Chapter 249: surrender

As soon as the soldiers heard the king of demolition say stop, silence descended immediately. Every one of them stood as rigid as a rock, their hairs stood on end like antennas.

They could already feel their hearts in their throats but they still made no sound. What could make the king of demolition so tense was definitely not good, they had no intentions of pushing their luck.

Though they still didn’t know why he was so tense, none of the soldiers dared to disturb him, not even Clark and Dickson.

They could already see the roughly made settlements of the animals before them, which was the trademark of the animal kingdoms, but they still could not understand what made the usually casual king of demolition so tense.

The king of demolition finally made a gesture with his hand.

The soldiers understood what he meant on seeing his gestures. They slowly bent down to make themselves closer to the snow, thereby making them blend with the white background better.

If looked at from afar, they looked just like some inconsequential dirt that littered the snow-filled mountain pathway.

As they did this, they already drew out their weapons carefully.

They made tiny but consistent movements on the floor, quickly forming a battle formation. After undergoing so many battles in this region, this was something that they were already extremely familiar with.

Seeing that they understood his gestures, the king of demolition heaved an inward sigh of relief but this did little in making him less tense. If his guess was correct, then things were already complicated.

He gestured at them to follow him silently before he took the lead and started going carefully to the location of the animal kingdom’s territory.

It did not take them long, 10 minutes later, they finally found a nice location where they could get a good view of the animals that were roaming around.

Clark suggested that he bring out his drones so that they could have a birds eye’s view of the animal territory, but King quickly shot down the suggestion without second thoughts.

This again verified the notion that something was wrong, but the soldiers still couldn’t pinpoint what exactly, making them feel tenser.

From the elevated location that they hid, they could see the boisterous animal kingdom as the lesser animals did the grunt work of gathering food, while the higher-ranked ones ordered arrogantly.

They were animals, but the soldiers could still feel the complex emotions that they were exuding. Since they met the king of demolition, this was the first time that they came so close to the animal kingdoms.

This continued for 5 minutes as they continued watching. Clark could no longer hold himself back, he turned to look at King.

“What is happening, really?”

“I’m still trying to deduce it. You guys should get prepared and not freak out, I think an invasion is imminent”. King replied without turning his head.

“An invasion?” Clark was surprised, but it soon turned to shock as he quickly ducked his head back down.

It was so abrupt that he almost fainted from shock. In just a moment, the originally silent territory of this animal kingdom was riled up as another group of animals started descending the nearby slopes at them.

The higher-ranked animals of the kingdom were alarmed as they started making different noises at the lesser ones, which were probably orders. These new animals were clearly not friends.

“Is this an invasion?” Dickson asked, puzzled.

Nobody answered him though, what happened next answered him.

Boom!!

The animals descending the slope quickly collided with the ones down in the animal kingdom as a ferocious brawl began immediately. The earth shook for a moment from the impact of the clash, but it cooled the next.

The soldiers were shocked in place as thousands of animals quickly started a bloody battle between themselves.

The animal kingdom was caught off guard as they were pushed back from the first clash, but this did not last as their reinforcement kept on joining them to resist the attackers.

From the way that they reacted to this sudden attack, it was clear to the soldiers that they were probably used to this.

The red color from the overflowing blood quickly became the dominant color on the battlefield as casualties started emerging from both sides. The change of situation from peace to this was too fast to comprehend in a go.

“Did you know of this before? Is this a frequent occurrence here?” Clark finally turned his head to ask his ally again.

“It can’t be said to be a frequent occurrence, but invasion happens between the animal kingdoms. How else do you think that the alphas expand their territory?” King chuckled.

“Then why are we here? Shouldn’t we use this opportunity to escape?”

“It's not that simple. If we decide to escape now and something happens, do you think that we can escape a battle between 2 animal kingdoms?”

“You mean they’ll leave their battle and attack us?” Clark sucked in a cold breath of air.

“Yeah, that’s how they are. They are not like humans”.

“What I want to know is who the leader of the invaders is. When I know it, that’s when I’ll know how we should react”.

As this conversation continued, the battle was already entering a huge climax. Unlike human invasion wars which dragged on for long periods and involved various strategies, these beasts were completely straightforward.

This was a battle of bite me I bite you. The speed at which casualties appeared on both sides was mind-blowing, stunning the soldiers even more. The soldiers continued watching for 10 minutes before a change finally came.

At this time, the dead on the battlefield were already in the thousands.

Roar!! From among the invaders, 2 huge exobeasts suddenly appeared and roared at the skies. The 2 exobeasts were a Himalayan black bear and a Himalayan Tahr.

How the hell a Tahr was able to become an exobeast, the soldiers had no idea.

