Chapter 215 - Raining Explosions

"You don't get to say that to us, civilian."

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Rynold exclaimed as he took another step closer, "You're really pulling the civilian card right now? After I saved you, idiots, from dying?!"

Coming out from a troubling fight, Rynold was pissed. He didn't have time to be dealing with stubborn asses right now as there was a colossal threat literally looming over them. He had to get a move on, and these soldiers were putting a stop to that.

As much as Rynold didn't want to antagonize anybody any further, he had no choice but to do just that. He had to get these people out of here, whether they'd like it or not. In his eyes, the soldiers were the civilians that needed saving.

"Would you people think for a second? Your guns clearly have no effect on these things. They're nothing but toys to them! As much as I don't like being the ass here, you are only going to get yourselves killed out here."

Rynold told the other soldiers off and tried to be brutally honest with them. He thought that if he did it nicely, the message would've come across well. But, much to his dismay, the soldier directly in front of Rynold scoffed and broke out in laughter. Then, the other soldiers followed.

"Pssh," the soldier closest to Rynold recovered from his laughter, "What do you know, civilian? We are soldiers in the Ark City military. Sure, you've picked up some nice tricks here and there, but we're more equipped to handle this fight than you ever will be."

"You people are idiots," Rynold challenged.

"Oh?" the snicker on the soldier's face disappeared as he took a step closer to Rynold. He approached with a sense of arrogance and stared down at Rynold. "You know, I don't appreciate it when people don't know their place."

"And, I don't appreciate it when people aren't grateful."

As soon as Rynold said that, he reached out and grabbed the soldier's rifle. From there, he proceeded to fiddle with it like a kid playing with a toy.

It took a full second for the soldiers to realize what Rynold had just done. He grabbed the gun so swiftly and naturally that the soldiers failed to register what had happened. Eventually, though, they managed to figure it out and pointed their rifles at Rynold, ready to open fire whenever.

"So," Rynold calmly added, "Where were we? I believe it's your turn to insult me, right? I'm guessing you're about to threaten me by shoving me. Or, you know, you could just straight-up sucker punch me. Your pick."

Rynold's overly casual attitude sent shivers down the soldier's spine. But, as his pride wouldn't allow it, the soldier didn't back down.

"Are you blind? We have you outnumbered ten to one. And-"

Snap!

Before the guy could say anything else, Rynold snapped the rifle in two. It barely took any effort, and Rynold threw the two pieces away like they were nothing.

"So what if you have me outnumbered?" Rynold shook his head once more as he sighed exasperatingly. "If it gets you the hell out of here, then shoot all you want. I don't really give a damn so long as you leave the battlefield."

The soldier that Rynold took the gun from became frustrated and drew his sidearm. He then shot Rynold with everything he had, and the other soldier soon followed in his tracks. They didn't stop until they poured every last bullet onto Rynold.

A cloud of dust covered the place where Rynold stood. The soldiers smiled as they became satisfied with how they dealt with the situation and the bastard that offended them.

Sigh.

The sound of a deep breath let out came from inside the cloud of dust. The soldiers thought they just heard things. But, Rynold's sudden appearance proved otherwise.

Lunging towards the soldier who shot first, Rynold grabbed him by the neck and pinned him to the ground. The attack was too sudden for any person there to catch it in real-time. The soldiers could only react once it had already happened.

"You know," Rynold said coldly, "I haven't known any of you for too long, but all of you are starting to get on my nerves. Really. All I needed was a single reason for me to crack open your skulls and leave you drowning in your own blood. But, hey, who knew that you'd give it to me on a silver platter?"

"So," Rynold gently squeezed the soldier's neck, "Before things go down, do any of you have any final words? I'm aching for some bloodshed, so you better make it quick."

Rynold's calm and collected tone sent shivers down to every soldier's spine. The one Rynold had pinned down squirmed so much it was like holding down a wild animal. He had even tried to express his disdain, but Rynold's grip on his throat proved that difficult.

"Really?" Rynold found it unbelievable that no one was acting out. No single person was brave enough to stand his ground against the unstoppable force that was Rynold. "Guess you're all going to die then."

As soon as Rynold said that, the soldiers finally snapped out of their daze and ran away from him. Every single soldier ran around in a panic as they tried to get away from Rynold.

"Finally," Rynold smiled and released the soldier from his grip, making the guy cough excessively. "You might want to find a way to calm your friends down. And, once you do, get the hell out of the battlefield and find someplace safe. Clear?"

The soldier looked at Rynold with eyes of anger and a closed fist to match. But, Rynold's overwhelming strength could only make the soldier give a single answer — a nod that had nothing but fear for his life.

"Good."

Leaving the soldiers in their senseless panic, Rynold focused on the task at hand. He ran towards the sound of the fight without any regard to his safety whatsoever. It was too risky to hesitate now as Rynold knew how big of a threat the colossal-sized ghoul was.

