Mutagen

Day 125 - 9:07 PM - Military Camp, New Infanta Settlement, Barangay Banugao, Infanta, Quezon

A Supersoldier, Jones Galley's declaration rang in everyone's ears. His reveal surprised everyone, as well as Mark, who was dancing in his current battle.

Huo Long Yue, who currently fought with Jones Galley, felt a bit choked. He was a higher member of the Inner Circle and one of the commanders in the China Branch of Auraboros. Even so, his knowledge about that incident was quite limited. After all, it was an accident that the elders of the organization tried well to hide.

The Supersoldier Project. It was one of the organization's projects that started long ago since the end of World War II. There was a substantial increase in human orphans at that time due to war. It was the perfect time for the Auraboros to start many of their projects.

There was only one goal for those many projects. The members of Auraboros was limited. The increase of members was not constant due to its rules. It was to make humans fight humans.

Supersoldiers were a thing that scientists researched for a very long time. And not only by the organization but also by many militarized countries. The scope of creating these One-Man Armies was remarkably extensive.

From using highly technological equipment and highly specialized training routine to a more inhumane experiment such as adding mechanized body parts to a human or mutating the soldier's genetic makeup, the tests were far too many.

In the case of Jones Galley and the Auraboros, they played with genetic enhancement. It was to create genetically enhanced soldiers that would not break down compared to the other kinds of experiments. Soldiers that would be able to regenerate injuries, having superhuman bodies, and specialized in taking down large enemies despite being alone. That was what the Auraboros wanted to make.

Decades passed, and since the start of the projects, the other projects displayed distinguished results. From being able to train spies, assassins, and geniuses in many fields, they made their cultivated personnel back into human society. They even managed to find a good number of psychics among the orphans.

The Supersoldier Project, however, failed in almost everything.

Genetically enhancing humans was not as easy as they thought. 

Children were the best candidates for these experiments. It was because their bodies were still adapting to their growth and their environment as they grew. It was also easy to manipulate their mindsets and train compared to adults.

This fact, however, came with an enormous consequence. The bodies of these children reacted highly to the mutagenic substances and genetic enhancers they used.

The human genome was mostly the same for all people. However, DNA was unique. And both of these affect the changes in the amount of the substances to be used on the children.

And to learn about the exact dosage, they had to experiment. In each experiment, the handlers of the project wasted at least one life.

Administering too much would immediately kill the children. Using too little would not amount to anything but minute changes. In these two instances, they considered the children as failures. Living or not, they had to be disposed of as they would not have any value to the organization.

Due to all these failures, the death toll of this project was the highest. It could even surmount the deaths of the other projects combined. That was how lethal and hard the experiments were.

There were a few times that they managed to administer the right amount that had a substantial effect on the body of the child. Nevertheless, the child would still die because of the insurmountable pain they felt and shock from ongoing changes in their bodies. Using anesthetics and other kinds of pain reliever was not plausible either as it could affect the experiment.

Thus, everything went into failure.

It was until the mid-nineteen-eighties.

By a stroke of luck, a miracle occurred.

Despite the pain and suffering, a child managed to survive. The experiment was successful, and the child was very obedient.

A strength that was abnormal for a child, or even a human to have. He was resilient as the dragons, strong as an elephant, fast as a cheetah, and ferocious as a lion.

In every test they conducted, the results made the handlers of the project more delightful.

The whole project focused on this miracle with all their resources so that they could present him to the organization.

And three years after the success of the experiment, the child was already fourteen. They sent the child into a field mission to prematurely start a conflict in the Soviet Union.

But that was the turning point of the Supersoldier Project.

After they arrived at the site of the mission, the obedient child suddenly revolted. He killed all those that accompanied him in that mission and escaped.

The organization sent many of its personnel to track down SSP-018367 and capture him.

However, the said child was a successful experiment for the project. Too successful that he was able to take down the threats sent to him. If he could not kill them, he could escape anytime he wanted.

No one was able to bring back the child until he finally vanished from the sight of the organization. Even so, they still sought for the child. Every time they got a lead, the person searching for the child would also vanish.

After that failure, the handlers of the project tightened their measures to control the children. It was to the point of hypnotizing and brainwashing them before the experiment.

But the miracle of SSP-018367 never happened again. Until they shut down the project for incompetence, another potential Supersoldier never appeared.

Furthermore, from time to time, SSP-018367 would appear. He did nothing else but to thwart their plans, killing their members whenever he could.

***

Who would have thought that the very same child in that story would appear here as a mercenary hired by the Philippine Military?

Nevertheless, this fact did not faze Huo Long Yue. Instead, he was quite delighted.

"I see." The Crazy Dragon, Huo Long Yue, smiled. "If I bring back your head then, the organization will surely reward me!"

