Chapter 12: the third exobeast appears

The 2 cadets journeyed for hours, as they intended to leave this mountainous region entirely.

They tried to make themselves as inconspicuous as possible, as they possibly can’t account for all the dangers in this region. They did not want to engage any beast horde now, exobeasts were their main focus.

They rested sometimes on the way, as they conveniently ate from the meat, they packed on their bags to regain their energy.

“Shit, man I didn’t know this rocky territory was this large. It’s evening already, and we are yet to sight another terrain”, Leo grumbled in frustration.

Clark chuckled at the way his friend grumbled, but he also felt helpless. “I hope that we leave this area soon”, he muttered.

They camped for the night to rest and continued their journey the next day. As they walked, Leo suddenly bumped his friend on the shoulders excitedly, almost making him fall from the applied force.

Clark was about to complain, but he kept quiet as something else captured his attention. They started seeing a forest gradually appearing in insight.

Despite the excitement they felt, they decided to be cautious as they decided to rest here for the night before going deep into the jungle tomorrow. After washing up, they slept at the corner of a nearby rock as they got prepped up for the next day's hunt.

Almost at the same time the next day, they both woke up feeling endless strength and dread for the day’s journey. They both set off early before the day was fully lit up by the sun; as they moved, they referenced knowledge from their learning years about forest exobeasts.

All exobeasts that have their territory in a forest, tend to have the mentality that only them the leader of the so-called territory are allowed to kill and hunt in large quantities.

Any other strong augmented animal that tries to be a tyrant by killing in large numbers for sport, is seen as a challenger to the true tyrant of that territory. The exobeast quickly hunts and kills that animal to reinforce its image as the strongest in the territory.

As the forest was too huge to find a single exobeast just by looking for it, they quickly decided to start massacring all animals on sight. This move will draw their opponent to them voluntarily.

As they killed, they sometimes met strong opposition in the form of large mobs of augmented animals. But they always emerged victorious due to their increased experience and strength from the last few days.

Their encounter with the 2 exobeasts in the mountainous region was more of a combination of luck and various other factors, as exobeasts were very hard to find.

For the whole day, they spent their time killing animals, rest, eat, and killing animals again. The whole region they went through was left with a mark of blood;

Clark was amazed as he excitedly discussed their improvement with his friend. This training was already bringing them tangible benefits, beyond the normal benefit of graduating.

“Leo, I didn’t know that we’ll improve this fast. During the first training session, I struggled to kill a single augmented cat. But in just a matter of days, I can now massacre a whole mob of augmented animals wielding only my sword and daggers”.

“This graduation training is really a transformation training, it’s a baptism of blood.” he chattered away excitedly. His words were not without basis as compared to before, they were now countless times more proficient in battle.

To their disappointment, no exobeast came throughout the day, but they were not impatient though.

“We’ve got a whole month”, Clark said. Maybe as a form of comfort, or encouragement.

“I don’t even think some groups have completed their first exobeast kill by now. We're completely off the charts now," Leo added.

After all their pointless conversations, they turned in for the night without worry. They did not need to worry as they knew that no augmented animal will have the guts to attack them unless an exobeast came, which was extremely unlikely that night.

Because they were both killing the augmented animals for fun didn’t reduce these beast’s lethality and intelligence to lower-skilled cadets.

They were just too strong now for them. All animals in the territory recognized their strength and wisely steered clear from them.

The next day, they continued their routine of killing other animals as they advanced. Fortunately, they didn’t have to wait too long as the third exobeast they’ve encountered in this training showed up.

It was a very massive and ferocious-looking ape. It roared, as it glared at them proudly while beating its chest repeatedly in an aggressive manner.

Clark was surprised, as he gaped at the scene before them. Not at the exobeast, but at the huge company of apes, it brought to fight.

“Shit Leo, how can we be this unlucky?” He cursed bitterly while questioning without restraint.

Exobeasts were divided into 2 categories in terms of their style of fighting. Most exobeasts naturally prefer going solo, as they are very proud creatures and they view all other creatures with contempt.

But there were these peculiar exobeasts that prefer having their personal army. They recognized the strength in numbers, so they proactively rally other creatures to join their army, especially creatures of the same species.

This ferocious-looking ape was clearly one of those peculiar exobeasts. “How unlucky,” he grumbled, but still got ready for the fight.

As he quietly grumbled to himself, Leo already launched himself into the formation of creatures. Splash!! Splash!! Blood sprinkled everywhere as he bulldozed his way in, skillfully killing a good number of the subordinate apes in less than 30 seconds.

Clark didn’t hesitate either, as he quickly started shooting with his laser-powered pistols. He kneeled beside the sniper rifle which he already set up.

The exobeast quickly became irritated and enraged as it saw its subordinates get killed in its presence. The ape was augmented more towards defense, unlike the previous 2 exobeasts that were more or less all rounded.

Due to its relatively average speed, Leo firmly controlled the tempo of the battle as he used its underlings as obstacles to avoid clashing with it head-on. As he fought, his friend conveniently shot down the apes in his range while also quickly finishing off those that managed to come near with his daggers.

As they continued the slaughter, the intelligent exobeast finally realized that it was being led by the nose by these challengers.

It roared in rage as its eyes grew red; the air suddenly became very tense and offensive as it directed his focus at one of the cadets while preparing energy for a charge.

“Shit,” Leo almost fainted as he suddenly felt goosebumps all over his body. His breath was practically seizing as he felt like he was placed in the butcher’s board, awaiting his death. He quickly retreated without hesitation.

[Thank you for reading this chapter I really appreciate it. Please if there is any problem with the translation quality or there is any wrong spelling or sentence, indicate I'll try to fix it immediately.]