Adopted Soldier

Rachel and Evangeline were engaging in a life and death battle with a giant snake. As they were fighting the two noticed a lot of things have changed within themselves, not only because they had these new abilities, but even the basic performance of their bodies were now different. Rachel even without going into her RELEASE state was now just as strong as if she was already using it. 

Evangeline who was usually just a little bit stronger than the average person was now feeling great strength from within her. The movements she was making as she dodged the attacks of the giant snake was not something she could do before, which made her feel ecstatic. 

Rachel with her flaming fist tried to attack the giant snake, but her full-powered attack wasn't able to pierce the scales of the snake. Evangeline using her ice sword couldn't pierce the scales as well, even after freezing a portion of it. 

The two then looked at each other and nodded, Rachel punched the giant snake's face taking all of its attention. While Rachel distracted the giant snake, Evangeline started to run at its back. Rachel kept on attacking the giant snake with her punches and kicks that were enveloped with flames, which didn't even burn it. Still, it was enough for it to not pay attention to Evangeline that was in running its back heading straight for its head. 

Once Evangeline was atop the giant snake's head she started freezing it. The giant snake finally noticed what was happening to its head, and started to move violently. It tried to ram its head at a nearby tree, Evangeline was, of course, able to jump down to safety before she was hit. 

Once Evangeline was gone from the head, Rachel quickly took the chance to get in between the giant snake and the tree it was about to ram its head into. Rachel took a stance, left foot forward, right foot on the back which is where she placed most of her weight. Her right hand in a fist was placed at her waist and her left hand which was in an open palm was facing the opponent. 

When the giant snake that was about to ram its head at the tree was near, Rachel twisted her right fist forward putting all her power into that one attack, in which she concentrated her flames into one spot making it burn hotter. When this powerful attack plus the force of the ramming giant snake hit each other, a huge booming force was created. The strength of that attack was so strong that it made the ground shake. Rachel who was in the middle of that attack felt the whole brunt of that force and was almost blown away as she desperately tried to stay on the ground. 

The right hand she used to attack the giant snake was now numb. She felt that she broke a few of her bones, still, she was prepared for the kind of backlash. Alex has suffered more for more worse than this, so that little bit of injury while protecting her loved one wasn't much. 

The head of the snake that was encased in ice and was punched by Rachel with a burning flame, had now a new open wound that started spraying blood all over the place. In extreme pain, the giant snake started swinging its tail everywhere destroying the nearby trees. 

Alex and the others tried their hardest to evade the attacks. Now that it was going wild, it made it harder for them to predict its movements. It would have been easier to evade the giant snake's attacks if it was slow, unfortunately for them, even with its large size its attack speed was quite fast. 

Alex, who still hasn't fully accessed the new abilities he has gained, tried attacking the open wound by shooting at it, but the bullets were not doing anything, it just made the giant snake angrier. 

Alex who was observing Rachel and Evangeline's fight as attentively as possible knew that his blade wasn't sharp enough to do any damage, even though the giant snake now had a wound up in its head. While Alex and the others were thinking about what to do next, they noticed that someone was on top of the giant snake's head. 

The person in question was Sayaka, who was able to reach the giant snake's head. It was no surprise to the group, that no one noticed any of her movements since among them Sayaka was the best in stealth. The real question was what was she planning to do on top of the giant snake's head. 

Even Oliver who knew most of Sayaka's abilities knew that his woman didn't have a technique that could pierce through the giant snake's scales. As everyone was wondering what Sayaka was about to do, she disappeared from the giant snake's head. 

Then out of nowhere, she appeared beside Oliver. This move surprised everyone, Sayaka might be able to disappear from everyone's sight, but she was never able to move that quickly before. Even if her speed doubled from before, it was still impossible to move that quickly. 

"Oliver give me your gun. Everyone with a gun hand them to me. I know that you guys have a lot of questions, but for now, we have more pressing matters!" 

After Sayaka shouted what she wanted, everyone who had a gun on them handed it to Sayaka. Once she got all the guns, Sayaka held two in her hands and started firing forward aiming at nothing in particular. She wasn't even aiming at any part of that gigantic snake. They knew that Sayaka wasn't really one to use a gun, but still with her abilities shouldn't she know how to aim? 

As the group was thinking that, Alex saw the bullets that came out of guns disappeared. Sayaka who was done using all the bullets of the two guns she held, took another pair and once again started shooting, and the same thing happened again. 

Alex and the others who were watching Sayaka do this weird thing, finally noticed that the giant snake looked to be in even more pain. Sayaka then took out the daggers she's been gathering since a while ago and started throwing them. 

Once again, the moment she threw the daggers before they got beyond a meter away from her, the daggers disappeared. Even though he was fully concentrating on watching Sayaka's movements Alex wasn't able to figure out what happened. Then Alex and the others once again saw the giant snake writhing in pain. 

Alex then looked at the giant snake's head, and above it, Alex saw that the daggers Sayaka was throwing, were materializing above the giant snake's head. Those daggers then all fell at the wound on top of the giant snake's head. Each of the daggers thrown landed on the exact same spot on the giant snake's head.

After a few more daggers were thrown, the giant snake that was flailing and squirming finally stopped moving. Alex was the first to move and check if the giant snake was dead, once he confirmed it and informed the others, Oliver who had a confused look spoke in excitement. 

"What was that?! Was that your ability?!" Oliver did the same as what Emily did with Rachel and Evangeline, and started questioning Sayaka about her ability. 

"Yup, it took some time for me to be able to get a feel of my new ability. Once I was sure what to do, I did as usual and attacked the monster in its weakened spot." 

"So Sayaka what sort of ability have you awaken to?!" Emily who was just as excited as Oliver clung onto Sayaka who smiled a bit, finding Emily's reaction quite cute. 

"My ability is teleportation. It's quite a powerful ability but it has a lot of restrictions." 

"What kind of restrictions?" Alex chimed in since he too was quite curious about these new abilities everyone had. 

"Well for starters I can't teleport things that I don't have the strength to carry. See this I can teleport this," Sayaka took out another dagger she hid and made it disappear as it teleported into the distance. "But I can't teleport this," Sayaka pointed at a nearby tree and tried teleporting it, but nothing happened. 

"As for the distance, I can teleport an object, as far as what my eyes can see. Also, the objects that I want to teleport should be a meter near from me. Aside from that, I have two more restrictions, but I'm going to keep those a secret."

"I see..." Alex answered. 

"Okay, now that your Q and A is over. What should we do next? How do we get back home?" Niel asked.

"Well, since I saw my father here, that would mean other members of the squad must be nearby. If we can find them, they can help us get back safely." Alex answered after thinking for a few seconds.

When Rachel heard that, she finally remembered something important. Her face at this time suddenly turned a bit pale, as she sprinted back into the shadow mercenaries' base. Alex and the others were surprised by this action of hers. Still, Alex didn't really need to think deeply about it as for now he just needs to follow Rachel inside the base, the others followed as well. 

As everyone was running trying to catch up with Rachel, the others aside from Alex, finally understood why Rachel acted that way. "That's right her father was here!"

When Alex heard Kei's outburst he started questioning the group about what happened. When Alex heard all the details of the group's fight with Leon and the appearance of Dan. Alex had this ominous feeling that something was wrong. 

Alex then remembered the face of his dying father and gritted his teeth. 'It can't be...' Alex shook his head trying to deny the logical conclusion he had.. He then proceeded to run faster wanting to catch up with Rachel, before she saw something that she shouldn't have.