Kim and Echo watched the other 2 run off to take care of the horde. Kim, watching through her sniper, noticed the core and assumed it was the mutant's weakness.
"Hey Echo it looks like when people turn they get a core so make sure to aim for the core to kill them." Kim, still looking down the scope, had not noticed the mutant cheetah silently approaching.
Echo looked over and noticed the mutant was about to pounce on Kim.
"Kim!" Echo quickly shouted while shooting at the cheetah to drive it away. The cheetah jumped back and Kim quickly got up pulling out a black beretta. The beretta was a slightly different model from Lou's and the handle had a wolf symbol.
Kim fired at the mutant cheetah, but the mutant was able to keep dodging the bullets.
Echo took advantage of Kim's shooting and tried to hit the cheetah's leg just as it landed from dodging. Echo taking a deep breath became fully focused on the cheetah's leg, predicting where it will land next.
Echo's gun began to glow blue and as if the bullet did not have any travel time, hit the cheetah's legs in an instant, giving it no time to react. In a span of under a second Echo shot 4 bullets taking out all 4 legs of the cheetah. Where Echo shot of the cheetah's legs was a little bit of ice from his bullets.
Echo lost focus and stumbled holding his head, but thanks to his efforts Kim was able to get the final shot. Kim hit the core which was located in its chest and the black fleshy slime body began to melt.
"Thanks Echo, but are you sure you didn't fry your brain doing that. You should know using essence to enhance our own bodies is highly dangerous." Kim could see Echo struggling to stand and saw him fall to one knee holding his head.
"It's okay. I have been testing in small amounts and thought to push myself a little, but in hindsight, I should've just used a small amount of essence." Echo regretted his decision but did not want to take any chances with the mutant.
"As long as you don't damage yourself permanently, you are the smartest one out of all of us." Kim showed concern as Echo being one of the best engineers means losing him would be a huge loss for the squad.
"Yeah, yeah, I know but I think there is more coming behind us."
Kim looked up and saw that there was more rushing over.
"Make sure if any get close take care of them." Kim quickly turned her sniper around and aimed down sights.
Seeing a horde that was a bit bigger than what Reia and Lou were fighting decided to use her essence to the fullest.
"Echo, I'm going full power, so make sure if any survive you finish them off." Kim yelled out and her sniper started to violently glow orange.
"Yep, as long as they don't come close in the next 30 seconds I will be alright." Echo still feeling the effects of using essence on his body, needed a little more time before he could properly fight.
"You will be fine, they shouldn't survive anyway." Kim feeling confident ramped up the amount of essence that was being fueled into the sniper.
A small orange vortex was forming at the barrel of the gun and small orange bars began to light up on the side of the barrel indicating it was charging up.
The vortex spun faster with each passing moment and the strain on Kim was getting more intense.
The final bar lit up and Kim pulled the trigger on her sniper. A massive beam of orange shot out of Kim's gun turning anything it hit into nothing. The horde that was running at them had disappeared into nothingness leaving no traces, as well as a chunk of the road was missing. The beam continued down the road till it finally fizzled out or hit something as the further it went the less powerful it got.
Kim however, was blasted off the jeep and was sent flying back as the recoil from the blast was too much for her to handle. Even the jeep had lifted slightly in the air from the blast.
Although Echo had seen it before he was still blown away by just how much power the blast had. The only downside was the sniper would overheat and be unable to be used for a few hours as well as the amount of recoil it had.
Kim let go of her sniper mid-air and flew through the air.
Lou, who was running back, did not notice Kim but instinctively caught the flying Kim.
Reia seeing Kim be caught by Lou continued to rush back making sure Echo was okay
"Oh my, I didn't know cuties fell from the sky~." Lou slid back from the force and held Kim in a princess carry.
"H-hello there Lou." Kim was surprised to see Lou as it was rather convenient she just arrived to catch her.
"I may have used all my essence and cannot walk. Is it alright if you carry me again?" Kim was not able to move and was stuck in Lou's arms.
"Of course I can~." Lou smirked and while carrying Kim went to pick up her sniper.
The sniper's barrel was completely red from the heat and even touching the gun itself burnt a little. but Lou did not care, picking it up with no issue, putting the strap around her shoulder.
"S-sorry you have to always do this when I use my essence." Kim felt a bit bad forcing Lou to always carry her when she goes full power.
"For such a cute lynx, you have so much power thanks to your essence's explosiveness and I love that about you so don't ever feel sorry idiot." Lou pinched Kim's side causing her to yelp.
"Hiisss!" Kim hissed as that was all she could do while Lou was able to do what she wanted.
"OI! Enough you love birds, we need to get out of here." Reia who was next to Echo making sure no permanent damage was done to him called out to the 2 girls.
"Tch." Lou clicked her tongue as the situation was indeed not ideal and they had no time to play. Kim had blushed from Reia's comment as although never explicitly said, it was clear they were dating.
"Each of you takes a bag of supplies as I can't carry everything and try our best to ration them. Depending on the city's state there may not be many resources." Reia had gone to the boot of the jeep pulling out backpacks for every one filled with supplies.
Lou leaned Kim up on the jeep and put on her bag while Kim held onto hers. Echo put his on and went looking in the boot for some of his electronics to take with him. Although they did not work it was still good to take them to see if they would work somewhere else.
"Alright if we are ready to go let's make our way to the gate." Reia put on her bag and began to walk down the street to the gate. Lou picked up Kim and Echo played with small devices trying to see if he could get them to work while walking.
*
They had made it to the gate where green lava was oozing out of a crack that had turned the soldiers.
While they were fighting a lot of the eruption was over and only pools of lava were left making it safer to walk around.
"Although it looks like lava it does not give off any heat but instead cold." Echo did not get too close but was close enough to be able to feel the heat if it was actually lava.
"Cold lava? That sounds ridiculous, but I guess when a global crisis could be happening it isn't too crazy to think something odd to be the cause." Kim responded and although she did not see the files she guessed whatever new element was discovered had caused a chemical reaction.
"Indeed, we do not know too much about it, and although the lava may not be the new element itself, something has caused a reaction making this weird substance." Reia wanted to know more but without turning back and going to the tower she had no hope of finding answers.
"All we need to do is focus on surviving plus, these new mutants give me something to shoot. It was getting boring killing just people." Lou did not care much about why things were as long as she got to kill.
"But I still would like to know. Anyway, no use thinking about it now, we have to see if our hideout on the outskirts of the city is still intact." Reia did not want to agonise over it, so she moved on hoping one day she will get answers, but right now it was not her priority.
Reia then walked up to the gate about to open the small door until an explosion went off behind them.
The base of the tower had exploded and it began to topple over. The tower almost went into the clouds and was extremely wide meaning the impact would be huge.
Watching the scene of the tower falling it had taken them a moment to realise that the tower was falling in their direction.
"Shit! Everyone run, try not to get separated!" Reia yelled out while kicking the gate door open.
Everyone rushed through in an attempt to get away from the tower's blast zone.