Time Remaining: 26 minutes, 47 seconds
While Captain Wright was looking around cautiously, in the corners of his eye, there were tiny moving objects moving out of his sight. He knows for a fact that it's impossible for a small animal like a rodent or insects to be roaming around in this area.
No living organism can survive the after effects of a nuclear explosion, so he had this one possible assumption: those things are the eyes of the enemy.
Wright pretends not to see it and sighs. He might need to go back immediately and inform the others, however he realized he was too late when he heard something loud from another direction. "Damn it!" He begins to run, and all of a sudden he noticed that hundreds of the little objects are already chasing after him.
"What the hell is these things!?" He increased his speed and outran these little things and finally reunited with Julia and Leon.
"Captain Wright, don't touch 'em! They explode on contact!!" Julia warns as they were endlessly blasting off these little explosive devices away with their shifter weapons. And every shot they made have caused these little things to explode.
"What!? How did you know it was explosive on contact!? Did one of you get hurt!?" It greatly concerned him that these younger ones might get poisoned by the atmosphere and die.
"I did!! It kinda ripped a part of my suit covering my hand, but I'm doing fine." Leon waves his exposed hand at Wright and still continues to be on the defend from the little explosives.
"Fool!!" Wright couldn't believe this happened. "Even the smallest part of your body exposed in this area can be extremely dangerous, you might be alright now but you might suffer the effects later on!!"
Time Remaining: 22 minutes, 37 seconds
"H-Haha, then I guess I'm about to die..." Leon tried to laugh it off, but he wasn't really cool about dying so soon. In the back of his mind, he deeply regretted chasing after that damn thing.
Right, there's still so many things he wanted to do. He gazed at Julia for a minute as if it will be the last time he'll ever see her again.
The three kept shooting all these tiny explosives that were trying to get close to them, though it seemed like these things are endlessly coming out of nowhere. "Just how much more is there!?" Julia began to panic, knowing that they can't keep shooting all of these away from them.
"Calm down! These things are bound to decrease in no time. We also can't leave just yet, not until Raphael and Claire comes back with the Power Source." Wright said.
"Tsk... arrggghhh!!" Leon took out his frustration and blew up a whole pile of these things. "Leon!! Be more careful, if you act so recklessly you might worsen your condition!" Julia nagged.
"Yeah right, you just tried to rip my face off earlier and now you tell me to be careful? Just what is it with you!?"
"This and that are different, you idiot!"
"Well it's not like it matters anymore, I'm going to die anyway!"
"Shut up!! You're not gonna die just yet because I'll be the one to kill you!!"
"Sorry to interfere, but this is no time to make petty arguments! Focus all your stamina on obliterating these explosive weapons!!" Wright couldn't handle more stress than this.
Time remaining: 24 minutes, 56 seconds
"What if the other two never comes back!? Are we just going to die here waiting for nothing!?" Leon complained.
"Just!... just 2 more minutes!! Bear 2 more minutes with me. If they still won't show up, we'll leave right away and find a high place where Zahi can pick us up!"
For a minute, Leon feels that he's slowly getting drained. He forced himself to keep up with their attacking pace, oblivious to the fact that blood was already dripping from his nose.
And from somewhere near, Raphael and Claire emerges from the ground breaking through by force. They were able to climb up through the floors with Claire's Shifter Rocket accelerating them and with Raphael's cannon breaking the ceilings above them.
By the time they land, the two can hear a series of explosion happening from a distance. "There's enemies attacking!" Claire said and they both ran to that direction in full speed.
When they found where it was happening, they saw the rest of the team struggling. They both paved their way to reach the others by blasting it all off. "Captain! Guys!! We got the Power Source!!" Claire told them, holding up the battery piece like Power Source.
"Good work!! Now everyone! Here's the next plan, we'll have Claire lead the way of our escape while the rest of us clear the way ahead of her! Is that understood!?"
"Sir yes, sir!!"
"Now on the count of three, into formation!" Claire felt the pressure of being appointed to lead the way, but she understands well that she's the most capable of returning the Power Source. She takes a deep breath and decided on the route she'll go.
Time Remaining: 19 minutes, 48 seconds
"1!..." when the captain started counting, Leon couldn't understand what to feel. It's as if he's about to vomit and faint. But he remains standing firmly while continuously firing at the enemy's small explosive weapons approaching them.
"2!..." Julia can't stop worrying over Leon even though he appears to be fine. She can't help but think that he might not make it back safely.
"3, GO!!" The whole lot began focusing their attacks ahead to clear the way for Claire. As Claire dashes forward, the rest of the team begins to follow her from behind along with the pesky crawling explosives targeting them.
Captain Wright notices that Claire isn't travelling at full speed, allowing the others to keep pace with her. This troubled Wright as he expects that not all of them might not make, so Claire should atleast be the one to return with the Power Source.
"Claire!! You must safely return the Power Source at all cost!! So don't let us hold you back and keep pushing forward with all you got!!" His words clearly reached Claire. And as she take it to heart, the gap between them were increasing by each second.
Her incredible speed astonished the rest of the team, making them all think that Captain Wright was right for including Claire for this mission.
Time Remaining: 18 minutes, 32 seconds