Chapter 229: crossing the black zone

The first alpha of this animal kingdom emerged with frightening grandeur. The loud mawing sound that reverberated across the territory announced its arrival, as the soldiers looked up uneasily.

Instead of jumping down like a fictional villain animal or a comic character, the enormous Wild Yak scaled down the mountain in a very unique manner.

Various sized fragments of snow and ice started falling down the mountain wall, as it ran across the wall horizontally with its huge body slanted to enable it to get a weird center of gravity.

Its astonishingly huge body zoomed down the mountain wall, seeming just like a heavy truck lumbering across. Its zig-zagged fearsome horns stood erected, as they carved the air apart to reduce the wind resistance against its speed.

The bushy hairs at its sides waved fiercely at the wind, looking just like the flipping pages of the arcane book of a legendary warlock.

Its descent speed was mind-blowing, as it seemed like it was running without obstruction on the bare ground. The Spartan soldiers were frozen stiff, this was just too mentally impactful.

Its bloody red eyes that were fixed pointedly at the soldiers made them shudder in fear, their hearts directly leaped up to their throats.

In just a little over a second, the Wild Yak scaled the hundreds of meters separating them down and dived without hesitation into the ranks of the soldiers.

Boom!!

The soldiers could hardly react, the thick and sturdy horns which were also the most dangerous weapon of this predator arrived first as they plowed easily at the unprepared Spartans.

The energy armors of the soldiers flickered weakly before shattering to pieces, as the thick horns pierced through 3 soldiers that stood in the way without any resistance.

The outcome was obvious, the 3 unlucky fellows died instantly.

The horns did not rest with this alone on the first charge, as its spread-out Viking-like form also reached and brought severe injuries to the other 5 soldiers that were close by. The soldiers’ battle formation became disorganized immediately.

After the momentum of its first charge died down, it finally turned its eyes to scan these daring intruders carefully.

Seeing the destruction that was wrath on one charge, Clark’s heart tightened. It seemed that he still underestimated this fellow, this did not make him despair though as he quickly reacted.

He also heaved a secret sigh of relief as it seemed that the other alpha did not deem them worthy to get its attention and draw it out.

“Diana, follow the plan, but be fast. I don’t know for how long we can hold; this enemy is beyond our limits”.

After quickly throwing this order at his second in command, Clark’s hand jerked a bit as fierce energy waves suddenly erupted, gushing out with his 2-form guns as the center of this nebula wave.

Tu! Tu! Tu! Tu!

His 2 guns still in their machine gun configuration started revealing their loads, as a bright blue beam accompanied the bullets every time to hit hard at the hides of this exobeast.

Different bullets with even more varying effects shot out without any care to their monetary costs, as they inflicted various effects on this predator.

A pressure-filled bullet pushed it backward for one moment, a stun bullet numbed its legs the next, a short frequency radioactive bullet followed next as this beast quickly grew annoyed.

Roaring loudly, it shrugged all these effects off as it picked up speed again, this time in Clark’s direction. It already identified him as its first target, but Clark did not retreat.

He stood his ground as his forever reliable buddies in the form of his guns showed their support, staying strong at this critical juncture. But this could not prevent the beast from closing the distance.

As the exobeast got horrifyingly close to Clark and its protruding horns were already showing death’s portrait vividly, a new arrival joined this small battlefield.

Dickson had an unnaturally serious look on his face, as he quickly blocked the way of this exobeast with his towering shield. The Wild Yak was now very close, but he could still do the basic defense moves in this short time.

Apparently from the Wild Yak’s movements, it had no intention of stopping its charge.

Quickly digging his shield down inside the snow, Dickson widened his legs to form a formidable defense stance with a stable center of gravity to better curb this impact that would surely be frightening.

Bam!!

As soon as he finished his preparations, the collision happened as the initial impact immediately made his face stiffen with veins sprouting all over.

Pfft!! He coughed out blood the next moment, before staggering and falling backward weakly as his enormous shield vibrated intensely while ringing loudly in a rough tone.

His right hand that supported the shield felt even weaker, as he could feel it dangling without support by his side. Apparently, his hand was dislocated from the impact.

The Wild Yak was slowed only for 2 seconds, as it quickly recovered and aimed at him with its dangerous horns again. The horns that looked like steels of death were now aimed at him.

He wanted to roll away, but he could not as the weakness in his bones kept him down like he suddenly became a paralysis patient.

Before the beast could pick up momentum, a bright light shone across the battlefield as a thick blue beam quickly flashed across and hit it squarely on the face, just below its left eye.

Hissing in pain, the beast fell back a little for the first time.

Using this opportunity, Clark quickly arrived at his friend’s side as he helped and supported him up while trying to cool down his overloaded 2-form gun.

