Chapter 112

  With a quick ssh of his sword, Jake severed an arm of one of the sshers that had just charged him. Dumbfouhe mutant just stared at the dark blood p from the stump of its arm, which had just been severed at the elbow. Before the mutant could recover, Jake luoward it, thrusting his sword into the ssher’s chest. The bde plunged deeply into its body, bursting out of its ba an explosion of gore.

  Enemy killed. +250 XP

  Two more sshers charged at him from different dires. He yanked his sword free, and the now-dead mutant colpsed to the floor. Jake quickly spun to fae of the two sshers, swinging one of his bdes to block the mutant’s sword. He then kicked hard at the ssher’s chest, causing the mutant to stumble backward. Immediately, he ducked as the sed ssher swung its sword at him and struck out with his left bde. Its tip cut diagonally across the mutant’s upper body, drawing blood.

  In his expanded peripheral vision, he saw the other ssher lunging at him. Jake lurched at the mutant in front of him, plunging the tip of his left sword into its throat. At the same time, he gave a mental and to grow a tentacle from his back. It sprouted from his flesh ihan a sed, and he immediately shed it out at the ssher approag him from the side. The bde at the end of the tentacle sank into one of its eyeballs, turning it into a pulp, and therated its brain, killing the mutant instantly. Jake then yanked his bde from the other ssher’s throat and immediately swung both his swords in a sciss manner, beheading the creature.

  Multiple enemies killed. +500 XP

  He heard a disgusti sound and spun in that dire. He saw one of the nearby replication pods unfurl like a weird fleshy blossom. A fully-formed mutant emerged from within. The new mutant was pletely devoid of skin, and Jake immediately reized it as a chaser. It was the most dangerous monster he’d entered so far. He retracted his bdes as the chaser burst into a run toward him. Upon reag him, the chaser immediately unleashed its special ability, the Flurry of Swings.

  However, having evolved into Stage 2, Jake was now much faster and mile than he’d bee time he dealt with this type of ex-human. The chaser shed out at him over and ain with remarkable speed, but Jake mao block each strike with his own cws. At one point, he spotted an opening and kicked the chaser in the chest, stunning it for a fra of a sed. He immediately took advantage of that, shing out with one cwed hand and ripping a huge k of flesh out of its throat. Blood p like a faucet, the chaser took a couple of shaky steps toward him before colpsing to the floor, dead.

  Enemy killed. +350 XP

  The chaser was incredibly fast and agile, and its body was remarkably resilient to damage. However, even this type of mutant no longer posed much of a challeo Jake. It’d taken him less than thirty seds to deal with this extremely dangerous oppo.

  A fsh of danger suddenly registered in his mind. It was his Feral Instincts warning him of a nearby threat. Having learo trust it, he immediately jumped to the side. And oo soon as a long, whip-like tentacle shed out at the empty spot where he’d just been. Gng back, Jake saw a whipper that must just have emerged from one of the pods suspended from the ceiling. The mutaracted its tentacle and struck out at Jake once more. This time, he was ready. As the tentaeared him, he tered by striking it with a sword he’d extended from one wrist a sed before, severing the tentacle in half.

  He then sprioward the whipper, retrag the bde again. He found using his cws instead of swords to handle powerful mutants like shamblers and whippers to be more effective. Laung a fierce barrage of sshes at the whipper, he tore through its anic protective yer with ease.

  After all the ret upgrades, dealing with powerful and well-protected enemies like shamblers and whippers had bee a pretty easy task for him. In just a few seds, he dismantled most of the whipper’s protective yer. Every strike he nded on the monster left a long bleeding gash in its flesh now. It wasn’t long before the enormous monster rofusely bleeding from the multiple wounds he’d inflicted on it with his cws.

  Enemy killed. +75 XP

  Ohe huge body of the whipper colpsed to the ground with a resounding thud, Jake quickly looked around. He’d killed all the strong mutants in the room, and only a handful of weak walkers and leapers remaihere. There were also several replication pods hanging from the roof, which could produce dangerous mutants like sshers or whippers at any moment. However, Jake wasn’t willing to destroy them just yet, because he o ihem first. To plete his mutation research quest, he still o find one more pod that was creating a mutant he hadn’t analyzed yet.

  A few walkers uhemselves at him, surrounding him from multiple dires. He sidestepped, easily evading an attack from one of them. Another walker attempted a strike, but Jake leaped backward, effortlessly avoiding the mutant’s cws that scraped the air in front of him. The walkers failed to nd a si on him—his speed and agility greatly outmatched theirs.

  It took Jake only a few seds to deal with the walkers attag him. His cws had bee so powerful he could kill a walker or a leaper with a single quick ssh.

  Multiple enemies killed. +60 XP

  It was just a routine fight for him. her powerful and sturdy ex-humans like shamblers and whippers nor fast and agile ones like sshers and chasers posed any kind of threat to him anymore. He could dispatch rge groups sisting of all types of mutants without even receiving a single scratow.

  A sudden fsh of a red bulb in his mind alerted him to impending danger. It was his Feral Instincts skill at wain. It always kicked ihere was some sort of danger he wasn’t aware of. This instinct usually kicked in when a mutant mao sneak up on him from his blind spot, which was directly behind his back, and reparing to strike.

  Jake quickly jumped to the side and spun around to front whatever had approached him from behind. To his surprise, he found no enemy near him. While there were a few walkers lingering in the vast room, they were too far from him to have triggered his Feral Instincts warnings. Something else must’ve set off his instinct, but he wasn’t sure what it was. Or maybe the skill had simply malfuned? However, he immediately brushed off that ridiculous idea.

  Once again, the same sense of danger fshed through his mind. Feral Instincts kept warning him about some kind of immihreat, but he had no idea what or where it was. Not sure what was happening, Jake began to retreat. The skill kept altering him to something, but he couldn’t pinpoint the source of the threat. In his peripheral vision, he could see several remaining walkers, but since he was aware of their presenearby, he khat they weren’t the cause of the warnings from his Feral Instincts.

  Taking one small step back after another, Jake tio look around, striving to identify the threat his skill was repeatedly warning him about. However, he failed to notiything out of pce.

  What the hell is going ohought.

  And in the instant, he suddenly received the ao his question.