Complete and utter chaos. Those were the only words which could summarise the ongoing tragedy in Contingent. No one knew for sure what was going on, but the academy staff and senior students were busy rescuing as many people as they possibly could.
Even the black market wasn't safe anymore. So they gathered whatever they could and headed towards the academy to provide them support. While setting up a base of operations inside the newly built underground building.
The director had taken the role of a commander in a time of crisis. Her first action was to call the capital and request backup. Only to be informed they were in a mess of their own.
But they did advise to destroy every portal in Contingent that they could to stop terrorists from running rampant in other cities and kingdoms. A kingdom-wide state of emergency had already been announced and the Barons were already contacted and told to be on guard for intruders.
However, rather than destroying the portals immediately, the director decided to let the citizens escape through them. After all, most of the portals in Contingent were quite close to the campus hence they could be easily secure and used... temporarily.
Therefore, they were able to send most of the people away while the second and third-year students were running around rescuing people. At the same time, the professors were busy trying to figure out a cure for the 'corpsification' gas.
It didn't matter whether people were showing symptoms of it or not. But if they had come in contact with the gas, they were being observed and put down the moment they act out. It was an evil, but necessary process to protect the rest of the citizens from potential harm.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇt"We have secured everyone we could, madam director. Now either we can let the students escape or start destroying the portals." Professor Kakaroff reported.
"What about the cure?"
Director asked even though she already knew it was impossible to develop a cure within minutes of an outbreak. If they were so efficient, humans would have already developed a cure to stop the mutants from ever toppling them down and forcing them to flee.
Even then she was hoping... maybe there would be a miracle that would help them. But her hopes came crashing down when she saw the defeated look on Kakaroff's face.
"However, we have successfully made a list of visible symptoms that can help us find potentially infected people and separate them." Kakaroff replied, "I should get back on coming up with a cure."
In the distance, sounds of active explosions could be heard. Whoever these terrorists were, they knew exactly where to go and what to take down. It hadn't even been an hour and yet they had brought the proud city of Contingent to its knees.
Stopping them did not seem to be possible. For starters, these terrorists weren't stepping out of the black smoke, which made it difficult for anyone to attack them without coming into contact with it. Hence, fighting them head-on wasn't a possibility.
The only reasonable thing they could do, however, was to trap them in the city. And that's exactly what the director decided to do.
"Tell the students to escape and destroy the portals behind them. Deactivate those that we can't destroy and then destroy the remote access to those portals. It would take them months to override the remote authorisation of the portals and escape." She said while equipping her armour.
Watching her getting ready for battle, confused a lot of people. How was she planning on fighting them? It was true she and the professors of the academy were excellent fighters, but this was a battle they had lost even before they knew a battle was about to break.
"I'll distract them and buy you all as much time as I can." She said before transforming into a black werewolf, "Once the students have left, the professors can leave and destroy the portals from the other side."
***
At the same time, In Livan...
The undead soldiers slowly crawled out of the portal, careful not to raise any alarms the enemy might have placed around. They were expecting resistance, considering how much trouble the lord of this region had caused recently.
But to their surprise, there was not a single person over by the portal. It almost felt as if they did not care about who entered and who left their region. It felt a bit peculiar but they brushed it off since Livan was still under development.
"Maybe this brat isn't as mighty as we were led to believe." Jerico, Servina's right-hand man remarked as soon as he stepped foot out of the portal, "The strongest mutant in the world, my ass. Set up the bomb there. Let's get this over with as soon as possible."
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmOne of the zombies nodded and dragged a large container to the decided spot with the help of five others. However, a moment later, there was a short explosion blowing their heads away. Out of the six carrying the container, three immediately fell, their brains scattered all over the place.
All of them were on alert. They had no idea where the attack came from and what attacked them. Not to mention, they were standing in an open field with no cover, but there were some trees right ahead that could be used as cover.
"Drop the bomb and make a run for it!" The raven-haired leader yelled at the top of his lungs and his soldiers followed his suit.
Little did they know they were in for another surprise.
Bang!
Another bullet was fired, but this time, it didn't hit any of the zombies. They were smirking since whoever was shooting them had missed the target. However, their smiles disappeared a moment later. What happened next had them wishing that the bullet would have hit someone instead.
A chain of explosions obliterated most of the five hundred undead that walked out of the portal. The lucky few who survived had their limbs missing. Some even had chunks of their heads missing but they were miraculously still alive.
"What... happened?" Jerico mumbled as he forced himself to get back to his feet.
As he did, he saw a white-haired man walking towards them. All alone, with some kind of a rifle dangling to his back.
"The world's strongest mutant? Why would you give me such a cringe and useless alias?" Ashton smiled before pointing Balmond at Jerico, "Now tell me, who the fuck you are?"