Chapter 240: the 4th day

BOOM!!

Ice fragments randomly flew about, splashing everywhere and stirring white mist high up in the air as bullet after bullet streaked across, hitting the snow-filled region. A fierce gunfight was currently ongoing.

A group of unorganized mercenaries fought hard in a panic to hold back their attackers, trying every means that came to their heads to escape. They were already sweating bullets in horror but they refused to surrender.

Though their Commander tried to give out orders repeatedly to calm them down, the overwhelming power being displayed against them left them unable to react.

Though there was a difference in power between both parties, it was interesting to note that the mercenaries fought with anger, fear, and even despair evident in their eyes.

The scenario felt weird, it felt just like a big uncle bullying a helpless sister next door.

Seeing the reaction of the mercenaries, Clark felt a muscle in his face twitch but he feigned a serious expression to hide his real feelings.

“Why can’t you guys just surrender? If not seen clearly, people can easily be misled that he was really a big uncle luring girls with chocolate packs to bully them. But I’m not like that, right?”

As soon as his thoughts strayed to this, Dickson looked at him with a meaningful smile on his face.

“Cough…, ahem, Dickson focus on the battlefield. You never know when our soldiers can be in a dangerous situation, behave like me and always have your eyes on the battlefield”.

“Yes, I completely understand Major”. Dickson smirked.

Clark sighed. “If I knew that this is what will befall me later on, I would have never rescued your squad back then”.

Dickson just smiled in reply.

After knowing each other for an extended period, they already grew extremely close. Such funny jabs were daily attacks that they threw at each other to kill time.

Their allied squad was the culprit bullying this group of mercenaries. The fight was still tense as bullets kept crisscrossing around the scene.

The melee soldiers were completely free, lazing at the back and watching attentively like they were watching a movie as their ranged counterparts firmly held the battle in their hands.

4 days ago, after they left the last shelter where they took refuge, they immediately started implementing the plan thought out by Dickson, the tyrant plan.

The name was tyrannical, which could easily deceive people that it was either something very zealous or honorable. Well, it was inversely honorable, it was practically daylight robbery.

Dickson’s plan was that as they were suffering from a supply deficit, why kill themselves over it when the easiest solution was to rob others.

They were soldiers and such a thing could be easily accomplished by them so far as their identities remain hidden. The plan was vicious but practical, so Clark agreed after hesitating a bit.

Their journey became a lot more eventful with such a motive in mind as through the map that was gotten from Jason, they were able to locate various mercenaries on the way.

None of the mercenary’s hands were clean anyway, so they did what they did with much fewer scruples.

The only rule that they made was to not kill without consideration.

After 4 days, they already met and fought with 6 different mercenary groups and no casualties were recorded either from their side or their targets.

They always allowed their opponents to surrender, which made things a lot easier for them. They were not afraid of revenge, so doing this did not bring them any problems.

Clark’s decision to not let the melee soldiers get involved in the battles easily was that participating would bring more variables that could lead to death.

With their superior weapons, the mercenaries in this region could only put up feeble resistance, so the battles were completely left to the ranged soldiers.

Though Dickson and himself sometimes yearned to join the bullying battles, they reigned their impulses in to reinforce their images as leaders.

Leaving the weak opponents to subordinates was the stuff of legends once said a legendary high-grade soldier, and they didn’t want to miss this opportunity to act like legends.

After fighting and plundering from others for so long, all their most basic reserves were already filled. This didn’t stop them though; a budget surplus was always better than a budget deficit.

Due to their daring, rampant, and completely unrestrained actions, they already gained a tyrannical reputation in this region of the middle heights of the Everest.

All the local forces and warlords already heard of them, now most forces focused on hiding from them if they sighted them first.

Their current opponents were the 7th mercenary group that they encountered and these guys seemed reluctant to surrender.

Normally, after being shot in the face repeatedly by their modified bullets that were less lethal but more painful on impact, most of the mercenaries would have already started breaking their formations.

This time, it seems that they finally met some tenacious guys.

Though this was what most of the soldiers thought, Clark didn’t think so. “Why will these guys fight such a hopeless battle with so much morale?”

“Obviously, they think that they still have a chance”. Dickson quickly answered though Clark’s question was clearly rhetorical.

Clark ignored him; he was already used to this guy’s antics after getting closer to him. “Are they expecting reinforcements?” He asked, puzzled.

“You are…”

Dickson’s sentence ended mid-way as his eyebrows curled upwards in surprise. “Wow! They really brought reinforcements!”

“See, I told you”. Clark patted his chest proudly but Dickson ignored him.

“Hehe, who cared if you told me? It doesn’t matter, all that matters is that I can now engage in battle. Finally, the great shield master can move”.

