Chapter 15: Mystery in the Mist Forest 5

Chapter 15: Mystery in the Mist Forest 5

Six giant snakes just like the ones the captains just defeated ready to attack.

The six captains launch toward their individual targets without hesitation. But unlike earlier, there's no team formation, no coordination. Each captain is fighting alone throwing everything they have at these new monsters, but it’s not working. The snakes fight back harder, stronger.

The captains are being overwhelmed. Every hit land heavier, every block gets slow as exhaustion creeps across the field, the morale and strength of the soldiers and mercenaries keep falling then die due to bite, or a deadly attack and then rise again as mist creatures. The Mist consumes the land as more bodies crumbles and transformed into monsters. The battlefield becomes a massacre.

Trevor grits his teeth “No time to waste.”

As he notices if this keeps up they are going to be wiped completely he charges straight at his snake. As the beast opens its jaws wide, Trevor tosses four grenades into its throat. He jumps over its head with his Reaper transforming into a sharp blade as he stabs the mouth shut, locking the explosives inside.

The snake’s body explodes from within, leaving its massive head thudding to the ground. Trevor lands, coughing, and wipes blood from his metallic glass used to cover his face.

“Fuck… should’ve brought more explosives.”

He turns to help Stone, whose snake is about to swallow him whole. Without hesitation, Trevor attacks throwing his reaper into the snake’s mouth as the Reaper becomes a massive spring baton, holding the jaws wide and extending its mouth.

Captain Stone sees the opening with a smirk his Reaper shifts into a wide, bladed weapon with a nanotech handle at the tip of the center. He swings tearing the snake open from its mouth to its tail. The beast drops, split in half.

The two captains join Captain Akumakawaii, rushing to help him. But his snake isn’t attacking it’s running not from just the captain’s wrath but from the attack coming from both stone and Trevor’s.

“What the hell?” Stone mutters.

“Why is it running?” Trevor raises a brow.

“Because he is scared of the devil destined to kill him?” Akumakawaii replies who is no longer with them but ahead of the snake. His Reaper morphs into a whip, latching around the snake’s mouth and neck, “You know what is your problem beast” he instantly pulls the snake from his whip “you forget who your main opponent truly is” The snake lashes out with its tail, but Trevor’s whip snags it. “Gotcha now, you bastard,” Trevor growls.

“and you will die because of that ignorance” the cute devil added to his speech. Now both ends of the beast are being pulled in opposite directions.

Stone charges forward, his blade gleaming. One clean slice through the center.

The two halves of the snake fling in opposite directions. The captains collapse, panting but not done because they still have more snakes to kill as they run towards helping captain Racheal but before they could join.

A screech echoes through the mist. The Captain Trevor and Stone’s severed snakes begin to form a new transformation not regenerating like before. But, combining their injured bodies into one. Morphing, into one.

The captains freeze at this monstrosity

“Uhm since when does snakes does this Trev?” Stone asks.

Trevor narrows his eyes. “They don’t, but when it comes to the fuckin mist anything is uncertain” clinched is fist in agony “we were so focused on killing the third snake we neglected this fuckin occasion. So, this beast was trying to run away from us to make a distraction for this fuckin fusion”

Akumakawaii snarls. “So, they are intelligent and can also communicate tch subarashii”

The new fused snake is twice as big, more powerful, more monstrous than anything they’ve faced. The three captains instantly runs towards the snake and suddenly their Reapers turns gold

Akumakawaii notices this as he sprints ahead with his reaper transforming into an AT4 aiming the target at the giant snake. Trevor shouts at Akumakawaii to prevent him from the attack

“Wait if you make a fire not just the beast but every soldier ahead will fuckin turn into ashes”

“But if I don’t there won’t be a fuckin soldier alive” Akumakawaii responds calmly

“ We cannot deal with that risk,” Trevor barks at him. “So we reduce the weapon's efficiency and….” Trevor’s Reaper morphs into a golden bow “we keep firing!” instantly he drags the string of his bow, 5 arrows appear in a red ray of light. Instantly he fires towards the snake charging towards them as it notices the threats. Captain Akumakawaii and Stone joins in as the attack goes fifteen arrows per 2 seconds from only three men, it looks like an army is firing as the attack seems to hurt the snake causing strong explosions once the arrows hit the snake. Since reaper is in gold form the strength, speed and damages of the arrows is 10 times better than a bullet or laser attack. The snake bodies burns in agony but with speed the body repairs instantly this doesn’t stop the attack form the desperate captains, they kept firing the arrows. Each attack faster and the damage increases which slowed the pace.

