Abomination

[So what now?] She asked. She didn't have any ideas and her knowledge about the current scenario was too lacking to make an informed decision.

[We should prioritize finding some shelter. The sun is about to rise. We don't want to be here for the morning surge.] Alex told her.

[Morning surge?] Laura asked. She was confused.

[The abominations are the most active for one hour after the sun rises and spread out in search of prey.] He told her.

[Wouldn't that mean that the Bastion has to fend off attacks daily? I remember you mentioning that they are attacked only once every few days.] Laura wanted to confirm some stuff.

[Yeah, those attacks are weekly mass waves that attack the city in bulk. But they have to fend off quite a few stragglers every day but the sentry turrets can automatically deal with them. Those main attack waves are the ones that require extra manpower.]

[I see.] Laura understood.

[Let's get going. We have a shelter in that direction a few hundred miles that way.] Alex pointed in the direction where he'd seen a shelter with his Mana Sense.

[All righty…] Laura burst out in a full sprint.

*BAM*

She crashed into the ground.

[Hahaha...] Alex burst out laughing as he saw Laura's face buried in the dusty ground. As she got up, she looked almost comical with her hair frilly and filled with dust while had face was also pretty dirty. Even her nose was broken from that damage.

[Shut up…] Laura grumbled as she ignored the pain in her nose, expecting it to heal up soon.

'Why am I not healing?' She thought to herself.

[Alex…] She asked and Alex understood her unspoken question.

[Ah, you see… Regenerating your entire body so forcefully wasn't entirely without consequences.] He stopped laughing and took a somber tone.

[Alex… What happened?] Laura was getting an ominous feeling.

[Well… You still have your healing factor, but it's gone dormant for a while. Think of it like a muscle. It was overexerted so it's unusable for now.] He told her

[Well, fuck… What do I do about this?] She pointed to her nose. She wasn't too stuck up on not being able to heal for a week. It wasn't that big of a deal.

[I'll help out with that…] Alex blocked the pain receptors in her skin and realigned her nose while fixing it there. It would heal up naturally in a while. [I'm not as good as your healing factor at this stuff, but you'll be healed up soon.]

[Thank you…] Laura was a nice girl who knew to appreciate Alex for his help.

[You're welcome. Now try to go slowly. Your physical stats have increased by 5 times, it'll take some getting used to.]

[5 times? Wasn't it 3?] She was confused as she thought that she would receive a three-fold increase in her abilities.

[That was before our deeper bond. As we bond deeper and our connection gets stronger, the enhancement that I can provide to your physical stats will increase.] He patiently informed her.

Laura nodded in understanding and started moving slowly in a controlled manner so that she doesn't fall face-first into the ground again.

Taking around 10 minutes to reach their destination, Laura reached the gate for the shelter.

[This the place?] Laura looked at the airlock that seemed to be the entrance of the bunker.

[Yep.] Alex came out of Laura's hand and seeped through the airlock, unlocking it from the inside. Laura went into the bunker for the sunrise and closed the airlock tightly.

[You need to train your strength…] Alex looked at the bent lever that she used to close the door.

[…] Laura was embarrassed.

[Come on, let's explore this place. Maybe we can find a nice open area to use as a training ground. I can't have you plant yourself face-first into the ground every time you run.] Alex had been assisting her in running at full speed so that they could get here in time.

[Hey!] Her protest didn't have any substance.

[Hey, Laura… Any idea about the location of the X-men?] Alex asked. He hadn't found any information about any other cities in the database so he had to get creative.

[No clue… But they should be in the same location as the old Xavier Mansion… It used to be in New Salem, I think. Not that it matters now.] Laura had a sad expression.

'On second thoughts, let's not go there. I'd rather not get discovered by Charles... I'd rather not gamble on him being dead.' Alex thought. A mind-reading all-sensing telepath was one of the worst possible enemies for him.

[Forget it then. Let's just go with the flow. We'll find something to do at some point.]

