Jason was running with light steps. Behind him were two canines pursuing after him with drools spilling over the floor. Two normal size dogs named Wild Doggo were the first monsters he saw within his night vision goggles. The military did their research well as these doggos were definitely suitable for first-timer.

 

Soon, he saw the whole squad at a distance. Looking from their stance alone and weapons in their hands, they were readied for some action. A few seconds later, Jason ran passed through the whole squad as he positioned himself furthest at the back.

 

All ten of their heads turned to the only Awakened that was supposed to lead the way. Yet now, the man himself was at the back with both of his arms crossed over his chest.

 

“Sir?” Staff Sgt Dan was flustered by the action of the Awakened.

 

“Look to the front, they’re coming,” said Jason as he nudged his head towards the front.

 

All eyes went toward the front as within their night vision, two Wild Doggos were charging right at them. Even from afar, they could see that these weren’t your normal dogs. Their defined muscles were popping out as they clearly visible even when under night vision. There were just like dogs on maximum dose steroids.

 

Then one of the soldiers took aim with their handgun and shot at the incoming dog. He released round after round with incredible accuracy at the canine’s head yet it did nothing.

 

The soldier threw the gun to the side as he pulled a combat knife in a reverse grip. The rest of them braced themselves for what was about to come. They saw it for themselves of how useless their firearms were.

 

A few took a glance at the Awakened that stood behind them. From what they were told, the mission would be led by Jason and they just needed to followed his lead yet now it was the opposite.

 

“Five against one, do it!” said Staff Sgt Dan as he assured himself that these two were the only opponents.

 

The soldiers reacted well as they positioned themselves in a group of five men. The two Wild Doggos who were chasing over Jason turned their attention to these soldiers.

 

One of them took a plunge right at the nearest soldier. Its pounce was quick as in an instant it was already in the air with its jaw opened wide, baring those crazy rows of razor-sharp teeth.

 

The soldier was quick as he rolled down on the ground dodging the fast attack. Then another person came swinging the machete in his hand striking the Wild Doggo right at its flank. Blood spilled over the ground yet the cut wasn’t deep enough.

 

The Wild Doggo reacted as it jumped at the one who made it bled. The distance was too close and the soldier didn’t have the time to dodge. He raised up his arm and guarded against the bite. Yet intense pain wracked his entire forearm as it was about to be fractured.

 

Then came four other soldiers as all four struck the Wild Doggo with their combat knives. While one of theirs was yelling out in pain.

 

“Get it off from me!”

 

The rest kept on stabbing the heck out of the Wild Doggo until it finally went limp. The situation ended in mere seconds but not without repercussion.

 

“Shit, I’m bleeding,” said the soldier with a chunk of flesh missing from his forearm. The Wild Doggo really did him good in that few seconds before its death.

 

While the other five-man group didn’t end up pretty as well. One of them was lying on the ground clutching his bleeding thigh.

 

“Bowie bandage up Rooster’s forearm!” Staff Sgt Dan gave his command and continued to do so, “Hemlock, treat Twitch’s thigh!”

 

He watched the aftermath after a single battle against two UC, they won yet his men suffered some serious injuries. To be frank, rather than calling them UC, they were just over doping dogs. He couldn’t imagine what would happen if they went against a UC like in those major cities.

 

Then he cast his eyes at the Awakened in his team. Jason was looking around with a nonchalant expression on his face. Staff Sgt Dan went up to Jason with a heavy frown on his face.

 

“Why didn’t you do anything?!” he shouted right at Jason’s face. If Jason had taken action, things wouldn’t turn out this bad.

 

Jason stared at the eyes of Staff Sgt Dan, as he then walked passed them. A single observation wasn’t enough to see how these soldiers could perform. Although they did pretty well but it was still against Wild Doggos at level three.

 

Staff Sgt Dan still had a lot to say but then he and the rest of his squad experienced the same thing. The text window appeared in front of them as all ten of them had turned into Awakened themselves.

 

“Dan, you’re seeing this?” said one of the two females soldiers in this squad, nicknamed Pixie.

 

“Everyone report,” said Dan.

 

Soon, all nine of them told of how they saw the same thing. Who would have thought it would be that easy to turn into an Awakened. Being fresh recruits for the Special Ops division, they heard of how terrifying fighting against these UC. They heard of how a whole company was wiped out from existence with only Captain Ryan being the sole survivor.

 

That tale was enough to scare the shit out of them but now they saw a bit of hope of surviving through this mission.

 

“Ready up, I see another one,” Jason said.

 

His words were enough to make the entire squad alarmed. If another two of those things comes over here, they knew it won’t be easy.

 

“Wait!” Dan shouted but he was too late. Jason was already sprinting towards the monster as the whole squad laid their eyes on their commanding in chief.

