Mutagen

Day 333 - 4:10 PM - Honcho, Higashimurayama, Ruins of Tokyo

ROOOOAARR!!!

The roar, accompanied by hundreds of wails, echoed in everyone's ears.

It was the [Abomination of Thousand Corpses], the boss of the Forbidden Zone in Fujimicho.

The [Abomination of Thousand Corpses] was a humanoid [Infected] that moved on all fours. Despite that posture, it stood around four to five meters, meaning its standing height was around four to five times more. It was a literal giant of around the same height as the RX-78-2 Gundam Statue in Odaiba. And this [Infected] might even be taller than the statue.

However, what made the [Abomination of Thousand Corpses] terrifying was not its height or physical strength. In fact, its body was weak for its height, so it could only stand on all fours and move slowly. Instead, what made it scary was the same reason it had its current name.

The [Abomination of Thousand Corpses] was a gigantic [Infected] with more than a thousand corpses fused on its body. Those corpses fused to its skin covered its entire body, and more than a third of them were still moving independently. Yes, they were bodies both dead and [Infected]. And if that was not enough, more than half of those [Infected] were mutated, giving the abomination hundreds of mutated abilities at its disposal.

In other words, it was a largely sized horde in one gigantic body.

It was, without a doubt, a dangerous kind of [Infected], and the JSDF had tried to eliminate it multiple times. Unfortunately, just like what happened to other Forbidden Zones still remaining, the JSDF failed these attempts, and the encounters just resulted in hundreds of sacrifices.

To make things even worse, those encounters with the JSDF caused great damage to the abomination, even if it was not killed. However, in the following encounters, the abomination had already gotten new bodies to replace the damaged ones. And the more it got damaged, the more vicious it became after it began replacing the corpses with live [Mutated Infected].

In a sense, it was the JSDF's fault that the [Abomination of Thousand Corpses'] body was now majorly composed of [Mutated Infected]. Due to the failed attempts causing the abomination to replace the damaged corpses on its body, it became stronger and unkillable.

Fortunately, like most territorial [Infected], the [Abomination of Thousand Corpses] never left Fujimicho.

However, that unkillable creature was now slowly crawling its way to where the Black Lotus Group was, far from its territory.

The Black Lotus Group might be powerful. However, even they had a very slim chance of killing the abomination. Even if they managed to defeat the abomination, they would need to commit to harsh sacrifices.

And sacrifices? Ren would never let that happen.

"How long will it take to replace the wheel?!"

Ren shouted to her subordinates, who were replacing the truck wheel.

"A few more minutes, Ren-sama!"

The subordinate assisting their main mechanic shouted back in urgency.

Ren frowned her eyebrows. Nonetheless, she did not force her subordinates to do it faster or order something unreasonable. Besides, it was clear that the mechanic was already doing his best, changing the tires faster than it would usually take.

It would not be this much of a problem if the busted tire was either the outer or inner tires under the cargo. However, the problem was the right front tire of the truck. Abandoning the truck was also not a problem, if not for the fact that it contained about half of their hunt these past three days.

Abandoning the truck was the last thing they would do.

ROOOAR!

RUMBLE!

The roar filled with wails was coming closer and closer, accompanied by the sounds of collapsing ruins as the abomination demolished everything it could along its path.

"Tsk!" Ren clicked her tongue and turned to her subordinates. "Tadashi! Take command here! Keiko, you assist Tadashi! And Mako, follow me! We'll delay the abomination!"

"Wait, Ren-sama! I'll go with you."

Keiko immediately responded and asked to come with Ren stead, knowing that this would be dangerous for their master.

"No," Ren shook her head. "Just me and Mako should be enough. We're not trying to kill that thing. We only need to distract it until the wheel is fixed. Your super strength is more suitable here."

"That's..."

Keiko wanted to be of use to Ren, but she could not refute what her master had said.

At this time, Tadashi gently grabbed Keiko's shoulder, making her turn to him.

"Ren-sama knows what she's doing. Don't hold her back, and let's do the duties tasked to us."

Tadashi made his remark, making Keiko take a deep breath and nod.

"We've come to an understanding, then," Ren smiled and looked at Mako. "Let's go."

With those words, Ren and Mako ran towards an incoming horde of [Infected] before jumping far over the horde's heads onto the inclined wall of a tall, ruined building. The two then used the ruins to run past the horde, leaving the horde to the defense of the Tadashi and the others.

Jumping from building to building like agile cats, Ren and Mako reached the area where they could see the gigantic abomination clearly.

All members of the Black Lotus Group were used to the scene of blood and death. Yet, the two women could only frown as they felt their stomachs churn a little as they looked at the grotesque abomination in front of them. Compared to all the killings they witnessed and committed, the sight of the [Abomination of Thousand Corpses] was way far more morbidly disgusting.

Hundreds of bodies plastered the abomination's skin like a morbid mosaic. What made it worse was that any of the bodies still "alive" were flailing any part of their bodies they could still move. Hundreds of pairs of limbs protrude all over the abomination's body, flailing in their futile attempt to free themselves from their disgusting fate.

RUMBLE! CRASH!

