Chapter 62: 61 - Ace Mutant

Pure chaos...that's what I was looking at right now. Most of the surviving Wights were retreating, but none of the X-Warriors were even trying to stop them...because they were too busy scrambling and trying to stay alive. An Ace Mutant...X-Warriors were explicitly told that if they were to ever encounter one, they must flee on sight...and that goes for even Ace X-Warriors. 

This Ace Mutant...it's a type that hasn't been seen before, only four such Mutants had seen so far, this was the fifth. It's head looked like a crocodile or an alligator, while it had the body of a snake, as well as two arms, and most notably...two wings on its back. They were currently folded in, but if this thing starts to fly, we're screwed. 

"Everyone, I'll hold this thing off...those who can fly and have powerful long ranged attacks, back me up, the rest of you, get back to the buses as fast as possible and leave immediately, as for those piloting the jets, hover out of the reach of the Mutant, the rest of us will leave using the jets once the buses are at a safe distance away from here!" Suddenly yelled Kumar into the communicator, as he formed both his Manifestations. 

Those who can fly and have powerful long ranged attacks, huh...does that include me? Yeah, I don't think I have anything in my arsenal that can hurt this thing, even my Square Blaster probably won't do much damage. And given it's size, even if I tossed all my smoke bombs down it's throat, it won't be enough to poison it enough to kill it. 

The Mutant then let out a loud hiss and growl as the mass of Lightning Attribute XFE approached it with its lightning spear raised, as a bunch of X-Warriors who could fly surrounded it and began firing XFE attacks at it, which only seemed to annoy it. It suddenly swung its arms out and swatted them dead like flies, crushing them in its fists and pouring their bloody entrails down its throat, before swinging its claws at Kumar's Manifestation with a roar as he closed in. 

This thing is way too fast for something that big, holy shit. No one was surrounding it anymore, they had all run away after it swatted and ate a bunch of them...only my sister, Zarina, myself and a handful of others were still in the air. Kumar narrowly blocked the strike with the arm of his Colossus, before swiftly driving his spear towards its throat, yellow lightning violently crackling all around it. 

But before it could pierce through, the Mutant swiftly grabbed the end of the XFE spear between its jaws, getting electrocuted as a result but that didn't seem to affect it much...it then drew back it's fists and drove them forward at a blinding speed, slamming onto the midsection of Kumar's Primary Manifestation...and sending it flying back, screeching through the air as large cracks burst out from the impact point. 

It then crashed onto the ground a few hundred meters away, kicking up a massive dust cloud before dissipating. The Mutant then slithered out, dragging its entire body outside from underground...woah, it's gotta be at least sixty meters long... 

As it fully emerged, Kilella fired a barrage of powerful red XFE blasts at the Mutant, eliciting a roar of pain from it...but the damage was too shallow, it was barely even bleeding from that. Some of the other flying X-Warriors that hadn't run away then flew up behind it and fired out a barrage of XFE attacks, while keeping an eye on its arms. 

But it's arms didn't move...instead, it's tail suddenly whipped up towards the X-Warriors so fast that it sliced through the air, a sonic boom erupting as blood burst out and rained down behind the Mutant, a red mist forming. It didn't just smack them away, it straight up popped them like little packs of ketchup...incredible, what sheer power, I've never felt this powerless before... 

I mean, there's basically nothing I can do here...even if I freeze time, then what? Maybe I could crawl down its throat and tear up its insides, but it's massive, I'll probably never be able to inflict fatal damage before my XFE runs out and I'm forced to resume the flow of time. The only other thing that might work is my Square Blaster, but at best, I could probably blast a couple of it's fingers off.

And then there's the cooldown, if I fire once, that's it, I can't fire again till five minutes later. This Mutant is very fast to react though, so unless I get a decent opening, it would likely evade. Right now, no one was attacking it...where are the other Aces? 

Looks like Kumar has gotten up and is re-manifesting his Colossus, my sister was still attacking it too. Zarina was also still airborne, not far from where I was. I don't see anyone else...and it looks like the buses are already out of sight. I don't see any Wights...I don't think there's any sense in staying here any longer. 

"Kumar, the buses are already far enough that I can't see them even with my magnified vision, we need to go now too, fighting this thing is futile!" I remarked into the communicator, "Knock this thing down, get in one of the jets and then bolt!" 

