The Moca republic is a country with middle-grade military power, directly opposite the Sparta republic in terms of territory comparison. They were neighbors in a sense, but that was just a title without any close sentiments attached to it this era.
Due to invasion being a norm in this century, the Moca republic has always coveted the Sparta republic’s territory. The Moca republic is more advanced than the Sparta republic technologically, but not by much. This has served as a catalyst, for the Mocans aggression against the Spartans.
Spartans are indoctrinated into the hatred between the two countries from birth, so there is hardly any good interaction between them.
No business transactions are made. Instead, they trade blows through small skirmishes and a major invasion attempt from either side. But the Mocans are more enthusiastic about it, as they are slightly stronger.
Clark, as a Spartan, was naturally indoctrinated into this hatred between both states as well.
He sat close to Leonard in the helicopter, as it flew into the big tropical forest. The only ammunition provided to them by the military, is a pair of daggers, a standard Spartan cadet uniform, a pair of boots, a pair of military gloves, and a sword made from reinforced steel.
What made them resentful, was that the government refused to provide guns for this part of their training.
He silently observed his ten teammates, who were all serious and stone-faced. He silently prayed, when he felt that no one was looking in his direction. He felt slightly nervous, “God give me the strength and brains to blast through this training”.
He suddenly felt ridiculous, when he realized what he was doing. “Am I afraid? No, shit, that’s for cowards, plants like Leo. I’m not afraid, I will crux through this man.”
As he thought, his friend suddenly turned to look him in the eye with a grin. His expression saying, “hahaha, nervous piece of shit”.
He almost wrestled him there immediately before Leo chuckled, suddenly saying, “Clark don’t die, please.” He jerked a little in his position, as his heart softened.
No matter how his friend pulled at his nerves, they were still bosom friends at the end. These little antics were not harmful, as it’ll only make their bond stronger.
A friendship without any antics, nor mischievousness, is just a farce. He told his friend, you too, as this was the best answer he could muster. In his mind, he just fought a fierce battle.
Being 18-year-olds, there was a lot they have not encountered yet. This is their accumulation years; they were not ready to waste the joyfulness in it by being serious all the time.
“I’m going to use this training to train my reflexes and obtain real battle experience,” he muttered to himself silently, as he slowly clenched his fists.
Fifteen minutes later, Leonard was dropped in an unknown part of the forest. Ten minutes later, Clark was the last cadet remaining about to be dropped, he looked at their escort Sergeant Leroy.
The sergeant noticed his stare. He turned to look at him, smiled, and spoke. “Clark of this batch of ten cadets under me, you are the most exceptional, don’t disappoint me.”
He only smiled in reply, as he quickly dropped down from the sky. After the helicopter departed, he exhaled.
“Variant beasts, come on. I’m ready bro,” he suddenly said sarcastically, to improve his spirit for the training. You never know, the smallest gesture now, can be what will save your life in the future.
The area of the forest he was dropped, was kind of swampy, he wisely decided to leave this area to a drier environment. Five days of survival in the forest are not beans, he reminded himself to be self-conscious of his surroundings.
At last, he finally found a dry area. He quickly prepared and set up a tent to pass the night. He unsheathed his sword to cut down some trees nearby, to get their broad leaves.
As he worked, he was startled as something suddenly crossed his front with abnormal speed. He picked himself up with fast reflexes, as he hurriedly backed off. He looked, and to his surprise, it was a cat. He looked closer before realizing it was an augmented cat.
“Shit, this piece of shit scared the hell out of me,” he thought in slight anger and embarrassment.
“Shoo!! Get out of here, I don’t want to kill you,” he said out of sympathy, the main reason was mostly that he didn’t want meat at the moment.
To his surprise, this punk started hissing with obvious hostility. It suddenly lunged forward with startling speed, almost reaching his face in an instant. He was also very fast, as he reflexively blocked with his sword.
Dang!!! His sword was knocked away, as the cat tried to strike and claw at his face with its claws.
He remembered the fundamentals, as he immediately rolled back. He stabbed forward with a dagger which was stored in his boot. It connected to the cat’s back, as it meowed in pain but still kept its aggression.
It clawed with its other claw at his hand, as he suddenly felt a sharp pang of pain, almost disorienting him. He concentrated harder and pulled the dagger upwards to the cat’s neck, widening its injury.
Already expecting its retaliation, he jumped back. He left the dagger behind, as he quickly got his other dagger. He threw it with practiced precision, it connected to his target’s left eye.
Before jumping, he already calculated where his sword fell on. Upon landing there, he picked it up and immediately did a backward slash. The cat accelerated to him but it was within his calculations.
The sword connected, removing its neck with ease. Blood spurted out of its neck, as his tense nerves finally relaxed a little.
After killing it, he immediately turned around, scrutinizing his surroundings the way he had never done before. After feeling a little safe, he returned to the body of the cat. He stood there in a daze just staring at it, as he was still shocked.
“Jesus, man, augmented animals are really scary,” he blurted out, still shocked. “It seems I won’t be cruxing past this test after all.”
He picked the leaves that he cut down previously and arranged them in a slightly covered shape, to protect him from prying eyes in the night.
He scouted the surroundings for any latent threat, seeing none at the moment he lit up a fire. He roasted the cat and nursed his injuries with the forest medicinal herbs he got in his way. This was just common knowledge, he learned through his implant.
After eating a little, he suddenly wanted to sleep as it was already late. “What says the time? Where is my watch?” He asked himself before he remembered where he was, suddenly feeling foolish.
“I’m in the forest, I almost totally forgot for a second there. Ok, I can do this. Just close your eyes after entering your tent to sleep.”
He did just that, feeling satisfied that he could at least use the sun rays and his shadow for keeping check of time tomorrow. “That’s better, God is still with me”.
[Thank you for reading this chapter, I really appreciate.]
Clark woke up feeling refreshed and revitalized. “Man, this is just like a VIP room, so comfortable,” he moaned with satisfaction.He looked at the tree leaves makeshift bed with a satisfied look, “I’ll miss this experience.” He stood up to observe his surroundings, the sun rays were shining as resplendently as ever. He suddenly started grinning, as he recalled that he was enjoying free vitamin D. “Oh what a free world,” he exclaimed feeling satisfied.He washed his face with water from a nearby pit, and also filled his water bottle. He looked at his shadow and determined the time to be around after seven in the morning. “I should eat before leaving,” he thought. After eating, he stored the remaining meat in a make-shift bag, hand-made by him from the tree leaves. Improvisatio
“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
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