Chapter 116

  Jake instinctively morphed his hands into cws just before he smmed into the wall of the building with a solid thud. As gravity took hold, he began to drop toward the alleyway below. Though he was aware the fall wouldn’t kill him, only hurt a little, he still wao avoid hitting the ground.

  His cws scraped along the surface of the wall, making a grinding noise like nails on a chalkboard. Each scrape sent vibrations through his body as the gritty texture of the crete chipped beh his talons. The wall now bore the marks of his chaotic dest, sending small fragments of crete spiraling into the air like tiny shrapnel.

  His cws dug deeper, but the wall offered no easy grips. Just as Jake began to think he wouldn’t be able to check his dest, the tips of his talons caught a sharp cra the crete. Instantly, he drove his cws into the small fissure, bringing his doluo a stop.

  He dangled precariously, one cwed hand gripping the edge of the crack while the other swayed in the open air. Jake gnced up and saw he’d dropped a couple of floors. He then looked down. A few stories below him, the vat alleyway y led betweewo t high-rises. Although he was aware he’d walk away with just minor injuries if he fell, he still wao avoid that oute.

  The wind whipped around him, carrying the rhythmic sounds of the rotating rotor bdes and the hum of the chopper’s ehen a shadow crossed over him as the pilot maneuvered the helicopter in a half-circle to hover above the alleyway. Jake looked up and saw the dunner adjust the barrel of the mae gun to point it down at him. A smug grin spread across the gunner’s face as he pulled the trigger.

  The sound of gunfire echoed through the air as bullets smmed into the wall Jake was ging to. Debris rained down on him as dust swirled around. Suddenly, a heavy-caliber round struck the side of his head, causing it to jerk sideways. Immediately, a system notification fshed through his mind.

  You have just gotten a ive effect: Dazed. You are disoriented and feel vertigo.

  It was the very first time he’d been shot in the head. For a moment, he felt a fsh of worry, but he quickly realized that aside from receiving the Dazed ive effect, he suffered no other injuries. The heavy-caliber bullet had carved a hole in the side of his head, but it wasn’t too deep, and he could already feel his body starting to heal, regeing damaged flesh with remarkable speed.

  The world swirled around him, leaving him feeling disoriented and dizzy. The first time he’d experiehis ive effect was after falling from a high-rise roof and banging his head on the asphalt. It seemed that this ive effect ut on him whenever he sustained damage to his head.

  The dunner kept firing at him, and each bullet that punctured his hardened flesh made his body jerk with the impact. At one moment, he almost lost his grip on the cra the wall. A thought struck him: what was he even ging to the wall for? After all, the fall wouldn’t kill him. If he dropped into the alleyway, he would survive and be able to easily escape from his pursuers.

  Only it wasn’t what he really wanted. Rather than fleeing, he loo terattack his oppos. However, sidering the unfortuuation he’d found himself in, that wasn’t going to be easy.

  He was seriously beginning to eain the idea of letting go of the fissure he was ging to and dropping down into the alleyway below. Just then, a bullet smmed into the window to his left, shattering it into thousands of shards that came raining down on him. A new idea crossed his mind. He firmly grasped the top edge of the frame with his free hand, then released his hold on the wall with the other and quickly used it to grab the side of the window frame instead.

  He pulled his knees up to his , propelling himself into the room through the shattered window and nding on his feet. He quickly dropped into a crouch as bullets whizzed overhead. Then the gunfire suddenly came to an end. Jake sprang to his feet and looked back over his shoulder. He saw the dunner hastily shoving another ammo belt into the mae gun. The guy looked frustrated. He obviously couldn’t uand how Jake could still be alive and kig after taking so many shots. Before he could finish reloading his on, Jake dashed deeper into the room, slipping out of view from the outside.

  He located a staircase. The steps were intact, so he took them up. When he reached the st flight of stairs that led to the door opening to the roof, he paused to listen. The sounds of the rotor bdes and the helicopter’s engine were growing louder. A few seds ter, the noise became so loud Jake realized the helicopter was now h directly above the rooftop.

  He waited. Would his oppos be foolish enough to disembark from the helicopter aer the building to look for him? Were they itted enough to do something so reckless? Would their thirst for his blood cloud their judgment? Jake hoped that after dedig so much time and effort t to kill him, they would feel pelled to finish the job. He genuinely wahem to e after him. After everything they’d put him through, he was itg for a fight.

  “e out, e out, wherever you are,” he heard one of them—likely the dunner—yell.

