Chapter 88

  Jake couldn’t alert the survivors to the immi danger or e to their rescue because the shambler was already on top of him. The mutant’s massive figure obscured his view of the group. Jake dashed to the side as the shambler swung down its log-thick arm. With a mighty thud, the colossal fist pouhe ground where he had been standing just moments before.

  A shout from the survivors attracted his attention. He darted around the huge form of the shambler and gnced in the dire of the group. They had bee aware that the bloater was about to attack. The obese moood some distance away from them, but their instincts warhem that it reparing to une sort of attack, and it appeared to be a ranged one.

  The survivors stared at the bloater as it arched its back, stretg its mouth much wider than seemed possible. The intense yellowish-green glow radiating from its belly had grown very bright. The survivors were on edge, ready to scatter at the first sign of what was about to unfold.

  A sed ter, with a loud gurgling sound, the bloater spewed a stream of yellowish-green liquid from its maw. The cascade of acidic fluid arched through the air toward the group’s position. The range of that attack turned out to be quite impressive. The acidic stream easily covered the distao the survivors. Fortunately, anticipating su attack, they quickly scattered in various dires as soon as the acid was released.

  The stream of acidic fluid hit the spot where the group had been standing a moment earlier. Spshes rebounded in all dires, reag an impressive distance. Frank, sensing the immihreat, swiftly pushed Isra aside, pg himself ih of some of the spshes that would have e into tact with her. Frank screamed in agony as some of the acid spshed against his already-wounded arm. A few drops nded on Isra’s cheek, eating through her skin, but it was Frank who bore the brunt of the damage in his efforts to shield her. Most of his side was steaming as acid burhrough his clothes and flesh.

  The acidic stream from the bloater’s mouth halted, dwindling to a trickle that ran down its and dripped onto its massive belly. The glow within its paunch dimmed signifitly, being barely noticeable. The attack sted only a few seds, but the damage had been dohe group’s formation was disrupted, leaving the survivors scattered, vulnerable, and at least one of them severely wounded.

  Jake caught sight of the shambler lurg toward him. He had been so engrossed in watg the unfolding se he’d momentarily fotten about the formidable mutant. As it swung its powerful arm downward, he leaped aside just in time, narrowly avoiding being struck. He redirected his focus to the shambler, lunging toward it and striking out with a cwed hand, aiming for the exposed part of the mutant’s throat not shielded by the protective growth.

  Taking the shambler out didn’t pose much of a challeo Jake, but it did take him some time to defeat the well-protected powerful mutant. When its body, bleeding from numerous wounds, finally slumped to the ground, Jake immediately sed the area to see how the survivors were doing.

  Frank and Isra had moved away from the bloater toward the other side of the room, where Isra was tending to Frank’s burned side. The group leader y on his other side as she applied healing autoiors. His wounds still looked pretty bad, but at least they didn’t seem to be life-threatening. Isra had already used several stims, and the empty autoiors were scattered on the floor around them. One side of Isra’s face had been marred by the acid, but it had already dissolved. Aside from spoiling her appearahe wound didn’t seem to cause her much harm. Judging by her twisted facial expression, she was still in pain, but she bravely e, pg Frank’s well-being above her own fort.

  Reassured that Frank and Isra were retively fine and not in immediate danger, Jake shifted his focus away from them. He sed the expansive room in search of the third member of the group. As it turned out, Archie was on the opposite side of the room, fighting the bloater. For some reason, the mutant singled him out for pursuit rather than chasing dowher two survivors. Archie was currently in one of the ers of the room as the bloated ex-human shuffled toward him, its movements awkward and clumsy. Despite having spaaneuver around the bulky mutant, Archie remained rooted to the spot. He appeared to be close to defeating the bloater, which expined why he chose to stay and fight rather than flee.

  The survivors were now aware of the unmistakable signs of the bloater’s impending attack: it arched its back, opes mouth wide, and its belly glowed brightly before unleashing an acid torrent. Sihe bloater didn’t dispy any of these signs at the moment, Archie saw o flee. If he had known about the bloater’s dangerous ability to explode upoh, he would have fled as far as he could instead of letting it approach so closely. From his position, Jake couldn’t see where Archie was aiming his shots, but he was quite certain that the guy was targeting the mutant’s rge, exposed belly.

  Jake was on the brink of dashing across the room to rescue Archie from the danger he wasn’t even aware of, but it was already too te. As another burst of shots peed the mutant’s belly, the massive mutant suddenly halted its advas bloated body quivering with interemors. Archie must have sehat something was terribly wrong because he quickly maneuvered around the violently trembling mutant. He moved with such speed that Jake was fident he would mao put a siderable distaween himself and the bloater before it exploded.

  However, just as Archie sprinted past the shaking mutant, something unfortunate happened. One of the nearby leapers propelled itself toward him, knog the survivor to the ground. He mao shoot the leaper on top of him through its head, but as soon as he jumped to his feet, the bloater blew up. Its huge body exploded powerfully, sending pulpy pieces of shredded flesh flying and waves of acidic fluid spshing in all dires.

  Archie was drenched from head to toe in acid. He died so quickly he never even had a ce to scream. The acid easily burhrough his clothes and skin, causing his flesh to fke off his bohe skeleton and what little meat remained ging to them crumpled to the floor.

  Jake quickly looked around. The bloater was dealt with, and there were no more powerful mutants left. Only a bunch of low-level walkers and leapers remained, with no additional portals opening up. The wave was almost over now. All that was left to do was elimihe rest of the mutants, which would only take a couple of minutes more to plete.

  The final floor of the tower-climbing challenge was nearly finished, but it came at the expense of another survivor’s life.