Speed Is King

"Five legendary beasts dead… Versus one legendary summoned beast dead and two epic tamed beasts heavily wounded from his side?" The Game Master looked at the screen in numb disbelief.

"In other words… No lasting damage whatsoever??" He could already feel his sinkhole growing bigger and deeper by the second, threatening to swallow him whole and plunge him into an eternal darkness.

The consequences of corruption for Game Masters within the Gaming Commission were the craziest and the worst in the entire universe. They were so vicious, so savage and so gross that it could never be described in any form without the one describing vomiting uncontrollably.

It was to be expected, of course, as the Gaming Commission deals with billions of resource planets in transaction each day. If it wasn't ruthless with its actions, it would never be able to protect its assets from its own employees. And if it couldn't even do that, how could it even hope to be the behemoth it was?

It would take a complete madman for a Game Master to even THINK of being corrupt.

Game Master De Silva was more than a madman. He was a desperate madman. And he had broken the most sacred rule of a Game Master by placing a bet on a participant using inside information.

If caught, his fate would be unimaginably horrible. His only hope was that Earth was way too small for the hyper busy Game Supervisors to bother doing a full audit on. Although it was well within his power to initiate an earlier attack on California, it would be extremely difficult to explain during a full audit.

But at that moment, all his risk taking had been for naught. Elliot had escaped relatively unharmed.

"No wait… It's not over yet! There is still the Fugitive King!" Game Master De Silva cried out.

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

With the Giant Armored Mammoth's help in gouging out a huge hole in the soil, Wu Kong managed to bury Elliot's massive Black Bear Warrior form quickly without much difficulty.

"That should do it." Wu Kong murmured as he stamped on top of the mound of earth that contained Elliot.

"It's working!" Elliot sighed with great relief. "The fire is finally out! Ahhh… Finally. Thank you Wu Kong. Are you okay? How are the rest?"

"I am fine. As you said, I am too small to do much fighting." Wu Kong smiled bitterly. "Brock and Winter are both heavily injured. But their lives aren't in danger, thanks to your Beast Full Restore potion. Rex, Ellie and all of Winter's pack wolves are still passed out from the snake's sonic attack."

"In other words, battered, but alive." Elliot sighed one more, with greater relief than before.

"Yes, exactly. Battered but alive. An incredible achievement, I must say." A strange, deep voice sounded out of nowhere.

Elliot and Wu Kong were stunned. They had not sensed anything at all. And even after pinpointing where the voice came from, they still couldn't detect the source of the voice.

"Show yourself." Elliot growled warily as he easily dislodged the mound of earth burying him and stood up tall on his hind legs. Soil cascaded off his body like water, revealing large patches of blistered and charred skin devoid of fur.

He was badly wounded, but as a Black Bear Warrior, he was still capable of dishing out a hell lot of hurt.

"As you wish, little boy." The deep voice said with a laugh.

Slowly, like a ghost solidifying, a large 3-meter tall silhouette of a handsome humanoid beast appeared in front of Elliot and Wu Kong.

His lion head and spectacular body filled with thick scales and spikes which served as natural armor was truly a sight to behold.

Even though he was smaller than Elliot's four meter tall Black Bear Warrior frame, and much, much smaller than the ten-meter tall Giant Armored Mammoth which was standing nearby, Elliot and Wu Kong knew with a single glance that they were facing an enemy they had no hope of defeating.

None whatsoever.

They were like two little newborn puppies going up against Winter.

"Are you here to finish the job?" Elliot asked him calmly.

"Hahahaha. Of course not. It is far too early in the day for masters like you to die. No, little boy, you will not die today. That much I can promise you." Rak'Tharos said with a sinister smile.

Elliot may be young, but by that time he knew that there were many worse things than death. So Rak'Tharos' words did not put him at ease. Not even a tiny bit.

And if the evil glint in his eyes was an indication of what he planned to do next, Elliot was sure he wouldn't like it at all.

"In fact, I am here to help you! You have so much potential within you. As I have said earlier. I am impressed. Extremely impressed. A little jealous, in fact. You have all the pieces you need to succeed very gloriously in this wretched Game. But sadly for you, your motivations are much too weak. And you also have too much baggage. Tsk tsk." Rak'Tharos sighed in mock regret before his smile grew completely feral.

"But thankfully, I have the cure for your lack of motivation! And the best solution for your excess baggage!" He stretched out both his arms horizontally.

"BROTHER!" Jessica screamed as she appeared with her neck clutched in Rak'Tharos' right hand.

"Let us go, you disgusting cat!" Jennifer yelled as she used both her hands to try and pry open Rak'Tharos' left hand which was grasping her neck.

At the sight of both his sisters within Rak'Tharos' clutches, Elliot's heart immediately froze and a strange calm washed over him. His eyes grew extremely cold as his thinking became clear and laser focused on one single objective - saving his sisters.

"Ah. Beautiful. If you had reacted with useless anger or pathetic begging, I would have been disappointed." Rak'Tharos nodded in satisfaction as he witnessed Elliot's response. "You have a true warrior's mindset within you. I approve! I approve!!"

Author's note

Hi everyone! I hope you're enjoying the novel. How do you like the battle? Please comment below!

This is the end of the first mini power-up arc before the main event. The apocalypse, and all of its monthly races, hidden dungeon challenges and Beast Apostle storylines will be coming up right after this.

If you like the novel, please continue to support me through the premium and privilege levels! Hopefully this novel can do well and I can eventually switch to full time writing so that I can churn out many, many more chapters.

I'm looking forward to all of your support!

Much love!

- Future Top Author (lol)