Chapter 137

  Heavy-caliber bullets zipped through the air like crazy hors. Jake tio run, ign the chaos unfolding ihe room. Just as he reached the doorway leading deeper into the building, a translut bluish surface popped up in front of him, pletely filling the entrance. Uo stop in time, Jake smmed into the semi-transparent wall, boung back. He morphed his right hand into a smashfist and struck the bluish magical barrier with all the strength he could muster.

  To his surprise, the powerful blow didn’t do anything at all. The magical barrier turned out to be as strong as a stone wall. Scratch that, it was even stronger. While pung a stone wall with a smashfist might not have been enough to shatter it, it would at least have left a dent. The magical barrier in front of him, however, showed no visible damage at all. With his only escape route blocked, Jake pivoted to the right and sprinted away as the Demon tio unleash gunfire.

  Heavy-caliber bullets ripped through the debris strewn across the room, drilled into the ex-humans milling about, and puhrough the replication pods dangling from the ceiling. Rounds smmed into the floor and walls, sending fragments of crete and clouds of dust flying in all dires. Every sed bullet exploded on impact, tearing huge ks of flesh out of weak, low-level ex-humans and causing replication pods to burst apart, spttering liquid everywhere aroying the embryos of undeveloped creatures.

  Jake tio run in a semicircle, gradually closing in on the pickup truck. He was moving so fast the guruggled to track him with the mounted on. Suddenly, Jake felt his speed begin to wane. Immediately afterward, a system message fshed through his mind.

  Ahereal Grasp has been cast on you.

  One of the bandits, likely the person manning the mae gun, had just used a magic spell on him. Jake didn’t o read its description to know what kind of spell it was. It was meant to either freeze him in pce or slow him down. If it was inteo fully immobilize him, it had failed. Still, he certainly felt his movements being sluggish, but thankfully not too much. The points he had ied in the Magick attribute definitely paid off, likely increasing his resistao such spells.

  Still, now that he was affected by Ethereal Grasp, it became somewhat easier for the guet him. Jake felt a round sm into his right shoulder, staggering him momentarily. It wasn’t an ented bullet, so it didn’t inflict much damage. But the ohat hit him was. It drilled into his side and exploded iearing a k of flesh from his body. Jake was starting to get pissed. Why couldn’t Los Demonios just leave them alone? Did they have a death wish or something? For all their trouble, it could end only one way.

  Another system notifierged in his mind.

  A Shadow Tether has been cast on you.

  Jake had no idea what this spell was for. He didn’t feel any ge in his body, so he mentally summohe description of the spell.

  Shadow Tether: Creates a thin, invisible thread that links the caster to a target, either a nearby object or person, allowing the caster to feel their general dire and distance as well as see their outline, even through obstacles. The effect sts a few seds, and the caster also break the spell with a thought.

  Jake wasn’t sure why his enemies had cast such a spell on him. The answer came shortly afterward. A shimmering mist enveloped the area, slightly redug visibility. Again, likely due to his advanced Magick attribute, he could still see quite well. He realized that the Mist spell—or whatever it was called—hadn’t been directed at him specifically, because uhe previous two spells, he hadn’t received a notification about it. Instead, the Mist spell must have been cast over the entire room, affeg every creature within. He could see other ex-humans looking around in fusioe having limited visibility, the mutants dashed toward the pickup truck, using the sound of the firing mae gun for dire, although some tripped over debris and fell.

  Jake khat survivors could learn magi scrolls, each taining a spell for oime use. Scrolls were extremely rare—probably the rarest items in this game-like world. For that reason, he rarely used spells himself when he was a survivor. However, the two bandits in the pickup truck didn’t seem to ck spells, having already cast four different ohat wasn’t all that surprising, sidering the gang they beloo had an abundance of various resources. It was also possible that after the rest of the gang learned about the defeat of the two Demons who came at him first, the others realized how dangerous he was a pelled to use everything at their disposal to stop him. This seemed pusible, especially given that different groups within the gang were now colborating to hunt him down.

  Now that Jake was uhe effect of the Shadow Tether spell, the gunner—who must have been the oo cast it on him—could clearly see him through the magical, sparkling mist enveloping the area. However, Jake had no trouble seeing through the mist, too. His Magick attribute and Enhanced Senses allowed him to see well even in poor and difficult ditions. He navigated through the debris, dead mutants, and torn replication pods scattered across the floor, drawing closer to the pickup truck with each step.

  Some of the walkers had already made it to the rge vehicle, but her the driver nor the gunner appeared ed. A sed ter, Jake uood why. The first walker that reached the pickup truck spotted the driver through the driver’s door window and raised a cwed hand toward the gss. As soon as the hand touched the window, a sigil fred to life at the tact point. In an instant, a crackle of electricity erupted, sending the walker flying back with great force, half of its body charred.

  So, the pickup truck rotected by wards. However, Jake doubted they would have the same effe him as they did on weaker, low-level ex-humans like walkers. The Ethereal Grasp spell no longer affected him, and his movements returo normal. He ducked as he approached the pickup truck from the front. The gunner was now uet him, and all the bullets he fired zipped harmlessly over Jake’s head. He darted around the front of the trud drew closer to the driver’s window.

  The person at the steering wheel stared at him with a mix of apprehension and fidence, as if he wereirely sure whether the wards on the vehicle were powerful enough to protect him.

  Let’s find out, Jake thought as he threw his right hand, which was transformed into a smashfist, toward the window. The moment his fist made tact, a crag sound began but quickly faded as the gss shattered into thousands of shards, casg down on the screaming driver. With the window shattered, the ward was broken, so nothing prevented Jake from reag ihe cab and grabbing the driver by his head, dragging him through the shattered window. The driver screamed in pain as several shards of gss still jutting from the door raked across his body. Jake dropped the bandit to the floor and immediately stomped on his head, causing it to burst apart like an overripe melon.

  He then leaped into the truck bed and with his left hand, which was transformed into cws, shed out at the gunner’s throat, opening it up. The gaaggered backward and tumbled over the side of the bed, hitting the floor hard. Bullets suddenly poured into the room from the street through the entrand shattered windows lining the front wall. The rge SUV sat directly outside the building, its octs unleashing a barrage of fire into the room with everything they had. A mae gun mounted on the roof was bzing away, while the driver’s-side windows were rolled down, on barrels stig out and muzzles fshing.

  Rushing out of the building and sprinting toward the SUV, with all its octs firing at him, would likely have resulted in his death or serious injury. So Jake opted for a different strategy. He seized the mae gun mounted iruck bed, pivoted it toward the SUV, and unleashed a deadly torrent of gunfire on it.