Mutagen

Day 71 - 5:48 PM - Mountain Base, Mount Malabito, General Nakar, Quezon

Mark stood in front of the Mutators and Evolvers alone. This prompted the enemies even more to do a counter-attack.

Activating their abilities, they charged towards Mark first as it would be harder to approach the girls atop the walls of the base.

Unknown to them... Their movements were just as Mark planned.

Mark decided to deal with these people by being alone outside. It was not because he alone was enough to deal with these people. In fact, it would be easier to end this if Mark let the others fight alongside him. Nevertheless, it would also prompt the enemies to retreat and run towards the forest.

It was already getting dark. Although Mark would not have a hard time finding these people even if they ran away, it would still take more effort. If these people scattered in different directions, it would cause some of them to have the possibility to escape.

Since Mark was alone, they thought that with their numbers, they could take him down alone. Or maybe, take him as a hostage to stop the girls on the walls from firing their weapons.

That was the worst "maybe" of their lives.

Mark looked at the enemies coming towards him. He was scrutinizing the abilities they displayed. Some of them had claws. Other enemies had animal parts on their bodies. While a few had transformed their skin into some like metal.

However, one ability took Mark's interest.

A man stood steadily in the middle of their encampment. He was waving his arms with precision as he deflected every large needle and bullets coming towards him. A wide one-meter long blade could be seen protruding from his right arm, and his left had deformed and turned into a shield.

Furthermore, unlike the others that were in a state of panic the man was still calm. It was more like he did not even care whether he would die or live here. Or maybe, he had the confidence that he was capable enough to escape this.

Mark could tell, the man's ability was rather unique. It would not be surprising if he had such confidence. Unfortunately, Mark and his group were not your typical survivors. Even among Mutators, the abilities of people in Mark's group was top notch.

Other than the man with a blade and shield, there was another who transformed into something looking like an insect. His whole body was covered with green colored exoskeleton which emphasized his lower limbs. He jumped around fast which made it hard even for Mei to actually hit him.

Lastly, Mark noticed a bear. There was nothing else that could describe that enemy than being a bear. A tall man with huge muscles covered in dark brown fur. What else could be but a bear?

Aside from them, there were others with notable abilities. However, they were not as eye-catching as the three.

Finally, the attackers reached and surrounded Mark. In response to their attacks, Mark danced.

He tapped his right foot on the ground causing red-orange flames to ignite around his foot. The attackers were surprised. However, they could not stop in their charge anymore.

With a spin, Mark mauled those that were too close to him with his right foot.

In every hit, the flames around Mark's foot would explode. It caused those that were hit to fly back depending on which part of their body was hit by the kick. There were also those that were hit on their face. Among them, three died immediately as parts of their heads exploded.

There were still those that managed to dodge. Not like Mark would let them go easily. As for those that took the opportunity to attack after that kick, Mark kicked the ground spinning in the air dodging them.

As Mark spun, his flaming foot created a circle of flame. Ending that circle, his foot dropped onto the head of a man with large claws. The man's head ignited into flames and he fell down. He wanted to roll and extinguish the flames. However, Mark's spinning drop kick left him with a concussion. Dizzy and unable to do anything, he died as Mark's foot dropped onto his neck.

While Mark slaughtered these ignorant insects, Mark suddenly turned his back from their main encampment.

CLANG!

A loud metallic sound echoed as Ignis that hung on Mark's back was hit by something metallic.

Following that sound, the new attacker tried to bash Mark with his shield. However, Mark already jumped away while killing another two enemies. The bash missed leaving the attacker with a frown.

When Mark turned to face the attacker, he saw the man with a pair blade and shield.

Like before, the man's face was calm.

"Tell me, how did you know that we are from Death Valley?"

The man spoke.

"Why won't I?"

Mark replied with a smile that confused everyone around.

Then, his words fell which shocked these men.

"I'm the one that destroyed that garbage dump. Don't you know? Spy Captain?"

The calmness from the man's face vanished as he heard what Mark called him. There was no doubt that the man realized who Mark was.

"So, you're that person they were talking about before I cut off my communications from them."

It was not hard to tell who was the man talking about. For sure, he was talking about the other spies sent to Death Valley and the soldiers of the military.

As for why Mark recognized these people, although he would not heed any mind on miscellaneous people whose mental energy he felt before, he would remember them once they appeared in front of him once more. He was very sure that he felt the fluctuations of most of these people in Death Valley during the moment before it was destroyed.

It just meant that they managed to escape the destruction of Death Valley Settlement and the military. However, they brought themselves to the lion's den to be slaughtered mercilessly. It was not like they deserved any mercy though.

"Well, we won't die without a fight! Everyone attack!"

The former espionage captain yelled at his comrades.

Hearing that exchange by the two, the other enemies felt even more desperate. They did not hold back anymore and used any means for attacking. Whether it be their abilities or their guns even if they did not have much ammunition left. It was all or nothing for them now.

