Chapter 519
Chapter 519
“Wait, what?” Silvia gasped. “That reptilian monstrosity behind you is your creation?!”
“Yes,” Jake simply said.
For a moment, nobody else said a word. The Spartans just stared at Jake and his saurian Kaiju, which remained on all fours like an overgrown lizard. Catalina could see that the group was tense. Everybody gripped their weapons tightly as their eyes darted from Jake to the huge reptilian beast and back to him.
Unlike them, she knew there was nothing to worry about. Sure, Jake having developed a Kaiju came as a surprise even to her, but it was clear that the saurian beast obeyed its master, so it posed no threat to them. At least, as long as they didn’t try to do anything against him, they had no reason to fear Jake or his creations.
Still, Catalina mentally admitted that Jake having a Kaiju as a pet was a bit frightening even for her, so she could understand why Silvia and the other Spartans were so nervous.
To her credit, the leader of the group managed to put on a brave front for the benefit of her people. She stepped forward toward Jake and said, “So, that’s what you’ve been doing over the past several days? Raising a Kaiju?”
“Among other things,” Jake replied noncommittally.
“Uh-huh.”
“Why did you try to go after a Titan on your own?” Jake asked. “Didn’t you want my help? I thought we agreed to work together.”
“Exactly,” Silvia said. “Our agreement was that you’d come back in two days, but you disappeared for several instead.”
“Still, why didn’t you wait for me? The Commander told me that every battle with a Titan costs you the lives of several of your people. So why were you willing to go after a Titan without me? Why risk your people’s lives?”
For a moment, Silvia just stared at him in silence. Catalina was well aware of why Silvia had decided to go after the remaining Titans without Jake, but apparently, Silvia didn’t want to tell him what had been on her mind.
So a second later, she said instead, “The Ravage keeps spreading in New Hope. Over eight percent of the city has been infected by now.”
Jake turned his head slightly to look at Catalina. “Is that so?”
“Yes.”
“So we couldn’t wait for who knows how long until you returned,” Silvia continued. “We don’t even have any means of contacting you, so we couldn’t just get in touch and ask where you were. We had no choice but to go after the remaining Titans without you, even though we didn’t like it.”
“I see,” Jake said.
“It wouldn’t have happened if you’d returned in two days like you promised,” Silvia said, clearly unable to keep the edge out of her voice.
Jake ignored the jab.
“You should get back to your base,” he said.
“What? Why would we do that?”
“Only two Titans are left, and I can take care of them on my own,” Jake explained. “As you just witnessed, even my Kaiju alone can take care of them without any help from me.”
“You wanna take out the last two without us?” Silvia asked with a suspicious look on her face. Catalina had a pretty good idea what the Spartan leader had to be thinking at that moment.
“Yes. Then I’ll destroy several nests as well to bring the percentage of the remaining Ravage Contamination to zero.”
“You don’t want our help at all?”
“No.”
“Why?” Silvia asked with the same look of suspicion on her face.
“Don’t you get it?” Jake asked, sounding a bit irritated. “You’d get in the way. It’s a miracle none of you got crushed while my Kaiju fought the Titan. I work better alone, and the only thing you’d do is slow me down.”
Silvia stared daggers at him. She was silent for a second. Then she finally decided to express what was on her mind.
“Is that the actual reason, though?” she asked.
“Yes, it is. What other reason would there be?”
“Perhaps you just want to do all the work by yourself so you can later claim we contributed nothing to the effort and refuse to let us live in New Hope with the other survivors, arguing that we have no right to settle in that city.”
For a moment, Jake just stared at her in silence. Catalina found herself wondering what was going through his head.
“You’re overthinking it,” he finally said without adding anything else.
Silvia eyed him silently for a second, then asked, “So you have no objections to the Spartans settling in New Hope?”
“No. After all, that was our agreement to begin with, wasn’t it?”
