These mutant monsters that stood on all four like a hound and sounded like kids were called Siren. As for why they had that name?
The reason was a simple one, these monsters usually acted as scouts and their existence usually meant a gorenest was close by and if they are a part of a huge mutant group, their monsters act as Sirens to inform the other beasts if they found something odd.
The beast in front of the duo only seemed to be juvenile, but this didn't lessen its threat to someone like Girisia who was frail to begin with and Tara who never have fought or even seen a monster like this before.
Though both of them haven't used their Free stat point yet, the boost provided from these stats won't be much of a help to both of them because while both of them were mere level one according to player grading, the small pup on their front that was called a low level mutant beast by the soldiers, was level 3 at minimum. Something both of them can't ever dream to fight head on.
"Young lady, follow me if you want to live." Girisia suggested, as he started backing away from the broken wall. The room was not big, so even with his non-existence sense of smell, he can still notice the beast coming closer to him without even looking at it due to its low growls.
The beast didn't mean to attack him, he just wanted to stop the duo from leaving it's family's hunting ground. And Girisia being the compliant person he was, agreed to those threatening growls and walked back into the school building ignoring the approaching Siren pup while taking Tara in his tow..
Girisia was long used to pack beast like these, he knew he may soon be surrounded and after considering his chances of survival, he thought to take a gamble. "Listen young lady, we are probably surrounded." Girisia said, looking at the empty rooms in the building with some fear. "I think most of the exits we saw before should already be watched like what happened previously."
"It would be better for us to directly avoid any of the exits we saw before and directly make a run for where we entered this building." Girisia said his plan, while his hand slowly slipped into Tara's satchel and stole her boomstick.
"Yes, Uncle Korus." Nodded Tara, accepting Girisia's suggestion. She has started to curse her dreamy self from before at this moment. After learning how dire the situation was, she was worried, if there was only one siren, she could still stand valiantly and fight against it and in the process fulfill the second condition of Girisia's quest. But now, it seems the famous NPC of Eastern outpost barracks will disappear from this world along with her 16 grands that she was promised.
The worst part being, if a helpful NPC like Girisia really did die, that will not be her only worry. 'They will probably bully me till I leave this game.' She knows how great the gaming community can be and she also knows the dark sides of it. If she receives money for a little information, those same people will pay other players to harass her too. 'I shouldn't have boasted so early in the forums… ' She was regretting her earlier actions.
But much to her surprise, Girisia looked pretty calm and looking at her worried expression, he assured her. "Don't worry about that mission of yours, I just said it in passing, I was going to tell you that knowledge if you anyways, so let's just pray we reach the camp faster."
Hearing these words, Tara revitalized instantly, she completely forgot one thing about Girisia. 'Yes, isn't he a hidden NPC in disguise? They usually have a high level... how can he die to some mutts.' Tara summarized after listening to Girisia's lies.
"Yes Uncle Korus, you must remember to tell me all about it… But you still shouldn't look down on me, I have promised to keep you protected and I will give up my life for it."She once again asserted her words knowing that her mission was going to be completed no matter what happens.
"Oh, I am counting on it."
And as if fate was playing a joke on her, another siren pup way younger than before walked from the side of the room, with the only difference being, this new siren pup was not as careful as its previous older sibling.
'Oops!' She cried, she never thought she would have to act on her words so fast. Hurriedly, she reached for her boomstick in her satchel.
But Girisia stopped her hand mid way. "Don't use yours, use the knife instead, you distract it and I will end its life with my boomstick." He explained with some sweat dropping on his forehead while Tara nodded in response showing her understanding.
'Can't let her find it so early.' He thought, while looking at Tara's satchel.
Girisia was scared due to his present predicament, but he maintained a calm expression so as to uphold his reverence in Tara's and players eyes because they were his safest source of experience points.
So following his plan, Tara moved toward the incoming Siren, there was not fear in her for someone who was fighting for the first time.
'We can't delay for long, the one behind may catch up.'
Considering a siren pack, there won't be more than eight among the young and two parent sirens in the group too.
