Mutagen

Day 126 - 1:15 PM - Monitoring Division, Atlantic City Parks Department, Great Island, Atlantic City, New Jersey, United States of America

The soldiers in the monitoring room watched their monitors in amazement.

Although they could not see everything, they managed to witness how Mark appeared and disappeared from the rooftop of the hotel tower. Every time that he reappeared, he would have people popping out with him.

The soldiers immediately recognized the people Mark had brought back at the rooftop. Furthermore, even though it was hard to follow Mark's movements, some of the drones managed to record how he saved some of these people, especially the mutators that were left trapped in the lower floors of the tower.

While the soldiers were both relieved and thankful that Mark started saving these people, they could not help but notice that he was choosing which ones to save, and which ones he should not.

Although they found it reasonable if he was choosing those that deserved to be saved, they could not help but feel a bit dismayed as to how Mark could throw away the lives of others like trash.

Especially when Mark purposedly threw three infected inside one of the hotel rooms. They immediately controlled a drone to see why. There, the main screen in the monitoring room displayed how two men tried to struggle to open the door of the hotel. It was all before they were torn to pieces by the infected that was thrown inside by Mark.

Since they did not see what the two men did, they thought that Mark just wanted to kill them. It was until they saw a glimpse of Mark appearing in the hallway to save the children on the same floor as those two men.

They were soldiers with experience. It was not hard to understand why Mark did that. If they had children in that same situation, they might have done the same.

Still, watching by the side, unable to do anything... as honorable soldiers, it left a bad taste in their mouths.

Then, after Mark saved the three children, they felt strange as they saw Mark staring down to the lower rooftop.

"Quick! Find out what he is looking at!"

Major McGuire immediately commanded. For Mark to suddenly behave like that after moving about, there could be something wrong.

And the Major's hunch was right.

A few seconds later, their central monitor showed a pale-skinned woman standing in the middle of the infected horde latched with hundreds of spiders.

Even the mutated infected cellar spider latched at the back of the head of the woman looked very different from the others, especially that its body was glowing.

"What the hell is that?"

One of the soldiers could not help but voice out. Nevertheless, none of them could say anything else. This was also the first time for them to see that woman among the infected. They never expected this.

But then, an unexpected thing happened.

The woman turned her head. Her lifeless but glowing eyes were facing the drone they currently had in the central monitor.

It might just be a coincidence. That was what everyone thought.

However, what was this sense of crisis that they were currently feeling right now?

They were just watching through the camera feed from the drone.

But why did it felt like the woman was staring directly at them?

Then, the woman suddenly jumped back.

What replaced the scene at the monitor was Mark, cloaked with Miasma, brandishing his scythe towards the woman.

***

Day 126 - 1:15 PM - Bally's Casino, Atlantic City, New Jersey, United States of America

"Tch, I missed." 

Mark clicked his tongue as he waved the scythe in his hands.

He attacked while the enemy was distracted by the drone. However, he still missed it.

It was hard to hit two enemies at the same time, after all.

One empress? That was what would think if they saw this woman. After all, the mutated cellar spiders would deprive the host of their will and control the host like a puppet.

It was different with this woman, however.

The mutated cellar spider was showing signs of consciousness. It was the same for the woman host in front of Mark.

One was an insect [Empress Type], the other was a human [Queen Type]. Both were high class infected.

"Food... Enemy..."

A faint voice could be heard from the woman. Nevertheless, the two words seemed to be conflicting.

There was no doubt that one came from the woman, and the other came from the spider.

'I want to catch these two.'

That was what Mark had in mind.

It was the first time Mark encountered a [Queen Type] in the wild. As for the insect, it was the second time. However, the one he had back in the base was still a juvenile, unlike the one currently in front of him.

Mark vanished from his spot, leaving a trail of a black mist moving at fast speeds towards the two enemies. He appeared beside the woman, brandishing his [Blood Whip] to constrain the woman.

Of course, it would not be that easy.

As the [Blood Whip] circled around the woman's body, she immediately jumped, escaping the constraints before it could even touch her.

Then, while mid-air...

PUH!

The woman spat towards Mark.

A white ball shot out of the woman's mouth with a string that connected the ball to the woman's mouth.

As she closed her mouth, the ball expanded, turning into a large net that tried to trap Mark.

It was a futile attempt, however.

Mark's body blurred, letting the net pass through his body. The net fell to the ground while Mar was still standing at the same place.

Seeing that the attack failed, the string connecting to the woman's mouth was bitten off. She landed a distance away from Mark, staring at him fiercely.

"Dangerous Enemy... Prey..."

The conflicting voice was heard once more.

Then, with her glowing orange eyes, the woman waved her hands forwards. From the tips of her fingers, white thread shot out in different directions.

Mark stood there, anticipating what kind of attack this woman would do.

