Chapter 66: Sea of Qi |
Even muffled by their Headphones, the gunfire still echoed loudly through the underground space.
The Captain reacted with lightning speed. The monster had barely raised its scythe-like forelimbs, not yet gathering the strength to strike, when it took a three-round burst straight to the head. Bullets tore through its skull, and its two front limbs slumped weakly against his armored plating.
The Captain followed up by slamming the butt of his rifle into its jaw. Just as he was about to shove the creature away, Agent Kyle drew his Handgun and fired several more rounds into the monster's chest and abdomen.
A sharp scraping sound came from his waist, and the Captain suddenly realized the anomalous Entity had four arms. The second pair of forelimbs, resembling the mandibles of a longhorn beetle, had unknowingly clamped onto his side. Even as the Entity's upper body slumped sideways, this extra pair of limbs remained tightly wedged into his armor, the sharp tips piercing a few millimeters into the plating.
"Good job, Number 5. To think this thing actually knows how to play dead..."
The Captain tried to pry it off, but ultimately had to shoot the joints of those forelimbs to break them apart and tear it away.
Without a doubt, the N3 Team must have been ambushed by these things.
During this time, Agent Kyle kept a vigilant watch over their surroundings, ensuring no more Anomalies with glowing eyes were approaching.
N4-4: "Do not move!"
The Captain threw the Entity aside, looking down to memorize its physical characteristics before swinging his light toward the others' position.
A translucent, shimmering wall refracted the beam of light. Vertically surging masses of gas formed this barrier, blurring the personal lights of the four people on the other side and separating Agent Kyle and the Captain on one side of the Front Hall.
Several bullets floated suspended inside the wall.
The others had just tried to provide covering fire, but their bullets failed to penetrate it.
Just a moment ago, Agent Kyle's shifting foot had nearly stepped right into it.
N4-2 picked up a broken metal bracket. The moment the metal tip entered the gas wall, it became stuck. He tried to yank it out, but only ended up bending the back of the iron pipe; the consumed portion remained completely Motionless.
"Is this a Spatial Anomaly?"
Agent Kyle carefully drew his foot back, observing this flowing wall of gas.
Deep within its gel-like surging currents, fragments of brick and stone along with unknown black particles were beginning to appear, gradually piecing themselves together and obstructing their line of sight.
He habitually looked toward the other Mobile Task Force members, hoping to find an answer from them, but everyone remained silent.
"I have never seen anything like this... Usually, space gets stretched, or the walls and terrain suddenly shift. This feels like it is intentionally separating us."
The Captain pulled a metal rod from his backpack, deployed the umbrella-like mechanical structure at its top, and stabbed it into the ground.
A blinding red light flowed through the device.
This was a Personal Combat Reality Anchor, a powerful tool used by the Bureau to counter anomalous distortions.
But at this moment, the spinning structure at the top of the anchor failed to stop the wall from forming. The Captain lifted it and thrust it directly into the gas wall, allowing the red light to pour into the barrier, but it only slightly delayed its solidification.
"It seems we can only effectively interfere with it before it takes shape." The Captain shifted his shoulder light, issuing his final commands before the two sides were completely cut off. "Cancel the decoy plan. Fall back to the bottom of the stairs. I will take Number 5 and find another route to rendezvous. This path is too narrow, we have to—"
A sudden tremor and the sound of collapsing rubble interrupted the Captain's orders. Everyone fell silent, straining to identify the source of the noise.
It sounded as if a secret passage had just been opened in the distance.
The squad members on the other side of the gas wall simultaneously turned toward their rear, raising their weapons.
N4-2: "There is a new Y-shaped fork on the path we came from. Looks like we will have to find another—here they come!"
Several faintly discernible figures began to shift behind the brick and stone debris.
The team members aimed and opened fire in the direction they had come from. A roar of gunfire erupted, but the sound faded at an obvious rate as the gas wall grew increasingly dense. A burst of static from a poor signal crackled through the comms.
"The orders remain the same. Do not die!"
The moment the Captain shouted his final sentence, the gas wall sealed shut, transforming into a solid, dilapidated wall. The structure of the Reality Anchor was compromised, and it ceased functioning.
Agent Kyle smashed the butt of his rifle against it, but only managed to scrape off a few flakes of plaster.
The team had been forcibly split apart.
