Ex-Human Morphus [A Mutant Evolution Apocalypse LitRPG]
Chapter 191

Chapter 191

Jake returned to the evolution subclass selection menu and focused on Devastator—the last, but not the least, form he hadn’t examined yet. As he concentrated on the subclass, a new vision filled his mind.

He saw himself standing on the parched, cracked earth beyond the city boundaries. Some distance behind him, the towering buildings of the city loomed. The wasteland was marred by cracks of various sizes running in all directions—some as thin as a pencil line while others being a few meters wide.

At first glance, it might seem that the scene was unfolding in the exact same place where the Corruptor had appeared in the final moments of the previous vision. However, it was difficult to tell for certain, as the wasteland extending endlessly beyond the city’s boundaries looked the same in every direction.

The Devastator remained still, his eyes fixed on the line of the horizon. He seemed to be staring at something specific, but at first, Jake struggled to understand what his counterpart was focused on. He decided to use this moment of inactivity to examine the appearance of this evolution form.

The Corruptor from the previous vision looked exactly like Jake—the slightly hunched back, a face resembling a snout, and arms that were somewhat longer than those of a human. The Ravager from the first vision appeared as a mutated, two-legged prehistoric reptile. In contrast, the Devastator looked distinctly different from the previous two forms.

As Jake examined the motionless mutant, he couldn’t shake the feeling that the Devastator’s figure starkly resembled that of an ordinary human. The mutant was tall, well over six feet, and his body appeared ripped. While his skin was pitch-black and textured, the overall shape of his body resembled that of a heavyweight athlete.

The Devastator’s face was anything but human, though. While it wasn’t elongated like Jake’s, it resembled a human’s in general shape. However, the mouth was too large and filled with jagged, triangular teeth, just like his. His eyes were also large and of a solid greenish-blue color akin to his current form’s.

The Devastator continued to stand still, staring at the same spot above the horizon line. Jake finally discerned what his counterpart was so intently focused on—several black dots against the sky, which was obscured by gray clouds. As they drew closer, the dots grew in size, and eventually, Jake could see that they were helicopters.

As they approached the city, with the Devastator standing before the post-apocalyptic megapolis like a guardian protecting it, more details sprang into view. He noticed that while the approaching aircraft possessed a futuristic design, they starkly contrasted with the helicopters used by Los Demonios. These were clearly military-grade, equipped with various weapon systems in their arsenal.

Behind the combat helicopters, a few more dots appeared on the horizon. As they drew closer, Jake saw that they were tanks. Much like the helicopters, they looked as if they were straight out of a sci-fi movie. They lacked traditional tracks and instead hovered about two feet above the wasteland, gliding effortlessly over the desolate landscape.

The hover tanks trailed behind, moving significantly slower than the combat helicopters. Still, they were surprisingly fast for such heavy vehicles.

It wasn’t long before one of the combat helicopters reached the Devastator, slowing to a controlled hover with all its weapons trained at the mutant. However, the Devastator seemed completely unperturbed. For a moment, the pilot and the pitch-black mutant locked eyes. Then, without warning, the combat helicopter unleashed a torrent of gunfire.

The Devastator sprang into action, the transition from standing still to a full sprint almost instantaneous. The mutant barreled across the wasteland so quickly that his feet seemed to barely touch the parched earth. High-powered rounds rained down around him, the helicopter struggling to track him with its front autocannon.

Suddenly, the Devastator propelled himself into a surprisingly forceful leap. Defying gravity, he soared toward the combat helicopter hovering high above. Jake initially assumed the mutant’s plan was to latch onto the chopper, break the cockpit with a punch, and drag the pilot out to send him plummeting to the ground. Yet, it quickly became apparent that the Devastator had something entirely different in mind.

The Devastator streaked through the air, approaching the combat helicopter with such speed that he blurred. This was why Jake didn’t immediately notice the change taking place mid-flight. Only when the transformation was nearly complete did he realize the Devastator had morphed himself into some kind of streamlined object, which resembled a missile.

He shot through the combat helicopter’s fuselage, entering from one side and bursting from the other, mangling the rotor blades in the process. He must have struck something critical because, almost immediately, the futuristic chopper erupted into an explosion, an orange fireball expanding in every direction.

As the Devastator fell back to the ground, he reverted to his usual human-like form. He landed hard, going down to one knee as the burning debris rained down all around him. For a moment, he remained in that position, staring at the other combat helicopters, seemingly calculating the best strategy to take them out. After witnessing the chaos he had just unleashed, Jake doubted the combat helicopters stood a chance against him, despite their superiority in numbers.

The Devastator changed his tactic. While he could have replicated the successful maneuver he used to take down the previous chopper, picking off the combat helicopters one by one, he chose instead to unleash some of his more dangerous abilities to make his assault more efficient.

