Chapter 160: Phantom III

Chapter 160: Phantom III The moment they stepped in, Lira could see those in front of and around her slowly fade as they formed some distance between themselves.

She couldn’t see beyond the three meter mark.

’Calm down....’

She took a deep breath from within the mask, trying to follow the soldiers words. She couldn’t let herself fall into panic, lest she wanted to die.

The fear of stepping into the dangerous unknown was there at the corner of her mind, but she had to ignore it and move forward.

<Moving forward, confirm presence.>

<Active!>

Lira said into the mask, hearing the voice from the plugs in her ears. This was how the soldiers kept an active link between themselves.

Looking down on her gloved hand, she could see the holographic image of a line go out from a red dot which represented her.

The line showed the path of those in front of her, that was what she needed to follow.

Their team didn’t get any information on the nature of the mission, all they were told was a single statement.

"Shoot on sight! You’ll know when to!"

The soldiers manner of speech—leaving things unclear for them to figure out on their own had already gotten on her nerves, but those were the instructions, the only ones she had.

"Moving forward. Confirming presence!"

She said into the mask for the person behind her and a voice reached into her ear just after.

"Active!"

She recognized that voice. It was one of her teammates.

His calm voice was definitely unlike what she had been expecting.

’Who would have thought I would be the one freaking out? I’m the freaking scout!’

She sighed, keeping her eyes trained on the surroundings.

As the scout of their team, she had ventured into dangerous situations alone more than once. This wasn’t any different.

"!!!!"

CLICK!

She paused her steps and aimed her weapons into the bland gray fog.

’What was that?’

Her eyes moved around slowly, the barrel of the rifle following along.

She had felt something shift in the rather still fog.

"Hmm!"

She couldn’t stop for long and risk getting left behind by the others, so she resumed the walk through the fog.

It wasn’t smooth, but she could at least see directly infront of her and manage the terrain a little.

’Where exactly are we going?’

Lira muttered to herself glancing at the holographic map on the glove.

The communication checks from the person in front of her was the only thing keeping her from losing it.

After going through several checks, she was sure that the path on her hand was different from those around her.

The voice checking in at the front had changed a couple of times as if their paths were crossing.

It eventually settled on a deep one which was definitely one of the soldiers. Her teammate from earlier also seemed to have gone to another path.

She didn’t exactly understand what was going on. The only person who had access to the locations of all of them was the soldier at the head of the mission.

All she could see were a couple of blue dots which represented the other soldiers on the same path as hers. It showed the location of up to three soldiers on the sane line in front of her and the one trailing behind her.

Judging from the calm voices of the soldiers that had come from her front, nothing bad had happened yet.

Nothing at all had happened!

SWOOSH!

CLICK!!

The barrel of the weapon shot to the side again. She felt the fog shift again, and this time she was sure it was something, she faintly saw something flash within it.

It sure as hell wasn’t the soldier in front of her. They were too far apart.

"What was that?"

She whispered to herself, looking around longer than the last time, yet she couldn’t spot any change in the gray fog, forcing her to move forward again.

"....."

This time, she heightened her guard more, keeping her hand tensed on the trigger of the weapon.

There was no chance to bother about what exactly was going on.

"Hmm?"

Her eyes flashed as she noticed something wrong.

A confirmation always came in around five to six minutes interval. It had been more than that now and there was nothing from the front.

Taking a careful glance at the holographic image which floated above the glove, her eyes widened and her body tensed, her finger just milliseconds away from pulling the trigger and firing straight ahead of her.

On the holographic display which showed the path she was to follow and those on the same path, there was a huge gap between her and the person in front of her.

That wasn’t the problem though. There were only two dots showing on the line in front of her’s.

’What kind of shitty system is this?’

The soldier in front directly in front of her was missing and along with him was a hole in their line of communication as she hadn’t figured out a way to contact those in front of her.

<Alert! Beware and be ready to engage. Do you copy?>

Lira did what she could and informed the person behind her while moving with caution.

<Active. I copy!>

The voice of the soldier came to her after a few seconds which had already put her more on edge.

<ALL UNITS ON GUARD. WE ARE ENTERING MONSTER TERRITORY NOW!>

A voice came into her ears. It was the voice of the soldier upfront, leading the whole group.

’Montser territory?’

"They better have a convincing explanation when we get back!"

She muttered, switching the air capsule attached to the gas mask. They had spent roughly thirty minutes out in the fog and she already had to assume someone as dead.

"I don’t really see the change th—"

She took back her words just as she felt a change around her.

It was like she had crossed a thin barrier. The fog was thicker, reducing her visibility to the two meter mark and it suddenly felt like the fog wasn’t exactly the same anymore.

It felt like it had more substance, as she could feel it as he moved past her body. It was a weird and unnerving feeling to say the least, but not one that affected her significantly.

If anything, it made her more vigilant.

BANG!

BANG!

She heard the sound of a weapon going off from another direction and she switched her attention seeing a small light go off in the distance before being replaced by the silence and stillness of the fog.

’What was that?!’

SWOOSH!

"!&@%@^,@*@"

Her eyes narrowed and her body moved on instinct as she felt the obvious and sudden movement in the fog around her which was followed with the unnerving sound that came from the monster that just tried to jump on her.

’The hell is that?’

BANG!

Her mind flashed as she put a bullet through the head of the monster on the floor. Adding a few more to making sure it was completely dead.

She didn’t get the chance to get a good look at its features though, before it turned into a mound of dust which scattered almost immediately.

SWOOSH!

Her gun flew to the side and this time, she didn’t hold back, sending out a shot while hoping to hit whatever had passed by.

"Tch, missed!"

She kissed her teeth, doing the only thing she could right now—move forward.

The message from the one leading the mission was a sign that the mission hadn’t gone totally into shambles just yet.

’I hope those idiots manage to survive this!’

She thought of the other two male recruits in the team. Losing a teammate on this mission want something they hoped for.

The possibility of Orion struggling to handle the situation like her didn’t even cross her mind. His image in their mind was quite solid.

.....

"This is interesting!"

Orion muttered, staring at the pile of dust the monster he had just killed turned into.

His arm flashed, appearing raised at his side with the Head of another monster that had tried attacking him in his palm.

This time, he made sure not to kill the creature immediately with the rifle.

Keeping it at arms length, he took his time to study the features of the creature struggled to break through from his steel hold.

The creature had three pair of limbs making it look like a fleshy failure of spider like creatures.

Holding it in his hands, he could feel the sharp mouth piece of the weapon, try to draw blood. Unfortunately, not matter how much it struggled, it just couldn’t complete the job.

"I guess, I don’t need this anymore"

BANG!

He said briefly before beaming the head off with an energy blast from his palm.

"They should be able to survive.....?!"

His words paused and his eyes got trained directly infront of him.

He could feel a presence or rather several presences in front of him, something that he hadn’t been able to do as he got to certain depth in the fog.

It was like his sixth sense was getting clouded by something. He couldn’t even sense those around him anymore.

Yet he could sense these heavy presences, they felt far away, and he could feel that these creatures actually didn’t take notice of him.

’And what exactly are those supposed to be’

Orion wondered, feeling slightly confused the first time on this mission