"Shit. A mutant."
Nicholas cursed as the video feed flickered to life on the interface. The miniature cameras installed all around the truck had captured the creature moving through the trees, chasing them.
It was humanoid… but calling it "humanoid" was being generous.
Its limbs bent at angles that defied anatomy not to mention it left arm was too long. It was so long it was dragging along the ground like an extra leg.
The right arm was twisted and useless, hanging at a sickening angle.
Its skin was brown and wet, slime gushing from every pore, hissing against the stone and eating shallow craters into the trees it touched wherever.
Its chest heaved… no, it… split.
A vertical opening ran down its torso, revealing rows of jagged teeth… It was a second mouth.
And its eyes were red with three black pupils in each that seemed to move individually.
Thet were all fixed on the truck only occasionally scanning for other targets and charting it path.
'Yeah,' Nicholas thought, chuckling to himself. 'This is not what I'm here for.'
But he knew what it was.
It was a prime example of a creature suffering from essence corruption.
Essence corruption could happen for a variety of reasons… exposure to unstable rifts, failed experiments, bad luck but the most common cause was simply being overwhelmed by too much essence.
This world truly took everything to the extreme.
Essence was good for you and at lower ranks, the body could only passively absorb it, using what it needed.
But being soaked in too much? That was a bad idea.
Essence was not part of the natural biological coding of humans or animals in Vale and evolution hadn't had enough time to grant them the same instinctual limits it imposed on other bodily functions.
An example of such instinctual limits would be the brain limiting muscle strength to prevent you from ripping your own tendons apart.
In simple terms the body lacked neural inhibition for essence and the more essence there was, the more essence the body soaks in even if there was adverse effect.
The chances of survival were low but even then, the corrupted typically don't survive unscathed.
This creature was one such case of a creature surviving. It had bitten off more than it could chew and paid the price.
*Rooooooooooaaaar*
The creature opened its first mouth—the one on its face—and a deafening roar erupted.
The sound was so powerful it disrupted everything around them. The wind from the roar broke trees causing them to crash down, sending animals scattering.
It even managed to make the truck shudder.
'Yeah, no.'
"Hey truck… Speed up."
[Truck is currently going 86 km/hr]
[Higher speed has a chance of accident exceeding 30%]
[Such risk is against regulation]
[Do you wish to return to manual?]
[Yes] [No]
He tapped No immediately.
Driving that fast on a track or road was one thing but through a forest with uneven ground and trees everywhere as well as roots and rocks and sudden drops?
That was something else entirely.
"Any defence options?"
[D-Grade Structural Carapace and 3 layers of D-Grade Ablative Shells]
'Yeah. That thing will rip through those in a few seconds. Especially with the acidic slime gushing out its pores.'
"Attack options for this creature?"
[Medium Machine Gun available]
"Activate it."
[Command accepted]
Nicholas watched the video feed as a panel on the truck's roof slid open. The black sleek gun emerged, swivelling as it locked onto the mutant.
He held his breath as the gun opened fired.
*Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat*
The bullets streaked across the distance and struck the creature square in the chest…
And bounced off.
The bullets fucking bounced off.
Nicholas stared as the bullets did nothing… there not even a scratch.
The creature barely seemed to notice… In fact, it seemed angrier now.
Its legs pumped faster with its eyes glowing brighter even the second mouth opened wide, dripping acid onto the ground.
It was gaining on him.
'How the hell is it running that fast with so many bones in its leg?' Nicholas, a famed geneticist, could not tell.
"Are higher calibre weapons available?"
[No]
"Oh, fuck me."
[Option not available]
Nicholas froze for a second. Stunned.
'Am I getting trolled by a car?'
He shook his head pushing the thought to the back of his head as and reached into his military bag.
If he didn't do something now, he would most definitely die before his journey could even start.
He rummaged through his bag and quickly found his sniper rifle.
While he was terrible at close combat, he excelled at marksmanship… both he and the previous Nicholas. It was one of the few things his father had taught him that had actually stuck.
In less than a minute, he assembled the sniper. He had snapped the receiver into the chassis, locking the quick-detach barrel, and sliding on the pre-zeroed scope.
"Open the top hatch," he ordered. "And inform me if there are any changes in direction that may affect my shot."
[Command accepted]
The top hatch opened above him, letting in the cold morning air.
He looked around making sure there was nothing that could take his head… thankfully there was nothing, the only thing he had to warry about was the bumpy road.
Nicholas braced his leg on the chair and stood to his full height. The wind whipped at his face as he placed the sniper on the roof of the truck.
Thankfully, the truck was custom-built. The paranoid old man designed it for situations exactly like this including the latches on the roof specifically for snipers.
He lined the scope up at the main body of the creature letting the crosshairs settle on its chest.
He was trying to hit the second mouth since it had a larger surface area making it easier to hit.
He took a deep breath before slowly exhaling before he squeezed the trigger.
*Bang*
The bullet flew and… missed.
"What the fuck?" Nicholas cursed as he immediately reloaded.
The creature was faster than he had expected and its movements were jerky, erratic because of the number of joints it had.
He aimed again… Higher this time.
'Come on. Come on.'
He pulled the trigger.
*Bang*