Chapter 474
Chapter 474
D began to grow in size. His armor thickened as additional plates grew all over his body. Within several seconds, the transformation was complete. He was now much taller, towering at about ten feet, and his body was also much thicker. He now looked like a stone golem, except his entire body was obsidian-black, with only his eyes glowing blue.
His legs below the knees were heavily covered in the adhesive substance the crawlers had launched at him. But in this new form, D was much more powerful than before. He lifted one foot, easily rending the sticky substance to shreds. He took one step, freeing his other leg. He could now move freely, and he immediately used this opportunity to his full advantage.
He barreled toward the nearest crawler, hurling a huge fist at the creature, connecting with its head and pulverizing it. Another punch, thrown from above, crushed the crawler’s body as easily as if it were made of paper. After dealing with the arachnid, the morphus immediately rushed toward another one.
As he sprinted toward the next crawler, one of the wingclaws dove at him. Its talons scraped across his armor, leaving only superficial scratches and failing to trigger mana bleeding this time. Ignoring the creature, D reached the next crawler and, with his punches, reduced it to a formless mass of flesh as easily as he had the last. Then he immediately moved on to the next target.
Two more wingclaws attacked him one after another. Their talons failed to pierce his armor, though. D tried to retaliate, but they slipped out of range before he could land a hit. While in this new form D was undoubtedly much stronger and more resistant to damage, the speed of his movement and attacks had significantly slowed down.
The morphus continued dealing with one crawler after another, all the while being attacked by wingclaws and wasps. Their talons and stingers, however, still couldn’t break through his thick armor.
Blastfiends kept assailing him as well. They kept chasing him and employing Acid Blast, splattering the corrosive fluid over his armored body. At first, he completely ignored both blastfiends and wasps, no longer bothering to deal with the smaller creatures harassing him. He only paid attention to the crawlers and wingclaws, though he had yet to land a hit on a wingclaw.
Eventually, some of the blastfiends succeeded in crawling onto D’s body before exploding and drenching him in acid. The wasps kept stinging him, and one of them managed to pierce his armor with its stinger. At first, the morphus didn’t even notice.
But then more and more wasps began piercing his armor, and before long, the reason became clear. The blastfiends had been drenching his armor in acid for some time, and while it hadn’t had any visible effect immediately, it had been deteriorating his armor and making it more vulnerable to piercing damage.
Ultimately, it reached the point where every single stab from a wasp managed to pierce his armor. Sure enough, the wasps didn’t just prick him with their stingers, they also injected venom. D had to have a solid resistance to toxins, but the sheer amount of venom being injected into him couldn’t help but eventually take effect. All his movements became sluggish, and both the speed and power of his attacks became far less effective.
At some point, D realized something was wrong. But only when a wingclaw attacked him, and its talons actually managed to slash deep furrows into his armor, causing mana to flow out, did he realize that his armor was no longer as strong as it had been before. It took him a moment to connect the dots.
He realized the acid from the blastfiends had significantly deteriorated his armor, making him vulnerable to attacks. While it hadn’t exactly melted it, it had definitely weakened it. He also realized that the wasps had been injecting venom into him, making him slower and weaker. Once he realized all that, he became furious.
He set about killing every wasp that landed on him. He slapped at them with his huge palms or grabbed them and crushed their bodies in his fists. He also stomped on every blastfiend that dared to approach him. Considering there were quite a few of those smaller creatures, it took him some time, but eventually all the wasps and blastfiends were dealt with.
However, even though there were no more of them, the damage was done. His powerful form no longer protected him against the wingclaws’ talons. Each strike carved deep furrows into his armor, letting mana spill out freely. Worse, the venom slowed him enough that he could no longer counterattack effectively. In the end, he realized that his current form had become more of a hindrance than an advantage, so he reverted to his normal one.
After finishing off the remaining crawlers, he turned his full attention to the wingclaws. Other than them, there were no other types of creatures left. It took him some time, but eventually, he managed to deal with all the wingclaws as well.
