Chapter 40: CleanUp Crew II

"You don’t look so good, master Brad."

Mildred intoned as the grip on her blades tightened, her expression turning a chilling cold as she saw the young man taking steady steps out of the elevator.

Brad, on the other hand, was calm, the smile on his lips stretched as he said to Mildred—

"What?. You wanna go ?"

"Is Mummy mad because her baby was beaten up?" Brad teased as Jackson snickered; the other two seated next to them looked like they didn’t know what was going on, but the tension was palpable, Mildred’s chilling gaze making them prepare to engage out of caution.

Brad’s statement only made Mildred want to get her revenge even more; Harvey quickly placed a palm on her shoulder and stopped her movement. She turned to see him shake his head, indicating it was unwise to engage.

They don’t have many fighters in their group, and only one is awakened, who can’t even use their esper ability. Whereas in that group of four, including Brad, none of them were holding a weapon, which means Brad was assembling a team of strong awakened.

If they were to fight here, it surely wouldn’t end well.

"Hey... don’t hold back now. Come on and show me what you got, nanny."

Mildred gritted her teeth. Acting rashly would only be endangering the one she wants to protect.

"Clean up after yourself, master Brad." She uttered before turning and joining the rest of the group in the elevator and hitting the button for the twenty-third floor. The inside of the elevator was quiet and tense; nobody liked seeing Brad, and it was painful that none of them could stand up to him at the moment. The charred corpse remains with busted skills they had been depositing were more than enough proof of the young man’s strength.

"This sucks."

Sage was the first to break the silence as the elevator to the twenty-third floor opened. But this time, instead of an empty corridor, they were greeted by two mutants dashing straight at them with feral growls.

Luckily, they always maintained their battle stances whenever the elevator opened, and Mildred was already charging ahead with her twin blades, dashing off the floor in a rapid flurry as her gleaming blades met the neck of the mutant in front, cleaving through flesh but not enough to decapitate.

The second mutant met the rough surface of Harvey’s sledgehammer with a boom as it was thrown back with a crack in its skull. Both of them began a battle involving the clashes of claws with hammer and blades; Damon remained a safe distance in the elevator alongside Kora and Leo. Hazel, Sage, and Nick were standing at the back, in front of Damon, in case of any surprises or any mutants slipping through.

The exchange lasted several minutes; the expertise of the Mildred’s movement, her swiftness, her delicate maneuvering, dodges, and repeated strikes to the mutant’s skull until blade met brain was a beauty to behold.

Harvey’s approach was more strength-based with the hammer, a technique that didn’t even allow the mutant to land a single hit, close calls that looked too perfect to call a coincidence. It was awe-inspiring, and they were just mortals.

"Who the fuck are these guys?" Sage couldn’t help but blurt out, saying what everyone was thinking.

Soon, the mutants were brought down, and though Mildred and Harvey came out with only like scrapes and bruises and smears of blood from the mutants, it was clear that that was a very exhausting activity. Good news came when Harvey informed Damon that he had gained an origin crystal.

Mildred looked deep in thought, before suddenly saying—

"Don’t you think these guys have gotten more.... Durable, Harvey?"

"I believe so, yes."

It wasn’t only that the mutants have gotten harder to put down, but the probability of getting origin crystals has also risen a bit. It was a combination of bad news and good news if this was true and not just their imaginations.

"Let’s continue."

The sweep of the twenty-third floor continued; the group maintained a tight formation, clearing one apartment after the next. There were three more mutants, and Hazel landed the killing blow on one of them with her chosen weapon, a long pole sharpened at the tip like a spear.

Sadly, there were no survivors on this floor, and after the group was done clearing out the corpses and disposing of them in the apartment chutes, they all went back into the elevator and descended onto the twenty-first floor. There were no mutants lounging at them this time, but they still killed a total of four six mutants on this floor from various apartments. There were two survivors, a brother and sister duo of musician celebrities.

Of the six mutants killed, they earned a total of four more origin crystals. Three ended up in Mildred’s hands, and the last one ended up in Sage’s hands, who courageously landed the finishing blow on a mutant that broke through the formation using a fire extinguisher he pulled off the wall of the corridor.

Everyone on the team was growing strong and tough, and in total Harvey and Mildred now hold four origin crystals, which Damon would have to collect later to use his skill on. The tricky part was getting the two origin crystals which were in Hazel and Sage’s possession.

They cleaned out the twenty-first floor, disposing of all the corpses, and proceeded to descend lower to the twentieth floor. It was getting too dark into the night, and though the building still had power, they needed to rest as they had been at this for hours. Damon had to take several nap breaks while the group hunted and cleaned, waking him up when they were done. Of course in times like the either Harvey or Mildred had to stay next to keep watch.

As they arrived on the twentieth floor. As prior decided, they would be making an apartment here, their temporary abode. So they began to do the cleanup, but it seemed someone else had already beat them to it, as there wasn’t a single mutant to be seen, just traces of battle. Going to inspect the chute, there were traces and smears of blood, showing the corpses had been disposed of.

"It was probably the team forming from the residents’ group." Hazel derived.

It wasn’t surprising; they’ve been keeping an eye on the group chat, and they know those guys too have been on the move. Everyone wants to keep their hands on those crystals, or keep themselves safe.

There was just one survivor remaining on this floor, so the group picked separate rooms for themselves.

Sage and Nick decided to stay in 20B; Damon, Harvey, and Mildred in 20C; Hazel and Kora picked apartment 20D.

It had been a long day, and as soon as Damon located the first bedroom in 20C, he jumped into bed. He would deal with tomorrow’s matters tomorrow.ℯℯ𝘭.