Mutagen

<strong>Day 35 – 3:15 PM – Marikina-Infanta Highway, Real, Quezon</strong>

Mark stood by the side of the highway surrounded by some biker outlaws with conflicted thoughts.

It was just the first day that he left the base and he got caught in some troublesome matters which made him left like sighing. However, it also gave him the things he needed. Transportation and people that could possibly guide him and give him information about the settlement he wanted to go to.

There was another troublesome matter though…

He looked at the other side of the highway more than a dozen meters away. The owner type jeep was overturned and even rolled several times. He did not care if the people inside the vehicle died but at least, he needed one of those alive. He'd rather pick those guys in the jeep rather than these generic mobs surrounding him.

'Oh, good.'

Mark thought as he saw the woman that shouted at him being dragged out of the jeep. She seemed conscious but she had bruises all over her body. The other people were also dragged mercilessly but the other three did not seem to be in a good condition. There was another woman and two men. One of the men was barely conscious while the other two was completely out cold. All of them were bleeding on different parts of their bodies.

"F*ck! Are you deaf!"

"Oh right."

Mark indifferently muttered as he turned his eyes back towards the unsightly pests surrounding him. He turned his attention towards what was happening around the vehicle neglecting the fact that the guy who seemed to have high standing within this group of outlaws had been shouting at him from the start.

"What did you say again?"

He indifferently asked.

"F*CK!"

The guy was truly infuriated.

Another guy who had piercings and an unsightly Mohawk styled hair interjected.

"Sir Fang, why are you wasting time with that guy? Let's just kill him and take the loot. Those woman on the other side looks good. I can't wait to play later. The last toy we had died yesterday."

The Mohawk guy said to the man called Sir Fang while pointing at the other guys who were dealing with the people in the jeep with an envious and lascivious expression. After all, those guys that pulled out the woman out was already touching her in different parts of her body as she tried her best to resist. What's more for the unconscious woman, she had no ability to resist at all.

Mark glanced at the scene on the other side. He felt rather exasperated. The wild men could not wait at all before they even return to their hideout to do these kinds of things. They were worse than animals. He sighed. He needed those people so it was better not to expose them further in this torment.

To the Mohawk guy's words, the man called Sir Fang and the other man beside him who had nose piercings was the same. If Mark remembered correctly, it was this guy who managed to find him. For some reason, this guy was still glancing at the direction where Amihan should be hiding with a confused expression.

"You, if you don't want trouble, leave and don't get in our way."

That sir Fang said which made the others dumbfounded.

Mark smiled grimly. This guy called Fang was rather cautious of him. His instincts were commendable but his instincts were wasted in this group of garbage.

"Sir Fang! What are you saying? We're letting this one go? Have you gone mad? Don't tell me that you chickened out?"

One of the men shouted while flapping his arms like chicken wings which made the others laugh horrendously.

BAM!

Sir Fang punched the guy without holding back. The punched man fell on the ground spatting blood from his mouth. Among the blood were a few of his teeth.

"Say…" While the wild men were in their internal conflict, Mark's voice sounded. "Is anyone of you a Mutator?"

Mark asked. Although he could know by touching them one by one or during the fight, he would rather not. These guys stink horribly. Their skin had dark patches which was the result of not even wiping their bodies for a very long time. Furthermore, it was better if he could make his Mutator enemies spit out their abilities in their mouth so he would have a good grasp of their ability before snatching it from their dead bodies.

His question was clear but all of them only looked at him with a confused expression.

"So, it's no use huh."

Mark sighed. It seemed that these guys did not even know what a Mutator was. He had no reason to explain it to them either. The woman on the other side was already shouting for mercy while tears flowed out of her eyes. It was a pitiful sight. The unconscious woman was already left with her undergarments.

"I already wasted enough time with you guys. Hmmm..." Mark looked straight at Sir Fang. "Acutally, its better if you all go away. Leave those people alone and get lost."

"WHAT?! Don't you realize the situation you're in?"

The Mohawk guy shouted and everyone laughed. That Sir Fang frowned though.

"What a waste of time."

Mark indifferently muttered. He really did not want to fight with these guys if not needed to. Since these people did not attack on sight, he would not have much reason to kill them. Also, the leader of this group did not want to have a conflict with him.

For sure, these people were not the only ones in their group or the leader would be called like master or boss, something around those names and not this Sir Fang who they did not even fully respect. It would be troublesome if the remaining people of these outlaws go after him when his empathic abilities had not fully recovered yet.

"How troublesome. Hah, whatever... I'll just leave no one alive and hope for the best."

He sighed befoer he held out a reddish black coin from who knows where it came from and flipped it upwards. The coin took everyone's attention for a split second but at that short time, Mark vanished from his spot. The outlaws panicked before…

"GAH!"

"UGH!"

"AHHH!"

They heard several blood-curling screams from behind.

By the moment they turned around, all their members that were surrounding their victims were already lying in their own pool of blood. Each of them had decapitated heads rolling in the middle of the highway.

