Speed Is King

Gaaaahhhhhhhhhh…

The Belcher's maddened cry turned into a miserable moan of anguish as huge amounts of poison and ice energy entered its body and began to wreak complete havoc!

GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!

A deeper, more powerful sounding wail immediately responded in the distance.

"The big Belcher is on the move." Elliot thought. He glanced at the situation and deemed it a success. "I would have liked to kill the other Bangtol first before engaging the big Belcher, but two Bangtols and one Belcher down should be enough. Barely, but enough."

"Squad two! Flank the giant Belcher! Rom, Winter and Rex, locate and kill the final Bangtol!" Elliot shouted. "Aldera! Freeze and secure this Belcher! Don't forget to feed it the venom suppressant I gave you! All units pound the giant Belcher within an inch of its life as soon as your current assignments are over!"

Immediately, the ground rumbled as Elliot's team responded to his orders.

A cacophony of guttural roars filled the air as wolves, tigers, lions, elephants, mammoths, a cerberus, a flower demon and an iron golem swirled into being at a single thought by Elliot.

His strategy was actually very simple, with only two specific missions for three of them.

In general, his summons would launch an overwhelming frontal attack on the Giant Belcher as his tamed beasts hammer it from the side.

Specific mission number one. Red and the Iron Golem were to get themselves eaten by the Giant Belcher and then start going crazy within it.

Specific mission number two. Frosty had to take out the Belcher's other eye (the first one was already taken out by Elliot earlier).

It was a simple plan.

And one that went totally wrong almost from the beginning.

"Where is that damned Belcher?" Red squawked in the public mindspace.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

"Do you know why that worm is called Corrupted Sedgedoom Belcher?" Monkey King asked the two girls.

"No idea." Jessica Sands said. "Maybe because it likes to eat sedges and other grass, and then burps them out in a smelly belch that dooms other living beings?"

Jul'Taras smiled at Jessica's naive and innocent answer.

"A Sedgedoom Belcher is named such because, first and foremost, it is a devourer of life force." Monkey King said to Jessica.

"Huh? Devourer of life force? Technically… aren't we all?" Jessica replied in confusion.

"No." Monkey King shook his head lightly. "There's a small but critical difference between us when we eat meat, and the Sedgedoom Belchers when they consume their prey. For us, we eat and digest the meat for proteins. But the Sedgedoom Belchers, they consume the spark of life that is within their prey."

"Eww. Like Banshees when they suck the souls out of their prey?" Jessica cringed slightly when she heard Monkey King's explanation.

"Yes, exactly. Banshees and Belchers are actually operating under the same life principle. They take life force and use it to nurture their bodies. The only difference is that Sedgedoom Belchers take the life force and use them to strengthen their physical bodies, while Banshees, being undead, take the life force to sustain their metaphysical bodies." Monkey King explained.

"Okay. But why are they called Sedgedoom Belcher? Calling them Lifeforce Devourer would be much more appropriate." Jessica Sands said as she lifted up her cup of tea and began to drink from it.

"They get their name from the by-product of their consumption of life force. Everytime a Sedgedoom Belcher consumes life force, its body would grow in size and discharge a horrifying grass-like substance that would automatically suck life force from everything around it." Monkey King said.

...

"HAHAHAHA! You mean Sedgedoom Belchers shit out life sucking clumps of poo? HA HA HA HA HA!" Jessica Sands roared with laughter. "That's so amazing!"

"CORRUPTED Sedgedoom Belchers like the one Elliot is dealing with now, take it one step further. They are able to suck life energy AND undead energy. That's why they are called Corrupted. They can grow so big so quickly that the Gaming Commission often uses them to quickly raise the difficulty of the Games in situations like Earth where the players have become much too strong. The only downside is…"

"What? What's the downside?" Jessica asked eagerly.

"The conflict of life energy and undead energy make them prone to exploding. The upper limit of Corrupted Sedgedoom Belchers is level 399. None had ever entered the Emperor Level." Monkey King replied.

As one, Jessica and Jul'Taras swivelled their heads around to look at the screen where Elliot was still looking for the giant Belcher with five dead King Level Bangtols and a dying Corrupted Sedgedoom Belcher nearby.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

"How the heck did such a MASSIVE worm just disappear like that?" Red shouted incredulously. "It's a whole fifteen meters wide, FIFTEEN! And it's probably a kilometer long! Where did it go? It was just here a moment ago! Is it a ghost Belcher?"

"Ghost? Where? Ellie no like ghosts. Ellie no can bite ghosts." Ellie shivered slightly in fear.

"Huh? You've seen ghosts before? How do you know you can't bite ghosts?" Brock asked his granddaughter in surprise.

"It's not a ghost. Brother Red, please don't scare the little ones before a battle." Wu Kong said calmly.

"Ah right. My bad. It's NOT a ghost. But the question remains. HOW did it disappear?" Red squawked loudly as he flew around the area in his Transport/Fighter.

"It probably burrowed underground. Some worms eat and then immediately excrete the earth they eat from behind them. That's probably how it managed to go underground without leaving a huge hole." Elliot immediately deduced the reason.

"Be careful. It can burst out from underneath us anytime. If you feel the ground shaking even slightly, get away immediately." Elliot warned his beasts.

At that moment, Aldera suddenly screamed out in shock!

GREAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

Like a thunderbolt, realization suddenly struck Elliot.

"The giant Belcher is going for the other Belcher! Get back there!" He roared to his beasts.

"ALDERAA!" Rom shouted as he flung the dying Bangtol he had just brutally attacked down to the ground and exploded in a burst of speed towards his mate.

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