When it was over, he stood in the middle of the street surrounded by the bodies of the monsters he had defeated. Most of them were dead, while the others had been decapitated to the point of no longer being a threat.
He stood as still as a statue, staring up the street at the group of humans, who looked back at him with terrifying expressions. This was not how they had envisioned this fight ending. They definitely hadn’t expected him to survive.
D was in bad shape. His body bore numerous gashes and ragged holes from which mana freely flowed out. He was losing magical energy at an alarming rate. He needed to find a secure spot, let his body heal, and then restore his mana reserves. But he obviously wasn’t planning on that. At least, not right away.
He meant to finish what he had started.
Though every other enemy had been defeated, the human group had been his true target all along. And he had no intention of retreating before killing them. So he broke into a sprint toward them. In his normal form, he could move much faster. The humans knew they had no hope of escaping, so they opened fire instead, trying to bring him down before he reached them. He dodged some of the energy blasts, but others slammed into his armor. Even so, it was obvious the barrage wasn’t enough to stop him. The humans had no way of preventing him from reaching their position.
And once he did, their fate would be sealed.
When D closed the distance to the human group to only ten yards, Jake landed in the middle of the street.
He had reached this street some time ago, but he had only been circling it, watching the battle unfold from above, interested to see how the creatures he had developed fared against D. When his counterpart began to sprint toward the humans, he knew it was time to intervene.
Other than Catalina, he didn’t care about any of them. Had she not been among them, he wouldn’t have lifted a finger to save them. But he couldn’t let D kill her.
So he detached from the wyrmcaller and plunged ten stories to the ground below. He also employed Ground Strike, so his landing had a devastating effect. The ground beneath him caved in, forming a massive crater, and a powerful shockwave erupted from the point of impact.
Between D’s weakened condition, the power of Ground Strike, and the momentum from such a long drop, Jake knew he could have killed D easily by landing directly on top of him. But that wasn’t what he wanted. Instead, he aimed his descent to land only a few feet in front of him.
While he avoided doing serious damage to his counterpart, there was no way for D to avoid the shockwave. It slammed into him and knocked him to the ground. To his credit, he was back on his feet almost instantly.
Without a pause, he then charged toward Jake. He threw a punch, but Jake easily dodged it. His counterpart was still affected by the venom coursing through his system, so his movement and attack speed were greatly reduced.
For that reason, Jake went easy on him. D unleashed a flurry of punches, but Jake dodged every single one of them. Occasionally, he countered with punches of his own, but he pulled them, not wanting to severely injure his counterpart.
This exchange of blows went on for about a minute before Jake decided to bring the fight to a conclusion. After dodging another strike, he punched D in the middle of his chest, sending his opponent crashing to the ground.
This time, D couldn’t get back up right away. Jake stepped forward and loomed over his fallen opponent, staring down at him.
“What are you waiting for?” Silvia shouted from behind him. “Finish him off while you can! Do it! Kill him!”
The other humans joined her cry, urging Jake to end his opponent while he had the chance. But Jake had no intention of doing that. Instead, he held out his hand to D. For a moment, his opponent only stared at it. Then he took it, and Jake pulled him to his feet. It was now obvious that Owen was back in control.
For a brief moment, the two stood there in silence, looking at each other. Behind them, the humans fell quiet. They clearly didn’t like what they were seeing. They would have rather watched one mutant kill the other. Instead, before their eyes, the two mutants appeared to make peace, a sight they really hated.
Then Owen gave him a short nod. After that, without so much as casting a glance at the human group, Owen turned and sprinted away from the scene. Jake watched his counterpart until he vanished from sight.
“Why didn’t you kill him?” Silvia’s angry voice rang out from behind him again. “You could’ve killed him, dammit. Why didn’t you do it when you had the chance?!”
When Jake finally turned around to face the group of humans, he saw them holding their weapons trained on him.