Francis didn’t have to give the orders, and everyone began to run away toward the pods… Dylan could tell with ease now that he won’t get along with Felix. Once the first chance arrives, he will find a way to leave his job, since Felix was just insane.

  “You guys look pretty calm about this,” Dylan said while frowning. “As for me, I am thinking if I can apply to other spaceships.”

  “Don’t even joke about that, Dylan…” Amanda said and then sighed. “The second in command might be troublesome and do things that annoy us most of the time, but his results speak for themselves. You will see it soon enough.”

  Dylan wanted to see that as soon as possible because the monsters were approaching again. It was useful that the battle suit could let Dylan use his abilities to the limit, but he will probably suffer from muscular pains for many days once the battle was over.

  When the next group of enemies was about to attack them, a solar-looking beam suddenly crossed the sky and then hit the area where the giant enemy was. At the same time, the ground trembled, and the temperature began to increase exponentially, even though the group was five kilometers away from it. They didn’t feel the heat, but they could tell since the monsters stopped moving and began to emit a lot of steam.

  “Eliminate them all!” Francis shouted.

  The group began to split to attack the enemies that were trembling and suffering damage from the heat with their melee weapons. It was a pain to attack and then assume his initial stance after killing a single target, but Dylan did that and ended up killing seven of the enemies with swift strikes… he probably could have achieved that much without trying so hard, but he still wanted to sharpen his moves when it comes to that technique.

  In any case, around the time the enemies were eliminated, the beam stopped as well. Dylan wanted to know when and how they accumulated so much energy that was enough to last that long while crossing such distance, but there was no time for that.

  “Direct hit confirmed…” Felix suddenly said. “The target suffered a lot of damage, but it seems that it used ether to protect itself… We have a clear vision of the creature now. Sixty percent of its body was destroyed. The creature should have been weakened enough. I am issuing the command for the temporary assault team to destroy the creature.”

  Francis, Shon, and Amanda looked at each other. They knew Felix relatively well to know that he wouldn’t give them such orders unless it was possible for them. So they had to go. Without wasting time, the team headed toward the location of the enemy.

  The group hurried since Felix didn’t tell them that all the other lifeforms had been killed. Thanks to that, they saw a lot of the agonizing monsters around the area. They quickly finished them off and kept going. While it wasn’t the best of conditions, they were getting used to melee combat again and using their knives.

  Eventually, the group saw the area where the monster was, and they saw that most of the creature had been burned to a crisp. It had lost four of its six arms so it couldn’t move like before. The surrounding land had been completely scorched as well, to the point that even created some holes around the beast. In any case, the upper body, two arms, and the head of the monster were still mostly intact… it wasn’t a coincidence that the beast survived such an attack.

  “Those who still have more than half of their fuel use the bullets to finish off the remaining enemies,” Francis ordered. “Those who don’t have it follow me. We are going to destroy the arms of the monster before going for the head.”

  They are almost dead, but there were plenty of those alien lizards left alive… they had to kill them because they could see it. The arms of the giant monster were slowly regrowing.

  Half of the team went to kill the small fries, while the others went to face the giant monster. When they got within range, they jumped to the side when they saw one of the remaining arms moving. In the next moment, it hit the area they had been in a moment ago while making the ground shake.

  “Keep away from each other. Once the enemy misses, attack the arm with all of your might!” Francis ordered.

  The group consisted of Francis, Amanda, Dylan, and two other members of the assault team. They followed Francis’ orders, and thanks to it, the massive beast hesitated in choosing a single target.

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  Although Francis said that, he decided to bait the monster by approaching, and then, when the creature swung its massive arm, he moved to the side just a bit while swinging his broadsword. The weapon cut the flesh of the beast as if it was made of cotton, making the creature also lose two of its six fingers.

  While the monster was agonizing, the others approached and swung their weapons. Still, only Dylan’s katana was a weapon really appropriate for that job. With two swings using his father’s technique, he cut the same spot two times and reached the middle of the arm… he thought that it would be enough to slow it down, but when the flesh touched each other in the wound, it began to glue itself and heal.

  “Disgusting…” Dylan furrowed his eyebrows.

  The enemy tried to smash Dylan, but he dodged by jumping to the side and then approaching the body of the beast. At the same time, he saw Francis positioning himself on the other side, and they could understand what the other was thinking. It was a bit risky, but it was the fastest way to achieve their goal.

