Chapter 556

For a second, Mike just stared at the strange pitch-black mutant with large emotionless blue eyes, standing a dozen feet before him. Then the mutant extended one of its arms toward him in a clearly threatening gesture. Mike wasn’t really sure what to expect, but he definitely hadn’t expected what happened in the next instant.

Right atop the creature’s wrist, a lump of pitch-black flesh suddenly swelled, quickly forming into what looked like a circular saw blade. It happened so fast that it seemed to simply materialize there rather than be formed from the mutant’s own flesh. The blade spun with incredible speed, becoming a blur of motion. A high-pitched whine filled the air as it reached full speed.

In the next instant, the circular saw blade detached from the mutant’s hand and shot forward like a bullet from a gun.

It all happened so fast that Mike’s mind barely had time to process what was even happening, let alone react in any way. The circular saw blade spun through the air toward him with an audible shriek, its jagged razor-sharp teeth cutting through the air. Mike instinctively tensed, his body preparing to move even though he knew there was no way he could get out of its path in time.

The deadly projectile was already almost upon him. But, as he learned in the next instant, it wasn’t actually him whom the pitch-black mutant had targeted.

A fraction of a second later, the circular saw blade slammed with immense force into the chest of the crystallized mutant that had snuck up on him from the right, its claws already poised for a vicious attack. The impact was brutal. The spinning blade tore through the creature’s crystal-like protective layer, sending fragments of green crystal spraying through the air as the force of the impact hurled the mutant backward, knocking it hard onto the cracked asphalt.

Mike’s attention had been so completely absorbed by the pitch-black mutant that he had only now realized how much danger he had been in. The crystallized mutant had gotten within striking distance without him noticing at all.

Mike finally reacted, spinning toward the mutant that had just crashed to the ground beside him. The crystallized creature hit the cracked asphalt hard, sending a small cloud of dust and crystal fragments skittering across the ground. Mike saw that the circular saw blade had slammed into its crystallized chest with so much force that it had broken through the mutant’s protective layer, embedding itself deep within its body.

But sure enough, the mutant was still alive and kicking. It thrashed on the ground, its claws scraping against the asphalt as it struggled to pull itself back up. The circular saw blade was still lodged in its chest, but it was no longer spinning.

Aether crystals jutting from its shoulders, upper arms, and thighs pumped magical energy into the monster nonstop, keeping it alive. As long as those green crystals remained intact, they would not only empower the mutant but also heal any injuries it sustained in combat, as well as regenerate the crystal-like protective layer that covered every inch of its body.

Mike knew that to bring a crystallized mutant down, all the crystals jutting from its body needed to be destroyed. As long as even one remained intact, the creature could continue fighting and eventually regenerate from injuries that would have killed almost anything else. But there was another way to kill a crystallized mutant.

Mike pointed the barrel of his energy rifle at the mutant’s head and squeezed the trigger. A blast of energy erupted from the muzzle, casting a bright blue light across the ground just before slamming into the mutant’s noggin. The head disappeared in a flash of brilliant light, sending pieces of flesh and shattered crystal shooting through the air in every direction. The crystal fragments clattered against the cracked asphalt as the mutant’s body jerked once before going completely still.

Even with numerous aether crystals embedded in its body, the mutant couldn’t survive without its head. The green crystals jutting from its shoulders, upper arms, and thighs quickly dimmed as the magical energy stored within them rapidly dissipated.

With the mutant taken care of, Mike spun around, returning his attention to the pitch-black mutant that had just saved his life. Only, his savior was no longer where he had been a moment before.

Mike stared at the empty spot for a second, momentarily confused. He then quickly glanced around, searching the chaotic battlefield for any sign of the strange creature, but there was no trace of it anywhere nearby.

Taking another quick look around, Mike finally spotted the pitch-black mutant at a distance now, already engaged in combat with another group of crystallized mutants. The strange black creature moved with startling speed, darting between its opponents as it lashed out with its unnaturally long limbs. For a moment, Mike simply watched, trying to make sense of what he was seeing. The obsidian-like mutant was incredibly fast and agile.

Quickly glancing around to make sure he wasn’t about to be jumped by another mutant, Mike slung his rifle over his shoulder and retrieved his PDA from where it was attached to the magnetic holder on his belt. He raised the device and aimed its camera lens at the obsidian-like mutant before tapping the scan button.

A faint electronic chime sounded as the PDA processed the image. The system didn’t provide him with extensive information about the strange mutant, and what little information it did give him, he didn’t really have time to examine. But one detail immediately caught his attention. The pitch-black mutant was called a morphus.

Mike stared at the word on the screen for a moment. He had never encountered another morphus, having not even heard that name before. As far as he knew, no one in Lastlight had ever mentioned anything like it either.

