Chapter 198: Caution

"Hey, guys, I'm back!" Exclaimed Mitchell, as he swooped down and landed nearby. 

"How'd it go? What did they say?" I inquired immediately, as I approached him. 

"Well, they were pretty surprised, but not that much since they'd just received your report by the time I arrived...but I think they didn't entirely believe it, which is understandable. Anyway, they then contacted HQ at the X-Warrior Zone since they didn't know what to do. HQ had also gotten your report, and responded that, for the time being, we keep the captured Mutant locked up and restrained. As for us, we're to continue the Mission, though if we encounter more Mutants like that one, we're to retreat," He surmised, as he concluded his explanation of what happened. 

"Seriously, they want us to keep going? Isn't that way too risky?" Frowned Suri in response. 

"Well, that's what I said, but they responded that a team of X-Warriors had headed out in this area a couple of days ago and didn't come across any abnormal Mutants. So they're assuming that the one we captured must be a random straggler or something, so there isn't any justifiable cause to abandon the Mission...at least, that's what they told me," Sighed Mitchell dryly. 

I doubt that Director Silva gave that response...no, she's way too busy to respond to a sudden, unexpected report immediately, so it's probably one of the others on the X-Warrior Zone board. I've always thought that a lot of them, besides her and a few others, were painfully incompetent, and they keep proving me right. 

If I had to guess, whichever of them decided this, probably did so because abandoning a Mission from such an influential client would look bad...with the upcoming elections only a couple of weeks away, I bet most of the board members are scrambling to try and ensure that they'll be re-elected. 

Tch, fucking politics. 

"I don't like it, but we don't exactly have a choice. Alright, we're making a change to the formation. Grey, do you know how to drive?" I asked him. 

"Huh? Well, uh, yeah, I can...but I don't have a license, so-...," He began to respond. 

"It's fine, we're off-road, so it doesn't matter. Switch with Yugi. Hey, shithead...I want you at the vanguard, if we come across any Mutants, use your illusions to get them to attack in a direction away from us, so that we can determine whether or not they're regular Mutants or abnormals like the one we faced before. Got it?" I instructed him. 

"Tch, fine, whatever," He muttered in response, as he climbed out of the driver's seat. 

"Okay, the rest of the formation stays as it is. Everyone good to go?" I inquired, before nodding as they all responded affirmatively, "Alright, then, let's keep moving. We'll be at the mountains soon, which means less open spaces. But, hey, we already knew that going into this. Keep your guards up."

"Awesome, we're finally moving again! Hey, uh, so we lost about twenty minutes back there, we're gonna make up for the lost time, right?" Inquired Steen hopefully, as he poked his head out of the jeep. 

"No, we're not going to risk getting too deep into the mountains, not after what just happened. There's still a good seventy-five minutes or so left though, that's plenty," I responded, denying his request. 

"Aw, man, that kinda blows...but fine, I guess it's better than heading back," He sighed wistfully. 

Well, at least he didn't put up too much of a fuss. We soon got back into formation and continued heading forward, a slight tension around us. We hadn't expected to face anything more than regular Mutants, and now that we'd come across the unexpected, everyone was on edge. 

But that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. When you're in such tense situations, your senses tend to heighten and sharpen, as you feel a lot more alert and cautious...the downside is that it can tire you out in no time, but then, I'm fairly confident that all of the others have enough stamina reserves to last.

Well, I don't know about Yugi, but hey, I wouldn't exactly shed a tear if he was to die. Unfortunately, he is fairly skilled, so he probably won't die too easily. Hm, maybe I should try jinxing him...he's totally not gonna die, no way! 

Hope that works. 

"The mountains are within a couple hundred meters now, we'll reach in a few minutes or so," Mitchell informed us. 

"Got it. As agreed, we'll head through the valley between the two mountains," I responded, as we continued heading forward. 

There were two large mountains that stood at the front of the mountain range, they weren't all that tall or steep, but they were massively wide and stretched on for quite a distance, before connecting to other mountains further up ahead. And between the two mountains, was a dark valley. 

