The Den

Maddox viewed everything from the sidelines as the group moved around in search of something only to end up with a fruitless search of the place from what they could see, however, something was bugging Maddox at the back of his mind as he watched everything unfold.

'Where is the other group?' Maddox realizes it since the two groups had agreed to met in the middle once they entered the warehouse but even after all this time there had been no sign of them

That was what had been bugging Maddox and now that he saw that there was nothing around he began to pay more attention to the group now to see if there was anything unusual happening amongst them now. At first, there was nothing but eventually, something caught his eye within the group and that seemed to be the fact that there were small scratches on everyone's necks that were only visible once Jack pointed them out since he was staring too hard at the women and not his surroundings.

Once the scratches were pointed out though that was when 'they' showed up.

A mob of infected individuals appeared from what seemed to be thin air surrounded the group as they slowly closed in.

At this point, Maddox pauses the scene and looks at the infected to see what exactly it was that the group was going to lose too. Infected were classified into three groups of low-tier, middle-tier, and high-tier infected classes that have to do with their powers, size, and uniqueness. From the looks of things the creatures that surrounded them were some low-tier orcs which are easy to identify with their hulking bodies, pale grey skin, and the most distinctive feature being the two tusks protruding from their lower jaws. Most could be classified as lower-tier however with this many surrounding the group then maybe just maybe they may have just enough body power to reach the minimum of medium-tier classification.

Classification of an infected is pretty easy since there are many infected that either stems from a similar-looking branch of infected or they are the offspring of the infected. So basing the new infected off those that are similar is the common practice of the Coalition, the only exception of this practice is when a mutated infected is found. Mutations do sometimes occur causing the new creature to either have some new features of a known branch of infected or sometimes a new creature is found.

Mutations are something that the Coalition cannot accurately predict so a measure was implemented to have some training when it comes to mutated infected being found.

Run

Most mutations are hard to identify the effects and there have been many incidents where the coalition members who wanted to fight them were never heard from again and their fates were unknown after engaging them.

Maddox moved to get an overhead view of everything as the group readied their weapons since they knew that there were more than fifty infected here as there seemed to be a sea of orc infected ready to devour the group as the sound of grunting and pushing is heard. As tensions rose the strange sound of footsteps was heard coming towards the group, but these seemed to be sharper than usual as they approach the group from somewhere within the horde of infected.

"Well... this is a nice surprise..." A hoarse voice rings out from above causing the group to lookup

Directly above them in midair was a figure wearing a dark brown cloak that seemed to flutter around in some sort of invisible wind indoors. The only thing that could be seen were two red glowing eyes that stared down at the group from above.

"I recommend that you put down your weapons or else the other group of guests that tried getting in will meet a swift end," The figure says from above as his eyes move from one person to another within the group

Hearing the threat directed at them causes everyone in the group to hesitate since they have no idea if what is being said is true or not. Still, the decision is on Katherine since she is the senior-most person within the group which is why everyone looked to her hoping to get an idea of what to do.

'Just leave them to die' Maddox thinks his opinion of the matter

Not wanting to sound heartless he would have decided to not give up and try to fight their way out of the warehouse and escape so that they may be able to return with a bigger force to wipe out the infected. However, as he expected they surrendered with the sounds of their weapons falling to the ground with Maddox now witnessing the gazes of the orcs change from that of bloodlust and apprehension of the fight to come, change to lust like a dog in heat. Seeing the gazes everyone's hesitation is shown as some of them begin to reach for the weapons that they just put down.

"Valkoren Smedor," The figure from above says as physical miasma leaps from under his cloak and attacks the group

They are not harmed physically however from what Maddox sees is that this new form of miasma aims for the group and attempts to enter their bodies while also restraining their movements which Maddox believes he can improve with his illusions added to the miasma.

Still watching the process Maddox sees how the miasma once it successfully infiltrated the body of one of the women in the group immediately stopped fighting against the miasma and fell unconscious so it seemed. One thing that Maddox had to comment about though was how this thing entered the body since there are nine entrances into a person's body that are accessible with them being the eyes, ears, mouth, nose, ass, and finally the person's genitals.

It was an interesting process to watch as Maddox noticed that while it would look like the miasma would move around like it had a physical form the thing was that once that it made some entrance into someone it looked as if it disappeared as there seemed to be no bulges under the skin from the physical miasma.

Maddox was right in coming here as he was getting some insight into how he could improve his techniques and maybe he could try to branch off into the other aspects of miasma usage since while mastering one thing may be good it would be disadvantageous in the long run since he knew that there was no way he could intimidate some infected with illusionary special forces like with the Coalition.

