"I can see it." Michael's eyes narrowed, scanning the distance.
There was a large alien that looked similar to a toad. It had opened its mouth wide, creating a portal that allowed other aliens to pass.
'If I had to guess, the portal is connected to Neptune since this weak alien shouldn't be able to create portals too far away.' He guessed.
Teleportation was one of the reasons why humanity had such hard times against the alien invasion. While they had yet to grasp the concept, their enemies were able to create portals wherever they wanted. That was why it was so dangerous to have so many aliens hiding at the surface of the moon.
While they would be able to fight back against invading aliens that came with spaceships, if one were to add waves of aliens attacking at the same time, then things would be vastly different.
'Hopefully in this life humanity will be able to grasp how teleportation works.' Michael hoped as he approached the alien.
Since it had opened a portal, it meant that it was stuck in one place for the rest of its life. All Michael had to do was to get rid of the few lingering enemies near the toad.
"Thankfully they are all Lower tier foes. If they were Higher things would have been much uglier." He sighed, wiping the blood off his blade.
With a nonchalant expression, he walked towards the large toad and stabbed it in the brain.
[Quest Slaughter the alien wave: Completed!]
[Distributing Reward]
[Rare cybernetic gained, 50 Skill Points gained]
Since Michael had eaten the meat of the foes he had slain up until now, he had managed to accumulate a total of 80 Skill Points.
A second later a neon chip appeared in his hand. Without hesitation he put it in his neural link.
[New technique comprehended: Dash]
[Rank: Rare]
[Level: 1]
[Description: Increases your agility by 500% for 1 second. Has a 30-second cooldown.]
'Pretty good! If I combine this with Berserker, I can reach more than 2500 agility.'
Michael was plenty surprised with the synergy between his two techniques. The path to true formidable power wasn't to stack the rarest techniques you can find but to find a way to synergize them.
"Good work. To think that we were able to kill the whole wave and even destroy the portal without reinforcements." Ava praised. She wanted to pat Michael on the head since he had already done it to her once. But midway she realized that she couldn't reach the top of his head. So she had to resort to patting him on the shoulder instead.
Michael couldn't help but chuckle. "Thanks for the backup. If I were alone, I would have been forced to flee from the wave earlier."
Instinctively he patted Ava on the head, causing her whole body to tremble.
The rest of the squad watched the exchange in awe. Never in their life would they have ever thought that the Daredevil would act so flustered around another person, much less a man!
'I am not sure if you are teasing her on purpose or if you are really that dense.' The sword called out in his head.
'All I am doing is treating the ones that deserve it with kindness and decency. I have no control over what others think.'
The sword scoffed before disappearing into Michael's body. This was the biggest advantage of soul weapons. Aside from being almost impossible to break, they could enter a person's body and be ready to be summoned at a moment's notice.
With the threat over, the squad began to relax. They decided to eat dinner before they returned to the base to restock and rest. They had been fighting nonstop for close to 6 hours by now. It wasn't a good idea to overexhaust oneself.
In the middle of the pleasant dinner, a voice interrupted their happy chatter.
"Who goes there?!"
Alerted by the voice, the whole squad turned to the source. There a blonde man with emerald eyes stood.
"We are offensive squad from base #85." Ava answered. "Originally our task was to halt the advance of the alien wave. But we judged that we could take down the portal on our own."
She had long guessed that these were the reinforcements that they were supposed to receive. Her hostile tone was intentional. After all, the reinforcements were hours late! If it weren't for Michael rushing forward and taking care of the portal, they would have long been overwhelmed by the waves of foes.
"Basically, what I am hearing is that you went against your orders and put your entire squad at risk... Let me guess, since in every base there is a competition on who kills the most aliens, you risked it all for a mere Epic cybernetic?" The blonde man scoffed.
Ava gritted her teeth in anger, about to explode. Rather than being praised, she and her squad were being ridiculed?
Before she could open her mouth, Michael butted in.
"No, what happened was that we waited for reinforcements that never came. Since the people that we were to rely on with our lives failed to appear at an adequate time, we were forced to clean up their mess. Had it not been for Captain Ava, the entire area would have been filled with enemies by now."
Michael wasn't one to really care if somebody disrespected him since mere words had no power over him. But he couldn't stand when people he respected and valued were insulted.
'It's clear what the blonde is trying to achieve. He wants to make Ava attack him.'
"Ho?" The blonde man mused. "How dare a lowly commoner butt in on the business of the captains?"
For whatever reason the reinforcements had the intention of starting trouble. The blonde had intently insulted Michael, hoping that Ava would attack him.
Since she was well known for her short fuse even among the other bases, the other captain had tried his luck.
Ava was nearing her limit of patience. When she heard Michael being insulted, it made her blood boil.
Before she could pounce on the arrogant captain and tear him limb from limb, Michael patted her on the head, calming her down.
With a smile he answered. "This lowly commoner doesn't like it when an incompetent captain like yourself insults mine that is superior to you in every aspect."
A vein bulged on the blonde's forehead. As things were standing, he was going to lose face… To a lowly commoner at that!
With gritted teeth he spoke.
"You…"