"Hear what?" Derr replied while maintaining a perplexed expression on his face.
"I'm not entirely certain... There's a peculiar sound." Fischer's voice trailed off as he swiveled towards the window overlooking the containment area for the captured infected, Ranger Lakwosky. The creature was producing an unsettling gurgling sound with an uncanny rhythm.
"What on earth could it possibly be doing?" Fischer muttered, glancing at Derr. It was only natural to seek his advice, seeing as he is the most knowledgeable person in the city about mutants.
Derr frowned, his eyes narrowing. "Could he be... communicating?" The question hung in the air ominously.
The bizarre crooning of the infected suddenly became a deafening din as the volume increased.
A chill ran down Derr's spine, and with a growing sense of dread, he reached for the laser pistol in his desk drawer. "This is bad..." he started, but his warning was cut short by an explosion.
Fischer didn't waste any time and immediately went to the monitors. A horrifying scene was captured by the cameras installed inside the research facility, which showed a swarm of mutants making their way into the building.
The sudden assault prevented the guards from reacting correctly, and they lay there as victims.
"Stay close!" Fischer yelled at Derr, swiftly weaving together threads of mana. Derr promptly took position behind him, clutching his weapon. The lab door shuddered and then gave way to a torrent of mutants.
Fischer channeled mana, and two icy figures materialized from the mana manipulated by the Major through his brain crystal. They had a rhomboid torso and a triangular head, which gave them an abstract, geometric appearance.
Despite their bizarre appearance, the strength they possessed was genuine. An icy radiance emanated from their bodies, which slowed the movement of their opponents as they advanced. They could stop the influx of mutants by positioning themselves in front of the shattered door.
Fischer raised his flail to fight against the mutants, as the elementals were already engaged in combat with the intruders.
After that, he gave his elementals orders, telling them to construct an ice shield in front of Professor Derr, and they carried out his instructions to perfection, making a sturdy ice wall that prevented any monster from reaching the professor and making the temperature in the room drop.
"What on god's green earth are you doing?" Derr exclaimed, his eyes widening in surprise as the ice wall materialized before him.
"Do you want to die, Xilion?" Fischer shot back, his tone authoritative as he spoke.
"Of course not, but..." was the response. The sound of Derr's voice faded away.
"Just don't move; I'll take care of everything!" The command came from Fischer.
Fischer did not waste a single second more and dove headfirst into the fray. He made a swift motion with his hand and then dashed toward the horde of mutants, smashing their skulls with his flail and bringing many down by swinging it to the left and right. Despite this, they appeared to be neverending.
The ice elementals swung their arms around in lethal arcs, dealing fatal blows to the mutants closing in on them. The monsters' movements were significantly slowed due to the icy aura emanating from them. Several of the mutants began to freeze.
The frozen infected shattered into icy fragments with each hit that was dealt to them. Fischer managed to limit the number of creatures that rushed into the laboratory simultaneously, thanks to the limited space provided by the laboratory's narrow access tunnels.
Despite this advantage, he was uncertain if he could hold the line and prevent an overwhelming surge of monstrous creatures inside the room.
Fischer issued repeated commands to the elementals, telling them to conjure ice walls to block the entranceway. However, each time they did so, the walls were shattered by the unrelenting fury of the humanoid monsters who were probably under the Heniate's control.
They weren't particularly powerful on their own, at least not when compared to the Major and his elementals, but when they worked together, they were an extremely formidable foe.
Tragically, some of the mutants managed to get through Fischer's defenses and dash toward the window where Lakwosky was trapped. They started beating furiously against it with their fists.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The reinforced glass broke apart under the constant assault, resulting in shards falling to the ground as the mutants entered. They began to gnaw at the restraints placed on mutant Lakwosky, and his disfigured face broke out into a chilling grin.
"What?!" Fischer yelled, a shivering feeling of dread crawling up his spine. The grotesque grin Lakwosky had on his face made him shudder.
While the mutants were working on his restraints, some were electrocuted to death by the room's defenses, while others were burned to death by the other traps already in place.
Ultimately, they successfully freed Lakwosky, who reacted by letting out a loud scream that made the Major's skin crawl. At long last, he had his freedom.
The transformed ranger sprang off the bed, now no longer a prisoner but a terrifying horror.
He proceeded toward Fischer, still engaged in combat with the dwindling number of mutants. Fischer's ice elementals could maintain their standing as the number of opponents decreased.
At that precise instant, the Major made eye contact with the monster that had once been Ranger Lakwosky.
When their eyes connected, Lakwosky surprised him by starting to speak. "Did you seriously believe you could keep me incarcerated here for the rest of my life?" His voice became harsh and raspy as he glared at Fischer, and every syllable he spoke was laced with contempt.
Fischer was taken aback, his eyes wide. "You...you can talk?" he stammered, barely believing what he heard.
"I can do so much more than just talk!" Lakwosky fired back at him.
"When did you regain your sanity?" Fischer inquired while covertly directing mana through his neural links to bolster the power of his elementals.
A dismissive "That's irrelevant" was the response that Lakwosky gave. "The only thing that matters is that both of you are going to die today!"
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