As the day slowly turned to night, Kain assessed his gains. At first, his progression was a little too slow for his liking, but the situation changed when Kain felt like his cells completely mutated. His capacity and speed of absorbing increased significantly as his cells constantly became inundated with the glowing green light. Kain had made a shocking guess that the green sized orb in his body was an irradiated core. He felt like his strength had improved significantly, but he was definitely far from Genji tier. Kain didn't know if others had developed an irradiated core before reaching Genji tier, but he was incredibly happy.
Kain had hunted down several targets by smell and had absorbed multiple jackals by this point. He found out that each additional jackal he absorbed magnified the associated powers. So now, his sense of smell and hearing covered a far larger vicinity. His increased pack mentality trait allowed him to know that Barton and Desmond were still alive, but were not within the city limits of Naren City, but rather, to the west of the city gate. He was currently following his instincts and proceeded in that direction.
He was dashing in the darkness, when all of a sudden, he stopped. He heard in the distance from far away a pop-pop-pop noise that was increasingly getting louder. Kain smiled, realizing that a tentacle zombie was homing in on him. His smile disappeared when he heard two other sets of popping noises homing in on him from different directions. Shit, could he take on three of them at once? He had never fought them before, so he truly did not know their capabilities. Although Kain felt strength surge through his body with all the creatures he absorbed, he didn't want to underestimate them. Especially since tentacle zombies were stronger than squealers.
Kain thought of a strategy as he dashed towards the set of popping sounds that was the closest to him. He decided to either kill two of them or cause them to flee, before attempting to absorb the last one. Ideally, he caused two of them to flee so he can absorb them later. Kain took out his rifle and set in a clip of armor piercing rounds. He would aim for the forehead and not the eyes in order to scare the first one into fleeing.
As Kain approached, he finally saw the tentacle zombie rushing towards him from a distance. He quickly made a shot and the bullet hit squarely on the forehead, knocking back the tentacle zombie's head, However, instead of fleeing like Kain thought it would, it roared and covered its entire face with tentacles before rushed towards Kain even faster. Shit, the tentacle zombie must really want to eat my irradiated core.
Kain put away his rifle and dashed toward the tentacle zombie as well. He felt his speed increase as he utilized his wind power to speed himself forward. The zombie swung one of his bladed arms, while a mass of tentacles shot out and attacked from various angles. Kain was able to easily dodge everything with his increased speed, and then he grabbed an incoming tentacle and pulled. He easily swung the entire tentacle zombie once overhead before releasing his grip and he launched the tentacle zombie towards some trees. The tentacle zombie howled as it rammed into the trees. The first few trees outright exploded, while the following trees toppled over like bowling pins.
Kain smiled as he looked at his hand that threw the tentacle zombie. After practicing all day, he could finally control the absorption. Normally, when he touched something with his hands, he automatically started the process of absorbing. Yet now, he could consciously stop himself from starting the absorption process. Kain observed the line of devastation he created with his throw and realized that he didn't have to worry even if the tentacle zombies ganged up on him.
He dashed forward towards the fallen tentacle zombie and pierced his hand into the hollow eye. The tentacle zombie screeched and stabbed one of its bladed arms into Kain's side, but the blade couldn't even draw blood and cracks ran up the bladed arm. Kain began the absorption and saw the tentacle zombie shrivel and turn pale. Kain released his grip and assessed his new abilities. He threw his arm out and it elongated and smashed into a line of trees, severing them right down the middle. His arm snapped back to its original size and Kain stared at his hand in amazement.
As he was about to burst out into laughter at his cool new ability, he felt a weird feeling and looked down and shouted, "FUCK NO!" He stared, wide-eyed as he saw tentacles start to grow out of his legs. He hurriedly grabbed at his head and also felt tentacles sprouting out of his skull. He was turning into a monster!! A panicked Kain hurriedly severed his connection to the power and the tentacles phased back into his body. He sighed in relief that it wasn't permanent.
Knowing that he would return to normal, he reconnected to the power to see what else came with it. He ignored the sensation of tentacles sprouting out of parts of his body. He closed his eyes and all of a sudden, he saw bright green lights pop up in his mind's eye. Most of the lights were weak, but some were quite strong. Especially the two lights closest to him that were quickly moving away from him. He realized that those two lights were the other two tentacle zombies when he confirmed with his hearing. They were now fleeing away from him after sensing the death of the first tentacle zombie.
Kain smiled in satisfaction. Wasn't this ability like a treasure finding ability? Those green lights were obviously sources of radiation that he could consume and add on to his irradiated core. He focused once more and a curved blade pierced out from his elbow. Looks like he didn't need to worry about having melee weapons anymore. So, all in all, he gained elastic limbs, bladed weapons, radiation detection, and tentacles. He would have to practice forcing the tentacles back into his body and keep them from sprouting out, but such control will take time. Obviously, I don't want others to see me with a mass of tentacles or they might mistake me for a monster. Although, with all the powers he was collecting like a madman, how different was he from a monster?
Once again, Kain severed the connection and then looked off towards where he heard the fleeing popping sounds. The two of you think you can hunt me, and not be hunted back? Dream on! Kain dashed off into the night.
---
Not too far away from where Kain was chasing after his prey, two figures were surrounded by a pack of jackals. The jackals were actually trembling and trying to stand upright while whimpering. One of the surrounded figures had a slightly irritated face, while the other figure was gleefully pounding away at one of the jackals.
"DRAGON PUNCH!" cried out the giant muscular figure, as he blew away the jackal into a mass of gore.
"DRAGON KICK!" Another whimpering jackal was kicked into oblivion.
"Dez, you should really name your finishing moves. I have over 10 of them myself and look how cool I look. If there was a girl who saw me now, don't you think she would fall head over heels for me? When you use that gravity well move that slows everything down around you, you should, like throw your fist towards the ground and yell, "GRAVITY WELL!" Then, you would totally be cool and girls would dig you." said Barton.
"Just…shut your face." said the annoyed Desmond.