Mutagen

Day 130 - 2:19 PM - Browning Square, Bellmawr, Camden County, New Jersey, United States of America

Browning Square. It was where the Outlaws previously led by Jude, Illia, and Else resided.

With the sudden disappearance of their leaders, however, turned the place upside down. These outlaws had their respective factions within this group. All these factions were held together by Jude using force and coercion. Not what they were gone, the strongest ones among the outlaws started to contend for leadership.

After all, to these kinds of people, who did not want to be the leader? The leader was feared, had benefits, and command the whole group. There were a lot of benefits to being the leader of a lawless group like this.

But of course, the question was whether they would be able to defeat the other contenders for the position.

And there was the problem lay.

It should be just a contest between powers, or everything would be meaningless. If one of the factions could suppress the others, things would immediately end with a new leader rising in the group. The winning side would not wantonly kill the losing side either since, without enough members, the group would cease to function.

But what about if the factions had equal power and none of them wanted to admit defeat?

It would turn into a deadly battle.

That was what was currently happening in the Browning Square.

Three factions were fighting for supremacy, and each side had two leaders.

One of the factions had already been defeated after one of their leaders died and the other heavily injured. Now, what was left of them stood watching by the side as the two remaining factions fought each other.

In the remaining two factions, one was led by the Swift Brothers. Because of the failure of their last mission, they had lost a lot of people under them. However, the two alone managed to fight equally against the members of the opposite side.

As for the other side, it was led by a man and a woman. Behind them were the stronger members of this group.

And right now, both groups were facing against each other in a deathmatch.

***

Mark used [Optical Camouflage] on himself and landed atop the concrete signboard of the Browning Square. It was very close to the two groups currently facing each other.

Looking around, Mark found too many dead bodies. It seemed that these people did not care anymore who would die in this battle. The slaves had it worse and were dragged into this bloodshed too.

"Swift Brothers, you pair of cowards. Just give up."

The woman on the opposite faction called out with arrogance.

Mark looked at her and could not help but feel interested.

Of course, not because he was a woman, but because of her mutation.

Both her arm and legs were covered in rainbow-colored scales, and she had claws as white as pearl. Most people might only see it as something beautiful, but Mark could feel that it was more than just that.

"Dragon scales?"

Mark murmured.

He was not sure about it. However, he felt a familiar vibe from these scales. It was similar to the mutation of the boss and the young master of Death Valley Settlement.

If that was the case, it was no wonder that the Swift Brothers were having a hard time facing her.

"Don't f*ck with me!"

The older one of the Swift brothers charged forward. Blood splattered around as he cut the heads of the woman's lackeys that tried to block him.

He then appeared behind the woman, trying to behead her too. But before his bone blade could reach her neck, the woman raised her arm.

CLANG!

The older Swift failed his attack, and he could only retreat.

Mark watched that happen and could only nod.

Both these brothers were speed types. Although their bone blades were sharp, they were still lacking in strength to be able to cut through the woman's scales. 

Furthermore, the younger brother was also entangled against the other leader of the opposing faction.

The second leader was a muscular man. He had exaggeratedly bulging muscles with an unnatural copper sheen. Furthermore, he was only wearing speedos.

No matter how one looked at him, he looked like he just went out of a bodybuilding competition after overdosing steroids.

And the worst of it...

"Honey, just give up. You and your brother are on the losing side already."

He had a sharp campy voice that did not match his appearance at all.

"Just what manga did that guy jumped out of?"

Mark murmured with a shiver. Seeing this in real life, he could not understand how anime and manga protagonists felt after encountering such a creature.

"F*ck off!"

The younger Swift brother shouted as he disappeared in place. He then appeared, crouching to the side of the Speedo Guy, slashing his bone blade towards the enemy's leg.

PAKIN!

However, that sound of breaking metal echoed as the Speedo Guy slapped the blade from above, breaking it into two. The Speedo Guy then followed with a punch.

The punch seemed weak. However, the pressure that it gave was enough to make a person freeze in fear.

Of course, the punch missed, unable to match the speed of the younger Swift Brother.

"It's a stalemate, huh."

That was Mark's deduction of the situation.

Since the leaders of the factions could not do anything to each other, it was no wonder that the people following their leaders were the ones dying instead.

To win this battle, the leader of the other faction should at least submit. However, both sides could not do anything to deal with each other.

If the woman with rainbow scales and the Speedo Guy wanted to win, they needed to catch the Swift Brothers. However, they did not have the speed required to do so. The only thing they could do was stand in place and anticipate the attack of the brothers and aim for a counter-attack. 

On the other hand, while the Swift Brothers had the speed, they lacked the strength to defeat the two enemy leaders. Furthermore, since the two enemies were not attacking, the brothers had no choice but to keep charging.

What made the situation even worse was that the battle here had drawn the attention of the infected. Many of them were running to this place.

