Picking up a severed arm from the ground, Leon throws the arm a little way in front of him while hiding, again, among the pile of bodies, attracting the attention of the two soldiers standing guard there.

"What was that?" A male voice asked, and with knife in hand, Leon just focused on whatever he could hear, any noise that would indicate their movement.

"Cover me, but don't get too close." The same voice said, and the sound of footsteps became closer, until one of the soldiers appeared in the agent's line of sight.

The soldier ran his eyes around, focusing them on the pile of bodies for a few moments, until he went back to looking for the source of the noise.

The two soldiers were far away from each other, and although the second soldier was not in the agent's line of sight, they were both looking in the same direction. In other words, Leon couldn't move at the moment.

"That's weird. Let's get the rest of the equipment and leave it here by the door, just in case." The soldier said, turning and walking away.

As soon as the soldier turned around, however, Leon acted. He stepped out of the pile of bodies, moved quickly and silently with his knife in hand until he and the second soldier faced each other.

Instants, brief moments, maybe even less than a second the time they stared at each other. The soldier's eyes widened, but before he could even warn his partner who had his back to Leon, the agent acted, and threw his knife in the direction of the second soldier, striking him full in the neck.

The soldier with his back to the blond was startled and raised his rifle, however, no matter how fast he went, his back was totally vulnerable to Leon, and before the soldier could even turn around, he felt his head being grabbed before his consciousness left his body.

Leon still stood in the same position, looking at the two bodies on the ground and with his arms still open in front of him. He hadn't even thought about what it would feel like to break someone's neck, and honestly, a part of him, deep in his being, even considered that he would feel numb.

That he would feel bad.

But the reality was that he didn't feel anything. Which was strange and left him confused.

He literally made his first human victims...

Straightening his posture, Leon ran his eyes over the bodies for a few more moments and walked over to his knife.

Maybe he shouldn't be so surprised. In fact, it was almost naïve of him to be surprised by this. William did say that the training he would undergo would make him the best soldier. A killing machine.

Ignoring those thoughts, Leon turns around as he hears more footsteps approaching, and soon, he tries to get into position.

"Hey you two, looks like Emilio got an answer from the outside and has something to say to us, he called everyone to... what the fuck?!" The soldier interrupted his own speech when he saw the two bodies on the ground, and he even tried to act, but it was too late.

His eyes couldn't move fast enough for him to see the attack coming from above.

Leon had dangled himself just above the door, and as soon as he saw the opportunity, he let himself fall on top of the man while stabbing his knife into his neck.

He landed with both feet on the ground as the soldier tried to stop the bleeding in his neck, grunting with his voice choked on his own blood, trying desperately to scream or react, but his efforts were in vain, and slowly, his consciousness left him until he was no longer moving.

Leon turned and leaned against the wall next to the door, listening to the footsteps that echoed inside the mansion. Footsteps that moved further and further down until they were almost inaudible.

Apparently it was time for them to retreat.

Waiting a few more moments, he entered the mansion and closed the door, walking slowly towards the end of the small corridor that ran through the kitchen, the living room and, at the end, there was an open trapdoor that was probably where Emilio was.

Before he reaches the trapdoor, however, he grabs a chair, a very thin thread from one of his pockets, and a grenade.

The grenade was... special, so to speak, because he could program the time in which it could explode. From two seconds, up to fifteen.

Leon crouched down and put his legs on one of the steps of the ladder as he closed the trap door slightly. Before he could close it completely, however, he took the thread and tied it to the front of the trapdoor, watching the thread attached to the handle and the grenade pin under the fallen chair.

With that, as soon as the trap door was opened, the grenade pin would be removed and the person would have only two seconds before the grenade exploded.

As he descends the ladder, he runs his eyes down the long, dimly lit corridor. The walls and ceiling seemed to be made of large iron plates, with only the floor being made of concrete.

With his pistol in one hand and his knife in the other, Leon walks down the long corridor until he reaches a point where the corridor splits in two directions.

To the right, the corridor extended for another considerable way, and there was a room, similar to an office, with closed windows that showed some soldiers standing looking at some point ahead. At the end of the corridor was something that appeared to be an elevator.

To the left, the corridor ended a few meters away and there was a room with a slightly open door. Behind this door Leon could see what appeared to be the generator.

He didn't have to think long to decide what to do, and soon, he walked to the generator.

The darkness was immediate, interrupting whatever those terrorists were talking about. Among the slightly altered voices, there was one louder than the others, this one dictating orders to the soldiers.

Leaving the door open, Leon moves through the darkness and climbs the wall beside the door, holding onto one of the pipes that ran just below the ceiling.

Moving slowly, he looks down and watches the lanterns approaching, as well as the voices that were getting louder and louder.

