Chapter 442

Chapter 442

Jake shot a quick glance toward Catalina. “Back up and stay low.”

Her eyes widened. “What? Why?”

Sure enough, Silvia and her people heard him as well. They immediately went tense, realizing that something was wrong. There was no time to explain to Catalina what he was about to do. He had to act quickly and strike first before Silvia’s people could get ready.

Of all the spells he had learned in the Void Temple,

Cloud of Darkness

was by far his favorite. He used it far more often than any other. It allowed him to place a magical rune on any surface beneath him and trigger it with a thought. When activated, it released a cloud of supernatural darkness that no human could see through, not even with the aid of magic or advanced technology.

Jake placed the rune beneath himself and immediately activated it. Immediately, swirling black mist burst forth, spreading rapidly in all directions. Within a second, it engulfed the entire subway platform.

–10,000 MP

MP: 346,678 / 400,000

Panicked screams erupted from within the darkness as the humans suddenly lost their vision. Unlike them, Jake could see just fine, and he wasted no time springing into action.

Silvia was the closest person to him, so he launched himself toward her first. The impact was brutal. He crashed into her with great force, knocking her off balance and sending her sprawling onto the floor. Her weapon slipped from her grip and flew several feet away, clattering to the ground. It skidded across the floor with a metallic clatter before finally coming to rest.

At the same time, Jake sprouted numerous bladed tentacles and tendrils from his back. They all whipped through the air, lashing out at the remaining humans. The razor edges sliced across their hands, leaving shallow wounds, injuring the survivors just enough to make them drop their weapons. He didn’t want to hurt these humans too badly. At least, not yet.

He also used his tendrils to snatch the weapons from those humans who managed to hold onto them. His

Adhesive Secretion

ability extended to his tendrils, so all he needed to do was touch the tip of a tendril to a weapon held in a survivor’s hands, making it stick. Then, with a powerful yank, he could easily tear the gun away from their grasp.

After all the humans were disarmed, he made use of his

Cinch Net Blaster

ability. He launched a cinch net at each of Silvia’s people, capturing them one by one. They were all completely helpless, spinning from side to side, unable to see anything through the cloud of supernatural darkness that surrounded them. As soon as a cinch net wrapped around them, they lost their balance and crashed to the ground.

Within moments, the humans found themselves ensnared, cinch nets wrapping tightly around their bodies. They fought against the restraints, twisting and thrashing, yet the bonds held firm.

After that, Jake turned his attention to their leader. Silvia was down on all fours, her hands sweeping across the ground in frantic search of the weapon she had dropped.

He lashed out at the human with his tendrils, coiling them tightly around her body and hoisting her into the air. She writhed and struggled but couldn’t break free.

“Let me go!” she screamed. “Let me go, you monster!”

From behind him, he heard Catalina’s voice. “Jake, what’s going on? What are you doing?!”

“Everything’s fine,” he told her as he kept Silvia suspended in the air a couple of feet before him. “I just wanted to teach them a little lesson. They need to know who they are up against.”

“What? What are you talking about? Jake, what did you do? What the hell have you done to them?”

“I haven’t done anything. Yet. Just immobilized them.”

“Jake, don’t hurt them! You hear me? Don’t you dare hurt them!”

“I won’t unless they give me a reason to.”

Eventually, the darkness began to thin. Silvia hung suspended in the air, facing Jake. When the shadows vanished entirely, Catalina gasped as the scene came into full view. The humans had dropped their torches, which now lay on the ground, casting light across the subway platform. Catalina’s eyes flicked from one writhing, twitching figure to another, each one trapped in a cinch net. Sweating and cursing, the humans fought against their restraints but couldn’t break free. Then Catalina noticed Silvia, held in the air by a mass of tendrils stretching out from his body.

“Jake, what is going on?” she demanded. “What are you doing?”

Jake didn’t respond to her. Instead, he shifted his attention back to Silvia.

“Listen to me very carefully,” he said. “I’m going to ask you some questions, and you’re going to answer them. Don’t lie. If you do, I’ll know. And I won’t like it. Trust me, you really don’t want to end up on my bad side.”

“What the hell are you?” Silvia hissed. “What kind of hellhole produced a monster like you?”

She put on a tough front, but he could see the fear beneath it. That was a good sign.

“I’ll be the one asking questions,” he said firmly. “What did you really say to the Commander?”

“Did you hear what…”

“Yes, I heard every word,” he interrupted. “But I’m convinced you two were speaking in some kind of code, one only the two of you understand.”

“I have no clue what you’re talking about.”

“Alright then. Let’s try a different approach.”

He suddenly sent one of his bladed tentacles spearing through the air toward the human. She screamed, believing it was going to plunge right into her. However, he stopped the tip of the bladed tentacle just an inch before her face.

“Same question,” he said. “What secret message did you convey to the Commander?”

“I didn’t do anything of the sort.”

Jake inched the blade a bit closer until it hovered just a breath away from her eye.

“This is your last chance,” Jake said. “Do you have anything else to say?”

“Go to hell.”

“Get ready to lose an eye, then,” Jake said.

“Jake, wait!” Catalina shouted. “Don’t do this!”

Jake drew the bladed tentacle back, then thrust it at her with such force that it looked as though he were genuinely trying to plunge it into her face.

“Alright!” Silvia screamed. “I’ll tell you! Stop!”

Jake immediately halted the bladed tentacle a few inches from her face. Silvia didn’t answer right away, though. She paused, catching her breath.

“Don’t test my patience,” Jake said.

“You’re wrong. We weren’t using some secret code to communicate,” Silvia replied.

“I see you’re still…” Jake began, but she cut him off.

“But I did give him a secret message,” she said.

“What message?”

“It’s not exactly a message,” she explained. “It’s more like a series of words put together in a specific order to give it a special meaning. In this case, I gave him a yellow warning.”

“And what does that mean?”

“It means he and his people should stay alert,” she said. “Look, I don’t know you, and I’ve never met anyone like you before. Honestly, I don’t fully trust you yet, so I told him to be cautious. A yellow warning doesn’t mean something bad will definitely happen. It just means you should stay on guard, just in case. That’s all.”

When Jake didn’t respond right away, she quickly added, “That’s the truth. I swear.”

“How many warning levels do you use?” he asked at last.

“Green means all clear. Yellow is to stay alert. Orange is for high alert, meaning there’s a strong chance something bad can happen. And red is when something bad has already occurred.”

Jake studied her intently, trying to read her face for the slightest hint that could indicate if she was telling the truth. He was inclined to believe her, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t hiding something else.

“What about the helicopter carrying Catalina’s people?” Jake asked. “Was it your group that shot it down?”

“Why are we still talking about this?” Silvia said. “Thought we already cleared that up.”

“Answer the question.”

“No, we didn’t do that!”

Jake inched the bladed tentacle closer to her face. “Are you sure?”

“I swear!”

“Jake, please stop!” Catalina yelled again. “I’m sure she’s telling the truth!”

Jake studied Silvia’s face. Her eyes were wide as they stared at the tip of the blade hovering just an inch in front of her face. She looked scared. She

was

scared. She definitely didn’t want to lose her sight. Or life. Which meant she was either telling the truth or… Or she was determined to keep her secret even under the fear of mutilation or death for some reason.

For the moment, Jake was inclined to believe it was the former. He withdrew his tendrils, releasing Silvia and allowing her to drop to the ground.