Slime Evolution

Chapter 451 - Chase

Lohan floored the accelerator the moment the Porsche crossed the border of the High Zone, the engine roaring with a force he could feel vibrating through his entire human body, the lights of the buildings around him quickly turning into colored blurs as the speed increased.

’Thank Lisa for this car,’ he thought, his eyes fixed on the lit road stretching out below him. ’If I didn’t have this right now, my only option would be to take a bus, and with how many stops that route usually makes, considering the checkpoints between sectors and how many people would probably be waiting at that hour, it would take me almost two hours just to get there.’

Two hours that, given the urgency in Devon’s voice minutes ago, would probably make the difference between arriving in time to help or arriving too late for anything to still matter.

’Two hours is enough time for practically anything terrible to happen,’ he thought, feeling an uncomfortable tightness in his chest. ’I can’t even imagine what could have happened to Sara in that amount of time if I had to rely on public transportation right now.’

Lohan hadn’t had much contact with the girl, he only knew that she was Skye’s sister and that for some reason she had a motor disability, needing a wheelchair in the real world.

Because of that, the girl loved Elysium, since there she could walk on her own and be normal like everyone else.

But even without ever having stopped to talk to her, since it was impossible for him to be close to everyone with how busy he was, he still knew that the girl was like a sister to every member of the Silver Lotus, and that she was a member of Astralis, which already gave him the responsibility to help if it was within his reach.

With the Porsche cutting through the air at maximum speed, the navigation sensors automatically adjusting to the most direct route possible, that same trip shrank to less than fifteen minutes, a luxury Lohan never imagined would make such a difference until that exact moment.

He felt, for the first time since receiving that gift, a genuine and deep gratitude toward Isabella, far beyond the simple excitement of having such a beautiful car.

’I really need to thank her for this once all of this is over,’ he thought, his fingers gripping the wheel harder as he passed another, slower vehicle.

Devon had sent, along with the nervous audio of the call, a real time location link tied to Sara’s phone. Lohan opened it quickly through the ocular device, overlaying the map and the route directly onto his field of vision as he drove, following each turn indicated without looking away from the road for more than an instant.

Even though this Porsche was a flying car, there were still lanes drivers were supposed to follow in the air, so accidents wouldn’t happen constantly.

It was only when the route indicated less than a minute of distance that Lohan finally stopped to consider a detail that had completely slipped past him in the rush of running out the door.

’Wait,’ he thought, glancing quickly at his own clothes. ’I’m still wearing the shirt and pants I had on at home. I didn’t even bring a mask.’

He hadn’t even considered, in the middle of all that urgency, that he would need a mask. The idea of needing respiratory protection against the toxic fog simply no longer applied, but at the same time he also had nothing to cover his own face and avoid giving away his identity so quickly.

For a second, he considered simply ignoring that and moving forward without worrying about it. After all, the car he was driving had already been transferred into his name and that could be uncovered with a bit of research, but then he thought that showing up with his face exposed was very different from just using the car.

It was then that a much better idea came to him, almost automatically.

’Wait a second. If in Elysium I can cover other people with my biomass to form the living armor, there shouldn’t be any problem using this on myself out here too, right?’

He had already done something similar before, during the raid on Oscar’s penthouse, when he had formed an improvised exoskeleton to protect himself during that tense confrontation.

But that had been months ago, when his control over those abilities was still rudimentary.

Now, with the skill at a much higher level, and with a mastery over his own biomass that had grown exponentially since then, Lohan needed only a brief, deliberate thought for a thin, black, metallic layer to begin forming over his own skin.

The layer rose smoothly from his chest, moving up his neck, until it finally spread over his mouth, completely covering that area with a smooth, dark surface.

Out of curiosity, he tried extending that layer even further up, covering the nose as well and maybe even part of the face, but as soon as it got too close to his own eyes, he felt his peripheral vision start to be affected, a dark shadow invading the edges of his field of view in an uncomfortable way.

Pulling the layer back slightly, he left it stabilized covering only up to the nose, like an improvised mask, but functional enough for the purpose.

’If I had my Slime body’s 360 degree vision right now, I could cover my whole body without leaving a single centimeter of skin exposed,’ he thought, with a pang of frustration. ’In this human form, unfortunately, I need to see through normal eyes.’

Without wasting any more time on that limitation, Lohan extended the same thin layer of biomass over the rest of his body, covering his arms, neck, and any area of skin left exposed by the ordinary clothes he was still wearing.

That texture, even being just a thin, discreet layer, still carried that subtly metallic sheen characteristic of the obsidian exoskeleton, nearly invisible under the dim light of the car’s dashboard, but noticeable enough if someone paid close attention.

He felt, with quiet relief, that he still had enough biomass stored for that, glad he hadn’t injected all of it into Isabella’s body hours earlier.

Doing a quick mental calculation of his own reserve, he estimated there was still a reasonable amount left, maybe enough for a few additional defensive actions, but definitely not for any prolonged battle that demanded much effort.

Even so, a nagging uncertainty remained in the back of his mind.

’I sincerely hope this is enough for whatever I’m about to run into up ahead,’ he thought, lightly clenching his own fist, covered in that dark layer, testing its resistance against the dashboard. ’Because if it isn’t, I’m going to have to improvise very fast.’

With the car still flying at high speed, the map panel indicated he had finally arrived at the correct location.

Lohan spotted, from a distance, the Silver Lotus’s characteristic silver motorcycles hovering over a narrow street between decaying buildings, exchanging fire with a heavy armored vehicle that was chasing closely behind another motorcycle, this one carrying two female figures riding together.