Mutagen

Day 126 - 1:27 PM - Monitoring Division, Great Island Military Base, Great Island, Atlantic City, New Jersey, United States of America

The sudden flash of light was clearly shown in the video feedback from the military drones. Most of the monitors inside the monitoring room were focused on the area of the battle. That light caused most of the monitors to flash, causing the whole monitoring room to brighten fiercely.

And the next scene put the soldiers in awe.

Most of them were men, and most men were easy to be fascinated by a woman's beauty.

"A valkyrie?"

One of the soldiers could only mutter.

Soldiers were not innocent about mythological things, especially the ones that symbolized soldiers and war. And in this State of New Jersey, paranormal things were often witnessed even before the outbreak started. The most common one was the sightings of the Jersey Devil.

The word valkyrie was also being used as squad names often.

And this time, accompanied by blinding light, a beautiful woman clad in crystal armor, with a large, white weapon on her back appeared. Of course, they could only associate her with something out of this world.

When her armor melted and her face was revealed clearly to them, they were even more mesmerized. Some of them even began to fantasize.

But their fantasies were crushed when the woman embraced Mark. And furthermore, instead of a pair of wings of an angel, she sprouted those of a devil's.

Still, they could not help but watch the scene in the central monitor more than before. There was no doubt that the beautiful woman came because of Mark. With the display Mark had shown them, they could not help but anticipate how she would do in this battle.

However, a sudden outburst from one of the soldiers broke the monitoring room's silence.

"Major! This is bad!"

The soldier immediately pointed at his screen.

His hurried expression made everyone feel uneasy.

"Bring it up on my monitor!"

The Major ordered as he took his seat.

Seeing the feed that was shown to him, he could not help but frown. It was the same for Maurice, who was standing behind him.

"Hear me out! This is an emergency order!" The major shouted to get everyone's attention. "Check all the critical monitoring targets and report!"

"Yes, Sir!"

The loud reply of the soldiers echoed inside the room as they followed the command given to them.

And as soon as they all did, the atmosphere inside the monitoring room became stifled.

The situation was more than enough to be called an emergency.

It was because the battle that was currently happening at the Bally's Casino had drawn the attention of almost all infected in the whole city.

Because they were all focused on the happenings at the Bally's Casino, they neglected this part.

Still, most of them wondered if it could pose a threat towards Mark, who was still fighting at the rooftop, especially since someone else came to fight with him.

***

Day 126 - 1:29 PM - ?????????????????

"Interesting..."

A creature said in a sharp, monotone voice.

It was none other than the real Professor Alston.

This place was not inside the Atlantic City Highschool, and it was his real body. The professor was sitting at the center of an empty space with only floating screens all around him. No one could tell where he was just from this scene.

And the scene in the screens was no other than what was happening inside the area of his jurisdiction. Specifically, what was currently happening at the rooftops of Bally's Casino.

He had been fascinated by the unknown being that was called Mark. Now, another one had appeared beside him.

"A level of beauty that even gods would want... When was the last time that one of them was born on earth again?"

"The last one recorded in Earth's known history was born in 69BC."

A mechanical voice answered his question.

"Oh, right. That Cleo-something. Who would have thought that another one will appear at this time? Unfortunately, she's already taken. Or else, I might have coveted her beauty. Although I can't wait to have my hands on that Unknown being, it is better not to poke at something dangerous."

The Grey alien continued speaking while watching the floating screens in front of him.

"Scholar Oldreilic, Earth Name: Alphfa Alston. Your orders are to study the infected in your area of jurisdiction. Doing anything that is outside the orders you received is not recommendable and would not be tolerated."

The mechanical voice spoke once more.

"I know, I know... Seriously, who programmed this Artificial Intelligence."

Oldreilic's eyes squinted.

"It is you, Scholar."

The mechanical voice retorted.

"Uhg..."

Without anything to reply, Oldreilic returned to watching the scenes on the floating screens. This time, he did it quietly.

***

Day 126 - 1:30 PM - Lower Rooftop, Bally's Casino, Atlantic City, New Jersey, United States of America

Mei charged towards the horde of infected without fear. She was not like Mark, who had a hard time to actually feel emotions. However, she did not care enough about the infected in front that she could not feel such emotion.

And as a woman, she could feel if someone was targeting her man.

It was more acceptable if it was human or any of the Spirit Races. She would not react this way either if other women were feeling genuine admiration towards Mark.

However, she would not, and never accept that another woman was targetting Mark for the sake of nothing but breeding.

She would not accept it, no matter what race the woman came from.

And thus, she felt angry at this infected.

Many spider-latched infected got on her way. Every single one of them was protecting their Queen, contrary to their previous goal of consuming human flesh.

Even those originally aiming to climb the tower also climbed down as fast as they could to surround her.

