Speed Is King

"YESSSS! Thank you, Winter. I promise you that you won't regret your decision." Elliot told Winter solemnly. "Brock, please release her."

"Ha ha ha! Welcome to the family, you ugly wolf!" Brock guffawed loudly in Elliot's mind as he let go of Winter's neck..

"Hmph. I may have joined later than you, but don't you even dream of ordering me around!" Winter snarled at Brock.

"Hey! You guys can talk with each other in my mind?" Elliot asked in amazement.

"Yes of course. I've been talking with Ellie. Privately, of course." Brock replied as-a-matter-of-factly.

"Wow. That's really cool. Okay, please try to get along though. We are on the same side after all, and we need to be united if we want to survive the next few days."

"Hmph! You need to know that this stupid bear truly made my life difficult when I first came here! Reconciliation with him is impossible!" Winter spat out furiously.

"You come to take a portion of my territory away from me and you expect me to gift them to you with a smile on my face? Naive!" Brock snorted.

Winter bared her fangs and snarled at him.

"Be that as it may, the two of you now no longer have any territories. You two are in one team now. Let me tell you this. The alien beasts are really powerful. Divided, the two of you won't last for even a minute against them." Elliot warned them.

At that, the two beasts fell silent. The apocalypse was something that had been weighing heavily in their minds. For some reason, the beasts were able to sense the coming doom, and they had been totally unhinged by it.

"It won't be long till they come now." Elliot said with a sigh as he glanced at the setting sun. "Tomorrow at noon, their beasts will be here and blood will flow like rivers everywhere."

Elliot looked at the two beasts solemnly and said. "Our blood. If the two of you don't cooperate."

Both giant beasts stared at each other for a moment before Brock finally gave in. He was much older and much calmer of the two. "Fine." He sighed. "Truce?"

Winter nodded her blood-stained head. "Truce."

"Excellent! Now that the two of you are friends-"

"NOT friends. Allies. Unwilling allies." Winter corrected.

Brock snorted.

"Now that the two of you are BEST FRIENDS…" Elliot repeated and glared at them both. "We need to clean up this ungodly mess and somehow heal Winter up."

Winter looked at her broken front paws and winced sadly. "It would take weeks for my bones to heal."

"Hawk, is there a potion for beasts which I can buy?" Elliot asked Hawk the AI.

[Affirmative. Beast Full Restore available for purchase for 10 points. Purchase?]

"10 POINTS! That's robbery!" Elliot yelled. "It's not like you need the points for something. Don't be so stingy! Let me buy it for 5 points, alright?"

*-*-*-*-*-*

"Yeah, Monkey, what's with the ridiculous price for the potion? 10 points is all of the points for gaining 1 level! How is he going to power up and take over the game if just a stupid potion is so expensive?" Void Walker grumbled.

"Are you kidding me?" Monkey King said to Void Walker in surprise. "That Beast Full Restore is as good as a second lease of life for beasts! Buying a second life for 10 measly points is EXTREMELY generous! In fact, it was supposed to be 30 points. I purposely reduced it so that… you know."

"Hee hee hee. I know! Okay if you put it that way…" Void Walker giggled.

"And I think Elliot would need all of the edge he can get this time around. For some reason, the Sword Master's player is acting like she knows exactly what is going to happen as well. She's bunkering up and getting her entire family to do it as well. At this rate, she would emerge as the strongest power in the world." Monkey King sighed.

"Not just her. There's a couple of players in Europe who are somehow working together. Damian Rains and Hailey Longman. They would make a lethal combo and a significant threat for Elliot. God knows what powers their sponsors gave them. They have 5 diamond sponsors between them!" Void Walker grumbled.

"It's shaping up to be a battle of the elites. The strong from the first iteration would get stronger, while the weak would get left behind even more." Monkey King nodded. "I have confidence in my system. It would definitely give birth to the strongest player!

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

In a secluded villa, somewhere in the mountains of Italy, a bare-bodied young man was holding a beautiful longsword and practicing his swordsmanship non stop. Sweat poured out of his body and his eyes glinted in determination as he fought through pain and fatigue to continue swinging his sword.

"Damian. How's your training coming along?" A beautiful woman in a revealing dress called out from the balcony of the second floor.

"I am level five already, Mistress! I have increased my strength points to 2.5 and have raised my "Slash" skill to level 5 as well!" Damian stopped his training and turned to reply Hailey.

"Good. Don't injure yourself. Take a quick rest before you continue." Hailey instructed.

"Yes, Mistress." Damian bowed and did as he was told.

Hailey nodded in satisfaction and went back to the living room. Her eyes glowed slightly yellow as she watched Damian's status bar slowly move back from "Fatigued" on the extreme right, towards the middle-right section, stopping just above "Tired".

"Good. He is making good progress." Hailey murmured as she projected her psychic powers into Damian's mind and studied Damian's status page.

Warrior System (B-Grade)

Player Name: Damian Rains

Level 5

Status: Tired

Strength: 2.5

Agility: 1

Speed: 1

Skills:

Level 5 Slash - Deal 250% more slash damage

"With my [Perfect Memory] and [Mind Control] skills I got from my two Diamond Sponsors, I would definitely win this game and join one of my Sponsor's factions in the main universe!" Hailey smiled confidently as she sipped on her red wine.

Author's Note

Hi guys! Thank you for reading. If you enjoyed it, please consider supporting me with a powerstone or two! Thank you very much :)

Check out also my other novel: I Devour Mechas. It's epic!