Broadening his arsenal would be great but from the looks of his body's delicate equilibrium, it seemed impossible to give himself unnatural strength from either miasma or essence since they were both conflicting insides of him. Miasma would cause him to transform completely into an infected and essence might destroy his body since miasma seemed to be the primary energy of his body. So external manipulation was the route that he would have to go however that would not mean that he would just become a glass cannon where he deals out high firepower and have low health. No, he was going to have to do what people had been doing since the first humans appeared on this earth and that was to train himself to the limits of the human body to stand some sort of chance.

The scene fades to darkness as Jack succumbs to the miasma that traveled through his anus it seemed and that was the end of this part of the memory since he blackout then there was no more currently available.

[End of current memory]

The remote in Maddox's grasp disappears and a new feeling of being watched by something else bugs him but he believes that is just because the memory ended and he is just getting used to his surroundings once more now that he is out. Still, extra precautions don't hurt as he looks back to his tether and reinforces it a bit by using more of his miasma on it which leads to his natural supply of being low now.

"So that means that what happened to this guy he was unable to see which is difficult since I was only able to glean just a bit..."

[Auto play of next available memory commencing]

"Wait there is more?" Maddox asks a bit surprised that there is more

[Current recent memories remaining: 2]

"Alright then continue onto the memory after this one then with the same settings as before" Maddox gives the command and the darkness feels different now somehow

Looking around Maddox sees that he has the remote once again in his grasp and the faint sound of breathing can be heard within the dark leading to Maddox looking for Jack in the Jack as everything gradually became clear.

Eventually, something happens and light appears out of nowhere and hurting Maddox's eyes as he was getting to the darkness as well but it did not hurt that much since he had been fast-forwarding within the memory and had not been too affected by the dark.

As light appeared the surrounding area was revealed to Maddox who was now able to see an orc type infected holding an industrial-grade flashlight into the face of Jack who was currently chained to a stone wall behind him and gagged. Other than the fact that he was chained to the wall there was nothing else that was wrong with him from Maddox could see since there were no visible bruising, cuts, or miss-use while down here.

The light showed that this place only had one exit which was right behind the orc that lead out into who knows where.

"Alright now, the boss man says he gonna be ere in moment afta you wake up," The orc says in some broken English

Jack seeing his situation seems to struggle against the chains and Maddox assumes that he tries to draw upon his essence to somehow free himself from his bindings.

"I recommend that you do not try to escape," The hoarse voice from before calls as the figure once again shows themselves but this time instead of the red eyes staring down on them they were now blue

"You cannot break free from those shackles even if you could mobilize your... essence," The figure says as he seems to particularly hate that word

"Now then I am sure that you must be wondering why you are here, yes? Well, there is a simple answer to that question. I do not know what to do with you right now," The figure says as he moves to Jack and leans down to look at him

"What do you think hmm?" The figure questions as Maddox looks at the figure now hoping to get some actual insight into what the hell this thing is

'Okay then...' Maddox thinks as he sees what is hiding underneath that cloak

It was a rotting skull with its normally white bone now muddled brown and dirty with the lower jaw of the creature missing leaving only the top portion of the skull that held its two glowing eyes with its sockets. Maddox had never read about an undead-type miasma creature before however now that he was seeing more and more of the effects it could create then maybe just maybe could it bring back the dead like necromancy. Having an army of undead at his command would be useful however it would be more troublesome to deal with than anything and even then Maddox was unsure of how to make something dead walk again. Illusions were already a long and arduous process at times so there was no telling how difficult it would be to reanimate the dead.

Maddox would try that some other time just for experimentation and such to see if there was a way he could utilize miasma just as the undead infected.

Meaning fewer thoughts aside Maddox had to focus on the conversation that was going on now in front of him.

"It is a pity I do not have a current use for you. Your essence is too weak to be used for any sort of replenishment, there are no female or... gay infected here, so those women will barely last a week or two, and finally, you are just some scrawny ass kid that happened to receive essence rather than succumbing to your inner desires and ambitions," The skeleton infected says with a sigh as he looks at Jack and then at the orc wh was holding the light

"You have a dagger yes?" The skeleton questions

"Das wright boss man" The orc says as it pulls out a knife, which was just a piece of sharpened metal that had some leather and clothe bits glued to it

The skeleton does not say anything but grabs the knife and walks to Jack who's eyes widen in fear.