“Shield master my ass”. Clark rolled his eyes, but this didn’t affect his companion as the latter already rushed into the battlefield.

On the side of the mercenaries that were enduring the bullying of their opponent, the change that came from behind them was glaringly visible as dozens of soldiers started running to converge with them.

Like most other locations in the world, to survive better in the hostile environment of the Everest, the mercenaries here formed close profit cliques with others with like minds.

Through this, dozens of mercenary alliances were formed across the Himalayan peaks. This new group was clearly reinforcement by their alliance and the numbers were fairly intimidating.

From a glance, a hundred soldiers easily greeted the sight of the Spartan/Daland allied soldiers. The reinforcement was clearly above 200 mercenaries, which was an outstanding force in this region.

Seeing their reinforcement arrive, the originally helpless mercenaries that were being bullied regained color and energy in their eyes.

“Our reinforcement is here! Long live the Dried fish alliance!” One of the mercenaries suddenly yelled loudly.

“Long live the Dried fish alliance!”

“Let’s show these intruders where they belong, show them the might of the Dried fish!”

With that, they all gained vigor and started charging forward under the thunderous rain of bullets.

After information from the previous raids that were circulating about, they deduced that these intruder’s strongest point was ranged shooting, and their weakness was close-ranged battles.

Their eyes flashed ominously. “We’ll teach them the power of close-range combat”.

Despite hundreds of mercenaries charging at them, the Spartan and Daland soldiers were calm, their ranged counterparts were still shooting steadily. Diana came forward to meet Clark at this moment.

“No need”. Clark raised his hands to stop her.

“This is not our real battle, keep your strength for when we discover our mission target. For now, leave this cleaning to the ranged soldiers”.

“It’s been days since I last shot with my gun, allow me to flex my muscles a bit. You all need the best me when we reach our target, who knows if I’ve gone rusty after so long?”

“…” Diana was speechless. “You just don’t want to be left out of the action and mocked by Corporal Dickson, right?

“Ahem, it does not matter”.

Clark quickly shoved her away, dipped his right hand into his bag to bring out his 2-form gun as he started walking forward into the battlefield. He changed the gun to its sniper configuration.

He brought specially modified ammunition for his gun next, before carefully inserting them all into his weapon. He kissed his right palm, inhaled, and exhaled before aiming.

Bam!! Bam!!

From the slightly muffled noise made by the gun as the bullets escaped from its muzzle, it was clear that its lethality was toned down a bit, so none of the mercenaries died on impact.

They just kept on falling like helpless leaves in an autumn season after being hit dizzy by the ultra-fast bullets. A bullet shot equaled a man down, that was the trend as Clark walked calmly into the ranks of the enemies.

He just kept on inclining the angle of his gun to cover all the angles as the soldiers fell before they could get close to the helm of his uniform.

His movements were graceful like a hawk’s while concealing a green snake’s cunning behind them.

Seeing how smoothly he dispatched of them like a father spanking his mischievous kids, the mercenaries shuddered in fear. “Which demon is this? Is he a human? He’s an alien!”

Most of them were soldiers before they became mercenaries. This scene brought them memories of when their cadet training instructor trashed them ruthlessly, their lips quivered involuntarily on these memories.

Clark smirked on seeing their shaken expressions, but he did not stop as bullet after bullet kept escaping from his gun’s muzzle.

He penetrated the enemy ranks like a sharp knife cutting through soft butter, no resistance at all was exerted.

Unlike him, Dickson’s penetration method was just like smashing a big rock at a group of eggs lined in a row. The outcome can be easily imagined, only squish and squash would happen.

Ducking to dodge a desperate stab from one of the mercenaries, his right hand used the momentum gotten from it to slap his shield horizontally.

Bam!!

The mercenary’s armor flickered for a moment before all its energy was depleted. The poor man staggered like a drunkard from the impact for 10 seconds before falling asleep.

Only smacking sounds could be heard around him as he bashed anyone that confronted him with his shield, only unconscious individuals were left in his wake.

After trying different methods but getting no positive results, the remaining mercenaries that were conscious finally despaired as they turned tail, running as fast as their legs could carry them back into the snow mountain.

Their movements were awkward but fast. The battle ended with the same speed that the reinforcement charged.

Seeing that they were clever enough to leave their supplies behind, Clark and Dickson nodded before going forward contentedly to collect their tribute.

Noticing Clark’s foolish smile, Dickson commented. “It seems that you’re now enjoying this. Kid, learn to keep your emotions in check. Such things can easily change your thought process…”

“Scram!”

Their subordinates stifled their laughter as they came to help carry the supplies. To them, this was the best phase of their mission journey by far.

[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.]