Mutagen

Day 129 - 10:23 AM - Audubon High School, Audubon, Camden County, New Jersey, United States of America

The sudden appearance of an entity covered in black haze and wielding a black scythe caused the people nearby to freeze. It was even more shocking for the mutator whose attack got blocked with ease.

None of them were able to tell where the entity came from. 

The entity just appeared out of nowhere to block the lethal attack that was aimed at the old man.

As for the old man, he could only stare in front, wide-eyed. His reaction was not surprising, considering that two lethal weapons clashed just several inches away from his face. The loud metallic sound from the clash that entered his ears was far more than enough to shake his soul.

Realizing that he was just a few inches away from his death, the old man subconsciously stepped back in fright and ended up falling unto his bottom.

Luckily, someone blocked the attack for him. If not, the old man was nothing but a corpse now.

As his attack was blocked, the leader of the enemies immediately retreated, jumping backward at fast speeds.

At first, the leader thought that it was a helper from the military that blocked his attack. But a single glance at the surprised and cautious soldiers told him that this entity that blocked his attack was not from the military.

"Who are you?!" The leader shouted. "Why are you barging into our business?!"

But then, he noticed, the entity that blocked his attack was not paying attention.

"You okay, old man?"

They all heard him asked the old man that fell behind him.

"Ah?" The old man was surprised and hurriedly stood up. "Ah, yes. Thank you for saving me."

"Damn it!" The leader cursed. "How dare you ignore me!"

He kicked the ground once more, vanishing from everyone's sight. His movement speed was definitely something else as a human's naked eye could not follow it.

***

"Old man, you should retreat first."

Mark said to the old man.

It was quite close. If Mark did not arrive early, even if Felicia found her father, what she would see was nothing but a corpse with a smashed head.

CLANG!

Another loud metallic sound echoed as he blocked another attack with a frown.

As another attack of his was blocked, the leader retreated once more.

Mark could not help but frown. The strength of level two Mutators could not be trifled with. The first one he encountered was specialized in defense. This one was in speed.

This guy's speed was too fast that even Mark could barely follow his movements. If not for the fact that he could detect him using his [Empathic Detection], Mark might not be able to block the attacks accurately.

Mark could not help but sigh as he started to notice his weakness now. Using his enhanced blood and adrenaline could give him a short boost in strength, speed, and reflex. However, while it was an all-around ability, it could barely contend on specialized enemies like the one he was currently facing.

Even the Jersey Devil called Gregor that he encountered before was specialized in speed, and Mark was not able to do about the guy's escape.

"Well, I guess it's time to power up."

Mark murmured.

He had a lot of crystals to choose from, but he had never consumed another. With the appearance of the level two mutators, he should need something to complement this physical weakness he found out.

"This guy's mutation is not bad."

He continued to murmur as his eyes landed at the enemy in front of him. Besides, this guy's black bone armor was kinda cool-looking.

TANG! CLANG!

Two more loud sounds echoed as Mark blocked two more attacks from the enemy.

BANG!

Another sound followed. This time, it was the sound of Mark's scythe, hitting the enemy's body.

Because of the impact, the enemy flew to the side. He managed to land on his feet but still slid for about two meters before stopping. Furthermore, the enemy leader was still unscathed because of his armor.

The leader was even more frustrated. He could not land any attack on the entity that appeared, but he got hit instead.

Well, at least now, the leader got Mark's attention.

"F*CK!"

"You're asking who I am, right?" Mark spoke. "I'm just a passing-through Kame- ahem. I'm just someone passing by. That's it."

Mark ended his words by brandishing his scythe. He turned into a surge of black mist that moved at fast speeds.

CLANG!

"GAHA!"

The enemy leader shouted in pain as a heavy blow hit his side. The armor might be hard to penetrate or slash, but it did not mean that his organs inside his body would not be rattled by strong attacks. Furthermore, as he was able to move at fast speeds and capable of evading bullets, he was not used to getting hit at all.

"Brother! Stop hiding and help!"

The leader suddenly shouted, making everyone alarmed. That same shout also seemed to have raised the morale of the enemies.

"You said that you can handle this, but now, you are calling for me."

A contemptuous voice was heard by everyone. Everyone hurriedly looked for the source.

Unexpectedly, the voice came from a man sitting atop one of the military's parked tanks.

None of them saw how or when he infiltrated the ranks of the soldiers. Without a doubt, this man was stronger than the leader of the group that was currently attacking.

The soldiers near the man immediately aimed their guns and fired.

Before any bullets could hit the man, however, he vanished.

The next thing that everyone saw was the fountain of blood after the closest group of soldiers around the man were all beheaded. Although the soldiers had bulletproof protection around their neck, it was not able to stop the man from slicing off their heads.

Furthermore, the man did not even transform. He only had the claws on his right hand and nothing else. Yet, none of them saw how he did it.

"Just where the hell did these strong people come from."

One of the soldiers could not help but speak. Although they were still battling with the members of the enemies outside the walls, the sudden appearance of two party-crashers could not help but take their attention.

