88 The Rampage of the Mutated Tree (1/2)

Day 3 – 11:04 AM – Bacoor City Hall Rooftop, Molino Boulevard, Bayanan, Bacoor City, Cavite

BAM!

The huge house cat flew several meters away and rolled on the roof before stopping.It was only about two to three meters away from the northern edge of the rooftop. Due to Mark's action, it received the full brunt of Abbygale's kick causing the scene.

Mark looked at the little girl with white hair, fluffy tail and cat ears in front of him. The little girl turned to him and he could see her worried eyes and her pupil that also changed color into a red hue. Seeing this, he forgot about the pain in his arm. This surely was a stunning sight.

He already expected something like this somehow. From the information the military disclosed, the Mutagen altered the mutators bodies. It was pretty much like Odelina's condition before. Her body was covered with grey bone armor. He felt that it was strange that Abbygale did not seem to have that form. Still, when Odelina turned into her normal appearance, Mark then concluded the possibility of Abbygale being the same.

However, he did not expect that her mutated form would be like this.

As her Papa stood there staring at her, Abbygale grew more worried and even scared. She was worried about her Papa's bleeding wound and was scared that her Papa would hate her since she looked like this. She remembered it vaguely. During the time she fell unconscious that time, she turned into this appearance and killed the infected around her without her knowing. Still, she did not know how she returned to normal. She did not know what other people would react to her looking like this. Like a monster. The eyes of her grandma who always looked at her with hate were deeply ingrained in her young mind. What if her Papa looked at her like that?

Mark stared at her for a bit. He was confused why Abbygale was worried about him but was afraid to come over. He could sense it vaguely since the subconscious emotion of this little girl was still occupied by calmness. The energy leaking out from her other emotions were too weak.

His confusion cleared up as he thought about it. He approached the little girl who even stepped back subconsciously.

Mark shook his head and continued approaching with a smile. His smile however was different to his usual bitter and indifferent smile. The distance between them was short, just about four meters which Mark easily traversed while his wounded arm dripped blood on the path.

The first thing he did after arriving in front of the little girl was to kneel down to her eye level and caress her head gently. He could feel the triangular ears on her head. The sensation was similar to patting a cat's ear. At this moment, his gentle movements erased the fear on the girl's eyes.

”What are you afraid about?”

”Papa won't hate me?”

”Hate you for what?”

”I look like this…”

Abbygale showed her tail and waved her fingers that had two inch long claws.

”Why will I hate you for this? It looked cute alright?”

Mark laughed. In his mind, it was funny. The little girl actually asked an Otaku if he will hate her current appearance.

”Don't worry about your appearance. Even if the whole world will hate you for that, I will the only one who won't.”

He gave the little girl a hug while being careful that he would not stain the little girl's beautiful white hair with his blood.

”Let's go. The bad kitty is standing up.”

Mark let go of Abbygale and stared at the huge cat that was struggling to stand up. The little girl's kick hit it on its shoulder. Now, it was visible that it was injured as it was having a hard time to stand up and could not use it left foreleg. After it finally stood up, it was limping and its left foreleg was raised every time it moved.

To the north east side of the rooftop, the Mutant Woodman was still struggling to put out the fire but it was not able to. Rather, the fire had already spread to other areas of its body. The Woodman was not a threat anymore. Sooner or later, it would turn into ashes.

Mark decided to concentrate on fighting the huge cat together with Abbygale. This time, he could not use his shotgun anymore and switched his weapon to the pistol on his belt.As Mark was ready to continue the fight, Abbygale also got ready to charge towards the huge cat.

However, when they were about to attack, the huge cat ran away from them. It was a wise decision as it knew that it could not fight the two people in front of it. Another round against Mark and Abbygale would make fall into its death! Still, it did not want to give up on the fruit. When it ran away, the direction it ran towards was the huge tree.

Realizing its intention, Mark shouted.

”Gale! Chase it! Don't let it take the fruit!”

Under her Papa's command, she charged towards the cat. Her speed was about twice as before and her strength was also enhanced in this form of hers. However, the cat was closer to the tree. Before the little girl could reach the cat, it agilely climbed up the three using its remaining legs.

Upon reaching the branch of the huge tree, it immediately lunged towards the fruit. It tried to bite it and eat it in one go. Luckily, because of its injuries, the strength of the huge cat was lessened severely and its jump was shorter than it intended. It failed to bite the fruit and started to fall. In the last moment before the gravity pulled it back down, it spun its body midair with its back facing down. It tried to use its remaining forelimb to reach the fruit which it succeeded.

Pierced by its claw, the fruit was plucked off the branch of the tree and fell with the cat.

RUMMBLE!!

Mark and Abbygale stopped in place. The huge cat was still in midair falling with the fruit so it did not notice. The whole building was shaking.

CRASH! CRACK!