The Dawn of the New World

"Movement, straight ahead."

Hao Xuan's pupils contracted as he focused towards the hall in front of him. His heartbeat slowed down to a crawl, beating only once per minute. His hearing reached its peaked instantly, so much so that he could hear his own hair grow if he focused on it.

'40 meters, left side?' he thought inwardly.

There was a sound coming from there, like the gurgling of water he had heard before. But this was so faint that if not for his superhuman hearing Hao Xuan would never be able to pick it up.

Taking out the glaive, Hao Xuan clenched his fists around the pole while Nidhora's shadow covered even his head, forming an inhuman face over his breathing mask.

There were sources of light all along the corridors Hao Xuan had taken to get down here, with every 2 out of 3 being covered by the tumourous growths. Meaning even though barely, there was still some light which was enough for Hao Xuan to see his surroundings.

But this hall in front of him was completely covered by these growths and not a single source of light could be seen in there.

Hao Xuan thought about summoning Black and White but without knowing what was out here, he might be exposing them to the 'disease' that was plaguing this place so he decided against it at the end.

Using the glaives massive curved blade, Hao Xuan pushed away some of the growths that blocked the path and made his way in. Each one of his meridians was opened wide, circulating every bit of Qi he could muster. If fighting was not an option then he would retreat without a second thought.

There was no shame in running away from a hopeless battle, especially one where the stakes were only your own life.

With his limited vision of barely five to six meters, Hao Xuan slowly walked through the jungle of fleshy tumors. Every time he took a step, a squelching noise would come out from his feet.

Hao Xuan walked until he was right in front of the source of the noise.

"What is...it?" he mumbled out loud without even realizing it.

The thing in front of him looked like a giant flower made of loose skin and tissue. It was completely open, like a blooming flower. The sound of the gushing water was coming from the middle of this 'flower' which looked like an open wound.

Hao Xuan could see a stream of dark, viscous liquid passing through it, some squirting out of the middle of the flower, almost like a fountain.

Hao Xuan was about to bend over to take a closer look when Baracus's grim voice sounded in his head.

"Step back."

Hao Xuan paused, "What? What's wrong?"

"That's a hatching pouch. This entire place....its a hatchery...I was wrong, you need to leave right now!" Baracus was almost shouting at Hao Xuan, and Hao Xuan listened.

He took several steps back and turned around, almost sprinting back with large strides.

"Explain motherfucker, what the hell happened?!" Hao Xuan asked while his heartbeat jumped up to keep up with the sudden bout of activity.

"I was wrong, I translated the message incorrectly. My internal records aren't complete, I thou-"

But before Baracus could finish his rambling, Hao Xuan cut in.

"It doesn't matter what you did wrong, tell me what you translated incorrectly!"

"I...I thought the message said "Containment protocol is in effect but is disintegrating quickly," but that's wrong. If the containment protocol was in effect, we would have seen it already. I think...I think it said: "Containment protocol is no longer effective. The System disintegration has caused the spread of the agent." Meaning...we are already too lat-"

Baracus was in his own world explaining what he did wrong that he didn't see what was happening outside.

"Why did you stop? We must leave, run!" he repeated upon noticing Hao Xuan coming to a halt. They had unknowingly walked into the belly of the beast and could not afford to waste any time here.

Hao Xuan's hearts were like wild animals trying to escape his chest, beating harder and harder but his mind was clear. You could say this was the result of all his training.

He tightened his grip around the glaive and raised it in front of him.

"Run where? We're already surrounded," he chuckled self deprecatingly.

He had just finished speaking when a small mountain of meat rose up from the ground. It stopped after rising more than 30 meters in the air. Two pairs of glowing yellow eyes opened up near the top and one after another, hundreds of sharp blades pierced out of the side of this thing.

Another mountain rose up from behind Hao Xuan, and one more from his left. From the tumorous growths that were hanging off the walls and the ceiling came out numerous smaller creatures, 1-2 meters in size.

To his right was the wall so he had nowhere to go.

Pieces of blackened rotting flesh started raining down from the three massive creatures, revealing their actual bodies that were enough to send even the most seasoned warriors running frantically in the other direction.

Hao Xuan's eyes glowed with a bright green luster in the darkness as they darted in between his enemies.

"This...might not end well....." he mumbled.