Chapter 496
Chapter 496
Those weird flying creatures looked like nothing Jake had ever seen before. As they got closer and closer to the helicopter, he was able to make out additional details about them.
More than anything, they reminded him of squids. Each had an elongated head and several tentacles extending from its back. Their bodies were electric blue, and while the heads were solid, the tentacles were semi-transparent and luminous.
They sliced through the air in a smooth, undulating manner, kind of making it seem like they were swimming through water. As they got closer, Jake noticed even more details about them. While their overall appearance was definitely organic, here and there, clearly artificial parts were integrated into their bodies.
Their heads were definitely armored, protected by metal plates, while their tentacles ended in various weapons, fused seamlessly together. He was able to make out that each of the creatures was armed with both melee and ranged weapons.
As they got even closer, Jake was able to call up the stats of one of the creatures.
Name: Synth Stalker
Level: 495
Each of the creatures had the same stats. It was a tad disconcerting. There were over a dozen such creatures, and each one was over three hundred levels above him.
Jake quickly checked every synth stalker to confirm they were all regular units. At least that was something. If the mothership, or whatever it was, had elite creatures, it hadn’t deployed them. Not yet.
He glanced at Owen. Sure enough, he was watching the weird creatures calmly. If their appearance bothered him in any way, nothing in his posture betrayed it. Jake wondered if his counterpart had ever encountered this enemy before. Probably not, though.
“Jake, Owen,” Mick’s voice came through the comms. “Whoever those guys are, they’re obviously not friendly. And they’re fast, so we won’t be able to escape from them. Brace yourselves, guys, I’m gonna strike them.”
Just as he said that, one of the stalkers came to an abrupt stop, hovering in the air as if in zero gravity. The synthetic creature spread its tentacles around its body, angling the tips toward the helicopter.
A moment before the energy cannons fused with some of the tentacles opened fire, the helicopter dived. Owen grabbed hold of the handrail over him, while Jake employed Adhesive Secretion to keep himself anchored. The glowing bolts of energy zipped over the helicopter.
Remotely piloting the aircraft, Mick pulled the helicopter back up and swung it toward the synth stalkers. The nose lined up with the one that had fired, and he opened up with the dual front machine guns.
The stalker immediately darted to the side, but not before some of the projectiles struck home. Those that struck its armored head left behind nothing more than scorched marks. However, a few bolts hit some of the semi-transparent tentacles, drilling right through them in sprays of green fluid. One of the tentacles was ripped cleanly in half.
“Hell yeah,” Mick shouted in excitement.
However, Jake could see he had hardly dealt any damage to the creature, so there was no real reason to feel excited. Other than losing one tentacle, the stalker was pretty much unharmed. Maybe just being in the middle of the fight was enough to thrill Mick.
By that point, all the synth stalkers had reached the helicopter, surrounding it from every direction. For a brief moment, they simply hovered in the air, not moving from their positions. Then they all sprang into motion. One of them shot toward the helicopter at incredible speed, moving like a living missile.
The stalker swept past the cockpit, its glowing tentacles trailing behind. A split second later, one of those tentacles shot forward, and the blade fused into its tip scraped against the chopper’s side with a horrible metallic shriek.
The helicopter lurched as warning lights flared across the instrumental panel.
Outside, the sky became a swirling mass of electric blue. The synth stalkers moved around the helicopter with a fluidity that was both unsettling and mesmerizing. Their armored heads led the way while the luminous tentacles drifted behind. It seemed like they didn’t fly but rather glided, as if invisible currents carried them through the air.
A second stalker surged toward the helicopter with great speed. Mick launched several missiles at the oncoming enemy. The stalker managed to dodge some of them, but the rest slammed into its armored body. An orange fireball erupted, swallowing the creature for a second. Luminous green liquid and shredded tentacles flew every which way. The mangled armored head of the creature plummeted to the ground far below them.
“Did you guys see that?” Mick shouted with a laugh. “I got the bastard!”
He seemed to be having a little too much fun.
“One down, and… too many to count to go.”
Another synth stalker dashed toward the helicopter, diving beneath it. A heartbeat later, the creature latched onto the underside of the aircraft. The feed from an outside camera showed Jake and Owen what was going on outside.
They saw the creature’s tentacles spreading wide. Some of them ended in energy cannons, seamlessly grown into the creature’s semi-transparent flesh. Bright pulses of energy erupted from the muzzles, and bolts of energy hammered the underside of the aircraft.
