Chapter 364
Jake ducked as a shambler swung one of its huge arms at him and immediately blasted a huge hole in the mutant’s chest. The buckshot tore through its organic protective layer with ease, rupturing the creature’s internal organs and shattering bones.
The mutant was still alive, so Jake racked his shotgun and shot the mutant in the face. At such a short distance, the damage was devastating: the head exploded like an overripe melon in a spray of gore, the protective layer notwithstanding.
The now headless monster collapsed to the floor with a solid thud. Chambering another round, Jake quickly scanned his surroundings.
The three humans he had temporarily allied with were battling the swarm of mutants advancing on them from all directions. The floor was strewn with the bodies of the mutants they had killed in the past several minutes.
Still, there were so many left. The number of mutants didn’t seem to diminish at all, despite the survivors taking them down in droves. Every fallen mutant seemed to be immediately replaced by another.
Knowing the fight couldn’t last forever, the three bandits continued to fight desperately, doing their best to keep the mutants at bay.
Jake was doing his part in helping the three humans. Since he was in a human form, pretending to be Aaron, he couldn’t afford to use his natural weapons. Until the mission was finished and the legendary shotgun was secured, he had to maintain his assumed identity.
That meant relying solely on the weapons Aaron had carried: a pump-action shotgun and a heavy-caliber pistol. So he used the two firearms to kill the mutants, just like the three bandits. After being a morphus for so long, acting as a regular survivor felt strange yet exciting at the same time.
However, while Jake couldn’t use his natural weapons, he could definitely make good use of some of his passive skills, like enhanced agility, reflexes, feral senses, and a couple of others. He deftly evaded the enemies’ strikes by dodging and jumping aside while counterattacking with precise shots. His finely tuned reflexes, keen perception, and steady demeanor made him an impressive marksman.
The three humans stayed close together all the time, which helped them survive the chaos unfolding around them. As for Jake, he weaved between the mutants, always on the move, dodging their strikes and taking them out with precise shots.
If any of the others found it suspicious that he was keeping his distance, they didn’t show it. If anything, they likely appreciated his constant movement, as it drew the mutants’ attention away from them.
During the final moments of the tenth-floor siege, the most dangerous mutants joined the fray, including slashers, chasers, and armored brawlers. It was then that the three bandits found it impossible to stay together and had to split up.
They scattered in different directions, shooting at the mutants pursuing them. By that point, none of them had any spells left, so they could rely only on their weapons and combat skills to stay alive.
Jake had always kept a close eye on his temporary allies to make sure he could come to their aid when needed. More than once, he had killed a mutant that was about to pounce on one of his unsuspecting teammates from behind. None of them were aware of how many times he saved their lives during the battle on the tenth floor.
Then, at one point, he spotted two chasers choosing Kira as their target at the same time. She noticed them and visibly lost her nerve. She opened fire on the two quickly advancing mutants. Some bullets struck the chasers, causing them to stumble but not stop in their pursuit.
As they got closer to Kira, her aim should have improved, but the opposite happened: the nearer they got, the more nervous she became, and the more shots she missed. The other two bandits were too busy dealing with their own threats to notice that Kira was about to be attacked by the two chasers.
Jake sent a walker charging at him flying across the room with a blast from his shotgun before rushing to Kira’s aid. Pumping the fore-end of his shotgun, he took careful aim and fired at one of the chasers.
Just a fraction of a second before he did, a walker materialized in his line of fire, taking the shot meant for the chaser. Jake attempted to take another shot, only for his weapon to produce a dry click.
With no time to reload, Jake rushed toward Kira, who had just emptied her akimbo revolvers as well. Recognizing that she couldn’t reload in time, Kira spun around, panic etched on her face as she realized her chances of escaping alive were slim to none.
The two chasers were right on her heels, closing the gap quickly. As one of them drew near, it crouched low and sprang into the air. In that instant, Kira glanced back, her eyes widening in horror as she realized the chaser was about to tear into her.
In the next instant, Jake crashed into the chaser, sending it sprawling on the floor. Immediately after that, the second chaser materialized before him. It lashed out at him with its claws, but he easily ducked beneath its swipe and darted behind the creature.
He then slammed the butt of his shotgun into the back of the creature’s head with tremendous force, sending it crashing face-first to the ground. The mutant attempted to rise, but Jake quickly pressed his boot into its back, pinning it firmly to the floor.
He pulled out two explosive shells from his jacket pocket and loaded them into the shotgun. Just as he racked the slide, he caught sight of the first chaser charging at him from the side. Without even turning his head to look at the rapidly approaching mutant, he extended his shotgun toward it and fired one-handed.
The mutant’s head disappeared in an explosion of gore. Grabbing the forend of his shotgun with his left hand, Jake chambered the second shell and pressed the muzzle of the gun against the back of the second chaser, which was futilely trying to get up. The shotgun boomed, and the chaser stopped moving, its head reduced to a gory pulp.
“Wow,” he heard Kira’s voice, her voice filled with admiration. “That was awesome, Mute. You sure know how to impress a girl.”
Jake glanced up from the chaser he had just killed and saw Kira looking at him with wide eyes, clearly impressed.
“I had no idea you were so tough,” she added.
Suddenly, a cry for help pierced through the chaos. Jake darted his gaze toward the source of the shout and saw Rajan firing his assault rifle at an armored brawler quickly closing in on him. Most of his bullets ricocheted harmlessly off the creature’s armor.
Jake scanned the area for the last member of their team and found Felix trapped in another corner of the room, surrounded by walkers and leapers, desperately unleashing a barrage of gunfire on full-auto to fight them off.
While this team had successfully managed to get through the previous nine floors, here on the tenth one, the difficulty had increased dramatically, and they were now in serious trouble. It was clear that without his help, the three humans were doomed to be slain one by one.