Anastasia used her cloak and then began to climb the mountains. That ability was really something else, since Dylan couldn’t even see her when she was just a few meters away.

  In any case, just as he had expected, Dylan soon found large groups of enemies approaching the area… it would have been bad if they had more than one target to attack, so his idea to make Anastasia bring her friends at that moment had been the correct one. Now he could face all of them by himself.

  ‘Thirty, huh… this will be a good experience if anything,’ Dylan thought and then smiled.

  Dylan was already hiding and observing the enemies. Just like Anastasia said, they really sucked at tracking their targets, and they were stupid enough to split in order to find him.

  The thirty enemies became six groups of five… even while ambushing them, he couldn’t take an entire group down without alerting half of its members and the other groups if they shouted or talked. Moreover, Dylan noticed that they weren’t moving that far away from each other… they probably wanted to investigate a small area and then move to another. It was the safest method for them, after all.

  ‘I suppose it can’t be helped… I need to be done with this before Anastasia and her friends come,’ Dylan thought and then grabbed his guns.

  The enemies were ten archers, ten spearmen, and ten ordinary soldiers armed with swords and shields. They had divided themselves well since most groups had two archers, and they were on their backs as well. Dylan couldn’t underestimate them.

  As soon as the first group approached his location. Dylan left the safety of a tree and then fired violently. In the blink of an eye, he aimed, shot, and killed the two archers of that group with the blazing pistol.

  The other three enemies tried to charge toward him while hiding behind their weapons, but that didn’t help much. Dylan used the freezing pistol on their weapons and then hit the same spot with the explosive bullets. Their weapons and shields began to crack… while Dylan could have attacked with his sword, he just fired more explosive bullets and destroyed their faces.

  Soon after, Dylan ran away in the opposite direction, since the other enemies were running toward him. He didn’t know if he killed those last three, but they won’t bother him for a while.

  Even with their large bodies, the enemies began to get closer to Dylan. Fortunately, they couldn’t do much else. Their numbers didn’t give the archers the chance to attack him from a distance.

  As soon as he found a good enough tree, Dylan turned to the side and then hid behind it. When the enemies thought of doing the same, the tree suddenly trembled and began to fall in front of them. Dylan used the pistols to damage the trunk before swinging his sword with all his might.

  The result of the attack was that three enemies were crushed by the tree, and then the group that was chasing him was split thanks to its dense branches. It only lasted for a couple of seconds, but that block let five of the monsters isolated. He didn’t hesitate and used his guns to kill them… it was better to decrease their numbers for now instead of saving bullets.

  Just like that, one-third of the enemies were killed. Still, the battle was far from over. When the remaining enemies moved through the blockade, they found Dylan only a couple of meters away and running. He heard the sound of strings being released through the sensors of his suit, and Dylan immediately jumped to the side with all his might, but then he felt a somewhat sharp pain on the side of his right arm and leg.

  Dylan Ulrich - Sprint Mode

  Health: 20%

  Attack Power: 12

  Armor: 05

  Adaptability: 07

  Movement Speed: 25 (Speed core: + 02)

  Ether Stored: 652 g

  Weapon: Dual Daggers (100%), Katana (100%)

  Sub Weapon: Blazing Pistol (10), Freezing Pistol (16)

  ‘This much damage with just two hits…’ Dylan clenched his teeth while he was getting up and increasing his speed again.

  Unless he receives that much damage on a single spot three more times, the battle suit won’t be breached, but its functions will decrease since the ether won’t flow through it that efficiently anymore. Either way, he would be in a bind.

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  Before he could find another tree to hide, more arrows were fired. Still, Dylan looked at the attacks and moved his body after jumping again to dodge the arrows. At the same time, he used a freezing pistol to hit the faces of three archers. That slowed down the enemies for a bit and gave Dylan enough time to hide behind another free.

  The same trick wouldn’t work on the enemies again, so they tried to circle around the tree and ambush Dylan from both sides. Still, before they could get close enough to do so, Dylan left the hideout and dashed at one of the groups. Three archers pointed their bows at him, but he stopped them with the blazing pistol. The explosion made the whole group flinch, and that gave him enough time to attack.

  Before the enemies could recover, Dylan jumped and then pierced the top of one of the enemy’s skulls with his sword, and then he jumped toward the next one. He did that until he killed four enemies… The second group was unable to attack without risking hitting their allies. In the end, the final three spearmen tried to stab him at the same time, but he used the blazing gun in the middle of them. The explosion made them flinch, and he used that chance to cut off their heads with a one-handed sword strike.