He only looked into Dickson’s eyes for a brief moment before he got what he wanted. He quickly grabbed the latter’s right arm, used his other hand to push his chest back before pulling ruthlessly.

Dickson released a muffled scream, as his dislocated arm was quickly pulled back to its previous location. As soldiers, they could do such simple first-aid treatment.

After doing this, Clark quickly kept his guns before bringing his spear again. From this small confrontation, he discovered something.

If he left Dickson alone to fight this beast in close range while he stayed back and supported with his guns from the side, he would probably not see a comrade again but a corpse.

Both soldiers quickly communicated between themselves, as they started to surround their enemy without any trace of fear in their eyes.

This beast was undoubtedly stronger than them by miles, but they could not cower. They would fight to the end even if it meant death, just for their subordinates to get a chance at escaping.

Seeing this, the alpha Wild Yak got even more irritated as it sprang back aggressively at them.

With one smack of its thick claws, Clark’s spear was easily swiped away but Dickson quickly arrived with his shield the next moment. His sword was not idle, as it complimented the shield from the side.

The Wild Yak bit down harshly at the sword, as it quickly got it in-between its teeth. Pulling roughly, Dickson lost control of his sword and staggered forward as he was bashed on the chest by this beast’s huge body.

He felt like he was just hit by a truck as a metallic taste came to his lips again, but he gritted his teeth this time, bit his lips to clear his dizziness before holding strong.

Clark also returned at this moment as they both clashed aggressively with this Wild Yak.

To their despair, despite their perfect coordination, this exobeast firmly held them at the hollow of its Wild Yakky palms as it trashed the both of them without any sense of sympathy.

Both of them quickly started sustaining injuries but they did not mind, all their mind was on stalling this beast.

As all these happened, Diana already obeyed Clark’s orders and led her soldiers forward as they fought relentlessly with the other animals while moving closer to their ultimate goal, the 2 cliffs.

At another part of the chaotic battlefield, Anna led the Daland soldiers and moved forward swiftly. With the help of Benny and the other high-grade soldiers, their progress was faster than the others.

This was also attributed to the fact that the Spartans received special attention from the animals as they were discovered first, and the alpha was drawn there.

As the animals died frequently, casualties also started frequenting the ranks of the soldiers. In these few minutes, they already lost a combined amount of 7 soldiers.

Despite the heavy casualties, the Spartan and Daland soldiers were slowly drawing closer to the opening between the 2 cliffs, only their leaders were being bullied by the Wild Yak alpha.

Clark and Dickson’s armors kept on spamming them with high-damage notifications, as their opponent kept on trashing them.

In just less than 2 minutes, they were already exhausted and panting like they just ran a planet-wide marathon. Despite the protection of their armors, they already suffered lots of internal injuries.

The Wild Yak’s horns were the main problem, as any attack from it always prompted a warning notification from their armors.

Clark had never felt so tense. His heart was pumping blood at a rapid frequency, and his adrenaline surge was at an all-time high as he fought without any further acknowledgment of time.

As the defensive soldier, Dickson felt the worst as he had to weather all the most dangerous attacks directed at both of them. His 2 arms were already numb, only sheer willpower was carrying him on.

Their situation was not optimistic at all, it was only a matter of time before their armor’s energy got depleted, and that would surely spell their end.

It was at this moment that a message of hope came to them.

“Major Clark, we already crossed the black zone, we are in-between the 2 cliffs now”. A loud voice interrupted their focus for a moment, making them receive a vicious attack from their opponent.

Despite this, Clark still answered as he stuck close to help Dickson stabilize his shield.

“Good, follow the plan. Wait there to help the others in Diana’s squad…, and start setting the trap”. Clark answered wearily.

“Ok, sir”.

As the Daland soldiers rapidly went to work, they could already see their Spartan counterparts who were fighting fiercely and drawing nearer to their position.

They formed a defensive perimeter to hold off the beasts while continuing according to Clark’s plan.

As soon as the Spartan squad crossed the black zone into the passage to the other side, another noticeable reaction was finally stirred.

It seems that there was a limit to their other enemy’s patience in the end, and it seemed that these animals were adamant about not allowing anyone to cross these 2 cliffs.

They all stopped their works after noticing it, as they turned their heads upwards to look at the last archenemy obstructing their escape.

Unlike its counterpart who ran horizontally across the walls down, the white-maned lion was more graceful and elegant.

It burst out of the alpha palace with speed before immediately jumping out. Its figure felt just like a white deity dropping from heaven, as it glided rapidly across the air to their direction.

Every soldier’s breath stopped on seeing this. If Clark’s intelligence was right, then this was the climax of their escape opportunity.

If they could not grasp this well, they were doomed.

“Prepare the switch”. A tired Diana softly whispered.

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