“This is going to be harder than I thought,” Clark soliloquized, as he walked through the jungle looking for a place to wash the blood off his body and clothes. He found a stream nearby, he subconsciously looked around searching for any threat, having found none he quickly rushed to wash himself up.
“These four days remaining are surely going to be a pain in the ass,” he thought with resignation.
He suddenly looked to the right, and to his surprise found a mango tree. His eyes brightened immediately, “thank God, at last something better to eat”. He brought out one of his daggers and conveniently climbed the tree with it, while still being alert.
“My life is far more valuable than a mango tree, I can’t let my guard down because of food. That’s the behavior of fools and plants like Leo.” As he thought, he suddenly recalled that Leo was probably in this kind of situation also, making his expression dull.
“I hope you can scale through this bro; you don’t have my permission to die yet so you better survive,” he muttered under his breath.
After climbing, he conveniently enjoyed the mango fruits as he rested on a branch of the huge mango tree. He checked his injury, the one from the augmented cat.
It was almost healed; “augmentation is really good man; I don’t even feel pain again.” The rest of the day went uneventfully, as he stuffed himself full of meat and fruits. He decided to camp here, as it was the most convenient place that he found so far in the jungle.
“Mango tree, it’s like we are fated. Let’s have a symbiotic relationship then, you provide food while the great General Clark protects you from jungle thieves.” He shamelessly blurted out a bunch of nonsense to a tree without sentience, just to justify his decision and conscience to stay there.
Screw experience, when his spirit led him to such a comfortable place. “It seems you fed the world in your other life, to get the chance and luck to encounter me and draw my attention”. He soliloquized.
He suddenly started feeling sleepy, as his belly was already a little bloated from the fruit he ate. “It’s evening already, I guess I should rest,” and that’s what he did.
…
Upon waking up the next day, he decided to train around the vicinity of the mango tree. He proactively went to train, massacring the unlucky nearby creatures as a form of practice targets for his training.
He met a few situations where he brushed teeth with death, but his increasing battle experience helped him scale through. He did this as a routine, for the next three days.
…
He woke up the last day feeling revitalized and fresh, the only setback was his smelling body, as he refused to remove his military uniform to have a proper bath during the last few days.
“You never knew what lurked in the depths of the stream, or when an augmented beast will suddenly cross your way”, he reasoned. “At least, this part of the training is over,” he comforted himself.
“I survived, that’s the best outcome. Who cares about body odor? That’s girls’ problems, I’m a man”.
He sat down at the foot of the tree waiting. He was not anxious because he knew that the military placed a GPS [i.e Global Positioning System] tracker, on every military cadet during their implant operation.
Whirr!!Whirr!! He looked up due to the sound, as the familiar helicopter drew nearer, it stopped in a slightly opened space. He stood up and went closer, he immediately saluted on seeing the Sergeant.
“Good morning sir,” he greeted.
“Good morning cadet, climb in.” The sergeant didn’t waste any time with words, as he invited him in. He didn’t hesitate either, immediately going in.
The helicopter took off to base, he silently heaved a sigh of relief as his 1st phase training was officially over.
After entering the helicopter, he looked around searching for his friend. He finally saw him at the corner, smiling at him. Leo nodded at him with a smile, he smiled and returned the nod.
He exhaled again in relief, as he suddenly felt a burden leaving his heart. “Thank God we both survived,” he muttered under his breath.
To his surprise, he later found out that all ten in his batch survived. “This is simply miraculous,” he thought in surprise, as not everybody was as exceptional as him and Leo. Praising oneself is kind of shameless, but who cares when it’s the truth.
On reaching the military base, the first thing he did as they stood in a line was a search for someone. He saw him at the forefront of the line. Anderson, being exceptional as ever looked more mature than five days ago.
“I will be the best cadet for this batch,” he silently encouraged himself. This was one of his silent dreams, that he didn’t even dare tell his friend.
Captain Spoky broke him from his thoughts, with his familiar but unusually loud voice.
“CADETS,” he boomed; “I am glad to see that 280 cadets from the original 300 survived”.
“That’s a good result. I am happy, so today is a free resting day for you all.” He smiled, which didn’t help in lightening the mood, as it made him look even more ferocious and ugly.
But nobody dared to tell him the truth, he is the captain after all. “I guess only his future wife, will probably have the guts to tell him,” Clark thought mischievously.
He silently exhaled for the 3rd time in relief, as they would have been forced to do the day’s drill if they had performed poorly.
“Rest and prepare yourself today, cause your suffering continue tomorrow,” the Captain said with a grin. “The government provided all of you with 500 Spartan credits. Take it, buy some beer, eat some meat and enjoy yourself,” he continued.
“Dismissed”. They saluted and left orderly.
Clark grouped with Leo as they left, “Leo I can’t believe the government gave us 500 credits, that’s awesome. Let’s add it to our savings to get more money for our gear, after becoming soldiers.” he muttered excitedly.
“Yeah Clark, I’ll give you mine. Keep it, let’s eat the normal food” Leo replied.
“Clark, how was it?” Leo suddenly asked. “The jungle hustle, you know what I mean,” he clarified.
“Ah Leo, that? You know me, I bulldozed my way through it killing tons of animals, I even killed a dinosaur. The training was too simple man, it was not even enough for me to stretch my muscles.” Clark answered with a straight face.
“Yes, I know Clark. I know the dinosaur you mean is your grandpa, right? You brutalized him.” Leo replied, also keeping a straight face.
