Due to the unusual nature of this expedition the group had to prepared differently. Since this would be a test of endurance it was essential to have supplies to preserve energy, water and protein bars to recover energy were essential. The small disadvantages of the mutations is that they increased the consumption of calories in the body and unless you have a method or a mutation to deal with this problem it was something that should be taken into account. Technically they could eat the bodies of the infected as their immune system was superhuman but the psychological impact of doing that was obviously quite severe. It is much more practical to put Lucia to cook than to resort to cannibalism.

Meanwhile, Gabriel was studying frantically how to operate an MRI machine as a student the night before an exam. He had put a couple of things to do on the 3d printers and took a few breaks to forge some metal but most of the time he stuck it to the screen of his cell phone. Even having the instructions at hand while performing the process the chances of making a mistake were quite large.

Amori, meanwhile, was enjoying Yeni's company in order to keep the girl occupied she was teaching her a little self-defense. It wasn't the most entertaining thing in the world but it served to keep the mind strong and was useful in her current situation.

Oscar was training as usual and Michi was studying some chemistry to know exactly how to make smoke grenades. Finally, Lucia was looking for a nearby hospital that has the necessary equipment, once found she called the group to inform the situation.

"Well where is the Hospital with a closer MRI?"Gabriel asked.

"It's a few blocks from here, quite close" Then the woman indicated on the monitor the location of the hospital.

"Hey Gabriel isn't that where we find the footprints of that zombie elephant?"

"Yes, did you manage to find it Lucia?"

“I didn't find any unique infected in the area so. . it must be safe, the only thing that should worry you are the hordes that walk through the area. ”

"Great . . By the way, wait for a second Oscar that I have to give you something”The redhead ran to his work area and brought a gift to his partner.

"Take this" Gabriel handed the veteran a special knife he had made while preparing for the hospital expedition. This weapon was quite particular because it was made to take advantage of Oscar's unique power, the blade had a spiral shape similar to a drill and was clinging to the handle so that it could rotate freely.

Apu Knife

Special combat knife made to drill the skull of the infected.

Oscar grabbed the weapon and immediately understood its function. By rotating the blade at a speed similar to that of a drill, he responded. "This will be useful if I run out of bolts, I haven't stabbed someone for years." Everyone laughed a little, but they weren't sure if that was a joke or not.

On next morning the group went to the hospital, as always Lucia stayed because her skills weren't the most effective in this type of situations. Amori didn't oppose the idea of traveling on the shoulders of the steel titan while Oscar, Gabriel and Michi used the bike. This time for Amori's safety they simply avoided those infected who found in their way, they knew they didn't have much time to lose.

The abandoned two-story hospital was moored with infected, about 50 inhabited the rooms of these facilities. Luckily there were only 5 Hunters and the rest were normal abominations. The electric generator was in the basement and all the fuel it had, had already run out. The room where the MRIs are performed was located on the second floor giving them a strategic advantage to defend it.

This mission requires some preparation to facilitate the task, after all the surrounding buildings were still full of infected. To start they should get gas and with the vehicles in the hospital parking lot it was enough. Then they needed barricades to defend the position, Yeni with her mace began to break the stairs that led to the second floor until eventually the only left was the largest one located in the waiting room. There they set up a barricade with several beds, chairs, etc. They used the mattresses of the patient rooms to cover the walls of the room where the electric generator was located to reduce

the sound it emitted, it wasn't much but in this case something was better than nothing. After a quick looting in search of essential medicines, they turned on the generator and Gabriel put the girl on the machine and saw on his cell phone what he should do.

The siege began and the duo was entrenched in the hospital stairs that led to the second floor. Gradually the infected began to be attracted by the noise of the electric motor located in the basement. The first minutes were relatively quiet but then those infected from the surrounding buildings began to arrive. They were mostly common but there were the occasional Hunter, Bone Breaker and Shock Wielder scattered in the groups. The bodies gradually began to stack increasing the height of the barricade. In the brief minutes of security that Michi guarantees, they took advantage of them to drink water and eat the energy bars to recover the fundamental stamina.

After the first hour Oscar had run out of bolts for his crossbow and Yeni's armor was quite dented, reducing the mobility in her joints.

"Hey Quickshot, how much are you missing?" The steel titan shouted through the comm, her body despite being stupidly resistant, began to feel sore from the constant physical exertion and the blows she was receiving.

"An hour or so, can you stand it?" He said as he carefully examined the skull of that girl, there was something he was doing wrong because he was unable to find the Hell Crystal of that unique infected. Gabriel needed more time to find it ,but he hoped his teammates could endure the challenge.

