Mutagen

<strong>Day 54 – 10:37 AM – Industrial Area, South District, Bay City Settlement, Parañaque City, Metro Manila</strong>

Soldier after soldier, squad after squad, those that were tasked to enter the Industrial Area stormed through the gates. Those that were already inside immediately went to their designated positions and were all ready for confrontation.

About a third of the forces the military deployed around the Industrial Area continued to enter the premises in formation while the remaining would stay outside for several reasons.

The Industrial Area was rather about just a little less than a fourth of the whole South. That might sound small compared to the size of the whole settlement but all the soldiers here would not be enough to fill even half of the Industrial Area. However, they could not pour all their forces in carelessly.

If they all stormed at the same time, not only that the entry would take a lot of time but a single well planned trap or ambush could severely damage their ranks or worse, wipe them all out.

Not to mention what was currently happening inside where some of the soldiers suddenly vanished into thin air. If only happened to one person, it could be that the person was lost due to the warehouses being filled with construction materials making it look like a maze but now, almost all of the teams that had already entered were experiencing such strange event.

The soldiers started to form formations that would always keep each other on sight but it was already late, they already lost one or two of their squad mates for who knows what reason.

One of the squads that were tasked to position themselves in a rather secluded area inside near the gates where they would serve as backup if something happened at the front lines. Unknown to them, they were the easiest target right now.

While they were oblivious about what was about to happen to them…

PANG!

A metallic sound echoed behind one of their youngest soldiers which made the soldier jump in fright and reflexively turn his head behind. The poor soldier received the greatest shock of his life. Far greater than the shock he received when he almost died several times during missions.

Behind him, he saw a hooded figure half submerged in his shadow. What could be seen of the hooded figure was his head to his waist while the remaining seemed to be inside the shadow of the young soldier.

Unknown to the soldier, not only he was shocked by the sudden development. Even the hooded figure froze with his hands that were about to reach the soldier's mouth and grab him stretched out awkwardly. However, the shock of the hooded figure was not from the soldier but because of the bullet that had just penetrated his head. Fortunately, he was a shadow person and with their ethereal bodies, unless they wanted to touch something, almost everything would just phase through their semi-transparent bodies. Still, the bullet that should have penetrated his head left two holes on his hood.

Finally, hooded figure regained his senses first and hurriedly tried to dive back into the shadow. When the hooded figure moved however, the soldier panicked even more and started yelling and shooting which startled his squad mates.

"AAHHHH! DIE! DIE!"

The sounds of his gun that he had forgotten to equip his suppressor echoed badly swallowing all the sounds in the Industrial Area. Thanks to that however, the members of his squads saw the hooded figure just in time before he dived back into the shadows. Unfortunately, the soldier's gunshots did not kill the enemy.

Immediately, what that squad saw spread among the soldiers through the radio. They started to get away from shaded areas and watched their shadows behind them.

***

"Boo, that's cheating."

Mei grumbled with a pout when she saw that the bullet from that shot that she aimed at the head of the robed figure just passed through its body without actually doing damage. In the least, the soldiers already knew what was going on.

On her side, Mark was not surprised about what happened.

"Those people that can enter shadows have no fixed physical body so you should expect that."

"Gege should have told me." Mei pouted even more. She was expecting that she would get the first kill. "But why does it look like they were trying to capture the soldiers alive?"

Mark was also baffled. Since the start of all this, Mark had been watching. He woke up in the middle of the night after receiving the signal of the scout he sent during the time he was not in the settlement and watched everything happen. Since Senator Estrada left their hideout and occupied the Industrial Area, he was watching. He found it strange that even though he could tell that there were many enemies hiding near the entrance, they were actually not planning a trap or an ambush. Instead, they tried to abduct the soldiers one by one.

"I don't know exactly but it looks like that they want them alive for another purpose."

Mark then turned his head towards the outside where the bodies of the soldiers that posed as Senator Estrada and his men were still on the ground. In made him think.

"Maybe they want more puppets like those four? Or probably, they are preparing on sacrificing people for something."

Hearing that, Mei frowned. It was not a good thing either way. She already saw the ritual conducted to contact the Great One where three innocent girls died. If they really were preparing to sacrifice that many people, their goal would be big.

"But Gege, how are the soldiers going to retaliate if those shadow people can't get hurt by normal bullets?"

"Just watch."

Mark replied and pointed at a direction.

There, five soldiers were already in formation as they ran towards another smaller building. As they ran however, they spotted a strange silhouette by the shade of the building. The shadow could not easily be spotted in normal situations but the soldiers were already informed about the enemies hiding in the shadows. Seeing that silhouette, one of the soldiers immediately aimed and fired his pistol.

