Chapter 95

  Just as he had anticipated, the survivor spotted him as soon as he emerged from his hiding spot in the dark er. The human spun around toward him, his eyes widening in surprise upon seeing Jake. For a fra of a sed, they just stared at each other, and then Jake lurched toward his prey, morphing his hands into cws.

  The human brought up his shotgun, but before he could take aim, Jake struck out. The survivor mao jerk bad instead of pierg his throat, Jake’s cws ripped through the fabric of the survivor’s jacket and his flesh beh. The human screamed in pain. Jake cursed mentally. The maion severely hindered his movement speed and agility. He’d hoped to end this fight with one quick ssh, but no dice.

  The survivor clumsily stumbled back, tripping over the body of a mutant he’d killed earlier and colpsing to his back. Jake was about to pounce down on his prey to finish the job, but before he could do that, the survivor quickly pointed his shotgun at the approag threat, fueled by the surge of adrenaline and the desire to save his life.

  The human squeezed the trigger, ramming a load of buckshot into Jake’s chest, blowing a huge k of flesh out of his body. The force of the impact sent him flying a few feet backward. After colpsing to the floor, he quickly checked the remaining HP: only 19% left. Mana was quickly esg his body through a fresh hole in his chest. It was bad. It was really bad. This fight was far from going acc to pn.

  He still had some strength left in him, but he resisted the urge to immediately jump back to his feet. In his promised state, he wouldn’t achieve anything by trying to rush at his enemy. Instead of attag the survivor head-on, he o outsmart him. He wao make the human believe he had won, lulling him into a false sense of security. Ohe survivor let his guard down, that would be the moment to strike.

  With deliberate slowness, Jake rose on his elbows and sat up. He then got to his knees and remaianding in that pose, pretending to ck the strength to stand up. His ruse worked. While the survivor kept pointing his shotgun at him, his eyes betrayed his thoughts. After the transformation, Jake’s newfound skills made him adept at reading humans. Log eyes with the survivor, he could dis the thoughts running through his mind. The survivor accepted Jake’s prete face value, mistakenly believing the frightening mutant was done for.

  But he was wrong. Despite being severely wounded and losing mana at arming speed, Jake wasn’t done for. Not by a long shot. He was simply biding his time for the perfeent to unch his terattack.

  Still clutg his shotgun with one hand, the humarieved his PDA with the other and sed Jake with the device. As he perused the information on the s, his facial expressiistered genuine surprise. Jake had a good sense of what must have been going through the human’s mind. Upon the survivor’s entrao the building, Jake had accessed his stats and discovered the human’s level to be 17, while his own level was 12. The survivor found it hard to believe that a being five levels below him could be s and fast.

  Even though Jake had taken a look at the human’s stats, he hadn’t bothered to check the survivor’s o him, the human was merely prey to be hunted down, an obstacle he had to overe.

  The survivor put away his PDA and stood up, keeping his shotgun trained on Jake who remained kneeling. He took a step toward him, then another one, but then suddenly stopped. The harsh realities of this world had taught the survivor to exercise caution at every turn. By that point, the room had grown very dark, and the survivor squi Jake, struggling to dis maails in the semi-darkness due to his inferior human vision. Though he’d never entered a being like Jake before, the survivor resisted the temptation to get closer to the menag figure for a better look.

  Unbeknown to the human, he’d unwittingly stopped at the perfect distance for Jake to strike. If Jake were to suddenly jump to his feet, he wouldn’t be able to get to the survivor before he shot him dead. That was what the human must’ve been thinking, and he was absolutely right about that. However, Jake had an ability that allowed him to swiftly strike out at the human, easily c the distaween them without even having to stand up.

  For the several seds, the human scrutinized Jake, examining his obsidian-bck, textured body and taking stock of the numerous wounds on his strange body, from which mana oozed out. Jake waited a few moments more before mentally instrug a tentacle to sprout from his back.

  Since he hadn’t acquired any upgrades for the ability yet, the process of f a tentacle was rather slow, taking a couple of seds. Jake trolled the growiacle behind him, making sure to keep it cealed from the survivor’s line of sight. Evehe tentacle finally grew to full length, the human was he wiser. With the room shrouded in darkness and Jake coiling the tentacle behind his back, making it quite pact, it was impossible for the human to see it from where he stood.

  The survivor kept studying the mutant kneeling before him, oblivious to the immi danger. Jake was aware that his tentacle could only st a few seds, so he couldn’t wait for a better opportunity to attack.

  Both Jake and the human came to the decision to strike almost simultaneously. Just as the survivor adjusted his aim, Jake shed out with his tentacle, ung it from behind his back toward the survivor with lightning-fast speed. The human was pletely taken aback by this ued turn of events. He should’ve shot at Jake’s head to finish him off, as he had inally intended, but fear and fusion clouded his judgment, preventing him from thinking clearly.

  Uo keep a cool head, he swung his on up, attempting to aim at the rapidly approag tentacle. He took a hurried shot, the shotgun booming and recoiling in his hands. Sure enough, he missed the fast-moving target. Before he could work the a of his gun, the tentacle reached him. The double-edged bde at the end of the tentacle sshed across his throat, cutting through muscle and cartige with ease.

  The human’s eyes widened in shock as his hands released the shotgun, causing it to fall to the floor. He ed his fingers around the nasty gush in his throat, trying to stanch the bleeding, but the blood tio seep between his fingers. It was a fatal wound, and the survivor was well aware of that. He tried to speak, but only a gurgle emerged from his throat. He staggered back, lost his bance, and crumpled to the ground, his fingers still ed around his bleeding throat.

  After the attack, the tentacle detached ao the floor, quickly withering and disiing into a pile of dust. Jake rose to his feet and began walking toward the incapacitated survivor.