"Rookie, stop wasting your energy. Report to Command Headquarters immediately and send over the characteristics of that unknown Entity!"
"Understood."
The Special Communicator could maintain a clear connection under any conditions, but this was the first time Agent Kyle learned that it absolutely could not be brought near an unverified Hazard Item. Perhaps it was also a form of Paranormal Technology containing anomalous elements—such things were not uncommon within the Bureau—but that was as far as he could guess.
The torso of the unknown Entity on the ground had already mostly dissolved. Agent Kyle swept his gaze over the monster's hollow face, which possessed only eyes, noting that the once-glowing orbs had lost their luster.
Evaporation again. The corpse of the Visitor had also evaporated and vanished...
The "toxic gas" warning was still flashing at the edge of his Eyepiece. Agent Kyle's fingers suddenly froze over the keyboard of his Communication Device.
He carefully shined his light on the dissolving corpse, certain that he saw fragments drifting into the air, turning into nothingness alongside a surge of gas that distorted the light.
"Report if you notice anything," the Captain said, keeping his gun raised and maintaining vigilance over their surroundings.
"They... they seem to be gaseous. Wait, so this is why the Visitor could appear out of thin air inside the building... That is right. If it could use Teleportation, why would it rely on running over on foot to attack me?" Agent Kyle spoke rapidly. "The toxic gas formed it. Where the toxic gas goes, they follow!"
The Captain replied, "Which means we are currently soaking in the monsters' Culture Medium."
"Exactly! It is not that they follow the toxic gas or emit it themselves; the toxic gas constructs them. That is why they dissolve back into the Sea of Qi after they die, just like ice melting into the ocean!
"The Spatial Anomaly is also caused by the toxic gas. It is creating the monsters, and it is creating the architecture. This is not direct Tampering with the laws of physics, which is why the Stabilization Anchor is ineffective!
"The toxic gas is their true body!"
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Separated by a single wall, the four squad members were already locked in combat.
Ever since the first Scythe Monster was killed, a tidal wave of attacks had begun.
The path they had taken earlier split into two out of thin air. Countless flickering points of light lit up in the darkness, swarming toward the remaining four members of the N4 Squad trapped on the other side of the Front Hall.
The Pangolin was not a Mobile Task Force known for suppressive fire, but for this decoy operation, they had brought double the ammunition of a standard mission. N4-3 had even brought a Light Machine Gun down into the cave—making the others constantly worry that the Big Guy would get stuck in the narrow passages.
Now, all that extra weight was being converted into bullets tearing into the Entities.
Whether it was the Visitor or the Scythe Monster, their bodies could not withstand the gunfire. As the four took turns firing deep into the tunnel, those glowing eyes were snuffed out one by one.
During the brief window of reloading her Magazine, Agent Vanessa glanced back, discovering that the Captain and Agent Kyle had completely vanished behind the newly formed wall.
N4-2: "We have to retreat the way we came!"
N4-4: "Are you sure the route is still the same? We might just plunge into a dead end."
N4-2: "What, do you plan on chiseling through the wall?"
Another tremor put an end to their argument. Several more sections of the wall in the Front Hall fractured, revealing even more tunnels. A dense cluster of glowing lights surfaced in the distance. Number 2 cursed, ejected his submachine gun's Magazine to check the ammo count, and took the lead, pushing toward the direction they had come from. Taking up the rear guard, Agent Vanessa did not hesitate. She pulled a palm-sized block of Explosives from her gear, quickly set the timer, and slapped it onto the entrance of the tunnel they were retreating into.
N4-2: "How long until detonation?"
"Long enough for us to get clear! Do not worry, the yield is small. It will not blast you to pieces!"
She fired as she backed away. Though the roar of the Gun was filtered by her Headphones, she still could not help but shout at the top of her lungs.
The tunnel was narrow, making it difficult for them to spread out and form a crossfire, but it also restricted the monsters' movements. Agent Vanessa restrained herself, using controlled bursts to shatter the legs of the Scythe Monsters as they trampled over the corpses on the ground. This caused them to stumble and block each other, allowing her to carefully manage her ammo consumption.
Number 4 nudged her ribs from behind. "The path has changed. We are taking the fork."
"Understood!"
The squad retreated into the branching path in an orderly fashion.
After pushing a certain distance down the V-shaped bend of the fork, the timer Agent Vanessa had set for the Explosives finally reached zero.