  They thought of him as nothing more than a mindless monster, easily lured by a human voice like regur ex-humans. Jake remained where he was, absolutely certain that the dunner had his on trained orance, ready to unleash a barrage of bullets the moment he dared to step outside.

  Moments ter, the same voice shouted, “e on! Quit hiding a your ass outside! Don’t you want to eat me or something?”

  His voice betrayed his frustration. The duruly wao finish Jake off. Jake waited. A few more seds passed without anything happening. While his pursuers were eager to kill him, they weren’t foolish enough to step out of the helicopter aer the building, well aware it would put them at a serious disadvantage.

  Jake khe longer he waited, the greater the ces were that his pursuers would lose i and fly away. Though he was itg to front the two octs of the helicopter, he knew he couldn’t leap high enough to reach the chopper. Unless he either came up with a pn to lure his pursuers out of the chopper and into the building or found a way to somehow get to them, he saw no point in leaving the shelter of the building.

  Then aruck him. He decided to use a trick he’d learned after upgrading his Enhanced Senses. Dropping to a crouch, he pced his palm on the floor of the half-nding and closed his eyes, fully trating on his tactile sensations. He felt slight vibrations through his hand, indig that the helicopter was not h above the building but parked on the rooftop. That ged everything.

  Jake snapped his eyes open and sprinted up the steps. Moments ter, he burst onto the rooftop. Just as he’d anticipated, the helicopter sat in the ter of the roof, with the dunner aiming his ht at the doorway he’d just emerged from.

  When the dunner spotted Jake step outside, a grin spread across his face. He thought his ruse to lure the “stupid mutant” outside had worked perfectly. What he didn’t realize was that a nasty surprise was on the way for him instead.

  Jake wasted no time bursting into a sprint toward the helicopter. The dunner’s grin slipped away when he saw how quickly Jake was moving. While he’d seen Jake run before, it’d always been ireat. This time, however, rather than fleeing, Jake was charging toward them—and at an incredible pace to boot—making the dunner uneasy. The mae gun roared to life as he hastily squeezed the trigger.

  Jake felt the bullets sm into his chest, but they hardly slowed him down. In uwo seds, he closed half the distao the helicopter. The dunner’s expression turo one of horror as he realized the bullets he fired were having little effect. It dawned on him he wouldn’t be able to stop Jake before he reached the chopper.

  “Take off!” he screamed, his voice ced with hysteria. “Take off, goddammit!”

  The chan to lift immediately. That was when Jake performed a mana-infused jump, nding right at the helicopter’s door. He seized the red-hot barrel of the mae gun with his right hand. The dunner lurched ba panic. Jake’s hand tightly gripping the hot barrel sizzled as a wisp of smoke rose from it, but he could tell the damage to his flesh was minimal.

  “What the hell are you?” the dunner excimed, his eyes wide as he stared at Jake’s sizzling, smoking hand still cmped around the on’s barrel.

  That was wheiced the mae gun’s muzzle was aimed directly at Jake’s chest. Realizing that from point-bnk range he could inflict far greater damage, the dunner lunged for the mounted on. However, before he could reach it, Jake delivered a powerful kick to his chest, sending him sprawling backward and crashing to the ground.

  “Hold on to something!” the pilot suddenly shouted a warning to his panion.

  In the blink of ahe chopper, which had been steadily climbing, suddenly banked sharply to the starboard. Jake’s left hand shot out, grasping the edge of the doorway. Meanwhile, the dunner, still sprawled on his back, mao hold on to something as well, preventing himself from sliding across the floor toward the open door.

  For several moments, the chopper went into a frenzy, sharply banking first to one side and then to the other. Ohe helicopter finally leveled out, the pilot gnced over his shoulder and shouted, “Did I dislodge the mutant?”

  No, you didn’t, Jake thought, tightening his grip on the edge of the doorway before ung himself into the chopper.

  His face a mask of a strange mix of panid determination, the dunner drew a heavy-caliber pistol from its holster on his hip. Still lying on his back, he aimed the handgun at Jake and opened fire. Bullets smmed into Jake’s chest, each impact jolting him but failing to halt his approach toward the man lying on the ground.

  “Why won’t you die, you damn freak?” he screamed, panid frustration g his voice.

  When he squeezed the trigger again, the pistol clicked oy. With a quick, powerful yank, Jake wrehe handgun from the dunner’s grip and flung it out of the chopper over his shoulder.

  Jake then opened his mouth wide, exposing rows of jagged, poieeth.

  “Oh my God,” the dunner whispered in horror as he realized he was about to die.

  Jake leaned in toward the human and bit into his face.