Ex-Human Morphus [A Mutant Evolution Apocalypse LitRPG]
Chapter 170

Chapter 170

The colossal monster barreled toward him, its footsteps shaking the ground beneath Jake. He was in no shape to fight, so his only choice was to flee. Spinning around, he dashed across the street toward the building from which he had been watching the bandit base. He sprinted at his maximum speed. He wasn’t going to scale the wall this time, though.

There were currently no bandits on the perimeter walls of the base. They had either fallen in battle or descended to help their allies fight the mutants inside the base. So, although Jake’s Cloak was deactivated, the inhabitants of the base remained unaware of his presence. However, if he attempted to scale the building’s wall, he risked being spotted by anyone inside when he rose high enough. He didn’t want the base’s inhabitants to realize he had been spying on them, lurking nearby. If he could remain undetected, he would have the element of surprise when he eventually decided to attack the base. Therefore, rather than scaling the wall, he chose to enter the building instead.

Whether he would reach the building before the death knight caught up with him was anyone’s guess. He didn’t need to look back to know the massive creature was gaining on him—the sound of massive footsteps growing louder told him all he needed to know. Just as he braced for impact, expecting the death knight to strike or seize him, something unexpected occurred. The gigantic monster suddenly slowed down, roaring in fury as a series of heavy impacts reverberated through the air. Jake glanced over his shoulder to see what was happening.

Jake watched as one of the turrets trained its fire on the death knight, unleashing heavy-caliber bullets that struck the creature’s sturdy armor. Most bullets ricocheted off the death knight’s incredibly hardy exterior, but a few found their way into the joints between the armor plates, inflicting some damage. The death knight halted its chase and turned to face the turret. It continued to fire, but most of the heavy-caliber rounds harmlessly bounced off the monster’s incredibly powerful armor, dealing no visible damage to it.

Still, the attack had captured the death knight’s attention. Losing interest in Jake, the massive creature charged across the street back toward the bandit base. It must have realized it wouldn’t be able to reach the turret, because instead of sprinting toward the watchtower, atop which the turret attacking it was mounted, the monster returned to the gate and resumed pounding its colossal fists against it. Meanwhile, Jake continued running toward the building. Once inside, he quickly located the staircase. Although the steps were missing, this posed no challenge for Jake. Even without his Adhesive Secretion skill, he could easily ascend the empty staircase by simply jumping and gripping onto various ledges.

It wasn’t long before Jake emerged onto the rooftop. He navigated carefully to the parapet and crouched down, peering over the edge while keeping the rest of his body concealed. The base was still under attack, but it was clear that the defenders were beginning to gain the upper hand against the monsters. The machine gun turrets were efficiently taking out the remaining void spiders, while the bandits inside the base fought off the last of the fiends. As for the sky raptors, all of them had been dealt with by that point.

Suddenly, the gates crashed inward as the death knight finally managed to knock them down. The massive creature burst inside with a triumphant roar. It paused for a moment to survey the scene, then charged at the first bandit who had just opened fire on it. With a powerful swing of its colossal fist, the creature struck the hapless human, crushing him and shattering every bone in his body. Next, the death knight unleashed a brutal assault on the nearest contraption, rendering it inoperable with just a few heavy punches. It then turned its wrath on another device, ripping metal components from it as effortlessly as if it were tearing apart a cardboard box.

The bandits were reluctant to fire on the towering monstrosity. Having just seen how quickly and brutally the death knight had turned the first bandit who had dared to attack it into a pulp, none of the rest of them wanted to draw its attention to themselves. One of the bandits shouted something to Miller, gesturing at the death knight as it demolished contraption after contraption. Clad in a power suit, Miller was currently fighting one of the remaining fiends. He held the creature by its throat with one hand while using the chainsaw attached to the other to cut the monster in half, sending sprays of blood flying everywhere. The creature screamed in agony, helplessly thrashing about but was unable to escape Miller’s iron grip, reinforced by his power glove.

Once the monster was dealt with, Miller tossed aside the remnants of its body and turned to face the death knight. He aimed his energy gun at the gigantic creature and opened fire. Energy bolts zipped through the air, striking the death knight in various parts of its body. However, aside from leaving scorch marks, they seemed to inflict little damage. As it turned out, despite being extremely powerful, Miller’s energy gun was no match for the death knight’s durable armor. He continued to unleash a barrage of fire against his opponent until his weapon ran dry.

The death knight finally turned its attention to Miller. It appeared to appraise the human in the power suit and then emitted a thunderous roar that sounded almost joyful to Jake as if the monster deemed Miller a worthy opponent. With a sudden charge, the death knight slammed into Miller, nearly knocking him off his feet. The monstrous creature delivered a devastating blow, leaving a dent in Miller’s power suit. In response, the gang leader countered with a powerful punch aimed at the monster’s head.

The bandits visibly relaxed, grateful that the death knight’s attention was on their leader rather than on them. However, their relief was short-lived. With the gates down, the remaining void spiders abandoned their efforts to scale the walls and began to pour into the base through the newly formed opening.

Watching the battle unfold, Jake noticed that although the death knight was incredibly powerful, Miller appeared to be gaining the upper hand. Even though Jake had failed to steal the Skeleton Key, he still held onto the hope that he could still do so. However, he first needed to replenish his mana reserves to use Cloak again to remain undetected. Closing his eyes, he activated Mana Vision. As he scanned the area, he spotted a sizable light nearby, indicating either a chunk or perhaps a crystal. It was just a few high-rises away from his position and hovered at the same height, suggesting it was located on a rooftop.

Turning to face the right direction, Jake opened his eyes. He wasn’t sure exactly how he would steal the Skeleton Key without drawing attention from the base’s inhabitants, but that wasn’t his main concern at the moment. For now, his priority was to reach the mana consumable and quickly get back. If he acted fast enough, he might even be able to make it back before Miller finished dealing with the death knight. 

With that in mind, Jake sprinted across the roof and leaped to the next building.

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