Operation: Hollow Forest (3)

"Is it dead?"

"Like you did anything." Alexia turned around, facing Chloe.

"Hey! I'm a non-combatant." Chloe argued back. "My gift grants me no offensive abilities and a shot from the gun MAW would have tickled it."

"Yeah, yeah, those are just excuses—"

"—Watch out!" Shivan interrupted Alexia as he tried to warn her.

Moving at a speed she couldn't react to, a tail slap hit her shoulder and she crashed into a tree.

The snake got up, with half its face destroyed, it missing an eye.

"How is alive?" Arlo exclaimed in confusion. Arlo knew he put enough mana in that shot to blow its head clean off.

"It's a mutant!" Chloe realised it was the only explanation.

Mutant aberrants had grown past their species rankings and were stronger than usual. A Silencer Anaconda was usually only a mid-high grade 4.

"It doesn't seem that much stronger though," Arlo noted. Its defences were tougher than before but it could have more abilities. Arlo estimated that its strength was around peak grade 4.

The gaps in the aberrant's scales started to glow as the concentration of dark mana in the atmosphere increased.

"Something changed," Shivan observed, feeling a sense of danger.

The aberrant moved faster than before, attempting to hit Shivan with its tail. He was barely able to dodge it, thanks to sensing the attack beforehand.

It screeched and rushed towards him again. Leaping over its head, Shivan punched the aberrant as hard as he could. The fist connected with the top of the aberrant's head.

But the snake took no damage. It then tried to swallow Shivan whole while he was midair.

"Damn snake!" Alexia came from the side and grabbed Shivan before he was eaten.

They both crashed into the side of the tree. 

"Uhh..." Groans of pain escaped from both their mouths.

As the snake turned to face the fallen duo, it received another blast from the sniper rifle.

Yet unlike before, the blast dealt no damage.

"Wha—?!" Seeing the result, Arlo was gobsmacked. The attack that nearly killed it before now doing nothing.

"RUN!"

Chloe's shout wasn't necessary. Everyone knew that they couldn't beat it in that state.

The four of them grabbed their things and ran as fast as possible. The Mutant Silencer Anaconda was desperately chasing its prey.

Its movement speed was faster than the four, so it was quickly catching up.

Along its way, it was leaving a trail of destruction. Even other aberrants stayed out of their way.

"It has to have some sort of cost to use this ability. Otherwise, it would've used it when we first fought it." Arlo commented.

The strength of the anaconda currently was on par with mid-level Grade 3, even stronger than the Thornback Panther Arlo had fought with Diamond 1.

Its defences had skyrocketed to an insane level and a single direct hit would kill them instantly.

Diamond 17 all weaved through the forest, avoiding the rampage of the aberrant behind them. They swung through the trees, distracted by throwing objects at it among other things.

Five minutes later, after several close calls, the anaconda ran out of steam. The glowing purple in the gaps between the scales were starting to dull as the snake exhausted its energy.

The snake movement went at a snail's pace. It could barely muster any strength to move.

"HA!" Alexia exclaimed. "Not so tough now." 

She slowly approached the nearly unmoving snake. All the snake could manage was hiss at her. She stuck her tongue out in response, taunting the aberrant.

"That ability was probably an escape ability," Arlo commented. "However due to aberrant's instinctive hatred of living beings, it went against its survival instincts."

"I don't care about that." Alexia retorted. "This thing deserves to die after nearly killing us."

She went up to nearly dead aberrant and sliced the head off in one clean stroke.

"Alexia, is your arm okay? You got hit pretty badly." Shivan asked after checking if it was dead.

"Yeah. I managed to concentrate my mana on my shoulder at the last moment. Otherwise, I would have a broken arm."

The group took another breather, this time ensuring that there were truly no aberrants nearby. One aberrant scare was enough for the day.

After taking a half-hour break, they arrived at a small clearing. They were deep enough in the fog that no one would notice Radiance Blossom being taken out of the container.

"It would be annoying if aberrants were to interrupt me, so can you get rid of any in the nearby area." Chloe pleaded with her friends.

"If you insist." Alexia sighed. "Shivan, can you do something to make them attack us?"

"Okay. Cover your ears." Shivan brought his hands above his head.

He flared his mana and clapped his hands several times. Multiple weak pulses of sounds were released in the surrounding area.

The pulses weren't powerful, but annoying and they attracted all the aberrants in the surrounding area.

Slowly but surely all the aberrants arrived.

"Doesn't look like anyone too strong is here," Alexia stated after observing the aberrants. "Shouldn't be too difficult. Chloe, you'll be participating right?"

"Shut up. I can take the Grade 5s and 6s."

They got in a formation, with their backs facing each other. Shivan and Alexia would take the lead.

There were all manner of aberrants; small, big, lizard types, mammal types and more. 

Shivan led off with a {Wave Crash}. They crushed several aberrants and even more were blown away by the force.

From behind, Chloe and Arlo shot mana blasts from their gun MAWs, cleaning up the aberrants. Alexia acted on her own, picking off the stronger ones.

They were being liberal with their mana as they expected that it would be their last fight of the day. After building the Mana Fusion Generator, they would immediately leave the forest.

With their combined strength, they were slowly picking off the entire herd.