Chapter 240: Summer Time [7]

"Oh God!!!"

Summer shrieked at the top of her lungs the instant I jumped through the shattered window frame with her cradled protectively in my arms.

She immediately clung to my neck with desperate intensity, her arms wrapping around me so tightly I could feel her fingers digging into my shoulders and back. She pressed herself completely against my chest, determined not to let go under any circumstances.

Within seconds, I landed on the sandy ground below, my knees bending smoothly to absorb the impact and distribute the force.

No pain registered whatsoever. My enhanced legs handled the twelve-foot drop as effortlessly as stepping off a curb.

As expected, that height was genuinely nothing for my Dullahan-physiology—barely more challenging than a normal stride.

Summer slowly opened her eyes—apparently she’d squeezed them shut during the brief fall—and looked around in shock at our surroundings, processing that we’d actually survived the jump completely unharmed.

Then she looked directly at me as if staring at a madman.

"A...Are you completely insane?!" She shouted.

"Can you please stop screaming directly into my ears?" I said, my expression twisting slightly with discomfort. "I have extremely sensitive hearing, and you’re literally yelling at point-blank range while wrapped around my head."

"Then next time don’t just grab me and pull me into life-threatening situations without any warning!" She shot back, her face flushing with embarrassment as I carefully lowered her feet back to solid ground.

"Let’s sincerely hope there isn’t a next time," I said, releasing her and immediately turning around to look back up through the shattered window we’d just exited.

Are you actually kidding me right now...

"Run!" I said sharply, pushing Summer’s shoulder to get her moving.

"What?" Summer turned her gaze to follow mine, looking back up at the window opening.

Her expression transformed instantly to pure horror as she saw the Enhanced Hybrid Infected positioning itself at the broken window frame, clearly preparing to jump down after us.

The massive creature launched itself through the opening without hesitation, its heavy body plummeting toward the sand below.

When it landed, the impact resounded—the Enhanced Hybrid’s considerable weight hitting the ground with enough force to send sand spraying up in all directions like a small explosion.

"Run!!" I shouted at Summer, who seemed frozen in shock at the sight of the monster pursuing us.

My shout broke her paralysis, and she immediately turned and started sprinting away across the sandy beach, putting distance between herself and the immediate threat.

I, however, stayed exactly where I was—positioning myself between Summer’s fleeing form and the Enhanced Hybrid.

"Wait! What are you doing?!" Summer stopped after maybe twenty feet and looked back at me with shock. "Come on!"

"Just run and get to safety! I’ll buy you time to escape!" I called back to her, not taking my eyes off the Enhanced Hybrid as it recovered from its landing.

"Are you completely insane?! Why would you sacrifice yourself for someone you literally just met today?!" She shouted.

She was definitely thinking I was about to pull off some kind of heroic sacrificial move—staying behind to fight an impossible battle so she could escape, dying nobly to save a near-stranger.

Of course, I had absolutely no intention of sacrificing myself or dying here.

I was going to eliminate this Enhanced Hybrid using Time Freeze, just like I’d done with others before. But having Summer safely away from the combat zone would be extremely helpful—both for her protection and to prevent her from witnessing the full extent of my abilities.

The less she saw of what I could actually do, the better for maintaining security about Dullahan.

"I said run!" I shouted again, turning briefly toward her to emphasize the seriousness with my expression.

She bit her lip hard but finally, she made the rational choice—turned around and resumed running at full speed toward the boardwalk.

Finally. Now I could focus entirely on the threat without worrying about protecting her.

I turned my full attention back to the Enhanced Hybrid, which had already recovered from its landing and was now charging directly at me with frightening speed.

Shit, it was faster than I’d anticipated.

I jumped backward to create distance, simultaneously reaching for my hand axe and shifting into a combat-ready stance.

"How many of you bastards are scattered around this city?" I asked, glaring at the creature.

Obviously it didn’t answer—Enhanced Hybrids possessed greater intelligence than standard Infected, but they still couldn’t speak or engage in conversation.

