Cass dropped where she was and fired after barely aiming at Killgore. To her shock, several objects shot out of his chest. Small square plates hovered in a row. Her shot shattered two before the third deflected the round high.
"Kill them!" Killgore roared in panic. The special defensive property of his armor produced five ballistic plates that would intercept attacks. Two of the five had been destroyed and one damaged. At best he could stop another shot like that. He wasn't willing to die here just to enjoy some stupid whores. Beside him, the rail gunner dropped prone, ready to fire. Killgore swung his flak cannon towards Cass and the others.
Sudden movement froze both groups.
Jake stood up. His health bar rapidly filling. "What the fuck?" Several people said in unison.
"Now I remember. He got some survivor skill back in the tutorial zone." Ella called out excitedly in understanding. Per previous fury and fear turned to joy in an instant.
Jake whipped around, his metallic mask reflecting Killgore's shocked face just before he lunged. Cass again screamed as the tunnel flashed. Killgore blasted Jake in the chest as he lunged for him. The blast again lifted him up and sent him flying back. But this time Jake didn't fall. His clawed feet dug into the stone bringing his skid to a stop. Killgore stared in horror at him. His already ruined shirt was completely blown apart exposing a chest of hard muscle straining against flesh barely able to contain it. It was flushed bright crimson with the roaring blood flow.
His blast had struck skin like kevlar, muscles like hardened steel, and bones like unbreakable diamond. Against that, his attack had only slowed them down. Jake rushed forward again, this time not leaping but each step dug his armored feet into the stone that shattered below them. Killgore fired off several more rounds that did little more than slow the enraged Power Claw.
"Shoot him!" Killgore shrieked, his voice high pitched. Finally, his last remaining teammate snapped out of his stupor. But it was too late. Jake's left hand closed on the glowing and smoking barrels of the Flak Cannon as he lunged the last bit towards them. While his other reached down and slapped down on the back of the rail gunner. Beneath his left hand, the barrels of the gun screamed as the metal was compressed. The Rail gunner's shield shattered and Jake's claws pierced his armored vest. They didn't go deep enough to be lethal but they hurt as he closed his hand into a fist. Lifting up the rail gunner he smashed them against the wall before flinging them over his shoulder towards the others.
Now he turned his full attention to Killgore. In a panic, Killgore fired off his Alpha Strike again. With the barrels crushed the cannon exploded. Jake remained rooted in the spot, his feet dug deep into the stone but Killgore was blown back. His armor protected him some from the physical shrapnel but not the flames of the explosion. He shrieked and started patting out his burning beard as he rolled around on the ground, sliding down the slanted tunnel. Jake could see the tortoise draw its leg out of the hole and open the tunnel back to the shaft. But his mind didn't register it.
After Killgore's back attack Jake had found himself swallowed by darkness. No sight or sound. Just floating in a vast empty void. When he had stood up, his body was on autopilot. His health restoring and his physical abilities skyrocketed. The activation of his passive ability, Survivor's Fury, left him in a state where his body would react to anything it deemed a threat. Killing everything without hesitation.
His body stomped forward, shattering the stone beneath him as he closed in on Killgore.
Slowly the void around him started to split. A horizontal line formed in front of Jake as he floated there then opened like an eye. The opening looked down into the blackened and blistered face of Killgore. His beard still smoldering as he screamed. He raised his hands defensively and Jake saw one was a mangled mess as if it had been shoved into a burning meat grinder. He floated there and watched as his oversized fist came down and battered through the feeble defense. Then exploded Killgore's head like a ripe melon being hit by a sledgehammer.
Despite the gruesome scene before him. Jake felt nothing. He just felt detached from it all, like it was happening far away or a long time in the past.
"MERC!" The scream echoed as if coming down a long distant tunnel. The view in front of him turned and saw Ella rushing towards him. She jumped forward towards him as if she was going to hug him. Distantly Jake thought she hadn't done that since he and Cass had officially started dating. Absently he thought Cass would probably get mad.
