Mutagen

<strong>Day 25 – 2:15 PM – Philippine General Hospital, Ermita, Metro Manila</strong>

"You heard the idiot leader of Team Fairy! If any of you can't deal with the [Leader Types], lure them to the front of the hospital!"

Major Lopez rubbed his temple after he spoke at the radio.

While majority of the people participating in this mission were issued with the main radio, the squad and team leaders, whether the soldiers or the private groups, were given another smaller radio that should only be used in emergency. He did not expect that the idiot granddaughter of one of the previous American Major that participated in World War II would be able to think of using the radio to contact Keene who was also a leader of his own team. The major just wished that it would not set as a bad example that the other leaders would follow.

Still, the information Irene said was vital. He also did not expect that the silent princess of Xiao Industries was capable of eliminating the [Leader Types] without problem. It was really good that General Perez asked them to participate in this mission. However, the condition that they asked in order to agree was rather hard to accomplish and it was to make greedy pigs from the upper brass to leave their group in peace. It was rather hard because even in Bay City, the standing of these politicians and businessmen were just a little below to the General and the latter did not have much authority over those people.

Well, it was not the major's problem.

***

"Leader, why is our team called "Team Fairy" while the other teams were all named after birds?"

Irene's spotter and the vice leader of Team Fairy, Sergeant Jennifer Atman asked with confusion. She had been thinking of it since they were briefed about the mission but did not have the opportunity to ask.

"I requested it. Isn't it good?"

BANG!

Irene replied before shooting her MSSR. Her target was a mutated infected that had just came out of its pod. On her observation, it was a [Suicide Type] as it had a rather disgustingly bloated body and slow movements.

"It hit." Jennifer said as she watched the bloated target explode with a fog of green smoke in her scope. "There's another target at Sector 2-2, [Armored Type]. Fairy seemed good but it sounded odd when the other groups were named after birds and we're not."

BANG!

Irene shot her sniper rifle towards the next target and hit the head but it only staggered backwards and did not die and ran off away from their sight.

"We'll, our team is originally named as Team Flamingo. What do you think?"

"Lost visuals of the target. Um. I guess Team Fairy is good."

Flamingos were cute but a military team with a name like that was more likely to be taken less seriously than the others.

BANG! BANG!

Another gunshot echoed not far from them. They glanced at that direction and saw Mei who was using her PSG-1 sniper rifle while picking the [Leader Types] in front of the hospital one by one. Furthermore, not only that she had no need for a spotter but the interval of shots from her sniper rifle was rather too short. The recoil of the sniper rifle had not totally subsided but she was able to aim it once the recoil started to weaken.

They felt amazed that the almost invincible [Leader Types] were easy pickings for her with the exception of [Armor Type] hybrids which she could only injure or kill in several shots.

However, as soldiers, they knew why the [Leader Types] were able to dodge their attacks. In theory made by the scientists in Bay City, the [Leader Types] were likely to be able to sense danger through killing intent and that was why they were able to dodge bullets even from sniper rifles and sneak attacks. It was similar to how insects and animals were able to avoid dangers around them.

[Leader Types] were too agile even for most Mutators and Evolvers not to mention to them who were just normal soldiers. Due to that, they needed time to aim towards the target and there were the issue lies. The more time they consumed to aim at the target before shooting, the more killing intent they release. Unless it was those people who were professionally and intensely trained to conceal their killing intent like international mercenaries and assassins, it was almost impossible to kill [Leader Types] in one shot.

Yet, Mei was able to do it.

The reason to this was Mei's eye ability, [Optical Zoom] and [Bullet Time]. She was not even relying on her scope too much and was aiming with her bare eyes. She was using both abilities especially against the [Leader Type], [Predator Type] and [Agility Type] infected. It was because those three types of infected were the fastest kinds. She was not using the scope too much when dealing with the fast infected due to the fact that the scope was inhibiting her field of view.

[Agility Type] infected, as their name implied were those that could move the fastest compared to other infected types. They had no redeeming physical features aside from their agility but their attack patterns were rather erratic and random. They could move too fast and the muscle springs of their limbs were too strong that they could sometimes use walls, ceilings and other structures to propel their bodies towards their prey.

Due to [Bullet Time] the movements of the enemies were slower and it gave her less time to aim at her targets. Due to the very short aim time, the killing intent and danger she could release was too negligible to the [Leader Types] making them unable to detect her shots. If it was before when she had just received this ability from Mark, she would not be able to do it but her daily training made her able to respond to her [Bullet Time] ability accordingly.

At this moment, one of the members monitoring the surroundings shouted while observing the east side which was the back of the building shouted.

