Speed Is King

The situation on Earth was a huge chaotic mess that had spiraled completely out of anyone's control.

Ancients walked the planet, while the once rarely-seen Hegemons and Emperors went all out in killing each other in almost every corner. Kings… literally became a dime a dozen, doing all sorts of grunt work everywhere.

Some were hunting for Shadow Parasites. Some were hunting for the rare substance the Shadow Parasites were hunting for. Some were hunting those hunters, and were in turn being hunted by other hunters.

Still, despite the mess the planet was in, the most chaotic of them all was definitely the State of California where Elliot was rumored to be based.

At least ten Ancients had shown themselves there, hundreds of Hegemons, thousands of Emperors and Kings uncountable.

These groups showed absolutely no mercy to each other, and furious, deadly battles would erupt the moment one met the other.

Each group felt that they were the strongest, and would not tolerate the other's existence in hunt such as the one they were in where finding Elliot depended largely upon randomness and luck.

Plus, the rewards for killing Emperors and Hegemons were just too enticing to give up.

The Ancients wisely held themselves back lest they destroy the entire state with their powers and accidentally kill the objective of their mission.

And so, within just the first two days, tens of Hegemons, hundreds of Emperors and thousands of Kings died.

Thirty of those Hegemons and over a hundred of those Emperors died under Elliot's hand.

Or rather, claws.

SLASH!

The final Emperor of another little group died with an incredulous look on her face and collapsed to the ground where her lithe body joined the small pile of six other Emperors who, like her, had died without being able to even say a single word.

There was not a shred of mercy within Elliot's heart and his claws executed his targets with bone-chilling efficiency.

His Ring of Absolute Stealth allowed him to get close to his targets with his Red Dragon Transformation fully unleashed.

And as long as he did not stir the surrounding energy, his approach would remain completely undetected by even Hegemons.

Once Elliot got close, his first, second and third targets would have their heads severed within a split second, and the others would follow suit within the next few seconds.

The ten groups he had executed all died within three seconds!

Not even Hegemons had the power to resist his completely surprise and all out attack on their necks!

"You should have let me infest a few of them so we can gather more information." Romarok said mildly as he looked at the pile of dead Emperors with a slight tinge of regret.

He would have liked to know more about the current situation of the planet and of his clan, and infesting powerhouses from so many groups would have given him exactly that.

Too bad Elliot didn't seem to have any intention to let even a single one of the many Emperors and Hegemons live even a second longer than necessary!

Elliot merely gave him a cold smile.

"I have all the information I need. There is an Ancient somewhere nearby, and this trail of corpses I am leaving will definitely flush him out."

"Why are you so sure the Ancient will appear? These Hegemons, Emperors and Kings who died were probably not related to the Ancient at all. He wouldn't care about them." Romarok asked.

"He wouldn't care about them, of course. But he would be very interested in the power that is able to do such a clean job killing so many Hegemons. He will appear very soon. And when he does…" Elliot let his sentence trail off into silence.

There was no need to finish it. Both knew exactly what would happen once they found that Ancient.

They continued their journey south quietly.

Mountains. Rivers. Forests. All passed by in a blur. They ignored the Lord and King level beasts they came across, and they only stopped for brief seconds to clean up the Emperors that they came across.

Until finally, they discovered a massive but strange camp of twenty Hegemons and close to a hundred Emperors!

Tents of all sorts were arranged in a rough circle around a massive one in the middle.

"Hmmm?" Elliot frowned lightly as he observed the Hegemons and Emperors milling about the camp with a thoughtful look.

They were a bewildering mix of individuals, and judging from their uniforms, they came from at least ten different organizations!

"A massive alliance of sorts?" Elliot thought aloud.

However, next to him, Romarok gave a cry of surprise.

"That's not an alliance… that's a Dark Brainwyrm Camp!"

Understanding immediately dawned on Elliot, and the strange camp immediately made perfect sense to him.

"They actually got their hands on so many Hegemons and Emperors… well done, my brothers. Well done, my sisters!" Romarok cried out with relief and with not a little bit of longing.

"Stand your ground, Romarok." Elliot said quietly as he rose into the sky to study the camp properly.

Immediately, he noticed the order within the chaos of the camp.

The lower ranked Shadow Parasites were mostly Emperors and they were all hanging out at the peripheries of the camp. Judging by the lack of tents, they were the grunts of the group.

Most of them were just standing or sitting around the camp, talking and laughing in low voices.

Deeper in the camp were the bunch of hegemons that would represent the higher ranked Shadow Parasites. The twenty tents arranged in a rough circle all radiated the unmistakable energy of Hegemons.

And right in the middle of the camp was a huge tent that could easily fit a hundred people.

Strangely, Elliot couldn't feel any energy fluctuations from within that tent. To his senses, the massive tent was just a blob of still energy.

Too still.

And that could only mean one thing.

"They have Ancients too?" Romarok whispered in awe as he too came to the same conclusion.