Chapter 26: The Mall
Within a ruined city a you man with a drone could be seen. Samuel carefully traveled through the city. His current destination was a large mall. Sai's scouting had found that a group of what appeared to be humans were trapped inside the mall unable to escape. According to her the mall and its surrounding area had a high number of Aurora mutants.
Which explained why these people couldn't escape. The closer Samuel got to the mall the number of Aurora mutants kept increasing. Samuel had avoided fighting them to not draw too much attention. All Aurora mutants he had come across were too close to each other and were in large groups of 10 or more. The closer he got to the mall the harder it got to avoid these creatures. "Sai it's getting harder to avoid the groups of Aurora mutants. Have you found a safer path?" Samuel asked.
Sai had sent 3 drones ahead of them to determine routes that were safer to travel than others. Samuel might have a good perception of his surroundings due to "Halo". But it only had a range of 90 meters in radius. It wasn't large enough to cover everything.
So with the help of the drones, Sai would direct him towards safer paths. And his Halo would handle whatever was in his immediate vicinity. "I've found a safer route but you have to prepare for battle. There is no possibility of you reaching the mall without defeating some of those monsters. The path I've chosen for you has the least number of Aurora mutants." Sai said.
Her drone turned a corner and Samuel followed behind it. After a while, 4 Aurora mutants entered Samuel's range of perception. They were all scattered around the road he had to go through. Samuel kept himself hidden behind a small building. "Samuel I'll use invisibility. That would be much safer than normal holograms" Sai said. "Good idea. Now that The Vashin is no longer with us we don't have to hide this ability." Samuel said with a smile.
As soon as he said that Samuel summoned two blades from his Myth Zone. One was the middle quality kitchen knife and the other was his second most powerful weapon. It was an impressive-looking hunting knife forged through his "Legends forge". This was the result of Samuel's inspection of the two knives.
[ Inspection Successful:
Enhanced Hunting knife: An amazing blade at the peak of the mortal legend. Reinforced using a mystic ability. Its sharpness and durability have been greatly enhanced. Capable of cutting through anything in the mortal rank. A perfect knife meant to cut through the wielder's prey.
Rank: Mortal (Perfect quality)
Steal kitchen knife: A good knife used for preparing food. It has a very sharp and sturdy blade. Excellent for cutting all types of cooking ingredients and more.
Rank: Mortal (Middle quality)]
Samuel gripped both blades tightly and got ready. Right after that Sai's drone went completely invisible. To Samuel's senses, it was still there but if anyone else was present they wouldn't be able to see it. The drone released beams of light that covered every inch of Samuel's body.
After a few seconds, Samuel had vanished. That also included everything he was carrying like his bags, clothes and weapons. They had also turned invisible. This was another application of Sai's drones. It had helped "Radiance" on multiple occasions. Samuel then walked onto the road. None of the Aurora mutants realized that a human was approaching them.
It would be simpler for Samuel to just walk past the monsters. Yet this road had a small number of mutants that were far enough from each other that they wouldn't detect him when he attacked. He needed the energy from killing them and Sai took that into account when choosing this path. Sai not only gave him a safer path to get to the mall. But it also had a good number of mutants that Samuel could hunt.
Reducing their numbers now would also save him from having to fight more monsters later. Samuel was a hoarder and loved taking everything that he found valuable. An example of this would be how last night he sent Sai's drones to collect the legend crystals dropped by the first Aurora mutants he killed.
Yeah, he never forgot about them and made sure to collect what was his. Samuel soon reached the first mutant. He moved as silently as possible and once the mutant was within striking range. He swung his hunting knife at the mutant's head. Samuel felt zero resistance as the blade cut smoothly through its neck. The Aurora mutant's head fell to the ground and Samuel got the kill notification.
[You have slain Aurora mutants (Mortal, Stage 3) x1. Your legend raises slightly]
He didn't stop and went for the closest mutant 'I'll kill those I can and hide from those I can't.' Samuel thought to himself as he decapitated the second Aurora mutant.
[You have slain Aurora mutants (Mortal, Stage 3) x1. Your legend raises slightly]
All it took was one slash from either his hunting knife or kitchen knife and the mutants would die. There was a small resistance when he used the kitchen knife to kill a mutant.
But that didn't slow him down. After 5 minutes of going through these monster-filled streets, Samuel had arrived at his destination. But now he faced a problem. The outside of the mall was swarming with Aurora mutants. The place was so full that there was barely any space for the monsters to move themselves. The mutants occasionally bumped into each other which caused fights amongst them.