Lots of questions swirled in his mind. Where had the morphus come from? Why had neither he nor the other survivors in Lastlight ever encountered such a mutant before? What did the morphus want? Why was it helping them? It was clearly fighting alongside his team against the crystallized mutants, but why?

Mike had no idea.

At that moment, he didn’t have time to ponder those questions, though. The chaos of the battlefield quickly demanded his attention again. He snapped the device back onto the magnetic holder on his belt before unslinging his rifle and pointing it at a crystallized mutant that came at him from the side. He barely had time to turn before the creature was upon him.

He quickly shifted his aim at its legs and pulled the trigger. A bolt of blue energy tore through the air and shattered one of its kneecaps, causing the mutant to stumble before collapsing face-first onto the cracked asphalt. Its claws scraped against the ground as it tried to push itself back up.

But before the monster could get up, Mike finished it off with a devastating shot to the head. The energy bolt slammed into its skull, shattering it into hundreds of glittering crystals that erupted in every direction. Mike quickly shifted his attention back to the morphus.

What he saw made him gasp.

Numerous long tentacles ending in what looked like double-edged blades suddenly erupted from the back of the pitch-black mutant. They writhed and twisted behind it for a moment before lashing out through the air, slashing and stabbing at the crystallized mutants all around it.

One tentacle pierced straight through a mutant’s chest, while another swept sideways and carved a deep gash across another creature’s crystal-covered body. The morphus moved with frightening speed, each tentacle striking almost independently of the others.

Mike just stared for a moment in awe. The strange mutant’s entire body seemed to be a weapon, capable of changing and reshaping itself into whatever it needed.

What the hell was the morphus? Mike had definitely never encountered a mutant like that before.

From the corner of his eye, he spotted one of his people being chased by a shambler tripping over something and tumbling onto the asphalt. The man hit the ground hard, his rifle slipping from his hands and clattering across the cracked pavement. The shambler immediately lumbered toward the man, raising one massive hand balled into a fist to finish him off.

Instantly shifting his attention from the morphus to his teammate, Mike lined up the iron sights and took a quick but careful shot. The bolt of energy tore through the air and pierced one of the shambler’s legs. The bulky monster let out a guttural roar as the impact forced it to drop to one knee. The sudden interruption gave the fallen teammate a precious moment to react. He rolled onto his back, reached for his rifle, and snatched it with his hands.

Lying on his back, the man aimed at the monster’s head and took a quick shot. The energy bolt slammed into its crystal-covered skull, causing its head to jerk backward from the impact. A few tiny fragments of crystal broke loose and scattered across the asphalt.

But it wasn’t nearly enough to kill the shambler. Unlike weaker types of crystallized mutants, shamblers were much more powerful and durable. Their thick crystal armor could withstand damage that would tear lesser mutants apart, and even a direct hit to its head often wasn’t enough to bring one down.

Still, a shot to the head was a shot to the head. The impact dazed the shambler for a moment, leaving the massive creature staggering on one knee. That brief opening was all the man needed. He scrambled to his feet and quickly put some distance between himself and the recovering monster, escaping with his life.

Mike heard a panicked scream from the other side of the battlefield and spun to face that direction. There was another shambler chasing a member of his team named Maria. She stumbled away unsteadily, favoring one leg as she desperately tried to keep moving. He could see the slashes across her pants where one of the mutants must have raked its claws across her leg. The torn fabric fluttered with every hurried step she took.

Because of the injury she had sustained, she couldn’t run fast enough. Her injured leg slowed her down with every step, and the hulking monster lumbered after her, quickly gaining on the woman, its heavy footsteps pounding against the asphalt.

All the other members of his team had their own problems to deal with, either fighting weaker types of mutants or running away from shamblers. Mike wanted to lend Maria a hand by shooting the shambler chasing her in the back, but he was suddenly jumped by another crystallized mutant.

The creature lunged at him without warning, lashing out with its claws at him. Mike leaped to the side, barely avoiding the sweeping talons. They passed within inches of him, slicing through the air where he had been standing a moment before. Turning around, he slammed the butt of his rifle into the side of the mutant’s head, causing his opponent to stumble backward.

Before it could recover its balance, Mike brought his rifle around and finished it off with a blast to the head. The energy bolt struck the mutant’s skull with enough force to shatter its crystal-like armor, sending fragments of skull flying in every direction as the creature collapsed to the ground.

Mike barely spared the dead mutant a glance before turning his attention back toward Maria. When he returned his attention to her, he saw something hurtling through the air overhead. For a moment, he wasn’t sure what it was, but then he realized it was the morphus.

The strange mutant must have jumped, propelling itself high into the air and forward at the same time. The length and height of its jump were undoubtedly impressive. It sailed over the battlefield with startling speed, its pitch-black body briefly silhouetted against the sky.

