In the forest around Moribus City. The rays of the sunrise illuminated the shadows of those who crossed the forest.
The city enforcers were given anonymous information about the trafficking that had been going on undercover. The files sent looked legitimate enough to attempt a raid.
Every other facility that surrounded the other cities was already in the process of cleaning. Most of the facility heads had abandoned their bases, left the planet with their private spacecrafts and dumped the rest of the work on their downlines, the moment they realized they were being hunted.
Moribus city was not the most populated city but it was the city with the most successful establishments.
According to the information obtained, the facility closest to Moribus City was also the most flourishing amongst all.
The enforcers were given information that a battle was already occurring in that facility. They approached it carefully, after all, it may be that The Hollows were willing to sacrifice the other group for the success of one facility.
The Enforcers wore black bodysuits under their ash and blue colored uniforms.
A squadron of 25 was led by a woman who looked worthy. She was one of the five people who didn't wear a bodysuit. The other four were leaders under her.
Some of the enforcers climbed trees to scout, while the others carefully covered distances on land at a moderate speed.
One of the four leaders dropped from the tree and landed in front of the moving squadron. She saluted, then said, "Ma'am,sentient lifeforms have suddenly begun appearing a few kilometers ahead. In every 2 minutes, 5 to 7 new people are detected."
The woman digested what she heard. "So the chances that we have people on our side is existent." She whispered, her assumptions based on the fact that those escaping were the rescued inmates.
The enforcer that reported gulped before giving the bad news, "We also detected a surge of Tether gathering around there. The fact that we can detect this even with their tether concealment means that whatever harbors this amount of energy is considerably strong."
The woman caught on, there were only a few possibilities of what had that energy of such quality and quantity. She immediately ordered, "Increase your pace everyone. Don't waste a second."
She brought out a circular object that served as a communicator, "Captain Sally reporting. Do you read me? Urgent back up required. Reach my location within 10... No. Get here in 5 minutes!"
She disconnected the communication and immediately ran at a speed that her squad could follow.
The situation was dire!
There was a creature that exuded uncontrollable tether energy that couldn't be contained. It was definitely a creature that's a Titan- a 4th tier creature - or stronger.
As it's also an experimentation facility, it could be worse, it might be an Abomination. No one even wants to think what'd happen in the presence of one of those.
*****
Eina accepted death. She didn't even waver at the intense pressure she felt.
Five had completely lost all sanity he had left. What was left of him only craved destruction and death of those who defied him.
Five's body was covered in orange furry hair, no skin exposed. His thick veins underneath the hair was blackish orange, forming a cobweb of veins on his body. His body grew towering at around 7 feet, his head almost touching the ceiling.
Its drooling mouth and nose both elongated to form a snout. In between his orange and black eyes, a diamond shaped crystal was fixed, accepting all the veins of his body.
Five stomped his hands on the floor twice, causing the whole walls of the facility to shake.
His eyes looked around until it fell on Eina. Then, he went on all fours in an attempt to slap her upper body away from her lower body.
Eina just waited patiently for her salvation. But maybe because he was oblivious to her wishes... or maybe he just didn't care, Femi grabbed her, maneuvered his battered body and landed behind Five.
The Abomination Five couldn't move its body well in the corridor because of the minimal space. It tried standing on its feet to turn to face Femi and Eina. The movements brought debris and caused massive dents to the wall. This creature would have destroyed this floor already if they weren't underground.
As Abomination Five gazed on its stolen prey, it roared in anger. The wave of the roar causing Femi and Eina's body to shake.
Femi was amazed by its presence alone. He could see an orange aura gradually get released from the creature's body. He turned to the petite girl by his side, then he said to her, "No way you were planning on getting all the fun alone."
She stayed speechless with curious eyes fixated on the hands Femi stretched to her.
Femi held her hand and raised her to her feet. "Fight with me," He suggested with a smile.
Eina gave a gentle nod, "Okay."
Immediately Eina exuded strength and Femi unsheathed his sword, the bear-like creature stomped its front limbs on the ground repeatedly causing the whole floor to quake.
Femi almost lost balance while Eina didn't shake.
The lights mounted on the ceiling blinked until it eventually turned to warning red lights
Warning sounds rang on all floors and the red lights flashed. The tether detector had felt unattended energy of a crazy level. The warnings weren't to signify a facility wide lockdown, it was to tell everyone in the facility to evacuate, immediately!