At the biggest settlement in the middle of the animal kingdom being invaded, an equally huge exobeast also emerged to confront these 2 new intruders. It was the alpha of this kingdom.

The Snow Leopard had a livid expression on its catty face as it faced these intruders, its predatory instinct could not suppress the rage that was currently being exuded by it at all.

From this confrontation, the soldiers easily understood its implication. This was probably the fight between the upper echelons to decide the winner.

After glaring at each other for like 30 seconds, the snow suddenly stirred as the 3 animals rushed at each other with frightening momentum.

Boom!!

A fierce battle began immediately after the first collision as the 3 exobeasts savagely fought, biting, clawing, and tearing at each other. Their battle was very bloody and fast-paced.

From the battle, what made Clark and his soldiers tense was that all 3 exobeasts had 3rd rank strength. This was horrifying in itself, but the next thing that King said completely flattened them.

“Neither of these 2 exobeasts is the alpha of the invaders”. The king of demolition had an unusually solemn expression on his face as he thoroughly surveyed the surroundings.

Despite the ongoing battle between their leaders, the animals did not pause their battle as more casualties emerged among them.

Another point of note in the battle was that, even though the Snow Leopard alpha fought against 2 exobeasts of roughly the same strength base, it was not disadvantaged in the slightest.

All its attacks were still as precise and coordinated as it inflicted deadly injuries on its opponents’ thick hides, prompting terrifying wails of pain from them.

Despite its dominance, it could not completely nullify the advantage of numbers. Injuries already filled its thick hide, but it refused to succumb, retaliating fiercely.

The originally boisterous animal kingdom completely turned upside down due to this abrupt invasion, more than half of the settlements already caved in due to the vibration of the battle and the stampede of the beasts.

Roars of pain kept on echoing across the battlefield, dozens of animals died every second. The ferociousness of the battle already took on a different level entirely.

As all these happened, another change came into the battlefield again. A new exobeast appeared at the top of the slope where the invaders accessed here from.

There were countless exobeasts in the ongoing battle, but this one was unique.

It was a gray-skinned ape, with a darker facial color. It stood tall like an elephant to the soldiers even from the distance that they were seeing it from, its muscles were as thick as tree trunks.

It had a scientifically impossible physique for an ape. Its legs were as wide and thick as truck tires. It stood on the top of the slope, looking down arrogantly like the monarch of all lives.

Ho!! Ho!! Hooo…!!!

It suddenly started beating its chest rapidly with its thick arms, inducing sounds like those of war drums being beaten. After doing this, it jumped directly from the slope down.

Now, it was already clear that it was the true alpha of the invaders, while the Himalayan black bear and Himalayan Tahr were its subordinates.

The 2 subordinate exobeasts escaped immediately to give their alpha chance, but the already desperate Snow Leopard refused to give up as it roared before facing its enemy head-on.

Boom!!

On landing, the apes’ thick legs absorbed all the shock that accompanied the huge dropping distance as its enormous arms slammed hard on the Leopard’s head.

The Leopard tried to resist but it was flattened from the difference in strength immediately, it twitched on the floor like a bug that was just squashed by a mischievous kid.

Ho…!!

The ape roared again before extending its left hand to grab its defeated fellow’s neck. It raised the Leopard and looked directly into its eyes intimidatingly.

Reluctance showed on the Leopard’s predatory face, but it still lowered its head timidly. The difference in strength was just too much, resisting would be foolish.

The soldiers were shocked by what happened next.

After the Leopard lowered its head, it roared at the sky as this strange signal immediately made all the animals in its territory also lower their heads as a sign of surrender.

In just about 30 minutes, an enormous animal kingdom spanning kilometers was just invaded and annexed.

“What power is this?” The soldiers shuddered from their position.

What happened next even shocked them more. As they intended to ask for the king of demolition’s opinion, the worst happened. The exobeast ape suddenly turned to look in their direction.

All of them almost pissed their pants immediately, gulps escaped their throats subconsciously.

“King! King!!” Clark whispered anxiously but to his horror, he got no reply.

He stiffly turned his head to the side; the king of demolition was gone. He felt lightheaded immediately, he felt all strength directly drain from his body.

He felt a folded paper on his hand which was not there originally, but he was too shocked to be surprised. He opened it in a zombie-like manner to check its contents, he no longer paid attention to his surroundings.

…

“This is an urgent situation. I cannot explain much, but don’t engage the exobeast. I repeat, do not resist, surrender immediately. Just hold on, I’ll look for a way to help”.

“If your luck is good, you will not die immediately. Then you can plan ahead, I believe in you, Clark”.

From: The king of demolition.

…

As soon as Clark inclined his head up from the letter, the wide face of the exobeast ape was what greeted him.

“Su…ren...dar, human!” The ape spoke!

[Thank you for reading this chapter, I really appreciate it.]