Mutagen

Day 36 – 12:02 AM – Barangay Poblacion I, Real, Quezon

A trail of black mist waved through the air and landed on the roof of the house. Mark appeared while looking at the direction of the pickup truck that was now surrounded by the remaining outlaws. For sure, they were all ready to confront him the moment he appeared. Unfortunately for them, not every outlaw remaining were still in shape, both mentally and physically, to stay and fight. It would have been better for them to have retreated already but it looked like that the ego of their leader would not accept it.

As preparation for the final fight, Mark controlled three [Blood Whips] and opened the locks that kept the [Defier] on place at the back of his armor and brought the shield on his hands. At the back of the shield, the four remaining weapons were stored and could be seen clearly. Two of the weapons were a pair of gauntlets with different designs and shapes. One of the last two was a pole with a diamond shaped blade that was attached at the middle of the back of the shield and the other was a foot long dagger.

He removed the two gauntlets which he called [Defender], the left gauntlet, and [Attacker], the right gauntlet. The gauntlets even though made as a pair, was made differently for specific functions. [Defender] had a thicker body than [Attacker] and would not lose in terms of toughness and defensive ability to [Defier] except that it was smaller than the shield. This gauntlet also had the slot to attach [Defier] which increased its defensive ability several times more.

The [Attacker] on the other hand was made lighter and was equipped with more attacking functions. Not to mention that it could perfectly dock on the bracer Mark was already wearing on his right arm where the needle crossbow and the needle case were attached.

Mark fused the [Slicer] and [Divider] into a great sword with a rectangular shaped double-edged blade and held it in his right hand while he raised the [Defier] on his left. If it were just the normal mobs, Mark would not prepare this way but there was no mistake for being cautious especially when he could sense the difference of some of the outlaws that were close to the vehicle, not to mention the guy arrogantly standing at the back of the pickup truck.

Even though it would surely be a frontal confrontation in the end, Mark would not just show himself in the open. Mark tapped the crossbow on his arm and let it transform into its attack form. He then aimed for the man on the pickup truck and went for the shot. That guy was surely the leader of this bunch and it would be over easier if the guy was to go down first. Still, he had no absolute expectations that the man would go down easily.

As he thought, the man did not go down. He did not even dodge though it was obvious that he noticed the incoming projectile despite the darkness of the night.

TING!

A metallic sound echoed as the needle Mark shot hit the man's forehead. With the torches and the reflecting light coming from the vehicle, Mark could see that the man's forehead was covered with reddish colored scales that blocked the needle and caused it to bounce away. The outlaw leader turned towards the roof where the attack came from but he did not see anything as Mark had already vanished into a puff of mist. Not even seeing the attacker as he received the sneak attack made him more furious.

***

"BOSS! Are you fine?"

The elite outlaw nearest to him saw what happened and hurriedly asked for his condition.

"Freize, you think that's enough to hurt me?" Drake glared at the man called Freize with displeasure before he bellowed to all his men. "All of you! Peel your eyes open! The enemies are attacking!"

Drake was totally displeased. Not to mention that Lieucer that he sent as a messenger did not return. For sure, that guy had been done in.

"Yes Bo-GUAH!!!"

His men had not even finished affirming his orders when their reply was cut short by a painful scream. One of the outlaws at the outer part of the protective encirclement fell with a bloody needle sticking out of his right eye. However, he was not the last.

"GAH!"

"AHHH!!!"

"GAHA!!"

Several screams followed suit. The outlaws, one after another, fell down either dead or wailing in pain. All of them had dart sized needles sticking out of their faces, foreheads or eyes.

The outlaws immediately searched for the attacker but the greatest problem they had was that the attacks were coming from different directions. Furthermore, they were in the open with nowhere to hide but they could not even see the shadow of their assailant.

"Ogre, how many enemies do we have?"

Drake asked another elite outlaw by the side of the pickup truck. This guy with a tall nose, tall height and finely shaped muscles was the most experienced here in terms of combat due to him being an overseas mercenary. This person was in this country due to his contracted work but got caught in the middle of the outbreak. Through Drake's influence and money, he was able to hire this man as his guard and join the organization under him.

"There's only one." Ogre replied with his deep voice. "It may look like several people since the attacks were coming from a different or opposite direction in an instant after the previous attack but each attack still had a short interval. If it was an attack from several people, there would be several attacks in the same moment but this is not the case. It could be either our enemy could move really fast or… not human at all. Or maybe…"

"What do you have in mind?" Drake asked while he suddenly waved his arm that was already covered in reddish scales deflecting another needle coming for him.

"Do you believe in superpowers?"

Ogre sternly asked his employer.

"Superpowers? Like those Kryptoman and Incredible Mutant have?"

Drake asked in disbelief.

"Not quite boss. What I'm saying are those with psychic abilities, Espers." Ogre replied. "I had heard a lot of rumors about them in my line of work and even encountered one before with the ability to manipulate objects. These people are dangerous. If the enemy right before us is the same, it's better if you call for retreat now or we'll be annihilated here."

