Chapter 457
D barreled toward him with incredible speed. But Jake was fast too, and with about thirty feet separating them, he had plenty of ti to react. He darted out of the way, letting his opponent streak past in a blur.
But what D did next was sothing Jake couldn’t have predicted. A wicked, scythe-like blade erupted from D’s shoulder, arcing downward to pierce the pulsating organic matter and the ground beneath. It locked him in place, halting his montum just enough to allow him to perform a sharp turn. Using the blade as a pivot point, D swung toward Jake like a pendulum, accelerating into another attack.
In the next instant, the weapon folded back into his armor, disappearing as if it had never been there. D charged at Jake again, but this ti Jake lacked the advantage of distance. He still managed to dart out of the way but barely. D rushed past, nearly brushing Jake’s shoulder. Before Jake could fully recover, the scythe-blade exploded out from D’s armor once more.
It slashed at him with a rush of air. Jake dodged, and instead of cutting deep into his armored flesh, the blade only sliced across it, leaving a scratch. While the damage wasn’t severe, the gash was deep enough for mana to imdiately begin to seep from his body.
Sure, the damaged flesh was already knitting itself back together, but the fact that he sustained that much damage from a glancing blow was alarming. Fighting another morphus was nothing like battling human beings in ch suits or even elite monsters. The fight against D wasn’t going to be easy, that was for damn sure.
Only Jake wasn’t eager to fight him at all. He still hoped he could reason with D. With his human side, that is. He still believed D wasn’t entirely a monster yet. Perhaps if Jake kept talking to him, he could reach that human self and cause it to reclaim control of his body once again.
Using the sa thod as before, plunging his scythe-blade into the ground, D pivoted toward him again. As the morphus charged, Jake activated Gravity Leap, launching himself high into the air. He then launched a grappling hook toward a spot ten yards away, and once the hook latched on, he yanked himself toward it. Upon landing, he spun toward D, retrieving the electrolarynx again.
To his surprise, D skidded to a sudden stop, staring at him with his huge, solid-blue eyes. Although those eyes couldn’t convey emotion, the stillness in D’s stance spoke volus. It certainly seed as if D was taken aback by what he had just witnessed. The maneuver Jake had perford was clearly sothing D hadn’t anticipated, indicating he himself didn’t have such an ability.
That made sense. After all, Jake knew that dungeons were rare in this world and could only be completed once. Once soone opened a dungeon, no one else could enter it, and once cleared, it could never be reopened.
And any rewards earned in a dungeon were therefore exclusive. So the five tornt-thed abilities Jake had gained from the Maze of Tornt were unique to him. Neither D nor any other morphus, assuming there were others, would ever be able to obtain these abilities.
Anyway, the re fact that D arrested his attack to stare at Jake in surprise was a clear sign that D’s human side wasn’t completely gone. The realization gave Jake hope, encouraged him. D’s humanity was still there, buried deep inside, lying dormant. If Jake could reach it, could wake it, there was a chance it might overpower the monster within and put his human self back at the helm of his body.
Once again, they just stared at each other in silence for a mont. Then Jake pressed the electrolarynx to his throat and said, “I don’t want to fight. And I know you don’t really want to either. If we can just…”
He didn’t finish his sentence because D surged at him once again. His monster side was back in charge. It almost felt like the chanical voice coming from the device was setting D off, making him angry for so reason.
Perhaps he just didn’t like how chanical and emotionless the voice sounded? Jake wasn’t crazy about it either, but did that really justify D’s desire to tear him apart? Jake didn’t think so. He darted out of the way before D could get within striking distance again.
Or maybe the Commander had been telling the truth all along. Maybe D’s humanity was hopelessly lost, and no matter what Jake tried, it was impossible to put D’s human self back at the helm.
While Jake had always been ready for the possibility that he and D would beco adversaries, he had still hoped it could be avoided. And he definitely wasn’t quite ready to give up hope that they could beco allies.
D adjusted the trajectory of his movent and lunged toward Jake once again. Jake vaulted into the air, but this ti, D anticipated the maneuver and leaped right after him. As it turned out, he could jump quite high too. They collided in mid-air with a crash.
