Mutagen

<strong>Day 29 – 1:04 AM – Mountain Base, Mount Malabito, General Nakar, Quezon</strong>

Mark gasped and breathed deeply as the extreme pain in his head vanished like it never existed in the first place. His clothes had been drenched with sweat which made him look like he dumped himself in a pool of water. Even though he suffered and endured the pain for who knows long, it actually took about an hour for the whole earthshaking event to happen. Still, he felt that it was longer. After all, he was the one who suffered.

"My Lord, are you alright?!"

Amihan hurriedly flew towards him and hugged his head with worry. She did not know what happened but everything looked too frightening for her. The little sylph started to cry. A lot of uncanny things entered her head when she saw him in pain and the following events shook her to the core but she was glad that none of those uncanny thoughts happened.

"I'm, fine. I worried you didn't I?"

Mark let the Amihan rub her face unto his right cheek and caressed her head gently. He knew that Amihan was genuinely worried. Like Freed said to him, a part of his original ability would recover after this.

Unfortunately or maybe, fortunately, he could still not detect emotions of people around. He expected that he would be able to detect emotions of Nicole and the others outside because even though he was in pain, as he undergone that painful process, he was able to detect the strong pressure and energy that was attracted to his recovery. The lightning strikes and thunder was also heard by him and was sure that a very large commotion happened outside. However, when Amihan hugged him, he was able to affirm that his empathic ability started to recover. It was just very weak and needed physical contact to be used.

The ability he got from Freed however…

PUFF!

A black mist appeared in his palm which made Mark frown.

From Freed's memories, his ability was called [Lightspeed]. Accompanied by a flash of light, he could travel several meters away in a blink. It was different from teleportation as he could only go towards the places he could see. The coloration of his golden hair was also due to this ability. In memories Mark inherited, it was something like[Ground Shrinker] where the user shortens the distance he needed to move to and move at the target location instantly. The difference however was that unlike [Ground Shrinker], [Lightspeed] only allow him to move with the speed of light at certain distances.

That should have been what Mark inherited but…

Instead of his palm glowing with faint light similar to Freed's hair. It actually released pitch black puff of mist when he tested it the ability.

He racked his brains for a bit and looked for the possible cause from Freed's memories and found it almost immediately. Inherited psychic abilities from the [PsyCrystal] or to be exact, from the [Mental Crystal] tend to have changes. It was due to the fact that not every person was the same and had different constitution, physical skills, mentality and other aspects. Since the abilities of Psychics in Freed's planet came from the [PsyPathogen] and were developed depending on their body constitution, it would likely have changes after being transferred to another person.

The changes in the ability varied. Sometimes, the ability weakened while at other times, it became stronger. For rare occurrences, the psychic ability would change properties which were more apparent for energy manipulation abilities while at even rarer instances, the ability evolves.

Keeper was also the example of this. When she became a psychic, she was only able to conjure crystals from the energy around her and had no offensive ability and yet, she was able to capture a mutated psychic infected and take away its ability. It was because the infected at that time only had a normal energy barrier and did not have a too strong offensive ability either. When she absorbed the ability, it changed into her current barrier that had corrosive properties.

In Mark's instance, it was likely that the psychic ability evolved while its property changed. It was also the cause of the sudden disturbance that even attracted the energies around him to form that unnatural lightning phenomenon.

As for the ability Mark had now, he perfectly knew it. It was how the [Mental Crystals] work after all. It allowed people to grasp their abilities though it still required practice for normal people. For him however that had Freed's memories and was already a Psychic or Esper from the start, he would be able to use the ability to some extent.

"Let's call it [Shadow Mist Movement]."

Mark murmured.

CRASH!

A loud sound of crashing wood sounded from the outside. It was likely that a part of the wall made of wood was being attacked or might have been broken through already. He suddenly felt a sense of danger and recognized it. It was surely those two infected from the barrio that came from the airplane. The commotion he caused surely had lured the two mutated infected here.

"My Lord."

Amihan fearfully muttered as she turned her head to the direction where the sound should have come from.

"Stay here. I'll deal with the trouble outside."

Mark said but Amihan jumped and sat on his shoulder instead.

"I-I will go with you!"

"Hah. Alright. When we go out, protect the others while I deal with the intruders."

"YES!"

Mark picked up the glowing crystal on the floor and went out with Amihan.

***

The wooden parts of the base had been broken through and an eight-foot tall creature with several pairs of limbs entered the walls. It was surely the same infected with fused bodies in the Barrio.

It looked around after it entered the broken walls as it could not detect the source of energy anymore. It looked at the blanket of oddly shaped clouds in the sky to the huts that were temporarily built inside the base. It could not find anyone.