The men that surrounded Mark before could not help but shiver as they stepped back. They had nineteen men in this hunting session but in the short span of several seconds, they lost eleven men. The culprit stood in the middle of the massacre with indifferent eyes as he whipped off the blood from his thin sword.

Not only the outlaws were dumbfounded but also the woman who struggled to fend her body from these beasts was the same. Some of the blood from these dirty villains splashed onto her face and almost ripped clothes but she did not care. She could only stare at the back of the man who killed the men who wanted to defile her.

Mark glanced at the woman over his shoulder and spoke.

"Just sit tight there. I have a few questions to ask later after I deal with these guys."

The woman was still in her stupor and could only nod absentmindedly. She watched as Mark walked away from her in an unhurried pace. He was not moving forwards the enemies but rather sideward making his back face the edge of the highway.

Mark then smirked with a provocative smile.

"F*CK! Shoot! Shoot him!"

Sir Fang roared. He was still in confusion about what happened but one thing was for sure. His instincts were correct and they kicked a steel plate this time. Furthermore, the steel plate they kicked was too large and thick built with spikes and could crush them without any effort.

BANG! BANG! RATATATA!

A plethora of sounds coming from different kinds, calibers and sizes of guns that the outlaws wielded sounded across the mountain highway.

On the other hand, the body of the man called Sir Fang bloated like a balloon. His muscles became emphasized. His canine teeth enlarged and protruded out of his mouth while hair, no, fur grew and covered his neck like a lion. The outlaw turned into a saber tooth werelion in a few seconds. Looking at his saber tooth, it was no wonder he was called Sir Fang.

The man on the quad bike however retreated back together with the man that detected Mark. Looking at their movements and strategy, the abilities of the two was not suited for close combat. One was a sniper while the other was their scout it seemed.

***

Karlene weakly wiped the tears and blood on her face. Although the scene around her was bloody and horrifying, she did not care. She had seen even more brutal, violent and gory things compared this. What she did not expect was that they would encounter a disaster today.

They left the settlement to search for supplies. Since there was very few that come to the outskirts of the highway due to the place being far from the settlement, they decided to search there. Who knew that they would encounter these outlaws, no, rather than encountering them, they were ambushed and was forced to flee into the highway.

When she saw someone by the side of the road while being chased, she could not help but feel a little bad. This man might be trying to survive around here but they might have brought him disaster today because they fled to this highway. That was why she shouted at him to run away. She did not expect that her decision to shout and warn the person out of pure concern became one of the things that compelled that person to save them.

When the woman saw that the outlaws aimed their guns at their benefactor she was afraid of his wellbeing. However she could not do anything. Her body was still aching from the accident they had. It was already her final strength and adrenaline that she was able resist so far. The scene where the man that saved her being buffeted with multitudes of bullets…

Did not happen in her amazed and dumbfounded eyes.

Faint black mist emitted around the man as his body turned blurry. The bullets whizzed through the mist making her able to see the paths the bullets took. However, none of the multitudes of bullets hit the man that was walking unhurriedly forward. She could see that the bullets were phasing through his body like magic.

She could not help but look at the man's face. He was not good looking and even a little below average but that was not what mattered. His expression… It was filled with interest. It made her feel like he was testing something she could not fathom.

Looking how their benefactor dealt with the rain of bullets, she felt relieved. She looked at her friends and saw that they were in a bad condition. Joash, the one driving, was bleeding on his forehead. Tyson who was their main fighter was also unconscious and his arm was dislocated. Fortunately, it did not seem broken. Alana on the other hand, he close friend, was also unconscious and was already practically naked. Her clothes were ripped and her underwear was already half taken off. She could even see her friend's bushes below.

She moved her weak body towards her friend and slowly fixed her remaining clothes to at least, cover her sensitive parts. She then checked on Alana and frowned. Her friend's condition was even more serious that it appeared to be. Her breathing was ragged, her face was pale and her pulse was slowing down. If Alana was not given medical attention in a short period of time, she would likely die.

This moment, Karlene dragged her body and took out a case from the overturned jeep with great difficulty. Inside the case was a sealed vial with blackish red thick liquid. She removed the cap and made Alana drink a third of the contents of the vial. It only took seconds and Alana's pale skin turned better which allowed Karlene to sigh in relief.

She turned towards the ongoing fight. It seemed that the man that saved them was done with what he was testing. With a puff of black mist, he vanished from the spot. Karlene could faintly see a thick strand of black mist waving as it moved towards the group of outlaws. The outlaws retreated away from the mist but it was very fast.

PUFF!

The man appeared from the mist and waved his sword horizontally before vanishing into mist once more. Two of the outlaws nearby where he appeared fell down with their heads detached. The outlaw that became a werelion tried to intercept the mist but he was not able to and the mist passed beside him in a waved path.

PUFF!

The man appeared once more and pierced his sword forward. Another outlaw died with his head skewered like a barbeque. The sword was pulled out immediately causing a sudden spurt of blood but the man was not soaked with it as he had already vanished into black mist once more.

"Amazing…"

Karlene muttered as she watched the scene. Her bitter experienced just earlier was totally thrown away at the back of her mind.

It did not take long and only three of the outlaws were left, the werelion, the sniper and the scout.