I have Nine Lives

Chapter 17: Double assassination

Felix wasn't sure which approach would be better in this situation, should he kill the guards, or leave them alive while he searched for the traitor?

He was pretty tempted on killing them, but there was also the fact that he wouldn't be able to eat their bodies, if he tried there was a chance he would be found out and the whole settlement would jump to kill him.

Even though he felt that he was stronger than before he was sure that he wouldn't be able to handle more than 2 tiger tribesmen in open combat, he wasn't sure of the talents of the tiger tribesmen so he had to play it cool, revealing himself in this situation wouldn't bring him any benefits.

Felix easily slipped around the guards making no sound as he walked further into the settlement, the buildings were made from rock and hardened mud infused with Hex energy, a combination that insured their sturdiness.

Felix looked around while he listened to the villagers, there was a high chance the villagers knew that the traitor of the lion tribe was situated in their village, there was also a high chance that they would talk about it sooner or later so all Felix had to do was hide around and wait.

A little tiger cub was sitting on his mother's shoulders as he asked her:

"Mommy it's true we have a lion tribesmen in the village?"

The mother immediately motioned for him to shut his mouth and glared at him, the tiger cub immediately shut his mouth and didn't say anything else, he was always scared by his mother's stern expression along with the side-eye glance that she would usually give him.

Even though he didn't get the location of the traitor he got the confirmation that he was indeed situated in this settlement.

Felix continued to wander around the village while keeping his ears up for any information.

Unfortunately, it seemed the villagers were instructed properly so there was hardly any chance for him to stumble onto someone who talked about the location of the traitor so all he could do was try to search by himself.

He looked through the windows of a few houses but didn't find anything besides old men sleeping or children playing, there were also some adults drinking or doing some 'exercises'.

Felix sighed, he could recognize the difference between a lion and tiger tribesmen by their ears and tail, however, up till now, all he saw were tiger tribesmen.

Felix decided to look into the biggest house in the village before he would go to the storage buildings, the biggest building in the village had numerous windows that Felix could look from, however, he didn't find much if anything by looking through the windows, the building was quite big and some parts of it didn't have a window so he had to get inside!

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Felix tried to find an open window but he wasn't able to find one as they were all locked, so he threw a rock at a window softly making a small sound that alerted the person that was inside the room.

The window opened and rather young tiger tribesmen appeared, Felix immediately jumped inside and tackled the young tribesman to the floor, the tiger tribesman wanted to shout for help but Felix quickly pressed his chest hard enough with his paws so he couldn't breathe making him unable to scream.

Felix put his claws directly at his neck as he said slowly:

"Make any sounds and you will die, I have some questions for you..."

The young tiger tribesman looked like he was ready to cry but Felix's claw slowly inched to his neck which made him harden himself if he cried his neck would be slashed and he would certainly die!

Felix gave him a small nod as he asked him:

"Tell me where are that traitor of the lion tribe and I might let you go."

The young tiger tribesmen eyes widened in fear as he looked at Felix and started struggling, his hand went directly to Felix's paw trying to offset it from his neck, however, he made a bad move and Felix's claw that was centimeters away from his neck slashed his Adam's apple making him bleed.

The younger tribesman clenched his hands around his neck as the life was slowly leaving his eyes, his glare was on Felix's body as he murmured something under his breath:

"You won't get anything out of me."

Felix frowned as he looked at the lifeless body of the young tribesman, he assassinated the wrong target, Felix shook his head as he took him as an extra.

The young tribesman body reverted from his humanoid form to his tiger form and Felix's eyes started shining, his ears perked up as he waited for any sounds indicating that there was anyone else in the house.

He could feel someone in the room above and someone below, however, it seemed that they were either resting or doing something else as their breaths were quite faint.

Felix immediately went ahead and started to eat the body as the smell of blood would attract the others quite fast so he had to get rid of the and leave!

Fortunately, the slash on the neck wasn't that deep so not much blood flowed from the wound, however as his Adam's apple was cut his oxygen supply was also cut and blood flowed inside his neck practically drowning him.

Felix immediately went to work as the low sounds of crunching could be heard in the room, bones, organs, skin, appendages...

Felix made quick work of the young tiger tribesmen leaving just a smudge of blood on the floor that already hardened a bit.

Felix could feel energy rapidly coursing through his body improving his whole body, he could also see one more head in the corner of his vision which meant he now had 5 lives.

