Chapter 326

Chapter 326

Ethan couldn’t believe Julian was alive. How could that be possible? The feed from his visor had shown Julian trapped in the morphus’ lair, completely unable to escape by himself.

He remembered how Julian had been attacked by those gigantic, talon-like appendages. His visor must have been severely damaged in the assault, cutting off Ethan from receiving the feed. He had no idea how Julian managed to survive the attack, escape the massive maw that had him pinned in place, and flee the morphus’ lair.

Suddenly, Ethan realized that, while it was great news that Julian was still alive, he shouldn’t let his guard down, as the morphus had to be somewhere nearby. He quickly scanned his surroundings, but the enemy was nowhere to be seen. Where the hell had the freak disappeared to?

Tessa was dead now. Ava, too. Although he couldn’t see her, he knew Ava was gone. Her agonized screams of pain and terror had faded just minutes ago. After killing Ava, the morphus had obviously gone after Tessa. But where was the creature now?

There was no sign of Lila either. She might be fighting the mutant somewhere nearby, possibly in one of the buildings lining both sides of the street. He couldn’t hear any gunfire, but that actually made sense because Lila’s main weapons were two shortswords.

If Lila was truly fighting the mutant, he needed to help her. But how could he find her? He had no clue where she was. She had ceased responding to his calls some time ago, and nothing was coming from her visor. It was probably damaged, or she may have turned it off herself, though he struggled to comprehend why she would do that.

Suddenly, Julian stepped toward him, and Ethan’s attention immediately returned to his wounded teammate. He realized Julian still hadn’t spoken a word, which struck him as odd. He just continued to glare at him with an accusing look, likely intended to evoke guilt, but it didn’t quite succeed.

Ethan knew that as the leader of the group, he had to make tough choices. Yes, he had left Julian in the morphus’ lair to die, but he had done so to protect the entire team from being wiped out. In retrospect, it didn’t really make much of a difference.

Julian took another step closer. His teammate remained silent. Even though Ethan didn’t want to make excuses for his decision to leave Julian behind, he felt compelled to fill the silence.

“I had no choice, bud,” he said. “You need to understand that. I couldn’t jeopardize my other teammates to save you. You would’ve made the same choice if you were in my position.”

Julian didn’t say a word. Instead, he silently took another step closer. Suddenly, Ethan realized something wasn’t right. Instinctively, he stepped back from his approaching teammate and gave him another look-over. Julian was definitely in terrible shape. Considering the extent of his wounds, it was surprising he was still alive.

Come to think of it, he should definitely be dead. No one could sustain such damage and live through it, regardless of how many points they had invested in their Constitution attribute. Even what remained of Julian’s power suit couldn’t have kept him alive.

That’s when Ethan realized the figure before him wasn’t Julian anymore. The morphus must have turned him into a zombie or something like that. Sure, no one had ever heard of the morphus having such abilities, but it wasn’t all that surprising, considering the freak seemed to have new tricks up its sleeve at any given moment.

Just as Julian took another step toward him, Ethan jerked his heavy-caliber pistol up, pointing it at the middle of Julian’s face.

“Stop right there,” he ordered. “Don’t take another step. I need confirmation that you’re still you.”

He didn’t truly believe Julian was still himself, but he couldn’t just shoot him in the face without knowing for sure.

To his great surprise, Julian gave him a nod. He definitely hadn’t expected that, believing Julian was a zombie now. He even lowered his pistol a little bit.

“What?” he muttered. “Julian? Is that really you?”

Julian nodded again.

“You’re not a zombie?” Ethan asked, still a little shaken. Julian shook his head, a smirk spreading across his lips.

Ethan just watched him for a few seconds before lowering his pistol.

“Geez, you really freaked me out. I almost shot you!” he exclaimed.

He even chuckled, but as soon as he heard how nervous it sounded, he stopped.

“How did you get out, man?” he asked.

Julian simply shook his head, a look of sadness washing over his face.

Something was definitely off. Julian wasn’t a zombie, at least not in the general sense of this word. He obviously had his cognitive abilities, which ex-humans mostly lacked. Yet, something felt off about him. He didn’t seem like the person he used to be. Moreover, the wounds he had sustained were far too severe for anyone to survive. How was he still alive? What was happening?

Ethan pointed his weapon back at Julian, a hard look on his face.

“Tell me what the hell is going on?” he demanded. “What is wrong with you?”

Julian pointed at his throat and shook his head again. Ethan wasn’t sure what Julian was trying to say. Had his throat been so heavily damaged that it could no longer produce any sounds? It didn’t seem severely injured, though. Sure, it was covered in blood, but Ethan couldn’t discern much damage. If it were truly that bad, Julian likely wouldn’t be alive at all.

“Fucking say something,” Ethan demanded, aiming his pistol right at Julian’s face. “Or I’ll shoot you.”

Julian didn’t say a word. It was getting on Ethan’s last nerve.

“I’m gonna shoot you in the face on the count of three unless you answer me,” Ethan declared, his gaze unwavering. “One. Two—”

Julian extended his left hand toward him. Some sixth sense warned Ethan that something bad was about to happen. In the next instant, Julian’s hand transformed into something resembling a harpoon, which immediately launched toward him, trailing what looked like a cord. Only the speed-enhancing power suit he wore allowed him to dodge the harpoon.

However, before Ethan could do anything, Julian leaped toward him and swung his right hand, which transformed into a massive fist, at his chest. It connected with his midsection, sending Ethan flying across the street to crash into the wall of a building on the other side.

For a moment, he lay face-down on the sidewalk before slowly rising onto his elbows and looking ahead. His assailant stood in the middle of the street, his harpoon and enormous fist transforming back into human-like hands. That’s when it finally hit him. This wasn’t Julian. It was the morphus!