Chapter 90: Encounter in the Heat

"I’ve got a surprise for all of you." Riley said with a smug look and everyone else glanced at him.

He shrugged and raised his arm at one of the mutated jackals.

The mutated jackal sensed danger from him and it activated its ability.

Brown and yellowish soil that was on the ground started to stir and the soil rose into the air, engulfing the body of the jackal in the form of a dome.

In the next moment, the soil started to harden.

It tried to protect itself with the hardened dome but it wasn’t enough.

A huge bubble that was around ten meters in diameter, which was much bigger than anything else that Riley was able to create before, appeared.

However, it didn’t explode upon contact with the hardened dome, but it was able to slip through the hardened dome and cover the hardened dome with it.

Boom!

The huge bubble exploded, turning the hardened dome of the mutated jackal into smithereens.

Even the mutated jackal that was protected within the hardened dome wasn’t spared from the power of the explosion.

It got much of its fur, skin and flesh ripped off.

The mutated jackal snarled in pain but it couldn’t do much when it coughed out spits of blood from its mouth.

Shock waves from the explosion had caused serious damage to the mutated jackal.

It got disoriented and it staggered a few steps unsteadily before it collapsed on its side after a few moments.

"What the hell? When did you level up?" Terry glanced at Riley with bemusement.

Riley lifted his head high, shrugged his shoulders and said, "Just a few moments ago.

"I knew my SS Level ability is cool as shit."

"Yeah right." Terry rolled his eyes at Riley but he was envious of his level up.

He wanted to try and take on the other mutated jackal but he had no chance at all.

Alex lunged at the mutated jackal and the mutated jackal opened its mouth at him.

Numerous sharp spears made of rocks appeared in front of its mouth and they shot out at him.

But the sharp spears couldn’t even get near him.

They were absorbed into his storage portal as usual.

And at the same time, a slit appeared on the top of its head silently.

The slit opened up into a portal and the mutated jackal tried to lift up its head to see what had appeared above it.

All it saw were bright flashes that blinded its eyes.

Bam!

Lightning strikes descended down onto its head before the soil could envelope itself and protect it.

The lightning strikes struck its head and blew a huge chunk of it into pieces.

What was left was only the lower jaw of the mutated jackal and nothing above the lower jaw was intact.

It was a mangled mass of charred flesh and white matter.

The body of the mutated jackal dropped to the ground in an instant.

Alex wiped the sweat off his forehead and cursed at the simmering heat that was rising from the ground.

He turned around and checked on the busses.

There were many smaller mutated jackals that had surrounded the busses.

Grenades were launched from the automatic grenade launchers mounted on the turrets while machine guns that were also mounted on the turrets fired in alternating bursts of fire.

The firepower from the busses was enough to force the mutated jackals to keep a distance away.

A few of the mutated jackals that got hit were whimpering on the ground in pain.

"Come, let’s go and finish it up." Alex waved at his friends and said.

Terry, who had just seen Riley’s level up and how powerful it was, ran as fast as he could towards the group of mutated jackals that surrounded the busses.

Brian tried to stop Terry but he also picked up his pace after thinking about it.

None of them wanted to be left behind.

They had to kill as much as they could to get more powerful.

Alex shook his head at them and he followed closely behind.

Although he could easily outpace them, he didn’t want to affect their enthusiasm in getting stronger.

He was well aware that, with him alone, it wouldn’t be enough to ensure that everyone would survive.

The only best bet was to get everyone near him to become as powerful as they could.

They already had a head start when the Apocalypse started compared to the others when they tried to get rid of as many mutated rats and other Stage I mutated beasts as they could.

But they must not rest on their laurels and slip behind.

From what he had seen, the Elite Awakened Special Ops unit weren’t too far behind many other experiments they were making on the test subjects and Awakened they’ve captured.

He would have to let Teresa get started on the syringe that Lieutenant Lee tried to use once they got settled down at the hydroelectric dam.

But for now....

It was time to take care of the mutated jackals.

Alex raised his hands at a group of mutated jackals trying to take cover from the machine gun fire behind some boulders.

Bam!

The lightning strikes he unleashed onto them destroyed the boulders and blew the mutated jackals behind the boulders into pieces.

Being only at Stage II mutation, they didn’t have any chance against him.

The remaining mutated jackals that were near him saw what happened and they snarled their teeth at him.

However, three storage portals appeared above them while they did so.

Lightning strikes came down at them and these mutated jackals were wiped out in an instant.

Soil and dust from the ground were kicked up into the air.

When the dust settled, there was nothing but a pile of bodies with the limbs and chunks of flesh strewn around on the ground.

The heat with the sun shining down brightly mixed with the bloody scene caused the air to reek of a putrid smell.

Alex checked on his friends and they were also done with the other groups of mutated jackals around the busses.

He wiped the sweat off his brow and a familiar sound erupted in his mind.