Chapter 324
Ava watched the pitch-black mist she had just summoned through the optic scope of her huge sniper rifle. The entire street below her was now shrouded in supernatural darkness. Everything within it was completely hidden from sight, preventing anyone outside from seeing what was contained within and isolating those trapped inside, making it impossible for them to see outside.
However, the ultimate ability she had just employed allowed her and her teammates to see the outlines of both allies and enemies. She could clearly see the three outlines of Ethan, Tessa, and Lila, which were bright green, while the deep red outline highlighted their enemy, the morphus.
As for the spiders the mutant had brought from its lair, she couldn’t detect their outlines anywhere for some reason. She wasn’t worried about that, though. Those spiders didn’t seem particularly dangerous, and from what she saw, Ethan had no trouble dealing with them. Probably, all of those arachnids had been dealt with by that point.
Without giving the matter any more thought, she concentrated on her main target. After all, her primary objective was to deal fatal damage to the morphus.
The outlines of her enemy and teammates glowed brightly, making them easily noticeable through the darkness. She saw the morphus take a few steps backward from Ethan and Lila, whom it had just been attacking. It certainly looked like the bastard was disoriented, which provided her with the perfect opportunity to shoot it dead. Not even its incredible agility and lightning-fast reflexes could save it now.
She lined up a careful shot, making sure none of her teammates would be in its path when the bullet penetrated the mutant’s body. She pulled the trigger, feeling the familiar recoil buck against her shoulder hard. As soon as the high-powered round burst from the barrel, she could already see it would miss its target because just a split second before the rifle fired, the agile morphus easily darted aside.
It was so annoying! It felt like the mutant could somehow predict any imminent danger that was about to occur to it. She worked the bolt, ejecting the spent shell casing and chambering a new round. Quickly adjusting her aim, she fired another shot but missed again because the morphus darted out of harm’s way just in time. Dammit! If only they had some way to slow the slippery bastard down a bit!
She immediately chambered another round and fired again. This time, the high-powered shot seemed to pass extremely close to the morphus. It might have even hit, though it was hard to tell for sure, as the outline of the morphus wasn’t designed to reflect any wounds it might have sustained.
Her sniper rifle was so powerful that its shots could blow the bodies of regular mutants to pieces. While she really doubted it would have the same effect on the morphus’ tough, armored body, she was sure it could do a number on the mutant.
Unfortunately, since she couldn’t see anything more than the outline of the morphus, it was hard to tell whether the mutant had actually been harmed. Therefore, she decided not to let her hopes go up.
She quickly chambered another round, lined up a shot, and fired again. This one was certainly a miss, as the morphus dashed to the side much faster than before. Considering how quickly the mutant had just reacted, it was possible that it had actually been hit the last time and was now eager to do anything to avoid being struck again.
For a moment, the morphus went still, looking over its shoulder. Its gaze was fixed on the window from which she had been firing at it. Even though she couldn’t discern the mutant’s expression and knew it couldn’t see her, an icy chill crept up her spine, filling her with a sense of dread.
The morphus knew there was a sniper, and even though it couldn’t actually see her, it was aware of her exact position. This realization made her lose her nerve, and she fired a hasty shot, resulting in a hurried shot that missed its target by a wide margin.
Suddenly, Tessa opened fire on the morphus, which was now moving chaotically through the pitch-black mist to avoid being hit. Since it was now darting from side to side so quickly and unpredictably, it was absolutely impossible for Ava to take a clear shot. She could only hope her teammates would use the enemy’s predicament to their full advantage and kill it.
However, before Ethan and Lila could join Tessa’s barrage, something unexpected occurred. The outline of the morphus suddenly disappeared. At first, Ava thought that Tessa had managed to hit the mutant and possibly even killed it. However, this was hard to believe, considering how tough its armor was.
Then she realized something else. The outlines of her teammates had disappeared too!
“What the hell?” Tessa’s voice came through her earpiece. “The tango’s disappeared!”
“You must’ve killed it,” Ethan’s voice responded. “Great job, Tessa!”
“I’m not sure if I even hit it, though,” Tessa said, doubt creeping into her voice.
“Guys, your outlines are gone too,” Ava said over the comms.
“Damn, she’s right,” Lila said. “I can’t see shit now!”
“The fuck is going on?!” Tessa exclaimed, her voice rising in panic.
“Ava, what is wrong with your ult?” Ethan asked urgently.
But Ava knew there was nothing wrong with her ability. For a moment, she didn’t know what to say. Then the answer hit her! She realized what must be happening.
“Guys, keep your voices down,” she urged her teammates. “Don’t attract attention to yourselves!”
Ava had a solid idea of what might have just happened. The morphus was clearly affected by the pitch-black mist, unable to see through it. If it could somehow negate its effects, it would have done so by now.
Instead, the mutant must possess a similar ability, which it just employed. So there had to be two clouds of pitch-black darkness now. The one the morphus unleashed overlapped with the one Ava had created earlier, rendering it useless.
If she was right, and she was fairly certain she was, her teammates were in serious trouble now. Both they and the morphus were currently completely blind and disoriented, but unlike her teammates, the morphus held an advantage. It had much sharper senses, meaning it didn’t need to rely solely on sight when hunting its prey. Its hearing alone could help it locate her teammates in total darkness without much effort.
Luckily, none of her teammates asked any clarifying questions. They were smarter than that and had probably already come to the same conclusion she had. For the next minute or so, silence enveloped her, not a sound reaching her ears from below. Her teammates were clearly doing their best to remain as quiet as possible to avoid being detected by the morphus.
However, either they had already generated enough noise for the morphus to pinpoint them, or it possessed an exceptionally acute sense of hearing capable of picking up the slightest sounds, because it located one of them, making Ava wince as a piercing scream erupted through her earpiece.
At first, she couldn’t tell who was screaming, Tessa or Lila. It was a raw, wordless cry, filled with terror. Ava felt an urge to help her teammate, but she knew she couldn’t risk firing blindly into the darkness, fearing she might hit one of her teammates.
Suddenly, she became acutely aware of a faint clicking sound surrounding her. Pulling away from the rifle’s scope, she was instantly struck by horror. Several large, pitch-black spiders were scuttling over the window frame, invading the room she was in with unsettling speed!