  “This one was perfect…” Dylan thought and crunched down to hide behind the bodies of the monsters he had just killed.

  Numerous arrows hit the bodies, and he felt the vibrations, but Dylan was more worried about recalling and memorizing that swing. In any case, soon, he had to move, since the remaining enemies tried to surround him again, but it was useless. If they were unable to do anything with thirty, they wouldn’t do anything with ten alone. In less than two minutes, the battle was over.

  Just to be safe, Dylan hurried up to grab the bows and the arrows of the enemies. He didn’t know if Anastasia or her friends would be able to use those, but they should be able to carry some arrows, at least.

  ‘I guess I should use this chance to charge my battle suit and repair it as well…’ Dylan thought while heading to the nearest ether well.

  After around twenty minutes, Anastasia and five other Russian soldiers suddenly appeared in front of Dylan. Although they didn’t see any enemies, they still decided to be cautious. In any case, their situation was worse than expected. They were walking while basically giving each other their shoulders to lean on. There was a guy who was already unconscious. The remaining four looked like they were about to fall with just a kid’s push.

  “... Let’s go,” Dylan said upon realizing that he couldn’t ask them to do anything since standing up was already the best that they could do.

  Although Dylan noticed that before, some trees had some fruits. They were all purple and didn’t look appetizing at all… still, he could tell the eyes of the Russian soldiers were wavering. They were seriously considering the possibility of eating an alien fruit…

  “How far away is your pod?” Anastasia asked.

  “... At this speed, we should reach it in six hours,” Dylan replied after a long sigh, since such a question definitely would make everyone sigh as well. “The other pod might be closer. If we find any traces of it, we can send you guys back to the dreadnought first.”

  “That won’t do… the giants need to be dealt with,” Anastasia said with a serious expression. “Those things will attack anything with a large amount of ether… even a small group like ours in this condition will become its target.”

  So it was like that… Dylan considered such a possibility. The real problem was that it wasn’t only one of those creatures in the area, and Anastasia confirmed two at least. Either way, one problem at a time. First, he had to find the others or bring the Russian team to either of the pods.

  After moving for a while, they didn’t find any signs of enemies since Dylan had killed most of the enemies that patrolled there. Despite the lack of obstacles, Dylan and the others had to stop several times to let them conserve their energy and recover ether.

  “Which reminds me, do you guys have a water reclaimer in your suits?” Dylan asked.

  “... No, even if it had been purified over and over again, something small enough to fit the suit wouldn’t last this long,” Anastasia said while showing an expression that was hard to describe. “We just have a core in our suits that let us produce water.”

  That was pretty handy, but semi-useless since the missions, most of the time, couldn’t last that long. While the spaceships could fly around the planets, leaving the orbit would consume a lot of fuel… just letting the missions last less than one day was a better option since the soldiers won’t have to get exhausted and face the dangers of those planets over and over again.

  In any case, forget about six hours, and if they keep stopping that often, they will have to walk for eight hours before reaching either of the pods… that was kind of bad since the mission started five hours ago, and they had a time limit of sixteen… eleven hours left for the mission to be over in one way or the other.

  Around the area where Dylan met Anastasia, they finally noticed a lot of enemies moving around. After watching their movement patterns for a while, Dylan made up his mind.

  “I will go ahead and kill the nearest group,” Dylan declared while grabbing the bow. “When I raise my arm, you will stop moving, and when I do that and move my arm to the side, you will follow me, but keep a distance of fifty meters, okay?”

  “Can’t we just talk using the same frequency?” Anastasia frowned, since it looked like a waste of time.

  “No, I want to focus solely on using the bow and firing the arrows.” Dylan shook his head. “You can use it to communicate with me if something happens, but please, don’t disturb my focus for no good reason.”

  Anastasia felt a bit offended by that, but soon she forgot about it. Once Dylan approached the first group of enemies, he quickly killed two of them with two arrows on the back of their heads and when the third found him, the monster was unable to react in time to block the attack.

  Although he still had some arrows to spare, Dylan decided to grab the arrows he had just used from the bodies. The smell of blood might alert the enemies, but that was no longer a problem since he had killed dozens of them already. The enemy’s alert was already at max…

  Dylan’s level of focus was surreal. In just ten minutes, he found and killed fifteen enemies without missing a single shot. After seeing that happen over and over again, Anastasia wondered what kind of training the recruits of the dreadnought had to endure to become such monstrous soldiers.