  When the monster tried to smash Dylan again, he waited until the last moment and used that full swing that he had learned from his father. The weapon cut the flesh of the beast even deeper than before, and at the same time, Francis approached after jumping and then swung down his sword, hitting the other side of the wound and cutting off the arm of the beast.

  Unfortunately, the beast turned its body to the side and almost crushed them. Even though it failed, the other arm was close to them now. Still, the monster hesitated since it didn’t know what to do, and Dylan and Francis were waiting to do the same thing again.

  They assumed their fighting stances at the same time since they didn’t have time to lose and attacked once again. The beast tried to smash Dylan with a vertical swing, but the combo attack landed first, and the motion of the enemy’s attack was stopped.

  “The energy source is located on the back of the creature’s head. Destroy it, and the regeneration will end,” Felix informed.

  Everyone jumped on the back of the creature and began to slice up the flesh of the beast. The monster trembled all over, but it was unable to turn to the side and protect that area of its body. In no time, Francis cut deep enough to find what seemed to be a blue sphere connected to the brain of the monster. He quickly decided to cut the connection and pull out the sphere that was one meter wide. The flesh was deeply connected to it, but he eventually got rid of it, and the creature stopped moving. In the next moment, it began to shrink as well.

  “... Good job,” Felix said while he watched the creature decrease in size until it became just a bit bigger than the others. “Bring the sphere back to the pods. I am issuing the return of all soldiers back to the Dreadnought. This source of energy is ten times larger than the one we found on the destroyed power plant.”

  The group sighed in relief… Felix finally decided on something that they agreed with. Their fuel was reaching dangerous levels, and it would be really bad if something happened once they decided to gather more ether.

  “What did you think of your first mission?” Amanda asked once they began to retreat. “It wasn’t like you had expected, right?”

  “I think it is a bit too soon to ask that,” Dylan replied while furrowing his eyebrows. “Besides, I wasn’t expecting anything in particular.”

  That was exactly why Dylan wasn’t caught off guard, even once the creatures barely had the chance to attack him. In any case, the whole group looked pretty tired, even though they still had more than one hour left before the end of the mission, at least the first end that had been programmed.

  In the distance, after not so long, they saw two of the pods leaving the planet already. One of them had the storage team, and the other had the extraction team. It would be better to hurry up and save some extra fuel and bring the materials and the test subjects as soon as possible, after all.

  “All right, we have rested for long enough,” Francis declared. “Change to Sprint mode and…”

  “Attention! Members of the temporary assault team and sabotage team!” Felix’s voice suddenly echoed again. “Unidentified life forms and sources of energy have been identified thirty kilometers south of your current location. All of them are approaching at forty meters per second. They are heading in a straight line toward your pods and will reach it in less than twelve minutes! Hurry to the pods and retreat immediately!”

  “I told you…” Dylan said.

  “This isn’t time for that!” Amanda raised her voice and changed to Sprint Mode.

  Everyone did the same, and they began to run… no matter what happens, they couldn’t let many enemies reach the pods. If they didn’t know any better, the enemies decided to attack after they saw some of the pods leaving.

  “many enemies and another energy source… as expected, a monster like that couldn’t be the sole creature that rules over this region,” Dylan thought.

  Although not by a large margin, the group knew that they could reach the pods faster since they were only ten kilometers away from them. Still, Dylan could tell that things wouldn’t end that easily for them. Some of the soldiers began to slow down, and their breathing got haggard.

  “What the hell are you doing? Don’t tell me…” Francis opened his eyes widely.

  “Sorry, captain…” one of the soldiers said while having a hard time breathing.

  They were out of air… the battle suit also produced oxygen for them, but it needed ether. They used too much in the last battle. While clicking his tongue, Francis shared some of his ether by connecting their suits. He recovered a fair bit earlier and didn’t use guns, after all. Still, he had only so much since he also got hit a few times.

  Dylan Ulrich - Sprint Mode

  Health: 100%

  Attack Power: 07

  Armor: 03

  Adaptability: 04

  Movement Speed: 27

  Ether Stored: 145 g

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

  Sub Weapon: Freezing Pistol (0), Blazing Pistol (0)