Zak’s Team

"Before doing that. Do you think we can check something first?"

Zak looked at me with curiosity.

"What do you want to check?"

"Yesterday when we arrived with Dr. Harting there was an ambush waiting for us, we detected it before it happened so we avoided it, but I would like to be sure that there is no one there anymore. The place where they were is near the clinic group and is the path that connects both groups, so in case they or we need to send a message, they could intercept and kill the messenger."

Leon speak up when he heard me.

"I understand your point, but yesterday you said that we should avoid it, and it was a bad idea to fight."

"Yesterday we have at least 5 non-combatants to protect so if the fight was chaotic the losses would be high. Now we are a team, and the conditions are better than yesterday. If they are still there, it means that they have been waiting for Dr. Harting appearance for 2 days, so they should be tired."

Zak showed interest and looked at me.

"So you want to go to capture them?"

"I don't mean to be rude, but do you really want to take here 2 potentially dangerous people that want to kill us and waste food on them?"

Zak smiled after hearing my words, Leon and Gabriel showed stunned faces.

"Of course not, I wanted to be sure that we are on the same page. Those guys wanted to capture a group of guys that attacked us a couple days ago, it's good to have someone on my side."

Well, it wasn't that weird if I think about it they probably are mostly killing beasts and the appearance of a "rogue" group that would attack other people usually wouldn't appear here. Also for example in my group, I'm the only one that had killed human this far.

"What happened to the guys you captured?"

"Captured? I'm the leader, so I decided to kill them anyway."

I fell silent without knowing how to answer to that, the other two guys made a complex expression and trembled a little as if they remembered something that wanted to forget. I agreed that the better was killing them, but I'm not sure how I felt about the fact that he completely ignored his partners.

Without waiting for the response, he started to give orders.

"Spence takes the rearguard, Leon you and me in the vanguard I need you to guide. Gabriel checks the sky and the surrounding buildings."

We all nodded. And started to move at a face pace.

Since neither Rose nor Dante was here to scout around, I enhanced my sight, hearing, and smell to the max a could, and focused on doing my job covering our backs. I had my new handgun on my hands pointing towards the ground and carefully surveyed my surrounding while following Zak's team.

Of course, without Dante the travel wasn't as peaceful as before, the rearguard was calm compared to the front. I killed a raccoon that came here because of the fighting sounds and a couple of another minor beast.

In the vanguard, they had more problems, mainly with birds and rats. The beasts that were hunted were left there, at least for the moment it was decided that rats or animal that could cause diseases would not be brought back. There was a guideline about what can be brought back and what not.

The raccoon went into a bag that Zak was carrying around. The raccoon wasn't in the manual, so we decided to take it just in case. Also, it didn't give me any points, so it was normal.

From time to time a bird or a rat would appear behind us. To not waste bullets I decided to use the tomahawk, I tried throwing it a couple of times too. Most of those times I had to kill the beast with the kukri. There were just 6 blocks from the entrance to the place that the ambush was, but we probably had finished a couple dozens of minor beast already.

I got points from a snake that was hidden on a collapsed building that was at the F-Rank. Since I was able to see auras and coupled with my sixth sense, I noticed the snake was a ranked beast as soon as it appeared, to prevent it from doing any harm I shot it before it could do anything.

On the front, besides the rats and birds, they had to deal with some snakes and lizards that appeared from time to time, the threw those in the bag. Apparently, the lizard meat even if it was a little hard to chew was an approved food, and the scales could work fine as a reinforcement for armors. About snakes, the poison was used in experiments for antidotes, drugs, and sometimes on weapons.

I focused on the way the rest of the team fought. Leon control was better than before. I could see hands extending from him and taking stuff to throw.

Gabriel's aim also was better than before, but his control over his power was the same, so his fire rate was low. His aura was yellow from time to time a little lightning would appear, it was weak when I compared it to Leon, so I think that this is almost his limit anyway. It made me feel that even if he is probably one of the few people that can use the Railfle, a conductive melee weapon was much better for him to use his power.

Zak aura was a red layer that covered him. The strength was about the same as Gabriel though, but since he was using a body enhancement, he was more effective than Gabriel when he was using his spear.

I noticed that at lower ranks the different enhancements were more effective for fighting, but in higher Ranks, these were utterly outclassed by powers like Jamie's, Hayley's or Dante's.

…

While I was thinking, we arrived near the place where the guys were waiting. I could feel my sixth sense telling me that there was something there. It was a weird feeling, but it wasn't like something you could get from your normal senses, I couldn't see them hear them or even smell them from this distance, but I knew that they were there. It was something more instinctive.

"They are still there."

Zak looked at me.

"How do you know?"

"Enhanced senses. I feel something there… waiting."

"After I heard about your battle with the alligator I thought that you had a physical enhance."

"My enhanced senses make my reflexes better, that's why I could react to the alligator attacks and counter him properly."

"Interesting… so do you know how many are inside?"

"I'm not sure, I think there are two, but I'm not 100% sure."

Zak nodded and started to look around.

"Gabriel go to the second floor of that building and get ready. Spencer, go with Gabriel and check if there is any danger in there and come back. Leon, go to the intersection and keep watch."

I went with Gabriel and checked around, the building was empty as far as I can see. In the meantime, he took a couple of accessories and took a position in the window.

He was visibly nervous, from what they said before I'm pretty sure that he hasn't killed anyone before I think he should be about Rose age.

After looking at him for a second, I asked.

"Do you have someone you want to protect?"

Gabriel was surprised and looked at me.

"A sister and a brother, they are 8 and 10 years old… our parents… died…"

I give I light nod.

"Sometimes by pulling the trigger, you are protecting them remember that. Unfortunately, the beasts are not the only danger in this city."

I never was good with words, but I felt that he wouldn't even try to pull the trigger if I don't say something to him. I left him to think about what I just told him. I hope he takes the shot if we need him to.

I met Zak on the street.

"Ready?"

"For what?"

"I'm going to call their attention to make them come out."

"Okay."

I took cover and got my gun ready. I would have preferred to get inside and try to assassinate them silently, but Zak was in charge. I aimed at the door and focused on the reflex sight and my hearing. I was breathing calmly when Zak took a rock the size of a bowling ball and threw it at the building where the guys were hiding.

I could hear the crash against the wall and movements coming from inside. Two guys appeared, both were about 1.9 meters tall one was muscular, and I could see that his skin was cracked like a dry wasteland. The other one was a fat -guy. The fat guy was holding a primitive spear, and the other had a hatchet that it was usually used for wood chopping.

Both their auras were green, the fat guy's aura was continually moving and was more sparkly, the one from the muscular one was static, and the color was darker with some brown cracks.

Zak was apparently the "kill first ask questions later" type, and while I was looking at our matchups to size them, he had already charged.