Chapter 86

  While the ptform asded, the survivors had a brief versation. Archie wasn’t happy about having to go on, but Frank quickly cut off his objes, stating they only o finish one more floor. He told Archie that stant whining wouldn’t aplish anything. Isra stayed quiet, but the telling expression on her fadicated she sided with Archie.

  Ued in their versation, Jake paid little attention to their talking. What mattered to him was that they were nearing the final level of the tower-climbing challenge. After pleting it, all he would o do was defeat the boss on the rooftop. He probably wouldn’t eveheir help to aplish that.

  Finally, the ptform reached the tenth floor. Jake exited the elevator onto a corridor stretg in both dires. The three survivors followed him, clutg their ons tightly. Rift gates began materializing all around them almost immediately. Despite their strained retionships, wheants appeared, the three survivors operated as a single, well-coordinated unit. They unleashed trolled bursts of rounds at the oning mutants, the bullets ripping through their bodies, eliminating the vile creatures long before they could close in on the group.

  After repelling the initial wave, Jake and the survivors dashed into the inner ses of the floor in search of a rge room to make their stand. As they knew from the previous enters, each floor tai least one spacious room suitable for their needs. Quickly log ohey entered just as another wave began. Positioning themselves at the ter of the room, they unleashed a barrage of fire oants climbing out of the rift gates. They mao eliminate some of them even before they fully emerged from the portals.

  It didn’t take long for sshers to appear. After the loss of their panion to one of these creatures, they became wary of this mutant type. Despite their apprehension toward sshers, they mao keep their posure, not succumbing to panic. The three of them quickly regrouped, direg their fire at one of the nearby sshers. They also used magic spells on walkers and leapers to slow down their advance while they were dealing with the ssher.

  Seeing they had the situation under trol, Jake sprio intercept another ssher attempting to fnk the survivors. With a thought, he extended bdes from his wrists. He preferred to use his cws in bat against weaker types of mutants such as walkers or leapers as well as against more formidable ones like shamblers or whippers. However, when dealing with sshers who wielded sword-like bony appendages, Jake extended bdes from his wrists. While his cws were effective against many mutants, their shorter reach could put him at a great disadvantage when fag sshers.

  The battle raged on for a few more mihis time, they mao deal with all the sshers without suffering any casualties. After all of them were taken care of, Jake retracted his swords and tio use his cws. Before long, the final wave on this flan. Jake hoped that they would be able to ha as smoothly as they had all the previous ones. Just as he was about to engage a group of walkers, he heard Isra yell to her panions to warn them about some kind of danger. Sshing his cws across the throats of the nearby ex-humans, he gnced over his shoulder to see what the otion was about.

  Across the room, a new vertical rift was f. It was much bigger than the regur ones. At first, Jake thought that a shambler or a whipper was going to step through it, but as soon as a colossal mutant figure began to emerge from the portal, he realized it was a ype he had never entered before. Judging from the survivors’ reas, they were equally caught off guard by this unfamiliar threat.

  The mutant was huge. It boasted a massive frame covered in anic growth akin to that of shamblers and whippers, providing a robust protective yer. Half of the mutant’s head was cealed by the thick yer anic growth as well. The head itself seemed disproportionately small in parison to the bulk of its body. The most promi part of the mutant was its belly. To say it was enormous would be an uatement.

  The mutant finally fully emerged from the portal and began to walk toward the survivors, moving slowly and shuffling its feet. Its paunch was so huge it seemed surprising the mutant could even maintain bance as it moved. Now that the mutant was fully out of the portal, Jake could see that it appeared to have no ons. Uher ex-humans, its mouth cked razor-sharp teeth, and its hands had no cws. Short and chubby, its arms and legs seemed smaller than they should be. At first ghe rge but slow mutant seemed harmless because it was pletely devoid of any visible ons.

  With a thought, Jake summos description.

  Ex-Human Bloater – Level 15 (Elite)

  Special abilities:

  Acid Vomit – The mutant spews forth a torrent of corrosive liquid capable of eating through flesh aing materials, causing severe damage to everything it touches.

  Acid Explosion – When its belly sustains a critical amount of damage, the bloater blows up, sending waves of acidic liquid flying every which way.

  It was the very first time Jake had entered ae mutant with two special abilities instead of just one. After reading the mutant’s description, he examihe bloater more closely, paying particur attention to its massive belly. Although its skin appeared thin, it resembled the estic walls of replication pods, able to withstand some damage before tearing. The bloater’s belly was the only part of its body that wasn’t covered in the protective anic growth. The skin of its belly appeared somewhat transparent, allowing an eerie greenish light to seep through. While the monster’s paunch seemed to be the only unprotected spot on the boater’s body, from the mutant’s description, Jake k was best not to attack this particur part of its body to prevent the bloater from exploding and spshing acid everywhere.

  Unlike Jake, the three survivors were unaware of this crucial piece of information. They couldn’t call up the bloater’s description with a mere thought like he could. In the middle of the fierce battle, they couldn’t risk taking out a PDA to analyze the mutaher. From experiehey khe anic growth c the mutant’s body was highly resistant to damage. It could be destroyed, but it required a signifit amount of damage. Surrounded by walkers and leapers from all dires, they couldn’t afford to fire at the mutant for long. They had to deal with the hreat quickly so they could refocus their attention oher targets.

  Sihe bloater’s head was small and partially protected by anic growth, they decided against wasting time and bullets trying to hit it. The rge glowing belly of the mutant presented a much more tempting target. Mistaking the mutant’s protruding stomach for its vulnerable spot, the three survivors directed all their firepower at the bloater’s massive paunch.