Mutagen

Day 25 – 2:38 PM – Rooftop, Joshua Center, Taft Avenue, Ermita, Metro Manila

The members of the monitoring group in Team Fairy became more and more nervous as the crazed infected birds closed unto them. Many of them had no ability to fight at close combat and their physical prowess was rather on the low side. It was due to their abilities being only suited for scouting and monitoring. They could be able to avoid danger from afar but not deal with the danger directly.

Some of them wanted to enter the building once more and avoid the danger but as normal civilians before the outbreak, there was the inherent fear of the military on their minds. They participated in this mission in their own consent and they were told to strictly follow orders lest the mission failed because of them. Now, there were no orders being issued to retreat which made them confused and unable to think properly. Instead of running or getting ready to fight, a number of them were rooted on the spot instead.

Those who accompanied the members of the monitoring group immediately went forward. It was their duty to protect the people they accompanied after all. It was the same for the soldiers and their actions became fiercer and fiercer the closer the infected birds came.

While they were lost, Odelina's voice entered their ears.

When people were lost and did not know what to do, they would likely follow the first instruction they would hear even though they did not know whether it was reasonable or not. Sometimes, it caused bad decisions and would often lead to a worse situation just because they were not able to process the possible consequences of the action. Fortunately, that was not the case this time.

As everyone gathered around Odelina's team shooting the birds that were already just several feet away from them, a dome shaped barrier appeared encasing everyone inside.

The crazed infected birds slammed unto the semi-transparent barrier with high speeds. Some slammed head first while others splattered their whole body unto the barrier. With an audible sizzling sound, the bodies of the infected birds that stuck themselves unto the barrier started to emit smoke as their feathers and skin started to become charred.

Some of the weaker birds that dived head-first unto the barrier immediately died after their heads became charred after penetrating the barrier for a bit. The stronger ones had their heads stuck inside the barrier and those who were still clear headed among the people immediately tried to attack those head to end the infected birds. Before they could do so however, the barrier burned the necks of the birds before closing the holes which decapitated those infected birds almost instantly.

Seeing the situation, the people inside the barrier could not help but feel relieved. They did not know where this barrier came from but it was likely that it was an ability of someone here. The man with the spear remembered that this same barrier appeared before when the little cat girl was in danger. He looked at the center of the barrier and saw Iola whose left eye was glowing red with her hand outstretched to the direction where the birds were coming from.

All the birds slammed unto the barrier which took a large toll on the little girl. Fortunately, the infected birds lost the ability to fight after they slammed unto the barrier. Some birds that hit the barrier with their bodies were still alive but with their feathers burned and limbs charred, they combat capabilities became next to zero. With all the remaining birds now lying on the rooftop, the barrier vanished and Iola slumped to the floor. She was immediately abandoned her sniper rifle and lifted by Mei and let her sit beside her position.

"Mama, did I do well?"

Iola asked as she sat beside Mei.

"Yes, you did well. Leave the rest to us and rest."

Mei replied and caressed Iola's head making the little girl smile with satisfaction.

Iola lost her memories of the past including her real family, friends and the bad things that happened to her. In exchange, she remembered something else. During the time the crystals activated back then when Mark disappeared, the little girl felt the crystal calling to her. Upon contact, she remembered fragments of memories of abilities that formerly belonged to someone called Keeper.

She felt that she had met the woman called Keeper before but she could not remember. However, her abilities were ingrained in the little girl's mind. It included about the existence of the PsyCrystal that had already chosen Mark as the bearer. It also allowed her to be able to tell that her current father was still alive somewhere. Actually, as the inheritor of the creator of the [PsyCrystal], she should be able to sense where it was once it found a bearer but it needed to be supplied by the bearer with mental or psychic energy in order for her to sense where it was. It made her unable to understand why she could not sense where her Papa was now.

Keeper was a rare person who had two psychic abilities and the second one was called [Heat Wither Barrier]. It was being able to conjure an energy barrier. The surface of the barrier was extremely hot but that was not the lethal thing about it. Heat should not be able to injure someone instantly and lethally in the slightest touch but because of the wither trait of the barrier, it would inflict some corrosive effect on the surface and causes more lethal damage than the heat was supposed to do. It was just because the heat the barrier emit on the surface, it was misunderstood as being burned or charred rather than being corroded.

Seeing the weakened state of the girl, the other people around of course would be able to relate the barrier that appeared to her. The men could only send a thankful glance while the women were able to say thanks directly. Why was that the case for the men? It was because Mei's group of women and children were known because of rumors for trashing men that came near them. It ignored the fact however that those men that were trashed were those that came with ulterior motives.

"Team Fairy, come in! Team Fairy! Report your status!"

The voice of Lieutenant Herrera who was the transceiver operator was heard from Irene's radio.

"Ah! We're fine! We're fine! The situation is under control! All the infected birds had been eliminated! No casualties to report either."

Irene replied in a fluster.