But then, something strange happened. Next to the morphus appeared some kind of pitch-black mass.

Mike barely had time to notice it before the strange mass dropped toward the asphalt. It hit the ground with a dull, wet-sounding impact and immediately began to flatten, spreading outward across the surface as if it were melting. Its edges flowed rapidly over the cracked asphalt, expanding into an increasingly wider pool of pitch-black substance.

For a second, Mike just stared at it, wondering what the hell it was. Then his attention snapped back to the morphus.

He looked up just in time to see one of its lower arms transform into what looked like a grappling hook. The creature’s flesh shifted and reshaped itself in an instant, forming a hooked tip connected to a long, thin cord. It immediately shot downward, trailing the cord behind it.

A moment later, the hook latched onto the back of the shambler chasing Maria. The shambler barely had time to react before the morphus yanked hard on the cord, reeling it back in. Its body shot downward and forward, rapidly closing the distance between itself and the hulking monster.

A moment later, it crashed against the shambler’s back. Just as it impacted the monster, the morphus slammed its fist into the back of the shambler’s head. The blow landed with tremendous force, cracking the crystal armor and shattering one of the crystals embedded there.

The shambler let out a furious roar as it stopped chasing Maria, suddenly focusing all of its attention on the morphus clinging to its back. It twisted and thrashed wildly, trying to tear the strange mutant off, but failed to do so as it couldn’t quite reach it. Its massive fingers repeatedly swept backward, coming dangerously close to the morphus but never managing to grab hold of it.

What the morphus did next came as another surprise to Mike.

He saw the obsidian-like mutant morph one of its hands into what looked like a drill. Its flesh shifted and twisted, reshaping itself in the blink of an eye as the fingers fused together and elongated into a thick, spinning bit. The pitch-black mutant seemed to be able to morph its arms into all kinds of weapons and tools. Mike had definitely never seen anything like that before.

The drill instantly began to spin, producing a high-pitched whine, and the morphus drove the spinning bit into the monster’s head. The drill punched through the crystal-like armor almost instantly, sending cracks radiating outward from the point of impact. Tiny fragments of crystal broke loose, raining down onto the asphalt below. The shambler roared and thrashed even more violently, but the morphus held on.

In the next moment, the morphus transformed the drill into a huge fist. The change happened almost instantly, the spinning drill collapsing back into black flesh before expanding into a massive, heavily muscled fist. It hammered the weakened point on the monster’s head again and again, each blow sending more cracks racing across the crystal-like armor until, finally, it shattered into hundreds of glistening shards.

After that, finishing off the shambler was easy. The morphus drew its fist back one last time and delivered a brutal punch directly into the exposed part of the monster’s head, causing it to burst apart like an overripe melon. The huge monster collapsed onto the ground with a heavy thud. The impact sent a small cloud of dust and crystal fragments skittering across the asphalt.

The morphus leaped onto the ground and took a quick look around. For whatever reason, he was clearly trying to protect Mike’s people from being torn apart by the crystallized mutants. However, his people kept running in different directions, chased by shamblers and other types of monsters. Everywhere Mike looked, someone was fighting for their life. Gunfire and screams filled the air, mixing with the heavy thuds of the shamblers’ footsteps and the screeches of the crystallized mutants.

The morphus seemed to understand that as well. His head turned from one fleeing survivor to another, as if trying to decide where to go next. It was clear there was no way it could help every single one of them. The morphus simply wouldn’t have time for that. While it was fast and powerful, capable of defeating even a shambler in mere seconds, it was still just one mutant. There were too many people in danger and too many enemies closing in on them from every direction.

It was hard to accept, but Mike knew that some of his people were going to be killed in the next few moments.

It was then that he noticed something strange from the corner of his vision. He glanced that way and saw that the strange pitch-black mass had already finished spreading across the surface. It was now over a dozen feet across, its irregular form stretching over the cracked asphalt like a pool of living tar. Not only that, but it had also changed its overall shape, bulging slightly upward in the center.

For a moment, Mike wasn’t even sure what he was looking at. The black mass continued to swell, its surface rippling as though something beneath it was moving. Then, without warning, the strange pitch-black mass opened up.

Mike gasped. He realized it was a huge, monstrous circular mouth filled with rows of jagged teeth. The teeth were long and uneven, packed tightly together inside the gaping maw. Dark saliva, or some other viscous substance, stretched between them as the mouth opened wider and wider.

All Mike could do was stare in awe as the monstrous maw opened even wider. Then something moved inside it. And in the next moment, terrifying monsters began to climb from the maw to join the fray.

The first creature dragged itself out onto the asphalt, followed by another, and then another. More and more twisted forms emerged from the mouth.

“What the hell?” he whispered, dumbfounded, as more and more terrifying creatures emerged from the monstrous maw.