Aaron worked the pump of his shotgun, readjusted his aim, and squeezed the trigger. The blast from his powerful weapon sent the walker that had just charged at him flying across the room. He pumped another shell into the chamber and blasted a huge hole through another mutant's chest, blood spraying every which way.

He quickly glanced around. Wherever he looked, he saw mutants. They were everywhere, forcing him and his three teammates to stay constantly on the move. It was the ninth floor of the building, and the difficulty had increased exponentially compared to the earlier floors.

They had sailed through the first five floors without breaking a sweat. On those initial levels, their tactic was always the same: they searched for a large room, and once they found a spacious area that suited their needs, they established a defensive position there. They occupied the center of the room, facing in four different directions and firing at the mutants coming at them from all sides.

This tactic worked wonderfully on the first five floors, where they mostly encountered weaker types of mutants like walkers and leapers. Floors six, seven, and eight were more challenging, introducing stronger enemies such as shamblers, whippers, and bloaters.

Because of that, the four of them found it difficult to maintain their position, and they occasionally split up when a powerful mutant charged at them.

Still, they had long since become accustomed to dealing with shamblers and whippers, so these enemies didn't cause them much trouble. They had learned their skills and combat patterns a long time ago, which allowed them to know what to expect and how to defend themselves against them.

They knew the best ways to take down those bulky mutants, too. Even bloaters, capable of spewing torrents of acid, didn't pose a significant threat to them anymore.

So they made good time battling their way through the eight floors. Believing they would finish the mission before the one-hour deadline, securing the legendary shotgun their boss wanted, they pressed on with confidence.

However, now that they were on the ninth floor, the second-to-last, their progress slowed significantly as they found themselves in a more dangerous situation than before.

In addition to the usual walkers and leapers, new types of extremely powerful mutants had entered the fray: slashers armed with blade-like bones extending from their wrists, chasers—skinless mutants with curved claws—and wraiths capable of turning invisible.

This floor was swarming with fast and agile mutants, making it nearly impossible for the four of them to remain in one place for more than a moment. They constantly moved from one room to another, firing at the mutants that were following them everywhere. They always tried to stick together, knowing that being isolated from the group would almost certainly spell death for anyone caught alone.

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On the previous floors, they primarily relied on their weapons and avoided using magic, even though each of them had a few spells at their disposal. On this floor, however, they were forced to occasionally cast their spells to fend off the swarm of mutants.

One of the most useful spells in their situation was the one that slowed down the mutants. Each of them had a few uses of this spell when they entered the building. However, by now, most of their spells were depleted. Aaron had only one spell left, and he had a feeling that his teammates were in a similar predicament.

Aaron fired on a slasher charging at him, brandishing its bone blades. The shotgun boomed, and the entire upper torso of the mutant blew apart in a shower of gore. He chambered a fresh round and immediately fired at another mutant, blowing a huge hole through its abdomen.

His teammates were killing mutants one after another as well. A leaper jumped at Kira, who was armed with two powerful revolvers. They both cracked in rapid succession as she put a duo of rounds into the forehead of the mutant in mid-air. Its corpse thudded onto the floor at her feet.

Out of the corner of his eye, Aaron spotted another walker charging at him. He spun, shotgun thundering. The force of the blast knocked the creature back away from him, opening up its guts. Red-slicked, purple strands of its innards spilled out of the gaping wound he had blown in its stomach.

"Cover me," Kira's voice cut through the chaos of battle.

Given the number of mutants surrounding them, they had all learned to call out when they needed to reload, and those with the opportunity would provide cover. Aaron was closest to Kira, so he focused his attention on the mutants trying to reach her.

His shotgun thundered, and its blast turned the head of a slasher into a mess of exploding gore. Before its dead body could even hit the floor, Aaron was already dealing with another mutant.

While he was protecting her, Kira was busy reloading her revolvers. Flicking their spinning chambers open, she shook the spent casings out. She then holstered one revolver and placed a speed loader over the empty slots. After that, she shoved rounds into the other revolver's chamber.

As soon as she had both handguns reloaded, she thumbed back the hammers. After nodding her thanks to Aaron, she resumed killing mutants around her.

The other two members of the team, Felix and Rajan, were both using fully automatic assault rifles. Their weapons chattered nonstop, with spent shell casings flying from their sides as they unleashed a steady stream of fire on the mutants.

The team of four continued to take out various mutants around them. Despite the high-stakes situation, they handled it exceptionally well, remaining composed. Even with the presence of many powerful, fast, and skilled mutants, none managed to inflict any harm on the four humans. The experienced survivors were confident that they would get through this floor alive and unscathed.

Little did they know that the mutant they should have been most concerned about, much more powerful than any they were currently engaged with, was clinging to the ceiling above, watching the survivors as they fought off the other mutants while patiently biding his time.

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