Speed Is King

SHREEEEEEEKKKKKKKK!

A blinding surge of pain that was a thousand times more excruciating that the stab earlier ripped through his heart.

ACKK!!

Elliot collapsed to his knees as his right hand gripped his heart by reflex.

"Don't disturb him." Kara preemptively tightened her grip on Camelia's shoulders and said to her softly.

"Hmmm." Camelia bit her lip and looked at Elliot anxiously.

He had fallen completely on the ground and was writhing in pain.

GAHHHHHHH!!!

Elliot screamed out with all of his might as wave upon wave of agony seemed to burn his insides to crisp. And just as he thought the pain couldn't become any worse, it did.

And there was nothing that Elliot could do to ease the pain. His mouth was opened wide in a silent scream, his body losing even the strength to power a cry of pain.

"Kara! What do we do?" Camelia whimpered as tears began to run down her face.

"Relax. He'll be fine." Kara comforted her while trying her best to hide her own uneasiness from Camelia.

On the ground, Elliot had turned completely limp. He looked as though he had passed out… If his eyes weren't wide open in agony.

"He… He wouldn't die, right?" Camelia asked Kara anxiously in between her sobs.

She had only known him for a few short days, but she knew that she was already falling in love with him. The world might call it Rescue Romance or whatever syndrome, but feelings were feelings.

She cared for him deeply, and seeing him in so much pain caused her an endless amount of pain in her heart as well. Plus, she truly hoped that the dragon blood won't cause him to explode and die, as some of the characters in the lightnovels she read did.

"Just wait and trust him. He'll be fine." Kara replied with a slight frown on her face. "You know just how strong he is. He would definitely come out of this safely."

Although she didn't care for Elliot the way Camelia did, Kara too had an extremely positive view of him. He was, after all, the one keeping her alive, and her ticket to survival.

Gahhh.

After a few seconds which seemed like an eternity for Elliot and Camelia, Elliot began to moan lightly in pain, a clear sign that his torment was about to end.

And then finally after another full minute of moaning and groaning, Elliot finally gasped in relief.

The pain had finally dissipated.

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

"Is it over?" Jessica Sands called out from behind her sofa. She had leapt out of her seat in horror when Elliot began to scream and then proceeded to hide behind her sofa to avoid looking at Elliot's misery.

She had no idea why she did that.

All she knew was that she simply couldn't deal with watching Elliot in so much pain.

Monkey King and Jul'Taras shared an amused look and smiled. Jessica Sands might be oblivious to her own feelings, but these two could see it as clearly as a sunny day.

Whatever the Void Walker claimed about her feelings towards Elliot, they knew that something was developing in her heart.

"Yes, it's over. You can come back to your seat now." Jul'Taras replied to her with a chuckle.

"Phew. That was really painful to watch. I've always been afraid of watching people get tortured." Jessica Sands explained to her friends even though she didn't really need to.

"Indeed it was difficult to watch." Monkey King said agreeably. "But now that the difficult part is over, there are only the good parts left to watch. I don't know about him, but if I were him, I definitely would want to try out my new powers."

"Yes, yes. He'll definitely try it out. Half dragon transformation or something right?" Jessica Sands hopped onto her sofa and eagerly asked Monkey King for advance details.

"It's not as simple as just transforming into a half-dragon's physical form." Monkey King laughed at Jessica's oversimplification. "A dragon is not merely a physical beast like the Archaic Kaijin. A dragon is a power-"

"He's transforming! Look!" Jessica Sands interrupted Monkey King's explanation and pointed at the giant screen excitedly.

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

Elliot directed his focus to his scaly and clawed right hand and clenched it into a fist.

"Amazing." He whispered softly.

He could almost feel his hand throbbing lightly as he struggled to rein in a brand new type of highly active energy that was clamoring to explode out of his right hand. And probably with great strength.

"Let's try it out then." Elliot thought.

He swung his hand backwards and then unleashed a quick jab diagonally upwards into the sky while releasing his hold on the new explosive energy.

KA-BOOMMM!!!

The explosive energy… well. Exploded!

A short beam of red-hot fiery energy shot out of his right fist and streaked through the sky, burning up the air as it passed and dispersing the clouds in a grand show of power.

"Holy smokes." Elliot shouted in shock as he glanced at Camelia and Kara slightly apologetically. If he didn't instinctively rein in the energy's power earlier and let them loose instead… He would be left with two smoldering corpses as his deputies of his brand new group.

Thankfully, the two girls had no idea that they had an uncomfortably close shave with death. Instead, they were very impressed by Elliot's new power.

"Wow! Your new dragon-arm transformation is not only cool, but extremely powerful too!" Camelia gushed with unconcealed admiration and adoration. "Isn't that right, Kara?"

"Yeah, it is very powerful. It's cool too, but it's also… Quite scary. I mean, it's such a…" Kara reached out her hand and touched Elliot's scaly right arm.

"Creepy? I don't know how to describe -"

"Reptilian." Elliot interjected.

"YES! That's the word! Reptilian! Your right arm looks so reptilian! It makes you look quite feral and scary. And especially so because it's such a striking shade of red. But if that's the price you have to pay to gain access to that sort of power… Worth it." Kara nodded enthusiastically in agreement.

"Yes. I thought that the aliens scammed you when the dragon blood put you in so much pain. But that attack just now seemed very, very powerful." Camelia said.

"Yes. It is very powerful." Elliot nodded.

"Can you actually transform your whole body?" Kara asked.

"No, I'm afraid that it's just my right hand." Elliot shook his head lightly and said.

However, he didn't add two crucial words to his reply.

"For now."

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