The Third Mutant
As the husk covering the thing towering in the middle of the plaza peeled away, what was inside revealed itself.
It looked like intestines tangled together at random, but after surging and writhing around from the bottom, it split into dozens of strands and cut through the air.
'Tentacles?'
Disgusting tentacles dripping with slimy liquid scattered in all directions, hunting for prey. What the tentacles were aiming for were the people sprawled across the plaza floor with terrified expressions.
"Fuck... Wh-what is that?!"
"Aaaagh—!! Get away... Get awayyy—!!"
"Kaaagh! I'm being pulled, I'm being dragged awaaay...!"
The tentacles wrapping around the people's limbs ruthlessly dragged them into the air. Everyone screamed and fled, but surrounded by zombies, they were like rats trapped in a jar.
The sunken area in the center of the tentacles split wide open. A long, tongue-like tentacle rose from within and dragged the people dangling in midair inside, one by one.
The bastard was like a giant snake swallowing its prey whole. Once the outer tentacles snatched people into the air, the tongue tentacle in the center would pull them inside.
Every time people were dragged inside, its body grew larger. Like a belly gorging itself full, various parts bulged out hideously.
Screams kept leaking from inside, and the area that had been covered by the husk churned constantly. It seemed the dragged-in people hadn't died right away, but were desperately struggling as they were being digested.
'Was there a mutant like that?'
It was a bastard I hadn't seen in all three years. To think it swallowed things whole to digest them instead of killing them right away.
"Master-nim... your expression is scary."
Beside me, Jiyoung spoke with a worried look. It was fortunate she couldn't see it. It was more than enough for me alone to watch such a fucking shitty sight.
After devouring all the people in the plaza, its husk covered it once more. At first, it had looked like a tower, but now it had transformed into a gigantic flower bud.
"There's something strange in the plaza. Let's get closer."
We climbed down from the building and ran toward the plaza. The bizarre creature went silent again, and the zombies stood guard by its side without moving.
That meant nothing was blocking our path, but throughout the way to the plaza, I felt a gaze on us.
Even when I focused my mind, I couldn't see its true form. No matter how far away it was, my Sense stat should have captured something to give me a faint idea of its identity, but with this, nothing could be felt besides the gaze.
It felt like I could figure out what it was if I followed the direction, but right now, the plaza was more urgent. Though it had gone silent, there was no telling when that thing which had swallowed people would burst open again.
Upon arriving at the plaza, we hid where it was clearly visible.
"Master-nim... wh-what is that?"
With wide, round eyes, Jiyoung asked what that husk-covered thing was.
"I don't know. It swallowed up all the people who were in the plaza and has been staying like that."
"It swallowed people?"
I briefly explained the tragedy that had unfolded earlier. Jiyoung's complexion shifted the entire time she listened, and in the end, she covered her mouth. Lately, she hardly got startled by ordinary things, which just showed how shocking it was.
"A-are they all dead?"
Instead of answering, I brought up the status window. The black villain icon in the middle of the plaza was still there. I didn't know what happened to the others, but that awakened person was still alive.
"I don't know about the rest, but one of them is alive. It doesn't look like that thing will stay covered forever, so let's watch for an opportunity."
I took out an iron pipe from among the weapons stuck in my golf bag. It was something I made into a hook by embedding a kitchen knife and a sashimi knife into the tip.
If there continued to be no reaction, I planned to tear off the husk with this. That way, I could find out what had happened inside.
I was watching for a chance to drive the hook in, but that thing moved first.
"Keu-aaaa—!!"
Along with a monstrous roar, the husk swelled up and peeled away one piece after another. The husk that crashed to the ground shattered to pieces, crushing the surrounding zombies.
The multiple rings of zombies that had encircled the survivors collapsed in an instant, and the zombies, having lost their focal point, scattered in all directions.
While they had moved in perfect order when trapping the survivors in the plaza, now they milled about in confusion like marionettes with their strings cut. It felt as though the control tower had vanished from the colony.
Kung!
As the mist spewed out during the shedding of the husk cleared, it revealed its form.
'Ah... so it was that.'
It was a mutant I knew. Zombie Frankenstein, Zombie Golem, Patchwork Zombie Giant—the names used in the shelters had all varied.
Over two meters tall, a giant swollen in size with zombies and humans wedged and stuffed all over its body. Before regression, I had only seen that final form; learning that it grew that huge by devouring humans and zombies inside a cocoon was a first for me.
"Heu-aaa... Master-nim, it's so disgusting."
"It's a mutant that builds its body by clumping the zombies and humans it has eaten into a mass. Catching humans like that to build its body is a first for me, too."
I inadvertently let slip that I had faced it before. Internally, I went 'oops,' but didn't correct myself. Looking at her expression, it seemed she had no leeway to nitpick such details.
'Someone directed it to eat humans.'
Before regression, that mutant's staple diet was zombies. After all, if they were humans, they wouldn't go near a suspicious-looking cocoon.