“F**k off Leo,” Clark said, as he bunked his friend’s head.
[Thank you for reading this chapter, I really appreciate.]
Beep!! Beep!! Clark woke up to hear the familiar alarm ringtone of his phone. “It’s 6:00 am already. Man, I didn’t get enough sleep,” he grumbled as he quickly got up, brushed his teeth, and had his bath. Fifteen minutes later, he is ready in his new military cadet uniform which was provided yesterday. With his daggers and sword both also ready, he left his room feeling surprised as Leo always woke up before him.“What happened to this guy now?” he questioned himself again in a contemplative tone. “This piece of shit,” he cursed as he quickly went out, reaching the opposite room in less than 10 seconds. Bam! Bam! Bam! He banged his friend's door as he called out, “plant, what the hell are you still doing?”“Hey!! Clark, stop banging my door I woke up late. I&
Some minutes later, both friends were finally dropped in a mountainous region. As soon as they landed, Clark observed their surroundings as he slowly nodded in satisfaction.“I prefer this man. At least, I can see far and have more obstacles to take cover,” he told his friend, who was also observing the area.“Clark, I want us to come out on top, this competition. Let’s find a place to camp, as our defensive fortress before advancing”. Leo said in a soft tone, as he turned to look at his friend.Clark simply grunted in reply, as they quickly found a cliff with enough cover to keep them from the prying eyes of the exobeasts. They dropped their bags, prepared, and went outside to set up a defensive perimeter. Clark decided to naturally wield the sniper, as he was better than his friend in marksma
Leo woke up and glanced around, “where am I?” He asked while trying to stand up, which brought a wave of dizziness to him. This cleared up his brain a bit as he touched his head. He felt the itch from the cloth bandage, before recalling what happened.He sighed; “it’s already evening, I wonder where Clark went to". He soliloquized while glancing outside.During the construction of their make-shift residence, they both placed the rocks together to form something like a cave before all that happened- the exobeast encounter. He finally went outside to find his friend by a lump of fire-eating roasted meat. “Ah!! Bro, you’ve woken up, how’s your head?” Clark asked casually as he munched on his meat. “Clark...,
Leonard Bane woke up to see the golden sun rays shining down on him, from the corners of the cave. He admired the rays a bit as his eyes cleared before he looked at his shadow reflection.“Oh, it’s 8:00 am already. Why didn’t this piece of shit wake me up?” He cursed as he quickly got up, going outside the cave. There he saw Clark, diligent as always, doing push-ups.“Diligent my ass, this guy only did his push-ups daily to keep his 6 packs, to impress girls. F**k,” he couldn’t help but curse again, as the scene left a bad taste in his mouth.“Oh, Leo you’re already awake. "I thought you’ll sleep like a log of dead wood for the rest of the day. Good morning plant.” Clark finally greeted his friend properly after his regular exchange of insult greeting.“Clark, my head injury is healed, don’t try me. If you call me a plant again, I swear I'll skin you alive,” Leo retorted w
Due to it being stretched very thin, the makeshift rope snapped in 2 with just one laser beam.BOOM!!! His hard work was finally put to use, as the handmade spears quickly sprang up. It was just an imitation, so the spears didn’t have enough force to shoot off from the ground like the ones used by the Spartan army. But this was just the right force to inflict enough damage to the big cat. It seems like the panther sensed the danger, as it tried altering its jump trajectory but it was already too late. The spears ruthlessly impaled its exposed belly, it growled in rage and pain as its bowels and blood freely flowed out.Due to the force and momentum from the panther’s moving speed, the spears conveniently cut it from where it impaled on its belly to its leg as one of the spears got stuck in its leg bone.Still re
Clark woke up the next day feeling great. He dreamt of food during the night, the type that turns heads. He saw himself as an emperor as his maidservants served him lots of fruits, meats, snacks, and beverages.After waking up, he was disappointed as he didn’t see any luxurious palace, no maidservants, but the now-familiar handmade small rocky cave he made with his friend. “Oh man, my life’s a complete disappointment,” he thought in resignation. "I wish I could be an emperor forever.” Most of his dreams always feel kind of blurry when he wakes up, but he still remembers the most essential parts. Since he was small, that was how he always had dreams on intervals. You know, sometime
The 2 cadets journeyed for hours, as they intended to leave this mountainous region entirely. They tried to make themselves as inconspicuous as possible, as they possibly can’t account for all the dangers in this region. They did not want to engage any beast horde now, exobeasts were their main focus.They rested sometimes on the way, as they conveniently ate from the meat, they packed on their bags to regain their energy. “Shit, man I didn’t know this rocky territory was this large. It’s evening already, and we are yet to sight another terrain”, Leo grumbled in frustration.Clark chuckled at the way his friend grumbled, but he also felt helpless. “I hope that we leave this area soon”, he muttered. 
Too late? Maybe…, the exobeast charged towards Leo, fully displaying its enhanced speed. As he ran, flashbacks quickly emerged in his head, as he recalled information about the rage phenomenon.Information is power, if you have information about your opponent, you are halfway to defeating him.The rage phenomenon is a state an exobeast enters after it gets agitated and angered to an extent. After this transformation, it receives a special surge of adrenaline. Which leads to a great increase in its strength, lethality, aggression, and a lot of other attributes.This phenomenon causes it to possess a special strength, in the form of pressure. The area around it produces great pressure which affects enemies psychologically. This hardly occurs, as it requires a lot of conditions to be met before it is activated. The pressure e