Chapter 116

Jake instinctively morphed his hands into claws just before he slammed into the wall of the building with a solid thud. As gravity took hold, he began to drop toward the alleyway below. Though he was aware the fall wouldn’t kill him, only hurt a little, he still wanted to avoid hitting the ground.

His claws scraped along the surface of the wall, making a grinding noise like nails on a chalkboard. Each scrape sent vibrations through his body as the gritty texture of the concrete chipped beneath his talons. The wall now bore the marks of his chaotic descent, sending small fragments of concrete spiraling into the air like tiny shrapnel.

His claws dug deeper, but the wall offered no easy grips. Just as Jake began to think he wouldn’t be able to check his descent, the tips of his talons caught a sharp crack in the concrete. Instantly, he drove his claws into the small fissure, bringing his downward plunge to a stop.

He dangled precariously, one clawed hand gripping the edge of the crack while the other swayed in the open air. Jake glanced up and saw he’d dropped a couple of floors. He then looked down. A few stories below him, the vacant alleyway lay nestled between the two towering high-rises. Although he was aware he’d walk away with just minor injuries if he fell, he still wanted to avoid that outcome.

The wind whipped around him, carrying the rhythmic sounds of the rotating rotor blades and the hum of the chopper’s engine. Then a shadow crossed over him as the pilot maneuvered the helicopter in a half-circle to hover above the alleyway. Jake looked up and saw the door gunner adjust the barrel of the machine gun to point it down at him. A smug grin spread across the gunner’s face as he pulled the trigger.

The sound of gunfire echoed through the air as bullets slammed into the wall Jake was clinging to. Debris rained down on him as dust swirled around. Suddenly, a heavy-caliber round struck the side of his head, causing it to jerk sideways. Immediately, a system notification flashed through his mind.

You have just gotten a negative effect: Dazed. You are disoriented and feel vertigo.

It was the very first time he’d been shot in the head. For a moment, he felt a flash of worry, but he quickly realized that aside from receiving the Dazed negative effect, he suffered no other injuries. The heavy-caliber bullet had carved a hole in the side of his head, but it wasn’t too deep, and he could already feel his body starting to heal, regenerating damaged flesh with remarkable speed.

The world swirled around him, leaving him feeling disoriented and dizzy. The first time he’d experienced this negative effect was after falling from a high-rise roof and banging his head on the asphalt. It seemed that this negative effect was put on him whenever he sustained damage to his head.

The door gunner kept firing at him, and each bullet that punctured his hardened flesh made his body jerk with the impact. At one moment, he almost lost his grip on the crack in the wall. A thought struck him: what was he even clinging to the wall for? After all, the fall wouldn’t kill him. If he dropped into the alleyway, he would survive and be able to easily escape from his pursuers.

Only it wasn’t what he really wanted. Rather than fleeing, he longed to counterattack his opponents. However, considering the unfortunate situation he’d found himself in, that wasn’t going to be easy.

He was seriously beginning to entertain the idea of letting go of the fissure he was clinging to and dropping down into the alleyway below. Just then, a bullet slammed into the window to his left, shattering it into thousands of shards that came raining down on him. A new idea crossed his mind. He firmly grasped the top edge of the frame with his free hand, then released his hold on the wall with the other and quickly used it to grab the side of the window frame instead.

He pulled his knees up to his chin, propelling himself into the room through the shattered window and landing on his feet. He quickly dropped into a crouch as bullets whizzed overhead. Then the gunfire suddenly came to an end. Jake sprang to his feet and looked back over his shoulder. He saw the door gunner hastily shoving another ammo belt into the machine gun. The guy looked frustrated. He obviously couldn’t understand how Jake could still be alive and kicking after taking so many shots. Before he could finish reloading his weapon, Jake dashed deeper into the room, slipping out of view from the outside.

He located a staircase. The steps were intact, so he took them up. When he reached the last flight of stairs that led to the door opening to the roof, he paused to listen. The sounds of the rotor blades and the helicopter’s engine were growing louder. A few seconds later, the noise became so loud Jake realized the helicopter was now hovering directly above the rooftop.

He waited. Would his opponents be foolish enough to disembark from the helicopter and enter the building to look for him? Were they committed enough to do something so reckless? Would their thirst for his blood cloud their judgment? Jake hoped that after dedicating so much time and effort to trying to kill him, they would feel compelled to finish the job. He genuinely wanted them to come after him. After everything they’d put him through, he was itching for a fight.

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“Come out, come out, wherever you are,” he heard one of them—likely the door gunner—yell.

