Mutagen

<strong>Day 41 – 7:00 PM – Apostles of Contemporary Times Monastery, Barangay Anoling, General Nakar, Quezon</strong>

Mark jumped down from the roof of the monastery and entered the intact part of the monastery away from the battle. Staying on the roof started to feel uncomfortable due to the rain. Although he could maintain his body temperature due to being able to control his blood, it was not the case for the unconscious girl he brought away from the battlefield.

He laid the girl down on a bed inside one of the rooms in the second floor and went back to the already decimated side of the monastery building. After finding a rather good area where he could see the whole fight to death of the criminals of Death Valley Settlement, he sat down casually. He did not even bother hiding and was really sitting in the open. However, no one was able to notice him as he watched the show. They were all busy fending for themselves and trying their best to survive the dangerous situation.

With the unnatural darkness of the night, it was quite hard to see. If not for the fact that his sight was enhanced before, Mark would find it hard to see the current situation. As for the people below, they used the headlights of their vehicles to light up the front and see their enemies. If they did not do that, not only that they would look like blind people but the flashes from their guns would disorient their vision.

Adrik steeled his mind and flew towards the whale to distract it while the others try to damage the already injured whale.

Mark watched the transformed Adrik. He noticed that even though the father and son had the similar abilities, they also had differences. The Dragonified Drake was red in color while Adrik's was black. The differences were not only in color but also characteristics and abilities.

In Drake's case, the scales in his body were large and looked like pointed metal or gravel. The most apparent thing in Drake's transformation was his glowing mouth which indicated his ability to breathe fire. Drake was also more oriented with strength and defense.

On the other hand, the Emperor's scales were small and lined neatly. Unlike Drake, Adrik's transformation was more oriented with speed. The shape of his scales seemed to aid him to be able to fly with less air resistance. It seemed to be the reason he personally went to distract the whale. With this speed, the whale would have no way to catch him at all. If it came to worse, this speed could also help him escape.

If Drake had this speed, Mark was sure he would have a harder time to catch him and he might even have been able to escape. Still, Mark wondered what happened to him though. It was because the twisted arm he had was too obvious even after he transformed. That arm was dangling oddly and was bent in the wrong direction and place.

BAM!

"Grah!"

One of the fighters in front let out a painful yell as a Mutated Infected with stone like muscles bashed both its robust arms onto his body. It was too sudden that he was unable to dodge. Normally, although the infected would attack in different patterns, their main priority was to bite others. This Mutated Infected however was behaving differently from others and was attacking everything like a madman.

The Mutator that was hit by the rock like muscles of the Mutated Infected was pushed back a few meters and hit other people behind him. Those people behind soon stood back up but the man that was directly hit did not as his chest was severely caved in. It seemed that he already breathe his last.

Their line of defense was being pushed back. Almost everyone was already out of their wits and their hearts were being slowly filled with fear. Despite their guns and abilities as a either a Mutator or an Evolver, they were not able to push the threat back and rather, they were the ones being pushed into a corner.

"GAHAH!!! AHHH! HELP!"

Another man yelled for help as he was pulled by the infected and became a living feast for them. He struggled to escape and because of that, the fingers of the infected that grabbed on his body pierced his stomach and tore his flesh. Feeling the pain, the man fell down spilling blood on the muddy ground.

Then, a scene that grabbed Mark's attention happened.

A Mutator holding a machete in his right hand hacked one of the infected without any shred of mercy. Mark knew that the man was a Mutator since he was using his other hand that had long nails to pierce the eyes and destroy the brain of the infected. Due to the muddy ground and the dark environment however, he slipped. The moment he felt down, an infected jumped towards him and managed to take a bite on his neck.

He managed to kill the infected but it was already too late.

Following the routine, he would become an infected with that bite. However, this was the first time Mark was able to see what would happen to a Mutator after being bitten.

Finally, the sight unfolded. Screaming loud, the man really started to turn. However, unlike normal infected, some changes happened to his body. His already long nails became longer, stronger and even sharper. Not only that but his hair also started to grow and started to look like sharp metal.

Even with the changes, the man obviously became a high tiered Mutated Infected.

The Mutator that became infected lunged towards the middle of the battlefield. Carnage ensued as he mowed down his former comrades with his inhumane strength and speed.

"I see, so that is what happens."

Mark murmured. It seemed that the abilities of the Mutator would improve almost instantly after being bitten by the infected once more. However, they would really turn into a true infected.

He had a question in his mind though. Mark was wondering if a Mutator still had a chance to retain becoming a Mutator after the second bite. If that was the case, it would be a good way to improve once abilities further though it would be quite a life and death gamble.

