Chapter 9 Outbreak

*BANG*

The girls burst through the side door of the building to find an empty office lobby with the lights all but gone due to the energy shortage of the Outbreak. The sound of people panicking can be heard from the top floor signaling that they don’t have much time left.

A map 3D projection of the building structure appears from the girl’s Module showing signals of Phantom and civilians.

“The central Phantom should be on the rooftop. I will stall it as long as possible, both of you rescue all civilians in the three floors that are caught in the Outbreak,” Lin said as she led the way up the stairs.

“Haru~ You go to the top floor, I’ll handle the rest~” Shiro follows.

“Got it!"

Lin swiftly moves toward the rooftop while Haru heads to her designated floor, the feeling of entering an outbreak is the same as what she felt back then but this time the air feels even denser than before. That thought doesn’t stop Haru at all as she breaks through the door of the building's highest floor.

*CRACK*

The room is a typical office room that is scattered into a mess when several Phantom starts rampaging trying to find any last bit of Alternium, there are Phantom of various shapes and sizes resembling creatures like slime or melting humans. The sight of the monster resembles a nightmare, the body of some Phantom isn’t complete creating an amalgamation of a beast.

The civilian is backed into a corner hoping the Phantom won’t notice them, some of them already fainted from the excess amount of Alternium energy that's in the air.

“Hey, you freaks! Eat this!”

In a split second, Haru raises her gun firing at the monsters, obliterating some of them while injuring a few more. Now the entire attention of the room has been drawn to a single boyish girl, the Phantom readying its attack, the civilians who are still awake find cover to avoid the crossfire that's about to happen.

“Hey! Haru, don't forget to transform before fighting!” a sudden sound from Aiko rings inside Haru’s mind.

“Sorry about that Aiko-san! But how do I transform in the first place!” Haru asks while trying to avoid the oncoming attack using the office desks and cube as cover.

“Oh! We forgot to tell you about that, *Ahem* insert the module into the magazine of the gun and the fire away. There should be a sound indicating the Phantasm is ready to link”

“Understood, Let’s try it!”

Haru grabs her Module to her gun and inserts it into the empty magazine causing a sound and blue lights that stream throughout the gun to be emitted.

“PHANTASM SET!” An announcement sound is made from the gun, blue electrical energy starting to gather at the gun barrel.

“And fire away!!!”

Pulling the trigger causes a single bullet to be fired, the high energy rapid projectile flies away hitting a couple of Phantom before heading back to Haru, it breaks up into different small energy landing on Haru herself, the particles form a shining coat around her before bursting out a powerful energy wave. Revealing her complete transformation into the same two-piece suit that she previously wore.

"Alright! Let's do this!"

Without any hesitation she charges headfirst into the Phantoms, easily slicing up the surprised monster with her knife, causing them to rapidly disappear into thin air like a whiff of smoke. A few Phantoms then react to her attack by jumping her from behind, but it was futile as they have shot down thanks to her fast trigger.

Despite being a first-timer, she operates her Phantasm seamlessly. Every movement is in sync with the information that flows between the Wolf Phantasm and Haru's mind.

In a last-ditch effort, several flying type Phantoms dived at Haru, scoring a hit on her shoulder. However, it wasn't enough to stagger her, she grabs the Phantoms by hand before plunging it into the nearby office desk, completely shattering it into multiple pieces while the Phantom she caught dissipates into nothing.

“W-Wait wait what?!? Um… S-sorry!!! I didn’t intend to destroy that!!” Haru was surprised at the amount of strength she gained after transforming.

“Haha, don’t worry, break as many things as you want if that helps you with eliminating all the Phantom. It’s going to be a mess no matter what anyway” Aiko suddenly cuts into Haru’s comms.

“Uh… G-got it then, Aiko-san!”

“Now that’s the spirit!! Only a few Phantom mobs on this floor, quickly take them out please!”

Following Aiko-san’s order, Haru swiftly dispatched the rest of the Phantom on this floor with relative ease just like before. Now that the threats have been successfully disposed of, she can assess the situation with the civilians who are caught in the Outbreak.

“Hello???, Sir? Ma’am? Are you alright?” Haru asked the people who were backed into the corner.

