Unless...

"Emperor Gatara. Welcome to the Adamantium Sponsor's VIP room." A beautiful human female in a manager's uniform bowed deeply. Behind her and in two neat rows flanking either side of the red carpet, a hundred other women bowed as well.

Emperor Gatara swept past the manager and walked arrogantly into the VIP room. His entourage similarly ignored the manager and followed him.

The manager and all of the servants remained bowing until the VIP room door slammed shut before straightening up and returning to their assigned jobs.

For the manager, she would be seated right outside the VIP room, waiting to receive any and all instructions from Emperor Gatara and his entourage.

As an Emperor, he had no lack of servants, so the manager wasn't expecting to do much serving. So it was to her deep surprise that the VIP room service bell rang almost as soon as the room door closed.

The manager quickly knocked on the door and entered.

Emperor Gatara was already seated in the main lounge, talking and laughing with his friends.

"Manager Victoria. I am Hasaro, the Emperor's Butler." An old but fearsome man in a butler's black uniform greeted her and stretched out his hand.

"Butler Hasaro. Pleased to make your acquaintance. How may I be of service?" Victoria replied as she shook Hasaro's hand.

"I would consider it a favor if you can give me all classified information you have on the players named Elliot Musk and Hailey Longman." Hasaro said with a conspiratorial smile.

Manager Victoria smiled knowingly as greed flashed briefly in her eyes.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

"We're here." Brock whispered in Elliot's mind.

Although everything looked the same to Elliot, apparently they had finally crossed some sort of invisible boundary and had entered The Great Mountain Sage Which Rivals The Heavens' territory.

Sparse trees still dotted the landscape all the way until they gradually formed a thick forest a few kilometers ahead. A medium sized winding river flowed down from the massive volcano and ended in a beautiful lake which they had passed an hour or so ago. The ground was lush with green grass and an abundance of life in the form of insects and small animals.

Their long trek out of the mountain range where Winter had claimed to be hers had taken the entire night. Thankfully, it had passed uneventfully. None dared to obstruct or even come close to them as they made their way out of the mountain range and into the massive volcano.

There were only so many giant beasts around, and with a giant anaconda dead and Brock and Winter tamed, there were none left to disturb them.

"Why are you whispering? You're speaking in his mind." Winter promptly said with an amused tone.

"Ah, ehm yes. Force of habit. HAHA!" Brock replied in his normal voice.

"Force of ha- oh well." Winter was about to press home her verbal attack when she caught sight of Elliot's light frown. So she immediately let it go with a shrug. Knowing Brock and how clumsy he is, there would be more chances for her to tease him. Many more.

"Okay we're here, noted. Why are we stopping?" Elliot asked.

"Yeah, why are we stopping?" Winter asked with her eyes wide open innocently.

"Ah. I think it's good if we be a little bit more cautious. Why don't you send out your hawks first, Little Master? See if they can spot anything fishy or… Smelly. Ahahaha!" Brock suggested with a sheepish laugh.

Elliot smiled in amusement. He had never expected that he'd see a BEAR laugh SHEEPishly.

(A/N: LOL)

"Sure, a little bit of extra caution never hurt. Hawks! Come on out and check what's ahead! Call out if you spot the monkeys."

SCREEE! Elliot's three hawks flapped their wings hard and flew off in three different directions.

"We good to go now?" Elliot asked Brock.

"Good! More than good! Hahaha! Let's go on in then!" Brock laughed and charged in bravely.

Winter chuckled and followed along behind him. However, she did not let her guard down even with the hawks scouting ahead. She began to tread lightly and to look around very carefully for traps and sneak attacks.

She had launched an attack with her wolves into the monkey's territory in retaliation to their incessant raids many years ago. They had sprung trap after trap on the wolves, and made them endure sneak attack after sneak attack, so much so that Winter decided to pull out of the invasion a mere five kilometers in.

Winter had no lack of courage. But her wisdom demanded that she retreat after losing half her number without killing a single damned monkey.

But for some reason, she felt oddly at peace going into the monkey's territory again.

A kilometer.

Two kilometers.

Five kilometers.

Ten kilometers.

No traps were sprung. No sneak attacks were launched.

"Strange." Brock finally said. "How come no monkeys came to throw all sorts of crap at us? The last time I came, I only made it one kilometer before I had to run away!"

"Run away because they threw all sorts of crap at you?" Elliot chuckled while imagining the scene of a giant black bear getting pelted by all sorts of "crap". "What sort of "crap" are we talking about here?" Elliot asked.

"Uhh. Just huge amounts of literal… Crap." Brock shuddered lightly at the memory.

"HA HA HA!" Elliot roared with laughter.

"But seriously though. It is extremely odd. Them monkeys are very territorial, especially that stupid so called sage." Brock said. "This is more than highly unusual. I wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't live here anymore."

"Indeed. It is really strange. I only made it five kilometers during my last foray before I had to retreat with half my pack dead." Winter agreed. "But for some reason, I don't feel any danger from this area anymore. And my instincts are never wrong."

"Now that you mention it, that's right. I don't feel anything at all." Brock frowned.

"We must still exercise maximum caution though. If the danger from the monkeys are gone because they were somehow wiped out, then whatever wiped them out would pose an even greater danger to us." Elliot said after his mirth disappeared due to the gravity of both giant beast's worries and the beginnings of an extremely disturbing thought.

In his heart, a deep sense of unease bloomed. "The only force able to wipe out the Great Sage's is the Armored Kaijins. But they shouldn't be here until later this afternoon. Unless… They came earlier??"

Author's Note

Hi all! Thank you for reading and supporting SIK! If you enjoyed it, please also hop over to my other novel called "I Devour Mechas". I am sure you'll enjoy it too! :)