With a maniacal laugh, Huo Long Yue charged forwards. Then, like a beam of light, his footsteps brought him in front of Jones Galley in almost an instant. No one was able to see how he did it. He stepped forward, vanished, and appeared in front of Jones Galley. It was like an eclipse.

"[Full Moon Fist]!"

Huo Long Yue shouted. He moved his fist in a circle, glowing like a full moon, before releasing it towards his opponent.

The combination of his [Eclipse Threading Footsteps] and [Moonlight Fist], no one had been able to counter it aside from those with higher cultivation levels from him.

It surely caught Jones Gally off guard. The glowing punch connected to his abdomen and sent him sliding backward. His feet raptured the earth below him as he tried to stabilize himself, which he was able to after he slid back for about five meters.

This scene made Huo Long Yue frown. One of his fiercest attacks hit Jones Galley squarely. His fist left a burning hole on the clothes of his opponent. Yet, he was still standing, and his body did not have any injuries at all.

"Is that what is all you got?" Jones Ridiculed as he ripped his torn clothes off from his body. "My turn then!"

BAM!

Jones Galley kicked the ground, making a loud bam and leaving a thick cloud of dust.

Like a fierce animal, Jones Galley pounced towards Huo Long Yue with another punch. The latter reacted by jumping backward. But unlike the former's previous straightforward punches, even though this one still had the same ferocity, it was nothing but a feint attack.

The fist turned into a grabbing claw that grabbed the right leg of Huo Long Yue. With its tight lock, Jones Galley bashed the cultivator's whole body down to the ground.

BOOM!

It was as if a shell from a cannon of a tank impacted the ground. The body of Huo Long Yue crashed with a crater fitting his whole body.

"Crescent Moon Kick!"

With a shout, a foot covered in glow caused an impact against the metallic arm of Jones Galley.

TAM!

The ear-piercing sound echoed as the kick forced the Supersoldier to let go of his opponent.

Huo Long Yue jumped out of the crater. His clothes mangled clothes showed that the attack was strong, but his body was still unscathed as he protected it with his inner force. Nevertheless, Huo Long Yue could not accept something. He realized it. Huo Long Yue and this Supersoldier was a complete match. No, he was weaker than Jones Galley.

As a cultivator, Huo Long Yue relied on his inner force when fighting. Too much usage would empty it in the long run until he could recover.

On the other hand, Jones Galley was purely relying on his body. He might get tired but not any sooner than Huo Long Yue expending his inner force.

And when that happened, it would be the end of the line for him.

"You two, help me here!"

Huo Long Yue shouted towards the two Jiangshi that were fighting with the mysterious man. He did not care about the man with the demon sword anymore and just wanted to defeat this Supersoldier.

But to Huo Long Yue's dismay, the two only their heads towards him, and continued to fight the man with the sword.

That was when he realized another thing.

While the two Jiangshis would follow his orders most of the time, on the battlefield, the two would only fight the most dangerous enemy. Then, if the two ignored the Supersoldier in front of him.

It meant that the man with the sword was far more dangerous. Too dangerous that it needed the two of the Jiangshis to fight together, and possibly, even more.

This time, Huo Long Yue knew that the mission was a failure. He could only do one thing.

"Retreat!"

Huo Long Yue shouted, which echoed across the settlement.

Everyone heard the voice. Whether it was the members of the Auraboros, the Military, or the survivors that were panicked by the gunshots, they heard it.

Although it might seem like it was declaring their movements to the enemies, it was the opposite. The people of the settlement did not know whose voice that was forcing them into a bit of a stupor. It made an opening for members of the Auraboros to retreat.

Along with that shout, Huo Long Yue confidently declared.

"I'll remember you two. I'll take your heads next time!"

Leaving those words, Huo Long Yue kicked the ground, vanishing and appearing like a ghost in every other step, appearing before the Jiangshis.

The two Jiangshis then threw two spherical bombs on the ground, releasing thick smoke in the surroundings.

SWISH!

However, within the thin smoke, a voice rang.

"GAH!"

THEW! THEW!

Along with that shout, another two sounds echoed with a rustle as two sniper bullets pierced through the smoke.

When the smoke vanished, Huo Long Yue and the two Jianshis were not there anymore. Nevertheless, they left something behind.

From the spot where they vanished, a severed arm and two destroyed talismans lay on the ground.

The man with the sword brandished his sword covered in flames, burning the blood on its blade.

At the same time, a beautiful woman with bat wings and a small fairy flew towards him. Three women followed the two behaved like servants.

Jones Galley was quite disappointed. He let the enemy go. However, they were just a match in terms of strength. There was nothing he could do.

Still, he wondered why the other party let those members of Auraboros go when he could surely kill them if he wanted.

On the other hand, Emika held unto the railings of the second floor in relief. She was very nervous as she assisted Jones Galley in the battle. Finally, it was over.

Seeing the group that was on the field, Emika smiled.

"Oi, Uncle!"

She waved with a laugh.