Mei's killing intent towards the Queen was felt by her underlings. Unlike with Mark, who was just playing with them, Mei was emitting killing intent that was enough to alert all of them.

If not for Mark's request to not kill the Queen, Mei would kill her without hesitation.

"This is troublesome."

Mark could not help but voice as he immediately went to assist. Even those infected around him rushed towards Mei, totally ignoring him.

Unfortunately for these infected, Mei was not a pushover after becoming a Blood Demon.

With the veins on her arms legs releasing a faint glow, she forcefully stopped, kicking the floor, and waved her sword with both hands.

The sword left a white afterimage of a wide arc, bisecting the bodies of the infected before her. Blood, flesh, and organs splattered everywhere, creating a grotesque scene around her. Before any drop of blood could land on her body, her body flashed forwards, appearing a few meters in front.

With another swing of her sword, the infected that lost their targets had their bodies bisected from behind.

After that, Mei continued to charge towards the Queen with a flap of her wings.

Since she decided to fly up, the spider-latched infected could not reach her as she continued on her way.

Mei finally reached a distance several meters away from the Queen. There, her body flashed, appearing behind the Queen without any warning.

Using the flat side of her sword, Mei decided to strike the Queen down.

But then, it seemed that it would not be that easy.

As Mei's sword formed another arc, the Queen kicked her foot, causing her whole body to launch backward. She jumped behind her evading the sword as her body spun midair.

Mei's eyes dilated, everything in her sight slowed down a bit. She turned her head up, following the movements of the Queen.

As Mei looked up, the Queen was looking down. The two stared at each other at that instant.

However, before the swing of Mei's sword reached halfway, her body flashed once more.

Mei appeared behind the Queen once more in the middle of the swing of her sword.

Creaking noises could be heard from the [Empress Spider] as she sensed danger. However, without any foothold, there was no way for them to dodge.

BAM!

The flat blade of the large sword connected with the Queen's left side.

With a painful screech, the Queen was flung off the rooftop.

Of course, it was not enough to dispatch the Queen. Being even more special from other Mutated infected, her body was more resilient too.

As the Queen was falling, she stretched her hand towards the face of the building. With that action, several strings of webs shot off from her fingers. She intended to use the webs to mitigate her fall.

Unfortunately for the Queen, her current enemy would not let her do so.

A flash of light occurred in front of her, Mei appeared as the light vanished.

BAM!

Mei's feet kicked at the same time, hitting the Queen's abdomen with full force.

BOOM!

GRAAAAHH!!! SCREEECH!!!

The Queen crashed in the middle of the street. After falling from three stories high with a speed of a speeding car, it would not be surprising if she did not feel pain.

Both the Queen and the [Empress Spider] spat out blood. The impact from that fall could not be joked at. The Queen tried to struggle and move. However, even as an infected, the damage done to her body was enough to incapacitate her.

The spider-latched infected that was still at the lower parts of the building immediately came to aid the Queen. They surrounded her as she screeched out loud.

In the middle of their encircle, however, Mei appeared waving her white sword.

In very few reinforcements that came to aid the Queen was dispatched quickly as most of them were already on the lower rooftop and the insides of the casino.

With this, Mei secured the capture of the Queen.

Mark dispatched the infected around him as he saw that Mei ended her battle as quickly as possible.

"She's being too active. It's not a bad thing, though"

Mark smiled.

However, the smile did not last too long, and his expression turned serene.

He immediately rushed towards Mei.

"Mei'er, hurry up. We need to leave."

Mark said as [Blood Whips] shot off from his hands, and constricted the Queen and the [Empress Spider]. The [Blood Whips] turned into metal shackles immediately, and he picked up the captured enemy.

On the other hand, Mei did not need to ask why Mark was in a hurry. Just from where they currently stood, they could see what was happening.

Except for the spider-latched infected and the others that were already here before, the infected from other places started gathering here.

On the east side of the road, they could see a two-story-tall cat, quickly rushing towards them. The cat was jumping over cars, infected, and debris as it found Mark and Mei.

CLACK! CLICK!

Several clicking sounds were heard as Mei transformed the sword in her hands into a sniper rifle.

As Mei aimed towards the cat, parts of the sniper rifle started glowing.

BANG!

The sniper rifle shot like normal. However, the velocity of the bullet was several times faster than her speed of flight and had the impact of a tank cannon.

Unable to react, the head of the cat was pierced through. Its large body turned into a ragdoll that rolled in the middle of the street. A hole as large as a fist could be seen on its bleeding head.

"You really don't have to do that?"

Mark complained.

"Sorry, I just want to try."

Mei apologized with a puppy-like expression.

"Don't show me that." Mark patted her head. "Let's go."

With those words, Mark and Mei flapped their wings and flew back to the rooftop of the hotel tower, leaving the hundreds of infected that hurried towards them in order to save their Queen.