Speed Is King

"Kara Rose. Right, I'll be right there." Elliot said grimly.

He remembered Kara Rose. Of course he did.

In the course of the first horrific week where more than 90 percent of humanity's survivors would perish in a myriad of horrible ways, there were still some human groups which had managed to thrive.

Kara Rose's group was one of those groups.

Hers was a group of vicious, cunning and absolutely merciless teenagers who had somehow gotten their hands on powerful weapons and several armored vehicles that could even fight off several of the weaker alien beasts.

They were one of the stronger powers in Western America and Kara Rose had proven herself over and over again to be a ruthless leader willing to kill at the drop of a hat, as well as an extremely shrewd and capable one, as proven by how powerful her gang became in six short months.

Elliot had no idea where such a savage bunch of teenagers could have sprouted from, but he sure as hell made sure he avoided them during the first iteration.

His only scuffle with her Red Eyed Demon Gang won him the Agera II which he used to win a unique One on One Speed Challenge with an alien called Speed Devil, thereby allowing him to pick his second Diamond Sponsor: Monkey King.

All in all, his fate did have a unique relation to hers and indirectly, she was the reason why he could be there at that moment, poised to dominate the entire Game so dramatically.

Elliot intended to make sure that she didn't have another chance to "influence" his decisions anymore.

"She doesn't have a monopoly on savagery." Elliot told himself grimly as his heart settled on the only course of action his mind offered him.

Murder.

He'll kill the little bitch before she could grow strong and terrorize the entire Western America with her gang.

As he sprang out of the hole and into the cool night once again, he immediately saw Kara Rose sitting next to Camelia, smiling nervously as Camelia chattered on to try and make her feel better.

Kara Rose turned to look at me with an expression of utmost horror. "Mo-monster!" She finally managed to blurt out while pointing a trembling finger at me.

"Oh, that's Elliot, my savior! Don't worry! He's kind and very strong! All the big beasts obey him, he'll keep us safe!" Camelia immediately said to Kara.

Elliot stepped forward and sent down an intense gaze at Kara. His two-meter tall Primal Feline Warrior frame towered above both girls and immediately created an extremely chilling atmosphere.

Elliot stared at Kara and scrutinized her from head to toe. Strangely, there was none of the bloodthirst and ruthless savagery that Kara Rose was so renowned for in the previous iteration.

All he could see was a trembling and terrified little girl who's about to lose her bladder control under his fearsome and intense gaze. And most importantly, his sixth sense and instincts were telling him that there was nothing more to the girl beyond what he was already seeing.

"Interesting. If she wasn't a psycho to begin with, then she must have become a psycho sometime this week." Elliot thought to himself. "And if she's with me, then she'll probably not meet with whatever event that caused her to be a complete psycho. I'll be able to prevent the Red Eyed Demon Gang from forming simply by keeping her with me."

"Hey, Elliot, can you please stop doing that? You're scaring her!" Camelia got up and stepped in between Elliot and Kara to break the intense stare that Elliot was giving the poor girl.

"Ah? Sorry! I didn't realize I was staring." Elliot immediately reverted to human form and apologized to Camelia and Kara with an apologetic smile. "Hi Kara, I'm Elliot. Glad you made it."

"H-Hi Elliot. Th-thank you for taking me in." Kara replied rather breathlessly and nervously.

Elliot smiled warmly at her and gestured to Brock. "This is Brock, the most senior beast under my command. He will keep you safe. Hey Brock, come over and say hi!"

"Ah, another potential mate!" Brock exclaimed happily.

"I think I saw some spider eggs back in the hole that would make really good spider partners for you…" Elliot's eyes narrowed and began to glint dangerously.

"AHAHAHA! Not mate! A potential helper! Very good! Very good!" Brock said loudly. "Come, come on up and sit on my back!" Brock immediately bent down low to allow the girls to climb on to his back.

"Come on!" Camelia clambered up Brock's giant paw and onto his back bravely even though she still felt a little scared of him.

Following Camelia closely, Kara got onto Brock's back without difficulty as well.

Even though her ruthlessness was absent, her athleticism and strength were there.

She would make a fine addition to the team that he was unintentionally making.

"Having a team is pretty good." Elliot thought to himself. "In fact, I should think bigger and make a real group that could be a powerhouse in this region. Not so big that it would become political and full of drama. But definitely big enough to man a mobile fortress and survive the whole year."

The more he thought about it, the better it seemed to him.

Because he had spent almost the entire year as a solo player in the previous iteration, he was expecting to do the same thing again in the second iteration.

But if fate was sending him all these strong characters from the previous iteration, then he would be a fool to simply reject the possibility of being a survivor overlord.

"Plus, with more people. I would be able to station them around the places where the stronger Resource Boxes and Cars would drop, and thus allowing me to become much stronger much faster. Better skills, better pills, better weapons, better cars, better everything!"

"And it will allow me to better execute my plan to give the damned aliens a first race they will never forget!" Elliot's eyes burned with righteous anger as he turned back into his Primal Feline Warrior form and went off in search for a place to safely spend the night.