Mutagen

Black shadows filled the sky around the corporate building. Most of them were either infected birds or enlarged insects while there were humanoid ones here and there. Aside from being capable of flight, these infected were all hybrid types for sure. Different things could be seen on each one of their bodies. Some looked familiar while some looked new. 

Nevertheless, it was a frightening army of infected. More terrifying than the several tens of thousands of infected below where most of them were normal Biters and Eaters. Especially since the one at the center of the flying army was a four-meter tall quad-winged humanoid.

It looked like a gigantic infected with moth wings on its back. Just the two pairs of wings alone looked threatening enough by everyone"s eyes with its red color and ominous-looking patterns.

Slowly, the infected gathered above and around their king.

***

"Mei"er, you should retreat. Let me handle this."

Mark said as he pulled Mei back and take some distance from the infected.

Nevertheless, it seemed like she had a different idea.

"No." Mei looked straight into Mark"s eyes. "Let me fight with you."

Mark looked at her serious eyes. There was no need to ask. He could feel how determined she was to fight at his side.

"Alright then." Mark smiled. "Get ready. Just shout the word."

"Do I really have to?"

Mei looked embarra.s.sed.

"I won"t let you fight here if not. The current armor you have won"t be enough for this fight."

"But do I really have to shout that?"

"Yep, it"s more like a command. Don"t worry, let"s shout it together."

Mei was still reluctant but the enemy would not wait for too long. She looked at Mark"s playful expression and nodded.

"GRAAAHHHH! Kill! Queen! FIND!"

The king finally commanded his army.

Without delay, the army of flying infected charged forward. Their targets were no one else but Mark and Mei.

Seeing the infected coming, Mark smirked.

"One... Two... Three..."

He counted.

""Armorize!!!""

The two shouted.

As the two shouted, gelatinous threads surrounded their bodies.

The threads that surrounded Mark"s body came out of nowhere accompanied by Miasma. On the other hand, the threads that surrounded Mei came from the bag she carried.

These threads came no other than Crimson and Oracle. Crimson was always with Mark hidden in the shadows while Oracle was with Mei most of the time.

The two were the first ones to receive their upgrades from Mark"s blood with the exception of Miracle. With the upgrade, the blood metal created from their bodies became stronger. Furthermore, their ability to turn their bodies into [Blood Metal] and vice versa were hastened greatly.

With Mark"s idea, the two received two armor designs from Mark"s mind. These designs would not only turn their bodies into metal without dying out but would also let the two fight together with Mark and Mei.

As Mark and Mei shouted, the threads turned into armor covering their bodies. 

Mark had an armor that was almost pitch black containing the color of miasma. It looked like a devilish armor different from his berserk armor.

Mei"s armor contradicted his entirely. It was a crystal valkyrie armor that had a matching helmet for her.

The only thing similar to the two armors were the bulged dome over their hearts. These domes contained the remaining parts of Crimson and Oracle that did not turn into metal. This way, it would be easy for the two [Blood Children] to remove the armor and they would be protected by the Mark and Mei.

Seeing the sudden change of appearance by his enemies, the [King Type] was confused. Nevertheless, its goal was never changed. Kill the enemies in front, destroy the settlement of humans, and more importantly, find the Queen.

"Here they come."

Mark pulled Flam and flames burst on the blade of the cursed sword.

Mei also readied her self and aimed her submachine guns at the enemies.

SHOOM!

Mark"s wings then glowed red. He flapped his wings causing a shockwave behind aiming to clash with the enemies. Mei stayed behind and timed Mark"s movements.

RATATATATATATA!

With those loud rhythmic sounds, Mei opened fire.

From behind, Mark heard the shots but he ignored the sounds.

Pew! Pew! Pew! Pew!

Mark heard the bullets Mei fired pa.s.sed around him. He was not fazed. None of the bullets. .h.i.t him as he continued forwards. The bullets bypa.s.sed his speed and hit the smaller infected insects in front.

SHHAAAA!!!

An infected ignited in flames as the cursed sword split its waist in half. Mark started slas.h.i.+ng the infected he pa.s.sed by. As the sword pa.s.sed by the bodies of infected, Mark added a burst of flames causing their bodies to catch fire. One by one, the bodies enveloped in flames fell down to the ground below.

GRAAAAHHH!!!

The [King Type] roared.

With that loud roar, the movements of the army of flying infected changed. They started to avoid Mark who was charging in the middle of the army. Like bees, half of the infected scattered outwards in unison and was aiming for Mei who was flying steadily behind. The only ones left behind to intercept Mark was the four-meter giant and the other half of the infected.

SHOOM!

Mark"s wings glowed brighter and flapped hard as his back faced the infected flying above him. The shockwave caused the infected to lose balance and started to swerve uncontrollably in the air. With that flap, Mark charged faster towards the giant while reducing the number of infected going towards Mei.

Seeing the large number of flying infected coming towards her, Mei did not panic. She flapped her wings and charged forwards instead of retreating. At the same time, she did not stop shooting her guns.

Finally, Mei was on the reach of the army in front of her. Then, dozens of acidic spits were shot towards her from the infected insects while the infected humanoids tried to grab her.

Then, she was gone.

