Mutagen

Day 131 - 11:34 PM - Gulph Mills Golf Club Service Compound, Gulph Mills, Upper Merrion Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States of America

BOOM! BOOM!

At the service compound, sounds similar to explosions woke everyone up.

"What the hell is going on now?"

Roan suddenly stood up together with Mariella. It was already their shift as lookouts while the previous two had gone to sleep.

Unfortunately for Arnold and Ernst, it was not long since they closed their eyes, and they had to wake up once more.

"Roan, what was going on?" 

Felicia and the others went to the lobby, clearly disturbed from their sleep.

"Why are you asking me? It's not like I will know that. We can only hear the sounds, but it seems to be far away."

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The sounds echoed once more. It was loud but was definitely coming from somewhere else.

"It's not dangerous, isn't it?"

Abraham voiced out. The situation felt threatening, and he was worried about his whole family.

"We better ask Boss..."

Arnold said.

"Where is Sir Mark anyway?"

Filicia asked after looking around. Everyone was here, except Mark, Mei, Snow, and unexpectedly, Elise.

"Maybe in their room?"

Sandie spoke.

"Alright, let's go ask Boss."

Roan suggested. However, he was stopped.

"We'll go. Men are not allowed there."

Felicia said, grabbing Mariella's hand. She then pulled the latter with her before anyone could say anything.

Mark and Mei's room was at the end of the building, making it detached from the others. It was not like it was on purpose. It was just that the other rooms were not suitable to stay with all the mess left by the apocalypse.

Felicia and Mariella knocked on the doors. No one replied by the clicking of the knob was heard as the door opened slightly.

Unexpectedly, the person that opened the door was Elise.

"Elise? What are you doing here? No wonder you are missing."

Felicia questioned Elise, whose face was half-covered by the door as if she was hiding. As the older sister, Felicia was quite surprised to see her younger sister in other people's rooms.

"I-I can't sleep." Elise hesitated to reply. "I went so see Elder Brother and Elder Sister..."

"Ah, right! Where's Sir Mark?"

Felicia asked, realizing that it was not the time to question her sister.

"Not here..."

That reply from Elise surprised Felicia and Mariella.

"What do you mean? Where did Sir Mark go?" 

Of course, Felicia would question that. But then... 

"Wait, don't tell me..."

An absurd but plausible thing entered Felicia's mind.

"Can we enter?"

Mariella asked, making Elise turn her head inside the room as if asking someone.

"Come in."

Elise timidly opened the door, letting the two enter.

When the two entered and only saw Elise holding on the transparent colored Slime Creature that they had seen with Mei before. On the other hand, Mei was standing by the window, looking blankly at the direction where the loud sounds were coming from. Sitting on her shoulder was another Slime Creature, but black in color.

There was also Snow that looked restless for some reason. Snoe was sitting on the bed near Mei while holding the latter's hand tightly.

The expression Snow had, made Felicia and Mariella remember her reaction this afternoon before the [Empress Spider] detached from her head.

Lastly, there was also the caged [Empress Spider] on the floor, obviously panicked and was trying to leave its cage in fear.

"So, Boss really is..."

Felicia was sure now. With Mei's current reaction, she knew that Mark was the one currently fighting. However, none of them knew what was going on.

It felt frustrating for some reason.

***

Day 131 - 11:43 PM - Glassgow Quarry, King of Prussia, Upper Merion Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States of America

BOOOM!

The ground rumbled as Mark and Heron charged at each other. The rocky walls and ground started to collapse, burying the infected trapped below the deepest parts or the quarry.

The four-meter tall silver giant and a barely two-meter tall demon, fighting each other. The disparity in size could make one say that it was like the battle of David and Goliath.

Heron's claws swiped towards Mark from above. On the other hand, Mark clenched his armored right fist, intending to clash with the Heron.

CLANG!

The sound of metal clashing echoed loudly.

And then...

CRASH!

Mark's feet sunk unto the ground, but both attacks stopped each other.

Still, the disparity in size and weight gave Heron quite an advantage.

"Tch." Mark clicked his tongue. "My strength is still not enough."

Mark already transformed into his demon form. Nevertheless, his strength was still lacking for a straight clash with Heron.

Furthermore, in terms of speed, despite the difference in their sizes, it was the same.

BAM!

Mark suddenly kicked the ground and dodge. The moment he disappeared, Heron's other set of claws smashed to the ground.

As Mark appeared, however, Heron already caught up to him, leaving destruction in his every step. Furthermore, both sets of claws that Heron had was already approaching Mark with the speed that was as fast as a bullet.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The quarry was already destroyed. Its pathways and dug pits were already gone.

Nevertheless, the destruction was getting worse with every attack that Heron made.

Unfortunately, Mark was able to evade the attacks with him leaping great distances. He wanted to make smaller moves as possible to make an opening for a counter-attack. However, Heron's attacks were hard to keep up because of the speed. 

Another thing was that the stones and debris there were also flying around from every missed attack hindered Mark from moving efficiently. If Mark did not leave the place he stood after dodging, he would be buffeted by small stones that shot like a shotgun because of the impact.

But then, the opportunity finally came.

The claws were coming from both sides, trying to attack Mark at the center one after the other. At this point, Mark could jump up and fly, but he would also lose the chance to counter-attack.

