Mutagen

Day 54 – 11:05 AM – Baclaran Church, Redemptorist Road, Pasay City, Metro Manila

A few minutes before while the fight between Mei and Flam was ongoing, Karlene and Edzel had tense expressions on their faces as they gazed through the windows of the church. They could not see anything but the sounds of gunshots could be heard even outside the settlement.

As someone whose father and mother had ties with the military, Karlene could tell that the fight inside the settlement was rather intense. Just add a bit of explosions in the background and it could be mistaken that there was a war ongoing.

"Is it always like this in the settlements in the city? Back in East Port, many people had guns but there was never anything like this even when the evolved sea creatures came ashore."

Edzel voiced out. As a country bumpkin, he was never been in a city like this. Everything was new, even the sounds of confrontation between the soldiers and the senator's camp was the first for him.

"Something like this happened before in Port of Real though?" Karlene replied. "At the time Mark came there, several thousand infected horde coincidentally arrived and it was like war at that time."

"That happened?"

"It did! I even joined the fight… Well, kind off."

The two started chatting to at least relieve the tense atmosphere. It was then when the eyes of the two landed on the [Blood Children], the three girls, the fairy and the strange infected at the center of the church that were busy doing things like there was nothing intense happening outside.

Iola, Abbygale and Miracle sat in a circle along with the [Blood Children] playing with building blocks Mark found for them while Aimee and Aephelia looked over the children. This way, the children could relieve their boredom and the toys really took their interest as they tried to build things based on their imagination.

As for Chaflar and the Alpha, both were positioned at the opposite sides of the church. The Alpha infected was on standby while the Dragon was sleeping like nothing mattered at all.

"You girls don't feel worried at all, your mother and father are in there fighting."

Karlene could not help but ask the three girls. It might not be an appropriate question to children but it did not really enter her childish mind that was too curious at the worst times.

Her question made the three girls look at her with confused expressions. It was Miracle who answered first.

"Papa is strong! He can kill all the bad people there."

It was followed by Abbygale.

"Mama is also strong and Papa will always protect Mama. Nothing will happen. All the bad guys that fight Mama and Papa will get killed easily."

On the other hand, Iola only stared at Karlene with a "don't ask what is obvious" look.

The three girls trust towards their adoptive parents was amusing. Karlene felt envious. Still, three little girls viewing death and killing as everyday thing was rather scary.

The three girls was about to go back to playing when Iola, Aephelia and Aimee suddenly stood in full alert. Suddenly, the atmosphere turned tense that even Edzel and Karlene became on guard. Aimee who held the stone that was supposed to be her child encircled her tentacles around the children wanting to protect them while Aephelia immediately called unto the Alpha. Chaflar who also sensed the danger already stood beside the group in a single gallop. The Dragon's sudden movement shook the whole building a bit.

"Hiding is useless! Come out!"

Aephelia shouted as she stared towards the direction of the door of the church.

There, several figures emerged from the shadows as if they entered through the door despite the fact that the door of the church was left untouched.

"I thought that this will be easy but wrong, huh. Sir Dopp really gave us some unusual tasks."

One of the hooded figures who had the largest stature among the group spoke. Not everyone came out of the shadows individually but some of them appeared while receiving assistance. This large statured man was one of those which meant that he had not ability to traverse through the shadows.

"Who are you people?"

Karlene shouted as she readied her assault rifle.

As the man turned to Karlene, he was rather surprised.

"Aren't you Karlene Bautista? You're rather popular before. However, we have no business with a human like you and that guy beside you."

He then panned his eyes at everyone, specifically, at Miracle, the [Blood Children], Aimee, Aephelia, Chaflar, the Alpha and lastly, Aephelia.

"The humans aside, we are here to invite all of you to come with us. But of course, we are not taking no for an answer. I won't ask you all to answer since it's already obvious." The man waved his hand forwards. "Take them all."

With the man's command, the hooded figures that numbered to twenty individuals scattered as they charged forward. The hooded figures had different body statures with seven of them having lean bodies while the others looked like normal people. However, the some of the figures with lean bodies vanished soon after and melded into the shadows while the remaining figures charged forwards.

The enemies appearing and disappearing into the shadows surprised Karlene and Edzel but there was no time to dawdle around. Due to the sudden attack, Karlene and the others had no time to plan a counter attack and as such, they sure will be pushed into a defensive. The ones charging forward might be fine to some extent but the ones that entered the shadows were kind of worrying.

Karlene and Edzel started shooting the enemies. Unfortunately, even though the bullets left holes on the robes of the enemies, the bullets just phased through the bodies of the lean figured enemies. There was not damage at all. As for those who had normal figures, some of the bullets hit their bodies causing them to stagger. However, they still continued to run forwards like they were not injured at all.

TING! TING! TING!

Those sounds could be heard among the footsteps as the bullets that hit their bodies were pushed out and their wounds healed in absurd speed.