BANG!

"GRUAAAH!!!"

A painful shout from a deep voice with an echo like nature was heard as the silhouette was forced off from the shade.

That painful shout confirmed the existence of the enemy and the soldier shot two more times at the staggering figure.

BANG! BANG!

There, the hooded figure collapsed on the ground. In the blink of an eye, the body's figure vanished leaving its empty hood riddled with three gunshot holes.

Seeing what happened there, Mark nodded.

"Gege, what is that?"

Mei was confused by this.

"Well, you know that Karlene is the daughter of a major right?"

"Yes, I remember she said that."

"Back when we were confronted with the contaminated animals in the mountain, she seem to have knowledge about miasma and paranormal stuff so I asked her about it when we are on the way here."

On Mark's question on Karlene, she said that her dead mother was a retired soldier from a special task force the military and the police had. Even though it was the modern times already, there were still instances that paranormal things would run amok and harming people. The existence of that special task force was solely for those matters. They were equipped with weapons that could harm paranormal entities, specifically, specialized bullets. The unfortunate thing that the manufacturing of that bullets was too small because there were not really that much mission that that task force was called for.

"So they also have such things."

"Yeah, but as you see, there are five soldiers there but only one seemed to be equipped with those. Actually, there's two there but they tried to conserve the ammunition as much as possible."

"Then how am I going to fight them?"

Mei felt dejected.

"Wait." Mark smiled and called. "Crimson."

At his command, clumps of miasma appeared from underneath his feet and flew towards his hands, there, the reddish black [Blood Child] materialized out of nowhere.

Among the [Blood Children], Crimson was the one he could rely the most right now especially since the little critter had now had a body that could dematerialize and materialize at will. At his mist like form, Crimson was almost undetectable and could even maneuver in the air without problem. Due to those abilities Crimson gained after he evolved, Mark sent him to stealthily guard Odelina and the others and also maintain an eye in the settlement when he was not here.

Last night, Crimson was also the one reported the sudden event.

"Crimson. Help her a bit. Coat her bullets with miasma."

Receiving the command, Crimson wobbled in confirmation and turned back into his mist form. Then, the clump of black miasma flew towards the muzzle of Mei's sniper rifle.

"Mei'er, try shooting again."

"Okay."

Without any question, Mei immediately went to find a good target below. She immediately spotted a strange shadow hiding at the shade of one of the hanging beams being used for construction.

TSSST!

PANG!

"GRAAAAAH!!!!"

The soldiers were surprised to suddenly hear another painful scream by the enemies when none of them actually shot at all. Another thing was that the scream seemed way more painful than before. They immediately charged towards the area where the scream was heard but all they could see was an empty robe that had a hole on its hood.

"Gege it really works."

Mei seemed to be delighted. Other people might be appalled from the scene though. After all, she had just ended a life and yet, she was delighted about it.

To Mark it did not matter though, as long as she was happy.

From that, Mei started shooting every shadow she noticed waiting for the soldiers. Of course, she did not shoot any that near the soldiers so she would not be noticed and only picked those that were in the isolated places.

One shot, one kill. That was how she did it. The enemies did not even know what happened until they died. Of course, she could not spot all of the enemies hiding in the shadows and it was Mark's duty to point where the enemies were lurking.

***

Inside the building that could oversee what was happening around the Industrial Area, four figures were watching the predicament of the soldiers.

It was until a strange shot out of nowhere destroyed it.

"Hey Dopp. Our shadow people are getting decimated."

Flam playfully said while gazing outside the window. There was no fear in his face that he would get shot by a sniper while gazing at the window.

ZMMM!

"Oh, they really won't rest."

Flam smiled as he flicked the sniper bullet that was suspended in front of him. He then turned to Devon.

"Devon, your [Psychic Barrier] is really reliable."

The four of them were already spotted in the building and they received more than a dozen sniper bullets already. However, none of the bullets could enter the room at all and the four of them could watch the situation outside without worry.

"Hmm?"

"GRAAAAHHH!"

Flam had turned his head back to look outside when he saw a flash of bullet with a strange trajectory. The bullet then hit a shadow person which immediately materialized before dying.

That death was too strange since the place where the shadow person was lurking was away from the sight of the snipers of the military not to mention that it would be hard for the soldiers to confirm the existence of that shadow person just through the scope.

Flam smiled with interest. He did not really care whether their men died or not. What he wanted was to have fun in this mission. Strange enough, he saw more of the shadow people die in the same manner.

At that moment however, he managed to trace where the shots were coming from.