The team set out to search for the whereabouts of the group of failures. Failures was the slur term for morphs among the Hunters. Morphs underwent their deformation due to their inability to withstand the Dark energy descent.
The total area of the settlement was larger than one would expect as it covered all the fields within. So team took two days to find the location of the morph's hiding place. After finding the place they didn't immediately rush to attack them. Even though everyone is confident in themselves it's better to plan before engaging them following the words of the Legend Vadivelu, "Yetha pannalum plan panni pannanum".
As a team of seven, the morph leader is left for Mohan to handle and all the other members would either hold one or two morphs each. After Mohan finishes off the morph leader or anyone else kills their opponent, they will join others to help them in their fights. This is the general plan. If something crops up they would have to improvise on the spot.
Morph's hiding place was quite some distance away from the settlement's coverage. It was across the Gingee River on the other side of the settlement's main control, near Korkadu Lake. It is a suitable place for hiding and some distance from there is also a direct road connecting to the bridge to cross Gingee River. They occupied a manufacturing plant as their hiding spot.
The third night after they left the settlement, the team entered the place cautiously. The huge plants that looked normal during the daytime, gave off a haunted vibe during nighttime, this place is even more so due to the ever-lingering dark mist. The central area of the plant was littered with skeletal remains all over the place and it was not only human bones all around there were some animal remains as well like dogs, cats, and even cows. This setup was like hell on Earth covered in skeletons and they were sent here to receive their due punishments for all their wrongs.
"It seems like failures didn't even leave out the animals in their feast," commented Santhosh in a muted voice, after seeing around the place.
All hunters most probably tried eating other animals after they absorbed Dark energy from the morphs, to also absorb the Dark energy from them. But the Dark energy absorbed from other animals doesn't assimilate with their human physiology, the absorbed energy dissipates after some time. So they left out the animals on their menu but it seems morphs didn't seem to have the same idea.
"Maybe they can't find any other food source so they resorted to hunting them for food" answered back Gouthami.
Everyone followed the trail of blood left on the floor that was visible in the dim light from the moon. Soon they reached the place where all the trails ended near the door. The morphs were probably on the other side of the door. Preparing themselves for the combat, Gopal being the vanguard of the team slammed open the door with a loud bang, as they know being silent hereafter has no meaning. He wielded his shield in one hand and a three and a half feet curved blade made in a local forge in the other hand.
Mohan was also ready with his sling in his hand. He also has a similar sword hanging by his waist. In fact, everyone carried a sword or a blade made by the same forge which has become a growing business nowadays.
Hearing the bang, all the four morphs inside the room were alerted awake. Seeing the group of hunters enter they shouted for the other members of their group and went into combat with the hunters and stalled till others arrived.
Mohan with his shot ready aimed for the head of the morph from the back of the team and shot him. Unexpected by the sudden hit the morph was disoriented. Taking the chance Mohan released two more shots at him and rushed with the blade in his hand.
Others also engaged the other three morphs and rushed to finish them before the rest of the group arrived. With Gopal holding back every one with his shield others attacked the three morphs simultaneously. Unable to hold on long against the combined attack of five hunters the three morphs fell soon enough.
Mohan also killed the last one by the time they finished the three morphs. But the commotion already alerted the others and they rushed out of the other doors in the hallway in the side of the room. Seeing the dead members of their group in the hall, the morphs are more wary of the attackers than being angry at them for their dead comrades.
All the left out seven reached the hall including the leader. Now the battle became even without the morphs having any huge number advantage. So all the Hunters relaxed somewhat. The leader of the morphs grimaced seeing his current predicament.
"What should I do, if I want to leave here alive?" questioned the morph leader.
Hearing the unexpected question from the morph, everyone in the team didn't know what to reply. They never expected a morph to have a civil conversation with others.
"Why should we leave you alive? To go and kill more people? ", Ramesh being the de-facto vice leader of the team questioned back.
"Don't play the victim card here, you Hunters are hunting us mutants all around", replied Morph's leader.
"Don't switch the blame on us. It was you savage morphs who started attacking us", said Ramesh.
Hearing everything from the sidelines Mohan questioned the morph leader, "What can you do?"
Hearing the question it had waiting for the whole time, "If you set me free, I can help gather other mutants for you" answered back morph leader with an anxious expression.
Hearing this every hunter had an eager look on their face but the other morphs despaired hearing as they knew there was no way for them to leave alive even if the attackers set their leader free. So they immediately attacked in a desperate struggle to live.
But all the Hunters were alert the whole time so they engaged them immediately. They left out the morph leader for the last to deal with him later and the morph leader too withdrew from the battle despite the desperate call for help from his former comrades. The Hunters soon killed the last morph. The only morph left in the place is the morph leader.
"How can you call for other morphs?" Mohan continued his questioning of the morph leader.
"All the mutant leaders have some amount of power among the morphs."
"Oh? There are other groups similar to yours? And who are these mutant leaders?"
"Yes, there group of mutants like us out there. Mutant leaders are those who have completed 1%"
"Completed what one percentage?" questioned Nisha.
"We don't know what it is either but that is the message we got from NALLA System after we killed 15 humans"
Everyone had a puzzled look on their face but gave a sidelong glance towards Mohan guessing whether he knew anything about this.
"I too got the same message but I also don't know anything more about it." Replied Mohan feeling their gazes on him.
"So NALLA System works for morphs too?" Karthik asked the question that everyone seemed to have ignored due to their previous curiosity.
"Yes" replied back morph.
"Do morphs have any gathering place among yourselves?" asked Mohan.
"No, none that I know of."
"Then how will you gather others"
"If you give me some time, I can gather mutants wandering around the area" Knowing that the questioning going in the bad direction morph hurriedly replied with a pre-emptive promise.
Hearing this Hunters knew they couldn't gather anything more useful from him. So they decided to finish him off. From the start they never had any intention of letting him leave alive, they only wanted to extract as much information as they could from him.
Seeing the situation going downstream the morph screamed, "If you don't leave me out I will bring with me as many as I can before I die".
But no one bothered about its comment. The morph was also not one to be trifled with, as he was also trying to buy time to prepare his final resort for these dire situations. As morphs they knew about some exclusive information, so he knew that his team members might turn against him at any time so prepared precautionary measures to be used against them in case it happened. But he never knew it would help him now.