Jake twisted in midair and gracefully landed on his feet, bending his knees to absorb the impact. He quickly stood up and turned toward the pickup truck. The man in the bed, who was holding down the trigger, swung the barrel downward, stitching a line of bullet holes in the building wall behind Jake.
He wasted no time in dashing toward the vehicle, eager to deal with the shooter. Just as he was about to jump into the truck bed, a bullet struck him in the left shoulder. The force of the impact wasn’t all that powerful, and the bullet failed to penetrate more than half an inch into his body. However, a split second after the heavy-caliber round embedded itself into his body, it blew up, tearing a large piece of flesh out of his shoulder.
The force of the mini-explosion spun Jake around, whipping him to the ground. He collapsed face-first on the unyielding asphalt of the road. Through the roar of the machine gun, his acute hearing picked up the shooter’s laughter as he shouted to the driver, “Got the bastard!”
Jake quickly calculated the best course of action. Had the guy in the truck’s bed wielded a standard weapon, it wouldn’t have been able to stop Jake’s approach, and he would already have reached the shooter. But for some reason, the machine gun mounted in the truck’s bed was much more powerful than any other weapon Jake had ever been shot with.
Running directly for the pickup truck would be a suicide considering how powerful the weapon was. The explosive bullets it fired would shred him to pieces long before he could reach the man in the truck’s bed. He could try to run around the vehicle and wait for the shooter to run out of bullets in his machine gun before attacking him. However, if the other weapons the shooter and driver were armed with were half as deadly as the mounted machine gun, he would be in serious trouble.
So a tactical retreat was called for. Instead of attacking the two Demons head-on, he needed to set up an ambush and lure them into it. This was the only way he could turn the tables in that situation.
Before the shooter could readjust his aim, Jake sprang to his feet. He pivoted and sprinted away from the truck. Upon reaching the intersection, he veered to the right, narrowly avoiding bullets that zipped past him. But one of them stung him in the right knee and immediately exploded. Jake lost his balance and collapsed again. He quickly got back on his feet, but his injured leg was only partially responsive and struggled to support him, which wasn’t surprising at all—when Jake glanced down at it, he saw a huge chunk of flesh had been torn out of his knee area.
Jake glanced to the right at the pickup truck. He concentrated on the shooter. With a thought, he summoned his stats, and they instantly popped up in his mind. He was mainly interested in the shooter’s level, which turned out to be 75. Seventy-five! His own level was only 39. After his transformation, he’d had to level up from scratch. However, as it turned out, he was able to level up much faster than regular survivors, which was why he caught up with them pretty quickly. So his level was currently thirty-nine, and most survivors had about the same level. But for some reason, the shooter in the truck’s bed was much stronger. It was safe to assume the driver’s level was close to that of the shooter.
How come their levels exceeded those of most survivors by so much? The weapons wielded by the truck’s occupants were likely close to the levels of the two bandits, which explained why the mounted machine gun was so powerful. But this raised another question. The System spawned items according to the current levels of the majority of survivors. How come the two Demons had such high levels, and where had they been able to get high-level equipment?
However, Jake had no time to think about that. He kept running, though his severely injured right leg prevented him from gaining his top speed. He staggered down the street, favoring his injured leg.
“After him,” he heard the shooter yell. “Don’t let the bastard get away!”
Then he heard the rumble of the pickup truck’s engine somewhere behind him. He glanced over his shoulder. He’d put some distance between himself and the intersection, and the pickup truck was still out of sight. Although Jake couldn’t see it yet, he knew the truck was currently making a U-turn. Once it completed the turn, it wouldn’t take long for the driver to reach the intersection and catch up with him.
With a thought, he called up his health points.
He’d only suffered two wounds, but he’d lost twenty-five percent of his health. It was bad. The large ragged hole in his left shoulder was large and deep enough to cause his mana to seep out. His Enhanced Regeneration was already actively healing the wounds, both in his left shoulder and right knee, but he would lose some of his mana before they were completely healed.
Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted an alleyway to his right, formed by two tall buildings. He slowed down and turned his head to take a better look. The alley was slightly wider than the pickup truck that was chasing him. Being well aware he needed to hide and recover before retaliating, he turned and dashed into the alley.
A dozen yards in, he spotted a ledge protruding from the wall of a building on his left. He jumped and grabbed the ledge with the tips of his fingers. For a brief moment, his feet dangled in the air until they finally found purchase on a horizontal crack just wide enough for the tips of his feet to fit into. Jake then quickly looked around and noticed another handhold just above him. He leaped up and seized it with both hands.
Utilizing any handhold and foothold he could find, he pressed on with his climb, all too aware of the truck engine’s rumble growing louder as his pursuers quickly closed in on him.