 

“Dan, are we just going to let that guy do whatever he wants?” Pixie asked. She was starting to get mad over how Jason had behaved.

 

They just got here and two of theirs were already in a bad state. Rather than pursuing the mission, she had the thought of sending her comrades back for further treatment.

 

Dan frowned as he once again looked at the map, they were at the starting point and they already stumbled upon an obstacle. They could have maneuvered around these canines UC without confronting them but that man had to pull this off at them.

 

Unknown to Jason and the other squad member, he had another objective in mind of why they were sent to the middle of the city. The most heavily infected part of the city. An objective that only he knew about told by the Major himself.

 

“Guys, he’s coming back,” said Hemlock as her eyes didn’t stop wandering around the perimeter.

 

“Twitch, Rooster, get behind the squad,” said Dan as his grip over the machete tightened.

 

Once more, Jason ran passed them as he stood at the back with the injured. Yet the squad didn’t have time to complain as the enemy had come. Lucky for them, there was only one Wild Doggo charging at them.

 

The eight of them worked in unison. Dan taunted the Wild Doggo and the moment the Wild Doggo leaped at Dan, Bowie slammed the head of his axe at the dog. Bowie had impeccable timing as the sharp blade embedded deep inside the Wild Doggo. The canine whimpered over the attack.

 

“Attack!” to Dan’s shout the rest of the squad came hurling their weapons at the single Wild Doggo. But before anyone could take a shot at it, the corner canine pounced at Bowie.

 

Bowie didn’t falter as he swung his axe meeting the canine head-on. Through sheer luck, the blade of his axe met the neck of the Wild Doggo. It hit a nerve as the Wild Doggo plummeted on the ground, Dan who was the second closest swung his machete at the canine laying on the ground.

 

Dan and Bowie hacked the heck out of the Wild Doggo as within a few seconds, what left of the canine was a mush of meat with chopped up dog’s parts. Blood splattered across their uniforms as these two men were heaving hard with their breaths.

 

It ended in an instant but for these two men, it felt like an hour. Then another text window appeared.

 

“Dan?” Bowie called out to him.

 

“I know, I see the same thing,” said Dan.

 

Then someone else voice entered the fray.

 

“So did you guys level up?”

 

All eyes went to Jason who walked closer to Dan and Bowie. The duo remained silent.

 

“I’m asking here, so did you level up?” Jason asked one more time.

 

Dan nodded and Bowie who saw this also nodded.

 

“Good, you guys know what to do with the points right?” Jason asked.

 

True to Jason’s words. These fresh recruits had all been briefed about the details pertaining to Awakened provided by their Awakened recruit.

 

“Since both of you had the first chance of obtaining an ability, you two will take the vanguard,” Jason said as he patted both Dan’s and Bowie’s shoulder.

 

“Come on, we’ve got a long way to go,” said Jason as he walked forward not minding the scrutinizing eyes staring at him.

 

“Wait, who made you in charge?” Pixie couldn’t stand it anymore. Although she knew he was strong yet that didn’t give him the license to acted like this.

 

“We’ve got two of us heavily injured, they need immediate medical treatment. We can’t go on with the mission,” said Pixie as she was worried about the well-being of her comrades.

 

Jason glanced at Pixie for a while, before saying.

 

“Suit yourself, I’ll be leaving then,” said Jason.

 

Yet before he could dash away, Dan spoke up.

 

“Wait!”

 

Jason stopped on his track and looked at Dan.

 

“We’ll proceed with the mission,” although Dan didn’t like how Jason nonchalant attitude in this mission, but he still couldn’t abandon his hidden mission.

 

“What? Dan, look at Twitch and Rooster. They…” Pixie had more to say but Dan cut her off.

 

“It’s Staff Sgt Dan and I’m your senior officer,” said Dan with a resolute voice.

 

Pixie had her mouth shut as she stood up straight with her arms to the side.

 

“Sir, I request you to pay heed to our injured comrades, sir!” said Pixie as she relayed her words according to military-style.

 

Dan glanced at Twitch and Rooster.

 

“Think you can proceed soldier?” Dan asked.

 

“Aye aye sir,” said Rooster as he stood up without a problem.

 

“Can’t let you guys have all the fun,” Twitch said as he stood limping on his injured thigh.

 

“Good, we’ll proceed with the mission,” said Dan while looking at Pixie.

 

“Yes, squad leader,” said Pixie.

 

Dan turned to Jason as his eyes stared at Jason.

 

“Try to keep up,” said Jason as he took the lead.

 

These eleven people ventured further into Welcome Island as they head for the bridge that connected the island to Thunder Bay city.

 

The squad encountered a pack of Wild Doggo, five of them went charging at them with no hesitation, In this open field with no trees blocking their sight, these low-level UC were quick to spot on prey.

