…

After the people in the Pentagon reached Jake, Kenny made one of his spiders carry the sleeping Mira. They were about to return to Night City when Jake heard a deafening roar coming from around the direction they wanted to retreat to.

They all looked in the direction of the roar but Jake was the one to notice the humanoid monster that was sprinting toward them just over the horizon. Jake looked at Kenny and said “I’ll hold it off, take the rest of the people away. The monster is coming from the direction of one of the spots we raided so it must have discovered a platoon already so be careful. Go now”.

2 moles, as big as bulls and that looked to be made of clay, appeared beside Kenny. One of them swiftly began digging hole wide enough for one person to pass through throwing sand and rocks out toward the surface. The spider carrying Mira entered the hole first followed by the people from the bunker. Kenny and one mole remained on the surface. Kenny said “Be safe”.

Jake nodded and said “I’ll see you at the other side” and Kenny entered the hole followed by the second mole which closed up the hole after eating the sand and rocks the first digger had thrown up, returning the ground to a pristine state like a whole hadn’t been dug through it at all.

‘Aura manifestation: Vengeance Rapier, Bloodlust Dagger’. As Jake used his skills a pitch black aura rapier appeared in his left hand and a golden dagger with red patterns appeared in his right hand.

‘Aura manifestation: Monster Incarnation’. Jake’s pale white skin became darker as if it was stained by charcoal, his claws and fangs grew longer, his black hair lengthened and his red eyes shined brighter. His muscles swelled and his bones thickened until he was as buff as an Olympic weight lifter.

Jake brought the golden dagger in his right hand and faced it toward his heart as he used a new form of Aura manipulation. ‘Aura Personification: Bloodlust’.

The golden dagger dissipated and Jake’s red eye balls turned golden and the whites of his eyes became black as golden straight patterns with thin red lines at their center spread from his fangs and claws and covered his body. A red aura covered his entire figure, giving it a deranged and blood thirsty countenance.

‘Aura manifestation: Unyielding Long Sword’. A sword that looked to be made wholly of sapphire appeared in Jake’s right hand that was now free.

At this point monster that was approaching had already arrived. It was a Homo Azard but it looked way buffer than the other Homo Azards, like it was on steroids, similar to how Jake looked now.

This Homo Azard was Rank 20 thought, which shocked Jake greatly; they had no records of such a monster. The Homo Azard’s body was swiftly covered by burst of blue aura before the blue aura compressed and outlined its body giving its white exoskeleton a blue hue.

As if by tacit agreement they both dashed at each other, no questions asked. The Homo Azard knew that all the children were now dead so it didn’t bother with negotiations.

The Homo Azard was way faster than Jake as space bent when it moved causing it to disappear and appear behind Jake. It flattened its palm and swiped horizontally across Jake’s neck as a plane of solid white aura extended from the tip of its claws, severing Jake’s neck, liberating his head from his body.

A loud roar sounded as the ground was split by the attack for a mile after it passed through Jake’s neck. Jake’s body lost coordination mid dash and it fell down as his head rolled on the floor.

Blood flowed gushed from his neck and head like as Jake’s body went limp. The Homo Azard waited patiently for its IP to alert of its kill but the alert never came. The blood gushing from Jake moved like it had a mind of its own, connected together and attached Jake’s head back to his body under the surprised stare of the Homo Azard. Jake stood up smiling as he said “Try again. I’ve got time” while gesturing for the Homo Azard to come closer.

Fire like aura burst forth from the body of the Homo Azard and formed heads of various creatures attached to various parts of the Homo Azard’s body through long flexible necks made of the same flame.

The 34 heads swirled around for a second before shooting toward Jake who blocked as many as he could with his blue sword. The heads that reached Jake bit him and spread their fire like aura on his body. The golden patterns tried to absorb the aura but it was too slow and the aura was spreading.

Jake dashed toward the Homo Azard and thrust his black rapier at its head. The Homo Azard blocked the rapier by holding it in its finger tips. Jake’s eyes widened it shock and horror. The Vengeance Rapier was an ethereal weapon, basically an illusion; it absorbed a part of the targets energy and allows Jake to infuse a part of their body with an aura explosion in exchange for a large amount of energy. The weakness of this manifestation as well as many other manifestations was that it had no effect on aura. But the Homo Azard held it like it was a real object.

Jake jumped back trying to get away from the monster heads made of aura as he thought ‘For it to have Aura Manifestation means it is a skilled monster but how is it able to block my slash? Could it be another aura manifestation? But there was no aura in its block at all…’

Jake swiftly realized what had happened; the blue aura that colored the Homo Azard’s exoskeleton must have allowed it to block the rapier. But he still didn’t understand, aura techniques generally didn’t affect external aura. If a creature covered itself in aura it would not be able to affect the rapier, Jake has tested this with Samuel before, but the Homo Azard seemed to have overcome the limits that Jake still had.

Before Jake could create enough distance the Homo Azard swiped its palms across Jake’s body many times splitting him into many pieces. But alas it was pointless as Jake’s body kept reassembling back no matter how many pieces it was cut into no matter where it cut through.

The Homo Azard roared in frustration when it noticed that there was no way for it to kill Jake quickly. Jake was resisting the invading aura from flaming monster heads by compacting aura around the places where the heads bit him and his body kept merging back together no matter how finely it was split.

The Homo Azard roared again in frustration, dashed toward Jake and baptized his body with punches, scratches and kicks that made the places where they hit explode due to the air pressure. Jake gritted his teeth and he maintained his resistance to the invading aura through the biting flaming monsters. The pain from his constantly reconstructing body filled his mind, tempting him to undo the Monster Incarnation Aura Manifestation that made him nigh immortal. His goal now was to give Kenny and the rest time to escape since he couldn’t beat the Homo Azard.

After some minutes of rampaging the Homo Azard stopped punching and smiled brutally at Jake showing its shark like teeth. It pushed Jake down, opened its mouth wide and bit into the left side of Jake’s head and swallowed. The part of Jake’s head that was bitten tried to move up the throat of the Homo Azard but it could not fight the strength of the Homo Azard’s throat muscles, it reached its stomach and started digesting.

Jake’s eyes went lifeless and his mind switched off as he lost the connection with a part of his brain. His natural vampire regeneration activated using the blood stored in a special organ, exclusive to Original Vampires, in his heart. His head started regenerating but the Homo Azard bit into it again with joy now that its saw its foe struggling.