As the enemies closed in, Aimee's tentacles swept them away. Those with lean bodies were not able to dodge as they were not really fast moving. However, only their robes were swept away from their bodies revealing their scary black ethereal figures. There were no distinguishable characteristics on their shadow like bodies aside from their glowing white eyes.

However, the tentacles were able to block the way of the other enemies that had no ghostly bodies. Along with the Alpha and Chaflar, they were stopped on their tracks. Chaflar could not use his long body effectively inside the church however, it managed to compensate with breathing fire with great control while trying not to burn the church where they were staying.

The shadow people ignored the tentacles, the Alpha and the Dragon as their attacks phased through their bodies and continued to charge forward. They were surely aiming to snatch the smaller bodied children. At the same time some shadows appeared near and figures emerged from them which were trying to grab the [Blood Children], Aephelia and Miracle.

At that moment however…

"GRAAAA!!!"

Their painful voices echoed as their outstretched hands met a barrier that started to corrode their hands and arms. Those that were late to retreat even lost their arms in the process. An unlucky one had his face corroded and immediately turned into scattered smoke leaving his robe behind.

Iola's eyes darted everywhere as she tried to spot the approaching shadow people. She then activated her barrier to any attacker that approached. Unfortunately for the shadow people, Iola's [Corrosive Barrier] was made of pure psychic energy which could harm them severely upon contact. This was one thing they never considered and made them pay the price.

Seeing how his subordinates were being dealt with, the man with large stature was surprised. It was already strange that there was a group living here hidden outside the settlement. Who would think that they were actually this strong and could not be underestimated?

"AAWWWOOOOOO!"

The man could not wait anymore and howled. Following him, several of his subordinates did the same.

As they did that, their bodies grew larger and bulkier. They muscles became firmer and thick hair covered their bodies. Their faces shifted and changed shape and fangs and sharp teeth grew out of their mouths. Their robes now looked like capes that were tied to their necks due to the size they grew.

Werewolves, was what these men were called. Among then, the leader had a silver colored fur and blood red glowing eyes which indicated that he was an Alpha among these Werewolves. With the transformation done, the leader finally joined the fray and charged forward.

Knowing that the enemy leader was the most dangerous, Aephelia controlled the Alpha to concentrate on him. It became a one on one fight between the two, an Alpha versus an Alpha. The attacks the two made caused the whole church to shake not only because of their heavy bodies but also because of their inhuman strength. However, it was obvious that the Alpha Infected was having a hard time.

The Alpha infected was fast but not as fast as the Alpha Werewolf. It was more of a tank and damage dealer than an agile fighter. It was already good that the Alpha infected was able to maintain a stalemate on the enemy leader.

As for the other werewolves, they gained a good advantage and managed to charge forwards. They started to ignore the bullets that were flying towards them as they did not even stagger back anymore. Unknown to them, Karlene and Edzel exchanged a signal using their eyes and changed the bullets they were using.

"GUAAAA!"

"GAAAH!!!"

The werewolves that were too confident of themselves did not even try to dodge. When they were hit by the bullets however, their eyes went wide and they stopped in place. They felt too much pain for every bullet that entered their bodies and by the time they noticed, the bullet wounds were not healing but started to fester instead. The wound even started to bubble and release a suffocating and nauseating smell that choked the werewolves that had their sense of smell heightened by the transformation.

The alpha werewolf finally noticed. They really underestimated these people. His eyes fell on the sylph. A least, he should get the sylph and get out of this place.

BAM!

The enemy leader jumped back to evade a punch of the Alpha infected and counterattacked with his heaviest punch. The Alpha infected was thrown backwards towards Aimee causing the two to collide and fall.

An opening was finally made. The enemy leader charged forwards towards Aephelia. With her small stature, Aephelia could only retreat as she tried to call the Alpha back to its feet. Since there was not much time, even Miracle, Abbygale and Iola tried to intercept the enemy leader.

Unfortunately, Miracle and Abbygale were blown away while Iola's barrier was not enough to stop the enemy leader before it broke. The enemy leader's fur was like steel and the barrier was barely able to corrode it.

The Alpha Werewolf stretched his hand forwards trying to capture the sylph. Aephelia's control with flight was still bad and as such, she could not maneuver herself to dodge. She was captured.

He felt a bit of relief as he caught the sylph. As his other hand was free, his eyes darted to try and get another thing. However, instead of the [Blood Children], his eyes landed on the spherical stone that was placed on a pillow. Knowing how the stone looked strange, he hurriedly tried to grab it.

Aimee watched in horror as her child was about to get taken by the enemy. However, there was too little time for her to move. She pushed the Alpha away from her body causing it to collide with one of the central posts of the church and sent her tentacles to intercept the enemy leader.

Still, it was not enough. Before her tentacles could reach the enemy, he would already be able to retreat with her child.

"KRRAAAA!"

She shrieked.

The eyes on her tentacles opened wide which glared at the enemies with great killing intent.

ZWWWOOOOOOM!!!

Several beams of light swept over the enemies which soon joined into one as her tentacles moved together towards one direction and tore the whole Baclaran Church in half.