"Yes. . everything controlled here, but hurry up, son of a bitch I don't have all day. ”After saying those words, the woman let out a tired sigh watching as a new group of infected people tried to climb the corpse barrier. Oscar had taken out his new knife and was ready to try it, luckily he had Michi nearby to avoid possible incidents the electrical abominations.

The veteran's new weapon was easily buried in the skulls of the infected and, above all, was useful against the dense bone armor of the Bone Breakers. In the case that the abominations that spit acid manage to scale the wall of dead flesh that Oscar still had the best way to deal with them. Thanks to its superhuman reflexes and its unique mutation, it could apply its rotational force on the acidic projectiles without even touching them and thus changing its trajectory.

After another hour, everything had finally calmed down, both of them were exhausted by so much action and even their weapons were battered. With an already quite irritated tone Yeni spoke for the communicator “Fuck! Do you need more time? ” She had to wait a few awkward seconds to receive a fairly dry response from Gabriel "No, grab the crystals and let's go back to the base."

The duo gave a tired sigh and began to extract the crystals while Gabriel and Amori came down to accompany them. It was only 15 minutes until Lucia contacted them through the communicator, they could feel the concern in her tone: "Guys, stop what you are doing and get out of there right now!." She had seen something quite disturbing that was approaching the hospital.

The thing Lucia was seeing was the most horrible creature that this end of the world had given birth so far. The first grotesque detail that stood out on the monitors was the size of this atrocity, a living nightmare about 20 meters long and 8 wide. The skin of this infected was similar to the Bone Breakers, a dense layer of bone but from the joints of this living armor a transparent gelatinous liquid suppurated and at the moment that the drops of this filth touched the ground the pavement was melt. The general structure of this thing seemed to be an animal with 8 legs clinging to its torso, these bone towers similar to the legs of a spider had the width of a trash can and the tip of these ended in spears that stabbed the earth in each step it took. But undoubtedly the most horrifying aspect was the head of this creature, using a lot of imagination one could assume that it was a horse in the past but now the dense layers of armor covered every facial feature except the mouth. The faucet of this creature was populated by a mountain range of fangs that would put into shame an industrial garbage disposal.

This abomination was moving rapidly towards the hospital attracted by the sound of combat and fresh blood, the woman was stunned, from where that thing come? Right now there was no time to doubt since she had to guide the exhausted group so that they could avoid that beast, they weren't in a position to face such a challenge.

They loaded everything they could on the bicycles and ran away leaving more than half of the bodies unprocessed but there was simply no time for that. Using the guide of Lucia, the group was able to avoid not only that thing but also that the hordes of infected people that were in their way, by sunset they had already reached their base. The group was exhausted sitting in the dining room ready to hear Gabriel's diagnosis.

“Well, I'll be direct. . .there isn't a Hell Crystal inside Amori ”

"What?" The whole group exclaimed at the same time.

“The truth is that I am as confused as you guys, I spent two hours looking for it but nothing. So . . I don't know, I think I have a theory. What is our modus operandi?, kill the infected, extract the Hell Crystal and absorb it by contacting our body fluids, no? Well what would happen if. . Do you somehow absorb Hell Crystal without killing the infected? ”

“That doesn't make much sense, unless you the unique infected committed. . a mistake? ”Michi commented trying to think about the possible cause of this.

"It seems that Gehena can be wrong as much as we are, good to know," Yeni exclaimed curiously without insulting as usual.

"It's the first time I see this kind of situation in my previous life I never encountered anything remotely similar"

"So what will we do now?" Oscar asked as he looked at the ceiling completely worn out by the overuse of his unique mutation.

“The only thing I can think of is to relieve the symptoms, Amori, you have to get Sleep Efficiency to the maximum to not sleep and Pain Tolerance to level 2. Then we will upgrade things such as regeneration and vitality to keep your health 100% in case of emergencies. Yeni can you teach her how to do it? ”

"No problem, it's pretty easy girl"

"I didn't understand much what you just said but it helps me in my battle against the demons of Lucifer onward."

"And Yeni, use the leftover crystals. After all you need to be in the best possible physical condition to face that unique infected next"

Amori Evolved

One of us:The infected will not attack you unless you attack them first

Sleep efficiency 1: You only have to sleep 4 hours per day.

Sleep efficiency 2: You only have to sleep 2 hours per day.

Sleep efficiency 3: You don't have to sleep anymore.

Pain Tolerance 1:You only feel half the pain that a normal person would feel.

Pain Tolerance 2:You only feel a quarter of the pain that a normal person would feel.

Yeni Evolved

Super Agility 1: Your body is as agile as that of a professional acrobat.

Fast Reflexes 1: Your reflexes are at the limit of what one might consider human.

Fast Reflexes 2: Your reflexes are at the same level of a hummingbird.

Regeneration 5 : Your body heals thirty-two times fast as an average human.