042 WHO KILLED THE BLUE BLOOD?
Damen shrugged, before reluctantly pressing the switch on the tag, and a faint light pulsed across its surface.
"What can they do to me with a button tag? Will it explode and kill me?" he asked and smile.
He lifted the tag toward the command station. A scientist inside waved back, confirming the signal had been received. Then he stuck the button on his shirt.
Moments later, several pole like devices were unfolded at the center post. Panels hissed and clicked into place. With a low hum, an energy dome shimmered into being, sealing the entire base beneath a translucent barrier.
Damen squinted. "What is that?"
"That," Zairgid said as he lounged against the rocks, "is a force field generator. If there is any danger we run straight into it."
But even before the words had left Zairgid's mouth, Damen froze.
His breath caught. The air shifted. A ripple of wrongness skittered along his nerves.
"Something is very wrong", Damen muttered.
"What is wrong?" Zairgid asked, cluelessly.
Then there was movement.
From the corner, a patch of darkness detached itself from the cavern wall and lunged, quickly materializing into physical form.
It was a Shadow Hound of Anubis.
"I knew it. I can sense it coming", Damen muttered complaining.
Zairgid didn't wait for orders. The moment the shadows moved, he bolted, sprinting straight for the command post.
The Veyran team's force field dome shimmered to life just in time, ready to shield the team inside its protective barrier…. Provided they reached the command post.
"Run to the post!" Captain Green barked immediately.
Damen obeyed, but a blur of darkness suddenly cut him off. More shadows detached from the cavern walls, shapes coalescing into snarling beasts and they were aiming for him.
"What the hell? Why are the beasts all surrounding me?" he growled.
He spun left, then right, only to find himself hemmed in by the shadow hounds. Dozens of them were circling around him, their bodies rippling in and out of visibility.
"Damen! Get the hell over here!" Zairgid shouted from behind the shield. "The dome's the only safe place!"
By this time most of Captain Green's team were already behind the Veyran's force field dome… except Damen.
"Damn, I'm left all alone", Damen complained.
But Damen didn't have time for complaints. Instinct took over immediately.
Damen dropped low and charged, ramming through a gap. His shoulder slammed into a hound with bone-cracking force, knocking it to the ground.
But his Shield Charge ability couldn't force a way through the pack of hounds. Soon, the pack swarmed in with a tide of fangs and claws.
From the dome, Green's men opened fire at the shadow hounds. "Kill those bastard hounds."
But there were too many Shadow hounds… it was impossible for the soldiers to clear them with their fire. At most the hounds were just turned back before more came out the shadow to replace them.
Fortunately for Damen, their shots thinned the hounds just enough for him to find an opening, to break free, but the push carried him farther from the safety of the command post.
Worse still for him, he stumbled straight into another pack waiting in the gloom.
"Dammit—how many of you are there here?" he hissed.
Now he saw them all—there were scores of hounds now materializing across the cavern floor, their eyes glinting like embers.
The entire cave was alive with them.
Inside the dome, Green and his soldiers held their fire, but they couldn't reach Damen to help him. Moving out of the dome was beyond question…it was too risky.
Sniping from behind the barrier was all they could risk.
Damen understood their concerns. He'd do the same in their place. Nobody was going to save him now.
A swipe suddenly came from behind as claws raked across his shoulder. His body armor held, but the fabric was shredded.
"Damn you, Arkuoma!" he spat. "You swore this thing could take multiple F-rank hits. One scratch and it's already ripped open!"
Aukuoma's body armor suit was less effective than advertised.
Another hound lunged towards Damen.
Damen's body moved on reflex. The accumulated Combat training surged up his body like fire in his veins. Damen had practiced this a thousand times in the simulators. His movement has become like an instinct.
He thrust his dagger upward, driving the blade into the hound's throat. But the creature was huge, the dagger couldn't reach through its thick skin.
"Damnit, I couldn't kill the Shadow hound with a dagger", he complained.
The shadow hound struggled against Damen and knocked him away, his dagger dropping to the floor.
Now Damen's lost his only weapon.
"Damn you, Green," he snarled under his breath. Green had promised him a better weapon but never delivered on his promise. He was left with an inadequate weapon.
The hound lunged at him again and this time he was unarmed.
"Damnit, I'm dead this time", he cried.
But Damen wasn't willing to die now after everything that he's been through. With a sudden surge of adrenaline and mind power his hand jabbed forth into the hound's throat.
"What am I kidding, I don't even have a dagger", he thought.
At first it was an act of instinct… striking without a weapon.
But to Damne's surprise a powerful meta force was projected for a few centimeters from his hand like an extended blade that was long enough to penetrate into the large beast's throat.
The beast convulsed, blue blood spraying across his chest, its neck half-sliced open.
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From the safety of the dome, the Veyran team watched in stunned silence. They saw how Damen was surrounded by Shadow Hounds and silently cheered…. They were expecting Damen to be killed by them.
"How is he still alive down there?" one muttered, his earlier confidence now twisted into unease.
"It's a matter of time, he won't last for long", Fenyl, the Veyran commander assured them.
They hadn't expected Damen to last more than a minute against a pack. His strikes barely wounded the hounds, but his training kept him alive…. for now.
Captain Green didn't look away from the ghastly fight. His voice was ice when he turned on Fenyl.
"Fenyl, what happened to your bloody scanners? This cavern is crawling with hounds. How did your system miss them?"
Fenyl's jaw tightened, but his eyes stayed on Damen's struggle.
"A malfunction. Or maybe the beasts evolved. Doesn't matter. Strengthen the shield," he replied with a cruel smile tugged at his lips.
Damen's death would be a convenient accident. In fact, this was just according to their plan. Lukas, their heir, had been crippled by Damen. This was vengeance for Lukas delivered without lifting a hand.
"We must go out there and save him," Green cried but the Veyrans stopped him.
"Please let me remind you Captain Green, your squad escorts us—you have a responsibility here. You cannot leave your position for a mere soldier," Fenyl said flatly to Green.
"You're the only D-rank here. Only you can save him…," the captain pleaded to Fenyl.
Fenyl was the strongest meta in the chamber, a Rank C. There was a possibility that he could save Damen from the Shadow hounds if he had helped.
"That isn't within the scope of our mission," Fenyl replied coldly.
The refusal crushed him.
Green sank to his knees, devastated. He had brought the boy on what should have been a simple assignment. He was certain he could protect him.
He had been wrong.
Damen was going to die.
But then…. the hounds stopped.
One heartbeat they swarmed the cavern, snapping and tearing at Damen. The next, they recoiled as one, fading back into the black tunnels.
Silence and surprise devoured the chamber.
Green was the first to move. He bolted through the shield and ran towards Damen, but he was no longer there.
"Damen! Where the hell are you?"
His boots splashed in pools of glowing blue. The ground was littered with carcasses—shadow hounds butchered, their throats split open and blood still steaming.
Green froze at the sight.
"Who killed all of them?" he muttered.
His gaze lingered on a severed head from one of the shadow hound that was cut clean and precise. "These aren't bullet wounds… they were knife cuts…. How is that even possible?"
"What is it?" Zairgid asked, coming up behind him.
Green's voice trembled. "These hounds are not killed by our rifles. They were killed by a long blade at the throat… possibly a large, and long one, did Damen do it?" he explained.
Zairgid shook his head. "Damen didn't kill these creeps? Not possible. All he had was a regular dagger. You refused to give him one of your laser cutters, remember?"
Captain Green fell to the ground devastated.
He didn't give Damen the cutter because he thought it was unnecessary. The mission doesn't require it… but he was wrong.
Now Damen was gone.
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