Francis slid off. He didn't move randomly. Using the other pipes and his memory of the layout above, he tracked his position until he popped out into a new section.
'I need to hurry up.'
Every seconds counted. He studied the floor—dust, scuff marks, worn metal. The patterns told him where people walked most.
A set of steep metal stairs caught his eye. They led up to a narrow catwalk.
By reading the layout, he knew this was the only choke point the squad could use to reach this sector.
Then he recalled their walking speed, slowed down by the heavy equipment they carried. This gave him plenty of time to prepare.
'I need to figure out where they're going first.'
Looking around, he noticed a pattern in the cement walls—traces of lights fixture. Another tunnel system. He moved there ahead of the squad.
While moving, he noted everything: the distance between the stairs and the tunnel, the width that allowed only three people to walk side by side, and how the darkness deepened.
The slope also meant he was moving deeper into the tunnel, making it faster to go in than to come back out.
These were details most people would ignore, but his trained mind stored them all, in case he needed them later.
Roughly ten minutes later, moving at full speed, he reached an opening.
It was wide, filled with chemical runoff. Three foot worms crawled everywhere. These weren't blue like before. They were sickly green and oily purple. mutated variants.
Francis understood instantly. This was a purge zone. The squad came here to kill them all.
He entered the nest and used his tail to vault to the other exit, blocking it completely.
'Why do the work myself when I have an army?'
Crack!
His whip-tail lashed the floor, cracking cement and hitting the creatures.
The beasts sensed his hostility and tried to run, but anything that came near the tunnel behind him got thrown back.
Crack!
Crack!
Crack!
He made sure to add a sharp, snapping sound with his tail, driving more fear into them.
Just as he wanted, they began moving toward the other exit.
To make it worse, he started killing other worms. The rest panicked, slipping and sliding, crowding the narrow tunnel until it practically overflowed.
When the last of the worms passed through, he moved deeper, herding more of them. Even from a distance, the rapid staccato of gunfire reached him
'You should all save your bullets. I'm just getting started.'
Soon he herded a third wave and then followed them through, soon they reached the first opening and the group of DF Agents where visibly tired . The hazmat suit that covered their face was working against them.
"What the hell is happening? These things should be running away, not charging at us!" one of them shouted.
"I don't know, but we should retreat for now. I'm almost out of bullets, and Leon's getting tired," another replied.
Francis's eyes locked on the sword user, who was slicing through four worms at once. But the sheer number of monsters around him was starting to overwhelm him.
'This is my chance.' He focused. The sword user was now used to the slow speed of the other monsters.
Humans were predictable that way. Once their brains learned a pattern, they went on autopilot to save energy. In moments like this, anyone without the right mindset would make a fatal mistake.
It was the same with boxers, messing with an opponent's timing by changing the speed of their punches. Or a pitcher, switching from a fastball to a curveball.
But here, the stakes were life and death. The pressure added more distraction.
Francis compressed, muscles tightening like springs, then launched himself upward, shooting into the air with explosive force.
Leon reacted too late. He swung to intercept, but Francis twisted just enough.
His tail snapped against the agent's face shield, cracking it.
The stench of the nest hit Leon. He flinched, wrinkling his nose out of reflex.
"Got you!" Francis wrapped himself around the sword user's neck, squeezing the life out of him.
The others couldn't even fire a shot—he was holding their teammate hostage.
No matter how strong a special category was, they were still human. With enough force, cutting off their oxygen would make them lose consciousness.
crack!
The neck snapped with a sharp pop, and the next moment Leon dropped dead to the ground.
"FIRE!"
The others panicked, seeing their special category fall. Bullets tore through the air, but with so many monsters in view and poor visibility, Francis could pick them off easily.
He used the numbers to his advantage, and blocked their exit.
Some managed to escape, but with his speed and their panic, chasing them down was easy.
'That went better than I expected. Good thing they were dumb enough to fall for such an obvious trap.'
His comment wasn't an insult—it was simply a matter of fact.
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Authors Note:
Show your support by voting Powerstone. Who knows—you might see the upload rate jump from two to three per day.
And yes, it might be because someone would be ridiculously pumped up from all the added support.