But its hateful glare only intensified in response to my question, the creature’s mutated features twisting with pure malevolence.

I could feel the hatred that had been coded directly into its corrupted brain—the biological imperative to hunt and destroy Symbiote hosts that drove these Enhanced variants.

It punched forward with tremendous force and speed, its massive fist tearing through the air with enough velocity to create an audible whooshing sound.

But I dodged the strike cleanly, my enhanced reflexes making the attack’s trajectory obvious despite its impressive speed.

The moment I’d evaded, I immediately activated Time Freeze.

The world around me slowed to a crawl—the Enhanced Hybrid’s extended arm frozen mid-motion.

I moved quickly and efficiently, circling behind the frozen Enhanced Hybrid while it remained locked in its attacking posture.

I delivered a devastating kick to the back of its legs, targeting the knee joints with enhanced strength. Even frozen in time, the physical force I applied would take effect the moment time resumed—the creature’s stance would collapse, sending it crashing forward onto the sand.

Then I positioned myself with one foot pressed firmly against its back for leverage and stability, raised my hand axe high, and began swinging downward repeatedly into the back of its skull with brutal force.

Blood spurted out with each successive impact, spraying across the sand in dark patterns. Brain matter and fragments of shattered bone flew from the wounds I was creating.

But I continued swinging my axe down again and again, not stopping until I’d thoroughly destroyed the brain tissue and the virus core that animated these creatures was dead.

When I was finally satisfied that the Enhanced Hybrid was truly, permanently dead, I stepped back and away from its body.

Time resumed its normal flow.

Thank God I possessed this ability. Time Freeze was making combat situations much easier and safer than they would otherwise be, turning potentially lethal encounters into manageable problems I could solve with careful application of strategy and violence.

But I hadn’t even had time to feel relief or satisfaction at the successful kill before I froze again—this time not from using my ability, but from shock at what I was seeing.

Several figures were rushing past my position, sprinting across the sand ahead of me with disturbing speed and coordination.

I hadn’t noticed them as I was focused with the Enhanced Hybrid—they were the additional Infected that had been positioned behind it on the ground floor of the mall. Also Hybrids based on their speed and movement patterns, which meant they could run rather than just shamble.

And they were all running directly after Summer.

Why?!

Had the Enhanced Hybrid I’d just killed actually issued orders to them as I’d feared?

It probably thought of using Summer to make me drop my guard and kill me.

Damn it! This was absolutely the worst aspect of dealing with Hybrid Infected.

I immediately rushed forward in pursuit, pushing my enhanced speed to its limits.

"Don’t stop running!" I shouted as loud as I could, hoping my voice would reach Summer who was thankfully proving to be a genuinely good runner with impressive endurance.

But these Infected were faster than normal humans. They were actively gaining on her despite her best efforts.

"Hey!" I shouted again, this time releasing a pulse of Dullahan’s Intent—that distinctive energy signature that seemed to enrage and attract Enhanced Infected specifically.

The technique worked as intended. The closest Hybrids to my position immediately diverted from pursuing Summer, turning to engage me instead as they detected the presence of their hated enemy.

I quickly dodged their initial strikes, these creatures were fast and coordinated, but still followed predictable attack patterns I’d learned to read and counter.

I dispatched them rapidly as I continued running, not allowing the combat to slow my forward momentum.

One Hybrid fell with its head split open. Two more dropped with severed spines. A fourth collapsed with chest wound. Five, six, seven—I cut through them, leaving a trail of permanently dead Hybrids in my wake.

At this point I was genuinely moving like a monster—displaying speed and combat capability that went far beyond anything a normal human could achieve.

Thankfully, Summer couldn’t watch and freeze in shock seeing that terrifying display, since she was completely focused on running for her life and wasn’t looking back to observe my actions.

But five Hybrids remained ahead of me, still pursuing Summer.

One of them was rapidly closing the distance—maybe only ten feet behind her now, with its arm already stretching out to grab her shoulder or hair.

