I have Nine Lives

Chapter 20: Sparring

Felix guard was kept up even when he entered his stealth mode since he didn't know what kind of abilities the bat tribesman had in her hands he could only be on the passive side for now.

Korro took in a deep breath as her bat ears moved and twitched, she suddenly pointed her finger at Felix's location and sent out a small sonic attack from her finger.

Felix's eyes widened as he felt his fur stand on end, he could feel that danger was on his way so he immediately jumped away from the spot he was in barely dodging the sonic attack.

Cracks appeared on the ground where Felix previously stood but since there was no blood flesh or fur left behind everyone realized that Felix dodged the attack.

Felix knew that standing on the passive side wouldn't be useful for him if the bat-woman could actually find his position, he needed to attack right now!

He dashed as quick as he could towards her but the woman smiled brightly as she turned to her original form and started to fly up, Felix looked around and as they were in a clearing there wasn't anything he could do to get to her, if he jumped in mid-air he might be able to reach her but he would leave himself open for a sonic attack.

That meant he could only wait for her to run out of energy.

Felix narrowly dodged another sonic attack which now came from her original form's mouth, Felix frowned as he tried to make a plan to get to her but he knew that he wouldn't be able to, there weren't any trees available and climbing the mound would make him an easy target.

Felix frowned as he continuously dodged her attacks, was there anything he could do here?

A sweet voice came from Korro's bat form as she said:

"Oh, you cutie, you are so darn cute when you look frustrated, let me give you a hint, you can't get where I am no matter what you do, why don't you give up, I'm just a natural counter for ground assassins like you!"

Karro was trying to shake Felix's confidence with her words and make him forfeit the match, it seemed she only did that due to concern but Felix knew that she was innately looking down on him, maybe because he was from the cat tribe, or maybe because he didn't have a humanoid form, she was the only one who knew what was going through her head.

Suddenly Korro's bat mouth opened wide as an even bigger sonic attack was unleashed, the sonic wave was so strong that it became visible as the air around was getting cracked!

Felix knew that he couldn't dodge normally so he immediately dived head-on in the ground hoping that the ground would absorb some of the sound waves before they hit him.

Landers nodded at Felix's decision, it was the best one he could with his current situation, he was already pretty satisfied with Felix's performance up till now and the others seemed to enjoy watching the spar as well, they knew that Felix was just in a bad situation due to the matchup and knew that he had some genuine skill, in a battlefield thing won't happen like this as most people would be fighting in teams so there would be no such bad match up if you had good teammates.

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Felix's body appeared out of the ground, his stealth was off as he breathed roughly, the sound wave hit him even though it was nullified a bit by the ground and there was blood trickling down from his nose.

Felix glared at the bat above him and Korro just waved her wings at him with a big smile on her face.

Felix frowned if he couldn't reach her with melee attacks he needed some ranged attacks, but unfortunately for him, he didn't have any hex energy and cat tribesmen didn't have many ranged attacks they could use, maybe if he had a humanoid form he could master throwing knives or something similar but he could barely do day to day activities with his paws, he didn't have hands so he couldn't grasp thing properly.

Felix looked down at his paws as he hastily dodged other attacks coming from Korro, he didn't have hands but he had paws and claws, maybe he could do something with his claws?

Felix started to concentrated on his claws as his breathing pattern changed, he was unconsciously trying to use the breathing technique to create a new attack that he could use.

He aimed his paw at the bat's wings and concentrated for a short while, some sonic attacks hit him here and there and he almost lost consciousness but after he took in one more breath two of his claws left his paw and flew at high speed towards Korro's wings, startled by the sudden attack Korro didn't dodge and the claws ledged themselves in her weak wings bringing her down to the ground.

Seeing that his attack succeeded, Felix didn't dally at all as he rushed towards her and put his remaining claws on her neck, Korro eyes were wide in fear as she unconsciously transformed into her human form, her red eyes wandered towards Felix's sharp claws and she gulped.

Landers walked forward and put his hand up as he said with a big smile on his face:

"It seems Felix won, any objections?"

It was obviously Felix's win so no one objected, however, Korro's master was fuming quite a bit because of her disciples' defeat.

Felix let Korro go and she hastily made her way to Varra who was now readily scolding her, but in her scoldings, Felix could also see some advice that she could use to not make the same mistakes she did in today's fight.

Felix sighed as he sat on the ground, the fight took quite a bit out of him and he needed to rest for a pit, Penzo decided to postpone the spar until he felt that he was at full power as he didn't want his disciple to take advantage of his condition, as Landers said, it was only a spar and not a life and death fight.

After resting for a few hours it was time to fight with Penzo's disciple, the awkward-looking young man kept averting his eyes from Felix's body as he bowed his head and said while stuttering:

"le.. le lets haha have a gooo good fight!"

Felix nodded at him in a sign that he accepted his bow and entered his stealth stance as he disappeared.

Penzo looked at his protegee and told him:

"Do your best Ricko, I know you are in your awkward phase but you are strong!"

Ricko became another person after he heard his words, his eyes became unclear as he nodded his head multiple times while saying:

"Yes yes yes, I will do well for the master!"