"Sai?" Samuel asked, "Follow me there's a wall on the left side that isn't completely covered." Sai said as her drone led him in a particular direction. Samuel soon reached a 3-meter tall concrete wall. There were fewer Aurora mutants here. But it was still a large number.
"You have to be careful. Walk silently and don't attack any of them unless you have no choice." Sai said. Samuel took a deep breath and moved forward. Although these beasts were stupid Samuel couldn't just kill them recklessly. They would go into a frenzy and try to find him. Samuel walked in between the monsters. The distance from his current position to the wall was only 30 meters. But due to the situation he was in, it felt so much more to Samuel. He had to turn, bend, and go in between or through multiple aurora mutants. With each meter he crossed Samuels confidence grew.
He could easily mask the sounds of his footsteps. Due to the large number of mutants walking around him. And just as Samuel reached 5 meters from the wall something went wrong. An Aurora mutant in front of him was chewing on what appeared to be a bone. When it was suddenly attacked by another mutant.
It took the first one's bone and started eating it. The first mutant which looked like a female roared in rage. It rushed toward the second mutant that looked like a male and slashed its claws at it. The second mutant was enraged after being hit. It was a stage 5 mutant while the 1st mutant was only stage 3. With a single swing of its arm, it sent the first mutant flying.
Unfortunately, Samuel was in the same direction that the stage 3 mutant flew towards. Hastily Samuel ducked and the female Aurora mutant flew over his head. The female Aurora mutant quickly got back onto its feet. It's wounded chest healing quickly. It roared at the 2nd mutant. The two faced each other ready for another charge at each other. Samuel who was caught in between them felt like cursing out loud.
'Why me?' Samuel thought to himself. The mutants soon charged at each other. They were faster than Samuel so dodging was difficult. But Samuel rolled to the side and got out of the way. Unfortunately, there was barely any space to dodge because there were mutants everywhere. Samuel knew he was rolling in the direction of another mutant.
He was luckily able to stop himself from crashing into the other mutant. But he slightly brushed against it. The mutant looked in his direction. It was confused as to what just touched it. Samuel didn't stay still as he immediately got up and walked away. Yet for some reason, the mutant heard his subtle movements.
It walked forward and followed the direction of the sound it heard. Samuel soon made it to the wall, quickly unsummoned his knives and jumped the wall. The mutant heard the sound he made and stared at his position. It approached the wall to investigate. But Samuel had long since made it on the other side. Samuel sighed in relief as he walked towards the main entrance of the Mall. "That was close," Sai said in a low voice. "I know right? Is this how it feels like in a horror movie? My heart felt like it would jump out of my chest" Samuel replied in a low voice. The inside of the mall was also full of Aurora mutants, but not as much as the outside.
Just as Samuel passed by the main entrance he heard the roars of multiple Aurora mutants. The mutants that were in his vicinity were all running in the direction of the roars. Samuel was curious so he followed them and he soon reached some railings. He sensed that the Mall had 4 floors above him and 4 under him.
Samuel's senses locked onto the figure of a girl running on the floor above him. She appeared no older the 16 with black hair and brown eyes. Her clothes were torn in multiple places. It was clear that she had been clawed at by the mutants. But something was off about this girl. Samuel sensed the same type of energy the Aurora mutants had inside of her. Right behind her, a group of 20-plus Aurora mutants were chasing her.
She was soon surrounded as multiple groups of Aurora mutants circled her. She hugged the bag in her hands tightly. Her gaze went over the railings. There were hanging decoration lights. She ran towards them and jumped. Samuel was impressed by her bravery. He couldn't sense the decorative lights so he thought she was trying to jump to a lower floor.
The girl grabbed the lights only for them to snap. "Shit!" the girl said as she fell. "Sai push her towards me" Samuel ordered. He realized the girl tried to grab something and it didn't work. He ran to the closest position from his floor that the girl would pass by. Sai deactivated the invisibility on Samuel but the drone beside him stayed invisible. Two more of Sai's drones flew out of Samuel's clothes.
They flew at the girl completely invisible. They made it to her other side and rammed into her. Sending her right into Samuel's waiting arms. As soon as she landed in Samuel's arms she looked at him in confusion. Samuel smiled brightly at her and said "Hey" The girl was left speechless for a few seconds before she replied "Hi".