The cloud of dust gathering close to Cale, who hid behind the dilapidated walls of the house, went by just as fast as it gathered.
The cloud of dust swept through the street that Cale followed from the eyes of Moonless, actively pursuing it from the skies.
The four agents from the Department of Catastrophe Affairs pursued the amalgamation of dust. When the dust cloud was far enough from the agents, the cloud of dust merged into one.
The cloud of dust assumed the form of a young adult man with thin limbs and a hunched posture.
This must be one of the bodies he stole the soul of. But it doesn't give the appearance of a normal aberrant? Could it be a contaminated one?
Making a couple of circles in the air, the raven with mismatched feathers perched atop a tall lamp post, watching as the agents gradually caught up to the malnourished man, who had signs of contamination.
The four agents had the contaminated man surrounded in the abandoned back alley streets without leaving him a gap to flee through.
The contaminated man said something to the agents of the DCA, but Cale couldn't hear that from that distance, and Moonless could only share his sight, not his other senses.
But while he couldn't hear them, their expressions told them enough. The contaminated Aberrant showed signs of distress; he was all over the place while talking with the Agents.
On the other hand, the agents of the DCA were steadily approaching him while lowering their weapons, but these actions only seemed to agitate the aberrant further.
His essence flared up in a bright blue hue, and the dust around him gathered once more, lashing out at the agent standing closest to him.
Rapidly responding, the rest of the agents rushed at him with their weapons drawn this time — from the eyes of Moonless, Cale saw the whole fight play out.
A tall female agent with long hair tied into a ponytail had a large, completely white shield in hand, infused her essence into the shield, causing it to erupt in a flare of orange glow.
Seeing that, the Contaminated Aberrant became a cloud of dust once more and forced his way out through another agent who wielded a pair of short swords, engulfed in green essence, getting ready to cut through the Aberrant.
The whole being of the contaminated aberrant was overtaken by the blue hue; every single dust particle shone in blue.
Tearing the body of the agent to shreds, who fell to the ground bloody and bruised… but still alive.
The agent was struggling to breathe when their captain, who was wearing a fully brown military suit, was tending to his wounds while the other two agents ran after the fleeing Aberrant.
He is contaminated, no doubt about it. Looking at his strength, he is at the level of a tier two, but the contamination pushed him towards tier three.
Cale still held the broken iron pipe and even grasped it further once he saw that the contaminated Aberrant was fleeing his way through Moonless, who took flight once again.
Renoir's son only spread contamination to three other people; he should still be close by.
Through his right eye, he could see that the woman with the shield was close to catching up to the fleeing aberrant, while on her side, another agent, wielding a hammer, was close by.
The two were in pursuit, drawing even closer to Cale, but he didn't mind; they wouldn't be able to sense his presence if they were focusing this much on the Aberrant.
Finally catching up to him, the agent once again soaked her shield full of orange essence and struck the Aberrant from behind.
His dust cloud body collapsed and became a human once more, colliding with the shield and being thrown across the streets. His body fell only a couple of meters away from the building, which Cale hid in.
In turn, he slightly stepped even further from the door, only looking at the situation from the eyes of Moonless, just to avoid being spotted by the agents.
"Why can't you all just leave me alone?! I didn't hurt anybody!" This time, the contaminated aberrant was close enough for Cale to hear what he was saying; he was begging for his life.
But the agents this time didn't say anything.
All he could see from Moonless' eyes was that they were getting closer to him with their weapons drawn this time.
The aberrant's voice was low this time, almost whispering to himself.
"I… I never wanted to be like this…"
In front of him, the Agent with a large sledgehammer in hand drew closer. With each step he took, he raised the hammer higher, still without saying anything.
"I said… I didn't do anything!"
The Contaminated aberrant screamed in rage, on the side of the dirty road, the dust rose from the ground with a small blue shimmer before all flying at the agent.
Each little dust particle was enveloped with blue essence, directly going through the hands of the agent with a sledgehammer.
With a spray of crimson blood, the hands of agent fell to the ground with the sledgehammer, letting out a loud thump while the agent screamed in pain and fell to the ground.
With a click of her tongue, the female agent collided with the aberrant from his left, sending him hurling away on the ground.
"Just… leave me alone!"
With another desperate shout, he amalgamated into a dust cloud again, rapidly flying at the female agent.
"No, I won't be doing that."
Her shield ignited in an orange glow as she prepared for a collision with the dust cloud.
But right before the two could collide, the dust cloud divided into two parts and completely bypassed both the shield and the agent behind it before becoming a whole person again, swiftly grabbing the sledgehammer from the ground.
With a swift spin, he used the force generated by it and infused some of his remaining essence into the hammer to strike the shield with full force.
The shield broke into two, and the agent let out a soft curse as she felt the impact deep in her bones. The force of the strike sent her kneeling on the ground, staring at the contaminated aberrant with a face full of conflicting emotions.
"Do what you must…" She hesitated, "But know this… no matter what you try from now on, how you attempt to restrain yourself, you will be one bad day from fully turning into something that can decimate city blocks. Do you really want to become something like that? Someone whose only memory goes on through the grief of the families you slaughtered?!"
"So… I should just… keel over and die?! Like a rabid dog being put down?!" He raised the sledgehammer high while gasping for air; only adrenaline was driving him now.
The blue hue that enveloped the
I would have liked to avoid this if possible.
With a sigh, Cale stepped out from the cover of the building and rushed behind the contaminated Aberrant — right when the latter noticed that something was amiss, a sharp pain overtook his mind.
With all the strength he could muster, Cale impaled the Aberrant from his foot to the ground.