Chapter 72: Air Combat

Chapter 72: Chapter 72: Air Combat

Chapter 72: Air Combat

Axel Vance drove both feet against the crater rim and launched himself down the slope toward the recovering Creeper. Above him, Lionel Cosgrove was in no hurry to follow, because his part of the fight required something different. He placed the creature’s severed arm on the ground and began preparing a Spirit Binding technique using the black blood still leaking from it as the sympathetic connection.

Dr. Seth Brundle, meanwhile, grabbed the heavy belt-fed weapon Lionel had abandoned and dropped into position near the edge of the crater. He opened fire toward the Creeper’s head and limbs, trying to keep the monster occupied while Axel closed the distance. Unfortunately, the creature’s recovery was happening much faster than any of them had expected.

The Creeper greedily tore into the mutant corpse beside it, swallowing flesh almost as quickly as it could rip pieces free. Fresh wounds closed while Seth was still firing, and damaged tissue rebuilt itself almost immediately after being struck. By the time Axel reached the bottom of the slope, even the arm he had severed earlier had already regrown.

The Creeper raised its newly restored limb and turned directly toward Axel. Instead of taking flight, it lunged forward with enough force to crush an ordinary man and drove its claws toward Axel’s face. Axel did not dodge.

The claws landed against his shoulder with a heavy impact. His shirt ripped open and several shallow wounds appeared across his skin, but Physique 3.1 prevented the attack from tearing deeply into his body. For the first time since emerging from the coffin, genuine surprise appeared in the Creeper’s eyes.

To the monster, humans had always been prey.

Food.

Something to frighten, hunt, and harvest.

Yet the man standing in front of it had just taken a direct strike without even stepping back.

Axel used that instant of hesitation.

He drove his entire body forward and slammed into the Creeper hard enough to knock the creature off balance. Before it could recover, Axel brought the enchanted chainsaw around and drove the roaring chain directly into its chest.

A brutal grinding noise erupted.

The Creeper’s sternum resisted the enchanted teeth like hardened metal, and sparks scattered from the contact point while Axel forced the chainsaw deeper. Even with the Spirit Binding enchantment strengthening the weapon, the creature’s bones were dramatically tougher than those of any normal human.

The Creeper screamed and lashed out wildly. One claw swept across Axel’s face, opening several bloody gashes along his cheek. Axel barely reacted.

Blood ran down his jaw as he tightened his grip on the chainsaw. He pushed harder, forcing the enchanted chain through the Creeper’s chest until the resistance finally began to break. The monster’s shriek rose sharply as bone and flesh gave way under the weapon.

Desperate to escape, the Creeper threw both wings outward.

The sudden blast of air hit Axel with tremendous force and hurled him away.

He crashed across the rocky ground and rolled several times before stopping.

The Creeper staggered backward, finally free of the chainsaw. A massive wound now passed through its chest, and shredded tissue still twitched around the opening as its regeneration tried to repair the damage. The creature stared down at itself, then back toward Axel with a confused, furious expression.

This human was not behaving like prey.

Even Papa Jupiter seemed to realize something had gone terribly wrong. The mutant patriarch had risen from his crude throne, and the triumphant expression he had worn earlier had completely vanished. His supposed masterpiece had been awakened to slaughter three intruders, yet one of those intruders had already severed its arm and torn open its chest.

At the crater rim, Lionel finally finished preparing his technique.

The Creeper’s severed arm had begun shriveling beside him as the supernatural connection took hold. Lionel stared toward the monster below and smiled.

"Let’s see how much you like this."

He activated the Spirit Binding: Flesh Curse.

The effect was immediate.

The Creeper threw back its head and released a piercing scream as its newly regenerated tissue suddenly began breaking down. Fresh skin blackened, restored flesh deteriorated, and the healing wounds across its body reopened as the sympathetic curse disrupted the very regeneration keeping it alive.

Seth stopped firing for a second and stared. "That’s working."

Axel had already gotten back to his feet.

He saw the Creeper stumble and charged again before the creature could regain control of its body. The enchanted chainsaw roared as Axel drove it straight into the weakened chest wound.

This time there was almost no resistance.

The cursed flesh had softened and decayed enough that the chain ripped through the Creeper’s torso far more easily than before. The creature staggered backward under Axel’s momentum while the weapon tore deeper into its body.

The Creeper understood that it was dying.

Its wings suddenly spread to their full span.

With one desperate beat, the monster launched itself straight into the air.

Axel was still attached to it.

For a moment, the ground disappeared beneath his feet as both man and monster shot upward together. Axel’s stomach twisted from the sudden acceleration, but he refused to release the chainsaw buried inside the Creeper’s chest.

The creature flapped frantically and twisted through the air, trying to throw him loose. Axel wrapped himself tightly against its body and caught hold near the base of one wing with his free hand, using the creature itself to keep from falling. The enchanted chainsaw continued roaring inside its torso.

Blood and shredded tissue were ripped away by the wind.

The Creeper screamed again.

It rolled violently through the sky, but Axel remained attached.

Far below, Lionel leaned back and looked upward. "They look like two idiots who signed up for skydiving without taking the class."

Seth kept the heavy weapon aimed toward the airborne struggle but refused to fire. Axel and the Creeper were twisting together too closely for him to risk a shot. "Would you stop joking and think of something useful?"

Lionel spread his hands. "Like what? Cheer louder?"

Seth glared at him.

Lionel looked back toward the sky. "Relax. Axel’s too stubborn to die. Death probably lost his paperwork years ago."

Above them, the Creeper’s movements were becoming weaker.

The Flesh Curse continued destroying whatever tissue the creature tried to regenerate, while the chainsaw was steadily tearing apart what remained inside its chest. Axel could feel its strength fading with every beat of its wings.

He knew the fight was nearly over.

Axel forced the last of his available Psionic Power into the enchanted chainsaw.

The pitch of the engine rose sharply.

The Creeper convulsed.

"Die."

Axel drove the weapon upward with everything he had left.

The enchanted chain tore from the creature’s chest and ripped higher through its upper body. The Creeper’s scream ended abruptly as the weapon carved through its neck.

Its head separated in midair.

The massive wings gave two weak, useless beats.

Then they went limp.

Blood scattered through the air as the dead creature immediately began dropping toward the crater below. Axel had won the fight.

That created a new problem.

He was falling with it.

Axel released the chainsaw and let the weapon tumble away with part of the corpse. He grabbed onto the remaining winged section instead, hoping the broad wings might slow his descent enough to keep him alive.

They barely helped.

Without the Creeper controlling them, the dead wings produced almost no lift and only stabilized Axel slightly as gravity pulled him downward. The crater floor grew larger beneath him with terrifying speed.

"Damn it."

Even with Physique 3.1, falling from this height onto bare rock would turn him into something Lionel would probably make jokes about at dinner.

Axel rapidly scanned the settlement below.

Hard ground was useless.

The crude shanties built from scrap metal and rotten wood looked even worse, because they would collapse without absorbing enough of the impact.

Then Axel saw the center of the crater.

The huge bonfire was still burning.

Beside it lay the massive half-roasted animal carcass the mutants had been cooking earlier.

Axel adjusted his falling body toward it as best he could.

There was no better option.

He would have to gamble on the dead meat.

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