized the word, "ate their fill. We're keeping the others on minimal rations for now. We're giving them blood to quench their thirst. Gennadyevich and his people were fed rabbits."
Alexander nodded. It was the right decision. Soon after they started consuming the blood of different animals, it became clear—not all animals were equal, some were more equal than others.
More precisely, the blood of stronger animals not only satisfied better but also made the drinker stronger. In simpler terms, a woman who drank bear blood would easily defeat someone who drank rabbit blood. There was still the factor of the amount of blood consumed, but the former businessman made the right decision.
It was unclear how this whole power struggle would end in the future, when some refused to acknowledge any opinion other than their own, while others refused to obey foolish orders and, moreover, actively pursued their own policy.
Such a situation could not last long, and it was advisable to keep the opponent on a "low-calorie diet" just in case. In this whole situation, Alexander only regretted that they ended up here without the general.
Viktor Andreevich was a man of iron will and strong charisma; there would have been no problems with command and authority here at all.
"You did everything right. Do you think there's enough food? Or should we go again?"
"There's enough. Rest."
"I'm not even tired."
"No wonder you're not tired, you gobbled up a whole bear and went to sleep."
Looking at the satisfied, smiling face of his ally, Alexander smiled too.
"I have a young growing body, I need a lot."
Yevgeny chuckled loudly.
"Get out of here already, 'growing body.' And if you're so eager to do something, go to the girls, take the skins from them, and while you're at it, take that boar over there to them."
As Gennady, indicated by Yevgeny, was just bringing the carcass toward the improvised dining area.
"It will be done!"
Raising his hand in a playful greeting, Alexander headed towards the stream, "forgetting" to take the boar's body. Then he stopped and turned back.
"I inspected the site of yesterday's skirmish. It looks like goblins visited there last night and took the bodies, eating one. I carefully examined everything. Whoever looks for them there will conclude that their people fell into the hands of goblins and were eaten. They won't follow our trail."
This time Alexander headed in the right direction, already carrying the little boar with him.
Yevgeny smiled at him once again as he walked away and, turning around, intercepted a hateful glare directed at him. Olga Viktorovna. Bowing his head in a slight nod, he walked toward the center of the camp.
Since their hasty move was postponed, much still needed to be done and organized. This Alexey Gennadyevich of theirs, despite spouting strange ideas, knew his way around organizing things, and he needed their help.
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