I gripped the handle of my hand axe with desperate intensity, making a split-second calculation.

The Hybrid was roughly forty feet ahead of my current position, with Summer running slightly ahead of it but clearly about to be caught from behind within seconds.

I took aim as carefully as I could while sprinting at full speed, then immediately hurled my hand axe with all the enhanced strength I could generate.

The weapon spun through the air in a perfect trajectory—maintaining its rotational stability and speed as it closed the distance in less than a second.

The axe blade connected directly with the pursuing Hybrid’s skull with devastating force, the impact shattering bone and driving deep into brain tissue.

The creature stumbled immediately, its running collapsing into an uncontrolled tumble that sent it crashing face-first into the sand.

I exhaled sharply in relief seeing the successful throw.

It had been an extremely risky move—I’d been genuinely terrified of accidentally hitting Summer in the process, especially given that she was running unpredictably and I was throwing from significant distance while also moving at high speed.

But I hadn’t wanted to take any chances with letting that Hybrid actually reach her.

As I continued running at full speed, I saw Summer suddenly freeze and slow down considerably, turning her head back over her shoulder—probably because she’d felt or heard the Hybrid Infected falling and crashing into the sand just a hair’s breadth behind her.

I wasn’t blaming her for the reaction. She must have been terrified by the sound of something that heavy and close collapsing right behind her while she ran.

"What are you doing?! Keep running!!" I shouted immediately.

Thankfully, my shout snapped her out of her frozen shock and brought her back to the immediate reality of her situation. She immediately turned forward again and resumed running at maximum speed.

But there were still four Hybrid Infected pursuing her, and the fourth one in the sequence was getting dangerously close—close enough that it would reach her within seconds if I didn’t intervene.

Make that three remaining threats.

I closed the distance to the Hybrid nearest to my position, reached out and grasped it firmly by the back of its head—fingers tangling in its hair and gripping skull—then hurled the Infected back, away from the pursuit.

I didn’t waste precious time stopping to kill it properly. Instead, I just sent it flying through the air in a wide arc. It crashed somewhere off to the side.

That would have to be good enough for now.

I focused my attention ahead on Summer, who had finally transitioned off the sandy beach and reached the solid ground of the Boardwalk proper.

But she wasn’t heading in the right direction toward the barricades and safety of her community’s controlled territory. Instead, she’d veered off course and was running straight toward the blocks of commercial buildings that lined the Boardwalk—heading into the narrow streets and alleys between structures.

It actually wasn’t a stupid choice given her circumstances. The remaining Hybrids were getting too dangerously close to her in the open space of the beach and boardwalk. By heading into the building-dense area, she was attempting to lose them in the urban maze—hoping to find a building to hide inside or use the confined spaces to slow down her pursuers.

At that exact moment, however, someone appeared suddenly from one of the street intersections ahead of Summer’s position.

My eyes widened in shock.

Ivy was standing there casually in the middle of the street, hands tucked inside her distinctive white coat’s pockets, looking completely relaxed as if everything happening around her was perfectly normal and unremarkable.

"Ivy?!!"

What the hell was she doing here, wandering around alone in unsecured territory?!

Ivy glanced in my direction briefly, then shifted her gaze to Summer who was running directly toward her position at full sprint.

"What are you doing standing there?! Run—" Summer started shouting at Ivy, clearly trying to warn the apparently-oblivious woman about the deadly threats pursuing her.

But Ivy moved quickly.

She caught Summer’s arm as the fleeing girl reached her position, then immediately dragged her sideways into the entrance of a nearby shop. The door slammed shut behind them both just as they cleared the threshold.

The Hybrid Infected closest to their position didn’t slow or hesitate—it smashed directly against the glass door without any concern for the obstacle.

The reinforced glass shattered instantly under the tremendous impact, fragments exploding inward as the Hybrid’s momentum carried it through the destroyed barrier.

Then the creature disappeared inside the shop, following where Ivy and Summer had taken refuge.

Fuck!