Felix's eyes narrowed as he saw this scene, was the penguin tribesman unstable? Or was it the awkward phase Penzo talked about? Did he have a double personality?

Felix knew that unlike the woman, the man before him couldn't find him normally, he seemed to be a melee fighter just like him, he saw that Ricko only attacked randomly after he responded to his master seemingly as if he didn't care if he had any openings.

Felix easily found flaws that he could exploit as Ricko attacked randomly so he decided to attack his weak spots directly!

However, Ricko had a huge smile on his face as he headbutted Felix sending him out of his stealth mode and skidding a few meters away from him, how did he know where Felix was?

Ricko chuckled as he pointed at his body:

"You might not know this but we from the Penguin tribe are extremely sensitive to heat, the moment you get close to me I can immediately find out where your body is, you might be invisible but your body heat is still there, just like the sound of your heartbeat is still there, unless you become a cold corpse you won't be able to get near me!"

The timid looking and awkward looking penguin immediately became a responsible fighter after he heard the words of his master.

Felix vomited down the bile that came out of his stomach after he was headbutted, it seemed that under his hay-like hair the penguin had a hard head!

Felix knew that he needed to be quicker than him and counter his attacks now that he understood why he was attacked, Felix also wondered why did Ricko tell him about his traits? Was he that confident that he was faster and stronger than Felix?

Penzo's facepalmed at his disciple's loose mouth, this was a thing at him that he couldn't correct no matter how many times he taught him, fortunately, this quirk of his only applied to his traits and not to his teammates.

Felix disappeared again as he entered stealth and took in a deep breath as he used his breathing technique for a few seconds, his body and lungs felt they were on fire, his body was literally screaming for him to stop breathing like that, 1 second, 2 seconds.

Felix appeared behind Ricko and fell to the ground exhausted, Ricko wanted to laugh as he counterattacked Felix's claw slash from before, but as he looked down at his skin that looked like a suit his eyes widened in surprise as he fell, it was a double knockout!

Felix's body started moving as he tried to get back to his feet, after a short while he got up and looked down at Ricko, there was already a small pool of blood appearing below him, it seemed he didn't control his newfound strength that well.

Felix knew that he would be disqualified from the spar after this but he guessed that he might have made a good impression on the other captains.

Landers put his hand up as he walked towards Ricko's downed form and put a hand over his wrist, listening slowly he nodded his head and said shortly:

"It's Felix's win again!"

Penzo immediately came to argue, the last fight was a genuine win but this time Felix almost took the life of his sparring partner:

"You said that there should be no crippling or deadly attacks, why are you protecting him now? Playing favorites because he is your disciple Landers?"

Landers shook his head as he motioned for Penzo to get near him and pointed at Ricko's downed form:

"Even though there is a bit of blood dripping to the ground his life isn't in danger, he only became unconscious because Felix's attack hit the main oxygen point in his chest which immediately knocked him out, the wound is actually pretty shallow and it should heal by rubbing a few herbs on it."

Penzo snorted as he quickly inspected his disciple and after a short while he begrudgingly nodded and said:

"It is Felix's win, what Landers said is true, sigh, It seemed we old folks should be more open-minded to the young people's talents regardless of what tribe they come from, he won against both of our disciples, what do you say Varra?"

Varra wanted to argue but Landers's gaze on her body immediately left her speechless, unofficially Landers was the captain of their squad, even though they were captains Landers was a lion from the main tribe along with his physical prowess and special Hex techniques he would be able to wipe out all of them here together, however since they were allies and the Lion tribe needed all of the help that it could get Landers had to play the host with them, however, if they argued with him or did something that went against Lion's tribe benefits they could be punished quite badly.

And arguing against Felix's case would diminish the power level of the squad so technically Landers could dole out punishment to her for this.

Varra immediately closed her mouth as she just bowed, Penzo nodded in recognition of Felix's ability, the pig, komodo and flamingo went along with the flow and accepted Felix into their midst, after all, they wouldn't fight with him on the battlefield, their disciples would, even though they cared a bit for their disciples, in this type of world they were still disposable if Felix didn't make the cut they wouldn't lose anything important.

Felix almost collapsed to the ground as his lungs were practically burning up, seeing Felix's situation Landers quickly ran towards him and took out a vial with a blue substance in it before he made Felix swallow the contents.

Felix's burning lungs immediately cooled down after he swallowed the substance and he could now get up from the ground by himself.

Landers smiled as he saw Felix was ok and then told him:

"Now that you got their acceptance we are all in a big squad, let's go into the mound and rest for the remainder of the day, from tomorrow onwards we will start training with all we got!"

Felix nodded as Landers took him into the mound, everyone else followed behind.

Felix found himself in an underground cave under the mound, Landers gave him his own room and said that he will come to visit later.

A few knocks on the door of his room were heard, it seemed Landers came, he also told him he had some instructions for him as he got ahold of his level after today's sparring.

Felix told him he could enter and Landers came in with some food that he settled down on the only furniture in the room, which was a medium-sized stone table.

Landers indicated that Felix should eat before they talked as he already had his own meal before he came.

Felix hastily ate his meal and waited for Landers' explanation.

Landers took in a breath and opened his mouth to instruct Felix...