Chapter 323
Ethan felt bad for Julian. The poor guy was trapped inside the morphus’ lair, but there was nothing he could do for him. While he might come off as cold and indifferent, it wasn’t that he actually lacked feelings. He just had to put on a strong front for those under his command. After all, he was the leader of this team.
That was the reason he couldn’t send any more of his people to save Julian. As the leader of the group, he had to prioritize the safety of the rest of them. Through the feed from Julian’s visor, he glimpsed the horrors inside the lair. Beside the morphus itself, the lair was filled with nasty traps and various creatures.
While the repulsive monsters created by the morphus didn’t attack Julian and his clones, there was no telling what those creatures were capable of. While they were relatively small, it didn’t necessarily mean they were harmless. Anything could be expected from the morphus. Every time you thought you had uncovered all its secrets, it pulled another nasty trick to surprise you.
Had Ethan known what lurked in that basement, he would have never sent Julian there. However, there was no way to anticipate what awaited them below. They had never been warned about the morphus having a lair of its own. Likely, no one even knew about it, and they were the first to unveil the morphus’ secret.
This discovery placed Ethan in a tricky position. His mission was to eliminate the morphus, but he felt obligated to pass the info about what they found to his superiors. Sure enough, if they managed to kill the mutant right then and there, there would be no immediate need to rush and tell Skullface about their find.
However, after witnessing how easily the morphus’ traps dealt with Julian, Ethan started to seriously question the effectiveness of their power suits and abilities. Just moments ago, Julian had been killed by the mutant’s traps without the morphus needing to lift a finger.
If they died there, the next group sent after the morphus would be just as clueless about the mutant’s lair as they had been, putting them in a very vulnerable position.
Ethan was on the fence. Sure, he could send one of his people back to the main base to relay the information, but doing so would leave only three of them against the morphus, and Ethan didn’t like those odds at all.
Before he could decide what to do, the morphus emerged from its lair. It reached the edge of the roof and paused, looking down at Ethan, with Lila and Tessa beside him.
“Ava, fire,” he immediately instructed through his comms.
Ava, who had been waiting for his command, immediately squeezed the trigger. He heard the thunder-like gunshot behind him. However, a split second before she fired, the morphus darted aside, and the bullet struck the spot where the mutant had just stood, sending shards of concrete flying in every direction like shrapnel.
Then the morphus jumped from the diner’s roof, landing on the sidewalk with a surprisingly soft thud as if it didn’t weigh much. A moment later, several large spider-like creatures emerged over the edge of the roof and scurried down the diner’s wall. The morphus had obviously decided to bring its minions along.
The morphus lunged at the nearest opponent, Tessa, while its spiders scuttled toward him and Lila. As he aimed at the small, disgusting creatures, he saw Tessa firing her weapon at the mutant in his peripheral vision. The bullets she fired lodged into its body, chipping at its armor but inflicting little to no actual damage.
The rotating barrels of his mini-gun whined as they started to spin. Aiming at the small arachnids, he released a stream of high-powered rounds that ripped three spiders apart immediately, chunks of black flesh exploding into the air. Those creatures never stood a chance. A thought occurred to him that they might actually be able to get out of this fight victorious after all.
Just as he thought that, he noticed that Lila got surrounded by several arachnids, some of them launching green projectiles at her. She quickly employed her active ability, teleporting a few yards away.
The thunder of Ava’s another shot reverberated through the air, but the round missed its target by a wide margin. It was really hard to hit such a fast-moving target as the morphus.
Ethan was about to pivot in her direction to provide cover fire for Lila when he saw the morphus reach Tessa. She had hit the mutant several times but failed to stop its advance. Morphing one arm into a chainsaw, it thrust the weapon toward her.
Luckily, she was fast enough to activate her main ability, phasing out of material space. The spinning blade of the chainsaw passed right through her immaterial body, dealing no damage.
Undeterred, the morphus spun toward the next closest target, Lila. She was preoccupied with some of the remaining arachnids and didn’t see the morphus rushing toward her.
“Lila, it’s behind you!” he yelled to her.
She quickly glanced over her shoulder, and upon spotting the morphus sprinting after her, she instantly employed her teleportation ability again, creating some distance between herself and the mutant. Ethan knew she could use her main ability three times in a row before it needed to recharge for a minute.
Suddenly, a searing pain shot through his chest. He glanced down and spotted a green splatter of acid smeared across his chest, quickly eating away at his power armor and flesh. While he hadn’t paid attention because he was too worried about his teammates, one of the spiders managed to hit him!
Furious, he unleashed his ultimate ability, charging into the middle of the spiders. Those who avoided his stomping feet were killed by the shockwave he released at the end of his sprint. He was about to open fire on the rest of the arachnids when the morphus suddenly appeared at his side.
The mutant’s right arm was transformed into a blade now. The creature swung it down, slicing through his mini-gun as easily as a hot knife through butter. Ethan let out a furious roar. His powerful weapon was now completely useless.
Before the mutant could attack Ethan, Lila activated her ultimate ability, materializing right behind the morphus. Ethan knew that this move made her next strike extremely powerful. Charged with mana, he knew from past encounters that it could slice through even an armored brawler.
She swung one of her blades downward at the morphus. However, before the blade could make contact, the mutant dashed aside as if a sixth sense alerted it to the danger behind it.
The morphus swiped its blade at Ethan again, but a bluish energy shield suddenly appeared around him, blocking the attack. He realized Tessa had just employed her ultimate ability, deploying an energy shield around each of her teammates.
Ethan could see that the fight wasn’t unfolding in their favor. He, Tessa, and Lila had already used their ultimate abilities and wouldn’t be able to use them for a while. He had lost his main weapon and was even wounded. To turn the tide of the fight, they needed an edge, but luckily, he had an idea for how to gain one.
Suddenly, another tremendous shot rang out. The morphus managed to dash aside just in time to avoid being hit. The bullet passed through the empty space where the mutant had just stood and slammed into Ethan’s energy shield with enough force to shatter it. Had he not had the protective shield around him, he would have been dead now.
“Geez, Ava, watch where you’re shooting,” he snapped at his teammate.
“Sorry.”
“Use your ult! Now!”
“Done.”
A dense, pitch-black mist shrouded the entire street. It was meant to negate enemy visibility while revealing the position of the morphus for Ava and her teammates. Amid the darkness, Ethan easily discerned the figure of the morphus, who was glancing around as if utterly disoriented.
“We’ve got you, motherfucker,” he hissed through gritted teeth. “What are you gonna do now?”