"Soo, the walls will be knocked down, and this place will become a graveyard."

Mark said after seeing the large number of infected trying to break down the walls that the outlaws erected around this place.

Some were trying to clear the infected from their positions. However, they were lacking in hands as many people already died because of the power struggle.

"I'll wait a bit."

Mark said as he searched for a comfortable sitting position atop the concrete signboard.

After five minutes, however, Mark was already yawning.

The leaders had their strengths and weaknesses. And this battle had the worst pairing.

"Those brothers had too much pride. It should be easier if they both dealt with one enemy first before killing the other."

That was what Mark observed. These brothers were cowards if their enemy was far stronger than them. But if it was equal or below to them in strength, they would not budge.

The Swift Brothers wanted to deal with one leader each. And it was more like they were competing on who would be able to defeat their enemy instead.

"But it's not getting anywhere," Mark complained. "They are just wasting time."

Mark then turned to the side.

"At the end of this all, that guy will be the true winner."

There, a man was smiling as he rested leaning to the wall of a pizza house. The man looked heavily injured. Nevertheless, Mark knew that the guy was only pretending.

"Oh, well." Mark stretched his arms and back. "I'll free the imprisoned people first and let them wait outside."

Mark murmured after giving the battle the last glance. He then jumped off and sneaked into the main building.

***

Inside the main building that was made to look like an extravagant castle by Jude's command, there were two dungeons. These two places segregated male and female prisoners. The males were used for manual labor while the females became playthings for the sexually frustrated outlaws.

And all of them had already given up on their current life.

After all, whether they live here or escape, what was waiting for them was death. Although they were suffering, in the least, they could live longer. Of course, some could not stand it and already took their own lives.

The ones left here were those that were afraid to die.

Now, all of them were only waiting for the outcome of the change of regime in this group of outlaws.

But at this moment...

"WHO! WHO ARE YOU AND HOW DID YOU GET IN HERE?!"

The enraged shouts of the guards were heard by the prisoners.

They all felt curious and afraid. None of the prisoners knew what was happening, after all.

No answers were heard for that question, however.

Instead...

SPLAT! ROLL!

The prisoners saw the heads of the guards rolling on the other side of the dungeon, splattering blood all over.

They were all terrified at that scene.

Then, they saw a man carrying using two odd-looking blades walking in front of their dungeons, not minding the splashing of blood under his feet.

The man faced the metal bars of the dungeon, looking at the prisoners.

There, the prisoners felt terrified when the man raised his blades toward them. They could not help but turn their heads in fear.

SHING! SHING! CLANG!

The sounds of metal clashing with each other and falling to the floor echoed across the building.

"All of you should prepare to get out."

They heard the man speak and looked in front of them in shock.

The metal bars that confined them had already cut into pieces.

That was when the thought caught up to their minds. The person standing in front of them was here to set them free.

"A-are you here to help us?!"

One of the male prisoners asked.

"Don't ask too many questions," Mark replied. "Just follow behind me if all of you want to get out of this place. Also, carry the ones that can't walk properly. I don't want to waste time waiting for slowpokes."

The male prisoner gulped. The others also just followed Mark's commands. More than the fear they felt from him, they all just want to get away from this place. Even if Mark was a stranger to them, this could only be their chance to escape.

To the prisoners' surprise, Mark was blatantly leading them out of the main door instead of sneaking out through somewhere secluded.

"S-Sir, isn't it better if we just sneak out?"

A female prisoner asked.

"Why?" 

Mark turned and tilted his head.

"W-we are escaping, right?"

The female prisoner hesitated but still asked.

"No? I'll make it clear," Mark shrugged. "I'm not leading you all to escape. I'm leading you all out to leave this place. Get the difference?"

"S-Sir, you don't mean..."

Most of the prisoners gulped their saliva.

"Yeap, we will leave this place straight in front of them. In a sense, I guess... Actually, I plan to kill all those that captured you guys. I just let you all out first since it will be troublesome if they suddenly took all of you as a hostage."

Hearing that declaration, the prisoners felt their legs go weak.

They looked at Mark.

'This guy doesn't seem to know fear.' They all thought.

There, several steps could be heard from the main hall.

"STOP!"

A shout was heard, and a dozen people armed with guns blocked Mark and the prisoners.

"We're doomed!"

Some of the prisoners cried out.

On the contrary...

"I guess, let's try this one out."

Mark said with a smile as he stretched his right arm forwards with his palm facing the enemies.

A crystal then appeared in front of this palm, which emitted a faint glow.

Then, the armed men in front of them froze to the prisoners' shock.

That was when the prisoners noticed something odd.

Lines of blood appeared on the faces of the outlaws, and their clothes started to divide by itself.

PLOP! PLOP! PLOP!

That was when the standing armed outlaws started to crumble, turning into pieces of sliced flesh and bones that splattered on the ground.