Chapter 72

  The ssher unched a ferocious assault on him, unleashing its special ability right away. Its bone appendages swung violently toward him, pelling him to go on the defensive. Jake raised his sword, defleg one of the creature’s bdes, then swiftly ducked as the mutant immediately swung the other o him. Unfazed by missing its target, the ssher persisted in its aggressive onsught, f Jake to retreat.

  He swiftly swung his sword upward, meeting one of the bone bdes with a dull g, successfully blog the mutant’s strike. The ssher advanced, bringing the other bde down in a sweeping motioing on instinct, Jake raised his cws in a st-ditch effort to intercept the bde. He was fident that his iron-like talons would be able to withstand the attack. To his astonishment, the bde sliced through two of his talons, severing them, and tis downward trajectory, hag deep into his shoulder.

  His sensory receptors sighat he had sustained signifit damage in that area of his body. He felt no pain whatsoever, though. The little and ring fialons on his right hand dropped to the floor, but Jake had no time to dwell on the possible sequences of the injury. He had to solely focus on dealing with the ssher, otherwise the hing to be chopped off might easily be his head.

  Defleg the ssher’s onsught with just one sword was challenging, especially since his cws proved to be iive for defense. Realizing this, Jake mentally instructed a bde to extend from his right wrist. While the transformation from fio cws was nearly instantaneous, thanks to an upgrade he had acquired some time ago, extending a bde from his wrist was a much slower process. While the bde was in the process of extending from his right wrist, he tio defend himself against the ssher’s relentless attacks. He blocked some of its strikes with his left bde and dodged others while retreating down the corridor as the mutant tis relentless onsught.

  Refleg on his past enter during the Hunt quest, Jake remembered fag ae walker with a lightning-fast ability simir to the ssher’s, which had forced him into a defeahis time, however, he had the advantage of Sharpened Reflexes, an upgrade for Enhanced Agility that he had retly obtaihis upgrade improved his reas in bat, allowing him to execute agile dodges, quick maneuvers, and swift terattacks. With Sharpened Reflexes, he found it much easier to evade the ssher’s attacks pared to how challenging it would have been without it.

  Finally, the bde fully extended from his right wrist, letting him tackle the ssher in full forow. Despite the elite mutant’s relentless assault with its sharp appendages, he effectively blocked each attack with the two swords of his own. When the ssher’s special ability, Flurry of Swings, finally wore off, the mutant’s movements slowed down. Immediately seizing the opportunity, he shifted from the defeo the offensive.

  Jake quickly delivered a powerful swing with his right sword toward the mutant. Despite the mutant’s attempt to block the strike with one of its bdes, its slowed movements, due to the expiration of its special ability, left it vulnerable and uo ter effectively. His bde sliced through muscle and boh ease, severing the mutant’s arm at the elbow. The lower arm with the bone bde extending from it dropped to the floor, leaving the mutant with only one bde in its possession. The vile creature briefly g the stump of its arm but showed little rea to the unfortuurn of events.

  The ssher’s evil eyes fixed on him once more, but before the mutant could do anything, Jake swiftly swung both bdes in a sciss motion toward the sides of its neck, beheading the mutant.

  Enemy killed. +250 XP

  Defeating the ssher had yielded a signifit amount of experience points for a single enemy. But before he could savor his small victory, a familiar pierg shriek echoed from behind him, apanied by two others. Whirling around, Jake saw three more sshers emerging from newly materialized magical rifts.

  Fuck.

  Two of them immediately employed their special abilities, ung vicious attacks from different angles. It didn’t take long for the third ssher to join the fray. He evaded and blocked their assaults, using all of his agility and speed to defend himself. Once more, he was grateful for having acquired Sharpened Reflexes. Without this upgrade, the three sshers would likely have cut him into pieces by now.

  At some point, Jake activated his Bded Tentacle ability, feeling a long appendage sprouting from his shoulder bde. Focused on defleg enemy strikes with both his swords, he was uo use them for offe that moment. Luckily, he had more thaype of on at his disposal. The tentacle took two seds to fully grow, which seemed like ay in the midst of the fierce battle.

  Ohe tentacle was fully developed, Jake took trol of the appendage, sending it zipping through the air toward one of the sshers attag him. The bde at the tip of the tentacle stabbed the mutant right into aurning it into a pulp. The mutant froze for a moment as if taken aback by such a turn of events. Jake used the moment of its fusion to thrust one of his swords into the mutant through its chest, shattering several ribs in the process.

  The bded tentacle detached from his body, but Jake immediately grew another one, using up a certain amount of mana for the a. Obeying his mental ands, the long appereaked through the air with lightning speed, slig through the throat of another ssher, killing it in mere seds. Bded Tentacle was undeniably an impressive and deadly ability. Jake made a mental o obtain some upgrades for it iure, such as redug the time o form a tentacle and growing numerous tentacles at the same time.

  With the first two sshers dealt with, dispatg the third was retively easy. However, the battle was far from over. New ex-humans tio emerge from portals, ready to join the fray. In trast to the superior sshers, the other known types of ex-humans were signifitly weaker. Jake took on multiple walkers at once, eliminating one group of them only to front the ohout dey.

  After what felt like ay, the battle on floor 7 came to an end. When Jake checked the status of the challenge, he saw the battle had sted about fifty minutes. With less than two hours left to clear the remaining three floors a the boss on the rooftop, Jake began to seriously doubt his ability to plete the challehin the remaining time frame.

  This challenge was designed for users with levels ranging from 10 to 15. Since he had been at level 10 at that time, he had barely met the minimum requirement, expining why the challenge felt overly difficult for him. It would have beeer for him to increase his level before attempting the challenge. Oher hand, leveling up more than once a day was difficult, so it would have taken him several days to level up a few times. Jake couldn’t have afforded to spend multiple days leveling up, because the challenge would probably have disappeared the following day due to the System resetting the world at the start of eaew day.

  In any case, if Jake wished to finish the Tower Climb challenge on time, he really o find a solution promptly.