The Library Assault (3)

The day was a bloody day, under the rampant sound of gunshots, many people screamed out their final death throes.

The pungent metallic scent of blood permeated the whole area. This smell would be assaulting Smith's nostrils if he was at all present at the scene. He was instead overlooking their struggles from security cameras placed in the emergency safe room, and what he saw disgusted him quite frankly.

"Those Disquisivite scum…" Smith Moral was by no bounds an upright man, but to hire low life thugs to storm his library… This much was beneath him for sure. The most worrying part however were the implications of the party's actions.

While Smith was silently loathing, a door slid open revealing a muscular man wearing combat gear. This was one of Smith's bodyguards.

"Did you contact the Reformation people?" Smith turned asked the burly man.

"Of course, sir" The altered grade 5 guard replied.

It seemed like an odd choice to contact another one of their enemies, but to even the odds the Reformative party could not allow the Planetal party to lose too much power. It was in their best interest to prevent the disquisitive party from eradicating their Termina presence.

"When will they get here?" Smith asked calmly. He was an aged man, 50 years. Although he spent much of his time doing nothing at all he still managed to acquire wisdom and patience. He, therefore, had a dignified appearance as he asked this question.

"They might make it in an hour, they've met resistance from some local gangs" The guard said with a poker face. Yet Smith could not maintain his dignified appearance, this was too long a time to wait.

"What-" Smith wanted to inquire some more on the matter but he squinted after noticing some of the cameras were shaking slightly. The subtle vibrations even reached the safe room where a bottle of water calmly rocked back and forth.

As an experienced man, Smith Moral knew what was coming. It was a mutant.

Having burst right through consecutive walls a hulking dark green mutant stopped in front of the camera appearing dazed.

It had a humanoid figure, messy and sparse brown hair coupled with green scales, and pineal eyes. It looked like a human lizard hybrid sporting a mean hunch. The bright orange patterns along its bulging muscles suggested it was toxic to boot.

Smith's face contorted and he hurried over to the microphone.

"A mutant has appeared on the premises! Deal with it quickly!" Smith commanded feeling quite annoyed.

Smith might be a small timer in the planetal faction but he was still an important asset. This meant he wasn't kept completely in the dark. The appearance of a mutant in Termina was near impossible. Especially one not native to the immediate vicinity.

"Failed Gene Exaltation…" This told Smith that the work was without a doubt the work of the disquisitive faction. That was not to say the Planetal faction had not dabbled in the manufacturing of Gene Exaltants, but rather that only the ones with the most seats in the council would dare flaunt without fear.

If all of this was true then the prosperity council would have one hell of a next meeting.

From thereon, Smith continued to silently surveil the situation. His chief guard would occasionally inform him of his thinning guard personnel. The men had to come from somewhere so Smith was unfazed.

He only stood up shocked when he spotted a semi-familiar figure enter the hallway towards his office. Wasn't that the wanted man?!

***

Catching up to Rohawk and the others wasn't too difficult, the hard part was figuring out where they were after catching up.

RATATATAT BANG RATATAT

The sound of gunfire was suffocatingly loud and the bright lights continued to disorient and foil my attempts to catch a glimpse of their figures. I had no choice but to back away and hide behind a pillar.

The library was apparently a two-story building but both of those floors had varying heights. If there were a great wonder of the mutant world then this library would not nail a spot. Yet, its historical value would at least allow it to be a contender.

This was a large hall. A dance hall to specific.

The edges were littered with thick pillars while everything else was flat ground. There were tables and chairs stacked by the pillars to be used in gatherings. In this case however they were being used to block bullets, and a mutant.

"AAAAAHHH!!!!" The scream of someone was heard in between gunshots as toxic purple sludge landed atop somebody. The hulking lizard-like brute that performed this action was however not yet satisfied.

To be fair, there were multiple people shooting bullets at it.

"Dan!" Amidst the chaos, I finally managed to recognize someone.

Seamus slid towards me with a mix of fear and worry.