Right now, someone controlled the zombies to drag survivors here. Specifically to make them food for that bastard.
'Why did they do that?'
There was no time to ponder the reason. The bastard was trampling over zombies and heading toward the Student Union building. One of that bastard's traits was trying to tear down anything bigger than itself.
To face that thing, monstrous strength was one thing, but there were three other aspects to watch out for.
'It regenerates like an annoying pest.'
Compared to other mutants, its skin wasn't hard, so it was easy to tear or rip off, but its wounded areas filled back up in no time.
The zombies and humans it had already eaten pushed out as if new flesh were sprouting, and if it wasn't enough, it would even rip and graft zombies and humans on the spot.
The second was that people died more often from being crushed under building debris than from the mutant's sluggish fists. Since it unconditionally smashed anything bigger than itself, you must never approach if the bastard was between buildings.
The last was that its head was hidden.
Because it shared a zombie's traits to some degree, destroying its head would take the bastard down. However, there were dozens of heads stuck all over its body, and the lump of flesh attached where the head should be was just a fake.
There was something like a bright red eye attached to it like a Cyclops, but it wasn't for seeing. Merged with the flesh, it was just a trick to make it look like a head.
The real head was one among the dozens attached to its body. How do you find it? You just do this.
"Gather the balls and float them. Keep going until I say stop."
"Y-yes!"
Jiyoung began clumping together Water Balls and floating them. When the first ball came near, I gauged the direction and swung the bat with all my might.
Kkang!
Peo-eok—!!
"Keu-eooo—!!"
It was strong enough to shatter a zombie's head, but its flesh was so thick that it couldn't pierce the body.
New flesh sprouted over the dented spot in no time. If a face shattered, its shape was reconstructed just as it was. Truly astonishing regenerative power.
Kkang! Kkang! Kkang—!!
Behind me, Jiyoung kept clumping water together, and as if doing batting practice, I launched dozens of Water Balls at the mutant.
Without focusing on a single spot, I launched the Water Balls so that every nook and cranny got dented. That was because I needed to make it move its body this way and that while approaching.
Among the dozens of faces attached to its body, there was one real one. They all looked identical, making it nearly impossible to tell them apart during a prolonged fight, but if you looked closely, only that single face changed its expression.
While launching the Water Balls, I focused on my senses, especially my vision. I closely scrutinized whether there was a face whose expression changed when pushed back or staggering from the impact.
I was doing batting practice and a hidden-picture search at the same time.
'Found it!'
I spotted the face whose expression shifted in a split second. Seeing the surrounding flesh push out to deploy a barrier whenever I launched a ball that way, there was no doubt about it.
With wide-open eyes, I sprinted at full speed toward it. The bastard's intelligence was higher than a zombie's. It had probably figured out what I was trying to do.
'Come on, stretch out your arm. Hurry—!!'
Though a sluggish bastard, it possessed a long-range attack skill. It stretched its arms out like yeot candy to swing them, and this was quite fast.
As expected, both arms stretched out straight and flew toward me. Fast as they were, they weren't enough to surpass an Agility stat of 21.
When I dodged one, the other arm flew in, tracing a parabola over my head. I could have easily dodged it, but I crossed my arms and took the hit straight on.
Peo-eok—!!
"Kkeu-euuu...."
As I staggered backward, a third fist flew in. From here on, I had to dodge with finesse.
Swi-ik—
Twisting my body slightly, I shifted direction so it would only graze me. Being a bastard with clumsy legs, it kept throwing fists. It intended to smash me to pieces before I could even get close.
After being grazed a few times, blood splattered across my shoulder and arm. Thinking this would be enough, I threw my body toward where Jiyoung was.
Seeing her master rolling on the ground while splattered with blood, Jiyoung let out a blood-curdling scream.
"Kyaaaak—!! M-Master-nim! The blood, the bloood... Eueu, aaaaagh—!!"
Trembling all over, she tore at her hair. Her eyes had already lost focus.
[Wrath of Water blooms. It is recommended to avoid the direction from which the mutant is charging.]
'Nice.'
No sooner had the system's warning ended than water exploded from behind Jiyoung's back.
*
When I found out that Jiyoung could use a ultimate skill, I had asked the system.
"How do I control this? If it's an ultimate skill, I should be able to use it when needed."
[Once the skill grade reaches a certain level, you can adjust the bloom timing. Until then, consider it the final card the slave can pull out when the master is in danger.]
Jiyoung's skill grade is D. I suppose it has to be raised higher to control the ultimate skill.
So what I thought of was creating a crisis.
Once I found the real face, I needed time to rip it off, but there was no way that bastard would give me an opening.
With the tremendous water pressure of the water pillar that had crushed the flying zombie, it could contain that behemoth's movements, even if only for a moment.
With her master shedding blood like this, our slave, with whom I had built an overflowing bond, wouldn't just sit idly by.