Chapter 32

  Jake paused, his finger h over the trigger. A moment ter, he eased off the trigger, watg the mutant reach the circle of scorched earth, the event horizon of the Dark Void, realizing there was o fire at the approag threat. Paying the anomaly no mind, the mutant persisted in running across the bed ground, but its advance was impeded as the magical entity began pulling the helpless leaper toward itself. The ex-human was gradually dragged back across the scorched earth toward the Dark Void. Theant was suddenly flung into the air, hurtling toward the bck hole where it vanished from sight. The anomaly swallowed the ex-human pletely, without any visual effects or sounds. In an instant, the creature went from being present to beiirely gone.

  Jake’s gaze remained fixed on the Dark Void as he pohe situation. Uanding the anomaly’s nature, he khis was not the end of it. Acc to its description, the anomaly aimed to enhaants, indig that it should release the ex-human subject if the transformation was successful. So he kept his eyes on the Dark Void. He didn’t know how long he o wait or what would happen if the anomaly failed to enhahe leaper it’d just ed. As he waited, the ck of the anomaly’s pull hihat it could only focus on one subject at a time, which was a valuable piece of information.

  A full minute passed. Just as Jake began to eain the idea that the anomaly might have failed to successfully enhahe leaper, it suddeed the mutant. The creature reemerged from the bck hole and plummeted back to the ground. With a resounding impact, the ex-human’s body collided with the earth, causing it to y still on the bed grouhe anomaly. After a moment, the mutant began to rise unsteadily to its feet. The creature had undergone a remarkable transformation, appearing signifitly rger and stronger, now equipped with longer and more menag cws ah. Its once-human face had elongated into an animal-like snout, bearing little resembo its former self. The creature hardly resembled a human being anymore, for that matter.

  Jake sehe reawakening pull of the anomaly as the Dark Void became active once more. However, the beefed-up leaper appeared ued by its presence, even though it stood o the anomaly. It seemed that now that the anomaly had pleted its transformation of the mutant, it no longer held any i in it.

  The leaper twisted its head in different dires, seemingly trying to orient itself. Suddenly catg sight of Jake, it emitted a chilling scream before bolting across the clearing on all fours, hurtling toward him with arming speed. Jake swiftly raised his assault rifle and unleashed a barrage of shots at the oning mutant. Much to his astonishment, the ex-human dodged to the side with feline-like agility, causing most of his bullets to miss their target. The ohat did mao hit the creature appeared to have little to no effect, failing to infliy signifit damage. Jake wondered what level that beefed-up leaper was, but sure enough, he couldn’t risk sing it with his PDA during the intense frontation.

  The mutant’s rapid movements unnerved Jake, prompting him to cast the Push spell in an attempt to halt its advahe magical energy surged forth and collided with the ex-human, but it only mao momentarily stagger the beefed-up creature, proving to be iive in halting its progress.

  Jake quickly readjusted his aim, but before he could pull the trigger, the mutant leaped forward, crashing into him with great force. With a grunt, he tumbled to the ground, bearing the weight of the ex-human on top of him. Despite the struggle, he mao position the assault rifle horizontally in front of him just in time to fend off the mutant’s ining bite. The creature’s vicious jaws cmped down on the on, its teeth biting deep into the metal with a screech. In a startling turn of events, the rifle shattered into several pieces as if it were made of pstic. It was at that moment that fear truly gripped Jake. Before he could react, the monster sank its teeth into his shoulder, causing excruciating pain te through his body. Overwhelmed by the agony, Jake let out a pierg scream.

  He frantically pouhe creature’s head with his fists, but the mutant refused to release its grip. In a moment of crity, Jake uood the dire situation unfolding—iionally or not, the mutant ulling him toward the anomaly behind it. Half out of his mind from pain, Jake only then remembered that he still had his heavy-caliber pistol secured in its holster on his hip.

  Despite the haze of pain clouding his thoughts, he mao repose himself. He stopped beating the creature on the head and drew his handgun from its holster instead. With determination, he pressed the muzzle of the pistol against the mutant’s skull. He emptied half the mag into the creature’s head before the ex-human finally colpsed to the ground, dead. Its jaws went sck, and Jake finally mao pull his bleeding shoulder free of the jaws’ grip.

  Breath ing in ragged gasps, he slumped onto the ground, staring up at the blue sky. He wao rest for a moment, but he quickly realized there was no time for that because he was still being dragged backward. At first, he thought the leaper was still alive. Only that couldn’t be the case, as the body of the dead creature y motionlessly on the ground beside him.

  A sudden realization struck him like a lightning bolt—he was being irresistibly drawn toward the Dark Void, the ominous bck hole at the ter of the clearing. Now that he was in much closer proximity, the force of its pull intensified signifitly. Jake found himself sliding untrolbly across the ground, and the speed of his backward dest was increasilessly. He mao roll on his stomach, desperately trying to grab onto the bdes of grass, but they either slipped out of his grasp, cutting his skin, or tore away.

  His heart raced in his chest as he attempted to dig his toes into the ground, but it proved futile. Tears welled at the ers of his eyes as he struggled against the unyielding pull, the world beginning to blur around him as he inched closer and closer to the anomaly. As the grass gave way to bed earth, Jake uood the gravity of his situation. He had reached the event horizon of the anomaly, the point of urn, where the pull intensified even more.

  His body scraped across the earth, the ground rough and unfivih him. His fingers cwed desperately at the scorched earth beh him, searg for any purchase, any bump or dent to hold onto, but to no avail. Panic surged through him as he came to the stark realization that he was being inexorably drawn o the anomaly with no means of halting his advance.

  In a st desperate attempt, Jake reached out for a rock jutting out from the ground, his fingers grazing the rough surface as he tried to anchor himself. But the force tugged at him mercilessly, tearing him away with a strength he could not fight against. Fear cwed at his chest, threatening to overwhelm him as he realized he was pletely powerless against the force that was dragging him away.

  Suddenly, he felt his body lifted off the ground by the invisible force of the anomaly, carrying him through the air as if he weighed nothing at all. Twisting and turning in midair, he beheld the bck abyss hurtling toward him. He opened his mouth to scream, but before a sound could escape his lips, the anomaly swallowed him whole.