It wasn't very narrow, and was in fact, fairly wide, but it was also very creepy. I've never actually been north of the Sanctuary after we expanded our territory with the outside bases, so I've only seen pictures of the mountains and valley, and from what I've seen, they look pretty intimidating. 

There were plenty of mutated plants on the mountains, all too toxic for us, and there were also several Mutants up there, a wide variety of them. There was a large river further ahead that ran across the mountains, where Landsharks and other amphibious and aquatic Mutants resided. 

We'll probably turn around and head back at about the fifty kilometer mark from reaching that toxic river, it's likely to be too much for us to handle while handicapped by the requirement to protect a bunch of people. 

Hm? I was suddenly distracted by Steen's voice in my ear, catching me off-guard. What the-...? I didn't give him a communicator, so how is he-...that's when I heard Grey's voice in the background... 

"Hey, uh, can I have that back? You're not supposed to-..."

"Oh, relax, guy. Let me get in on this for a sec, 'kay?" Responded Steen.

"What do you think you're doing?" I sighed in exasperation. 

"Sorry, sorry, just had a question to ask! Why aren't we heading up one of the mountains?" He inquired curiously. 

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"Because it's too dangerous," I replied briefly.

"Oh...can we at least go up a little bit? The valley looks boring, and-." 

"Would you rather be bored or dead?" I interrupted with a sigh. 

"W-well, uh...bored, I guess." 

"Exactly." 

"Aw, but come on, just a little bit won't hurt! Tell you what, you can pick the next name that I change to, how about it?" 

"Not interested. Give back the communicator already, you're distracting us." 

"...fine, my bad."

I let out an irritated sigh as I rubbed my head...this is starting to give me a real fucking headache, goddammit. I took in a deep breath and exhaled slowly, calming myself down and refocusing. We're entering the valley, and we've got to keep going for more than fifty minutes before we can finally start heading back. 

"Mitchell, we're counting on you, this place is a bit dark, so keep a sharp eye out on the area ahead of us at all times," I instructed him, as I switched my glasses to night vision mode. 

"Right, got it!" 

"Seila, Katie, Lightning Attribute XFE is the brightest type, so if you feel like you can spare some XFE, illuminate the area. I'll use my drones to watch our sides," I remarked, as I glanced at the steep cliffs on either side. 

There were several pockets and crevices in the walls of the cliffs, as well as a few deep caves...if we get ambushed by Mutants hiding up there, things could get messy. And Mitchell won't be able to see into them up there, they're too steep, that's why I was having him solely focus on the space up ahead of us. 

Tch, some of the caves up on the cliffs were pretty deep, and too dark to see inside, even with the night vision feature in my drones. Both Seila and Katie had activated their manifestations, which helped light the place up a bit, but not by much. 

There are too many shadows, I can't-...huh? I...think I just saw something move inside one of the caves up ahead. 

"Hold up, everyone! I think there's something-...," I began, before abruptly trailing off as a rapid blur shot towards the drone and crushed it, the video feed going blank. 

And then, something poked its head out of the cave, with a creepy looking face. That's... 

"It's a Rona!" Exclaimed Suri from up front, about twenty meters from where the Mutant was. 

Ronas are large bat-like Mutants, their bodies grow to be about one and a half meters tall and they've got wingspans of about four meters. They're among the more dangerous Q-Ranked Mutants. 

Suddenly, the Rona opened its mouth and let out a deafening, blood-curdling screech, all of us freezing up as the sound echoed throughout the valley, sending chills down my spine. And then, it stopped, swiftly ducking back into the cave. 

A bead of sweat ran down the side of my face as the noise continued to echo faintly across the valley, before slowly fading into an eerie quietness. What...what the hell was that? 

"H-hey, uh, guys...we've got a problem incoming," Remarked Mitchell nervously, his voice trembling slightly...as a faint flapping sound began echoing out from up ahead. 

"What the hell...?" Muttered Yugi in disbelief.

"There's...there's so many of them," Gasped Seila in shock. 

The rest of us were silent, too stunned to speak...because up ahead, rapidly approaching us, were a flock of what was easily over a hundred Ronas... 

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