Chapter 215: the snow leopard with a harem

The next morning rolled in with a bang as the gloomy cold of the Everest dominated and dictated the weather again, firmly hindering the pitiful golden sun from rearing its head.

It was a freaky Friday morning, and it was the day that the soldiers of Squad 06 decided to continue their mission journey.

Due to the reminder from Clark yesterday, all the soldiers were already aware so they woke up earlier than normal with more vigor and vibrancy.

After 2 agonizing days of being couped in a dark hole inside a cedar tree, they were finally going out to face the world again.

Activities started in the enormous hole, as the soldiers went to work to organize their supplies again for the journey. Some minutes later, the supply bags were finally filled to the brim again.

After doing this and arranging their equipment, they finally turned to face their Major with excited and expectant expressions on their faces.

They could not wait to re-engage and continue the mission. After 2 days of rest and self-reflection, they finally started regaining the demeanor and mental resilience of well-trained soldiers of the Spartan republic.

Clark did not let their expectations down as he smiled at them before opening his mouth to speak. Though the area was dark, they could see his smile through their night vision goggles.

“Soldiers, the call of duty is upon us again. I believe that the past few days of rest did you all some good and you are now ready to bulldoze any obstacle obstructing us apart, right?”

“Yes, sir!” The soldiers answered vibrantly.

“Good. It may seem like we wasted 2 days just to rest, but that’s not the case. In the right circumstances, a well-prepared squirrel can even take down the king of the jungle, the lion”.

“That is exactly what we did. We spent our time to consolidate and recover our strength, which only makes us more dangerous to every predator in this region”.

“Now, I can confidently state that this squad is at its peak. We are the predators here now, not the prey anymore, and predators don’t give in to fear and challenges”.

“Today, we are moving forward. Today, we show this forest who is boss. I already sent out our movement blueprint to your implants, every one of my plans is laid down there for you”.

“We will react accordingly to any unexpected circumstances as they come, so there are no elaborate plans. Diana, Benny, do you 2 have any new suggestions or advice?”

“No, sir”.

After confirming everything with his soldiers and knowing that they were on the same page, Clark nodded with a smile before taking the lead and going out of the hole in the tree.

After 2 days of recovery from their losses, preparation for every unknown in this region, and consolidation of their newfound knowledge and experience, they finally continued their mission journey.

As going back was no longer an option, they just continued forging ahead inside the frost forest in a single direction. This time, they did not move disorderly as before, they were more organized.

Clark as the leader was the one who took the lead at the front, while the 40+ soldiers followed him closely behind in a square-shaped movement formation.

Diana and Benny stayed at the far back of the formation, as they were both assigned with the role of watching their backs in the case of any sudden danger.

In this still unknown region, no precaution and countermeasures were too much. From their little experience, this was a forest dripping with high-grade exobeasts, so any contingency plan was welcome by them.

Just like an organized bunch of refugees, they slowly trudged deeper inside the forest in their thick cold-resistant black uniforms.

…

“You 5, corner it and cut off its escape path from the rear, don’t let it escape!” Clark’s loud voice reverberated around the cold forest, as he sprinted forward with a pair of exotic daggers in his hand.

The 5 soldiers that were pointed at reacted swiftly to his orders, as they stacked their exotic shields together to erect a blockade.

Roar!!

The snow leopard roared with anger evident on its catty face, as it swiped down with its enormous claws at the blue glowing energy shield.

Seeing this, the soldiers leaned back a little, kneeling in the process as this helped them to better take in the force that was released by this apex predator.

With that, they easily weathered the momentum behind the claw attack. After so many battle experience opportunities in this region, they were far steadier, calmer, and more proficient in battles than they were a month ago.

Yes, it was already a month since Clark’s squad was stuck in this frost forest. After they left the tree, their journey across till now was without casualties but it was not an easy ride.

Under Clark’s leadership, the squad was now extremely cohesive and organized that it was hard for a soldier to die from the group even if they wanted it.

They were already used to most dangers of this region and its terrain, so they now had an abundant experience that could weather them across safely. The only problem now was when they would leave this forest.

The deeper they went, the more they felt that the forest was boundless and without boundaries.

During this month, they already had various showdown encounters with different exobeasts that their tyranny was already spreading around the forest.

Most intelligent animals here already knew them as the new local tyrants, so they hardly encounter ordinary beasts, only exobeasts.

During their countless showdowns, they encountered over 30 exobeasts already, which was a horrifying figure in itself.

Throughout Clark’s career as a soldier, he had not even encountered so many exobeasts. This just showed how perverse this region was, it was a complete disaster to anyone unprepared.

Due to their better preparation and cohesiveness, they succeeded in killing about 25 of those exobeasts. The rest luckily escaped while riddled with countless injuries.

Their current ongoing battle was between 3 snow leopard companions. They found them together, so they easily guessed that these were probably brothers or a husband and 2 wives.

Encountering them, they attacked without hesitation. This was only right on their part because these beasts would have surely attacked them also if they discovered them first.

After countless battle experiences together, they already devised battle strategies for various battle situations.

For example, now in this battle against 3 exobeasts, Clark led a group of soldiers to battle the strongest while Diana and Benny led another group to battle theirs respectively.

With this method, every soldier could participate in the battles thereby granting them more battle experience.

Though this was a danger-infested region, it was also a treasure trove of training resources to them.

