Chapter 223: the wild yaks palace

Clark stood in one place, a conflicted expression on his face as he weighed the pros and cons of the idea that just came to him.

He knew that climbing the mountain cliff to the alpha Wild Yak’s palace was dangerous, but the advantage that he stood to get from it persuaded him that this was a nice decision.

Perhaps he would not get any useful information or discovery, but it was still good as this would give them more peace of mind that a new variable would not suddenly emerge to disrupt their plans.

His gaze suddenly hardened, “I’ll do it”.

After making his decision, he did not rush to start climbing immediately, he was sensible enough to deduce that planting contingency plans for his escape were paramount, in the case that he was discovered.

He leaned against the mountain wall, pressed a button on his activated armor as a holographic screen quickly appeared before him.

Shaking his gloved hands to remove the snow that already attached to them, he raised them before expertly inputting instructions into the holographic screen.

A reaction was stirred immediately, as the drones started moving slowly from their original positions.

Remotely controlling them, he moved 5 upwards, setting them close to the location of the alpha’s palace. With this, he would not be completely blind to where he was going.

He set the other ones randomly across the sky to cover a significant portion of the animal settlements. With this, if he was discovered, he could monitor the movements of the animals ahead and react appropriately.

After making some other small preparations, he finally nodded in satisfaction before turning to scale the huge mountain cliff.

This time, he did not use his sickle-like climbing equipment. He attached a new gadget to his gloves which when paired with his multi-purpose boots, he used to start climbing uprightly like a wall gecko.

As he climbed, his armor deactivated again, leaving his white uniform behind as it now blended as a camouflage to the snow-filled mountain wall.

His speed with this climbing method was a little slower than before, but he didn’t care as it still did the job, he was ready to spend hours for this climb if required.

With such speed, he took his information-gathering mission to the next level, completely forgetting all the warnings that were issued by Diana.

…

Back in the elevated snow path in the forest where Clark originally hid with his companions, the group of 4 were no longer busy as they lied face flat on the snow, waiting for their leader.

After 2 hours, they already gathered all the relevant information that they needed. Though they could not get everything about this huge animal kingdom, they were satisfied with the information that they gathered.

“With all this information, after we thoroughly analyze them, we can use them as the prototype to make a complete blueprint plan that will increase our escape chances exponentially”.

Dickson’s muffled voice sounded out, showing a bit of excitement and surprise in the tone. “This mission is a huge success; my hopes are ignited again”.

“Yeah, we got a lot of useful information, but why is Major Clark not still here?” Diana’s slightly worried and irritated voice sounded out, as she looked anxiously in the direction of the animals’ settlement.

“He didn’t say anything about taking this long, I hope that he did not forget my advice and go on a dangerous adventure journey”.

“Why are you so afraid for him? That guy can completely take care of himself, it’s us that you should be worrying about instead”. Dickson’s voice turned lazy immediately on hearing Diana’s question again.

For the past few minutes after they finished gathering all the information that they wanted, Diana was constantly anxious as she kept on spamming them with questions about her Major.

He already got tired of answering, so he started getting bored and lazy, which was reflected in his speaking tone.

“What do you think he is currently doing?” 5 minutes later, Diana asked again.

Dickson was speechless. “How would I know? We have both been lying down here for the past few minutes, and you expect me to suddenly know what is going on there? Women!!”

Ignoring his gender jab, Diana continued. The other 2 soldiers were completely silent as they let their superiors continue blabbering on without a single word of objection.

“It’s an hour and 30 minutes already, something does not seem right”. Diana spoke out again, this time with narrowed eyes.

The other soldiers were already getting concerned, as serious expressions lined their faces. 30 minutes was ok, an hour may be described as a fluke, but spending another 1 hour 30 minutes there was abnormal.

“And he is not even sending any message back, what an annoying prick”. Dickson grumbled.

“We should go in and look for him”. Diana suddenly said.

“Ok, that’s…, what…, what? Are you crazy? Do you know what that is? That’s an animal kingdom, my squad was almost wiped out by them”.

Dickson was completely struck the wrong way by this crazy suggestion; his voice rose a few pitches as he fiercely shut down this idea before it could even materialize.

Seeing this, Diana softened her voice a little as she tried persuading him further, she felt genuinely worried about Clark.

“I am not going anywhere, neither are you. If you try it, then you have to overpower me first, I won’t let you throw your life away just in a moment of impulse”.

Dickson replied again, this time a little irritated by her insistence on the suggestion. “Clark is fine, if you go there, you will be the one dying instead”.

With such a fierce tone of speech from this soldier that Clark said could trash both her and Benny together, Diana finally shut up, bringing silence to the forest again.

…

Like Clark predicted, it took him more than an hour before he reached the location of the alpha Wild Yak’s palace. It took him approximately 1 hour 40 minutes.

After getting there, he didn’t go in immediately. He was surprised by the sight that greeted him at the entrance to the palace in the cave.

“His palace guards even do nightshifts, what a tyrannical alpha”. He was speechless.

Seeing the massive Himalayan black bears that stood rigidly at the entrance of the palace as nightguards, he felt a lot of emotions rush through him. Surprises were never-ending here, what a kingdom!

