Looking around, Akira and Reia were able to count over 20 mutants.
They did not like their odds but needed to try and if it came to it, they could run into the tunnel or potentially the bunker for safety.
However, they did not want to risk running into the military as well as leaving a bunch of variant mutants outside.
Reia started to move closer to Akira, as she did not want to be stuck at a dead end. Making sure her gun was still aimed at the panther that was on the ground, she made her way over.
As Reia passed the panther going as far left as she could go, a panther from above dropped down toward Reia.
Quickly looking up Reia fired at the panther that was falling towards her, piercing the core thanks to the favourable angle. The panther that was on the ground however took the opportunity to attack Reia using its tail.
The tail of the panther was able to extend and went straight for Reia's head, but was shot down by Akira before it got close to her.
Reia jumped out of the way avoiding the falling body and positioned herself next to Akira.
"Are you sure you wanted to move away from the hidden entrance?" Akira did not mind either way, but it was also a potential escape for them.
"I'd rather run away than have to deal with mutants at our front door all the time."
"Fair enough, but let's try to kill as many as we can while we can." Akira aimed his gun at the panther that was patiently waiting to strike and fired a few bullets.
As expected the panther was able to move out of the way and turned invisible. However, thanks to the wound on its back, Akira was able to still see it. Continuing to fire at the panther, Akira was able to hit it a few times, paralysing it.
Before Akira could attempt to go for the kill shot, 2 panthers from above turned invisible and jumped at Akira. Both Reia and Akira aimed up, firing in the air in an attempt to hit the panthers. Seeing green blood spout from a panther in mid-air giving them a better indication of where the panthers were coming from.
Killing another panther, Akira and Reia hopped back to avoid the body, but one panther remained. Hearing it land behind them, Reia let go of her rifle, quickly grabbing her sword and swung horizontally behind them. Reia was able to strike the panther across its eyes, disabling its vision and forcing the panther to jump backwards.
Akira also took this opportunity to finish off the panther that was about to recover from the paralysis.
More and more panthers were getting down from the roof becoming invisible, making it impossible to tell where any of them were.
"I think we are just going to have to let loose." Reia saw no other way other than firing a barrage of bullets in the alleyway.
However, the panther behind them that lost its vision started to swing around its tail violently, trying to hit anything.
Akira and Reia were forced to get on the ground to dodge one of the panthers' tail swings. While on the ground both Reia and Akira fired at the panter, filling it with holes and destroying the core.
With not much time to react due to the approaching horde of invisible panthers, Reia and Akira considered just running away.
"Shit we have no idea where they are, only if we had some essence grenades." Reia got up from the ground, now not sure where the invisible panthers could be.
The sound of moving surrounded Akira and Reia further confusing them making it hard to discern where they were.
Once Akira got up from the ground he fired his rifle, but his bullet got deflected by something metal.
"Huh?" Firing a burst of bullets in the same direction, each of the bullets was constantly getting reflected.
"Well, that's interesting." Reia noticed that the sound of running was getting closer like they were running in a circle.
"Akira, try using your corruption and don't stop firing, I believe they are using their hardened tails to deflect your bullets so there has to be a gap." Reia aimed behind them hoping if she could paralyse one the whole chain would fall apart.
Akira nodded while switching to his corruption and started to fire a barrage of bullets hoping to get a hit in. The sound of metal constantly being hit echoes in the alleyway, but every few bullets it would get through this invisible wall hitting a panther.
The corruption also provided a beacon on the panther's body making it easier to see.
'Should have used it earlier.' Akira was a little frustrated with himself as it would have made it easier for them to see the panthers if he had used his corruption instead.
Reia on the other hand had not managed to get a bullet through and ultimately gave up not wanting to waste any more essence.
Reia went to turn to Akira, but as she was turning she saw a panther jump out from the circle going straight for Akira.
"Akira!" Reia went to go shoot the panther, but because of how close the panthers was, there was almost no time for Reia to react in time.
Akira turned and saw the jaws of the panther right in front of his face. But right before the panther was about to bite down, an essence bullet went straight through the head of the panther turning it into ice.
