Chapter 321
Julian landed with a muffled thud, crouching to absorb the impact. The strange, obsidian-like substance coating every surface was irregular, marked by bulges and depressions. Although the repulsive black goo appeared organic, it was as solid as a rock, as if it had hardened over time.
The round bump Julian had landed on was about four feet wide and three feet high. He was about to rise to his feet and scan the area for the morphus when something unexpected happened: the swelling below him suddenly gave way.
He felt the ground beneath him open up like a huge mouth, and he fell into some kind of pit. He managed to grab the edge of the hole, but his legs dangled below. Turning his head to look down, he saw what appeared to be a circular, gaping maw with rows upon rows of jagged, uneven teeth that encircled it, seemingly ready to clamp down around him.
Julian had never been so scared in his life. He realized he had to climb out of the pit before the monstrous maw closed around him. Just as he began to climb out, the maw snapped shut around the lower part of his body with a sharp clack. And it happened so freaking fast, far exceeding his passive speed-enhancing ability!
If Julian was scared a second before, now he was completely terrified. He was utterly trapped now, unable to move from the spot. The pit closed tightly around him, with the lower half of his body caught in the gaping maw. He could feel those terrible huge teeth pressing against his legs with great force.
Luckily, while the power suit he wore seemed to be made of mere leather, it was much more than that. Whatever it was actually made of was incredibly damage-resistant. He could feel the sharp tips of those monstrous teeth press harder and harder against his armor, but they failed to penetrate it so far.
What the hell was that thing? A nightmarish version of a Venus flytrap? A mantrap?!
It was impossible to tell how much longer his suit would be able to hold on. He needed to get out of the trap as soon as possible, but no matter how hard he struggled, there was no way he could pull himself out without aid.
“Help me!” he screamed into his comms. “I’m trapped! Help! Help!”
“Get out of there,” he heard Ethan’s calm voice in his tactical earpiece. “Now.”
“I can’t fucking move! You gotta come down and pull me out! I can’t get free by myself!”
“Why? Is something restraining you?”
Julian couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He knew that the feed from his visor was being transmitted to the team leader’s HUD, meaning Ethan saw everything he did.
“Didn’t you fucking see the mouth full of teeth I fell into?” he screamed.
“I did see it,” Ethan responded, his tone calm. “Tell me what exactly happened.”
“That fucking maw closed around my legs, is what happened,” Julian snapped. “And it’s trying to chew through my suit as we speak! I don’t know how much longer my suit’s gonna hold! There’s no time to talk! Just get down here and help me!”
There was a brief pause. Then Ethan’s calm voice came through again.
“Don’t panic,” he said. “Use your abilities.”
Don’t panic?! Julian thought angrily. Easy for you to say! I’m the one stuck in this shithole.
He also knew that using his abilities in his current situation would be of no help at all. His active ability let him turn invisible, while his ultimate allowed him to create illusion clones. They were only useful when he was constantly moving around. Being trapped as he was, he wouldn’t benefit from them at all. Even his speed-enhancing passive ability had failed to aid him in escaping the monster’s maw in time.
At that moment, he hated Ethan with every fiber of his being. The man was supposed to be his immediate superior, but that didn’t matter. He barely knew Ethan at all. Their team had been formed by Skullface just before they were given the power suits and assigned the mission to leave the main base and track down the morphus. The five of them hardly even knew one another before this mission.
Julian was both scared and angry at the same time. He wanted to yell at his indifferent boss to get down there immediately and help him. In his mind, he was hurling insults at Ethan, but he had enough sense to keep those thoughts to himself. After all, insulting the only person who could potentially save him wouldn’t be wise.
“Look around you,” Ethan’s calm voice came again. “Let me see what we’re dealing with here.”
It got Julian’s hopes up. He thought Ethan wanted to briefly examine the place before coming inside to help him. For the very first time, he lifted his gaze and took in his surroundings. What lay deeper within the lair rendered him momentarily speechless.
As he had already noticed, the walls, ceiling, and floor of the basement were covered in some glossy, obsidian-like substance. At the center of the area rose what appeared to be a thick, sturdy stem topped by a large mana consumable of some sort.
The mana item was largely hidden, surrounded by petal-like appendages that tightly clung to it, seemingly in protection. Only the top surface of the mana item remained visible. Nonetheless, it had to be extremely powerful, as it radiated enough blue light to illuminate the entire interior of the basement.
Julian also noticed some strange, organic-looking stationary forms. All of them were human-sized or even larger. Whatever these structures were, they looked as repulsive as the substance that covered the walls. Some were egg-shaped, while others resembled boxes with rounded corners.
Some of the structures were completely non-transparent, while others had transparent front sections. In one of the structures, he could see creatures resembling worms motionlessly floating inside an inner chamber filled with some green, vile liquid. In another, a spider-like creature seemed to be in the process of development.
He couldn’t help but notice numerous creatures of all kinds milling about the basement. Some resembled the short worms he had seen floating inside the earlier structure. Others were chubby bugs with short legs, moving lazily from spot to spot. There were also some flying creatures that could hover in place like dragonflies.
He also noticed that some of the other creatures resembled spiders. There were two varieties: the first type looked like a typical spider with eight legs, while the second was larger, boasting ten multi-jointed legs, robust bodies, large fangs, and a distinctly more menacing appearance.
Most of those creatures were at least the size of a domestic cat or even somewhat larger. They buzzed about, appearing to do nothing more than scuttle or fly without any purpose. None of them paid him any mind. Not yet, at least.
“What the fuck?” he whispered to himself. Their team had been tasked with tracking down and killing a single mutant known as the morphus. But they were never told that the morphus had some kind of lair where it was developing all sorts of grotesque monsters!
That’s when Julian finally noticed the one he was thinking about. The morphus stood not far from the central structure. The operative’s attention had been mostly consumed by the various creatures milling about, which was why he had only now noticed the morphus, which remained as still as a marble statue.
The mutant’s large, emotionless eyes locked onto his. Although the morphus showed no signs of moving toward him, Julian realized he had to get out of that hellhole right about now!