So he was sure there was no path that was safe beside his earlier plan and he also thought that fate was on his side, as the pup in front of him was not as dangerous. It was just too young.
Girisia's thought to give Tara directions on how to fight the young siren, but it was the small pup that jumped on her first.
"Don't worry, I can handle it." She said while slashing the small pup with her blade, but as Girisia expected, her aim was too far off, the four directional movement ability of a four legged creature is way better and it easily bit on Tara's thigh. "Fuck!" She cursed.
But Girisia was not disappointed by the events that transpired in front of him, as said before, he had expected it. Now his prey was trying to pin down a stupid player while ignoring him.
The small pup even seemed to be happy.
"*Boom!" Not knowing when, the small pup suddenly shot back leaving its bite marks on Tara as it felt huge pain in its abdomen.
"What?... " Tara in stupor stood up and made some distance from the pup in a hurry, leaving her survival knife on the ground. "Just this?" She asked as the small pup looked at the duo warily, the weapon they were handed didn't seem to be that good, it only seemed to damage the young siren only a little.
"Oh, the boom part hasn't come yet."
His words came true in just one second, as before the small siren can cry for help, its stomach exploded causing its blood to fly off in the air and some of them were spraying on Tara, while Girisia stood behind her and used her as a shield.
"See, the plan worked fine, but we have now killed one of their own, we should pick up our pace, its parents were probably notified of its death and a grieving parent won't wait for its prey to approach it." Girisia wanted to laugh, this was his first kill in this life. And he who considered himself a coward was not as scared anymore, instead there was a thrilling experience for him.
"Yes… Yes!" Tara responded as she went ahead and picked up her survival blade that had some blood and guts ticking to it. She was elated, it was her first kill too and she got a total of 50exp point.
Girisia on the other hand was not as excited after seeing her moving without any problem, she only bled from her right leg. 'Well, it would have made my plan easier if that dog had more bite in him. But oh well!' Girisia didn't feel any guilt for having such thoughts. 'It is her job to protect my life and she better do it properly.'
*****
From Girisia finding and now killing the Siren beast, only 3 minutes have gone by and currently on the temporary camp, distress signals were being blasted off in the screens, the field operatives under Tarkov had already sent drones in the direction of the signal, they have hit a gore-nest faster than expected.
Though this was not good news for them, it just shows the density of gore-nest in the area has increased and they were not even that far from the City.
"It will take three minutes to reach the source of the signal." One of the field operatives controlling the drone informed Tarkov.
The foliage and human environment in this urban jungle caused the thermal imagining to not work properly and the mutant beast has also evolved countless survival skills that help them hide away from any of these sensors. And even a direct feed of an area can't find anything weird, as the mutant beast are used to hiding from drones and any other being they deem to be stronger than them.
This is why the anomans were so useful, they really acted as the perfect harmless bait to drive these mutant beast out.
"Three minutes huh?... The Anoman's won't be able to survive for long." Tarkov thought. "Which anomans were sent to 6b?"
Tarkov knew that the combat capability of the "players" was not high. He had learned of their tales from his colleagues who recounted how fast the players fell during combat encounters, with some of them so traumatized that they didn't come back from their void sleep for a while. And Tarkov thought it was weird considering these anomans were immortal and can revive.
"Ah… It's the group consisting of a potential spy called Korus and a normal anoman who calls herself Tara." A logistics operator answered with a surprised expression.
Others in the tent had a similar expression, they knew that one of the special cases was in this reconnaissance mission, but they didn't expect him to fall into danger, as usually these spies don't like any kind of limelight.
Hence due to Girisia's existence alone, some people in the tent thought that it may be a trap.
"Order others in the field to come back, as for the spy, we won't be taking any action to help him, Just some drones will be enough." Tarkov said with some frustration. He couldn't believe his luck would be so bad to get a bad apple in his small mission. But he can't complain, as it was him who didn't read the manifest and planned according to it.
His mind has been focused on other things these days. Things he deemed more important than his current job.