Jake leaped into the air, activating Gravity Leap, which propelled him upward and forward like a missile, soaring through the air as if he weighed nothing. The wood golem watched him with its strange glowing eyes, remaining motionless and doing nothing because Jake was well out of reach yet. As he approached the apex of his jump above the massive creature, he issued a mental command to drop, utilizing a specific upgrade. Defying the laws of physics, his forward momentum halted instantly, and he plummeted straight down like a boulder, picking up speed with the gravity’s pull.
Jake landed on the wood golem’s hunched back with immense force, causing all four limbs of the creature to buckle momentarily. Remarkably, the monster didn’t collapse. Not that it was Jake’s intention. He had a different plan in mind. Turning around, he stepped toward the creature’s enormous head. Dropping into a crouch, he sank the claws of his left hand into the golem’s wooden flesh, embedding his talons as deeply as possible. Without a pause, he began pummeling the back of the monster’s head with his right hand transformed into a smashfist, determined to break through the resilient exterior of the massive beast.
The first strike left only a shallow dent in the wood golem’s head, barely damaging its tough surface. But Jake was just getting warmed up. He relentlessly continued to hammer the creature’s massive head with his smashfist, each strike creating small cracks and dents in the wood. Frustrated, the golem attempted to snatch him with one hand, but it couldn’t quite reach him. After a few futile attempts, the creature decided to try a different approach.
The golem thrashed its enormous body from side to side, attempting to shake Jake loose. Clinging for dear life with the claws of his left hand, he relentlessly pounded the creature’s head with his right smashfist. The wood golem shook violently, determined to dislodge the annoying nuisance that Jake had become. Despite his efforts to maintain his grip, he felt his claws slowly slipping from the creature’s wooden exterior, and he realized he wouldn’t be able to hold on much longer.
As he smashed the wood golem’s head again, something strange occurred. Eerie reddish light began to seep through the fresh cracks in the creature’s sturdy exterior. Encouraged by the sight, Jake continued to hammer the creature’s head. With every blow of his smashfist, new fissures opened up, and the existing ones expanded and deepened. The ominous red glow spilling from the cracks indicated that he was making progress. If he could inflict enough damage to the golem’s head, he would finally bring the massive creature down.
However, the wood golem kept shaking its colossal body, tossing it back and forth, and Jake could feel his claws loosening their grip. He transformed his right hand into a normal hand and then sprouted long claws from his fingertips. But before he could swing them at the monster’s body to latch on with his right hand, his left suddenly lost its grip completely.
Jake felt himself losing balance and tumbling off the side of the massive creature. With a clawed hand, he scraped against the golem’s body, trying to anchor himself, but it was no use. He collapsed to the ground and quickly rolled to the side as the golem smashed its colossal fist down where he had just been a fraction of a second before. Jake jumped to his feet, catching sight of another fist rushing toward him. He tried to dodge, but it was already too late.
The golem’s fist struck him with the force of a freight train, propelling him through the air. He soared across the clearing all the way to the treeline, crashing into one of the smaller trees with enough force to snap the trunk in half. The shock of the collision stunned Jake, and for a brief moment, he lay on the ground without moving. He could tell he had sustained some minor damage to his back, but other than that, he was unscathed. If he had been human, that blow would have likely shattered his spine.
Suddenly, he heard a familiar roar coming from the wood golem. Jake looked up just in time to see the massive monster with its mouth wide open, emitting a tremendous bellow. Its enormous head was covered in numerous cracks of various sizes, the result of Jake pounding on it with all his might. An eerie reddish glow seeped out of those cracks as the wood golem continued to bellow.
You gotta be kidding me, Jake thought. It was obvious that the wood golem was summoning its minions again. He had dealt with a group of those plant monsters a few minutes before, and now he would have to fight them once more. It was hard to believe the wood golem could summon them so often. Maybe it had a limit, like two or three summons per encounter? At least, Jake hoped so, because if he had to battle those plant monsters every few minutes, this fight would drag on for way too long.
The wood golem stopped bellowing. In the foliage surrounding the clearing, a familiar movement caught Jake’s attention—the undergrowth was reshaping and transforming into new forms. It wasn’t long before human-shaped figures began to burst from the trees into the clearing. Jake stood up as a new bunch of plant monsters emerged from the dense vegetation.
Then something unexpected happened. Jake caught a glimpse of movement and turned his head to scan the other side of the clearing. To his surprise, several survivors suddenly emerged from the trees. Each one sported either a red scar or a bandana. They were clearly Los Demonios, but it wasn’t yet clear if they had stumbled upon the clearing by accident or if they had been tracking him all along.
The Demons stopped in their tracks when they spotted the wood golem looming in the center of the clearing.
“What the hell is that?” one of them exclaimed.
Another member of the group raised the assault rifle he was armed with and aimed it at the massive monster. The person next to him slapped the barrel of the weapon down, scolding his companion, “Don’t shoot it, you idiot! It’s not attacking us. No need to provoke it. That’s not why we’re here anyway.”
Though they were on the other side of the clearing, Jake’s incredible sense of hearing effortlessly picked up every word they uttered. The wood golem seemed to have heard or noticed the Demons because it turned to face their direction, but it remained motionless. Unfortunately for the bandits, the golem wasn’t alone. Several plant monsters nearby charged at them, prompting the survivors to open fire.
“Where did those things come from?” somebody yelled.
The gunfire echoed through the air, attracting all the plant creatures, even those that had initially been closing in on Jake. They lost interest in him and turned away from him, running toward the humans instead. Over a dozen plant monsters dashed across the clearing, quickly closing in on the gangsters, who continued to fire on the approaching creatures. Each bullet that struck the plant mutants exploded on impact, dealing impressive amounts of damage. Despite this, the plant monsters were not easily killed, and even sustaining severe injuries, they continued to close in on their targets.
One of the plant creatures reached the survivors and jumped, landing on top of one of them and knocking him flat to the ground. It immediately began to tear the screaming human apart, triggering a wave of panic among the group.
“Why won’t they die?” someone yelled.
“Fall back!” shouted a person, who appeared to be the leader of the group. “Fall back!”
However, several of the gangsters had already spun around and fled. The others began to retreat while continuing to fire at the advancing monsters. Jake noticed some of the bullets unintentionally hit the wood golem in the head, detonating on impact and sending splintered fragments flying. That was when the wood golem decided to join the fray. Emitting an angry roar, the massive creature charged across the clearing after the fleeing bandits.
Upon seeing the colossal monster chasing them, the humans completely lost any interest in continuing to fight. The rest of the bandits spun around and rushed back into the forest as well, while the wood golem thundered after the humans, moving with surprising speed for such a massive creature.
Now I have to chase it, huh? Jake thought, frustration coursing through him as he, too, took off running after the wood golem.