BANG!

A pistol was fired from the enemies' side. However, Mark was not the target. The bullet flew towards Alana on top of the wall. The shot was too sudden and there was no time for Alana to take cover.

BANG! TING!

The bullet did not reach Alana, however. Mei's eyes dilated activating her [Bullet Time]. The bullet was still fast but not in a way that it could not be seen. Mei fired her sniper rifle deflecting the incoming bullet.

"Thank you!"

Alana said to Mei. She did not seem to be fazed by what she was about to experience just now. Alana then proceeded to pierce holes on the person that shot at her like a crazy person. It might not look like it but her mind was surely affected by the near-death experience just now.

Because of that instance, the girls atop the walls focused on shooting those that had guns on their hands.

Then, the girls faced another unexpected attack. A huge tree was hurled towards their direction. The tree was uprooted and was thrown by the bear. There was no doubt, he was really a bear. Furthermore, he was not done yet. He threw another uprooted tree towards the girls just to be sure and was in the middle of uprooting another one.

The girls were in trouble. There was no way for any of them to block these large trees hurled at them.

Then... A white shadow charged past them from behind. The while shadow kicked the air fast which caused the shadow's speed to accelerate.

BAM!

The shadow spun forwards and dropped her heels on the incoming tree causing it to fall down. With that kick, the shadow stopped midair revealing Abbygale in her transformed appearance.

Alana and Hallie gasped at the appearance of a cute cat-eared little girl in front of them. It was despite that they were still in the middle of a battle. The priorities of Otakus, despite the situation, were really odd most of the time.

Before they could take a proper look at Abbygale, she already kicked the air once more and charged towards the other incoming tree.

The intervention of the trees gave some of the enemies some time to shoot at Mei and the other atop the wall. However, not only that the girls were ready to take cover this time, a barrier was erected in front of them blocking all of the incoming bullets. Both Iola and Miracle also came to assist.

Not only the little girls, Edzel, Odelina, but even Edwards also came to provide support. As expected, a former military soldier had better gun skills than Karlene. After Edwards appeared, he managed to gun down several people already.

It was obvious, the people from Death Valley were on the verge of defeat. Many of the remaining ones decided to run away already.

Unfortunately for them, Mei prioritized herself on shooting those people. Even if they were already a distance away, as long as they were within her sight, they would fall with a bloody hole on their bodies.

They were efficiently dealing with the situation, even Abbygale was doing fine as she contended with the bear. Still, there seemed to be no way for the little cat girl to win alone against that giant bear. As such, another two came that made both Hallie and Alana gasp once more.

A grey colored wolf teen and a gray tabby colored cat boy joined into the fight with the bear. Their teamwork was awful especially since the two cats were rather wary of the wolf. However, the three of them fighting the bear caused the bear to fall unto a disadvantage.

Mark, on the other hand, already disposed of the weaklings around him. The only ones left around him was the spy captain and the armored grasshopper. He could only shake his head though. It seemed that everyone was itching for a fight and just timed their entrance properly. He started to wonder if they understood his intentions for staying outside alone.

CLANG!

Another loud metallic sound echoed as Mark wielded Ignis and clashed with the spy captain.

Mark could have ended it faster. However, since the others already participated in killing a lot of the enemies, he decided to play a bit with his prey.

After the clash, Mark was forced to jump back. It was because the grasshopper man jumped towards him. The teamwork of the two was rather flawless. It was not like Mark was afraid of getting injured. However, he did not want his clothes ruined because of this fight.

"Annoying!"

Mark spat as he blocked another slash from the spy captain.

Then...

CLANG!

Ignis "slipped" out of Mark's hand as he was "overpowered" by the slash of the spy captain.

Seeing Mark lose his sword, the spy captain had an excited look on his face. However, that look did not last.

"AHHHH!!!"

A painful yell echoed by their side which made the Spy Captain look by reflex. There, his eyes opened wide as he saw the grasshopper man covered by black flames while being impaled by Ignis on his chest.

The grasshopper man fell on the ground lifeless. Then, Ignis shook as it pierced through the grasshopper man's body before returning to Mark's hand.

"You..."

The spy captain was speechless... For sure, the sword slipping out of Mark's hand was on purpose to catch the two off guard. The sword did not slip and hit his comrade but sure enough, flew towards grasshopper man's chest like how it flew towards Mark's hand.

"Oh, by the way, you're the only one left."

Mark said which made the spy captain look behind him.

Aside from a few slaves that could not run away, everyone else was already dead while a lot of slaves escaped on their own. Even the bear was defeated by two children and a young man already.

While he was moping for their defeat, he heard a whisper.

"Say hello to Satan for me."

With those words, the spy captain's sight spun like a Ferris wheel as his head flew off after being separated from his body.

"Alright, time for harvest."

That was the last thing the spy captain heard before everything went black. It seemed that they were nothing but livestock to the eyes of the enemy.