Hallie and the others had already gone into hiding by routine. If it was just animals that came to attack, they would deal with it depending on what kind of animal it was but with infected that was able to tear through the walls, they should go into hiding. Inside each of the two houses, there was a chamber where people could fit through. In the house was broken into, they should be able to hide in there. In the future, Mark also planned to build a tunnel which would lead somewhere else instead of just these chambers.

The group of people in the houses already knew that there was an attacker before the wall was broken into. After all, there were a lot of traps outside the base that would alarm them who were inside but it was just that the lightning strikes outside earlier prevented them from being able to act and defend the base.

The metal door at the face of the crevice opened and Mark came out with Amihan on his shoulder. Amihan immediately flew upwards to monitor the area and alert Mark if there were other attackers in the vicinity. She was also ready to control the wind to blow away any enemy.

Mark saw that fused mutated infected and the latter also saw him. Without wasting time, the infected charged towards him with its four lower limbs in a ferocious manner. He responded in kind and also charged towards it. Right now, he was not wearing any armor and his foldable crossbow was also not equipped on his arm and the purple crystal on his wrist could be seen clearly. He was only holding his [Blood Metal Katana] which he had drawn from its sheath.

The infected swung two of its right arms towards Mark. The attack was very fast and even Jollene that had the ability to detect pain in advance would not be able to dodge it with her current physical abilities. Mark however, could see that attack clearly and prepared to intercept the attack with his own slash of his katana.

Unexpectedly, the infected seemed to have perceived his attack and stopped before it jumped backwards. The flash of Mark's black katana could be seen in the darkness of the night but there was no splash of blood and dismembered limbs afterwards.

"Behind!"

Amihan's shouting voice was heard making Mark turn his head. There, he saw the infected that was already hacking both its scythe shaped bones towards him. Who knows how this infected managed to get near him and attack but it also affirmed his first impression of this infected. It was surely a predator.

The two blades were hacking down towards him in a very fast momentum. Normally, those blades would have already decapitated its prey but with Mark's brown eyes turning pitch black, black mist covered his body instantly. The blades tore through the mist and the mist dispersed with a puff with a faint trail of it moved fast behind the infected.

There, Mark appeared with another puff of the black mist and was already swinging his katana towards the neck of the predator infected.

Feeling the threat, the infected did not look back but actually moved its right scythe around its neck which stopped the black katana from decapitating it.

His attack was blocked which made Mark surprised. Black mist covered his body once more and puff, he appeared several meters away watching the two infected in front of him.

These two were surely different from other infected. Not only that they had an ability perceive danger and his attacks but they also had a sense of preservation. To pull back their attacks and protect their bodies, it was the first time Mark saw something like this.

Mark smiled. Somehow, he felt a faint thrill in his heart. He charged towards the two infected without any shred of fear or hesitation. With a puff, he vanished in the middle of his charge leaving a trail of mist in his movements before appearing behind the two infected. He slashed the fused infected from behind but it leaped off to dodge his attack which made him surprised. He repeated the attack once more but it was dodged again but this time, he was able to know the reason how it knew.

It was because of the three heads on the fused infected's body. Each of them was alive and functioning with equal rights to control the body. As he appeared behind, the bald woman's head behind the fused infected could see him which allowed it to dodge the attack.

Switching to the predator infected, Mark vanished only to appear behind it and attacking its shoulder. He then repeated the attack at a different part and angle. The attacks were blocked of course but Mark vanished after every attack.

"Faster! Faster!"

Mark murmured as his attacks grew more and more ferocious that the predator infected started to feel fear. It could not see Mark anymore. All around it was only the black mist.

CLANG! TINK! TANGK!

The clash of bones and metal echoed several times as the infected desperately tried to protect its body from Mark's relentless attacks but…

It started to lose tracks of the attacks. Mark could not be seen and even the swings of his katana could not be seen anymore due to the mist.

SHWIRK!

The katana materialized and which swung through its left arm dismembering it.

A chilling shrill scream was let out by the predator infected with its rough scratchy voice. Its arm felt to the ground with a splatter of blood. Knowing that it was in danger, the predator infected jumped off running through the mist to escape. I ran too fast like how it arrived behind Mark but of course, Mark would not let it.

The faint trail off black mist followed behind it in a wavy pattern before Mark appeared to its left.

SHWIRK!

The katana cut of its legs as it could not protect its left side anymore without its left arm. As its body fell down, Mark followed with another swing of his katana and decapitated the predator infected's head. Both the body and head fell at the same time in different directions.

The crystal in Mark's arm suddenly let out a flash of light and the head of the predator infected burst out blood as a hole in its head appeared. A black pebble flew out of its head and entered the [PsyCrystal]. With another flash of light, a [Physical Crystal] appeared and Mark tossed it towards the head of the infected.

While the crystal suspended in the air absorbed the ability of the predator infected, Mark turned his head towards the other infected. This one was a pain in the behind to deal with.