The snake hisses in frustration, unable to move forward under the relentless barrage. Then it changes it’s direction from attacking the captains from turning back with full speed as It races toward the soldiers miles ahead.

Trevor’s heart sinks as he noticed the snake target. “Shit—it’s going for the troops!”

The captains chase the snake as they do not stop firing their arrows, but the snake is fast—too fast.

“LIEUTENANT, GET THE HELL OUT OF THERE!” Trevor yells,

But gunfire, lasers and screams in the battlefield makes it difficult for the lieutenant to hear.

Akumakawaii and Trevor increases their pace as they leap onto the snake’s back, stabbing it over and over, trying to slow it down. Stone who cannot keep up with the pace anymore as his Reaper transform into a whim instantly he flings it towards the snake’s tail which grab the snake tail perfectly and he tries to drag the snake back with full force “if I can’t keep up I will drag you back” Stone tries to drag the snake back with all his strength. This slowed the pace of the snake a little bit as it drags Captain stone heading straight ahead to it target but the stabs from the captains above kept increasing till they stab vital part on the snake’s back which made the snake made a loud screech. Every creature of the mist nearby from the birds to the wolves hearing this screech dispersed the scene with full ahead because they are scared of the terror coming towards them.

This also got the lieutenant attention chills runs down his spine, looking at the monstrous design of the devil coming towards him and the remaining troops available can see this too.

“EVERYBODY RUN FOR YOU LIVES” Trevor screams out loud on top of the snake in agony. But it is too late the beast rises it head towards the remaining men alive and makes a loud hiss t, opening it mouth to devour the creatures along it path.

The lieutenant closes his eyes, ready to die.

Trevor’s voice pierces through the smoke, echoing across the chaos and bloodshed unfolding atop the snake.

“LIEUTENANT, NOOOOO!”

As the danger swallows him whole, the lieutenant thinks of nothing as tears stream from his eyes and everything fades to black. Then softly a gentle voice calls out from the darkness:

“Papa… papa… papa, let’s play…”

The lieutenant breaks into sobs, whispering, “I’m sorry… I won’t be able to play with you anymore, my lovely Natasha…”

From his trembling hand, a small key with a brown teddy bear charm slips and falls to the ground as he accepts his fate.

But instead of death… a deafening screech bursts from the snake. The lieutenant opens his eyes confused about what just happened. “Why am I not dead. What’s happening?” as he witnesses the monstrous snake that was about to kill him, recoils violently and screeching in agony, as if something unseen is tearing into it. The lieutenant's vision is still blurred, but ahead, he sees two figures assaulting the creature with unimaginable speed. The snake is struggling.

Then he spots Captain Akumakawaii and Stone running toward him, guns blazing, mowing down mist-infected humans trying to finish him off. A massive wolf charges at him but its head is blown clean off from the side. His ears ring, disoriented from the loud screech of the snake that nearly killed him.

His fading vision clears for a moment as he sees Captain Trevor who blasted off the wolf’s head grabs him and tries to talk to him but the lieutenant can barely hear him.

Then the captain landed a punch to his face which snaps the lieutenant senses back to life.

Trevor’s voice cuts through:

The time to die is not today lieutenant. Not on my watch.”

He grips the lieutenant by his tattered uniform.

“Natasha is at home waiting for her papa. You will see her again, and you will play with her like nothing ever happened. Understood?”

The lieutenant, trembles, says nothing which just makes the captain furious

“Goddammit, soldier this ain’t the time to cry!” Trevor shouts, pushing him up.
“Buckle up Soldier! We’ve still got mist to kill!”