 

The whole squad stopped on their track as they positioned themselves for battle. Jason didn’t follow as he charged at those Wild Doggo, rather than passing through them, in a blink of an eye two of those canines wounded up dead on the ground. The steel dirk on his hand dripped the blood of the canine. The three Wild Doggo didn’t stop rushing at the ten soldiers ignoring the death of their kin.

 

Dan saw Jason in action and he had to admit, that man was strong. Then a thought came to mind.

 

Why didn’t he finish off the other three? Is he training us?

 

A simple thought that could be true or not. Yet for now, he stood at the front of his squad alongside Bowie. Both of them took one canine each while the other dog went charging at Twitch who had an injured thigh. The Wild Doggo had a keen sense of smell as it knew the bleeding one was the weakest.

 

The rest of the eight handled the single Wild Doggo and in the end, the three canines were dead. Dan was huffing his breath as his life was almost ended with only a point left on his energy guard. While Bowie had most of his energy guard intact as his savage way of attacking overwhelmed the Wild Doggo.

 

For the rest of the squad, three more raised up to level two. Pixie, Hemlock, and Sugar Man discovered their new abilities. While they were rejoicing inside, someone’s voice made their joy faded away.

 

“You guys are too slow,” said Jason.

 

All eyes went to Jason.

 

“You need to kill them faster,” said Jason as he then took the lead sprinting to the front.

 

“Geez, what’s wrong with him. He barely helps us and he got the nerve to complain,” said Pixie glaring at Jason’s back.

 

Dan and a few others had other thoughts in mind. Some in the squad noticed Jason’s hidden intention. While a few were still oblivious some still had their intelligence working.

 

“Come on, let’s not get left behind,” said Dan. The ten-man squad followed Jason from behind.

 

In a span of half an hour, they went through a couple more battles with those Wild Doggos. They fought against four and then went on against five and their last battle they fought a whole pack of six Wild Doggo, Jason didn’t help this time as he let soldiers handled the rest of the pack.

 

They fought with sweat and blood as going up against six Wild Doggo proved to be an obstacle. Yet they did it in the end. Hemlock clutched the ending strike, as her knife throw went straight into the eyes of the Wild Doggo ending its life.

 

All ten soldiers were on the ground catching up their breath. The battle put a heavy toll on them as a few of them had their energy guards broken. They covered each other well and despite that, a few mistakes were made, Dan himself knew that as he took command of the battle strategy of the squad.

 

While Dan was catching up to his breath, he looked at Jason within the distance. He saw the man looking around as if trying to find more of those canines for them. He wanted to shout at Jason to say it was enough, as they were already reaching their breaking point since close combat situation wasn’t their best since most of their tactics involved using range as a weapon but now they started to adapt to the new norm.

 

Then Dan noticed Twitch walking around while chugging down some water.

 

“Hey, Twitch,” Dan called out to him.

 

“Yeah, what?” Twitch said.

 

“You’re not limping,” said Dan as he noticed Twitch walking normally.

 

“I didn’t notice that,” said Twitch as he stared at his bandaged thigh.

 

“You’re not hurt?” asked Dan.

 

“Nope, probably the adrenaline kicking. I bet it’s going to hurt like hell after all of this is done,” said Twitch as he just shrugged the situation about his thigh.

 

Yet Dan was skeptical about it, there was no way an adrenaline rush could do such a thing to that extent. Then once more, Dan stared at Jason.

 

Is this his doing? Thought Dan as he still didn’t know what to think about this.

 

“Enough rest, let’s keep going,” said Jason.

 

Dan looked stood and walked closer to Jason. He had something in mind but he didn’t know whether it was good to ask of it.

 

“Can you heal?” asked Dan.

 

Jason glanced at Dan.

 

“I see a few buildings over there, let’s head over,” said Jason as he ignored Dan’s question.

 

“Wait, I see something,” but then Hemlock’s words caught both Dan and Jason’s attention.

 

“What is it Hemlock?” asked Dan.

 

Hemlock the designated Scout and Sniper of the squad was eyeing the terrain with her binoculars. Out of luck, she spotted something peculiar.

 

She walked over to Dan and handed over the binoculars to him. Unlike regular binoculars, this one had night vision.

 

“Look there, ten o’clock,” said Hemlock. She pointed out to the river banks close with the buildings that Jason saw.

 

Dan looked through the binoculars and saw something that didn’t make any sense.

 

“Woah,” said Dan.

 

Jason who was curious snatched the binoculars off from him and looked through the binoculars. Then he saw what it was. It was a wolf, similar to the one he saw Bryce fought on TV, yet this wasn’t any normal wolf as something was riding on it.

 

Jason grinned as he muttered one thing.

 

“Goblin.”