[What about the Bastion?] Laura wasn't done with the Bastion, she was going to get her revenge.

[Patience. That place is far too much for us. Let's slowly move up to it. With me, you'll be able to grow without limits and at some point, we'll get strong enough to decimate those Vibranium suits that they sent after you. Till then, we'll train.] Alex had already explained to her the nuances of the benefits that he provides.

[Sounds like a plan. Let's start now.] Laura was excited to train.

[Let's hold back for the next week. We need your healing factor to come back. I'll be doing extremely brutal training with you. Without your healing factor it would only be detrimental.] Alex's words gave Laura an ominous feeling.

[What do you mean?] She asked.

[We need to train your healing factor too. That means injuries, serious ones. I'll train your ability to the point that you can regenerate an amputated arm within a second.] He said nonchalantly.

[Fuck…] Anyone else in Laura's situation would be traumatized. She'd gone through a similar experience in the Bastion and wouldn't want to go through something similar. But just as her healing factor protected her mind, it also protected her from developing any true trauma about it. Her mind subconsciously suppressed the negative memories that would leave her traumatized with the help of her healing factor.

They spent some time setting up this place as a temporary base of operations. They'd decided to stay here for the next few weeks. At least until Laura got strong enough to contend against the abominations with relative ease.

She could deal with the basic weakest abominations with ease, but even the mid-tier ones would be a challenge for her. Not to mention the regenerative kind that must be killed within seconds otherwise they'll regenerate perfectly. Every single one of those abominations' regeneration dwarfs Laura's current regeneration. Then again, Laura's regeneration is an ability of her X-gene and can be trained to get better. On the other hand, those abominations are stuck with their regenerative factor that cannot get better.

'At least they don't have any intelligence and only run on instinct.' Alex thought of the only consolation that he had.

…

An hour later, they went out of the bunker to see the situation on the outside. Alex himself was pretty unclear about the situation since all he'd gotten from the memories of that poor barista was some tidbits that she'd heard every once in a while. It's not like she'd seen something like this happen. And the information from the facility was severely lacking when it came to the abominations.

He hadn't even run into any abominations till now.

The airlock opened with a creek as Laura's head poked out of the hole in the ground.

[Anything to worry about?] Laura asked Alex since she knew that his senses were much better than hers.

[On your 7, a few hundred meters away. There's a ‹Grunt Class›.] Alex told her. He'd classified the abominations that he'd found out about in the memories of that girl, into separate classes of abominations.

‹Grunt Class› ‹Buff Grunt Class› ‹Regenerative Grunt Class› ‹Buff Regenerative Grunt Class›

These 4 were the most commonly found and were the only ones in the memories that he'd gotten from the Barista. He was sure that there were stronger ones, but he couldn't find any information about them in her memories.

'These are probably the ones that transformed from humans. There should be some sort of ‹Animal Class› too but I have too little information to classify it.' Alex thought.

[On it.] Laura noticed the ‹Grund Class› abomination in the spot that Alex directed. She got out of the bunker and closed the airlock before moving toward the abomination.

She finally got a close look at it.

It was a huge 5-meter-tall humanoid entity that seemed to be walking in a certain direction. Laura could tell that it was being directed to walk in a certain direction. Mindless monsters don't have such a straight sense of direction.

‹Grunt Class›:: Base level grunts. Common. Weakest abomination class. Superhuman Physique and regeneration. Appearance: Muddy green skin, 5 meters tall, skinny body build.

[Is there some sort of controller for these abominations?] She asked in her head with a dreadful undertone.

[There might be some ‹Leader Class› that can control these weaker grunts…] He told her his assumption.

[Should we kill it?] She asked. She understood that if there's a leader with some influence over these guys then they would be compromising themselves by killing it.

***

Sorry about the inconsistent updates for the past week. I had exams and things were pretty hectic. But now, I have some time so the chapters should get back to the regular daily schedule.

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