Not waiting for anything, Mark turned into a puff of black mist and surged towards the new enemy.

CLANG!

The claw and the scythe clashed with each other.

"What a surprise." The new enemy said with a smile. "You're quite fast yourself."

"You can follow my movements, though."

Mark replied.

With that probing attack, one turned to smoke, and the other became a blur.

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

The two vanished and appeared. Every time that their figure appeared, the loud sound of clashing metals echoed.

Even the enemy leader joined the fray. It became a two on one battle. 

Because of the two, the battlefield became silent. Whether it was the soldiers or the outlaws, they were focused on the battle that was happening.

Well, some of the soldiers and the outlaws took this opportunity, though. They started killing those whose concentration was away from the battlefield.

"Concentrate on the enemies! Get away from those them!"

Captain Morrison shouted loudly. Thus, the battle continued.

The casualties were piling up on both sides. Fortunately, Mark was holding the most powerful people among the outlaws. If not, they would be wiped out already.

BAM!

A burst of red light and a loud crash made the two brothers fly backward. They both landed outside the walls while Mark stood on one of the foundations.

Mark looked at the brothers from that elevation. It was just a normal stare, but it looked like he was looking down on them. Well, it was the literal thing but felt like it was not. He then stared at the older brother, the one that appeared later.

"You better transform like your younger brother. You two will die sooner if you don't."

As Mark said, aside from their speed, the two were not his match at all. Besides, he was not using his other abilities in this fight. If he did, it would be easier to kill these two.

But why not?

It was because these two were good training partners. Their speed was fast. If he could get used to their speed without using his other abilities, it would be beneficial for him in the future.

Although he could just kill them and give their abilities to other people and train with them, it was still different. After all, fighting to train and fighting to kill were two different things and would give different results.

Since Mark was not ending it early, however, the battle between the soldiers and the outlaws continued, and more people were getting injured or dying.

Not like Mark could care about them. As long as the reason they were coming here for was fine, the others did not matter.

Mark turned into a puff of smoke once more, appearing in front of the brothers.

BANG!

The scythe and two claws clashed once more.

Unfortunately for the brothers, while their speed was unfathomable, they lacked in strength. The strength of Mark, who was an all-rounder, was more than enough to push them back in a slight clash of attacks.

"RAHHH!!!"

After being pushed back several more times, the older brother roared.

Finally, he decided to transform. Like his younger brother, his body was covered in sturdy bone armor. The difference was that he had scythe-like blades on his forearms, and his armor was dark-red colored.

The brothers vanished once more after the older brother's transformation. 

Mark immediately braced for the attack as he did not know how strong the older brother after transforming.

Then... he was stupefied.

Nothing appeared around him to attack. Instead, he could detect the two running away, leaving their men.

"What the hell. Why did he transform if all he's going to do was to run away?"

Mark scratched his head.

Seeing an entity that looked like a grim reaper scratching his head was quite surreal, though.

In any case, Mark was not in a hurry to catch those two. It was better if they came back, bringing more friends. It would save him the trouble of looking for them. But of course, there was no guarantee to it.

Thus, Mark looked at the direction of the two, with his eyes glowing red.

As the two escaped the area of his detection, he turned towards the outlaws left in a panic. It was not surprising since their leader left them without saying anything in the middle of the battle.

Their morale immediately collapsed, and they started to board their vehicles with the thought of feeing.

Before they could get into their vehicle, however, their heads started to fly off one after another.

"AHHHH!!"

Screams echoed as the soldiers started to put down their guns. 

In front of them, the outlaws were screaming in panic as a man clad in black haze ran about. He was slicing his scythe here and there.

In every wave of his scythe, one or two outlaws would fall down with their necks turning into a fountain of blood and their heads thrown away like rotten cabbages.

The outlaws did their best to resist, shooting the man with the utmost fervor of fear.

However, what could they do when the bullets only passed through the body of the enemy like a ghost?

Unfortunately, they could only curse their rotten luck. They were only following orders, but they had to encounter something inhuman.

In the face of imminent death, many of the outlaws broke down.

While they were able to feel the excitement when killing others, it was the complete opposite when they were facing death. Some of them immediately let go of their guns and cowered down to the ground. They thoroughly lost their will to fight.

Unexpectedly, those who did that ended up being left alive. When the battle died down with almost all of the outlaws dead, those that broke down were easily captured by the soldiers.

The battle was finished. Mark then started tapping on his ring.

Captain Morrison tried to approach Mark to thank him, but they were alarmed by the sound of an oncoming vehicle. The soldiers could not help but put on his guard once more.

"Lower your weapons. That's my car."

A serene voice was heard by the soldiers as they looked at the man clad in a black haze.

Although they were still unsure of the reason why this man appeared here, he was definitely not an enemy. It was easy for him to kill all of them here, but he did nothing to any of them.

Thus, hearing that it was his vehicle, they could only lower their weapons.