Speed Is King

After getting his hands on a huge amount of Living Armor which he could easily deconstruct to the mysterious Death Energy, Elliot was in a good mood.

He had his many moles searching high and low for the Life Seeds, and he would probably get a pretty decent amount very soon.

With the Life Seeds, he planned to raise his Beast Apostle System Upgrade to 50%, and then use the Death Energy to complete the remaining 50%.

Although the combination of Life Energy and the Corrupted Sedgedoom Belcher's Death Energy had caused a massive explosion, hee had a feeling that it was simply because the two energies were incompatible.

With his Purgatory Fire Energy eating up the mysterious Death Energy with so much gusto, Elliot was sure the combination of the two types of energies would be successful, and would cause a very, very unique upgrade to his system. And it would probably upgrade it into something that the entire known universe had never seen before!

He couldn't wait to see what sort of surprises the upgraded system would give him!

At that moment though, Elliot and the two dragons were waiting on Autumn to finish whatever conversation she was having with presumably her senior brother back at Fortune Hermit Mountain.

They took the time to discuss their next step forward as a team.

"With the rest of the universe alerted to the presence of heavy Shadow Parasite activity here on Earth, I think the coming days would become extremely dangerous. We should lay low and avoid fighting with the mercenary groups and bounty hunters like Autumn.

Our main goal is to win the eventual Battle of Kings, and we should not get distracted or side tracked by other issues." Khellendra suggested seriously.

"I agree." Khalendros nodded and sighed heavily. "Being able to deal with Fast Sword with your illusions was extremely lucky for us. He was, after all, an Emperor. If he wasn't so full of lust, or if it was a female instead of a male, your skill wouldn't have worked, and we would be in trouble. We should lay low from now on. I do not want us to risk another confrontation with an Emperor."

"Even if we don't fight them now, won't we fight them later in the final tournament?" Elliot asked. "It would be better to thin the enemy lines first here and now, when we can still launch sneak attacks and take them down one at a time. We don't have to remain as prey, you know. We can hunt the hunters."

"Only registered Inserts and fugitives can participate in the final Battle of Kings. You don't have to worry about all the newcomers. They're just here for the Shadow Parasites." Khellendra said. "In fact, I think they might even do exactly what you just said for us. They will probably hunt down all the infested Inserts and fugitives, and thin the number of competitors we have for the tournament. We can just relax in a hidden location and watch everything fall into place."

Elliot remained silent at her words.

He still had to gather his Life Seeds, and in sufficient amounts to give them to Jennifer, Jessica and his beasts. Then he had to kill Rak'Tharos and save Jennifer. After that, he wanted to save as many human beings as possible. He didn't want the human race to go extinct just like that.

How in the world would he be able to just "relax in a hidden location"?

As if sensing his reluctance, Khellendra sighed deeply.

"But, of course we won't leave you alone if you wish to go and save your sister. We will go with you." Khellendra said gently.

"Lendra!" Khalendros said sharply.

"We need him." Khellendra said very simply. "It's all or nothing now, Khal. Either we win this together, or we won't at all."

"I don't like this." Khalendros frowned. "We are not strong enough to deal with Emperors. Everything can go wrong in an instant!"

"The alternative is not being able to participate in the tournament itself." Khellendra said gently.

At that, Khalendros remained silent.

It was true, without Elliot, they needed to find 3 more members. And with the situation spiraling out of control with so many powerful entrants into the planet, it would be close to impossible.

"I appreciate your willingness to help." Elliot said slowly. "And if you do that, then I will make sure that I win the tournament for us. Give me one month of your time. I promise that in one month, we will find my sister, save her and then you guys can hide for the remaining period of time until the Battle of Kings."

"You guys?" Khellendra raised a beautifully arched eyebrow and asked.

"You guys - the two of you and my sisters. I will be leading the remaining survivors of the human race to win the Games and ensure our race's survival." Elliot said seriously.

"And to scour the whole planet clean for Life Seeds." He added silently in his mind. There was no way that he would leave such a valuable resource unmined!

"It would be very dangerous. As Lendra had said, we can't afford to lose you." Khal said.

"What's the point of me winning the tournament if there are almost no human beings left to populate it?" Elliot simply threw a question back at Khalendros.

"Let's continue our discussion later. Autumn is done. Let's hear what's going on." Khellendra said.

BSHHH.

The Dome retracted and the startlingly beautiful Autumn leapt out of the spaceship.

Her face was ominously grim.

"This isn't going to be good." Khalendros rumbled quietly when he saw Autumn's gloomy visage.

"I should have killed that damned Divine Fighter just now." Elliot muttered. "He probably got his blasted second brother to send him reinforcements."

"Hush, let's hear it directly from her." Khellendra frowned at the two of them and made a shushing motion.

"I have good news and bad news." Autumn announced. "Which one do you want to hear first?"

"Good news."

"Bad news."

Both Elliot and Khalendros replied in unison.