Catalina turned her head to look at Silvia and said, “See? I told you so. Jake wouldn’t break our agreement for no reason.”
“As long as you don’t encroach on my territory and don’t interfere with my business, you can live and do whatever you want,” Jake said.
Silvia watched him for a second or two. Then she took a deep breath and said, “Alright. So, do you plan to go after the last two Titans right away?”
“No. I need to take care of something else first.”
Sure enough, Silvia didn’t like it one bit. She frowned as she said, “You’re not about to disappear for several days again, are you?”
“No. Why would you think that?”
“Because you’ve already done it once!” She was clearly losing her patience with him. “Tell me what’s so important that you want to take care of it before going after the remaining Titans?”
Jake was quiet for a moment, as if thinking about whether he should tell her or not. Then he finally said, “It doesn’t matter.”
Silvia stared angrily at him for a moment. Then she shrugged and said, “All right then. You go do whatever it is you need to do. As for us, we’ll go after the last two Titans as we originally planned.”
“Then you’ll be risking the lives of your people.”
“So what? We’ve been risking our lives every day since we got stuck in Dead City. That’s nothing new. Every one of us knows death could come at any moment.”
The Spartans behind her all nodded in agreement, grave expressions on their faces.
Jake looked at Catalina. “Do you want to go with them?”
“Yes,” she answered immediately. “If they’re going, then so am I. I’m not going to sit around while everyone else risks their lives.”
For two or three seconds, Jake just stared at her.
“I see.” He looked back at Silvia. “All right. Since you insist, I’ll take care of the last two Titans right away.”
A faint smile touched Silvia’s lips. “Good. Let’s move then.”
Jake tilted his head. “Move where?”
“To hunt down the last two Titans.”
Jake said, “Didn’t you hear a word of what I just explained? I work better alone.”
“I heard you all right. Still, I insist that we go with you and lend you a hand in killing the last two Titans.”
“Wouldn’t it be wiser to just let Jake take care of…” Catalina began, but Silvia raised a hand to silence her.
“We’re going with you, Jake. Whether you like it or not.”
Either Silvia was incredibly stubborn or she didn’t trust Jake one bit.
“We saw how quickly your Kaiju dealt with the insectoid Titan,” Silvia said, nodding at the beast behind Jake, which at that exact moment snapped its jaws around one of the ravagespawn. During the entire conversation, the Kaiju hadn’t just been lying around. Instead, it’d been taking care of the ravagespawn that spawned all around them, making sure none of the monsters bothered Jake and the humans.
“So with our help, you can take care of both the remaining Titans and bring the percentage of Ravage Contamination to zero within two hours, if that,” Silvia finished.
Catalina felt her heartbeat increase. Silvia was right. In under two hours, this nightmare could be over. After that, they could return to New Hope and finally purge the Ravage there as well.
She looked hopefully at Jake.
If he noticed her staring at him, he gave no indication. For a moment, he just stared at the Spartan leader. Then he finally nodded.
“All right then,” he said. “You can come with me. If you can keep up, that is. But if somebody gets crushed during a fight, don’t blame me.”
A satisfied grin spread across Silvia’s face. “What are we waiting for then?”
Jake turned and stepped toward his Kaiju. A moment later, he climbed atop its head and flattened himself against it. In the next instant, he seemed to sink into the monster’s flesh, easily merging with it.
A second later, the saurian beast rose onto its hind legs, towering several stories above the humans.
“Did you guys see that?” somebody gasped. “He became one with the Kaiju!”
“I had no idea he could do something like that!”
Some of the others muttered similar sentiments in response, staring at the saurian beast towering over them in awe.
Without another word, Kaiju-Jake picked a direction and charged down the street. Each thunderous footfall sent vibrations through the ground and rattled the surrounding buildings.
“Let’s move, people,” Silvia shouted.
The Spartans surged forward, and Catalina hurried after them as they all chased the towering Kaiju through the Dead City.