As soon as they hit the ground, D pressed the assault. Jake’s body sprouted bladed tentacles that whipped toward his opponent. In response, D unleashed two scythe-blades at the sa ti, one from each shoulder, slicing through several of Jake’s tentacles and cutting them clean in two.
One of his hands shot forward, grabbing hold of another tentacle. With a savage tug, he hauled Jake toward him and swung a punch. Jake twisted his head to the side, narrowly dodging the blow, and it whistled past his face.
His bladed tentacles slashed at his opponent, but they failed to leave so much as a scratch on D’s armor. Since they were useless, Jake detached them, but instead of retreating from D, he moved closer.
He grabbed hold of the left side of D’s head with one hand while morphing the other into a drill. Jake imdiately slamd its spinning tip into the other side of D’s head.
His counterpart clearly hadn’t expected sothing like that to happen. He once again seed surprised by another of Jake’s abilities. The drill whined as it struggled to bore into D’s armored flesh. Pushing harder, Jake finally managed to force it into the side of his opponent’s head.
So, even though D’s armor was powerful, so of his abilities could still damage it. That was definitely a good sign.
That made D angry. He thrust his forehead forward with trendous force, slamming it into the middle of Jake’s face. It definitely wasn’t just a regular headbutt. Instead, D must have employed one of his abilities because everything went dark before Jake’s eyes for a mont.
When he regained his vision, he found himself sprawled on the ground with D on top of him. Four long tentacle-like appendages extended from D’s back, each ending in sothing resembling a blossom with four large fleshy petals that clasped tightly around Jake’s wrists and ankles, pinning him to the ground.
Jake attempted to free himself by shoving D off, but his opponent was incredibly strong. Jake was overpowered against humans and regular mutants, capable of even taking down formidable elite mutants many levels stronger than himself.
But D wasn’t just a mutant, he was a morphus. And fighting another of his kind was an entirely different matter. Defeating him was no easy task at all.
D didn’t launch another attack, though. He simply stared down at Jake. Jake wasn’t sure what was going on in D’s head, but he hoped D’s human self was trying to take control over his body, pushing the monster side away.
Despite having his ass kicked, Jake still hoped he could reason with D, make his monster side subside, and allow his human self to surface. Summoning every ounce of strength, he wrenched one hand free. Before D’s strange tentacle could seize it again, Jake pulled his electrolarynx from his inventory and pressed it firmly to his jaw.
“I don’t want to fight you,” he said. “We don’t have to. We can be on the sa side. But you have to fight your inner beast. Don’t let it control you. You need to be in charge of your body.”
Suddenly, D’s hand shot out and snatched the device from Jake’s grip. He brought it to his eyes for a closer look, staring at it with what seed like curiosity, or at least it appeared that way. In his enormous fist, the electrolarynx seed absurdly tiny.
A mont later, D brought the device to his mandible and jamd it against his own flesh. His jaws parted, revealing rows of large, jagged teeth not unlike Jake’s, and then… nothing happened. No sound ca from the device.
That made sense. To make the device work, D would have needed at least a partially functioning voice box, sothing he had clearly never developed. He tried opening his mouth wider, but of course, it didn’t help the matter.
A few seconds later, D abandoned his attempts to make the device work. Clearly frustrated, he crushed it in his huge fist, reducing it to nothing more than a handful of dust.
It was fine. Jake knew he could return to New Hope anyti he wanted and ask Catalina’s people to manufacture another electrolarynx for him. But for that to happen, he first had to survive his very first encounter with another morphus.
D seed to be back under the control of his monstrous side. He opened his mouth wide, as if he wanted to take a bite out of Jake’s face. Jake attempted to push him away with his free hand, but D imdiately grabbed it and pinned it to the ground. He tried once more to free a hand, but this ti D gave him no chance. Jake knew he was in serious trouble now.
D leaned closer, his jaws spreading wide. But before he could clamp them down on Jake’s face, a whining sound ca from behind him. D froze. The noise grew louder with every second, and when Jake turned his head, he saw a small, round drone, about the size of his fist, drift into view. A mont later, it ca to a motionless hover beside him and D.
“Owen, no!” a voice emanated from the drone. “Leave the poor guy alone!”
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