Chapter 504
Chapter 504
Owen grabbed the mantid’s foreleg, which was buried in his shoulder, with both hands. Wrapping his fingers tightly around the blade-like appendage, he yanked it upward, pulling it out of his body. Clearly, the colossal mantid tried to resist, but Owen was very powerful in his golem form.
What he did next caught both the mantid and Jake off guard. Exerting all his might, Owen snapped the creature’s blade-like appendage in half. Twisting the broken-off piece of leg in his hands so that the pointed end was aimed at the mantid, he drove it deep into the monster through the breach in its chitinous armor.
The monster didn’t like it one bit. It tilted its head back and emitted a bone-chilling scream full of pain and rage. Encouraged by his successful attack, Owen was eager to keep attacking the creature. Jake knew that if he joined forces with him, together they would be able to finish the elite monster off.
Only they didn’t have time for that. Every second they stayed and fought increased the risk of being trapped inside the living vessel. Mick must have been watching the fight unfold in the cargo hold via one of the surveillance cameras because his voice rang out from the nearest control console once more, somewhere behind Jake.
“Jake, get Owen to stop fighting that thing,” Mick shouted. “You two need to leave the ship now!”
If Owen heard Mick, he gave no sign. His full attention remained fixed on the elite monster as it retreated under a relentless barrage of punches.
“Owen, let’s get out of here,” Jake called after him. “We don’t have time to keep fighting. The way out is open. We need to go.”
Owen must have heard him, because he glanced over his shoulder, and Jake gestured toward the open hatch behind him. Owen nodded and started to turn around. As much as he wanted to finish the monster, he still had his priorities straight. He knew they had to leave.
Only the mantid wasn’t willing to let him go. Just as Owen turned his back to the monster, it employed another of its special abilities, which apparently greatly increased its movement and attack speed. The mantid lurched after Owen and swung another of its forelegs at him.
The blade-like appendage sank deep into his body. With a powerful yank, the monster wrenched its leg free and attacked Owen again with another of its blade-like legs. Infuriated by that brazen attack, Owen spun back to face his opponent again.
Only he could hardly do anything now. The mantid unleashed a flurry of stabs at him, and Owen couldn’t do anything to protect himself. While its special ability was active, the monster was just way too fast. Its sharp appendages stabbed into his armored body over and over again, leaving gaping holes behind through which mana freely escaped.
Jake could see that without his help, Owen wouldn’t be able to get out of that predicament. He knew the hatch behind him could close at any second now, but he couldn’t just leave Owen behind. If they were going to get trapped inside that ship, so be it.
Just as he rushed across the cargo hold toward the mantid, Owen began to shrink. By that point, his body was riddled with numerous jagged holes, and he was losing mana at an alarming rate. He clearly couldn’t sustain his golem form any longer due to all the mana he was losing, so his body must have automatically reverted to its normal form.
The mantid lifted the foreleg that it had just stabbed into Owen’s body, lifting him off the ground. The blade-like appendage went right through his torso, protruding several inches from his back. Owen grabbed the blade-like appendage his body was impaled on and pushed, trying to slide himself free. Inch by inch, he worked his way backward along the creature’s leg.
The mantid’s autoturrets tracked Jake’s movements and opened fire. Bolts of energy sizzled through the air, punching into the floor and zipping past him. One of them slammed into his shoulder, staggering him. As he kept running, he morphed his hands into saw blade launchers, aiming for the creature’s turrets.
Thanks to one of the upgrades for this ability, he was able to mentally order the spinning projectiles he fired to aim for the turrets. So he didn’t even have to carefully aim himself. Instead, he simply pointed his weapons in the general direction of the targets, and the saw blades automatically corrected their course on their own as they tore through the air.
One after another, the two turrets were shredded by the spinning blades. In seconds, the mantid was stripped of its ranged weapons.
Jake reached the mantid, extending both arms toward it. He immediately began to fire one cinch net after another at the monster. They expanded midair and wrapped tightly around the creature’s upper body, tangling its arms together and pinning them to its body. The massive monster thrashed and screeched, trying to rip the netting apart, but it held. For now.
