Speed Is King

As before, Realm Portals opened up everywhere and powerful Darklight Warriors stepped out and filled the air with their terrible roars!

His tamed beasts and beast apostles appeared with much less fanfare. They merely stepped out of their portals quietly and some, like Brock, were even yawning widely.

However, even though they appeared with nary a sound, their mighty auras were completely uncontainable, and the tower was instantly surrounded by a dense and formidable atmosphere!

“Wow. This place is big! It’s definitely not a good sign for a Beast Tide event.” Red immediately said.

“What’s so bad about a big place?” Brock yawned again. “It’s just going to be killing a whole bunch of weaklings.”

[Beast Tide will begin in five minutes.]

[Please prepare yourselves.]

“Hohoho. So it’s going to be a giant ant beast tide! It won’t be as boring as I thought!” Brock smashed his huge paws down on the green grass excitedly, finally .

“Yay! A beast tide! Finally lots and lots of enemies for me to kill!” Ellie was so excited at the thought of finally being able to exert all of her fighting power that pranced around like a little bear cub!

Well, technically she was still a bear cub. She was probably still under three months old. But she was already a ridiculously powerful king level beast that was almost six meters tall!

Seeing a six meter tall giant bear prance around was…

“Scary. That’s actually scary. Hey! Quit jumping around! You might step on me by accident!” Red squawked.

“Why are you scared of being stepped on? You’re a bird. Just fly up to the sky!” Ellie grumbled. “And why are you here so close to us anyway. It’s not like we’re short of space.”

It was true. Even after summoning all of his beasts, Elliot still felt horribly small.

“Fly in this darned place? No thanks. Who knows what might suddenly appear from the sky? Or burst out of the ground? Everything here is so big, I wouldn’t be surprised if the beasts here are all mega sizes! Look at the vastness of everything, a hundred meter tall beast wouldn’t look out of place, right?” Red said loudly.

At his words, everyone turned around to look at their surroundings and visualized that hundred meter tall beast.

“Hell, there might even be hundreds, no, thousands of them! In fact I wouldn-“

“Shut up before I eat you.” Khalendros growled softly at him.

Red snapped his mouth shut. But the damage was done.

A tense atmosphere fell on the group as they grappled with the sense of their smallness and the horrible anticipation that hundred meter tall fire ants might soon appear.

“Hundred meter tall beasts? In a battle of kings?” Wu Kong chuckled and twirled his rod skilfully. “That would be for the best! Big, slow and easy to kill!”

WHAM!!

He smashed his rod down to the ground! It was such a powerful attack that a huge and massive fissure cracked open!

And just like that, Wu Kong’s words and powerful display smashed the negative atmosphere that was forming around them to pieces!

What made for a good leader?

It was exactly this!

The ability to manage the morale of his subordinates!

To inspire them when they are down, to be their light when lost in the darkness of despair, and sometimes, to push them hard so they can reach the maximum height of their potential!

“Hooo. You’re really strong now. But you’re dreaming if you think that such puny strength can take the top spot in our family! Take a good look at this!” Brock shouted and leapt up high into the sky!

GRAAAHHHH!!

He let out a powerful roar and dark energy formed around his paws.

WHAMM!!

He smashed his front paws down to the ground!

Crack!!

Another fissure appeared, shooting out in the opposite direction. However…

“What? Impossible!” Brock roared!

Wu Kong’s fissure stretched out quite impressively for a hundred meters. But Brock’s fissure… it was barely fifty meters long!

The rest of the beasts roared with laughter!

After a while, Wu Kong finally spoke up.

“I was actually aiming to create a fissure of at least a kilometer long.” Wu Kong admitted. “But this plot of land is truly made of really strong stuff. The effects of my power were actually reduced to a mere 10%!”

“Interesting. I heard the strength of the land is an accurate indicator of the strength of the life forms it supports. Does it mean that the beasts in this land are ten times stronger than usual?” Red asked.

[1 minute to go.]

[Prepare yourselves.]

“No time to worry now. Darklight Summons. Take the frontline. Fliers, fly.

The rest of you, protect the tower as best you can.” Wu Kong barked out simple commands.

In a beast tide, there wasn’t any room for complicated strategies. The key to victory was simple. Kill as many and as fast as you can.

Very soon, the much awaited notification rang out.

[Hidden Dungeon Challenge – Beast Tide has begun]

Crackle! Crackle! Crackle!

All around them, the ground began to crackle and shake.

And after a few seconds, hundreds of holes appeared all around them. And thousands upon thousands of bright red giant fire ants, each at least one meter tall, streamed out of those holes!

So many giant fire ants were shooting out of those holes at high speed that it looked as though the ground was bleeding from countless wounds!

Krikikikiki! Krilikiki! Krikikiki!

The sound of thousands of tough bright red exoskeletons bumping into each other filled the air.

Within a split second, Elliot’s beasts were completely surrounded by enemies!

“Frosty, Freezing Field. Darklight summons, fighting retreat twenty steps.” Wu Kong commanded calmly and clearly. “Air units, clear the ants from the tower until the Darklight Summons. Ground units, hold the line.”

Immediately, all the beasts responded and executed Wu Kong’s commands.

In battle, nothing was more important to the fighters than clear instructions, and Wu Kong was proving to be an excellent commander!

Elliot’s beasts smashed into the bright red giant fire ants like so many death gods.