Reia dashed forward to the mutants with her sword and without infusing it with her essence, slashed down at the mutant with all her strength. Reia cut the wolf mutant in half destroying the core instantly but she had also hit the ground making her sword get stuck.
Akira had also dashed alongside Reia, using both his swords he aimed for the 2 other wolf mutants. Akira however infused his swords with essence unlike Reia and went to strike both of them at the same time.
Sliding on his feet Akira spun in a circle, slicing the mutant wolves in half, not giving them a chance to attack.
Akira put his swords away and turned to Reia who was struggling to pull her sword out from the ground.
"Were you that angry?" Akira was struggling to keep his laughter in as Reia was pulling with all her might, but her sword had gone deep into the concrete.
"Yes. I. Was. Now help me before my sword gets stuck in you." Reia was getting even more annoyed and wanted to cut down more mutants.
Akira made his way to Reia's side and grabbed a different part of the handle and helped pull the blade out. However, they had used too much strength causing them to both fallback. Without even thinking Akira quickly pulled Reia in and braced her fall.
"Ow!" Akira hit his head on the concrete while making sure Reia was not hurt.
Reia's sword had flung back, landing behind them on its side and not inside the ground.
'Why do I always hit my head? I know I'm tall but it seems to be hitting my head on everything other than door frames.' Akira felt slightly lightheaded from the fall and could not believe the number of times he was hitting his head that wasn't something high.
"Damnit Akira you don't need to protect me, I can brace my own fall." Reia sat up while on top of Akira and looked down at him.
"Sorry, it was just instinct, now can you get off, it's rather…. Uncomfortable." Akira did not know how to put it any other way and just hoped Reia got the message.
'Ehh? What do yo-... Oh." Reia was confused at first but then she realised what kind of position they were in.
"Shit sorry." Reia quickly got off Akira embarrassed as it seemed like the world was teasing her.
'I swear, whoever is putting me in these situations, I'm going to murder them.' Reia cursed whatever being that was creating these scenarios as her heart could not take it.
Akira sat up feeling a slight headache and glad Reia was quick to realise before it got more embarrassing for him.
"We take 2 steps out of the bunker and we are already failing as squad leaders. I can't imagine what our squad would say." Akira knew that if any of their squad members managed to see them they would be constantly teased.
"Aha, yeahhh, I'd rather not think about it, let's just get going." Reia quickly picked up her sword while trying to forget what happened.
Akira shook his head while getting up from the ground and dusting himself off from the fall.
"Let's hope we don't get lost, although this street is rather unique as this is a walking-only street, it would help to have some sort of landmark." Reia walked out to the street looking around for any mutants and things that can be used as a landmark.
"We could always use the military base as a reference point." Akira looked towards the massive base which was on an elevated surface making it rather easy to spot wherever you are in the city.
"It could be, but it will be hard to tell." Reia looked at the base and examined the fallen down tower that just peeked over the military base wall.
"How about we get on the roof of a building and see which gate we are near." Akira figured a higher angle would help them see a bit better where they were in relation to the base.
"Sure."
Akira then took the lead looking for a way to get up on one of the many roofs. The street they were on, allowed for many alleys to get to the back of stores since the street mainly consisted of general things for everyday life. However, because of the collapse, many of the stores had been ruined due to mutants and collapsed because of the earthquake.
Coming up to a store that had fallen in on itself, it looked possible to climb up to the neighbouring roof.
"No jumping off roofs this time." Reia was already getting flashbacks to the fall they had in an attempt to get away from the giant lion.
"Aha no, I'm honestly surprised I didn't hurt myself badly." Akira had felt extremely sore after the fall but thankfully wasn't enough to hinder his movements.
"Body of steel over here, but the fall wasn't too high plus we got a soft landing so it would have been the initial hit through the roof." Reia was rather impressed, but she could think of the much worse conditions they have been in.
"The roof wasn't even that hard, it was only the framework with a thin sheet from what I could feel, but that floor, pretty sure that's what knocked me out." Akira remembers everything going black just before they hit the ground.
"Well you're okay and that's all that matters." Reia smiled slightly which was a rare sight.
'That smile, I want to protect it.' Akira's thoughts wandered for a moment and found it weird that he was at his lowest not too long ago, but now he has found a new purpose so quickly.
"What are you looking at?" Reia reached up and pulled on Akira's cheek as he had been staring at her for a little too long.
"Ow! Sorry I was just lost in thought, let's hurry, we need to explore more." Akira quickly realised that they had spent way too much time messing around and they really needed to start moving.
Climbing onto a roof near the end of their street, they looked out towards the military base, Spotting the gate number.
"We seem to be close to gate 2 which means we might find Lou and Kim nearby." Reia remembered the meeting she planned with Lou.
"Indeed, you passed out in that small office after losing that massive mutant so meeting would have been rather difficult." Akira remembered when Reia entered the monitoring office in the underground carpark.
"Well at least we know we are close to gate 2. Let's hope we can rely on guesswork to get back, but we won't be going too far so it shouldn't be an issue." Reia was rather confident they could find their way back, but figured since they were not going far, getting back would not be too much of an issue.
"If that's the case, let's start heading in a direction." Akira scanned the surroundings with his rifle scope and changed the magnification looking for any points of interest.
Akira looked towards gate 3 and spotted what looked like the roof of a mall that had a few placed spotlights on it.
"Reia I think we might have a rebel camp over in the direction of gate 3." Akira wasn't even sure if it was rebel activity, but it was safe to assume it was.
"Hmm, okay, let's go scope it out and then return before it gets dark." Reia was rather curious and was a good lead to start with.
Now having a direction in mind Akira and Reia started to make their way towards what could potentially be a rebel base.
*
Going through the streets of the city, silently killing any mutants along the way. Akira and Reia found themselves getting closer to their target location. They had also picked up some food along the way to make sure their journey was not pointless.
Once they got close to the suspected rebel base, Akira and Reia were unable to see any activity but assumed most people were inside to not draw attention.
Sitting in a small store across from the mall Akira and Reia were eating a few snacks while they decided on what to do
"Did we want to push our luck and go inside?" Akira wanted to find out more as the more information they had the better.
"Let's snoop around, but if we at all think it is too dangerous we leave." Reia felt the same, but she wasn't going to risk their lives for no reason until she found more people from her squad.
"First, let's try to see if it is a rebel camp or a survivor camp. It would not surprise me if people started getting their hands on weapons from dead soldiers and started their own little groups." Akira expected in the near future to find normal people with weapons to some degree.
"Sounds like a plan." Reia hopped off the counter of the store and walked towards the window to examine the mall.
"Only if we had Aoi, she would have been able to sneak through with no problem." Reia was wishing that she had her squad as each of her members excelled in different things and a stealth mission would have been perfect for Aoi.
"Not much we can do, so let's make do with the skills we have." Akira had thought the same but with his own squad, however, there wasn't much they could do.
"You're right, let's get this over with, we only have an hour or 2 before we should return."
Akira agreed and so they both went ahead and exited the store to investigate the mall.