It was useless however, they have all fainted fully just like the girl Haru tried to save earlier

“Look like they have all fainted from the excessive Alternium concentration in the area. Please move them to the floor below you, Shiro has already set up a rescue zipline to the other building Riku is on” Nodoka instructs the hotblooded newbie.

Three civilians were present on Haru’s floor. She was able to carry all of them at once thanks to her newfound strength, one person being on her back while the other two she held by her arm.

“Nodoka-san, may I ask something??” Haru suddenly asks.

“What would you like to ask?” Nodoka responded instantly.

“Why do normal people faint and start to have these markings appear on their bodies while we are totally found walking and fighting in this giant Phantom dome?”

“To put it simply, your body which is linked to a Phantasm is saturated with Alternium in every single part, which is why Linkers gain an increase to their ability like strength, speed, and agility.”

“While normal people can’t handle these Alternium because their body isn’t adapted to it, is that correct?”

“Woahhhh….That’s correct~ and I thought you only have muscle and no brain at all~” a familiar dragged-out voice abruptly chimes into the comms.

“O-Oi!! Was that really necessarily Shiro?!” Haru responded furiously.

“Fufu~ better hurry now, Shiro already sent everyone out all that's left is your part Haru~”

Haru wasted no more time and carefully tread down the stair she once came from to the floor Shiro is in. Upon entering the floor, it was in disarray just like what she saw with the key differences being the several large craters embed on the wall presumably from Shiro’s own shots.

There Haru also sees Shiro who is casually sitting on one of the broken desks in her transformation, she wears a combination of black and white military combat uniform with armor plating scattered on different parts of the body, it also has the same energy outline as Haru's own uniform. Another noticeable aspect is the slightly tattered cyan scarf around her neck.

Shiro’s weapon of choice is a medium-size clean white sniper rifle which has a similar blue current around it to Haru’s handgun. The gun also features a see-through compartment above the magazine well which displays an energy core containing a ball of compressed electrical energy.

“Oh? Heya~ you finally made it here, alive as well~ ” noticing her friend, Shiro greets first.

“Yea… So, what about the rescue zipline?” Haru wastes no time when it comes to helping people.

Shiro pointed behind Haru, a giant hole on the wall with plenty of debris lying all around it, creating a temporary path for a portable zip line that leads to the building where Riku has set up.

“Here let me help with the guy on your back~” Riku gets off the desk and holds one of the people from Haru’s back.

“So… how do we use this thing anyway?” Haru looks confused as always.

“Just get close to it and it’ll attach you like a magnet~”

“Hold on… wouldn’t that expose us out in the open??”  keeping Lin's word in mind, she is concerned. 

“Don’t worry about that, the moment you walk out of the Outbreak zone your Phantasm will create a shield that reflects all incoming light, thus practically making you invisible to everyone” Aiko however reassures Haru through the comms.

“Hm! Let’s get going then!” Haru quickly runs onto the zipline first, followed by Shiro and it attaches to her just like Shiro said, rapidly sending them to the next building’s rooftop. 

“Wooooooo!!!!” Haru can't help but feel excited, flying across the building like this.

Upon landing on the rooftop, they meet Riku who is currently busy tending the many wounded the same way she did to Haru with her fox, Mochi. The Riku uniform consists of a pure white field nurse uniform with a dark skirt and a matching black cloak.

Her weapon is rather unique, being her medical purses and gloves. With those equipment combined, she can create any mixture of chemicals to create medicine for healing or volatile grenades that create varying special effects according to the situation. Of course, her sentient partner also assists her in healing Alternium related injuries and conditions.

People are still lying unconscious all around the area but their wounds and infection have been treated, in total there were at least ten victims of the Outbreak.

“Riku, These are the last of the civilians, please... treat them as soon as possible” Shiro’s words weigh heavier than what it normally is.

Riku could only nod at Shiro’s request at the moment as she is focused on the patient, evaluating their wound while directing Mochi at the same time.

Now that all the people have been successfully rescued and safe, there’s only one thing left to deal with. Shiro and Haru turn back towards the building they came from, the sound of thunder roaring can be heard clear as day through the comms from their leader, Lin.

“I’m sure you’re ready, Haru~” Shiro turns towards the newbie.

“You bet I am!!” and that was the last word said between the two before both of them ran to the zipline, bringing them back to where the real battle began.