"Right, got it...jet pilots, switch off the cloaking barrier so that we can see you, but continue to stay out of the reach of this thing! Kilella, distract it for me, I'll rush over and pin it down once its attention is on you. Everyone else, go!" 

All five jets then shimmered into view, as the pilots switched off the cloaking barriers that hid them. Besides myself, Kumar, Kilella and Zarina...only about five or six others were still around in the air. The rest were all laying in torn-apart pieces on the ground, in deep pools of their own blood. 

I flew over to Zarina, who was just sort of hovering in mid-air and watching wide-eyed. Is she really the most experienced Ace? And where are the others anyway? Six Aces were on this Mission, where the three others besides Zarina, Kilella and Kumar? Don't tell me they're all dead...it's possible, a lot of those on the ground were blindsided when the Mutant suddenly popped up out of nowhere. 

"Hey, do that thing you did before, it might be effective against that Mutant," I called out. 

"Tch, it's you. Don't talk to me," She growled in reply, before adding, "What thing?" 

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"That Manifestation Overdrive or whatever."

"Oh, you saw that...tch, well, I can't. I'm too low on XFE, and I've already drank all of my XFE Recovery vials. I'm heading for a jet...make sure that you don't get in the same one that I do. Or even better, die," She replied snarkily. 

I let out a sigh as she flew off towards one of the jets...what a piece of work she is. I then looked back towards the Mutant...Kilella was continued to zip around and blast it with her attacks, but she was just angering it without hurting it much, while Kumar had almost reached it. 

Kilella then flew straight up rapidly while forming a massive XFE blast, as Kumar began to close in. Kilella then fired the blast down at the Mutant, which responded by rapidly whipping its tail up and across, aiming to deflect the blast away. Instead, it burst upon impact, the Mutant letting out a roar of pain as the tip of its tail got blown off, right as Kumar closed in and drove his hands forward, aiming to grab the Mutant's throat. 

Suddenly, in an instant, before he could grab it, the Mutant twisted and slithered at a blinding speed, wrapping itself around Kumar's Colossus in an instant. It grabbed the top of the head and throat of the Manifestation with both its hands, opening its mouth ravenously, its saliva drooling down, thick and tinged red with the blood of the X-Warriors that it'd eaten. 

Both its body and arms are occupied right now...this is my chance! I swiftly zipped forward while staying out of its line of sight, taking aim with my Square Blaster...and...fire! The hundreds of streaks of black XFE burst out and shot towards the Mutant's right eye, striking it before the massive creature could react. 

It let out a screech of agony as I blasted through its right eye, its hands going up and clutching the right side of its face. The skin on its jaws and most of the right side of its face was gone, glimpses of its bone were visible. A direct hit to the face with my strongest attack, and a surprise attack at that, wasn't enough to kill it, I was only able to blind one eye and blast off some of the skin on its face...yeah, this thing is way out of my league. 

"Kumar, now's our chance to get away!" I yelled, flying up towards a jet. 

He swiftly shrunk his Manifestation to get out of the Mutant's clutches, and then rapidly expanded again, jumping straight up into the air and dissipating his Colossus, as Kilella swooped in and grabbed his shoulders, before zipping up towards a jet. 

I followed after them, flying above the jet and descending into the open hatch...and the whole time as I flew back, I noticed the Mutant watching me closely, it's eye piercing into me, sending chills down my spine. I just hope that I never run into that thing again...it looks like it's not going to follow us. Its wings remain folded. 

"Hey, Zax, nice work with that last blast, little bro!" Remarked Kilella with a grin, slapping my shoulder as I took the drone-jetpack off. 

"Ow..."

"Yeah, that was nicely timed," Added Kumar with a sigh, "I guess, technically speaking, Mission complete. But it feels hollow, I really don't want to find out how many of us died." 

Eh, I'm just glad that I'm still alive. And him and my sister too, I guess. I felt completely worn out and drained...I should still have plenty of stamina, but it sure didn't feel like it...must be the side effect of XFE Recovery serum. I think I'll just shut my eyes for a little while... 

As it turned out, only ninety-seven X-Warriors survived, of the more than four hundred and fifty casualities, two Aces died, and that aside, one of the other Aces was badly injured. We had taken out the Wight campsite, but had suffered a pretty substantial blow to our own forces...

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