Mutagen

<strong>Day 36 – 12:51 PM – Settlement Defensive Wall, Port of Real Settlement, Barangay Ungos, Real, Quezon</strong>

"General! The center of the first defense line is collapsing! Lieutenant Vargas is requesting to fall back to the second defense line!"

"General! The northern side and the southern side of the first defense line can still hold on! If the center falls back, there will be a hole on the defense of the both sides!"

Reports came in one by one. Due the sudden change with the behavior of the infected after that deafening roar, the main defense line started to collapse. However, once the central defense retreated, the other defensive lines that were able to hold on would be prone to danger from the opening the central defense abandoned.

General Faustino came into a quick decision.

"Retreat the whole defense line to the second point. Although it will likely implicate those that were still able to hold their positions, we can't just make one side retreat and leave the others. Understand!"

"Sir! Yes, Sir!"

After giving his orders, General Faustino turned to the monitoring personnel.

"Had anyone found out the reason the infected became stronger and more aggressive?"

Unexpectedly, the reply came from the side of the scientists.

"Sir, the cause was within the strange group of mutated infected that Mr. Mark is fighting."

"That's… How is Mark?"

"Sir, he's safe. Rather, he almost annihilated the group already. But there seem to be something strange going on."

The words of the scientist in front of the monitor took the attention of everyone and they all crowed behind him to see the situation. They were all surprised when they saw the site of the battle were a lot of mutated infected laid down in the middle of the road with scorched bodies. However, the most surprising thing was that the remaining mutated infected in the group had disgusting wriggling maggot like worms about the size of a child's arm wriggling on different parts of their bodies.

***

"Parasites."

Mark frowned. Their existence made how the infected were able to coordinate with each other rather reasonable but the method these parasites communicated was still a huge wonder.

Furthermore, these were not normal infected parasites but parasites that were never seen before the outbreak. In other words, these were new species of parasites.

The parasites looked like oversized maggots to some extent but their bodies were longer in proportion and had large red heads like a larva of a beetle. And the strangest one was the parasite on the infected girl. It had a red crown like a rooster's on its head. Without a doubt, it was the queen of these parasites.

Mark vanished from the top of the electric post he stood on and charged towards the infected girl intending to kill her. Since this girl was able to survive the electric attack he used to kill the others, he did not bother to use it again. Rather, it was better not to use it on the girl since even though her tattered clothes were burnt at many parts revealing her childish body, her skin was not damaged at all. Even though she looked like a normal Biter, for sure, she was not either.

Mark appeared in front of the girl already in a slashing motion. Unexpectedly, the girl jumped back evading the attack. As she evade Mark's attack, the remaining mutated infected on the group also jumped in to attack Mark.

Different attacks landed on Mark's position. There were acid spits, a flying spike, a punch and even an infected swiping its claws. Unfortunately for them, Mark had already vanished from the spot.

Mark appeared behind the girl and slashed her once more but she still managed to dodge. The other infected that already managed to recover from their first attacks attacked Mark once more but as usual, he vanished before any of their attacks hit.

He appeared in the air frowning. For sure, the movements and coordination of these infected became faster and stronger. Not only that, but the infected girl was able to react to his appearance and attacks. It the same circumstances with the fused infected when he recovered his empathic ability.

While the fused infected entered his mind, he came to a realization. The fused infected was able to react to his attacks due to the fact that it had six pairs of eyes on its body not including the baby inside the fused infected. This time, who knew how many eyes, did these parasites had including the eyes of their hosts. Not to mention that they seem to have a certain method of communication and if one of them were able to see Mark, all of them would immediately know and react accordingly.

Troublesome…

Mark did not want to reveal this one but he had no choice. He had already put the centerpiece of the [Defier] back and made the [Lightning Mental Crystal] return before taking out the [Photokinesis Mental Crystal] this time.

Then, the crystal glowed and Mark vanished from everyone's sight as he fell. Different from his movements before, there was no black mist this time which made not only the infected but the watching drones unable to react.

[Optical Camouflage], by bending the light around and preventing it from hitting his body, his figure was not reflected towards the lens of both the eyes of the infected and the camera mounted on the drone. It was the technique Alderick used to try and kill Mark back at the temporary settlement in Queens Row Elementary School, an ability that those with high level Photokinesis could use.

Mark expected the infected to be lost as their target vanished from their sight but he was mistaken. When Mark vanished, all the remaining mutated infected of the group encircled the infected girl and protected her. Even though these parasites seemed to be infected, they were smart. Or rather, the queen was smart and was able to command her subordinates with great efficiency.

The infected girl was defended and it was like a turtle shell. Some of the infected climbed over the others and created a mound of mutated infected with the infected girl in the very bottom. Since he was not able to attack the infected girl with the defense they were displaying, Mark started attacking the other infected trying to whittle their formation

Both the camera on the drone and the infected could not see anyone attacking but they could see some of the infected had their heads decapitated and flying off while spurting blood. Since there were parts that the heads and necks of the infected could not be attacked, arms and legs also started flying off from the group splattering blood everywhere.

