Mutagen

Day 21 – 5:12 PM – Mountain Village, Mount Malabito, General Nakar, Quezon

When the man slashed the bullet, Huey felt devastated. There was no saving them now. The zombies and the strange beasts could be escaped with a few sacrifices due to their very limited intellect. Hostile humans however, were very different. Even if they tried to escape while others distract them, they could still chase after the ones that escaped after they dealt with the people left behind.

Huey was sure that this man was the person that owned this place. It was obvious due to the fact that the strange colored knife made of unknown material Jefferson was playing with before seemed to be similar to the armor and katana the man was using. They just stole from him and messed with his things. It was not surprising that he became hostile.

Even though the first bullet was already shot, Huey still wanted to stop the fight. A single shot like that due to surprise could still be negotiated. However, Sherwyn was no normal person. As the speed and metabolism of his body was rather fast, he already pulled the trigger two more times before Huey was able to say anything. Furthermore, the other men also started to move to surround the man despite how afraid they were. They had high confidence to the two that it turned to a rather unfortunate situation.

None of the bullets shot was able to hit since the man on the roof already jumped spinning his body vertically and keeping eye on his enemies. With a three hundred sixty degree vertical spin, he already landed between the three men that were yet to position themselves. The man flipped the metal sheath of his katana upwards hitting chin of the taller man of the three wielding a nailed baseball bat. The tall man, Ed Damon, staggered backwards due to the force of the hit before falling unto his butt. Ed obviously suffered a concussion since he obviously fell due to loss of balance than the force of the attack.

The man attacking Ed had given the other two an opportunity to attack which they did. The man with the makeshift spear, Pierce Roxas, charged in with his weapon. His spear stab should have hit but the man seemed to have expected his attack and spun his body counterclockwise letting the spear pass by two inches beside his waist. With two flashes of a black shadow, the spear was divided into three parts. When Pierce pass beside his body, the man made another spin with his left foot sweeping in front of Pierce's shin. He immediately fell forwards with his face almost hitting the cut off blade of his spear.

At the same time Pierce fell down, the last of the three who was wielding a butcher's knife, Arnolds Mejia, tried to hack the man's head. But of course, he did not manage to do anything. Arnold obviously had no experience fighting and his attack was full of openings. The man did not even dodge his attack from above or even blocked it with his sword. He just threw Arnolds a simple front kick and he tumbled several times backwards.

Seeing the man's movements, even the always confident Jefferson could not help but take a step backwards. It was the same for Sherwyn. However, the man did not attack when they took that step but rather, he stared at the two with obvious ridicule in his eyes. Jefferson could not take it as it was a blow to his confidence and charged forward not knowing that it was a deliberate provocation.

Jefferson slashed his claws towards the man but the man just let him dodging the slash by a hair's breadth. The man did not counter attack but let Jefferson attack continuously and he just dodged the attacks in the same manner.

"Huey! What are you doing?! Help them!"

Jollene bellowed at Huey who was only watching the predicament of the five men. However, Huey just looked at her with a rather strange expression as if he was looking at an idiot. At that expression, there was also a mix of despair and helplessness. He then replied.

"Why don't you try to help? Don't you see that he's just attacking those who attack first? Or else, he would go first after you girls or after Foss and Jonas. After all, all of you could not fight. He also doesn't seem to have killing intent on him. Remember how those animals attacked us? The pressure we feel when that tiger stared at us? That man is not exuding that. It's those idiots who made a move first so let them suffer. In the first place, we are here to find shelter not mess with other people's things. They deserved that beating."

After saying all those, Huey stored his gun, dragged his leg, and sat beside the other injured man while waiting for the beating to be finished. He was watching the fight and realized all those things making him feel a bit of hope. In the least, aside from the idiots around the man, he, the two injured men, and the women did not touch the man's things and did not taste the food Sherwyn unceremoniously took out from the house. He also did not attack at all.

Looking at the current situation where the man kept on dodging Jefferson's attacks with the ridiculing expression in his eyes, it was obvious that the man was trying to crush Jefferson's confidence.

"What now? After messing with someone else's property, this is all of you can do?"

The man spoke with obvious ridicule. Despite the movements he was making, his breathing was not even ragged and there was no sweat on his face either. On the other hand, Jefferson was already panting.

At that moment, Sherwyn made his move. Using his fast movement speed, he rushed towards the man aiming his gun. It was a rather good move since the man was busy dodging Jefferson's attacks and with a point blank shot, the chance of the man being able to dodge or the shot missing was very low. Unfortunately, Huey could see that the man was aware of Sherwyn's attack and could counter at any time.

Sherwyn raised his gun and was about to pull the trigger when they heard a small worried female voice shouting.

