However, at that moment before the two beasts could respond, all three hawks suddenly let out loud screams!
SCREE! SCREE! SCREE!!
"Danger up ahead!" Elliot said softly. Brock and Winter immediately stopped.
However, instead of returning, the hawks continued to scream loudly and urgently.
SCREE! SCREE! SCREE!!
And then one of the hawks stopped screaming.
SCREE! SCREE!
And then, the other one stopped as well.
SCREE!
And after a second, even the final one stopped screaming.
A chill ran down Elliot's spine as his worst fears were confirmed. "The Armored Kaijins are already here! And it's the flying type!"
"No monkey killed those hawks, that's for certain." Brock rumbled deeply as he tensed his muscles and prepared himself for combat.
"Winter, retreat a hundred meters and prepare to escape with my sisters." Elliot instructed her grimly.
"They are safe with me, Master." Winter said before obeying him and carrying the still-sleeping girls back a hundred meters.
Seeing that at least his sisters would be safe, Elliot felt slightly relieved.
"It's time to put my new skills to good use. Wolves, and you, tiger, come on out." Elliot whispered.
His eleven Gray Wolves materialized in their puffs of grey mists and took their places alongside the other twenty. A bluish mist swirled as well before revealing a large and ferocious looking tiger.
Its eyes gleamed with intelligence and its sleek orange, black-striped fur bulged with powerful muscles. It growled softly as it glared at Brock.
"Overconfident little punk." Brock snorted in derision at the relatively tiny tiger.
The tiger swished its tail and continued to growl at Brock fearlessly.
"Ha! Where did you get this little firecracker from? Is he seriously thinking of attacking me with his tiny little body? I can sit here and let him attack me all day, and he wouldn't even be able to deal any damage to me!" Brock scoffed arrogantly.
"Relax and cut him some slack, Brock. He's new." Elliot said.
He immediately exerted his will upon his tiger to prevent it from roaring out and attacking Brock. Unlike his wolves which didn't give him any trouble, Elliot could feel his tiger's aggression and deep hunger for dominance.
But the system's power was perfect, and Elliot's will easily clamped down on the tiger's desire to exert his dominance over the wolves completely.
The tiger calmed down and set down lazily.
Elliot withheld from summoning the Giant Armored Mammoth because he wanted to keep it as a trump card in case things grew horribly wrong.
However, he did intend to use his new Beast Transformation skill.
"Primal Feline Warrior Transformation. Activate." Elliot said softly.
After the words left his mouth, a red mist appeared and swirled around Elliot. Slowly, then faster and faster until the red mist became a literal tornado around him. And then…
GROARRRR!!!
A deep-throated guttural roar sounded from within the red mist!
Poof! The red mist disappeared completely as though it was never there, revealing in its place a graceful yet exceptionally deadly looking beast that looked like the elder brother of all the tigers of the world.
Its fur was similarly a beautiful coat of orange, but the black patterns on its body were much more aggressive and induced fear to all who laid their eyes on it.
It was twice as large as the tiger which Elliot had just summoned, but still slightly less than half Brock's size.
However, its size was no indicator of its power and deadliness. Even Brock, for all its size and physical power, could feel a primordial and instinctive fear of the creature begin to bloom from deep within his soul and spread into every fibre of his being.
Elliot could feel an intense feeling of savagery and bloodthirst well up powerfully within him. Anger, aggression, confidence and a sense of utter entitlement seemed to be the default emotional mode for him in his Primal Feline form.
At the same time, his senses were sharpened countless times over. He could see with incredible clarity the details of his surroundings, hear the heartbeats of all the animals around him, and smell them all very clearly.
Additionally, the flood of new information brought forth by his enhanced senses was also processed very easily and naturally by his brain. All the necessary and urgent information was brought up front and center, while all the others simply nestled somewhere in his mind. Noted, factored in, but not actively used.
He knew exactly WHAT was happening all around him, and he knew exactly HOW he could impact and bring them under his will.
The feeling of having great power and being in absolute control of the reality around him was intoxicating for Elliot. His soul lapped up the wonder of being a Primal Feline Warrior hungrily.
As he did so, he slowly and subconsciously lost his control over himself to the Primal Feline's baser instincts.
He glared at the thirty one wolves and his tiger and unleashed his murderous aura to the full.
Immediately, all thirty one wolves fell down flat on their bellies, completely suppressed by Elliot's aura. The tiger, though it did not lose its mind completely like the wolves, had chosen of its own volition to submit by sitting down and lowering its head completely till it touched the ground.
Satisfied, Elliot released his aura and turned to look at Brock.
GROWL.
Elliot tried to subdue him the same way he did the other beasts. But to his surprise, Brock growled back dangerously and bared his huge and fearsome teeth.
"Little Master. Wake up! Or I will be forced to attack you." Brock shouted in Elliot's mind.
Brock's words were like a splash of cold water on Elliot's soul.
Sensing his near complete loss of control over himself, Elliot immediately burst out with an explosive surge of willpower and he managed to successfully tame the Primal Feline's baser instincts.
However, it wasn't a full and complete taming. He could feel the savagery and bloodthirst simmering right beneath his thin veneer of control, ready to explode out at a moment's notice.
"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.
Your gift is the motivation for my creation. Give me more motivation!
Creation is hard, cheer me up!
Paragraph comment
Paragraph comment feature is now on the Web! Move mouse over any paragraph and click the icon to add your comment.
Also, you can always turn it off/on in Settings.
GOT IT