Brigadier General Mercer raised his arms, "Alright. Don't be rash now."
His eyes kept flicking to the blade of blood held up by Chloe, aimed right at his skull.
"You're in the middle of a military base filled with over two hundred highly qualified personnel. You can't get away without my hel-"
"That's not true, is it?" Adam interrupted the man with a contemplative expression.
"You don't have two hundred personnel."
"Feel free to correct me on this, but I would estimate it to be closer to about thirty? Forty?"
"Am I correct, General?"
Seeing Mercer struggle to maintain his calm expression, Adam affirmed his earlier deductions.
"The zombies were sudden, weren't they? You couldn't possibly have been prepared for your own soldiers to suddenly turn on each other. Especially in this closed-off base."
"I'm quite aware of your real resources. Rest assured, I have no malicious intent towards the country, or you."
"Ethan, Chloe, could you please leave the room and ensure no one interrupts us? I'm sorry for forcing such a dangerous task upon you, but this is quite important."
Adam asked his only form of protection to leave the room, not even picking up a gun himself as he sat across the General.
Though hesitant, both Ethan and Chloe left as ordered, leaving Adam alone with the General.
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A bullet brushed past the wall where Ethan hid, burrowing into the cement as Ethan quickly opened fire around the corner to repel the approaching combatants.
'This would be nostalgic if the target they were shooting at wasn't me,' Ethan mused grimly to himself amidst the bursts of suppressive fire aimed at his position.
A quick glance behind him revealed Chloe managing to block her side as well, occasionally firing off a wide, destructive [Sanguis Arc] to deter them from advancing.
Her skin was pale and clammy from the overuse of the vitality-draining skill, dizziness beginning to affect her movements.
Ethan estimated she had lost at least 10 to 15 percent of her blood by now, and that was lowballing it.
They couldn't hold on forever, yet...
'That's a surprisingly small amount of soldiers, especially for a situation this important.'
Ethan felt something off with the number of QRF units besieging them.
'If there were any more of them, they would have advanced up until the corner by now.'
'Did the Leader predict this as well?'
On the other side, Chloe was struggling to maintain her standoff. The soldiers were growing bolder with their advances.
The tips of her fingers felt cold. Her heartbeat resounded in her head with every pump of blood.
'How much longer?'
As if responding to her, the door opened.
Adam stepped out, followed by Brigadier General Mercer, whose booming voice quickly shut down the shootout.
"Hold your fire!"
Adam helped Chloe up. "The General was kind enough to understand our position, and willingly handed over authority over the base. He also assured that our group will receive shelter here."
"We cannot forget such a magnanimous person, right?" Hidden in his warm voice was a hint of satisfaction.
The satisfaction of a deal made overwhelmingly in their favour.
"From now on, we will settle in this base."
"General Mercer, kindly have one of your people go fetch the rest of our friends being held outside the compound."
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While Chloe was escorted to the infirmary, Ethan and Adam were led deeper into the base by Mercer.
"The thing we talked about is in here." The grizzled general opened the door to a large lab.
The faint bloodstains on the walls and floor were visible to Ethan's enhanced senses, hastily scrubbed and covered up.
Within the lab, a large monolithic object was surrounded by glass panels and now-useless wires. It shimmered with a mesmerizing, iridescent light, shifting between deep purples, blues, and golds as the light hit it.
"We call it the Stele. It's hypothesized to be some sort of scale from a monster larger than anything we've seen before. It's God's own blessing that it hasn't razed this country to the ground."
"According to the scientists, what's left of those fellows, this thing gives off some sort of energy that drives away weaker monsters."
Adam's eyes were locked onto the thirty foot tall scale, completely mesmerized by the structure.
"How... magnificent."
Ethan found himself unsettled by the scale, muttering to himself.
"How large is the thing that dropped it?"
"Although it kept the monsters away, no one was ready for our own people to start turning into those damned husks. We lost over a hundred good men to that sickness."
"Even worse, there's that damn thing in the forest that keeps killing our patrols."
General Mercer lamented the issues they faced.
"What thing? We never saw any creature when we approached," Ethan asked.
"Because it didn't want to spook you, most likely," Mercer replied. "It's the devil's spawn itself, and I've seen plenty of evil bastards."
"It waits for people to leave the base, leave the influence of the Stele, and then stalks them before slowly picking them off one by one. Doesn't even eat anything else."
Adam finally stopped gazing at the Stele and turned to the General, "What did you say?"
"Well, I can show you the-"
"No, did you say it... waits for your people specifically?" Adam asked incredulously.
At the same instant, outside the military base and the barrier formed by the scale's power, a pair of feline amber eyes lit up in a patch of darkness, reflecting the setting sun.
Hunger and joy seemed to emanate from its large form as it dragged the corpse of a soldier in its maw.
It dropped the carcass, its eyes fixing on something on the ground.
The shadow purred in anticipation as it looked down at large tire tracks leading straight to the military base.
[??? Lv ???]
[Status: Lord Prospect]
The shadow beneath its feet began spreading like a drop of ink within a glass of water.
A deep bone-shaking growl arose from its chest, before it dove into the lake of shadow it had created, melting into it.
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[Name: Lu Chunxia]
[Level: 8]
[Strength: 30]
[Speed: 25]
[Intelligence: 20]
[Endurance: 30]
[Stat Points: 9]
[Mana Pool: 83/200](recovering)
[Skills: Inspect Lv 6, Sanguis Arc Lv 4]