"Who was the last one to look at this thing?" One of the men asked as he walked over.

"I don't know. I think it was one of the men outside. Haven't they come yet?" Another, his partner, probably, answered, and Leon watched the first soldier enter the room. A moment later, the second, carrying something that looked like a toolbox.

"Do you see them here, at all?" The other asked snidely, somewhat irritated.

"Hey, fuck you! It's not my fault!"

"It doesn't fucking matter! I took the time to get the system online again, and now, the power goes down! We're vulnerable now." The man said, bending down and opening the generator motor, checking the inside with his flashlight for the source of the problem.

Moving silently to the side, Leon takes a deep breath and lets himself fall on the man further back. And just like the man upstairs, he plunged his knife into that soldier's neck and landed with both feet firmly on the ground.

The low noise caught the attention of the soldier ahead, and just as he turned around, however, Leon stabbed him in the throat as well, following his body to the ground while still keeping his knife stuck in the soldier's flesh, ignoring the blood that stained his hands.

Bending down, Leon picks up the rifle with flashlight attached and slides the weapon across the floor outside the generator room.

Now, all he had to do was wait.

"If the base sends us instructions we have only five minutes to copy them and at most a few hours to act. In other words, we'll all have to go to the extraction area on foot." He heard a male voice coming from the room not far from there.

Emilio, passing information to the soldiers still inside the room while waiting for the problem to be solved.

"That is, of course, if we can restore the fucking power." Emilio said again, and Leon could hear footsteps coming from the room.

"Vincenzo, are you finished in there?" The man asked, leaning his body out of the room and looking toward the fallen lantern on the floor.

There was a moment of silence, a tense moment in which Leon could imagine that Emilio was passing silent instructions to the other soldiers.

A moment later, he heard the sound of something bouncing on the floor. Something of light weight, but with strong materials in its composition.

And then came the explosion of light and the deafening noise that, luckily for Leon, did not affect him because he was relatively far away and protected by an iron wall.

Footsteps began to approach with speed. Footsteps that soon split, and Leon could hear, muffled, one or another soldier moving along the corridor leading to the trap door while two others approached the room where he was hiding.

Dropping himself, Leon hits the back of the first soldier's head with his knee as he turned around while still in the air. Landing, he throws his knife towards the other soldier, who manages to protect his face and neck, but grunts as the blade stabs into his forearm.

After he recovered, however, he still could do nothing, for Leon was already in front of him, punching him in the face, taking his knife again and stabbing him in the side of the neck while knocking him to the ground.

Turning around shortly after, the blond man threw his knife again, hitting the soldier in the chest as he stood up.

That made a noise, and the soldiers who had gone down the other corridor were already hurrying back.

Taking the soldier's rifle at his feet, Leon waited until the others got close enough, and as soon as he saw the opportunity, he leaned his body to the side and fired, taking them by surprise and hitting them in several areas of the body, until he hit them in the head.

Before Leon could move, however, more shots echoed through the empty corridors, and the agent grunted as he felt the side of his body being hit a few times, but that had been protected by his vest.

On instinct, he ran back into the generator room, which was being hit by gunfire, and hid in the next wall.

"They sent you to kill me?! Sons of bitches! I won't be discarded like this!" Emilio shouted as Leon threw the rifle to the ground and picked up his pistol.

From his pouch attached to the back of his waist, he grabbed a stun grenade and threw it out the door.

He could hear Emilio gasp, followed by rushing footsteps before the explosion of light happened.

Leon left immediately after this, pointing his pistol toward the office door ahead as he moved forward at a rapid pace while grabbing a small flashlight also from his back pouch.

As soon as he got close enough, he moved away from the window while pointing his gun at the interior of the place, illuminated by his flashlight.

He would continue to approach, were it not for the fact that Emilio had thrown a hand grenade through the window, which fell along with the glass fragments.

Leon's eyes widened slightly and he ran away, throwing himself down the corridor leading to the iron trapdoor and feeling the ground shake with the explosion of the grenade.

He recovered quickly and ran as he heard Emilio approaching fast. As soon as he crossed the corner of the corridor, he reflexively ducked, dodging a blow coming from the terrorist, and countered with an elbow to the stomach, causing Emilio to gasp and bow slightly.

Leon stood up and landed a hook to the man's chin, followed by another punch to the chin and two shots to the stomach.

However, to Leon's surprise, Emilio withstood the shots, and instead of falling or getting off balance, he countered, trying to land a back kick on the agent, who dodged to the side.

Emilio soon turned and pointed a pistol toward Leon, already with his finger on the trigger. But Leon was quicker and grabbed the barrel of the gun, pushing it to the side and punching Emilio in the face, who sidestepped and punched the agent in the stomach, who despite being protected by the vest, could feel a certain force behind the blow, which made him move a step away.