Felix quickly restored his stealth technique as he continued to wander in the house, the house was big and it was decorated similarly to Lucian's house, even though Lucian's was smaller they all had the same things around, books, pendants, scrolls, etc, they were all thrown around and there was also a kitchen and a living room, the room where Felix killed the youth was one of the bedrooms and Felix realized that the youth must have been the son of the shaman.

Felix did feel something else when he ate the youth, maybe that was the reason his life count also increased, maybe the youth was special in some way or another, after all, his lives didn't increase after he ate the cheetah, or maybe he just had filled his stomach enough for another life to appear?

Felix would have to work more with his ability before he would realize all of its requirements.

Unfortunately, Felix didn't find the traitor inside the building, he tried to look around in the rooms that had people in them as well, however, he realized that if he was found out it wouldn't end up well for him, but he could infer from their breathing that they weren't from the lion tribe.

Each tribe had their own way of breathing as everyone's bodies were different, Felix already memorized the way Lion tribesmen breathed so he knew that both of the people resting in their rooms were from the tiger tribe.

Felix then went to the last building after he cleared the traces of the assassination.

The storage building was a medium building that was going underground, in it things were stored varying from food to weapons or even Hex treasures, however, it was most unlikely such a small village like this had anything besides crude weapons and their food.

Felix slowly went inside the storage room as there wasn't anyone near it, the guards that were supposed to stay near it must have either dozed off somewhere or just went to get something to eat.

Felix realized that things were quite lax around this village, but it made sense, it wasn't even a village near the mountains where the capital of the tigers was situated.

Felix slowly made his way into the underground storage room and used his nocturnal vision to look inside the dimly lighted room.

He could feel that the lion tribesman should be here but he wasn't sure where...

Felix's ears suddenly moved as he dodged to the side, an old lion tribesman slowly retreated after he failed his attack, he sat in the dark and stopped breathing loudly as he internalized his breath.

Felix narrowed his eyes, how did the old man see through his stealth technique in this dim environment?

The old man didn't say anything as he threw himself again at Felix, seemingly realizing where Felix was without even having to see or sense him.

Felix dodged again, after all, the old man was quite weak as he was advanced in age, combined with the fact that he got a boost from eating the tiger youth made him unable to be hit by the old lion tribesman.

Felix jumped after he retreated and pushed him to the ground using his whole body weight, his paw's claws were ready to decapitate him but the old man finally talked:

"Stop please, please stop, hear me out!"

Felix wasn't sure what to do as he wasn't supposed to bring the old man back alive but since he was pretty much defenseless in this situation he decided to hear him out.

Seeing as his throat was still uncut the old man coughed a bit then said:

"Please don't kill me lion tribe assassin, you should understand how us old fellows from the lion tribe feel after we became old we are discarded like trash even after we have done our duties for our whole lives!"

"Please don't kill me!"

Felix shook his head, was that all he wanted to say? There was nothing that made him sympathetic or relate to him in any way, and even if it did, he would still put his mission first.

Felix claws were slowly inching towards his neck ready to claim his life but the lion old man continued:

"Please, I will tell you the information, please don't kill me! The information might be useful for the tiger tribe but it should be as..."

The old man couldn't finish his sentence as Felix slashed his neck open making his blood flow freely to the floor under him.

Felix didn't need to hear about the information, if it was useful for the tiger tribe that meant it wasn't useful for him, if the lion tribe thought that he would be privy to the information he would be told about it if they didn't want him to know the information they would dispose of him.

Felix easily sliced the neck clean and took the head of the old man before he rolled it into a ball of cloth that he found in the storage room and tied it to his back.

The assassination mission was a success and it was time to go back to the lion tribe to get his reward.

Felix easily left the storage room just in time as the guards were coming back, they could smell something fishy in the storage room so they went to investigate, Felix didn't do anything to the blood and didn't eat the body as it was too old and he felt that he wouldn't like it for some reason, his instincts were just telling him that he could do without the frail body in his stomach.

There was a sudden shout as the tiger tribesmen found the body and ran to the leader's mansion to give the report.

There was another shout at the leader's mansion as he couldn't find his youngest son anywhere!

While the tiger settlement was looking for the culprit of the double assassination, Felix was already on his way back to the lion capital to get his rewards, fortunately, he had wrapped the head well, or else there would have been a blood trail that would lead his enemies to him.

Felix sighed as he looked ahead of him, now wasn't the time to think about what-ifs, he did a good job and he deserved a reward, he hastened his speed as he ran towards the direction of the lion capital, he wanted to just go back, report the mission and go to the inn to get a rest and some cooked food that his mouth would enjoy.