Chapter 328
Ethan still struggled to process what he had just learned. The morphus could obviously disguise itself as a human. And not just any random human, but as a specific person! The morphus having such an ability was truly terrifying. The implications of that were hard to underestimate.
Ethan couldn’t help but wonder if the morphus always had this ability or if it had learned it only recently. If it was the latter, then it was clear why nobody knew about it. If it was the former, it meant the creature had been extremely cautious in keeping its ability secret from everyone.
Then another thought struck him: what if the creature before him was not the morphus? What if it was actually Julian, whom the freak had turned into one of its own kind?
If that was the case, it would be really bad because it would mean the morphus could create an army of self-similar creatures. If they had trouble dealing with a single morphus, they wouldn’t have a chance against a horde of such creatures.
On the other hand, was the Julian-monster as powerful as its creator? Did it possess all the abilities of the morphus, or only some of them? From what he had just experienced, even if the Julian-monster didn’t have all the morphus’ abilities, it was still surprisingly strong.
The point was that the morphus could either disguise itself as a human or create an army of self-similar monsters, and both options were equally terrifying.
The realism of its disguise was almost perfect. He had no idea it wasn’t Julian until the very moment when the freak attacked him. If the morphus could talk while pretending to be human, its disguise would be flawless. If the mutant ever learned to speak, it would blend perfectly with any group of humans, and nobody would be able to sense that an extremely dangerous predator lurked among them. The havoc it could unleash from within was terrifying to imagine.
But if the morphus could create self-similar creatures, it could completely wipe out humanity without much trouble.
Ethan couldn’t even decide which of the two possibilities was more terrifying.
Come to think of it, the morphus could already create numerous creatures, like those ugly, acid-spitting spiders.
Now that he was thinking about it, he realized the remaining spiders were gone. Where had they disappeared to?
All those thoughts flashed through his mind in a matter of seconds. The morphus didn’t launch another attack right away, remaining standing in the middle of the street, as if intentionally giving Ethan an opportunity to recover before continuing the fight.
He rose from the sidewalk to his feet, glancing around. The creature before him still didn’t move from the spot. If it was the Julian-monster, then where was the real morphus? It was nowhere in sight. Ethan was starting to believe his assumption that the morphus could create self-similar monsters was actually wrong.
Just as he came to this conclusion, the creature before him dropped its disguise completely, transforming into a pitch-black figure with huge blue eyes. It happened extremely fast, almost instantaneously. Then, the morphus lunged at him.
Only the speed-enhancing power suit Ethan wore allowed him to dodge the punch the mutant had just thrown at him. Its enormous fist slammed against the building wall behind, leaving a large crater in the concrete.
At that exact moment, a familiar voice came through his earpiece.
“Ethan!” Lila cried, fear evident in her voice. “I’m trapped! Those spiders have me pinned in our car! They are everywhere! I can’t get out!”
What the hell was she doing in the car?! But of course, he already knew. He had believed she was dead, but she chose to save herself, leaving him to face the morphus alone. The anger bubbled within him, but there was no time to dwell on it as the morphus lunged at him again.
As the mutant threw another punch at him, Ethan realized he wouldn’t be able to dodge this one, as it was launched with much more speed and ferocity than the previous one. Fortunately, Ethan was quick enough to activate his main ability, significantly increasing the armor rating of his lower suit.
The punch connected with his chest, sending him flying a dozen yards down the street. After crashing onto the ground, he just lay on his back for a moment. He could tell a few ribs in his chest had cracked. Had he not activated the ability, he would have been dead by now, power suit or not.
Lila’s urgent voice echoed in his earpiece once more, “Ethan! Do you copy?”
Ethan chose to ignore her. He would eventually deal with her for abandoning him, but he first had to kill the morphus.
After getting to his feet, he checked the status of his ultimate ability. It had already cooled down and was ready to use. He employed it, rushing toward the morphus. The mutant jumped out of the way without much trouble. He missed the mutant, but it didn’t really matter.
He activated the destructive shockwave that spread from him in every direction. That invisible force was incredibly fast and powerful enough to break every bone in a regular mutant’s body. Just before the shockwave slammed into the morphus, it jumped back, propelling him backward and upward.
In midair, the morphus launched a grappling hook at him. Ethan managed to dodge the projectile, which snagged the ground nearby. The mutant then yanked on the cord, shooting itself toward the spot at an astonishing speed.
Just before the morphus landed, it threw a punch at him, and Ethan dashed aside. He managed to dodge the strike only partially, and it grazed his shoulder, spinning him around and sending him crashing to the ground face-first.
The morphus was immediately on top of him, pinning him to the ground. That’s when Ethan realized he had lost the fight. The morphus placed its hand on the side of his head, pressing the other side of his face into the cold asphalt. A wave of terror washed over Ethan as he realized he was about to die.
The last time he had felt so scared was when his group was chased by Los Demonios. They had slaughtered his teammates, leaving only him and his best friend. Eventually, the bandits cornered them, and they had no choice but to surrender. They dropped their weapons and braced themselves for what would come next.
That’s when Skullface appeared. The sight of his tattooed face struck pure terror into Ethan. He was sure the bandits would torture both him and his friend to death. Skullface glanced between them for a second before fixing his gaze on Ethan, who figured he would be the first to die.
As it turned out, Skullface chose him to join the gang. The only requirement to become a member of his organization was to brutally kill his best friend. Ethan hesitated, but only for a moment, before agreeing to do so. That’s how he became a member of Los Demonios.
Suddenly, the pressure on his head eased. The morphus roughly flipped him onto his back, forcing him to look up. As Ethan stared at the terrifying mutant face looming above, with its emotionless, huge blue eyes and triangular black teeth, he felt his bladder drain. He had never been so terrified in his life, not even during his first meeting with Skullface when he was offered the chance to join the gang.
“Puh… Please,” he stuttered. “Don’t kill me. I… I can help you! I can join you, help in finding Skullface and killing him. I know where the main base is, where he’s hiding. I know everything! Everything! Please, just don’t kill me, and I—”
Little did he know that Jake had already used Mind Reader on him, learning everything he needed to know. The man named Ethan kept mumbling something, but Jake wasn’t really listening.
Before Ethan could even finish his last sentence, Jake slammed his smashfist into the human’s head, turning it into a gory pulp. He then rose to his feet and turned toward the direction where the last team member, Lila, had disappeared.
He knew that Lila was still alive, as he had ordered his spiders to prevent her from escaping without killing her. His plans for her were a little different. She would definitely wish he had slain her, like her teammates, rather than suffer the fate he had in store for her.