Two days had passed since Aiden tested his intermediate rank 3 gaseous poison on the Frost-Marrow Beast.
During these two days, Aiden had not been idle. He had traversed a large portion of the outer perimeter of Zone Zero, mapping out the terrain, chokepoints, and natural hazards in his mind. Because of his enhanced smell, vision and hearing, he had managed to avoid many hazards such as blizzards and trees that lashed out at creatures as a biological defense mechanism.
During this period too, he had slaughtered a couple of rank 2 chaotic beasts and absorbed their blood essence.
He eventually chose his main operational base: a massive, half-collapsed skyscraper that was completely encased in thick, ancient ice.
Green vines as thick as tree trunks wrapped around the building’s exterior, while the inside was a dark, hollow maze of frozen concrete and metallic debris.
This place was perfect.
It offered multiple escape routes through the dense canopy, and narrow corridors on the ground floor that forced any ground forces into tight bottlenecks.
Aiden stood on the fifth floor of the ruined skyscraper, looking down at the main entrance through a shattered window frame.
The entrance was completely covered in ice and thick vegetation. This place was a naturally camouflaged area that could not be easily found.
Several chaotic beasts roamed the area but passed it like they didn’t see anything. However, it strangely had multiple escape routes away from any threats. It was the perfect covert base for his hunt.
Aiden’s enhanced senses spread across the region.
It was time to begin setting the traps.
Several corpses of chaotic beasts he had killed appeared before him. He even used the corpses of chaotic beasts he did not kill in zone zero in addition. The numbers were staggering.
Aiden turned some of his crimson arrows into crimson claws.
He tore, slashed and made the bodies of the chaotic beasts look like some battle between chaotic beasts had killed them.
Then, the crimson claws transformed into large hands and grabbed the corpses. The large crimson hands numbered hundreds. They shot out of Aiden’s base of operations, headed towards different areas of zone zero, corpses of chaotic beasts in hand. When the crimson hands arrived in these areas, they dropped the corpses there.
Places with trees that had defense mechanisms. Places with blizzards. Places with camouflaged marshy terrains with chaotic beasts lurking beneath the surface, posing as frozen solid grounds. Places with extreme coldness to the point that a warrior’s worldly energy reserves would be depleted and they would be frozen, as soon as they ventured there.
Places with terrifying, advanced, expert and legendary chaotic beasts camouflaged as green predators so subtle that one would think they were looking at trees.
Aiden did this meticulously. It was a trail that led to biological traps so covert that even an experienced operative would hardly notice as they followed the trails of the corpses to these areas.
Aiden was confident this would work because the key goal of the operation was to eradicate chaotic beasts in zone zero. If the Cyrenthia Empire operatives noticed the corpses of chaotic beasts, with marks that pointed out that battles between chaotic beasts had occurred, they would follow the trails towards the biological traps, thinking chaotic beasts lurked in that area and therefore, they had to get rid of them.
The crimson hands returned to Aiden after their work was done. But Aiden was not finished.
He pulled out several vials of his rank 3 gaseous poisons—including the paralyzing poisons, sensory-dwarfing poisons, and lethal poisons.
Instead of opening them, Aiden used the crimson hands to send them to where the corpses of the chaotic beasts had been dropped. The poisons in the vials were buried beneath the corpses of the chaotic beasts.
Though, he left some of the poisons for his direct use, in case he encountered any rank 3 threat personally.
The crimson hands transformed into tiny, thin, invisible, microscopic firm threads that firmly attached themselves to the poison vials and warped themselves around the poison vials, buried beneath the corpses of the chaotic beasts.
The crimson threads would just shatter the poisons when beginner and intermediate rank 3 chaotic beasts, or Cyrenthia Empire operatives sent here were drawn to them and the biological hazards failed to deal with them.
However, he was very hopeful that the biological hazards would do their work well.
As for his base of operations, it won’t be easily discovered. Plus, his range of vision was all over the place. He could discover any unforeseen threats from here and react in time. If things got messy, he could not just run away. There were about five other hiding spots he had marked for such emergencies.
By the time he finished setting up the traps, the twin moons had already risen high into the night sky, casting a pale, silver light over the frozen, dangerous wilderness.
Aiden remained on the fifth floor.
He retracted his crimson wings and sat down cross-legged on frozen ground.
He brought out a small ration from his bag, ate it calmly, and drank some water.
" This tastes like crap" Aiden sighed.
His enhanced senses remained fully active. His ears listened to the distant howls of chaotic beasts, his nose tracked the shifting scents carried by the freezing wind, and his eyes pierced through the dark fog below.
He was like a patient predator sitting at the center of a massive, lethal ochestrated system, waiting for his prey to arrive.
He knew that the Cyrenthia Empire’s strike team would not take long to arrive. They were coming into Zone Zero with a mission, which meant they would be moving with purpose and speed.
He was eager for them to arrive. He was eager for their blood essence.
He closed his eyes slightly to rest, entering a state of calmness, while completely alert.
The quiet, freezing night of Zone Zero continued to pass, filled with the calm before the inevitable storm.
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