The acidic spits flew straight to the ground with nothing to catch the attacks on its paths. Even the other infected lost their targets.

RATATATATA!

The sounds of guns echoed once more. The insects that used acids to attack had their heads exploded. Following the sounds, the infected turned around just to see that their target clad in crystal armor was already behind them.

BLINK! RATATATATATA!

BLINK! RATATATATATA!

Since then, Mei started appearing and disappearing while leaving a barrage of bullets aside from the time she needed to reload her guns.

On the other side...

CLANG!

Mark unleashed a swift slash on the giant. Nevertheless, it was not harmed at all. Its skin was very likely to be thicker and stronger than the [Catapults]. 

To counter-attack, the giant swung its right arm outwards aiming a backhand slap at Mark.

POOF!

Mark vanished leaving a trail of black mist that swiftly flew around the giant.

CLANG!

Another slash was unleashed by Mark. This time, he was aiming at the wings of the giant which looked fragile enough. To his dismay, the seemingly weak moth wings sounded like metal too. He even added a ball of flame to envelope the wings on flames.

Then, the flames were extinguished. At the same time, Mark retreated. It was because the flames were extinguished as the metallic scales of the wings started to scatter around like harmful spores.

"This is annoying."

Mark frowned as he slashed two more infected that closed unto him. Furthermore, the number of infected barely lessened.

"Hey Flam, are you really this dull?"

Mark complained which caused the cursed sword to vibrate fiercely. It obviously disagreed with Mark"s question. There was no way it was dull, the infected they were fighting right now was just too st.u.r.dy.

FLAP!

With the flap of its large wings, the giant chased after Mark. It then shot a punch at Mark with its large fist.

Mark tilted his body evading the punch. He then vanished into smoke and appeared several meters away.

The glow on his wings intensified even more. It already glowing as if it was about to burst into flames. Aside from his wings, his eyes and right foot started glowing.

BOOM! CRAs.h.!.+

Mark flapped his wings causing a large explosion of air behind which destroyed the windows of the opposite building.

Using that momentum, Mark disappeared. The next thing that the giant infected knew, Mark was already in front of it with his right foot on contact with its chest.

BAM!

The loud metallic sound was heard as the infected giant received the impact of Mark"s kick.

BOOM! CRAs.h.!.+

From the impact of the kick, the giant was thrown backward causing it to crash on the corporate building. The crash caused the building to quake as the giant was thrown deep into the building.

Nevertheless, it might be stuck for now but it was still not dead.

"I"ll deal with you later."

Mark murmured as he flew towards Mei who was still entangled with half of the flying army.

Mei"s [Bullet Time] might help her conserve ammunition as she was able to aim clearly. However, it did not mean that all the shots she had could kill. Among the flying infected were [Armor Types] which was not something that could be handled by low caliber submachine guns. There was also no room for her to aim with her sniper rifle as not only it would make her flight unstable but there were also too many enemies around her.

RATATATATA!

Mei continued to unleash a barrage of bullets taking down those she was able to kill.

Mark also appeared at her side slas.h.i.+ng everything in his path.

***

About five minutes later.

Mark frowned while Mei panted.

Just how many had they killed already?

It might already be around two hundred but it was still not enough. Not only that more than half of the army of flying infected was still present but the ones left were those that were harder to deal with.

The infected continued to swarm the two and even started to adapt. With the [King Type]"s control, they started to avoid the attacks Mark and Mei did which caused the two to spend more time.

Looking at the rooftop of the corporate building, he locked eyes with the [King Type] who was totally infuriated. Of course, Mark could not feel any emotional fluctuation from the infected but it still looked like it.

"GRAAHHH!!"

It roared.

This time, the flying infected went berserk. It seemed that even the [King Type] was getting impatient. With its instigation, the flying infected started to fly faster and became stronger. Like flies, they started to swarm the two in an erratic manner.

RUMBLE!

The corporate building shook and a large part of it started to collapse. It revealed the giant moth-winged infected in a berserk state. With a flap of its wings that scattered silvery scales, it rushed towards Mark and Mei.

They were surrounded.

Then...

ROAR!!!

SHOOOOM!!!

Two unexpected sounds were heard.

Mark smiled however as he heard those sounds.

Reinforcements had come.

From the settlement, a large lizard could be seen flying towards the battle while a beam of light was shot from the walls.

Nevertheless, the reinforcements would not make it. The giant flew faster than the other infected and was already closing in.

"Mei"er, we"ll fly up."

Mark spoke and grabbed Mei"s right arm.

The two then shot upwards using their abilities to alternately.

From all the infected, the giant was the only one that managed to keep pace.

Finally, the two reached a height that the air started to thin and the buildings below looked like toys. Just quite a distance more and they would be able to touch the clouds. The air current was also getting stronger.

"Mei"er, I"ll go first and welcome the reinforcements with a bang. Follow me shortly."

"Okay."

The two smiled at each other before looking down at the incoming enemy.

There, Mark"s body started to glow red from his blood vessels. Mei took a distance as Mark"s wings glowed red once more.

BOOM!

A shockwave that even disturbed the clouds echoed in the area.

Mark then shot downwards to clash with the incoming giant.