This step opened an opportunity for Emilio to aim the gun again, however, Leon spun his body around and landed a kick to the terrorist's arm, shooting at him a few more times.

This time Emilio fell to the ground, blood dripping down his stomach and chest. Weak, but alive, and all too well considering that he had been shot in several places.

"You idiot! You... damn you! It doesn't matter if I die... you're not getting out!" Emilio said, grabbing something from one of his pockets, but before he could reveal what it was, Leon shot him in the head. A clear shot to the forehead.

The blond, still with his arm raised, pointed at the terrorist, sighed, feeling the adrenaline slowly leaving his body.

That scene, him standing there, bloodstained, surrounded by bodies, almost made him look like the bad guy, even though he was the exact opposite.

He just wished he had arrived sooner, maybe that little girl out there would still be alive.

Well, at least he could make sure there were no other children there. And if there are, he could get them out before he went to the lab.

"Kennedy here... target eliminated." He said in his communicate, focusing his eyes again on Emilio's body.

More specifically, to his hand.

There was a type of control with only one red button on his hand. It was small, and there was a small antenna.

In his pants pocket was a small object similar to a portable cell phone.

Leon closed his eyes, puzzled. Why did Emilio try to show this to him?

As if to answer his question, the noise of the elevator caught his attention, and with steady steps he walked a few meters in front of the elevator.

The agent took his pistol and leaned his back against the wall of the divergence between the corridors, leaving only part of his body visible to observe the situation.

The elevator stopped, he hid, and the doors opened.

Silence, that's all there was afterwards. There was no sound of footsteps, no voices, nothing.

Confused, he tilts his body to the side again, and steps out of his small cover when he sees that the place is empty.

The elevator was empty and there was no sign that anyone had entered.

Strange... was Emilio bluffing?

Sighing slightly, Leon turns around, already intending to get out of there.

But as soon as he tried to turn around, a noise, a grunt made itself present behind him. And at a glance, he could see something moving at great speed.

He jumped to the side as his instincts screamed, already grabbing his pistol as he stood up and pointed it toward where he was standing. But, he blinks in confusion as he sees that there was nothing there.

He definitely heard and saw something, no chance it was all from his mind.

And again, that same noise made itself present behind him, and he threw himself to the ground, hearing the sound of the iron wall literally being torn apart by something extremely sharp.

Grabbing a grenade from his back pouch, he tossed the stun grenade to the ground and threw himself forward, rolling on the ground a few times before the grenade exploded.

There was a roar, and Leon's eyes widened slightly as he saw the creature in front of him.

The creature was tall, with a sturdy body. A green skin and thick reptile-like scales that seemed capable of withstanding a great deal of damage. His pistol would not be enough.

The creature had long arms with large claws on its fingers, thick and strong legs. The head was a mixture of human and reptilian features with extremely sharp teeth and a wide mouth. The monster had some spines growing out of its back and its eyes were red.

A hunter that could turn invisible? That was not in the file.

Not to mention that this hunter looked different.

The creature, still stunned, roared and threw itself against the wall while trying to recover.

Leon, realizing the opportunity, puts his pistol in his holster, picks up his specially modified rifle for this type of infected, and shoots while retreating.

The hunter roared as it felt its scales being penetrated and the flesh destroyed by the compressed explosions, and then, perhaps in desperation, threw itself at Leon, who jumped to the side.

The hunter, however, advanced towards Leon again, this time even faster than before, trying to cut the agent with its extremely sharp claws.

The blond man fired as he threw himself back, hitting the creature in the head, which simply started running towards him, taking the shots directly but ignoring the pain and damage the bullets were causing.

Leon gritted his teeth and widened his eyes at the speed of the thing, and he could hardly dodge it.

But to his surprise, the hunter grabbed him with two huge hands and threw him against the wall with such force that Leon gasped as he felt the air being expelled from his lungs and he swore he felt his ribs crack.

The hunter raised one arm and opened his clawed hands, ready to kill him.

The agent, groaning in pain, shot at the arm that held him, forcing the creature to let go, but not stopping the attack.

He crouched down and threw himself forward, going under the hunter's legs and reloading his rifle. To his surprise, the hunter turned suddenly and struck him with the back of its huge hand, literally hurling him down the corridor to the base of the ladder leading to the trap door.

Leon grunted and spat out a small amount of blood. Damn, facing that thing in a cramped space like that was asking to die.

Standing up with some difficulty, he feels his heart beat faster as he sees the hunter running towards him.

Acting fast, he jumps to a step of the ladder and opens the trap door completely, jumping down soon after.