Five's body peaked at an height above 7 feet as it couldn't stand straight anymore. It was about to move to kill its prey when a smoke bomb followed by a huge net headed towards its direction.
The smoke spread around Five, blocking his vision. Although it wouldn't last, the net was strong enough to put Five down for a bit. He whimpered aggressively as he tried escaping from it.
Arwan had thought of precautions for whatever may be happening on this floor. It was worse than expected, but it still gave him enough time to yell at Femi and drag them out of the building.
Arwan appeared behind Femi and Eina, alerting them of his presence by giving Femi a knock.
"You fucker. Can't you feel the strength of whatever that is?!" Arwan scolded. "My skin is tingling all over just by staying near it."
"But... but... it's strong.. And dangerous…." Femi whined.
Arwan didn't give Femi time to whine more. He grabbed Femi by the hood and pulled him to the stairs.
"No.... Fight," Femi didn't struggle to leave Arwan's grip, yet he continued whining.
As he got pulled away he looked at Eina who stood at the direction he just left. He wiggled to leave Arwan's grip, then said to her , "What are you waiting for? Come!"
Eina was skeptical. She could try to hold Five down and grant them more time to escape. That way she wouldn't burden them while also helping them.
Seeing the situation, Arwan interfered, "Eina O'Neil, I read your dossier. I know your history!. No one will let you live an easy life like this. Come with us... It'll be a better experience!"
Eina's iris widened at the mention of her long forgotten name that tears subconsciously tinged her indifferent face.
"You want to act as bait right? Let's do that together! Let's distract this pile of flesh and help the inmates escape!"Arwan yelled.
Arwan had found a way to escape without worry. He just needed to expose the inmates that were using the elevator to leave the facility but he planned to do the opposite. He'd lead the 'whatever that creature was' away from the elevator, towards the stairs at the other end of the hallway.
Although the stairs led to the first floor and one could just pass the front door, that might lead him straight in the open where the enforcers could arrive at any moment. Arwan wasn't testing any luck, he wasn't ready to encounter any enforcer. He rather just passed a hatch he accessed in advance.
Everyone was quiet... Except for the whimpering Five. Femi and Arwan watched water drops hit the floor as tears rushed from Eina's eyes.
That was until Five body shaking roars sounded and sent a wave of air to disperse the smoke around him.
Arwan sighed, then shouted, "Kick me in the ass! Femi, just grab her."
Femi kept smiling all through. He carried Eina and followed Arwan's lead.
Five joined the run and chased after them.
The trio reached the stairs and ran upstairs. Following that, they heard the entrance to the stairway collapse.
No one turned back feeling the gaze of the Abomination that watched them run up the stairs.
Five was too big to climb the stairs so he gave up on those annoying prey. The abomination would rather refill itself by feeding on those who laid in the hallway.
As if declaring this floor as its domain, it walked on all limbs gallantly, to eat to its fill.
On passing the storage room, Five turned to look at the entrance.
A blonde haired figure stood there with his shoulders resting on the wall. He clapped loudly.
"Jolly good show! Moros is pleased!" He said.
Five didn't hesitate. It darted right at the figure named Moros.
Moros' eyes looked at the creature that approached him with disgust.
Five roared and jumped to bite Moros' head off.
Moros raised his hand towards his adversary. With a blur he disappeared, and reappeared behind Five.
Five's body halted in the air. From the head to its leg, a line appeared. Slowly, blood gushed from the line until the body parted in half.
Abomination Five died.
"I'm done with you. Know your place." Moros hissed. He turned to the direction the trio left, "That kid looks familiar. Kekekeke. Welcome to the world of predators and prey, children." He walked down the hallway towards the elevator, "Now, let's go get my prices."
*****
Femi and the others arrived on the second floor. The hatch where they'll be passing was located in the experiment room.
Arwan talked about how he couldn't access the storage room secret hatch because the security on it wasn't even accessible from here.
Arwan was disappointed because he wanted to steal from the storage room as they escaped. Over the years, this facility had amassed a lot of weapons with similar worth to Femi's sword, Neggrazul and not taking one for himself was frustrating.
Femi, on the other hand, was satisfied. He really believed that he progressed a bit with this event. He witnessed a whole new turmoil of emotions that just kept on making him smile.
From the bottom of his heart, he wished for more situations like this because it was these dangers that would take him closer to his goal.