While on the move, Lily never stopped observing the situation with her Hive Scouts. She observed not only the aftermath of her calculated chaos but also the outcome of the humans she had released.
Two more of them had made contact with people, and while this wasn't as good as finding new base locations— it was better than nothing.
Putting these meetings on the backburner— she nonetheless had her Hive Scouts follow and keep track of the individuals involved— but a more concerning matter drew her attention.
The Hive Scouts she had sent to follow the individual who had reported to the massive base— a fortress, as it would seem— had suddenly broken connection with the Hive.
To be more exact— they were killed.
Lily instantly felt the moment they were killed because of the mental sting their deaths brought about— however, as they were only minor units and had very little purpose— their deaths brought no substantial pain to Lily's mind.
Their deaths weren't outside of expectation— Lily wasn't foolish enough to assume that a mutant with good senses wouldn't be among the group. In fact, given their size, she sort of expected it to an extent.
What actually surprised her was the way they died— which she didn't know.
There was no sign of their impending death— they simply died without any knowledge of their death. There was no attack she could spot; in fact, there wasn't even anyone around them when they died.
This left Lily in a bad position— now she lacked information about her target, and they were aware of one of her main sources of gathering information.
But at the very least, it couldn't be said to be all bad; she now knew that they had the means to destroy her scouts without them knowing, and they had a mutant with the ability to spot her scouts to begin with.
This was information she would need when attacking them— but for now, her goal was the base in front of her— another abandoned building that had been left to ruins.
Now, it had been turned into one of the underground bases for this revolutionary group.
As she approached the second base, her camouflaging ability cloaked her body. Not only was she using the normal reptilian physiology she had acquired in the forest, but now, with the Reptilian XGene, it was even stronger.
Her skin was seamlessly blending in with the environment around her, allowing her to go unnoticed.
Her senses were extended through her scouts, which had already terminated throughout the base— this base did not have anyone that could spot her scouts— allowing her to gain a general idea of the layout and people within the location.
A total of 27 people was at this base— a mixture once more of humans and mutants.
The security of the place has substantially increased due to the previous attack Lily did— with Guards patrolling the perimeter regularly and the main door to the basement remaining locked at all times.
Despite this increased caution, Lily remained confident in her ability to infiltrate the place— and this time, she didn't even plan to sneak in.
Sneaking in wasn't an option she had anyway— as the only way to get to the group that hid in the basement was through the iron door or walls, but breaking either of those things would draw attention.
As such, the most straightforward method was the best method this time around.
Nonetheless, she planned to first deal with the guards that were patrolling the area before acting against the others, as they would prove troublesome if she didn't.
So, shrouded in her camouflage, she quickly moved closer to the base and made her way up the side of the building using her climbing capabilities.
This way, she could get the jump— literally— on the guards and deal with them quickly and quietly, not alerting the ones in the basement until she was finished.
Using her scouts, she was able to locate the 4 guards they had patrolling the building— one for each side. They didn't have any visible weapons on them, as that would draw attention if they were spotted, but that did not mean they were harmless.
The likelihood of these guards being mutants was very high— almost 100%. As such, Lily had to be careful about how she dealt with this.
Thankfully for her, they weren't all together; each was located on a different side of the building, and they walked opposing each other, meaning at no one time were any two guards interacting with each other.
This gave her the perfect chance to take them out.
She made her way over to one of the ends of the building— one of the interactions where the two walls met and, as such, where two guards would be patrolling.
She waited there for the perfect opportune moment— she didn't make a move right away. Instead, she observed the patterns of the guards. She noted how long it would take them to make one rotation on average, and with that information in mind, she acted.
She initiated her move on the first guard without hesitation— she acted deliberately and with one goal in mind— to kill him.
Her actions were swift and calculated; the guard barely had time to react to her appearance as she jumped off the side of the building and onto the man— her teeth sinking into the man's neck as his blood gushed forth.
With one jerk of her head, her fangs ripped a large chunk of the man's neck out, leaving the blood to gush out without seemingly no end in sight. The action was brutal— probably one of the more brutal methods of killing Lily had chosen to use so far.
It was somewhat regretful— she felt bad for the man as she could tell he had been in pain— she pitied him, but that was all. She knew that this method of killing was the best to use here— it was swift, and it removed the chances of the person making sound by eliminating their larynx.
Through this method, it eliminated the chances of them yelling, shouting, or making a sound that could draw the attention of the other guards— and thus expose her.
This method also gave her the chance to quickly gain a chunk of their DNA and, as such, learn their genetic information as quickly as possible so she could assess their threat level.
Take this man, for example— from the blood she had drank, she could tell that he was relatively strong physically but posed no threat to her.
The only downside to this method would be the mess— it left a mess that any other guard would notice upon peering over, but that was precisely why she chose the intersection to do it.
She wanted the guard to see the blood and get distracted by it; this way, the likelihood of them noticing her attack would be greatly lessened.
And it wasn't like she planned to give them the chance to act on this information— they would be dead before they even knew it.
As the other guards continued their patrol, Lily repeated the process, efficiently eliminating each one without raising the alarm, and in the end, she was covered in blood.
Once the perimeter was cleared of immediate threat, Lily shifted her focus to the locked main entrance.
She had no plans to devour the bodies just yet, as she was sure that others would check in on the guards eventually, and if they didn't report in— that would give her away.
As such, the next course of action was simple— breaking in.