The panther stopped in its place and fell to the ground trying to shake off the ice that covered its head.
From the entrance of the alley, a person ran in and jumped over the circle of panthers
"Hey there my love~, long time no see." A woman with very long Fluro green hair, landed in front of Akira while killing the mutant panther with her SMG. The model of the Woman's gun was an MP7 with glowing light blue accents.
The woman was about 5'6" and wore a white skirt with a pair of black stockings. She also wore a white jacket and a black skin-tight t-shirt underneath.
Akira instantly knew who it was and he was questioning if the person in front of him was worse or the panthers.
"Klein." Reia muttered the woman's name and glared at her.
"Aww~ Don't give me that look Reia, you should be happy, I'm here to save your asses." Klein had a smug grin while she fired toward the circle of panthers.
The panthers in the circle started to get frozen by her bullets which acted as a small little ice explosion once they hit their tails. The circle of panthers started to get frozen from Klein's ice essence forcing them to stop and crash into each other.
Reia, Akira and Klein tried to kill the panthers as quickly as possible, due to the flailing about breaking the ice that hindered their movements.
Reia picked up her sword that was on the ground, which was left from dropping on the floor and started to destroy the cores of the frozen panthers.
Akira did the same, pulling out both his swords and coating them in his corruption essence. Making quick work of all the mutants, the majority of the mutants that had attacked them were now dead. Klein's ice had made this encounter rather trivial, but were nonetheless grateful to have gotten out of the situation unscathed.
However, there were still a few that were not affected by the ice and were at the end of the alley. Before any of them could fire or attack the panthers, they climbed up the side of the wall, trying to escape the alley.
This was rather odd as most of the mutants were mindless but the panthers were showing a lot more intelligence.
'So it seems whatever is taking over the bodies is a lot smarter than we initially thought.' Reia watched the panthers run away in a panic, taking note to not underestimate any of the mutants they encounter in the future.
"What a shame we could not kill them all." Klein kicked an ice block that had come off one of the mutants and holstered her weapon on her thigh.
"What are you doing here?" Akira had a monotone voice with a slight bit of annoyance while speaking to Klein.
"Aha don't sound so boring baby~ I came to save you of course." Klein walked up to Akira attempting to put her hands around his face.
"Don't touch me." Akira swatted Klein's hands away trying not to entertain her.
"Tch, you are no fun, You owe me at least a favour for saving you."
"Well, I don't do sexual favours so you can keep your hands and body away from me." Akira glared at Klein not wanting to deal with her.
'This bitch.' Reia, who was silently watching, wanted to use her sword to cut Klein in half for her behaviour.
"Oh it's Reia, I could feel your gaze from here." Klein's face changed from sweet to cold when she spoke to Reia.
"Yeah, yeah nice to meet you Klein, but can you step away from Akira." Reia did not like how close Klein was to Akira since they did not have a good past.
"Oho? What's this? Want me to step away from your boyfriend?" While Klein spoke she attempted to get closer to Akira, trying to provoke Reia.
"As I said, don't. Touch. Me." Akira continued to glare at Klein, with this time Klein listening to him.
"Tch fine, one day you will be mine anyway." Klein walked away from Akira, going back to the entrance of the alley.
'Oh, the audacity of this woman.' Reia was close to killing Klein as the sight of her with Akira pissed her off. Reia had also gone next to Akira, just so Klein would stay away.
Akira saw that Reia was getting angry and so he put his hand on her shoulder.
"Calm down Reia, you know she is always like this and I can deal with it so don't worry." Akira had dealt with Klein a lot in the past so this was not new to him.
Reia let out a sigh, calming herself down, feeling somewhat reassured by Akira.
"Tch, the sight of you 2 make me sick." Klein muttered to herself while watching Akira and Reia.
"Then why don't you leave." Akira was hoping that Klein would have left already, but she was still hanging around.
"Because I don't have my squad so I'm tagging along with you for now." Klein leaned up against the wall and winked at Akira while she said this.