They thought of him as nothing more than a mindless monster, easily lured by a human voice like regular ex-humans. Jake remained where he was, absolutely certain that the door gunner had his weapon trained on the entrance, ready to unleash a barrage of bullets the moment he dared to step outside.

Moments later, the same voice shouted, “Come on! Quit hiding and get your ass outside! Don’t you want to eat me or something?”

His voice betrayed his frustration. The door gunner truly wanted to finish Jake off. Jake waited. A few more seconds passed without anything happening. While his pursuers were eager to kill him, they weren’t foolish enough to step out of the helicopter and enter the building, well aware it would put them at a serious disadvantage.

Jake knew the longer he waited, the greater the chances were that his pursuers would lose interest and fly away. Though he was itching to confront the two occupants of the helicopter, he knew he couldn’t leap high enough to reach the chopper. Unless he either came up with a plan to lure his pursuers out of the chopper and into the building or found a way to somehow get to them, he saw no point in leaving the shelter of the building.

Then an idea struck him. He decided to use a trick he’d learned after upgrading his Enhanced Senses. Dropping to a crouch, he placed his palm on the floor of the half-landing and closed his eyes, fully concentrating on his tactile sensations. He felt slight vibrations through his hand, indicating that the helicopter was not hovering above the building but parked on the rooftop. That changed everything.

Jake snapped his eyes open and sprinted up the steps. Moments later, he burst onto the rooftop. Just as he’d anticipated, the helicopter sat in the center of the roof, with the door gunner aiming his weapon right at the doorway he’d just emerged from.

When the door gunner spotted Jake step outside, a grin spread across his face. He thought his ruse to lure the “stupid mutant” outside had worked perfectly. What he didn’t realize was that a nasty surprise was on the way for him instead.

Jake wasted no time bursting into a sprint toward the helicopter. The door gunner’s grin slipped away when he saw how quickly Jake was moving. While he’d seen Jake run before, it’d always been in retreat. This time, however, rather than fleeing, Jake was charging toward them—and at an incredible pace to boot—making the door gunner uneasy. The machine gun roared to life as he hastily squeezed the trigger.

Jake felt the bullets slam into his chest, but they hardly slowed him down. In under two seconds, he closed half the distance to the helicopter. The door gunner’s expression turned to one of horror as he realized the bullets he fired were having little effect. It dawned on him he wouldn’t be able to stop Jake before he reached the chopper.

“Take off!” he screamed, his voice laced with hysteria. “Take off, goddammit!”

The chopper began to lift immediately. That was when Jake performed a mana-infused jump, landing right at the helicopter’s door. He seized the red-hot barrel of the machine gun with his right hand. The door gunner lurched back in panic. Jake’s hand tightly gripping the hot barrel sizzled as a wisp of smoke rose from it, but he could tell the damage to his flesh was minimal.

“What the hell are you?” the door gunner exclaimed, his eyes wide as he stared at Jake’s sizzling, smoking hand still clamped around the weapon’s barrel.

That was when he noticed the machine gun’s muzzle was aimed directly at Jake’s chest. Realizing that from point-blank range he could inflict far greater damage, the door gunner lunged for the mounted weapon. However, before he could reach it, Jake delivered a powerful kick to his chest, sending him sprawling backward and crashing to the ground.

“Hold on to something!” the pilot suddenly shouted a warning to his companion.

In the blink of an eye, the chopper, which had been steadily climbing, suddenly banked sharply to the starboard. Jake’s left hand shot out, grasping the edge of the doorway. Meanwhile, the door gunner, still sprawled on his back, managed to hold on to something as well, preventing himself from sliding across the floor toward the open door.

For several moments, the chopper went into a frenzy, sharply banking first to one side and then to the other. Once the helicopter finally leveled out, the pilot glanced over his shoulder and shouted, “Did I dislodge the mutant?”

No, you didn’t, Jake thought, tightening his grip on the edge of the doorway before launching himself into the chopper.

His face a mask of a strange mix of panic and determination, the door gunner drew a heavy-caliber pistol from its holster on his hip. Still lying on his back, he aimed the handgun at Jake and opened fire. Bullets slammed into Jake’s chest, each impact jolting him but failing to halt his approach toward the man lying on the ground.

“Why won’t you die, you damn freak?” he screamed, panic and frustration lacing his voice.

When he squeezed the trigger again, the pistol clicked on empty. With a quick, powerful yank, Jake wrenched the handgun from the door gunner’s grip and flung it out of the chopper over his shoulder.

Jake then opened his mouth wide, exposing rows of jagged, pointed teeth.

“Oh my God,” the door gunner whispered in horror as he realized he was about to die.

Jake leaned in toward the human and bit into his face.