Ten minutes later, Jean stood tall. Two crows faced her. They were the only survivors left from the small flock that was present half an hour ago.

A puddle of blood was on the ground. One of the crows left a mark on Jean just before being dissected. The wound healed quickly, but the blood Jean lost didn’t mysteriously flow back. Still, compared to the eight completely dusted crows, she had the upper hand.

80% casualty rate was enough to turn most army in this world back, but not the crows. Even though the chance of victory was next to none, the crows weren’t looking at the odds. Mindless pawns had their own advantages. Anyone smarter would’ve turned and fled and waited for a chance to regroup, but not them. The two crows merely charged toward Jean with no thoughts of self-preservation.

Jean dropped her seventh psi blade and pulled out an eighth. Just like so many times before, the golden blade made her face glow. It was as if victory was at hand. She could end the crows like their predecessors.

Jean’s eyes twitched as the crows suddenly turned yellow inside out. Energy not only poured out of every opening in the bird but also created more holes as they simply went through the birds’ body. The beasts screamed in obvious pain, but they still charged at Jean. They didn’t even know who the blonde was, but they were willing to spend their last breath on the way to killing the blonde. The yellow energy not only changed their bodies but also altered their minds.

Without being burdened or slowed down by emotions like fear and anxiety, Jean responded in the best way possible. A golden energy shield formed in front of the crows. It popped like a bubble in literally two seconds, but their goal was achieved. Jean’s body was already fading away.

It would take at least one more second for the crows to reach Jean. It would take half a second for Jean to disappear.

And then the crows imploded into two balls of destructive yellow energy before reaching Jean. The thing was, explosion traveled faster than objects.

Jean watched as the yellow energy fanned out, destroying everything in its radii. A part of the energy reached her as well. She felt her suit and then her skin melt. The energy was no longer the sweet treat she could easily absorb and turn into her own power. Its destructive potential was fully unleashed, and no xel’naga power could save her from an explosion this powerful. She felt like she was reduced to a normal human body. Her skin disappeared first. Her flesh started to melt. She would be dead in two seconds, and that was still partially due to her distance away from the heart of the explosion. If she didn’t use the shields to stall the crows and the explosion happened in her face, her story would end right here right now.

Facing almost certain death, Jean’s eyes were ice cold.

The next second the explosion swept through the field and reduced everything in a one kilometer radius into ashes.

Meanwhile, in the Umbrella camp outside Racoon City.

A black suit guard patrolled the area. Underneath the pitch black helmet was a satisfied smirk.

These days, the Umbrella camp wasn’t exactly the safest place to be. At first, two maniacs made a frontal assault on the heavily defended Raven Gate Bridge. Dozens of comrades were trapped within the now monster filled city and left to die. Countless more were slaughtered on the spot. In the end the two madmen destroyed the gate and escaped the city. The few survivors were overrun by the undead that were attracted by the gunshots and followed the two maniacs through the gate. Luckily half the Umbrella forces on site were deployed to hold that gap. Reinforcements helped as well as they rushed to push the undead back. With the advantage of the wall and the chokepoint, the undead were pushed back into the city. Even now the sound of endless gunshots could still be heard from the wall.

That wasn’t the end. The nearly emptied Umbrella camp was assaulted by someone from the inside. A prisoner the major kept went rogue and started going all Rambo in the camp. Half the camp was empty, and most of the guards that rushed to stop her were slaughtered. The rest fled. Two helicopters were hijacked. How one prisoner took hold of two helicopters was unknown, but as a guard the man didn’t care. All he knew was that he was still alive, and that was all that mattered.

Now, the forces that held the gate managed to implant a substitute roadblock that kept the undead back and gave the defenders a chance to escape. Using that opportunity, the forces have returned to the camp and were about to be evacuated through several newly arrived transports. At this point the defenses of the camp was at its peak. If someone assaulted this camp now, they wouldn’t share the success of their predecessors.

His smirk disappeared when he felt something hard on the back of his neck.

“Don’t move.” A cold voice made him freeze. The series of muffled footsteps from behind made him abandon any plan of making a fight for it.

His loyalty to Umbrella yielded to his self preservation.

In his tent, major Cain gathered what was left of his belongings. He would be gone from this godforsaken city in a minimal of ten minutes. After that, he would live a comfortable life in an underground base as a high ranking Umbrella official. The world would burn and he wouldn’t care. If he was a sentimental person, he wouldn’t have made it to the place of Umbrella commander of Racoon City.

Suddenly, a series of gunshots came from outside. Cain was starting to hate that sound. Usually he enjoyed hearing gunshots because he was always on the right side of the barrels. When the situation was changed and he was on the much more dangerous side, his enjoyment quickly evaporated.

Cain dropped his bags without any hesitation. Wealth could be regained. Items could be repurchased. But lives couldn’t be regenerated. Grabbing his pistol, he left the tent.

Outside, the Umbrella forces were stuck in a painful situation. The intruders got past most of the sentries without firing a shot, and they were only scouted when they were literally on the base. As soon as they encountered each other, the Umbrella soldiers were confused while the intruders opened fire without hesitation. Their shots were accurate and merciless, and a large portion of the defenders fell within the first few seconds.

The rest struggled to use vehicles and other structures in the tent as cover and fire back. As elite Umbrella soldiers, they believed their skills could save them from defeat, but they soon realized their enemies weren’t weak either. In fact, they were almost as skilled as the Umbrella soldiers themselves.

“What the hell is happening?” Major Cain knelt down behind cover. His pistol was ready, but he had no intention of using it. He was a commander for god’s sake. Which type of commanders would charge into the frontline?

“Sir, we’re under attack from unknown enemy forces. They have surrounded the camp and are moving on our position!” A soldier replied. “We don’t know how many of them there are. In this situation, we can’t do a counterattack.”

All Cain wanted to do was retreat. He made up his mind once he returned to safety he would never act as a field commander ever. This was simply too dangerous. “Fall back to the transports!”

“Yes sir!” The order was passed down through the comm. A team of the Umbrella soldiers kept on laying down suppressing fire while the others retreated.

Cain was among the first to run.