"NO!"

With a strong gust of wind, Sherwyn flew five meters in the air before falling on his back onto the roof of a nipa hut about twenty meters away. When he fell, the nipa roof broke and Sherwin fell further inside the hut.

Everyone was flabbergasted. Even the man stopped while looking at that scene after swinging the sheath of his katana at Jefferson's nape making him faint directly and kicked the unconscious man away in a merciless manner.

While Huey, Nicole, and the others watching had not recovered at that scene of Sherwyn flying away, a small creature with wings flew towards the man which flabbergasted them even further. In a closer look, the creature was human-shaped but just about a little more than half of a ruler in height and it had wings while wearing a dress made of leaves and flowers.

"My Lord! Are you fine? You have no injuries right?"

The fairy-like creature flew around the man obviously worried.

"I told you to hide right?"

The man replied.

"But I heard the sound from that exploding weapon… I got worried."

"Hah…" The man sighed. "I already said that you should follow my orders right?"

"Sorry…"

The man then let the fairy land on his palm and put her to sit on his shoulder. He then sheathed his katana and approached Huey and the others.

"You're quite smart aren't you?"

The man looked at Huey and spoke complimenting him before he swept his gaze unto everyone making them back away specially Jolleen and Trisha.

"The moment you slashed that bullet, I know that we're no match for you. It's better to just concede that to pointlessly get hurt. Besides, it's our fault in the first place. As long as you don't kill us, we'll be fine with any compensation as long as we can do it. This village looked defenseless. I'm sure you need people to help in reinforcing this place."

Huey spoke in a helpless manner while suggesting a work that the person in front of him would surely need. That way, they would be able to secure their lives in the least. While he spoke however, he could not help but look at the fairy-like creature sitting at the man's shoulder. The fairy rather looked afraid as she looked at them but she resolutely tried to hide it even though the way she hid her fear was rather clumsy.

Unexpectedly, when everyone was resigned to their fate and even backing away in fear, Nicole was staring at the man's face with a strange expression. It was as if she was trying to remember something. While in daze, she stood up unsteadily and approached the man.

"Nicole, what are you…"

Hallie tried to stop her but the injury on her foot aching prevented her to. While they others had confused expressions on their faces at the strange behavior of Nicole, they heard her speak.

"Have… Have we met before?"

The eyes of everyone still conscious became wide as a retort came into their minds.

'It's not the time for you to do a reverse pickup!'

They were starting to doubt whether this timid girl was really a timid one. Looking at Nicole's reddish face even enhanced that thought further.

On the other hand, the man seemed to have been taken aback by her question. The man then shrugged his shoulders that almost made the little fairy fall off. He then pulled the hair blocking his face aside.

Nicole stared at that face with surprise. Huey noticed that even Halley had shock on her face.

"M-Mark? You-you're Mark right?"

Hallie spoke with a stutter due to her surprise when she recognized the man's face.

Nicole on the other hand had a relieved expression on her face and started to fall forward. The man called Mark hurriedly caught her. Seeing that she was unconscious, he tapped her flushed face before placing his palm on her forehead. Considering how ragged Nicole's breathing was, it was obvious that she was very ill.

Mark did not care about everyone else anymore and carried Nicole into the house. Well, he kicked the unconscious Jefferson once more in a merciless manner making him roll on the ground several times towards the spilled guts of the huge monkey before entering the door though.

"Do you know him?"

Trisha who was sitting beside Hallie asked in a soft voice. Still, her voice was audible to them who did not participate in the fight.

"We worked in the same animation company before. Uhh, that's before Nicole and I were hired in the last one before the zombie outbreak. Nicole was rather close to him and always helped each other at work. I wonder why he's here."

"Maybe, he also fled to the mountains?"

Jolene interjected but Hallie shook her head.

"If I remember correctly, he came from Cavite so if he fled into the mountains, he should have gone to the ones in Cavite, Laguna, or Batangas."

While the others were talking about the man, Huey finally felt relieved. Since that man knew Nicole and Hallie, the chance of them dying was very low. However, they should stay put as the offenders. He could tell that Mark would not let them go and once they tried to escape, he would surely not hesitate to kill them. Even though he was rather emotionless, Huey could tell using Mark's eyes. That was the eyes of a person that had killed before, a person that did not only kill zombies and large animals but also living humans.

A person that was bad to provoke in any way or the person that provoked him would suffer.

Huey looked at the four men lying on the ground. Although three of them were still conscious, none of them was left unscathed. Even Pierce who just received a sweep kick was still clutching his shin in pain. Not to mention the unconscious Jefferson who was bathing on the guts of the hanged monkey and Sherwyn whose fate was unknown.