They could not see the enemy but they were dying one by one. The mutated infected made their defense even tighter trying to protect their queen. Although it might not be the case, their movements displayed the queen's anxiousness.

Mark on the other hand did something else while he killed the mutated infected one by one and it was to kill the escaping maggots on the ground. It would not be good if these parasites escaped and found another host and create disturbance once more.

Soon, the queen was already in a state of danger and they still could not see the enemy. It was then that all of the remaining parasites spit out spider web like threads which immediately covered their mound and bolstered their defense.

Mark tried to cut threads and managed to do so but he could feel that if he did this on the thicker parts, his blades would likely get stuck due to the stickiness of the threads.

It seemed that these infected were playing a game of attrition, or what Mark had thought but he was mistaken. About a minute later as he repeatedly tried to cut the threads, the mound shook and the thread split up by itself. It revealed the infected girl that now had three pairs of fly like wings on its back and the queen parasite could not be seen anymore and only the hollow eye socket of the girl was left.

Creating a loud buzz with her wings, the infected girl flew up in fast speed. She looked at the mound for a second and turned away. There was no doubt, she was trying to escape.

Even if no one could see, Mark frowned and he activated his [Shadow Mist Movement] and tried to chase. However, just like how a fly moved fast while flying, she flew in a very fast speed that even Mark's ability could not chase.

Without any other choice, Mark cancelled his [Optical Camouflage] and appeared midair with his hands outstretched forward and his palms placed side by side facing the direction the queen was escaping. He could not let that infected escape. It was unfortunate that only one abililty could be used from the [Mental Crystals] in every instance and he needed to cancel the first one to use the other.

The [Photokinesis Mental Crystal] floated in front of his palm and started glowing with a blinding light that everyone in the settlement could see from the distance. The striking sunlight in the middle of noon further enhanced the light converging on Mark's hands.

Ignoring everything, the infected girl continued to fly away oblivious to what was happening about a hundred meters behind her.

SHOOOOOM!!!

With a shockwave like sound that echoed across the battlefield, a beam of light about a foot in diameter fired off from Mark's palms. With a speed of light, it immediately caught up behind the girl. The girl managed to hear the sudden sound and reacted and managed to survive but all her wings were destroyed and even her skin was severely burned.

Without the support of her wings to fly, she fell from the sky.

After Mark fired off his [Photon Cannon], he vanished into black mist and chased the already falling infected girl. Even though he needed to activate his movement ability several times due to the short distance of the subspace he could travel at a time, he still managed to reach the place where the infected girl fell.

Falling from that height, Mark was not surprised that her body was a mangled mess. Her head was split open and her arms and legs were bent on unsightly angles. Even her spine seemed to be dislocated. The infected girl's stomach was bulging however.

SPLAT!

The bulge burst open revealing a beautiful red colored insect with two pairs of fly wings, a pair of yellow compound eyes, a butterfly's proboscis and a dragonfly's tail about the size of a new born baby appeared and flew trying to escape.

However, it was not able to. Mark had already sent out his [Blood Whips] and constricted the parasite. The [Blood Whip] then formed a screen cage and metalized imprisoning the parasite within. The infected parasite bumped at the metal screen several times in attempt to escape but it was impossible.

With the caught parasite queen on his hand, he returned to the remaining infected of the group but was surprised. The mound covered with sticky thread was still there with the mutated infected inside. He entered the opening without fear and found that all the parasites inside were dead along with their hosts. Looking at the queen that changed its appearance rather fast, it was likely that the parasites sacrificed themselves to give the queen a chance to escape.

Without the leaders of the horde, the coordination of the horde crumbled. They were nothing but a large group of overly aggressive infected now. With the firepower of the settlement, they soon managed to whittle away their numbers and maintain their remaining defense line.

With his job done, Mark returned to the experiment site and found that Karla was already moving slower than before and the glow on her eyes were weaker. It seemed that she had already consumed her energy due to her relentless fighting.

Amihan was also tired, the quantity of infected she blew away was a considerably large number.

With her being weakened, Mark managed to drag Karla out of the battlefield and the experiment finally ended. Leaving the assistance troops to continue on defense against the remaining infected, Mark decided to walk back into the settlement with Major Bautista and Joash who also looked considerably tired.

Mark on the other hand that did the dangerous battle in the middle of the horde did not even have a single drop of sweat on his body.

Another hour passed on a continuous gunfire and bloodshed, the horde was repelled and the settlement was safe once more. There were casualties both among the soldiers and the hired troops of Mutators and Evolvers but that could not be helped. It was a part of their duties and their comrades could not nothing but mourn for their lost lives.