Fighting directly against exobeasts was already proven as one of the most effective training methods in this era, that is why most soldiers pay exorbitant amounts of money just to access an exobeast reserve.

They already started reaping the benefits of this region, as they all already improved at some aspect of their techniques as soldiers.

“Good job, soldiers”.

Clark complimented his soldiers on seeing how the 5 that he pointed at perfectly curbed the impact of the leopard’s claw attack with their shields.

The ranged soldiers used this opportunity where the leopard was stuck for a moment to output further damage on its thick hide, as it howled loudly in pain before turning to another escape direction.

If Clark really wanted it, he could kill the leopard alone, but he wanted all his soldiers to get the experience of the battle.

He engaged sparingly in the battle only to save any soldier that was under the threat of death, thereby always stabilizing and keeping the battle situation under control.

As the soldiers fought excitedly, another opening finally appeared in the leopard’s defense as another group of soldiers blocked its advance with stacked shields.

Taking complete advantage of this opening, the other soldiers all swarmed closer before trying to immobilize it further with their shields and other restraining gadgets.

Due to the fierce struggle of the beast, it took more effort on their part and even 3 of the soldiers were injured from the impact but they finally succeeded in restraining this beast.

The shields blocked its movements from the front, back, including both left and right sides, sandwiching it in a very compromising angle.

This was not everything though, as some gadgets were thrown down close to its still struggling muscly legs.

Starting with cracking mechanical sounds, the gadgets opened up smoothly as mechanical restraints sprouted out before attaching to the leopard's legs from all angles, firmly holding it in place.

The soldiers’ eyes all lit up after doing this successfully, as they rushed closer with their weapons to finish off this sweet kill.

Clark stopped on seeing this as a faint smile quickly outlined his face, he knew that the leopard’s struggle was drawing to its end after this was done to it.

The soldiers developed this immobilization strategy between themselves, which they always used in battles involving exobeasts. And it also proved feasible, as they already used it to kill 7 exobeasts.

His speculation quickly came true, as the soldiers unleashed all their load at their now immobilized target.

Dozens of energy beams and kinetic powered bullet shots rapidly crisscrossed across the snow, as they swiftly hammered at the snow leopard’s thick skin without hesitation.

The melee specialists were not deterred despite this fierce firepower concentrated at their target, as they all activated their shields before storming closer to finish the work that they started.

Bam!!

Swords, spears, and other exotic melee weapons stabbed and slashed as their sharp edges cut ruthlessly at the now helpless leopard.

Seeing this, the once tyrannical predator finally revealed fear on its face for the first time as it started whimpering loudly. Whimpering unrelentingly but finding no help, it held its nerve again before hissing at the soldiers.

This hardly did a thing to the already highly excited soldiers, as they finally drowned their 8th exobeast to death through their unique strategy.

“Yay!!” “We finished ours first”.

They celebrated loudly after turning to their other companions and seeing that they killed their leopard first. As they celebrated, the others also finally killed theirs.

“Hmm, you guys were lucky because Major spearheaded your team”. One of the soldiers in Benny’s group suddenly interjected in their celebration, with a sneer of ridicule on his face.

“Ha…, are you blind? Can’t you see that we used our strategy to kill it? Another soldier quickly shot back.

“Which strategy…?”

As the soldiers were about to bicker between themselves, Clark finally called out to stop them. He was already feeling a headache from this, he felt helpless about it.

Though he kept on hammering on the importance of being alert always since they came for this mission, it was inevitable that the soldiers would grow more confidence after killing over 30 exobeasts without suffering any casualties.

He also felt proud of the feat at times, but he always tried to downtone it as a moment of carelessness was all that was needed for one of them to die.

Though he stopped their bickering, he had no intention of taking the fun away. He just wanted them to be more alert.

“Ok, have you done the drill?” He asked while rubbing his hands excitedly.

“Yes, sir!” One soldier answered enthusiastically.

“Ok, tell me the gender”.

“Sir, you said it was a game of guessing between you and the second in commands”.

“Oh, I almost forgot, silly me. Ok, they are 3 brothers”. Clark suddenly said confidently with a straight face.

“You were trying to cheat before, right? Such a shameless Major”. Diana finally spoke out sarcastically at this point.

“After bashing heads with Sergeant Benny, we decided that it is a family of a husband and 2 wives”.

“Ha, that’s nonsense. Tell us, Sergeant Band”. Clark scoffed at his competitors’ reply, before turning to the sergeant for the right answer.

“Umm, sir…, they are right this time”. The soldier finally spoke out again, this time in a low tone.

“What??” Clark was surprised.

“Yes sir, it’s a male leopard with 2 wives”. The soldier added again on hearing his Major’s exclamation.

“Damn, even animals are now having 2 wives and I’m stuck with none. What a hard life I’m living”. He muttered loudly in a self-deprecating tone, earning laughter from his soldiers.

“I can’t believe even leopards have taken the harem route. What a world we live in, lions have led them astray from the truth”.

Hahaha!!

The soldiers laughed off their Major’s sarcasm, as they went forward to process the meat that was before them. Yes, they were eating the leopards. Why leave food behind when they were already going low on supplies?

[Thank you for reading this chapter, I really appreciate it. Please, leave your power stones behind to support the book. Purchase privilege for The Conspiracy Of The Elites and read a varying amount of chapters ahead of regular readers.]