And, soon enough, Rynold reached his destination, only to find nothing was happening. The colossally gigantic ghoul wasn't moving at all. Rynold even approached its foot and poked around it to no reaction whatsoever.

'Okay, that's weird.'

Ghouls, like the ones Rynold encountered, attacked sporadically. They didn't abide by any sense of order similar to those in the military. So, seeing a ghoul standing still, especially one of this size, was a bit weird to come across.

Rynold took a second to think about it and inadvertently looked up. From where he was standing, he saw the attack helicopters at a closer distance compared to before. And, by the looks of things, Rynold became more confident than ever that those helicopters did nothing to the ghoul.

Regardless, Rynold processed and soon concluded that there might've been something controlling the massive ghoul. As ridiculous as it sounds, it was the only conclusion Rynold could come up with, and, besides, it wasn't like Rynold's never came across something like that before.

'Anyway, I might as well get started and take the thing down.'

With a sharp breath, Rynold circulated his Mana like never before.

Whether it was the newly increased Attributes or his eagerness, Rynold looked forward to releasing his full strength. After all, when was he going to find another target dummy that was impossible to miss and unmoving? It was an opportunity to test his limits, no doubt about it.

That said, Rynold started with a high jump, meeting the upper thigh of the creature's leg. From there, he whirred his drill and sliced. Rynold took did so in an attempt to slice its leg clean off from the rest of the ghoul's body.

"Hah!"

Rynold pushed his attack with every ounce of force he could muster. Pushing harder and harder, he didn't stop until his drill penetrated the colossal ghoul's leg. Luckily, it didn't take as much effort as he expected. This ghoul's bodily defenses weren't enough to stop Rynold's Augmented drill from continuing in its destruction.

Appearing at the ghoul's back leg now, Rynold struck out a kick to push the ghoul forward. The imbalance of losing a leg made it topple forward and would soon crash on the forest ahead.

Naturally, Rynold wouldn't let such an opportunity go to waste and proceeded to fire explosive bullets at the ghoul.

With no means to defend itself, one explosion after the other appeared on the ghoul's surface. It was no different from the helicopter's missiles, only that the explosive bullets actually dealt damage.

'This should be enough.'

As Rynold came closer and closer to the ground, he thought to himself. The barrage of bullets he fired up until this point should be more than enough to end things once and for all.

So, Rynold raised his other arm and held the True Caliber with both hands. He then gritted his teeth and clenched his butt, and then fired.

BOOOOOM!

A massive explosion appeared on the colossal-sized ghoul's back. It was an explosion that was loud enough to echo through miles. And, its destructive force managed to force back everything within its vicinity, causing a lot of indirect damage to the environment.

But, Rynold knew he had won.

Nothing could survive something like that. It was an explosion unlike any other. True Caliber's Reserve Shot had immense and undeniable potential. Rynold's final attack on the colossal ghoul was clear evidence of it.

Landing on the ground roughly and painfully, Rynold watched as the ghoul disappeared into dust before even touching the ground. Rynold got lucky, otherwise dealing with a corpse in the forest would've proven to be quite troublesome.

'I guess that's that.'

Rynold looked around the ruined forest and sighed in relief. He thought that he'd actually had to go through more trouble than that, but the fight was as clean as it could get.

'I should probably check things out then. The thing should've dropped something good. I better take it before somebody else tries to loot my kill.'

That said, Rynold sprung forward and walked hastily to the place where the loot drops should be — around the ghoul's chest. It took a little while to get there as Rynold made his way through awkward terrain. All in all, Rynold took about five minutes to get there.

"Ah, there it is."

Grabbing the loot and placing them in his inventory, Rynold didn't spend any time going through the descriptions of any of them. He knew he had to save that for later as he had to investigate what made the ghoul stop and stay still. It was an unnatural phenomenon, and Rynold intended to find out what caused it.

But. Where the hell does he start?

Without sparing a second thought, Rynold pulled Axiom from his inventory and ordered it to survey the area. Any subtle trace of Mana wouldn't go by unnoticed as Rynold placed his focus and attention into finding a needle out of this haystack.

'There're people to the side of me, no doubt the other soldiers that are still alive. They have Mana, that's for sure, but it's not what I'm looking for.'

Rynold spent the next few minutes trying to find something else — something more definite than a bunch of wannabe soldiers.

But, alas, there was nothing else.

'Okay,' Rynold shook his head defeatedly, 'Guess I have no other choice but to deal with that hot mess. Why the hell does it have to be so complicated all the time?'

Complaints filled Rynold's head as he walked towards where the soldiers were. With Axiom consistently scanning the area, Rynold made sure that he would take notice of anything out of the norm. But, so far, there was nothing.

"Hm..."

Reaching the small group of soldiers, Rynold acted on instinct and hid behind a bunch of bushes.