Jake burst onto the rooftop and immediately rushed toward the edge. He vaulted over the parapet and dropped to the ground, launching himself into a roll. Leaping to his feet, he sprinted across the compound toward the gates. The survivors gaped at him with puzzled expressions, and those in his path hurried to get out of the way.
Upon reaching the gate, Jake performed a mana-infused jump, activating Gravity Leap as well. He soared over the wall and landed on the other side of the base with a solid thud, just as the black SUV was drawing near. The driver instinctively slammed on the brakes, bringing the large vehicle to a jarring halt just before Jake with a screech of tortured tires.
The driver glanced at the pitch-black mutant who had just landed right in front of the car and realized he should have kept going to run it over. Jake rose to his feet and turned to face the vehicle. Beside the driver sat another human in the shotgun seat, with two more in the back.
Jake quickly summoned the descriptions of the bandits in the front seats of the vehicle, but none of them was Ryder. As for those in the back, he couldn’t fully see them and therefore couldn’t call up their descriptions.
He saw one of the men in the back actively gesticulating as someone yelled for the driver to run over the mutant. The driver snapped out of it and reached for the shifter. However, Jake didn’t give him the opportunity to drive again. He jumped onto the hood of the SUV, morphing his right hand into a smashfist and striking the windshield, shattering it into a thousand shards.
The two humans in the front seats screamed as they were pelted with pieces of glass. Jake sprouted three bladed tentacles from his back and lashed out at the humans. One of the blades slashed the driver across his throat, causing a spray of blood to pour from the nasty gash. With another of his bladed tentacles, Jake stabbed the other human in the eye deep enough to penetrate his brain.
The two humans in the back opened their doors and burst out of the vehicle. Jake straightened up, quickly assessing them. One of them was Ryder, standing on the left side of the vehicle. The person on the right brought the assault rifle he was armed with to bear on Jake.
But Jake was faster. He extended his left hand toward the human and launched a circular saw blade. It sliced through the air to plunge into the person’s throat. The human’s eyes went wide in shock. The assault rifle slipped from his grasp and fell to the ground. He instinctively reached for the foreign object now embedded in his throat. Moments later, his body went limp, and he crumpled to the ground.
Only one of the vehicle’s occupants was alive by that point: Ryder. The leader of the base glanced up at the turrets atop the watchtowers. He must have realized something had gone terribly wrong at the base since the turrets weren’t firing at the mutant. Knowing he stood no chance against Jake, he chose to flee instead of fight.
Jake suddenly felt an invisible force slam into his chest. Ryder must have cast a spell, attempting to knock him off the vehicle for a few seconds of a head start. However, Jake reacted quickly, slapping his left hand onto the hood and anchoring himself in place with Adhesive Secretion. Ryder was already running away. Jake leaped off the SUV’s hood and sprinted after him.
He contemplated launching a cinch net after the fleeing bandit. It would easily immobilize Ryder, but Jake wasn’t sure how much damage it might inflict on the human. He needed Ryder alive and, ideally, not injured—at least, not too much. Ultimately, he decided against using the ability and chose to continue the chase instead.
When Ryder glanced over his shoulder and saw the pitch-black mutant on his heels, he let out a panicked yelp. Again, Jake felt an invisible force push against him, but aside from momentarily staggering him, the spell had no other effect.
Panicking, Ryder drew his sidearm and began shooting blindly at Jake. Some bullets slammed into his chest, exploding on impact. It slowed him slightly, but not nearly enough to stop him from gaining on the fleeing bandit.
Jake suddenly leaped, covering the distance to Ryder in one bound. He slammed into the bandit’s back, sending him crashing face-first to the ground. Jake landed on top, pinning the human firmly to the asphalt.
Ryder writhed and squirmed beneath him, unable to break free. The pistol slipped from his grip when he fell, and now Ryder tried to reach for it with his hand, but the gun lay just beyond his reach.
For a moment, Jake simply stared at the struggling human beneath him, weighing his options. How could he restrain Ryder? He didn’t have any handcuffs or zip ties to do so.
He considered hitting him on the head to render him unconscious but feared he might overdo it. After all, he was much stronger than any human. He definitely didn’t want to accidentally kill his captive.
In the end, he decided to sprout a few tendrils from his back and wrap them around Ryder’s throat. He squeezed just enough to cut off the flow of oxygen to his lungs. Ryder thrashed below him, thinking he was being killed. Moments later, the struggle ceased. Ryder was unconscious but still alive.
Jake rose to his feet, lifting the unconscious body onto his shoulders. He turned to face the wall of the base, pondering if he could jump as high while carrying the extra weight.
Yet, as it turned out, there was no need for that because the remotely controlled gates began to swing open. Melissa must have been watching the fight through the feed from one of the turrets. Upon seeing Jake lift Ryder’s lifeless body, she realized that the leader of the base was still alive and that Jake intended to bring him inside.
Jake shoved the unconscious human onto the back seat of the SUV, then closed both rear doors. After that, he moved around the front of the car to the driver’s side and slid behind the steering wheel. Since his body was mostly human-like, he could drive the car without any difficulty.
He shifted the vehicle in drive and waited for the gap between the leaves of the gate to widen further. Once it was wide enough for the SUV to pass through, he maneuvered the car into the base.