**********
Jake's body stood up and flung the Maw monsters piled up on him away with ease. The void was fading around him as his consciousness started returning in the wake of activating his passive again. The fog of memories started to fade back into just that, memories. But they weren't gone yet. A Maw lunged for him intent on chomping down on him. For a moment the vision of Ella full of joy leaping towards him with both arms out wide overlapped it. His bloody gauntlet in the present followed the same path as the phantom version in the memory as it reached out and caught the Maw. Just as the one in his memories had grabbed Ella. Her horrified expression grew more real in his memories, blocking out the Maw that was crushed. He was forced to watch the memory of turning around and smashing her violently into the ground. He lifted her already broken body up as he drew back his other hand to strike her. A blow from behind distracted him and he hurled her instead with enough strength that she flew across the open space of the shaft to smash into the far wall. Her body was just falling down, leaving a bloody splatter on the stone when he turned.
Just like the first time he had been forced to watch his body act on his own. Jake could do nothing but scream and cry. Closing his eyes had no effect. He still saw what his body saw. But could do nothing to stop it.
He turned to see Gadget's distraction drone hovering there. It had rammed into him when he attacked Ella. They were shouting at him. Asking him what he was doing. Floating in that void where he could do nothing but watch and listen he shouted for them to run. They couldn't hear his mind screaming and didn't. He charged up the tunnel in a blur and Gadget's eyes went wide with horror.
Aero stepped forward and brought up his hand. A bolt of lightning shot forth. It hit Jake squarely in the chest and smoke rose from his body but he never slowed. Aero raised his hand again and released another bolt. It hit only air as Jake vanished.
Jake's fist erupted from Aero's chest as his other hand closed on his head identically to how he had killed the Spider before. In the present, he was still ripping apart and murdering Maws in a frenzy. Reality and memories constantly overlapping in one bloody scene after another.
Gadget backpedaled. Stuttering something Jake couldn't understand. His backhand nearly ripped her head off her shoulders. She crumpled against the side of the tunnel, her battered head twisted at an impossible angle. The view shifted, lifting up to show Cass further up the tunnel. Her rifle pointed at the Rail Gunner. He was still alive, it looked as if he had tried to run before she stopped him at gunpoint.
The vision narrowed on the Railgunner and suddenly they were rushing forward again. To his horror, Cass turned and pointed the rifle at him. The view shifted instantly to her. Jake began screaming again for him to stop. He flailed around trying to stop himself. Crying he begged Cass to pull the trigger. He didn't want to watch and worse feel what was going to happen. His sense of touch was returning. He could feel the slickness of still hot blood on his hands.
The distance between them vanished. He could see Cass's teary face as she stared up at him. At that moment he oddly remembered how glad he had been to finally be taller than her. Now it felt as if he loomed over her and she seemed so very small. Her gun never fired. He felt soft flesh beneath his hands as it was shredded and hot blood rushed over his clawed fingers. They scraped against bone and slide easily through organs. He could feel it all as if the metal gauntlets were his own hands. The look of pain, fear and shock on her face was heart wrenching.
Her bloody and broken body was still impaled on his claws when his attention turned to the rail gunner. They were scrambling away. Intent on getting to the light ahead, as it it would save them from the horror behind them. Jake's mind was numb as he watched his body chase after it. He just kept repeating. "It is only a game. Log out. Call her. She is fine. It is only a game. Log out…"
The rail gunner scrambled out of the tunnel. But Jake was no longer gaining on them. His steps were going slower. The view in front of him was expanding slowly. As it opened up to encompass everything in front of him his hud started reappearing. His full health bar was slowly depleting. The sensation of floating in a void was replaced with the weariness of exhaustion and his body seemed to envelop him again. It felt as if his flesh weighed a million tons after the weightlessness of the void. Dropping to his knees he looked down to still find Cass's broken body in his hands.
Unlike in the void, his body responded. He felt bile rush up his throat and spewed into his mask. Snot and tears rolled down his face making the inside of his mask disgusting but he didn't notice anything. It was all too real. To intense. He just wanted to log out. Wanted it all to go away. Right on the edge of the tunnel entrance, darkness rushed up to consume him again.
In the present, he flopped down on the hard packed dirt. The last Maw was dead and the wave of exhaustion after his skill ended hit him. He didn't pass out this time but just laid in the blood soaked dirt crying while his health stopped falling and started to slowly fill back up.