"Good! Please proceed to give assistance to the ground troops. More infected were coming out of the hospital."

"Roger!"

The team went back to their duties while the other soldiers and members that were not snipers and had no monitoring abilities went to remove the dead bodies of the birds. While Mei started shooting on the infected at the hospital grounds once more, Iola who now sat beside Mei with Abbygale called unto Odelina.

"Auntie, that head, that one and that."

The little girl pointed at a decapitated head of a mutated bird and two other bodies.

Odelina on the other hand knew what she meant and crushed the heads of the bodies the little girl pointed to. On the remains of the heads, there were small black pebbles among their brain matter.

They had been collecting these pebbles since then and right now, they already had fifty two including the three pebbles Odelina had just taken. This was also the first time they found three in one go. Unfortunately, Iola had no ability to turn these pebbles into [Physical Crystals] without the help of the [PsyCrystal].

This number of pebbles from the mutated infected however would surely make Mark happy when he return.

***

Forty-Five minutes after the storming of the hospital started. More than two thousand infected had already been eliminated inside and outside the premises of the hospital. In two hundred people that participated in the mission, fifteen had unfortunately died or turned while thirty had been injured. The climax of the battle was starting.

ROOOOOAAARRR!!!

With a loud roar and a rumbling sound inside the hospital, everything went silent. It was not only the soldiers and survivors participating in the mission but also the infected.

CRASH!

The front of the main hospital building crumbled and a huge figure leapt out of the crumbling building.

The figure looked like someone that overdosed in steroids. It was an infected man that stood three and a half meters tall with rock like muscles on its body. It landed and moved on all fours like a gorilla. The most noticeable thing was that its skin on its bulging muscles looked lacerated and spewing black corrosive blood that sizzled after dripping on the cemented ground.

The moment it landed, it grabbed a parked sedan near it and threw it to the people in front. Unable to react immediately, the people should have been crushed by the vehicle thrown unto them. Fortunately, a Mutator near them transformed his body into a muscular one as if contending with the new infected and caught the thrown vehicle before throwing the vehicle back.

BAM! CRASH!

The infected had no intellect to catch the vehicle thrown back to it and the vehicle crashed on its body. The vehicle became a mangled mess but the infected was unscathed. It lifted the mangled vehicle and pulled its body apart and threw the parts it was holding randomly. One of the thrown half of the vehicle almost hit Nikky and her group that was with the main storming team but managed to evade it. The other half however was thrown unto the infected to the side crushing and injuring many of them.

ROOOOAARRR!!!

The huge infected roared once more and the actions of the infected around even the [Leader Types] became more ferocious. Their pale eyes started to turn reddish and their already scary expressions became worse. The infected started screaming ferociously as they all attacked with rage.

At the same time, the large infected also charged forward. Each move it made caused weak tremors around it and splattered its corrosive blood around.

The sounds of guns became fiercer in response to the change with the infected's behavior. The soldiers also started to take out their grenade launchers and rocket launchers that they were saving. The number of infected that constantly ran out of the hospital was more than what the number the hospital should be able to accommodate with was rather strange.

Several explosions occurred after the grenades landed on the large infected but it was still unscathed. It did not take long for everyone to understand that they were just wasting ammunition and explosives if their target was the large infected that stormed out of the hospital.

With their blood boiling, several Mutators along with Keene confronted the large infected. It was a risky attempt but they had no choice. While they stall this big guy, it would allow the others to deal with the scattered infected with less risk involved.

Keen had already run out of ammunition as someone in the front of the battle and the current situation did not allow him to replenish his bullets. In this case, several bladed bones protruded out of his palms and wrist and dealt with the threat in close combat.

The large infected tried to punch one of the Mutators fighting it after losing balance. If this punch connected, the man would surely turn into meat paste.

BANG!

A gunshot echoed and the fist that was raised up did not tall down but was pushed even more backwards.

BANG!

The same fist was hit once more with the sniper bullet and the man finally managed to escape while the infected staggered backwards. It could not help but roar in anger which caused even more disturbance among both the infected and the people.

BANG!

The mouth of the large infected bled as a hole opened up inside its mouth and breaking its jaw. Its mouth could only remain opened.

BANG!

Another bullet entered its mouth making stagger backwards and its head pushed facing upwards.

BANG!

The final bullet tore through its palate and into its brain. The bullet did not managed to pierce out of its skin and the infected could only bleed in its mouth as it fell down.

The Mutators around could not fathom what happened. Still, they were grateful that this scary creature was done for.

CRYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

It was then that a loud shriek was heard from the interior of the main hospital building followed by the rumbling of the whole compound. The main hospital building started to collapse making the people inside the compound retreat as quickly as possible.

The dust soon dissipated and it could be seen that the whole building crumbled. In its place, a seven meter tall mound of flesh with half of a woman's body protruding out of the mound. With her enraged shriek, several dozens of human sized tentacles surged out sweeping everything on its path.