The men below fell in a bitter struggle even further as more and more of their comrades joined the ranks of the infected. Furthermore, each of the Mutators that were bitten became stronger Mutated Infected which was difficult to fight due to various reasons.

Mark's sight left the people below and faced the direction where the whale was. He noticed some people running from the north. It seemed that the reinforcements came already. They took too long however since they were on foot. As for the vehicles they should have used, all of those had been crushed by the whale already during the time it rampaged inside the settlement.

Ignoring the reinforcements, Mark turned to the sky.

"Time's up, I guess."

He murmured.

With those words, Mark vanished from the second floor of the Monastery building.

Unexpectedly, Mark appeared about a meter away above the back of the whale.

He then started at Adrik who was dumbfounded to his sudden appearance. Adrik then heard his voice.

"Fall."

Mark's eyes glowed brightly as he stared at Adrik. With those glowing eyes as cue, Adrik froze mid-air as he felt a sudden burst of pain in his head. The pain burst forth from the inside which only not made him unable to react and endure but also disabled his senses immediately.

Adrik felt warm liquid came of his orifices. Still, he did not know what was happening. All he could do was to scream in pain as he fell from the height he was flying.

SPLASH!

The Emperor of Death Valley Settlement suddenly plunged onto the ground caused a huge shock to his men and their morale was severely hit by the scene. Their hearts were already wavering and this scene caused their hearts to fall into turmoil.

As result, some of them started to retreat. The ignored everything and deserted to escape.

"Hey! What are you bastards doing! Shit!"

One of Adrik's henchmen shouted towards the men that ran away. He surely had killing intent in those shout but he was not able to do anything more than to shout since he was also occupied in fighting the horde.

Due to those running away, their line of defense became filled with holes and even more people became prey to the infected. Then…

Hell came…

Without anyone distracting the whale, it started to charge towards the horde. Even with the whale's berserk state, it seemed that it still viewed the infected as mortal enemies like other Failed Mutator did. The problem however was that…

The whole defense line composed of the people from Death Valley Settlement stood between the two forces.

"AHHH!!"

"RUN! F*CK! RUN!"

"SH*T!"

The whale trampled the defense line they made. It caused a plethora of screams from the men that should be fighting the infected. Some were hit by the rampaging whale and were thrown away by force, some were kicked away and received injuries, while others were trampled to death and turned into meat paste. The majority however, after receiving the whale's attacks, became bitten by the infected in their vulnerable state.

***

Trying his hardest to endure, Adrik pushed himself up from the ground. However, the scene that he saw was the slaughter of the people he ruled over.

He lost. Everything was lost.

Since that was the case, he should abandon the settlement and this place already and escape.

However…

"I can't let you do that under my watch."

Adrik heard a voice from behind him. Trying his best to endure the pain that increased once again, he turned his head and saw a man wearing tattered clothing and strange armor on his body. The man stared at him with glowing eyes that sent chills into his spine.

"W-who are you!"

Adrik started to stutter in fear. His subconscious trait was already surfacing due to the loss in this battle.

To his question, the man tilted his head a bit and answered.

"I guess, Sherwyn should have already told you about me though?"

Adrik's eyes went wide…

Sherwyn and his father was one of his good clients in business and were also members of the organization. Adrik was already surprised when Sherwyn managed to reach this settlement and immediately gave the man a good post and position in the settlement. One thing made him unsettled from Sherwin though. It was the news he gave when he arrived about survivors living in the mountain led by a powerful person. He said that the person could become a threat in the future.

The man wanted to send men to capture them but since the loss and gain could bring them into deficit, Adrik declined. After all, these forested mountains were home to ferocious evolved animals and they could not risk many people just because of a few survivors. Due to that, Sherwyn was dissatisfied but as he also knew the risk involved, he did not insist on what he wanted. They were all businessmen after all.

Who would have known that the man Sherwyn talked about that time would appear here? It seemed that Sherwyn was right but it was already too late.

"Yep, it's too late. You can follow Sherwin to hell now."

The man smiled as he directed his palm towards Adrik's face. His glowing red eyes intensified further.

BAM!

Adrik's eyes rolled over due to extreme mental pain and fainted. Once more, he fell onto the muddy ground. Due to his loss of consciousness, his ability deactivated. The moment it happened, the man with glowing eyes pulled Adrik's hair up lifting his body and raised his arm holding a strange shaped blade.

SHIRK!

The head of the Emperor of Death Valley Settlement separated from his body. Blood splattered as the headless body of Adrik fell back to the ground. The man on the other hand, vanished into black mist that was barely discernable in this dark night.