Though he was surprised by this sight, this could not stop him though as his stealth exotic armor came to use again at this moment. Silently activating it, he quickly went invisible again.

Before going inside, he remotely controlled one of the drones to come nearer. He coated it with the stealth coverage device, making it invisible before he let it in first.

Seeing that the drone entered successfully, he finally followed and entered, bypassing the 2 rigidly standing massive bears.

Seeing how easily he evaded these 2 fellows, he felt like palming his face at how dumb they were. Animal guards indeed; they were really doing a good job of safeguarding their alpha.

He no longer paid attention to the 2 fellows as through the sight being transmitted to him by the drone, he continued inside after deducing that there was no danger.

Going inside, the unknown fear that was in his heart about these animals kept on extinguishing after seeing their alpha’s palace.

“I really placed these guys at a too high pedestal, what more should I expect from wild beasts?” He was dumbfounded.

When Dickson introduced this place to him as the alpha’s palace solemnly, his first thought was of a luxurious palace that was carefully constructed inside a cave.

The real sight completely differed from what he imagined. This did not fit the moniker of a palace at all, this was still just a f*cking cave.

The first defect that showed glaringly to him was the small size of the so-called alpha palace. The passage to the palace was so small that he felt like he was trapped in a washing machine, that was how inconvenient it was.

Secondly, though he was impressed that these animals could do some little decorations, their quality and aesthetics left him almost vomiting in disgust.

The walls and passage inside the palace were laced on most parts by shining sparkling gems, but the manner and disorderliness at which they were mismatched together took away all its aesthetic value.

Sparkling gems of different colors and shapes were placed together roughly, making the passage inside the palace look like a cluster of a deformed rainbow formation.

He no longer paid attention to these, as he continued inside after the drone which kept on marking the safest path for him to take.

He felt a little surprised as contrary to his expectations, he didn’t meet another Himalayan black bear or any other animal that was serving in their alpha’s palace.

“Is it only intelligence to have guards that you have?” He soliloquized curiously.

His eyes finally brightened up a bit, as the holographic screen before him suddenly showed that the drone arrived at the main palace hall of this alpha Wild Yak.

The first thing that crossed his mind was, at least, this was not as cramped up as the passage. The palace’s inside was fairly huge, just exactly the size of a cave carved out by humans.

The gems decoration was more there and the arrangement seemed to be more orderly, making his eyes feast in admiration for the first time since he arrived here.

He suddenly stopped on his steps, as the footage being transmitted by the drone turned to the direction of the alpha of this large animal kingdom.

From the angle of the drone, he could not see everything but he could still see the overflowing grandeur and might that was being exuded by this dreaded exobeast governing this territory.

The Wild Yak was the epitome of royalty if animals had one. Its enormous horns looked like the blades of a bulldozer, as their huge skeletal frames rested at the side of a primitive stone bed. The alpha was asleep.

As he was looking more at this dangerous beast, the drone suddenly beeped before turning to another direction of the cave.

“What? Another exobeast alpha?”

He was shocked, as he saw another exobeast lying at another stone bed that was just beside that of the Wild Yaks. From its size, he easily deduced that both exobeasts had the same status.

Dread filled his heart as a lot of thoughts went through his mind immediately.

Despite the clear footage of the drone, he still felt like something was wrong so he decided to see and confirm with his own eyes. Steeling his heart, he took a step forward to the palace hall.

After getting there, his eyes widened like saucers as he stared at the grandeur exuding from this apex predator.

From Dickson, he already knew that the Wild Yak was a strong animal with 3rd rank strength. Feeling the pressure also being exuded by this new alpha variable, he confirmed that this one also had 3rd rank strength, even slightly stronger.

It was a white-furred lion.

Its rough and bushy white mane rested majestically at its side, as this huge fellow sleep peacefully like the lord it was. Its sleeping posture seemed mysteriously grand to Clark, as he kept staring wide-eyed at this fellow.

When it snored, its big maw opened for a short moment, revealing the dagger-like teeth of this big fellow. They were so sharp like something forged from fire, as they sparkled faintly despite the darkness of the night.

Seeing these 2 apex predators together, Clark suddenly felt that their escape chances were dwindling rapidly like pouring water. If there was a bar, he could already see it draining rapidly.

It was at this moment that the dreaded happened, the white manned lion stirred and shifted slightly, changing its sleeping posture.

This sudden movement was so abrupt to Clark that he practically saw himself already under this guy’s maw. He could not control his sudden panic, as he staggered back in fear.

Clink!!

He suddenly paused after hearing the sound, his brain cleared like a program that was just reset as his back got quickly filled with cold sweat.

During his staggering, he mistakenly hit the gem that was embedded in the cave’s wall, he did not know that they could make such sounds on impact.

Gathering his courage, he inclined his head again to the front.

His heart leaped directly to his throat, the lion was already awake and was staring pointedly at his position.

He was still invisible due to his armor’s stealth function still being activated, but he felt completely naked under the deep stare of this predator.

“I’m screwed!”

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