"Everyone! We got company! There are large birds coming from the east!"

Everyone suddenly turned their heads towards the direction the back of the building was facing.

It was in the middle of the day and due to the outbreak, the ominous grey sky caused by too much pollution in the past was all gone. Due to those, the normal people could faintly see black dots in the sky on that direction. The snipers and those with abilities to see further could verify that those were really birds. However, looking at their ferocious appearances, beaks dripping of blood, pale eyes and extraordinarily abnormal size, these birds were surely infected.

There was a lot of them and was being led by a larger mutated infected bird. For sure, the larger bird was a [Leader Type].

"Team Fairy to all units! Team Fairy to all units!" Irene bellowed on her emergency radio. "We spotted infected birds coming from the east! Approximately a thousand meters away! There are about a hundred or more of them!"

That message riled up everyone that heard it. Everyone was busy dealing with the infected inside and outside the hospital and now, the rare non-insect flying infected came with more than a hundred in quantity. This was no doubt a huge threat if not dealt with immediately.

"Sniper Teams deal with the birds first!" Major Lopez' voice was heard from the radio. "Team Fairy! Keep Miss Xiao on support to deal with the [Leader Types] in the hospital grounds! Everyone else should deal with the birds and don't let them into the hospital grounds!"

"ROGER!"

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Several dozens of gunshots sounded once more from the rooftop of buildings around the hospital but now, the target was the incoming threat of infected birds from the east. As the infected birds were able to fly, their speed was also fast and was not hindered since there were no obstacles on the way. The members of the support groups that were not in the sniper squads also got their guns ready. The civilians had already started shooting but of course, they were just wasting bullets since at this wide distance, hitting a target using their assault rifles and pistols could only rely on luck.

The first volley of gunshots managed to hit about a dozen of infected birds causing them to plummet down to the ground. It was unknown whether all the birds that were hit died but it was enough to take these flying infected out of the airspace. Unfortunately, none of the mutated birds, especially, the [Leader Type] fell. Instead, the [Leader Type] sensed the danger and started to command its horde of infected birds.

This was the most annoying trait of [Leader Types]. Normal infected did not have even a small sign of intellect and would blindly charge at their prey but with a [Leader Type] on the lead, their movements would change. Like now, with the [Leader Type] Mutated Infected Bird, the flock of infected birds started to fly in different directions following the flight path of their leader. It goes without saying that it became much harder to hit the flock even though there was too many of them.

The flock flew erratically as they came closer and closer. The number of the infected birds also started to decrease as they became easier to target the closer they came. Still, the pressure on the people atop the buildings became stronger and stronger and the [Leader Type] bird was still alive and flapping its wings.

As expected, even though there was three buildings to the east of the hospital compound occupied by the support groups, the flock of infected birds were targeting the building occupied by Team Fairy.

The flock of birds came closer and closer that even Laelaps and Fein that were on standby moved to protect Mei, Iola and Abbygale. Unfortunately, they were on a rooftop, it was not recommended here for Laelaps to show her full form. She was here in case that they needed to escape. In her full form, it would not be hard to scale the buildings and escape while carrying several people on her back. Fein was also here for the same reason as it could assist if an unexpected event of someone falling from the building happened.

As for why the flock of birds targeted their building, it was obviously because of Iola who was a psychic and was in the open. Unfortunately, they could not abandon the rooftop and cut off the support fire coming from Mei as she was the only one that could efficiently deal with the [Leader Types] on the ground.

At the time that the flock of birds reached less than five hundred meters away, Mei suddenly turned behind aiming her sniper rifle. Her eyes dilated and her concentration was at maximum. The movements of the birds slowed in her eyes compared and even slower than how she did from the [Leader Types] on the ground.

BANG!

The [Leader Type] Bird's head exploded and immediately plummeted to the ground. However, it seemed that the [Leader Type] bird was a hybrid. The moment it died, the coordination between the infected crumbled but at the same time, their movements, cries and speed became even more erratic. It was the trait of [Instigator Type] infected.

The [Instigator Type] infected were those that were able to influence other infected in a certain range. The medium of influence differed from screams, blood or even the death of the infected. Their influence ranged from being able to call the infected into a certain area to the worst that were able to increase the abilities of the infected influenced by it.

The flock of infected birds, like crazed predators, flew towards Team Fairy with even more speed and blood curling screeches!

"Everyone! Gather around us quick!" Odelina bellowed and called everyone's attention as she moved towards Mei and the two children. "Iola get ready! Protect everyone!"

"Yes!"

Iola replied with a serious expression unbefitting a cute child. A chilling red flare on her red colored pupil appeared as the infected birds continuously flew towards them.