And he missed… Again.
'Shit… I really should have practiced.' Nicholas cursed himself.
He had been so confident that his previous experience, combined with the memory of the original Nicholas would have been enough… enough for him not to need to retrain everything.
Especially after the easy takedown of those thieves in the alley, he had become overconfident. He thought he could still use the skills as long as he remembered how.
He had been wrong, but he didn't dwell on it long.
The distance between them was closing.
One hundred metres.
Ninety metres.
Eighty metres.
Seventy metres.
He reloaded, lined up his shot. Inhaled and exhaled before squeezing the trigger.
*Bang*
This time, the bullet met its mark.
*SCCCCRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEECCCHHHHHH!*
The mutant screeched as the bullet slammed into its chest. Its erratic movement—the very thing that made it so hard to hit—was suddenly disrupted.
It stalled and stumbled, losing its rhythm.
"Yessss!" Nicholas shouted as he watched the truck gain ground.
In that short moment, the truck was able to put a few more metres between itself and the mutant.
But it didn't last long.
Less than a minute later, the mutant had recovered with its speed returning to normal. It was slowly gaining again.
'Shit.' Nicholas reloaded the sniper and took aim.
He took a deep breath, exhaled and…
[Incoming bump]
Almost as quickly as the warning appeared, the truck sped over a bump. The vehicle lurched and Nicholas's aim went wide as he squeezed the trigger.
*Bang*
He missed… as expected.
Ninety-five metres.
Ninety metres.
Eighty metres.
This time, he didn't curse himself… he didn't have time to.
He just reloaded and took aim again but this time he didn't do his breathing ritual. He just squeezed the trigger when he had the shot.
*Bang*
*SCCCCRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEECCCHHHHHH!*
The shot reached the creature and stalled it again. But this time, its recovery was faster making the advantage gain minimal.
'Looks like the only choice I have now is to outlast it.' Nicholas thought as he took aim again. 'But...'
But that option had its own problems.
Mutation from essence corruption could be anything. More often than not, mutants had unreasonable physical attributes… especially if they lacked other abilities.
Some could run for days without stopping while some could heal from wounds in seconds and others could adapt to damage in real-time.
And so far, this mutant had only shown two abilities: corrosive slime and the roar.
But there was no way to confirm what other mutations it had because no two mutants were exactly the same.
So, Nicholas had no choice but to keep shooting, hoping it wasn't one of the unreasonable ones that could go for days without tiring.
*Bang*
Hit.
*SCCCCRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEECCCHHHHHH!*
Reload.
*Bang*
Miss.
*Bang*
Hit.
*SCCCCRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEECCCHHHHHH!*
The mutant stumbled.
Five minutes later it was still there.
Ten minutes later it was still there.
Fifteen minutes later it was even closer.
Reload.
*Click* *Click*
Less than twenty minutes later, he ran out of bullets and now he had to get back down to get more.
Nicholas scanned the situation.
Even with his effort, the creature was closer now… less than fifty metres from the truck.
He could now see the details of its face without the need of his sniper's scope… something he wished he couldn't.
Thankfully, the machine gun was starting to have an effect. Even if it wasn't much, it was buying him time.
But he wasn't sure how much longer the machine gun bullets would last so he didn't waste any time jumping down from the chair.
"Open back storage panel," Nicholas ordered. He stayed standing, resting his back against the front seat, and pushed all the boxes off the back seats.
[Opening storage panel]
He folded the middle seat forward revealing the back panel as it slid open, revealing the truck bed converted into a covered storage space.
The paranoid old man had preloaded it years ago with extra weapons, ammunition and emergency supplies.
Unfortunately, since the roof was the same level as the car roof, there wasn't enough space for him to stand. He had to crawl into the back on his hands and knees.
The space was tight and dark with the walls lined with crates and boxes, all labelled in the old man's neat handwriting.
Thankfully he found the .50 calibre bullets quickly since they were one of the items that stayed in plain view.
He grabbed it and began to crawl back when he heard something he truly didn't want to hear.
[Incoming bump]
Suddenly, he was thrown upward. His head slammed into the roof of the truck bed and stars exploded behind his eyes as he fell flat on the ground, the box of bullets skidding out of his grip.
He lay there for a moment, dazed, the world spinning around him before he quickly pushed himself up.
He looked around, trying to make sure nothing had gone off or fallen out of place. His eyes scanned the storage space and caught two items.
He grabbed them immediately before he crawled back to the back seat with the .50 calibre in tow.
Once out, he ripped open the packet of incendiary bullets—one of the items that caught his eyes—his hands moving fast as he prepared to load them into the sniper's magazine.
He stood at full height as he stared at the creature a few metres away from the truck.
He felt the wind whip through his hair again and again as he angled to get back to the sniper and reload.
The creature was definitely closer now… So close he could hear its sound over the noise of wind blowing at speed.
He stuck his head out to get a better view…
And ducked down just in time as the creature's left claw swept through the space where his head had been.
'Shit.'
[Warning... 1st layer of D-Grade Ablative Shells losing durability rapidly]
He realised his mistake… he had completely ignored the ridiculously long arm of the creature.