Speed Is King

After absorbing so many Life Energy seeds, Elliot had developed a sensitivity to the unique Life Energy.

As soon as he reached the peripheries of the wooded area, he immediately sensed a resonance of sorts.

A very, very strong resonance.

“There are a lot of Life Energy seeds within the wooded area!” Elliot exclaimed joyfully. “I will definitely be able to upgrade my system with this harvest. Hohoho. Lucky should be my middle name!”

Elliot swooped into the mini forest fearlessly like the powerful King level fighter that he was.

He quickly approached a spot where his resonance of the Life Energy was indicating a large stash of seeds.

Crash!

He smashed through the undergrowth and just brute forced his way to the nest.

“Here we are! Seeds! Come to lucky dadd- huh??” Elliot was about to let out his victorious cry when the sight that greeted him filled him with shock.

“They are not seeds but… Baby birds?!” Elliot gaped in suprise before a powerful realization struck him and left his mind reeling in disappointment.

“The damned birds had eaten all the seeds and had passed on the power of the seeds to their offspring!!” He cried out in frustration. He turned around in the direction of the remaining resonance which he was feeling despite the thickness of the forest.

“Don’t tell me that all of the seeds are all eaten?! I need to go check!” Elliot thought.

But before he could leave, the little birds began to all yell at him.

Chirp! Chirp! Chirp!

The five cute little birds chirped loudly at Elliot. They could sense that Elliot felt really familiar due to his abundance of Life Energy, and they were shamelessly shouting out for him to bring them food. Lots of food.

Elliot hesitated for a moment, and then scooped them all up. “You’re coming with me. I will introduce you to a handsome little bird called Red, ok? I hope you’re all girls though. Haha.”

He quickly nicked their little wings and felt their mindspaces form within him.

“Sign these, and I’ll give you lots of food! Lots and lots of food!” Elliot told them.

The little baby birds were completely innocent and naive, and Elliot was soon flying off in search for the next nest with five new tamed beasts squawking within his beast storage.

“Here we are. Please don’t let it be baby birds. Please don’t let it be baby birds. Please- Damn it!! More birds!!” Elliot cursed vehemently.

He made them his tamed beasts once more and moved on to the next nest.

But once again, the nest was filled with little birds. And as he explored the little forest in search for the seeds, all he found were baby birds brimming with life energy.

At first it was five birds.

Then seven.

Then fifteen.

Then thirty three.

Then eighty five.

The number of nests he raided and baby birds which he “recruited” soon exceeded one hundred.

And after so long, the King level leader of the flock of birds was nowhere in sight!

“Could it be that there are no King level matriarch for these birds? That they all evolved to this stage and increased their numbers together simply by consuming the life energy?” Elliot thought.

“Pip! I’m done with the clean up! Let’s go look for the big matriarch so she can give birth to lots of cute little birds for us!” Red called out in the public mindspace.

“Don’t worry about that. I got all the baby birds you need.” Elliot told him. “But there isn’t a sign of this matriarch you mentioned.”

“Really? Great! Give them all to me then!” Red said as he hovered his spotlessly clean transport/fighter near Elliot.

“Here, take them all.” Elliot began to transfer the little birds into Red’s vehicle.

But as he was doing it, an ear-splitting roar suddenly rang out from somewhere nearby!!

GRAARRRR!!!

“Uh oh. No wonder there isn’t a sign of the matriarch. There wasn’t any to begin with!” Red squawked. “Quick! Finish loading up the birds into my transport!”

“What do you mean?” Elliot asked as he began dumping the birds into the transport with less care and more speed.

“That roar just now? It’s the roar of an angry King. But it’s no dumb beast. It’s most probably a fugitive king! A powerful one. You must be very careful if you decide to fight him.” Red said seriously.

“Really? How do you know that?” Elliot asked with a frown.

“Well… that shout earlier could be translated roughly to… “Who killed all my birds?!”” Red said. “Ok. I’m done here. I’m off! Fight well pip! Bye!”

“Go then.” Elliot waved him away and turned around to face the direction from whence the roar came.

Boom. Boom. Boom. Heavy footsteps stomped through the woods. And then they suddenly increased their speed and burst out of the trees to stand before Elliot.

It was a couple of humanoid blue giants. They were standing at an impressive five meters tall, lightly armored with a strange sort of blue leather on their heads, bodies and limbs that made them look very, very… Blue.

GRARRR! GAR RARAK GARA!!!!

One of them pointed his greatsword at Elliot and began to yell at him.

“Uh. I have no idea what you’re talking about, fat ass. But you’re the ugliest piece of meat I’ve ever laid my eyes on. Why the heck are you both so blue? It makes you look like an ugly blob of dirty water on feet! Didn’t your momma teach you anything about fashion sense? Or is she also just as ugly as you two? She probably is, isn’t she?” Elliot casually insulted them in response.

Their eyes bulged open wide at Elliot’s words and then began to charge at Elliot with a loud bellow of anger!