The hunter roared and threw itself towards Leon, who threw himself against the wall on the opposite side of the ladder, dodging the creature's attack and standing literally in front of the huge reptilian torso.

The hunter roared, but before it could attack Leon, the grenade exploded, causing the creature to destabilize and stagger slightly from the impact, which gave the agent the perfect opportunity to put the barrel of the rifle in the hunter's mouth and fire as much as he could.

The creature roared loudly in pain and staggered back, placing one of its large hands over its mouth, where its jaw was practically hanging by a few pieces of flesh due to the damage from the weapon.

Leon took another grenade and threw it over the hunter's feet, climbing the ladder soon after and waiting for the explosion, which soon came.

He could see the creature falling to the ground, and reloaded his rifle while the hunter, although wounded, stood up at great speed, almost as if unable to feel pain.

Leon took a large step backward when the hunter's claw came within inches of his feet, and he opened fire again.

The hunter grunted and put one of its arms in front of its face to try to protect itself from the shots, which worked and prevented it from taking massive damage to the head, but caused all that damage to focus on the arm, and with each shot, more flesh was blown from its body, more holes opened, and more fragile it became.

The hunter jumped up, literally shattering part of the surroundings of the trapdoor, as well as part of the surrounding walls, and clung to the ceiling, where he looked down at Leon with murderous red eyes and threw itself against the agent shortly thereafter.

Leon jumped to the side again, shooting at the hunter, which by now, was missing its jaw.

The creature leaped towards him again, attempting a vertical attack with its claws, but Leon crouched down, laying on his back on the ground and shooting at the hunter above him, until he was kneeling with only one leg and continued shooting until he had to reload once more.

The hunter staggered, with many holes in its body and losing a lot of blood. However, there was still a trick up its sleeve.

The spines on the hunter's back moved, and before Leon could do anything, the spines were shot out with extreme force in all directions.

The agent turned his head to the side and put his hand over his face, and somehow he dodged one of the thorns. Well, at least he avoided being killed by it.

The force with which the thorn was shot was so strong that the thorn pierced his hand completely in front of his face, where it also pierced both his cheeks, literally stabbing through his mouth and forcing him to keep his mouth open.

Well, maybe he should be thankful that he had opened his mouth earlier, otherwise he would have lost some teeth.

The pain was intense and all he could do at the moment was grunt. He, hearing the hunter's grunts, soon began to slowly pull his hand away, being able to feel the blood flowing the more he moved, until he managed to remove his hand from the thorn.

Soon after this, he raised his rifle, approached the weakened hunter, put the rifle barrel into the creature's mouth, and fired, until the hunter fell to the ground, motionless, with the inside of its body extremely damaged.

Leon, slightly out of breath, places the rifle on his back again and grabs the thorn still stuck in his open mouth. Small grunts of pain were heard until he could completely remove the thorn from his cheeks.

The metallic taste of blood invaded his mouth and ran down the side of his face. It was only when he looked down after feeling the blood drain down his neck that he saw two thorns embedded in his vest and one embedded in his thigh.

That species of Hunter was new. The species they have records of could not camouflage themselves in the environment to the point of becoming invisible, much less shoot spines out of their backs.

After taking one of the herbal mixtures he had and sighing as he felt the immediate effect of the mixture, he decides to leave the mansion.

"Kennedy here... I was unable to continue with my report earlier. I was attacked by a class B... no, a class A infected." He said, looking at the mostly destroyed trapdoor.

"A class A? What do you mean? It shouldn't have class A in there."

"Yes, it did. Maybe it still does. This Hunter, unlike the ones we have records of, attacked me. I could hardly react since it could cloak itself to the environment to the point of becoming invisible and walk so silently that I couldn't hear its footsteps. This thing also threw thorns at me from its back and is much tougher than those we are aware of." He explained, walking over to Hunter's body and crouching down right next to it.

"Roger that. Good, Agent Kennedy, collect blood samples and bring it over here."

"Copy that." He replied, grabbing a few vials from one of his vest pockets.

After he got the blood samples, he stood up and checked what ammo he still had left from his rifle. That thing was almost a sponge of bullets, even though they were bullets specially made for Hunters.

With luck, he wouldn't find another one of those. But, he couldn't leave that mansion like that. It could very well have another one of those things.

Maybe even other subjects... although the chances of having any living people in there were very low.

"I need a group here. There are more unexplored floors underground." He said, looking once more at his body for some other injury.

That herbal mixture, however, had already made him feel better. He could feel his wounds healing.

"Understood. Finish the mission and we'll send a group over there along with the helicopter from your extraction point." He said, and Leon didn't respond.

With that in mind, he just left the mansion and started making his way down the dirt path to the entrance of the lab.