Mutagen

Day 364 - 7:09 PM - 38th Satellite Settlement, Muria Sacred Fortress, Mount Muria, Kudus Regency, Central Java, Indonesia

"What?" Bajing froze as she saw that light. "Luna, you..."

Bajing wanted to say something. However...

THOOOM!

Another corpse got thrown in their direction. It gave them no other choice but to evade than slashing through it.

A violently thrown tree and a corpse would have different dangers. The tree would hurt more when it hit them, but slashing through it would have no repercussions on Luna and Bajing. On the other hand, slashing a corpse mid-air would be like breaking a children's piñata. But instead of candies, it would be blood and organs that would rain on them.

"Talks later," Luna spoke. "Bajing, both sides. You go to the right."

Bajing nodded as she received the command.

The [Infected] gathering because of Wahyu's roar turned to Luna and Bajing. With most of the dust cloud gone, everyone's sight cleared and became visible to both sides. After seeing humans in front of them, there was only one thing the [Infected] would do. It was to charge at them with all their might.

On the other hand, Wahyu totally behaved differently than the other [Infected] in the surroundings. Letting his [Infected] minions stall the two enemies, he grabbed another nearby tree and uprooted it to use as his next weapon.

Facing a large number of [Infected] intercepting them, Bajing chanted.

"Flare. Shock."

Then, just like Limabela's pistols and Nelia's sniper rifle, Bajing's daggers exhibited fire and electric properties. Fire for her left dagger and electricity for her right one.

Bajing stabbed the left dagger into the forehead of the [Infected] pouncing on her. She immediately pulled the dagger away as the [Infected] staggered, and she jumped back. The [Infected] immediately burst into flames before exploding, spreading more flames to the other [Infected] in its immediate vicinity.

After evading the explosion, Bajing had another [Infected] pounce at her from her right. It was when she stabbed her dagger through the [Infected's] chin. And just like the previous one, Bajing immediately left the dying [Infected].

The [Infected] stabbed by Bajing's right dagger began to spasm violently before large amounts of electricity surged out of its body, also affecting the other [Infected] in its surroundings.

Bajing could not help but smile as she saw the power of her daggers. One weakness that dagger users had was their range and the fact that they could only handle a limited number of enemies for each attack they unleashed. But with the new daggers that Mark gave her, the delayed elemental burst allowed her to kill more enemies from each stab. Of course, it was not something without risks.

She needed to immediately evade before the elemental burst happened, or she might get caught in it. Nonetheless, for an agility-type fighter like Bajing, it would not be a hard thing to do.

On the other side of the horde intercepting the two women, Luna began dealing with the [Infected] in front of her. Her movements were rather stiff compared to how she normally fought. The reason was Melfiss, her [Cursed Divine Keris], instructing her how to do new things.

In the past, Luna could only use her mutation to enhance her physical abilities by absorbing moonlight. It was how she could contend with Bajing in terms of speed and Livia in terms of strength during nighttime. Luna was an all-around fighter who performed the best in the darkness of the night.

But it seemed that Luna's abilities were more than just enhancing her physical prowess. Nonetheless, it was clear as day. The attacks she was currently showing under Melfiss' instructions were tied up with her [Mutator] abilities. The glow on Melfiss' blade and the glitter on Luna's hair would appear at the same time as Luna performed her new attacks.

Luna slashed through the necks of the [Infected] that blocked her path. But instead of only killing the one she attacked, a blade of light shot out from Melfiss, killing more [Infected] behind the first one.

Behind the horde he commanded, Wahyu became angrier and angrier as he saw Bajing and Luna barely being hindered at all. With a ground-shaking stomp, he wielded the tree he uprooted and charged.

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Nonetheless, Wahyu, the likely leader of the [Infected] horde, did not care much about his minions. He waved the tree he held to get rid of the [Infected] blocking his way, effectively killing most of the ones he hit.

For once, Wahyu displayed a behavior befitting an [Infected].

Even so, a giant, armored [Infected] wielding an entire tree as a club would be a dangerous enemy to face.

BOOM!

Wahyu smashed the tree forward in an attempt to attack the most distracting enemy, Luna. Several smaller [Infected] immediately turned into meatpaste. Unfortunately, Wahyu could only roar in anger as he saw the glittery-haired woman still alive after evading his attack.

All of a sudden, Wahyu raised his left arm.

CLANG!

The armored skin on his left forearm clashed with a flaming dagger with a loud clang.

Bajing was surprised as she kicked Wahyu's arm to avoid getting swiped by the tree he was holding.

Wahyu defended against Bajing's attack when he was supposed to be distracted by Luna. He even counterattacked.

It was the first time Luna and Bajing encountered this kind of [Infected].

Wahyu, as an [Infected], was not only smart. It seemed that he also retained his honed combat instincts when he was still alive.

"Flare. Haste."

Bajing whispered as she activated the flame enchantment of her left dagger. She then activated the haste enchantment, which increased her speed further as she ran and jumped around the incoming [Infected] before charging at Wahyu.

Luna also matched Bajing's movements. The glitter on her hair intensified as she increased her speed explosively.

ROOOAR!!!

BOOM!

Facing the incoming attacks from both sides, Wahyu stomped on the ground as strongly as possible, creating a small crater and another dust screen.

It was a good move to disrupt the incoming attacks. However, the same kind of attack that Luna had already disabled before would not work the second time.

