RB Chapter 175 A Dangerous Place

"Chloe be careful and cautious." Eric warned Chloe and even gave her a meaningful gaze. She had to make sure that she stopped Elene from being impulsive. The others had already left, leaving the two teams of Eric and Chloe still by the entrance to the lobby of the building.

"Okay." She acknowledged before leading Elena away.

Eric on the other hand shifted his gaze somewhere, a tunnel leading outside from the basement. He had taken a look upon arriving but it had been so dark that he had gotten the chills. He felt that there was something off with this building but he couldn't put his finger on it.

"What is it?" He must have looked concerned because Sally, who was standing beside him asked.

"I hope its nothing, but we have to be very cautious. This city isn't simple." He cautioned. Sally nodded. She believed him since he was stronger than her.

"Okay, let's go." He took the lead to walk towards the lobby. Many plants composed of vines and trees grew within the lobby. Looking at their dark green forms, they appeared to be in good health. Eric weaved through the vines with Leah as they headed inside, searching for a hole above which they could climb through.

"Sally, have there been any bizarre reports related to this city?" Eric asked. He had a nagging feeling that that there was more to this city.

"None that I know of." Sally answered. She had activated her genetic powers, causing her greenish yellow SYMOR to extend and cover all the skin on her body except the eyes. Her genetic makeup was that of a crocodile. Spikes grew along her spine giving her a ferocious appearance. A scaly tail had also grown out of her waist. It was thick, with the same color of scales as those lining her body.

"You probably have never faced life threatening situations all that much, but I, who has, can feel it. Danger is permeating everywhere ever since we entered this building. But so far nothing noteworthy has entered my senses...only tiny weak critters."

"Could you be mistaken?" Sally asked as she parted a vine. Even though they seemed as if they were leisurely advancing, they were on high alert, mostly Eric. Right now, he even had tiny electric arcs slithering within his silky black hair.

"Are you scared?" She asked once again.

"Yes, and I believe you would too if you had awakened your danger sensing instincts." He answered.

Eric wasn't lying or being an alarmist. Chills were continuously going down his spine while he walked. If it wasn't because he had to save Leah, there is no way he would have continued on.

Sally's face behind him turned grave. She was contemplating his words. After a but of thinking she started scanning the area around using the faint light that managed to breakthrough the shield that was the plants.

At first, everything seemed normal, but as she focussed, she started to catch sight of the discrepancies. Most of them were related to the plants. The longer she looked, the more she started to see that they all looked the same. Even though they somehow managed to make themselves different, the leaf structure remained the same...then her eyes widened in realisation and terror.

"I believe you are right." She decided not to reveal what she had managed to deduce. She even forcefully controlled her emotions when she talked, or else her voice could have quivered within her throat. As she looked at Eric's back, she was sure that he hadn't yet noticed the anomaly of the plants here.

Eric became happy that after that last sentence, she had kept quiet. Now he could focus all of his senses on preparing for the danger that he was sure was coming. As they strolled along, they eventually found a hole leading to the next floor.

Eric pulled on the vines to make sure that they could hold their weight. After confirming that it was possible, he used one and climbed up as swiftly as possible.

Sally didn't want to touch the vines after coming to a certain speculation, but if it was right, then she had to make sure that she didn't show that she had found iyt, or else everything might go awry, so she gritted her teeth, held onto the vine and clambered up after Eric.

'I must tell him when we reach an area without any plants. This place is very terrifying!' She thought.

Eric looked around upon reaching the next floor. It appeared that this used to be a large hall, probably one used to hold meetings. They had made an agreement to only advance on floors which had windows as the light would give them an advantage.

"Let's speed up. This place isn't simple." Eric said before he dashed towards one of the windows. The glass pane had shattered, some of its shards could be seen scattered on the floor, covered in dust. He appeared at the edge and then he craned his neck to gaze upwards.

'I will use the vines.' He came up with an idea. He might even catch Monki off guard. He caught one of the vines, and then he climbed up so fast, as if he were a lizard. Sally followed his example and did the same thing.

-----

"They are at the ruins of Balimi city." Bunyogovu was reporting to the elder. The potbellied man had already left so they were the only two in the room.

"Balimi city..." Elder Muti mumbled to himself as his finger tapped on the desk.

"Balimi city? Then I have to pray for them." Another voice chimed in. Someone else was in the room, Kiwuka...her love of tracksuits was still going strong. She had arrived long after the potbellied man.

"Do you know anything we don't?" Bunyogovu took the initiative to ask.

"That city is weird. Due to the war being of a higher priority, I haven't had the chance to report, but some of my ants vanished within that place." She said.

"What do you mean?" The elder's finger paused midair when it was going in for another tap. His gaze became inquisitive.

"I don't know, all I know is that there is this building in the city, whatever is in there must be terrifying. If a living thing enters it never comes back out. Even when my ants made the beasts retreat, they gave the building a wide berth. I ordered a few to enter, but they never made it out, probably eaten or dead." She explained.

"How can you keep such an urgent matter to yourself? That is an important strategic city! Even though the food plants have been growing wildly, the harvest we can get alone can feed the people of this city for a month! I was even contemplating sending a harvesting team! What if they died? How would I have explained myself?" The elder shouted, his spittle flying everywhere. At first Kiwuka was stunned, then realisation set in and she apologised.

Elder Muti sighed and decided to let the matter go after all she was loyal to him.

"What do you think was the cause of the death of your ants?" He asked.

"If I am not wrong, it must be a plant." She answered.

-----

"Chloe, I can feel it,my spine is tingling in anticipation! Something strong is here!" Elena said as she climbed up a staircase behind Chloe.