Mark's eyes glowed violet. He then saw the trajectory of the claws in advance. His wings then folded as he suddenly flipped his body. It was as if he just made an Olympic high jump.

SWING! SWING!

There, both swings missed. Even though Mark was at the trajectory of the attack, he was not hit at all. The jump that he did made him pass between the claws of the unseen attack.

Mark then landed, looking up at Heron. The silver giant was wide open as his missed attacks could not be pulled back to defend at all.

At the opportunity, Mark's whole body glowed red as his blood stimulated his speed and strength. His wings opened wide and flapped hard. On the single flap that blew all the dust away behind him, Mark added a strong kick on the ground.

BOOM!

The ground shook, and the wind exploded. Mark moved too fast that he could not hear anything, a speed faster than sound.

BAAAM!!!

The surroundings were enveloped with a strong gust of wind as Mark appeared in front of Heron's chest. There, Mark's armored fist was already connected with Heron's silver body.

"GAHAH!"

Heron spat out blood as he felt the rattling pain on his chest. But before he could do anything, he felt his balance collapse. That was when he noticed that he was lifted off the ground and was now pushed into the air.

CRASH!

Heron crashed onto the wheel loaders and machinery left in the quarry that was about fifty meters away from where he stood before. A giant that weight about fifteen tons was flung that far in a single punch.

"Gulp!" 

Heron swallowed out blood left in his mouth as he stood up. He immediately readied himself to attack Mark. But then, he looked around.

Mark was nowhere to be found.

SWIIIIIIIIISHHHH!!!

But then, he heard an almost silent sound. It was the kind of sound created when the wind was resisting an object that was traveling too fast.

And the sound was...

Heron looked above. Mark was there, falling, no, charging towards him straight from the sky. His whole body was glowing red as his speed went faster and faster.

***

Back at the Golf Club, things also became hectic.

The sounds coming from the ongoing battle started to draw the attention of all the infected in the area. A lot of them were running across the golf courses since it was a vast open land that allowed the infected to travel directly towards their goal. 

Unfortunately, the Service Compound was blocking the way for a lot of infected. The Biters and Eaters were still fine and tried to go toward another direction. However, a lot of larger infected tried to bust through their way, trying to demolish the building they were spending the night at.

Without any choice, everyone jumped into action. Roan and the others killed every infected that tried to destroy the building. Still, that had some repercussions too. As they showed themselves in front of the infected, a vast number of the infected shifted their targets.

But then...

"Hey! What is that?!"

Mariella saw something and called out.

Everyone looked at what Mariella was pointing at. And there, they saw a blood-red shooting star, falling from the sky.

From the sky, that red light accelerated towards the ground.

And then... All of them lost balance. A strong earthquake was felt in the surroundings. The infected that already had a worse sense of balance of their body plopped to the ground.

BOOOM!!!

Finally, the sound reached their ears as the cloud of grey dust scattered towards the sky. They could see it clearly even though it was dark because of how high the dust flew up like smoke from an explosion.

SWOOSH!!!

It was followed by a shockwave that destroyed all the glass windows in the surrounding buildings and made Mariella fall to the ground.

All of them might have thought that it was a nuclear missile, if not for the fact that no actual explosion occurred.

Still, what was going on was scary for them.

"Is Boss really fighting there?"

Roan voiced out, unable to comprehend the intensity of that battle.

"I think... it's Sir Mark..." Felicia spoke. "That red light that fell."

Hearing that, everyone froze. If what Felicia said was correct, then Mark caused this earthquake and shockwave.

***

The quarry was now enveloped with a thick cloud of dust. 

It was all after Mark fell from the sky, giving Heron the most powerful kick that he made in his entire life.

In fact, Mark expected the guy to evade. Unexpected, the idiot countered by swinging his claws in a cross, inside out.

And when the claws and foot clashed, the claws broke.

Mark's kick then went straight towards Heron's chest.

From there, the ground sunk in as if a dozen meter wide sinkhole appeared out of nowhere. Then, the collapse of the rocks and the surroundings followed together with the earthquake and the shockwave.

Now, from the dusty cloud, a silhouette shot up. 

A silhouette with several wings, it was definitely Mark.

However, he looked unsightly.

The armor that covered his legs were cracked and broken. It revealed his lacerated skin and muscles. His legs looked like it had been shredded by a beast. The only thing missing was the dripping blood that was nowhere to be seen. However, that only made the appearance of his legs more unsightly. Without the blood, his torn muscles, his ripped skin, and his broken bones were exposed bare, after all.

"Darn, I overdid it. My legs can handle the impact." Mark murmured, feeling the intense pain. He then looked down.

"What about that guy..."

Mark murmured as he flapped his wings, blowing away the dust to an acceptable degree.

And there, Heron was exposed.

"HAHAHAHA!"

Heron laughed. The bastard was delighted. Nevertheless, the result was obvious.

Mark already won.

Heron lay there in the middle of the collapsed crater. His sunken chest and limbs twisted from the impact indicated that he could not move anymore.

"Let's end it here then." 

Christia appeared beside Heron like a ghost. Even the dust was not disturbed by her movements. She then turned towards Mark.

"Congratulations. And thank you for not killing my King."

Christia alluringly smiled.