Another ruin of a building collapsed as the [Abomination of Thousand Corpses] trampled over it. Its movement was pretty slow due to its heavy body, but at its constant pace and gigantic size, it would not take another minute before it reached where the defense line was established.

"Mako! Take its attention for a bit!"

Ren ordered Mako as she began to prepare the trap.

Mako, without hesitation, ran past Ren toward the grotesque giant.

Given the situation, there was a large number of [Infected] lurking in the area. Half were moving toward the direction of the battle, while the others were attracted to the loud noises made by the abomination.

Mako ran past the irrelevant [Infected]. They saw her and tried to attack, but most of them were unable to contest her speed and dodging skills. As for those fast enough to be a hindrance, they were immediately dispatched with either a single stab of her dagger or a bullet from her pistol into their heads.

Unexpectedly, the commotion Mako was causing was not enough to get the attention of the abomination. She was literally in front of the giant, fighting some [Infected], firing her gun without a suppressor. Yet, the abomination continued to crawl forward, not even giving Mako a single glance from its gigantic eyes.

Mako's expression turned serious. If an indirect way of attracting the abomination's attention was not plausible, she could only make a direct move against it.

Passing the piston on her right hand to her left, Mako took out another tool and pointed it at the giant's head.

THACK! PSHHHHH!!!

The odd firecracker-like sound, followed by the loud shushing sound, echoed within the surroundings. And with a sizzle, a ball of light penetrated the cheek of the giant after it hit the uncovered part of its face.

ROOOOARRR!!!

The giant bellowed, and the [Infected], still alive on its body, wailed at the same time as the giant. It was not in pain due to the attack it received. However, it was impossible to ignore when the skin below its eyes was burning and smoking.

And giving Mako the chills, the giant and all the heads of "living" [Infected] on its body all turned their heads towards her direction.

At the same moment, Mako jumped away as fast as she could. The place she stood before was immediately blanketed by dozens of kinds of different acidic liquids of different colors and acidity. All of which came from the dozens of [Spitter Type Infected] all over the abomination's body.

It was clear that while the [Infected] on the abomination's body looked like they were trying to escape due to their limbs and head flailing around, the abomination had control over each one of them. This showed another dangerous aspect of the [Abomination of Thousand Corpses].

But Mako did not care about the danger. She finally succeeded in taking the giant's attention.

BAM!

Mako made another jump back as the abomination swiped its right arm at her. While she managed to evade it after jumping a few meters over it, she felt the strong air pressure behind the attack. Furthermore, everything that arm hit went flying in all directions, whether they be ruined buildings or the [Infected] also chasing after her.

Not only the impact of that attack was what Mako should look out for. The [Infected] plastered on the abomination's body managed to catch some of the [Infected] the arm hit. It means that these [Infected] on the abomination's body could move their limbs individually and catch their own prey. If Mako got hit, it was likely that she could get captured and bitten.

Fortunately, Mako's speed was faster than the attacks of the abomination. Although she needed to watch out for other factors, like flying debris from the attacks and the hands trying to reach her, she could keep taking the aggro pretty fine.

The unfortunate part of this was Mako's stamina was not infinite, unlike the abomination, who could continuously flail its gigantic arms to attack her. And since she needed to dodge large and powerful attacks, Mako was using up more of her stamina.

And here comes Ren.

"Mako! Retreat!"

Ren shouted, making Mako retreat. The latter retreated not straight back to Ren, but she made a wide circle around and moved several meters behind her master.

It was because, around Ren, the scent from her body had already turned misty as it reached high concentrations in the air.

Since Mako ran away, the first response of the abomination was to chase it's escaping prey. And that would clearly bring it to Ren's direction.

Seeing that, Ren began the next move as she ran away from her initial location and left that misty area of poisonous air.

Ren and Mako retreated together while allowing the giant to see the two of them.

The giant reached the misty area, but its sheer size would clearly not allow the poison to be inhaled by its gigantic nose.

But then...

BOOOM!

An explosion occurred a distance away from that misty poison. The explosion caused the poisonous mist to scatter in a larger area, enveloping the front of the abomination.

ROOOOAARRRR!!!

The abomination wailed as its face was blanketed by the poison. It was the same for the corpses on the abomination's shoulders, chest, and arms. That amount of poison would not be enough to kill or even just make the giant unconscious. However, it was more than enough to cause numbing pain and disorientation.

And those bodies of [Infected] weak enough immediately died due to the poison.

CRASH!

The giant began flailing its arms, demolishing everything within its reach. It also caused many corpses on its arms and the back of its hands to be smashed to pieces as they hit the ruined buildings and the ground.

Due to the effect of the poison, the abomination was in a berserk and disoriented state for more than a minute. Ren and Mako watched with chills on their backs as they witnessed the area around the abomination turn into flattened land by the abomination's might alone.

At this time, the two's communicator sounded as Tadashi informed them that the trucks were ready to go in a few seconds. They immediately departed before the abomination could chase after them.

With everyone safe, the convoy immediately left the area.

The members of the Black Lotus Group sighed in relief as they thought that they could finally go home safely.

But after an hour of dangerous travel, the convoy came to another full stop.

The route they took before to avoid the most dangerous parts of the Ruins of Tokyo was now blocked off by collapsed ruined buildings.

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