The lieutenant stares at him, heart pounding. He’s just like the Commander…

He picks up his teddy bear key and charges into the fight alongside the surviving soldiers.

But no matter how hard they fight; the mist creatures keep coming. In the distance, the three captains are still locked in brutal combat against the three giant snakes. And the 3 captains with them has no choice but to help them fight the creatures killing remaining soldiers and mercenaries.

The fused snake begins convulsing wildly, flailing in all directions. But it isn’t losing control—it’s fighting something. Or rather… two things.

The lieutenant can’t see clearly. The beings are fused with mist and shadows blurring in and out of reality, attacking with such intensity the snake can barely defend itself.

Trevor yells over:
“Lieutenant! How many soldiers and mercenaries still alive and uninfected?”

“Not less than 30, sir!” the lieutenant replies.

“Where’s the mercenary leader?”

“Vanished the moment the Commander disappeared. It’s like… he’s chasing him.”

Trevor growls, “What kind of man leaves his comrades behind over a damn hunt?”

The lieutenant says grimly, “That man’s no man… he’s a machine.”

Trevor focuses. “Forget him. Retreat to the vehicles. If they don’t move run. Get the hell out of here.”

The lieutenant hesitates. “What about you?”

“Don’t worry about us,” Trevor says.
“We’ve still got a fugitive to catch. But first I’m saving my comrades.”

With that, the lieutenant gives the order. Soldiers and mercenaries scramble toward the surviving vehicles, engines roaring to life. Trevor, Akumakawaii, and Stone hold the line—mist creatures swarming in waves.

Suddenly something moves from battling against the fused snake till the midst of the soldiers it was like a shadow comes out from the ground start to act according to it will.

It moves faster than the eye can track, piercing through the hearts of the creatures with surgical precision. One by one, they fall lifeless.

A voice echoes from this shadow:

“The heart is the generator of the body.
The mist corrupts the generator.
Once the generator dies so does the mist.”

Then the shadow vanishes instantly moving towards the fused snake and the attack continues.

The captains don’t waste a second. Their Reapers shift into laser mode, and they begin targeting the hearts. Mist creatures fall by dozens but this time, they don’t rise. This made the soldiers escape with no more worries

The three captains regroup, finally turning their focus to the fused mixt giant snakes.

It’s fighting something, it looks like it is fighting two beings who are vibrating so fast the darkness engulfs their body forming a coat of shadow. As these beings are using darkness and mist… like it’s part of them and they are giving that beast hell with ease.”

“Are you seeing what I am seeing Trev,” Stone mutters.
“Am I going insane, Trev?”

Trevor stares, eyes wide.
“You’re not insane bro.” He tightens his grip on his weapon.

“If the legend of the mist snakes is true… then why not the legend of the Shadows?”

Akumakawaii responded.

Instantly, they waste no time because the three other captains are still in danger, so they left the fused snake to continue its misery with the Shadows. As they got closer to Captain Lein, who is about to get swallowed by a snake, Akumakawaii instantly shouted, “Stone, give me a push!”

Stone picked the cute devil, rolls around, and throws the cute devil, whose Reaper turns into a blade, cutting the head of the snake. The snake tumbles on the ground as it rolls, and Akumakawaii says, “The heart is the weakness.”

As the snake rolls over, trying to regenerate, Lei rushes straight, starting to tear the snake’s body in pieces. As it got up, Lei starts to target the belly area, which is always on the ground. Instantly, they got to the heart, and Lei stabs it. The snake just died instantly, not regrowing or doing much.

Stone and Trevor rush to help Captain Racheal, while Akumakawaii and Lei went to help Captain Yue. Within minutes, they dealt with the snakes, and the snakes lay lifeless.

Going back, since all this is done, they met the joint snake dead, lifeless on the ground. The Shadows were nowhere to be found. Then they walked to the T-junction and they heard a large screech again from the right side of the T-junction.

Then Racheal said, “I am not going through that side again.”

Then a voice came from them—two voices came from the Shadows—saying, “Leave the Steforian with us and go the left-hand side to look for the Commander.”