Luna waved Melfiss in the same manner as before, causing a burst of light that cleared the dust cloud instantly. Her clearing of the dust cloud delayed her a bit, making Bajing reach Wahyu first.

Wahyu blocked Bajing's attack once again. But this time, it was different.

WHOOOM!

Bajing retreated as Wahyu's armored arm burst into flames.

ROOOAR!

The sudden burst of flames on his arm seemed to have made Wahyu panic. He began waving his left arm in an attempt to extinguish the flame. Unfortunately, the flames from Bajing's dagger were no mere ordinary flame. It was a flame that was created with magical energy as fuel. While it would not last forever, it would burn as much as it could while it lasted.

ROOOOOOOARR!!!

Wahyu roared in pain as the heat on his arm intensified.

Without regard for anything else, Wahyu waved the tree he held around before throwing it at Luna, who was about to attack him from the other side. Luna could only stop her attack and retreat to evade the tree.

The [Infected] trying to attack Luna was not as fortunate as her. They all died with their bodies in pieces as the tree spun past them.

After making Bajing and Luna retreat, Wahyu made an unexpected move to deal with the pain from his burning arm.

RIP!

Wahyu stripped the burning armor off his harm as the loud and disgusting sound of the tearing of his flesh entered Bajing and Luna's ears. After stripping the armor off from his now bleeding arm, Wahyu angrily threw the stripped skin armor towards Bajing.

Of course, Bajing evaded the burning skin armor without problems.

Wahyu was proven to be a difficult enemy. After experiencing Bajing's dagger once and getting hurt by it, Wahyu began to prioritize evading Bajing's dagger. He would then start counterattacking after her attacks.

Now, the attention was on Bajing. She shifted her style and began baiting Wahyu's attacks instead.

And Luna could take advantage of the situation.

Luna charged behind Wahyu. With the glow on Melfiss' blade, she tried to behead the giant.

However, just like what happened with Bajing's first attack, Wahyu reacted. Luna's attack missed her target, and Wahyu counterattacked by trying to smash his arm onto Luna.

But Luna did not stop. After evading Wahyu's counterattack, Luna' twisted her movement and shifted to trying to dismember Wahyu's arm.

Melfiss pierced and slashed through the unarmored part of Wahyu's arm. Unfortunately, the attack was not enough to dismember it.

Wahyu shifted his attack at Luna, and it was Bajing's turn to take advantage of it.

"Flare. Shock."

Bajing activated both her daggers and attacked as fast as she could. However, Wahyu suddenly picked up an [Infected] and threw it at Bajing to disrupt her attack.

From here, the winding exchange of attack and defense began between the three.

A battle between a giant and two women. One would think that the speedy women would have the absolute advantage. However, the supposedly slow giant was actually keeping up with the speed of the two.

Nonetheless, there was a limit to the things an [Infected] could do.

As Wahyu began accumulating small injuries, his movement began to become sluggish.

And if that was not enough...

RATATATA!

The gunshots sounded closer and closer.

As they concentrated on their fight against Wahyu, Luna and Bajing did not immediately take notice of something.

Instead of staying to defend, the combined forces of the three Satellite Settlements began moving forward.

It was clear that the horde was thinning. Instead of waiting for the remaining members of the horde to arrive, they decided to move forward to intercept them instead. They avoided stepping across the piles of corpses and moved around in two directions. It was a clever move.

Even if these corpses were unmoving, some of them might still be "alive," not to mention that some of them would leave dangerous matter after their death, such as acid and poison.

Moving forward, the issue of corpses blocking their view became less of a problem.

And the best thing about this move was that it became easier for them to assist Luna and Bajing.

Luna and Bajing's opponent was not just Wahyu. There were also the [Infected] still gathering around their battle.

Getting the [Infected] out of the way would help the two finally kill Wahyu.

With the help of the alliance, soon enough, only Wahyu was the [Infected] left standing on the field.

And Wahyu was already unable to continue fighting at this point.

Finally, Luna appeared behind Wahyu while Bajing distracted him. With a quick swipe of Melfiss, Luna beheaded Wahyu.

As the giant fell to the ground, it marked the victory against the horde.

However, there was no cheering. There was no celebration.

The giant was Wahyu. A leading figure of the Fire Fighters. He was an ally they all know, an ally who fell victim to the schemes of the [Face Wearers].

Looking around the faceless corpses, all of these [Infected] were the missing victims of the [Face Wearers].

It would take an extremely twisted person to be happy at the end of this battle.

Or maybe people with a very positive outlook.

"What's with the long faces?!" Kana, the bubbly-haired girl, shouted while pointing at the corpses. "Smile! These people would hate to see us like this when we stopped them from harming people. I'm sure *sniff*, they don't want to turn into [Infected] and harm others."

"You say smile, but you're crying," Ellie patted Kana's shoulder. "But I guess you're correct."

"She's correct, right?!"

Ellie then shouted to the rest while holding Kana's shoulder.

The two's antics made everyone's heavy hearts lighten a bit.

"Let's return first," Luna shrugged before turning to their allied reinforcements. "You guys, too. I don't think we can offer much as thanks, but we can at least share some information."

Luna's words perked up the ears of Farel and the three women leading the 40th Satellite Settlement. If there was something much more valuable than food or equipment, it would be information.

Besides, it would be a lie if they said they were not interested in returning with Luna's group, especially with the new weapons leaders of the Moon Chasers wielded.