Then, the woman crossed her arms in front of her, causing all sorts of things, from dead bodies, to heavy debris, to fly towards Mark's direction. Each of these things was pulled by the strings on the woman's finger.

As the things pulled by the strings flew towards Mark, he brandished his scythe fiercely.

The dead and infected bodies were cut, the other furniture was broken, and the pieces of heavy debris crumbled to pieces.

That scene made the woman show an unsightly expression on her face. Even the spider latched on her head started hissing.

"RAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!"

A high pitched scream was let out from the woman.

Everything went silent.

Then...

GGGGGGGGGGGGRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!

The deafening roars of hundreds of infected, roaring at the same time, filled the whole place.

Everyone felt dizzy at the sudden screams that could be heard even a kilometer away.

Then, the bodies of the infected latched by spiders started mutating further.

Their muscles burst out, their skin was filled with spikes, and their mouths burst to pieces.

They hunched over violently. Long, thin, but sturdy segmented legs burst out of their backs. These legs had a metallic sheen, and the hair that covered the legs looked like deadly hooks.

Lifting their bodies with those eight thin legs, the faces of the infected that were covered as they hunched their bodies were revealed.

Their eyes were all black like a spider's, and they had mandibles growing out of their jaws.

Finishing their mutation, the infected started to surge towards Mark.

"You guys think that only you guys had something like that?"

Mark smiled.

Hunching his body over, eight [Blood Whips] burst out from his back, above and below his two pairs of bat wings. The [Blood Whips] immediately turned into segmented limbs, far more threatening in appearance that the spider legs that the infected had.

Unexpectedly, the woman leading the horde showed a surprised expression. She was staring intently at the sinister weapons on Mark's back.

"Eat..."

Mark suddenly felt the hair on his nape stand up. He turned towards the queen and the spider empress.

For some reason, Mark felt he made a mistake trying to compete with these infected.

"RAAAHHHH!!!"

The woman let out another shriek causing the infected around to go berserk. They started to swarm Mark with great ferocity.

Spear-like stabs rained towards Mark as the infected brandished their newly acquired spider limbs to pierce his body.

SHING!

Of course, Mark's own metal limbs moved with more agility and received each pierce that came his way. As the tips of his metal limbs were blades, everything that clashed with it turned into slices of spider leg sticks.

Furthermore, he moved faster than all the infected here. They could not hold him in once place as he obliterated them one by one.

But then, Mark noticed some odd-looking infected that started to join the fray. They also had spiders at the backs of their heads. However, the spiders looked smaller than the others. Furthermore, it looked like they mutated this way long ago as their spider limbs looked more solid and the blood on their bodies from mutating already dried up.

Nevertheless, the infected they latched one was stronger and faster.

They even managed to cope with Mark's speed to some extent.

However, it was far from enough.

The scythe in Mark's hands melted into blood that entered his body and he finally pulled the two blade-whips out.

As he had his eight metal limbs out, the two blood whips lost its versatility without a [Blood Whip] controlling it from inside. Nevertheless, the two whips danced in a ferocious manner that torn the incoming infected into pieces of blood and meat.

Still, while Mark killed the odd infected and the smaller spiders that latched unto their heads, why did Mark feel more goosebumps.

***

Above the hotel tower, the thirteen people that Mark saved watched the scene below in disbelief.

Morgan's display earlier was already amazing.

Yet, the man that saved them was currently fighting with hundreds of infected...

Alone...

Furthermore, the infected already mutated into more ferocious ones.

But they could still not hold a candle against the strange man.

"He's still holding back. I can tell."

Arnold voiced out. He was not the leader of this group for nothing. He was the best fighter of the group and was actually here in Atlantic City for an underground battle.

As an experienced fighter, he could see that Mark was still not showing the full extent of his abilities.

But why?

He could not tell the reason. After all, it was more of a gut feeling.

Nevertheless, why did it seem like the battle below was strange?

The strange female infected stopped attacking and stood by the side, watching her underlings and Mark fight to their death.

"Huh?"

One of the mutators on the roof finally noticed something.

"Ernst, is something wrong?"

Arnold asked.

Ernst on the other hand stared at the scene below with a frown. He seemed to be recalling something from his mind. It was not an odd scene for everyone was this guy always did this. After all, he was a biologist here for a vacation before the outbreak started.

"I don't know but... That large glowing spider should be female. If it is the leader of this horde of spiders, then it is some sort of queen, right?"

Everyone nodded at this assumption. It was reasonable.

"I don't know if this applies here since spiders don't really make colonies or live in groups that frequently. But what if you guys compare these spiders to bees... Then, the common ones were workers."

The comparison was rather odd, but they could understand the logic.

"Look at those strange ones that had smaller spiders. In other insect colonies, the males are smaller. Since they are weaker and only grew to mate, there were only some instances that they would fight. It was when they contend who would breed the queen."

Everyone looked at Ernst.

"Is your head okay?"

That was their question.

Nevertheless, why did it seem like he was right?