The shambler was huge. It wasn’t because it was excessively fat or muscular, though. Like all the other shamblers he’d encountered as a survivor, it had a deformed body that was covered with thick layers of organic growth. Completely enveloped in that disgusting matter, the right arm of the mutant was extremely long, dangling at its side with the tips of its fingers almost touching the floor. The right leg was somewhat larger than the left one as well. The entire right side of the mutant had lumps of organic matter growing all over it, which made the mutant appear much larger. Half of its head was also covered by the protective growth, fully concealing one eye. The remaining eye was disproportionately large, bulging out so much that it appeared to be on the verge of falling out.

All the shamblers Jake had encountered as a survivor looked about the same way—half their bodies were covered in organic growth and one of their arms was as thick as a log and much longer than the other one. He knew the organic matter not only served as a protective layer but also had the remarkable ability to regenerate a shambler’s damaged flesh in a matter of seconds. The quickest way to kill a shambler was to destroy its brain. The problem was that most of its head was covered with lumps of protective organic matter. As a survivor, he had to fire at a shambler’s organic layer rapidly to give it no time to regenerate. It’d always taken him some time to kill a shambler with firearms in the past.

All these thoughts and memories flashed through his mind in less than a second. Jake waited for the shambler to make its first move. The massive mutant growled and shuffled toward him, struggling to walk, its movements labored and slow. The creature’s substantial weight and mismatched leg lengths hindered its mobility. If Jake had a mouth, he would’ve smiled. Shamblers had always looked frightening to him as a survivor. Now that he was a morphus, the cumbersome and sluggish mutant before him looked pitiful. Defeating it would be much easier than he’d initially anticipated.

After what felt like a long time, the shambler finally closed the distance, lifting its oversized arm with tedious slowness from Jake’s perspective. As the mutant began to swing its arm downward toward his head, Jake easily sidestepped, evading the attack as the massive fist crashed into the empty space he’d just occupied. The mutant’s bulging eye locked onto him with an expression of pure disbelief, unable to comprehend how it had missed its target.

Before the shambler could even raise its fist from the ground, Jake was already in motion. In the past, he would’ve aimed his shotgun at the shambler’s head to obliterate its skull and the brain within with a powerful blast or two. However, as he’d already noticed, his claws weren’t particularly suited for piercing. So he went for the mutant’s throat instead. Most of it was protected by a thick layer of organic matter. Jake swiped at it repeatedly in quick succession, rending the growth to shreds, not giving it time to regenerate until his claws finally reached the ex-human’s flesh. By the time the shambler finally lifted its fist, the mutant was profusely bleeding from the multiple gashes in its neck.

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The shambler growled in anger and pain, swinging its thick, log-like arm at Jake. He ducked, and the mutant’s fist passed over him harmlessly. Jake quickly moved behind the cumbersome creature and continued to attack its neck. The mutant attempted to turn toward him, but Jake kept circling the creature, staying out of its line of sight. All the growth on its neck was gone by that point, not even able to regenerate anymore. Fountains of blood sprayed from several deep gashes in its thick neck. The shambler was losing a lot of blood, weakening by the second.

The monster made another attempt to turn toward Jake, but he easily circled the huge cumbersome creature, staying out of its line of sight. The monster’s neck was just a gory mess of shredded flesh by that point. Jake was surprised the shambler managed to stay alive that long. He swiped at the mutant’s wounded neck another time, his sharp talons tearing into its flesh, adding new deep gashes to it.

The shambler couldn’t take any more damage. It emitted one last grunt as its knees buckled. The massive mutant collapsed to the floor with a resounding thud and went completely still.

Enemy killed. +50 XP

That was it. Just like that, the fight was over. Jake had anticipated an epic battle, but it turned out to be a one-sided beating that concluded in just a few seconds. So far, he’d defeated all the enemies he’d encountered without breaking a sweat. It was kind of disappointing. He wondered if there were more formidable enemies on the horizon. The elite walker he’d defeated was the strongest foe he’d encountered so far, but the regular mutants he faced didn’t pose much of a threat to him.

He turned his attention to the last remaining pod, from which the shambler had emerged seconds before. He could see that another monster of the same breed was already in the process of being created. However, it was still in the very early stages of development. Unlike walkers and leapers, it took much longer for shamblers to fully develop. Jake stepped to the replication pod and tore it to pieces with his claws. The transparent fluid splashed onto the floor, and with a wet thud, the undeveloped creature fell amid the shredded remnants of the pod. After crushing the embryo of the creature underfoot, Jake stepped aside from the mess he had created.

Now that all the enemies and replication pods were taken care of, he could finally check out his updated stats. His level had increased from 3 to 4 in the recent battle with mutants, granting him one skill point to allocate. Enhanced Senses had also reached 100%, allowing him to upgrade the skill to Rank II. Completing the recent mutation research quest should have unlocked a new ability called Bladed Tentacles. It was time to delve into all these exciting new developments. He closed his eyes and summoned his character sheet.