That gave Owen the opening he needed. He pushed himself free of the monster’s leg and dropped to the floor. The mantid was still struggling to tear apart the netting that tightly enveloped its upper body. For the time being, the monster was mostly harmless and posed no threat to them.
Jake and Owen spun around and dashed toward the back of the cargo hold where the hatch was. It was still open, and Jake knew they would reach it in just a couple of seconds.
Look at me, whispered a voice in his head, and Jake couldn’t help but slow down and look up.
Up above him, he saw a synth phantom hovering just a few yards overhead, its semi-transparent body undulating slowly in the air. Jake immediately felt his own body skid to a full stop as he stared into the creature’s glowing eyes, unable to look away or move from the spot.
Owen reacted instantly. He leaped high into the air and landed right on top of the synth phantom. He wasted no time hammering its head with his fists and slashing at it with his scythe-blades. The phantom screeched in pain and shot upward through the air. Jake immediately felt the mental paralysis gripping him shatter, regaining control of his body.
He looked up in time to see Owen detach from the synth phantom and drop to the ground not far from the colossal mantid.
The semi-transparent creature was wounded but still alive. But it didn’t attempt to employ its ability again. The injuries it had sustained had clearly made it cautious. It circled just below the ceiling. It was too far above the floor now and clearly couldn’t use its ability from so far away from its targets. By that point, Jake already knew it had to be pretty close to a target to affect it. However, having been wounded by Owen, it clearly wasn’t keen on getting too close to them anymore.
Jake shifted his gaze to Owen. At that exact moment, the mantid finally tore through the netting binding its arms. With a triumphant screech, it lunged and seized Owen by all four limbs, one in each hand. The monster effortlessly lifted him high off the floor and pulled its hands in four different directions.
Due to the huge amount of mana Owen had lost during the mantid’s previous attack, he was weakened and couldn’t properly resist. There was a moment of resistance, but then his body was torn apart. His limbless body collapsed to the ground. Jake knew his body would eventually be able to regrow the lost limbs, but it was going to take some time.
Out of the corner of his eye, Jake saw the second synth phantom flash through an opening in the ceiling into the cargo hold. It was bad. Real bad.
“Jake, you have to leave right now,” Mick shouted, his voice ringing out from the nearest control console. “I’m about to lose control over…”
Before he could finish his sentence, his voice was cut off. It was obvious that Mick had just been locked out. He no longer had any control of the living airship’s systems. The hatch remained open for the moment, but it could seal at any second. While the first phantom was still circling below the ceiling, the second one was quickly descending toward him.
Jake knew he wouldn’t be able to get to Owen and then get to the hatch. He simply didn’t have enough time to do that before the second phantom got close enough to use its ability on him. He had a split-second decision to make. He knew that if he attempted to save Owen, they both would be trapped, and Owen’s sacrifice would be for nothing.
Jake raced for the hatch.
Look at me, the strange voice of the second phantom said in his head.
Jake was ready for it. Summoning every ounce of his willpower, he managed to resist the phantom’s mental command and kept his gaze down. He leaped and, upon hitting the floor, slid across it toward the hatch, which began to spiral shut.
Time seemed to slow down.
Look at me, the second phantom said again in his mind. This time, the voice sounded more urgent, and despite his best effort, Jake couldn’t help but begin to tilt his head to search for the creature calling to him.
But even as he did so, he morphed his hand into a grappling hook and launched it toward the hatch. As the hook latched on, he yanked with great force, accelerating his slide significantly.
Look at me! the voice screamed in his head, almost hysterically.
Jake’s eyes met the glowing gaze of the phantom hovering in the air above and in front of him. He immediately lost control of his body.
However, the momentum he’d gained kept propelling him forward anyway, making his body slide toward the quickly narrowing hatch.
He slipped through it just before it sealed shut right above him. The visual contact with the phantom was now broken, so Jake regained control of his body. But now he was sliding down a vertical tunnel leading somewhere below.
He glanced down and saw an opening. A moment later, he slipped through it and found himself falling into open air. Blue sky surrounded him, and the living vessel was now above him. He kept plunging toward the distant ground, which rushed up to meet him at terrifying speed.