Chapter 280: settling an old debt

When it finally came to the time to go, Clark was shocked to discover that he already had a lot of attachment to his eccentric Master. He was shockedl. Was he secretly a masochist?

Since he met his Master, it was pain upon pain and trouble upon trouble, though he also grew a lot in strength.

“Thank you, Master. For everything during my stay here, I’m grateful. Though you were harsh on me, I knew that it was for my own good. For that, thank you…”

Thwack! The old man viciously smacked Clark on the back of his head.

“Ok, I’m sorry sir”. Clark pouted.

“But Master, I just graduated from your tutelage. Are you not granting me any special thing, like a special weapon or anything of the sort? You know, to act as a memory”.

Thwack!

“Ouch, that hurts”.

“Master, your hand is too thick”. After complaining fiercely for some minutes, Clark finally relented and stopped.

“What about the bean quadrant enhancer, what do you think about it?”

The old man smiled nostalgically. “When I was young just like the both of you, my friends and comrades then used to call me a lucky freak due to the privileges that I enjoyed”.

“Then, I agreed with them that they were right. But now I no longer think so, you’re the real lucky freak”. The old man smiled, feeling the urge to smack Clark on the back of his head again.

“I don’t know much about the enhancer, I’m not a scientist. I’m a soldier”.

“Though I don’t know much, what I know is that the enhancer is a wonder-technological product. It may seem insignificant, but I’m sure that it helped a lot in your smooth completion of the sublimation process”.

“You’re already a dragon, but this enhancer will make you a daddy dragon”.

“You may not know now but you’re a beast Clark. You’re a soldier who already transcends ranks just after breaking through. I feel weird praising you but I just can’t help it this time”.

“King, accompany Clark and make sure that nothing happens to him”.

King had a solemn expression on his face. “He’s stronger than me but I know my worth. I’ll do my best to help him, Master”.

“Good”. The old man turned to face Clark. “Take this!”

Clark looked at the small rod-like object on his Master’s hand suspiciously. “What’s this?”

The old man twitched his lips. “Stop looking at it like that you fool! It’s a special teleportation jade rod. Keep it well, it’s a very expensive treasure and it only has a single-use”.

His face became solemn. “When you ever face a situation that you feel that you have zero hopes of surviving, crush it; I’ll be there”.

“Oh, thank you, Master”.

The old man waved his hand. “Now leave my cave, I want to go attend to my fishes. A reminder though, the day that you use that jade rod, expect the spanking of your life from me”.

“I knew it”.

“Get out of my cave!”

“Yes sir”. Clark laughed as he hastily left the sitting room with King.

As he walked away, a lot of things went through his mind. Though his Master was somehow of the extreme kind, he would still miss the eccentric old man.

He already learned about a lot of hidden secrets after this encounter with his Master, he was sure that his view of the world already changed a lot. Most of his future plans were already changing.

He felt happy though, he was finally going home after fulfilling the mission that he came to this Mountain for.

He wanted to go back immediately, but no, he still had an old debt to settle.

“Grey Fur, it’s time for you to pay!”

…

Boom!

Explosion ravaged through the snow-filled region as 2 swift figures tyrannically penetrated through the ranks of the beasts, leaving a long trail of blood and animal body parts in their wake.

King stuck close to Clark with his enormous muzzled gun on his shoulder, shooting out bomb after bomb and wreaking the formation of the beasts.

Clark had a ferocious expression on his face as his hands swept left and right, leaving only sliced meat behind him. He was like an asura descended as he spread terror on the battlefield.

None of the beasts could stop him, not even the exobeasts.

5 minutes ago, when King asked for the strategy, he just laughed and dove carelessly into the horde of beasts. With his current strength, there was no need to waste his brainpower drawing complicated plans.

In just a few moves, the beasts were left groveling at his feet.

As Clark started killing his way to the direction of Grey Fur’s abode, he finally saw a few familiar faces.

The familiar Snow Leopard exobeast, the Himalayan Black Bear, and some other familiar faces growled angrily before rushing at him. He just laughed and welcomed them with open arms.

With 2 swipes of his arm, 2 of the exobeasts fell down dead, horrifying the others. This was when the arrogant leader finally reacted.

Roar!! Grey Fur finally showed up.

Clark didn’t care though, his eyes blazed with the fury of revenge as he pushed all the exobeasts obstructing his path apart like they were grains of rice before lumbering forward at his target.

Boom!

The clash stirred fierce shockwaves as the snow underneath their point of clash divided into 2 equal parts, providing them with the perfect battlefield to duck it out.

No other intruder had the nerves to intervene in their battle, they were just like 2 giants battling it out in the presence of dwarf spectators.