Jake watched as his counterpart began to transform once more, additional layers of armored flesh rapidly forming around him. The process took just a few seconds, and when it was complete, the Devastator looked entirely different. He now resembled a stone golem, his massive body supported by arms and legs as thick as logs. He had significantly increased in size, adding numerous layers of additional protection to his already formidable form.

The combat helicopters closed in on him from all sides. Remaining on one knee, the Devastator cast a quick glance at his attackers before wrapping his arms tightly around his body. In an instant, stone-like layers erupted around him, encasing him from every direction. Within just two seconds, the transformation was complete, reshaping the mutant into a formless mass of pitch-black rock.

The combat helicopters bombarded him all at once, unleashing a barrage of missiles. Explosions erupted upon impact, chipping away at the stone-like armor surrounding him. Yet, despite the ferocity of the assault, they were unable to cause enough damage to breach the layers and reach the mutant concealed within. Jake suspected that it took an immense amount of mana to forge such a powerful protective barrier in such a short amount of time.

The devastating onslaught lasted several seconds until the combat helicopters exhausted their missile supply. The moment it happened, the Devastator launched his counterattack. He burst from the protective shell, shattering it from within. Remaining in his golem form, the mutant clenched his massive fists and started to pummel the ground beneath him.

Each of his powerful strikes sent shockwaves rippling outward, warping the air around them. The combat helicopters found themselves well within the range of the mutant’s ability. The choppers scrambled to escape, but they were too slow.

The shockwaves generated by the mutant’s ground punches interfered with the helicopters’ electronics, causing them to act up. One by one, pilots lost control of their aircraft, sending them spiraling to the ground. The failing helicopters dropped from the sky, crashing into the hard earth, smashing their rotor blades, wrecking their engines, and twisting their fuselages beyond recognition.

It wasn’t long before not a single chopper remained in the sky. As the Devastator rose to his feet, an energy bolt slammed into his chest, creating a large hole in his body. The hover tanks had finally advanced close enough to unleash their firepower on him.

The mutant wasted no time charging at the tanks. He executed a powerful, long leap and landed heavily on one tank, slamming it into the ground and leaving deep dents in its surface. Almost immediately, he jumped to another tank, attacking it with powerful fists that crushed the armor as effortlessly as if it were mere tin.

Jake watched as the Devastator dashed from one tank to another, punching them and tearing off pieces of armor. Once a tank was damaged beyond functionality, he quickly turned his attention to the next. They fired energy bolts at him, but each shot missed, as he moved too quickly for them to get a clear aim.

Before long, every tank was taken down, much like the helicopters. But the battle was far from over—a new threat suddenly appeared. As if summoned by the sounds of combat, insect-like creatures started to emerge from one of the larger fissures in the ground, even the smallest of which were the size of large dogs.

They looked suspiciously similar to the creatures created by the Corruptor from Jake’s previous vision. It was hard to tell if they were the same creatures, but the resemblance was undeniable. Once again, Jake thought the scenery of this battle scene looked very similar to the final moments of his earlier vision, where the Corruptor, controlling an enormous centipede, scuttled across the parched earth toward a massive crack that led to one of his lairs. The fissure from which the insect-like creatures were now emerging seemed almost identical to that earlier one.

Jake couldn’t shake the thought that the crack in this vision might actually lead to the Corruptor’s lair. If that were the case, what did it all mean? Until now, he had regarded these visions as mere movie trailers, hinting at what to anticipate from each of the three evolution forms in their final progression stages. But what if these glimpses held a more profound meaning? Could they be glimpses of actual future events yet to unfold?

He knew that his transformation into a morphus was an extremely rare occurrence. Yet since it had happened to him, there remained a possibility that another survivor could undergo the same transformation. What if, in the future, he crossed paths with another morphus? And what if that mutant followed a different evolution path? Would they become friends or foes?

However, Jake decided to ponder the possible implications of that later. For now, he wanted to concentrate on the action unfolding in the vision. He saw the Devastator suddenly sprint toward the creatures emerging from the massive fissure in the ground. As he ran, the mutant activated another of his abilities, transforming himself into a massive boulder rolling toward the swarm of monsters.

He smashed into the middle of them, scattering some of them like bowling pins and flattening the others. In the next second, the Devastator transformed once again, reverting to his original human-like form. However, even in this shape, he was incredibly powerful. He morphed his hands into claws and tore apart one monster after another. Once all of them were dealt with, he jumped into the crack from which the insect-like creatures had been emerging and disappeared from sight.

That was where the vision concluded. A message appeared, asking if he wanted to select this subclass. There was no warning about the incompatibility of this subclass with Morph Disguise, which meant that, unlike the Ravager form, Devastator was indeed compatible with the ability. Since only Ravager— which looked nothing like a human—was incompatible, it meant that this ability only worked with forms that resembled normal humans.

Anyway, now that he had familiarized himself with all three subclasses and learned what each had to offer, it was time to choose which evolutionary path to take.

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