Chapter 170

  The colossal monster barreled toward him, its footsteps shaking the grouh Jake. He was in no shape to fight, so his only choice was to flee. Spinning around, he dashed across the street toward the building from which he had been watg the bandit base. He spri his maximum speed. He wasn’t going to scale the wall this time, though.

  There were currently no bandits on the perimeter walls of the base. They had either fallen in battle or desded to help their allies fight the mutants ihe base. So, although Jake’s Cloak was deactivated, the inhabitants of the base remained unaware of his presence. However, if he attempted to scale the building’s wall, he risked being spotted by anyone inside when he rose high enough. He didn’t want the base’s inhabitants to realize he had been spying on them, lurking nearby. If he could remain ued, he would have the element of surprise when he eventually decided to attack the base. Therefore, rather than sg the wall, he chose to ehe building instead.

  Whether he would reach the building before the death knight caught up with him was anyone’s guess. He didn’t o look back to know the massive creature was gaining on him—the sound of massive footsteps growing louder told him all he o know. Just as he braced for impact, expeg the death knight to strike or seize him, something ued occurred. The gigantister suddenly slowed down, r in fury as a series of heavy impacts reverberated through the air. Jake gnced over his shoulder to see what was happening.

  Jake watched as one of the turrets trais fire on the death knight, unleashing heavy-caliber bullets that struck the creature’s sturdy armor. Most bullets ricocheted off the death knight’s incredibly hardy exterior, but a few found their way into the joints between the armor ptes, inflig some damage. The death knight halted its chase and turo face the turret. It tio fire, but most of the heavy-caliber rounds harmlessly bounced off the monster’s incredibly powerful armor, dealing no visible damage to it.

  Still, the attack had captured the death knight’s attention. Losing i in Jake, the massive creature charged across the street back toward the bandit base. It must have realized it wouldn’t be able to reach the turret, because instead of sprinting toward the watchtower, atop which the turret attag it was mouhe monster returo the gate and resumed pounding its colossal fists against it. Meanwhile, Jake tinued running toward the building. Onside, he quickly located the staircase. Although the steps were missing, this posed no challenge for Jake. Even without his Adhesive Secretion skill, he could easily asd the empty staircase by simply jumping and gripping onto various ledges.

  It wasn’t long before Jake emerged onto the rooftop. He navigated carefully to the parapet and crouched down, peering over the edge while keeping the rest of his body cealed. The base was still utack, but it was clear that the defenders were beginning to gain the upper hand against the monsters. The mae gun turrets were effitly taking out the remaining void spiders, while the bandits ihe base fought off the st of the fiends. As for the sky raptors, all of them had bee with by that point.

  Suddenly, the gates crashed inward as the death knight finally mao knock them down. The massive creature burst ih a triumphant roar. It paused for a moment to survey the se, then charged at the first bandit who had just opened fire on it. With a powerful swing of its colossal fist, the creature struck the hapless human, crushing him and shattering every bone in his body. , the death knight unleashed a brutal assault on the traption, rendering it inoperable with just a feunches. It then turs wrath on another device, rippial pos from it as effortlessly as if it were tearing apart a cardboard box.

  The bandits were relut to fire o monstrosity. Having just seen how quickly and brutally the death knight had turhe first bandit who had dared to attack it into a pulp, none of the rest of them wao draw its attention to themselves. One of the bandits shouted something to Miller, gesturing at the death knight as it demolished traption after traption. a power suit, Miller was currently fighting one of the remaining fiends. He held the creature by its throat with one hand while using the saw attached to the other to cut the monster in half, sending sprays of blood flying everywhere. The creature screamed in agony, helplessly thrashing about but was uo escape Miller’s iron grip, reinforced by his plove.

  Ohe monster was dealt with, Miller tossed aside the remnants of its body and turo face the death knight. He aimed his energy gun at the gigantic creature and opened fire. Energy bolts zipped through the air, striking the death knight in various parts of its body. However, aside from leaving scorch marks, they seemed to inflict little damage. As it turned out, despite beiremely powerful, Miller’s energy gun was no match for the death knight’s durable armor. He tio unleash a barrage of fire against his oppo until his on ran dry.

  The death knight finally turs attention to Miller. It appeared to appraise the human in the power suit and theed a thunderous roar that sounded almost joyful to Jake as if the monster deemed Miller a worthy oppo. With a sudden charge, the death knight smmed into Miller, nearly knog him off his feet. The monstrous creature delivered a devastating blow, leaving a dent in Miller’s power suit. In respohe gang leader tered with a powerful punch aimed at the monster’s head.

  The bandits visibly rexed, grateful that the death knight’s attention was on their leader rather than on them. However, their relief was short-lived. With the gates down, the remaining void spiders abaheir efforts to scale the walls and began to pour into the base through the newly formed opening.

  Watg the battle unfold, Jake noticed that although the death knight was incredibly powerful, Miller appeared to be gaining the upper hand. Even though Jake had failed to steal the Skeleton Key, he still held onto the hope that he could still do so. However, he first o replenish his mana reserves to use Cloak again to remain ued. Closing his eyes, he activated Mana Vision. As he sed the area, he spotted a sizable light nearby, indig either a k or perhaps a crystal. It was just a few high-rises away from his position and hovered at the same height, suggesting it was located on a rooftop.

  Turning to face the right dire, Jake opened his eyes. He wasn’t sure exactly how he would steal the Skeleton Key without drawing attention from the base’s inhabitants, but that wasn’t his main at the moment. For now, his priority was to reach the mana able and quickly get back. If he acted fast enough, he might even be able to make it back before Miller finished dealing with the death knight.

  With that in mind, Jake sprinted across the roof and leaped to the building.