"What about Kaiser?!?!" He asked some anger now mixed in. The fear and worry were evidently for Kaiser.

"I left him with Lytton" I answered honestly.

"Lytton!? He is a medic! The brutes from the library will get here soon too!" Seamus chastised. He wasn't wrong so it certainly seemed like I was leaving them to die but… HOW WAS I SUPPOSED TO FEND THEM OFF EXACTLY ANYWAY?

"They'll hide, they'll be fin-" A couple of stray shots suddenly whizzed past us and struck the pillar. The lizard mutant must have positioned its body in our direction.

"F*ck this is so dangerous!" Seamus cursed silently from the ground where he threw himself. He then looked at me.

"The mission to kill is still on! Sneak past the chaos and get into Smith's office!" Seamus shouted having seemed to come up with a brilliant idea. To me however it seemed less than brilliant.

For starters, where exactly was this office?!? Secondly, I couldn't see sh*t!

"Crap!" Seamus noticed another volley incoming and lunged his body behind the pillar.

RATATAT BANG RAT BANG

The shots rang out again reminding us of the pressing situation.

"F*ck! Dan, just hurry the f*ck out!" Seamus screamed pleadingly. It was clear he wanted out as soon as possible but someone had to finish the task.

More importantly, it seems Seamus also has a cursing problem when under stress. It's nice to know I'm not alone. Wait… was that a normal human reaction? Huh…

"I got it! But where's the office?" I asked before seeing Seamus point in a direction. I looked in the direction he pointed.

Yeah, this architecture was a mess. Why was the door to the main office across the f*cking hall!?! Mind my language.

"Seamus, I think there is a large mutant, and lots of bullets in the way" I turned back to him and said with a deadpan expression.

"Stop f*cking with me and figure it out! You took like 20 bullets yesterday, take 20 more!" Seamus heartless words stung but he wasn't entirely wrong.

"EAT THIS!! AAAAAAHHH!" The mutant grabbed hold of a guard who was still shooting wildly at it. Just moments ago those guys were shooting us but look how the mutant turns the tables.

I sprinted away in this short interval where the bad- wait we are the bad guys. Where the amoral guys ceased their fire afraid of shooting down the soon-to-be-dead comrade.

My plan? Since there were thick pillars everywhere why not circle the hall while remaining in cover?

I snuck a peek at the mutant and my eyes widened. It broke the neck of the guard and tossed it towards my direction!

The body however landed straight on one of the pillars. How fortunate- The pillar cracked at that moment and the building shook softly.

What weird behavior. Did the architects and engineers of the post-apocalyptic world not follow building safeties and guidelines? Well, maybe that's a long shot.

The main issue was that the mutant seemed to take a liking to toss bodies. It bulldozed forward grabbing some humans and smashing them together before tossing both away simultaneously.

The bodies flew across the hall and managed to hit nothing.

ROOOARR!!!

The deafening roar had my ears ringing but this was only for a moment.

"Dan! We'll be catching up!" I heard a shout from across the hall. It appeared to be Hawk who almost immediately crouched right after.

BANG

"These b*stards won't let us through!" He shouted in continuation. The mutant appeared to have been brought in by the rivaling gangs. While I doubted it was working with them, it certainly wasn't working against them.

I nodded without knowing if he'd manage to see and managed to make my way around the hall. I spotted and busted open a set of double doors entering a hallway.

This corridor was adorned rather extravagantly with portraits of great scholars. Some even had their names in plaques.

I sprinted past all of this and bust a final set of double doors. In here, was a man…?

"You are not allowed in any further" The man wearing a weird black body armor said aiming a sleek weapon at me. Instinctively, I pounced on the ground.

PEW

"Pew?" I asked myself before jumping up off my feet and running to grab a small table. In the process, I managed to notice a green incision on the wall. Was that an alien gun, the hell?

PEW

Another pew. I threw the small table at the shot and a hole appeared in its center. It had melted a hole. The shot however did not pierce through and instead dispersed. This was going to be a tough battle.