The cabin shook violently. Smoke began to curl from a panel at the back of the interior.
“Guys, we’re taking some serious damage,” Mick shouted. “You gotta do something!”
However, before any of them could do anything, another synth stalker came before them. Its luminous tentacles spread wide, angling outward to point at the helicopter. In the next instant, the creature fired energy bolts toward them.
But Mick was ready. He banked hard, bringing them out of the enemy’s line of fire. He then rotated the helicopter, pointing it toward the creature that had just attacked them. As soon as it was in front of them, he returned fire.
Twin streams of energy bolts tore toward the creature. As soon as the first shots struck its armored head, the stalker veered away. Only Mick wasn’t willing to let it go. He tracked its movement, the twin machine guns never stopping their fire.
The energy bolts slammed into the tentacles trailing behind the creature, shredding them. Some of the energy bolts drilled into the back of the creature’s head, where it wasn’t protected by armor. The stalker convulsed and thrashed, taking severe damage. Then its elongated head dipped, and the creature began to fall, dead.
“Two down,” Mick shouted excitedly. “I have a good feeling about this, guys!”
Jake didn’t. So far, they had avoided taking serious damage, but it was just a matter of time before it happened. There were just too many of those weird, agile creatures around them. Their luck wouldn’t last for long.
He could feel waves of heat emanating from beneath. The synth stalker clinging to the helicopter’s underside kept firing at it. The energy bolts slammed into the metal nonstop. It was clear that the creature was trying to burn a hole through it.
Something needed to be done about that.
Jake leaped toward the door and slid it open. A gush of air immediately rushed into the cabin, nearly knocking him flat. He lowered himself onto all fours and crawled out of the cabin.
The stalker noticed him, and one of its tentacles shot toward him. Jake sprouted numerous tendrils of his own, making them cling to the fuselage to keep him anchored. A blade jumped from his wrist, and he immediately swiped at the enemy’s tentacle, severing it in half.
The synth stalker shrieked in either pain or anger. Or both, most likely. It detached itself from the helicopter’s underside, but before it could pull away, Jake jumped. He landed on the creature’s armored head and clung to it tightly.
The synth stalker flew through the air away from the helicopter. The creature thrashed its body to shake him loose, but he held on. From his back, bladed tentacles sprouted and lashed out, hacking through the stalker’s appendages one after another.
At the same time, he morphed his right hand into a drill and drove the spinning tip into the creature’s head. Metal screamed. There was resistance for a moment, then the drill punched through.
Exerting all his might, he kept pushing the spinning drill deeper and deeper into the creature’s armored head. Then, a moment later, a spiderweb of cracks radiated from the point of impact, creating a weakened spot.
He yanked the drill free, transformed his hand into a smashfist, and hammered the damaged spot again and again. The stalker twisted and bucked beneath him, but it still couldn’t throw him off.
Then, at last, his smashfist broke through, tearing open a jagged breach in the armor. Jake wasted no time morphing his arm into a chainsaw and driving the spinning blade through the hole into the creature’s exposed flesh beneath.
The synth stalker screamed in pain. Most of its tentacles had been severed by that point, but the creature kept harmlessly pounding Jake with the stumps. But of course, it did little to knock him off its head.
Finally, the creature spasmed one more time, and then what remained of its tentacles went limp.
Enemy Killed. +3,345 XP
XP: 219,520 / 262,800
As the synth stalker died and began to fall, Jake quickly looked around. He spotted the helicopter to his left and slightly above him.
Wasting no time, he launched a grappling hook at it. Once it latched onto the fuselage, he swung through the air toward it. A moment later, he slammed against the side of the helicopter and clung to it. He was now on the other side from the open door, so he crawled across the underside of the chopper toward it.
Seconds later, he was back inside. Rising to his feet, he turned toward the open door and began to slide it shut. At that exact moment, another synth stalker shot toward the opening with lightning-fast speed.
A split second later, its armored head slammed into the cabin just as Jake slammed the door shut. Only with half the creature’s head inside, the door could not fully close, its edge pressed against the creature’s armored head.
The synth stalker thrust one tentacle into the gap and pointed the energy cannon fused to its end at Jake. A heartbeat later, the weapon fired at him from point-blank range. The energy bolt slammed into his chest with devastating force, sending him flying across the cabin to slam into the wall on the opposite side.
Before Jake could recover or Owen could dart to the half-closed door, the synth stalker surged forward, cramming its huge body fully into the cabin of the helicopter.