"Can't we fight them? It's not like they are immortal."

"We can fight them if we knew their powers. Given that we can't even see the shadow of our enemy, what are we going to fight?"

Drake felt being poured with water by what Ogre had just said. He let his anger get into his head that he let his men get obliterated one by one. Biting his lip that could not even bleed due to the reddish scale that automatically appeared to protect his skin from his own bite, he decided to call for retreat. However…

"You seem to know a lot don't you?"

All of the outlaws froze and all looked towards the source of the voice. Drake and Ogre was not an exception.

Atop the roof of the pickup truck, just a step away from Drake, a man clad in strange armor squatted. On his back was a strange shaped meter long sword while on his arms was a mini-sized crossbow and a shield that was just a little bit smaller than his torso.

***

Mark was still waving around the slaughter field as a black mist when he heard the leader and one of his men talking about Espers. He could not help but stop to join them a little. Even though this guys were enemies, talks about Espers, not just the rumors, but talks about actual Espers were too rare to pass by.

Well, it looked like they were only talking about reasons to retreat so Mark became disappointed. In any case, he would leave the burly man for last to get some information. That was if the man could survive the next attack.

As everyone was taken aback, those who were already overcome by fear aimed at Mark and indiscriminately fired not minding that their boss was just a step away from him.

RATATATATAT!!!

Several dozens of bullets were fired at Mark.

The situation was even dangerous to Drake that he also jumped off the pickup truck.

The pickup truck was filled with holes and the windows were all blasted into pieces. Luckily, no one was inside the vehicle or else, those people would have become a collateral death.

The most unfortunate thing however, the remaining outlaws surrounded the vehicle in all directions and the gunfire came in the same way. Aside from Drake and his elites that jumped back into safety, the outlaws whose minds were already engulfed by fear ended up killing one another in that situation.

And the worst thing… None of the bullets hit their enemy at all as he had already vanished out of their sight.

"WHAT THE F*CK ARE YOU IMBECILES DOING! YOU ALL F*CKING USELESS MAGGOTS!!!"

Drake could not help but shout swear after swear on top of his lungs. However, there was no one to answer him anymore as all the response he heard were some painful wailing.

Only Drake and his nine elites were left standing. Even though not all of the remaining other outlaws died, all of them were injured lying on the ground and some were already dying after being hit on their vital areas.

However, Mark was not giving them any breather anymore. He appeared to the furthest elite, a man who had a rather lean body. Obviously, this one was an agile kind of Mutator and his sword would not work on this guy.

SHING!

A metallic swiping sound was made when the [Attacker] on Mark's hand changed its form. The semi-circular part under the gauntlet rotated forwards before locking in front of his fist revealing four bladed claws. Mark swiped the claws towards the lean outlaw's neck.

Unfortunately, the man had a good reflex. The claws hit his neck leaving four scratches but it was not deep as the man made his body fall backwards in the last second. The man rolled back ignoring the wound on his neck and jumped forwards in a decisive manner wanting to stab Mark with his dagger since the distance was too short for him to be able to aim his assault rifle.

Mark smiled and let the dagger approach him while he stepped sideward lining the lean man and the other outlaws behind him. He then pulled the [Defier] to block the attack. The centerpiece of the shield was pushed once more and the inner layers snapped open releasing another volley of a hundred needles.

Not only the lean man was taken aback but also the other elites that was already on the way to help. The lean man was buffeted with holes and slumped down on the ground while the other needles flew straight towards his supposed reinforcements.

Out of the remaining elites, three were directly buffeted with the needles and one of those three also died after several needles drilled holes on his face. The other two was less injured but they were bleeding on different parts of their bodies.

There were supposed to be two more that were hit by their needles but one was able to move his hands too fast and caught the remaining needles coming unto him while the other totally ignored the needles that bounced off his gray colored skin akin to a rock.

All these elites along with the boss were not only Mutators but were also veteran fighters. Even the lean man, if not for the surprise attack on his shield, he would not be so easy to take down.

"Boss, it's better if we retreat now."

Mark heard the man called Ogre spoke to their boss which the boss could not help but nod.

Of course, Mark would not let them. He vanished once more and blocked the path of retreat of the remaining outlaws. He had already taken out the fused [Slicer] and [Divider] from his back and inserted the blade of the one handed great sword on top of the [Defier]. He pulled the handle of the sword causing it to extend and become a two handed sword, he then drove the blade further into the shield causing several clicking sounds.

The [Defier] detached from the [Defender] gauntlet leaving a single flat layer on it where the compartment of all the weapons was connected. The shield on the other hand was already attached to the blade of great sword.

With a huge wave of his sword, the whole blade turned into a whip blade while the shield released more clicking sounds as a bladed outer layer extended at the edges of the shield. [Slicer-Divider-Defier: Fusion Form – Blade Star], a long ranged flail but its main function was not to smash but to utilize the other hidden weapons of the [Defier].