Everyone else shared his frustration, fighting the mud that is now reaching to their thighs. The rain continued beating down as the L operatives continued lifting their staffs up.
“The destination is close. Once we reach it, we will await any mutant that approaches.” Enzo said.
The group looked around with vigilance, S and A operatives alike, looked out, hoping to catch another mutant before they could pounce.
“Who knew the mud was this deep.” Alexia remarked.
“Never went this far?” Clara asked, overhearing her.
“No, I just joined a week or two ago. Then on i hoped to try saving people from dying.” She replied.
Behind the team, the light of the city only became a mere speck, having gone so far away from it, shielded by the light from the L operatives. But the S operatives continued moving with little to no struggle, as if they experienced worse than this.
An hour had passed, the mud became tougher to move in, practically forcing Callan to hoist himself up each time with his sword to not get half his body stuck in the brown sludge.
“Seems we reached far enough.” Enzo spoke.
“S operatives, start moving to the edge of the light and take out any mutant that approaches. E division, collect the unique ones. As for your team Hannah.” He turned to her.
“Your team acts as the second line of defense in case anyone goes through. I and H will provide support.” Heeding his command, the formation quickly changed. Callan followed his teammates as they started moving away from the main group.
The once tightly packed team began to branch out, still staying in the light.
“It seems the storm is starting to strengthen.” The mysterious woman spoke, to Enzo’s delight.
“Then the chances of finding these things again will be higher.”
Behind him, Callan could see that the L operatives were fatigued, slowly swaying side to side.
Alexia and her teammates started treating them, taking syringes out their pouches or handing their canteens of coffee.
‘Everything runs like clockwork here…’ He thought to himself.
The rain got louder, slamming hard into the earth with little mercy. But beneath him, Callan could feel the mud start to slowly harden, staying in the presence of the light long enough to start solidifying.
“Keep your eyes peeled lads. Hope your reflexes are just as fast as your speed.” One of the S operatives spoke, seemingly their leader.
The circle shaped formation they had made stood in the middle of the storm, patiently waiting for any possible threat to come.
‘Why is nothing coming?’ He pondered.
In the silence, a loud guttural yell from the darkness startled the team. Loud enough to cause many to cover their ears.
As the scream stopped, one of the S operatives immediately shifted in combat stance, as if he spotted something moving through the dark.
“Well, sounds like it’s gonna be a big horde!” An S operative yelled in joy.
Out of the dark, multiple figures lunged at the first operatives they could find.
The operatives quickly evaded their attacks, taking them out in a few hits with little problem. But in seconds, more mutants ran through the darkness and rushed at them, quickly swaming the operatives.
Soon, the hollow line of operatives was quickly passed, leaving Callan and teammates as the last line of defense.
It quickly became clear to Callan that the unique mutants weren’t present. Only seeing the same bulky and blade armed mutant of before.
He raised his sword, seeing a large amount of mutants in front of him nearly froze him in place, nearly making him panic.
He snapped out of his terror, staring at the mutants in front of him.
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‘Just a few swings…’ As they got closer, Callan began swinging towards them. In a mix of panic, joy, and uncertainty, he took out more and more. Staining his sword in blood, sustaining multiple slash wounds across his body.
His clothes became more torn as the horde kept coming. Through the mutant crowd, Callan could see as the S operatives fought on their own, unsure whether they’re struggling like him, or just fighting with ease.
Clara and the others though had a difficult time keeping up with the enemy, but still kept fighting on. Clara fought faster, mimicking the S operatives in front of her, using more energy in her fighting.
As the pile of bodies around him grew, more mutants only kept coming. It took more swings than normal for the mutants to fall, quickly tiring Callan. But fueled with adrenaline and terror, Callan began fighting more viciously. Determined to hold the line and take down as many of them as possible.
The team was surrounded on all sides by the wave of red, almost a hundred or so have been killed at this point by the S and A operatives.
As the horde started to die down, with lesser and lesser coming in. The H operatives approached them.
“So this is how it feels to be in the deep end of the storm. Take this.” Behind him, Alexia gave a syringe filled with yellow liquid.
“Jab it on your arm, you’ll start fighting like a beast!” After talking, she began to heal Callan of his wounds.
Through the rain, another roar was heard, seemingly signaling the next horde.
Callan jabbed the syringe into his arm, feeling his arm go cold for a moment.
As mutants came in, surrounding the operatives once more, Callan felt more energetic, and no longer felt fear.
‘What did I just inject!?’ His mind was only focused on the enemy.
His arm, body, and sword all felt lighter to him, almost like a feather.
In moments, the mutants in front of him were cut up in mere seconds. Callan moved faster, and took out more and more rapidly, leaving a cloud of mist around him, and a larger mound of red at his feet.
All he could think of was killing as many as possible, his mind blocking everything else out. All that mattered at that moment was destroying the enemy, and doing it fast.
Like an unchained animal, Callan began moving forward, slowly leaving the group to take down more that passed the S operatives.
All that came near were killed in just a second, cut up into multiple pieces.
The battle slowly came to an end as the last of the mutants were cut down, ending the assault.
After a minute, the effects began to wear off, leaving Callan tired and in shock at what he just did. But a yell from the superior snapped him out of his confusion.
“Callan, get yourself back to formation now!”
Turning around, Alexia and the other operatives were shocked.
Instantly, Callan felt intense pain across his body, realizing that he had sustained so many cuts and wounds, deep and shallow.
Alexia quickly came to his aid, her hand glowing a bright green while approaching Callan.
“You fight really well i gotta say, can’t believe i'm helping a strong operative. Not to mention one from A division itself!” She rambled while healing Callan’s wounds. Holding a mace in the other hand, stained with blood as well.
“Sorry, just a little excited with all this.” She stood up, a third roar came from the darkness.
The other H operatives started healing and provided aid to the other operatives, handing syringes as if they were standard procedure.
Callan felt a prick on his arm, Alexia jabbed another yellow syringe without warning.
“Sorry, just in case. Best of luck Arbitrator.” She stood back up, and returned back to the center of the team, holding her mace tightly and taking a swig from her canteen.
Back to the front, Callan prepared for the next wave. But a horde did not come.
Walking slowly through the dark and into the light, a single large mutant walked into the light, double the size of a human, bulkier, and with a longer blade arm. Its chest and head seemed armored in the form of a thickened bright red material.
“What the-” Before the operative could respond, a mutant drove its blade directly into his stomach.
“It seems we found the mutants.” Enzo spoke.
The mutant violently thrashed its arm, slamming the operative back to the ground.
“H-help m-me” As he tried crawling back, the mutant drove its blade into the operative a second time, finally killing the operative.
In blind rage, a few other operatives lunged at the large mutant, but their weapons only tore the armor rather than the skin. But they continued fighting, trying to find any gap in its armor.
Clara joined in with the other operatives, climbing up onto the mutant and driving her sword directly into its face.
It began moving back, roaring in pain, finally injured. But Clara only continued stabbing at the face while the mutant tried grabbing her.
Soon, it fell down, lifeless.
“So that was it huh? That thing!?” In her rant, a large blade slashed at her body, throwing her back to the ground with a long wound across her body.
Past the corpse, multiple other mutants appeared. Double the size of a normal human, they had the same features that were seen in the briefing room. Four arms, more legs, with others also bearing armor and the longer blade arms.
Everyone was stuck in place, staring at the group of mutants in front of them. Even with the stimulant, Callan was starting to feel fear.