"Elena, I hope you stay on track. Our most important task is to rescue Leah." Chloe reminded without even turning her head back.

"I know, but its just that ever since I entered this place, my blood has been boiling! Its as if something here has an aura that is in contention with mine, as if its issuing a challenge." Elena answered honestly.

'It looks like she too can feel the danger of this place.' Chloe thought.

"All that can wait until we get our hands on Leah." She answered.

Elena hummed in agreement, but her eyes were moving around as if she was searching for something.

She could feel it in her mind, something here was giving off a very powerful threat. Her predatory genes were reacting as if in challenge to that entity. What she had left out was that she felt a very powerful threat from whatever was here.

'Leah, how did you climb up this place with that idiot? This place is even more dangerous than the wilderness!' Elena thought.

"Let's speed up." Chloe started rushing up the stairs. This place was creepy. They had to make sure that they hurried with what they were about to do and then leave it...that's what she thought.

-----

As all the teams sped up, the ground floors were being left behind at a rapid pace, but among all the teams, at least one person could feel the faint danger of this place. Each team had chosen their own point of entry away from the others. They even had earpieces through which they could communicate and track each other, preventing a situation where their paths converged.

The team leading the pack was composed of Miss Njibwa and that woman from the captain's team. They had climbed almost 30 floors in just a matter of minutes.

Njibwa had a sheen of sweat beading her forehead. This was trenius even by her standards. Having to climb vines and staircases while being affected by gravity was one of the sure ways to get tired fast, not to mention that they were running, not stopping.

"Should we rest?" The woman asked upon seeing her condition. Her breath was even and she didn't seem to even have broken a sweat. This was just a matter of course to her. Njibwa shouldn't have been thus worn out if she had regulated the various processes in her body.

The woman had an urge to mock her, but since they were currently working for her, she decided against it. Plus she had seen the ugly side of this woman, so all the best that she didn't get on her bad side.

"No, let's continue." Njibwa took the lead to run. As they continued to clamber up, the woman noticed that the light from outside had dimmed considerably, so she found a window, cleared away all the vines and peered out. Clouds had appeared in the sky at unknown time, they were the heavy grey clouds which signified that they carried a lot of water within them, rain clouds.

"It seems like rain will finally start falling." Njibwa said after appearing beside the woman.

"Tch!" For the woman, she had instead clicked her tongue in annoyance. She hated rain, especially when it came in the middle of carrying out an outdoor mission.

Crack!

As they were staring at the clouds, a crack entered their ears, from under their feet. They didn't even pause for a second as each reached put and wound a vine tightly around their hands. It had been so abrupt that if they hadn't acted fast they would died!

The piece of floor they were previously standing on cracked and fell down to the next floor, leaving a 6 metre wide hall.

"This is going to be troublesome." The woman commented while looking down. On the other hand, Njibwa had a look of lingering fear etched on her face. The crumbled floor had almost led to her death, or probably heavy injuries.

The reason her face had paled was simple, she had an instinctual feeling that something was gazing at her from an unknown place. If she fell down there and got heavily injured, that something might pounce on her.

The two didn't dwadle any longer. They climbed up the vines they were holding onto and continued on towards the top.

-----

"Shit! I could have been oogling at that woman's ass right about now!" A man cursed. It was the captain. He was currently climbing up a vine right behind the driver.

"Couldn't she have allowed me to do that? Why does she have to be that hard to get along with!" He continued complaining.

He had been like that ever since they had separated from the group. The driver listened to his tantrums without uttering a single word.

"Is it that bad that I want some nice ass to look at? Hmmm!?" 

"And what's with this place? Its all creepy and gloomy. Its as if its a cemetery. Should we crumble this building after the mission?" He asked out loud.

"Hmmmm...where is the liveliness I expect from a jungle? Where are the critters? Where are the fruits? I am getting hungry."

"Hey man, have you managed to spot any?" The captain asked the driver upon which the man shook his head in denial. He was the kind of person who treated words like gold. Every word had its own weight that couldn't be estimated in his mind. The captain knew about it so he was the one who mostly talked.

"Did you see Njibwa's figure? My God! That woman is like a peerless goddess! Just one night with her and I think I would ascend to heaven! Too bad she has a foul temper." The man cursed. But his eyes had lit up when he mentioned her beauty. His crotch had even formed a tent in his pants.

"Its a pity! Really really a pity! Why can't I get such a woman? I am handsome strong, and even have a promising job...well except for those monsters the spectrum warriors." He frowned at the mention of those people.

"After this mission I am going to find a bombastic babe and unleash all my frustrations. Too bad I am only limited to seeing Njibwa's body, not touching." The man's mouth was comparable to a machine gun spewing out words like bullets.

The driver looked around once they reached a bright room. He noticed the gathering rain clouds in the distance and frowned heavily. This place was weird...he couldn't pu his finger on it, but he had a feeling like he was a fly caught in a web. Rain would only make this place more dangerous, first of all, the building was old. If it rained, they might have difficulties scaling or leaving it.

"Hey! Are you listening to what I am saying?" The captain's voice entered his ears. He was starting to find it irritating. First of all the man had no manners, disrespecting the boss's woman was a huge mistake. If any of the words he had just said got out, he might be heavily punished.

The driver had only recently joined the team so he didn't have that much of an attachment. He only had one goal, accumulate enough points so that he could be given a chance to purchase a spectrum solution. Becoming a spectrum warrior would allow his status to soar into the clouds, and he wouldn't have to go on useless missions like this.

'Those two are definitely spectrum warriors. I wonder whether they have something that can allow me to advance?' He wondered.

'Though, the curious thing is, why did they not get assigned?' as he climbed up he started to simulate scenarios on how to approach them.