Speed Is King

"This is more difficult than I thought." Elliot realized, his heart turned cold over the close shave. Losing his mind during a Beast Transformation would be catastrophic.

'Hawk. What can this Primal Feline Warrior Beast Form do?" Elliot asked.

[The Primal Feline Warrior is a Legendary Grade Beast and has four skills as follows.]

[Level 1 Deadly Slash - Deal 100% additional armor-piercing slash damage]

[Level 1 Feral Bite - Deal 100% additional bite damage and induce fear in victim]

[Level 1 Primal Roar - Paralyze enemies for 1 second]

[Level 1 Leadership Aura - Increase allies' damage by 100%]

[This Beast Form also triples your strength and reflexes. However, it also introduces the "Aggression" stat and has a base starting value of 5 points.]

[Aggression: 5]

[AI Comments: You are insanely aggressive. Prone to biting heads off if provoked. Monkeys worship you as their God of Anger. Please join an Anger Management Therapy Session ASAP.]

"... …" Elliot was rather speechless at the AI's ridiculous comments. He was, however, pleasantly surprised to find that the Primal Feline's skills were actually much more powerful than normal beast skills.

"Little Master?" Brock asked as he stared cautiously at Elliot who had grown completely still.

"I am fine now." Elliot replied, fighting hard to keep the fluctuating waves of emotions brought about by the Primal Feline out of his voice. "Let's proceed forward carefully."

"Good." Brock said with great relief. "That's really good. Alright then. Let's go."

"I will lead the way." Elliot said and leapt ahead with great agility. He bounded ahead noiselessly and led his team forward and deeper into the Great Sage's strangely quiet territory.

Behind him, the wolves and the tiger followed him equally noiselessly.

BOOM! BOOM!

Brock's heavy footsteps broke the silence like thunderclaps on a bright sunny day.

Being a massive, five meter tall bear, he had no notion what being noiseless was all about. And even if he had, he probably lacked any intention to apply it into his way of walking anyway, so he stomped and crashed and boomed his way after Elliot and the rest.

He was, after all, a five meter tall giant bear. Finesse and stealth were not his strong points.

After a few short minutes, Elliot's extremely sharp sense of smell finally caught the first scent of trouble.

"Blood." Elliot said as he sniffed the air. "Lots of blood."

Brock sniffed the air once more, but failed to smell anything out of the ordinary. "Where?" He asked.

"Straight ahead." Elliot said, his excitement spilling over into his voice. "We are close. Prepare to fight!"

"An enemy?" Brock asked quietly and tensed his muscles as he prepared to burst out with great strength at a moment's notice.

"Not AN enemy." Elliot replied softly. "Enemies."

Elliot took a deep, long breath and fought to establish an unshakable control center in his mind against the ever-rising bloodlust and hunger for battle that the Primal Feline's soul automatically produced.

He visualized the Armored Kaijin in his mind and allowed the Primal Feline to consider it.

"Can you take on enemies like them?"

Prey.

Dangerous prey, but prey, nonetheless.

Elliot nodded in satisfaction. That was enough information for him.

"Rex. Ellie. Come on out. Maybe you'll gain a level or two during this fight." Elliot said in his mind.

Immediately, Rex and Ellie appeared in a swirl of grey mist.

"Master, we fight? Ellie like fight!" Ellie barked cheerfully.

FIGHT! FIGHT FIGHT!

Rex was in high spirits and raring to have a fight too!

They had no problems identifying Elliot in his new form and were somehow totally unperturbed nor surprised with his new form.

"Yes. We fight. Against very dangerous enemies. Listen to me and do not make any noise ok? Wolves, spread out in pairs behind me. Brock, stay here and come running when I call." Elliot ordered.

Brock grunted in acknowledgement and sat down.

The final approach called for stealth, and Brock was the exact opposite of the definition of stealth.

"Let's go!" Elliot led the way once more, but this time much more slowly and cautiously.

The forest had become quite thick at that point, and moving noiselessly was becoming a challenge, even for them.

After a few minutes of slow progress, the stench of blood grew extremely powerful and Elliot's sharp ears could even pick up many loud chomping noises with the occasional light roar and scuffle.

The enemies were nearby!

The Primal Feline's instincts and deep-seated aggression came roaring back to life within Elliot's soul. Knowing that battle was about to erupt, Elliot finally allowed them free reign over his body.

He only maintained his final bastion of control in his mind which would allow him to deactivate the Beast Transformation if he wished to.

Immediately and in contrary to all of Elliot's earlier plan to sneak up on the enemy, the Primal Feline's first act after taking over was to let out a loud and fearsome roar of challenge!

GRAAARRRRR! To hell with sneak attacks! ALL ENEMIES! HERE I COME! Its roar seemed to say.

After delivering its announcement to one and all, he exploded forth with his abundant strength and shot ahead with great speed!

The Primal Feline was in charge, and he knew no fear.

Elliot's Primal Feline dominated mind snorted in derision at his own cowardly plan previously.

Sneak attack? Ha! That's for weaklings!

Observe the enemy? HA! Let the enemy observe ME!

Within seconds, the Primal Feline ate up the remaining hundred or so meters and burst out of the forest in a flying leap.

GRARHHH!!

He roared once more and announced his arrival in a grandiose manner.

"See? I don't do cowardly "sneak attacks". I enter the enemy's lair and I tell them to their faces that I've arrived!" His roar seemed to say.

The Primal Feline landed nimbly on the ground that was the beginning of a vast open space leading up to a large cave carved out of the volcano's base.

As expected, the thick scent of blood came from there.