Chapter 138

  Jake wasn’t sure how much they knew about him, but they clearly hadn’t expected him to suddenly use one of their own ons against them. Some of the bandits stopped firing and ducked, trying to hide deeper ihe rge vehicle. Through the tremendous roar of gunfire, Jake heard one of the Demons shout to the driver to get them out of there. Unfortunately for them, the shouter didn’t know the driver was already dead by that point—Jake had targeted him first.

  The first several bullets he fired struck the driver’s door but caused no damage at all because the SUV rotected by wards. Sigils glowed at the points of tact, disiing the bullets into mere dust and not leaving a mark oal. Jake quickly adjusted his aim, walking the line of bullets upward until he hit the driver. The first bullet drilled into his shoulder. The sed one, which was ented, bit into his ned detoearing out a rge k of flesh and causing a fountain of blood to gush from the nasty wound. The third one was a regur bullet, and it turned half the driver’s fato a gory mess.

  Jake then swung his fire to the right, unleashing a barrage of bullets into the car’s interior through the open windows. By that point, none of the gangsters remained he windows as they had all ducked deeper into the vehicle, hoping the wards pced on the car body would shield them. Jake released a long burst of fire into the back of the car through one of the windows and saw a red mist erupt outward. Someone ihe rge vehicle had been hit, but it was hard to tell if they were still alive or not.

  The gangster manning the mae gun mounted on the roof was now the only one firing back at Jake. However, he seemed tle to take aim, likely overwhelmed by panic. Jake, oher hand, was as cold as stone, his aim steady. pletely ign the rounds zipping past him, he walked his fire up the side of the vehicle and across the upper body of the Demoing the mae gun. Red blossomed across his chest, and the limp body of the now-dead bandit slipped through the roof hatto the vehicle.

  Jake eased his finger off the trigger. No one was firing back at him anymore. After the tremendous roar of guhe ensuing silence felt eerie. He released the mae gun and jumped from the truck bed to the ground. Running out of the building, he approached the SUV. A ghrough the windows revealed the age ihe rge vehicle. Mutited bodies were piled on top of each other, and the inside of the car ttered with blood.

  Not all of them were dead, however. Upon spotting Jake’s terrifying face, with rge unblinking eyes and a mouth full of jagged, poieeth, one gangster let out a panicked scream and scrambled to disentangle himself from the dead bodies surrounding him. He crawled to the far side of the vehicle, trying to distance himself from Jake as much as he could within the fined space of the car. Once he reached the door, he blindly groped for the handle, his gaze never leaving Jake’s frightening eyes staring back at him.

  Before the man could open the door, Jake sprouted three loacles from his back. With lightning speed, he maneuvered oo the vehicle through the window, and the moment the Demon saw it, he let out a terrified scream.

  “No,” he screamed just before the pointed, razor-sharp tip of the tentacle lunged forward, stabbing him in the eye and drilling deep into his brain.

  Jake yanked his tentacle back, and the bandit’s lifeless body slid from the backseat onto the floorboard. He quickly sed the other bodies to check for any signs of life. Suddenly, the passenger door of the cab swung open, revealing that the man in the shotgu was still alive. As soon as he burst out of the car, Jake straightened up and ran to the front of the vehicle.

  The man was wounded in one leg and struggled to run quickly. He gnced over his shoulder a out a panicked scream upon seeing Jake with three loacles writhing behind him. The Demon raised a rge pistol he held in one hand and popped off a few hasty shots at him. Jake didn’t even flinch. One bullet whizzed past his head, missing by an inch, while another punched into his shoulder, inflig minimal damage.

  Jake didn’t bother to chase after the bandit. Instead, he used one of his three tentacles, ung it toward the fleeing man aending it to its full length. The bde at the tip of the tentacle stabbed into the man’s back, throwing him off band sending him crashing to the ground. The three tentacles reached the end of their lifespan aached. The bandit was still alive, however, crawling across the asphalt toward where his pistol had flown from his hand when he fell.

  Jake was about to leap toward the bandit to deliver the final blow when he suddenly became aware of someone’s presenearby. He looked to the right and saw her. She her futuristic-looking motorcycle, over a hundred yards dowreet, looking in his dire. Jake immediately reized the woman, whose name was Catalina.

  The first time he had seen her was on a rainy night wheood atop a ten-story building, watg her chase a group of survivors into a trap on her bike. Her aplices appeared in front of the fleeing survivors, capturing them and driving them away in one of their vehicles. Just before Catalina followed her panions, she caught sight of him standing on the roof.

  So it was their sed enter. Catalina remained seated on her motorcycle, making no move to ride toward him. Her hood was down this time, exposing her short bck hair that barely brushed her shoulders. A red bandana covered the lower half of her face, leaving only her keen eyes visible and cealing the rest of her features.

  Jake wasn’t sure how long she had been there, watg him. She might have withe entire se: the angsters chasing him into the building and then him firing at the SUV from inside before exiting the building. He couldn’t tell if she worked with the gangsters in the SUV and the pickup truck to hunt him down or if she had merely stumbled upon him by ce. Knowing that various groups within Los Demonios now worked together to hunt him down, Jake leaoward the former. Besides, the city was enormous, so the odds that she had actally crossed paths with him again were slim to none.

  However, she made no move toward him. She must have been smarter than that. After witnessing what he was capable of, she likely decided to keep her distance. With a thought, Jake summoned her stats, whistantly appeared in his mind. He already knew her name, so he was mostly ied only in her level. It turned out to be eighty-five, which was thirty-one higher than his own. But that wouldn’t matter much if she decided to attack him. Jake already knew he was a force to be reed with, capable of handling oppos that surpassed him by more than a dozen levels without any trouble at all.

  Suddenly, a gunsh out, and a bullet whizzed past him. Jake jerked his head to the side and saw that the guy he had wounded in the back with a tentacle just a minute before was now lying on his bad aiming his rge pistol at him, holding it with both hands. Just as the gangster fired another shot and missed again, Jake vaulted over the SUV’s hood and reached the Demon in a single leap.

  Before the bandit could pull the trigger a third time, Jake extended a bde from his right wrist and swung it down, slig through the guy’s wrists. They dropped to the ground, the pistol still held in them, and dark blood poured from the cut ends of his arms. The bandit opened his mouth to scream, but before a sound could e out, Jake struck out again, the tip of his sword plunging into the guy’s open mouth. The bde sliced through his skull to burst from the back of his head in a shower of gore.

  The roar of an engine prompted Jake to swiftly pull his sword free and wheel to face a hreat. He saw Catalina driving toward him, quickly gaining speed. So maybe she wasn’t as smart as he’d thought after all. Jake extended a bde from his left wrist as well and waited for her to draw closer.