Being of the same rank now, Clark finally confirmed the power base of this exobeast that caused him the most damage in his mission to the great Himalayan peaks.

Compared to King, Grey Fur was on a whole other level entirely.

The beast was strong but he could still handle it. He still needed more practice to be able to perform his new self-created technique carefreely, but he didn’t need it. He had one before.

Dragon breaks the ranks!

His spear turned into a red meteor, streaking forward fiercely with a blood-red shade accompanying it as it dug harshly into the hide of the unsuspecting exobeast.

Roar!

Grey Fur roared in pain. This sound made Clark grin bloodthirstily, this was music to his ears.

Taking advantage of the fact that he drew first blood, his strikes became faster and with more force accompanying them as he strived to deal more damage to the flustered exobeast.

Grey Fur continually growled in pain and confusion; it still couldn’t understand how this was happening but it wasn’t expected to understand in the first place.

Ptui!

Clark’s spear dug viciously into its left hindlimb, making the fierce predator growl again in pain as it lashed out in a desperate struggle to retaliate against this puny human.

Clark grinned. Compared to the dinosaurs that he died to hundreds of times; Grey Fur was just like a kid.

He smoothly bent his body to the side, dodging Grey Fur’s claw attack while at the same time dragging his spear forward. Ripping upwards, the spear tore a path of red through the exobeast’s belly from its legs.

Grey Fur’s bowels were exposed as it staggered weakly due to this.

Clark took complete advantage of this. His spear swiped backward extremely fast, removing the already damaged left leg completely from the barely struggling exobeast.

The ape roared loudly in anguish as it launched itself up, its fists tightly clenched together before bringing it down for an earth-shattering strike.

Clark did not even flinch, dodging smoothly to the side his spear drew an arch across the ape’s exposed belly before it could react. The opening widened as blood and gore dropped out of the wailing ape’s abdomen.

It tried a few more desperate tricks but Clark’s cold but calculated maneuvers ensured that he nullified every single threat.

In the end, 10 minutes later, Grey Fur was left lying on the floor helplessly in a pool of its own blood. Its originally dreaded thick skin was lacerated at various angles, rendering it a pitiful sight.

Its eyes were squinted in anguish as it kept on growling in pain, Clark was still stabbing at its huge body.

Its 2 hind limbs were already cut off, leaving it amputated. Its enormous arms were still intact, but Clark made sure that he left them in a state that the ape wished they were not there.

The battle that was originally raging between King and the other beasts already came to an abrupt stop.

Seeing their originally invisible alpha get trashed by this puny human, over 70% of the beasts already ran for their dear life. This sight was probably so shocking that their brain short-circuited immediately.

The others that stayed were too shocked to react.

Grey Fur has reigned for too long as an undefeatable tyrant of this region. He was the devourer; he was never devoured. Seeing such a strange sight today reprogrammed the thought process of these poor beasts.

Ignoring the beasts that were still gawking disbelieving at him like he was an alien, Clark stabbed his spear into the defeated ape’s enormous shoulders before turning to drag it away.

Despite all the sufferings and pain that it was suffering, Grey Fur stubbornly refused to let out a single whimper.

Even in defeat, it still preserved its pride. It only growled aggressively as Clark dragged its enormous body roughly through the exposed rocks. It didn’t crave forgiveness to be spared; it craved a glorious death in battle.

And that was exactly what Clark intended to give to it.

Under the scrutinizing gaze of the stunned beasts and the awed King, Clark dragged Grey Fur’s body all the way to the tunnel that Josh drilled when they escaped a few months ago.

He left his spear on the ape’s body at the entrance of the tunnel before jumping inside.

Inside the tunnel, he saw his friend’s 2-form gun, torn piece of cloth, and his solidified blood. He didn’t cry though; he just went closer and took hold of the 2-form gun and the piece of cloth.

He climbed back up with these 2 objects.

There was nothing that he could do, his friend was dead forever. He could not bring him back to life, but he could give him the best gift to let his soul rest in peace.

After a few jury-rigging, he brought the originally jammed gun back to life.

“Benny, I’ve done it for you. You died for Anna and I made sure she is safe, now I’m about to kill the one who took you away from me. I hope this is enough to let your soul rest in peace”.

He stuck the gun to Grey Fur’s face in its machine gun configuration and pulled the trigger.

Blood sprayed all over his body. The ape convulsed fiercely for 5 minutes before it finally became still, Grey Fur was dead!

Leaving the gun to remain stuck in the exobeast’s face, Clark turned and walked away with his friend’s torn cloth.

That is his last gift to his dead friend! That is his tribute to Benny!

Soldiers die, but soldiers are never forgotten.