Chapter 354: The Meritorious Officer (1/2)

The askals suddenly stopped after reaching the 200m mark. At this distance, it was possible to shoot them, but the soldier kept his finger off the trigger to make sure that he doesn't make any mistakes.

Like all animals, dogs protect their own territory. Seeing that a large group of people came nearby, the pack of askals was just probably on a scouting mission. At least, that's what he would like to think for himself.

Unfortunately, not every soldier was like him. After noticing that the targets were not in motion. the requested backup from nearby quadrants started shooting at the targets.

The pack of askals was caught off guard and were slow to react, causing several casualties. The wails and cries of pain echoed in the field together with hails of bullets.

The soldier lowered his rifle since his support wasn't needed anymore. As soldiers with skills related to aiming, a 200m distance have become a piece of cake for them. Though there were chances of missing, a higher number of bullets were guaranteed to hit the targets.

Watching the dust in the distance settle down, he witnessed something that frightened the shit out of him.

A lone askal managed to survive and slowly stood up on its feet. It looked up and howled into the sky filled with sorrow. Its body was riddled with swollen marks, but there were no open wounds. The strengthened hide increased its resilience, allowing it to survive. Most of the blood on its body was from the dead pack members killed from the sides.

Once it finished mourning its dead pack, it started dashing forward. With its transformed body, every step was a meter, and each second covers more than 10m.

Everyone could see vengeance in its eye after its pack where it belonged and survived for months was ruthlessly killed. It didn't even bother dodging and charged at the nearest group near him.

The soldier hurriedly raised his lowered rifle. ”I didn't kill your friends! Why charge here!!!”

He activated his skills, Body Mass, and Calm Breaths, for easier shooting. With the skills, the chance of successfully hitting the target greatly increased. Body Mass helps automatically target the center mass of the target while Calm Breaths slow his breathing, allowing for minimal body movements converting to higher accuracy.

He burst fired and used every bullet at maximum efficiency. The other soldiers on adjacent quadrants also continued firing until their magazines ran out of bullets.

When the rifle made clicking sounds, he hurriedly tried to reload the other half magazine but saw the area around him became shadowed. He knew that the shadow wasn't from clouds, so he didn't even dare raise his head.

Clang! Clang!

Sounds of metal clashing could be heard. Droplets of saliva fell in front of him and bubbled on the ground.

Filled with confusion, he slowly raised his head and stared dumbfoundedly at the huge ethereal pillar stuck on the mouth of the transformed dog.

Now that he was next to the rabid dog, he could finally compare his size to his. He was kneeling yet he could only reach up to the dog's knees.

His gaze met with the enraged dog, which caused the already violent animal to rage stronger.

”Rawr! Roar!”

It tried several times to bite him, but it couldn't move a single inch from its position.

Only now did he notice the ethereal ropes binding every limb of the askal. The body was caged by yellow energy and the head was trapped in place, unable to move further.

Footsteps echoed, followed by an anxious yell. ”What are you waiting for!? Hit it! Don't kill it though!”

The soldier turned and saw a young man with both hands raised, arms trembling.

”A-alright!” he faced forward, only to see someone charge forward and leap high. It was the gruff man, who always appeared poor.

With a single leap, he was able to jump higher than one meter. After reaching his peak momentum, the man performed a roundhouse kick to the enraged askals head, causing it to whimper and fall unconscious.

The attack seemed simple, but for knowledgeable individuals, it's an attack enhanced by energy. Even the jump had an energy surge combined with it, increasing momentum and leaping power.

Unlike Empower that consumes a lot of skill, the surge of energy only needs a one-time consumption to increase overall power by a small amount.

The enraged askal fell unconscious and its transformation was undone. It returned back to its smaller self, a regular-sized german shepherd.

Edward ran forward and fetched the unconscious german shepherd. Like every other animal, parts of its skin were already corrupted and its fur had empty patches of black skin.

He used healing salves and applied them to the swollen parts of its body before reaching out near its forehead. The head portion was riddled with red marks since it took the brunt of the assault.