A few minutes later...
Returning to the crystal room, the Vice-Leader casually made his way towards the Upgrade Crystal after dealing with the insects that had tried to flee from his grasp, thinking they could escape from him.
Yet they forgot one tiny detail.
As long as they possessed a shadow and were within the range of his Attribute, he could easily locate every single one of them no matter where they hid or ran to. He could easily appear before them and finish the job.
Passing by the body of the weakest member of the party, his expression didn’t change, nor did his pace or demeanor, as he didn’t even bother glancing at it while continuing forward.
The body lay dormant and unmoving where it rested, its face plastered against the moss-covered ground with no visible signs of life.
Yet, without warning...
A swift horizontal slash was made, aimed at the defenseless body of the weakling, intending to split it in two.
The Vice-Leader’s expression didn’t change, nor did his pace falter, making it appear as though his arm had suddenly grown a mind of its own, aiming to split the body in half.
However, unexpectedly, the body that had been lying dormant with no visible signs of life suddenly sprang to life, leaping straight into the air even before the Vice-Leader’s attack could reach it, narrowly escaping the strike.
Smirking at the sight, the Vice-Leader snickered sinisterly.
“Haha! Was wondering why that cut felt lighter than it should’ve been. Who would’ve thought that a mere F-Rank was capable of having a hidden trump card as well.”
A crooked smile creeping onto his face, Felix stared cautiously at the Vice-Leader, briefly reminiscing about the events that had nearly cost him his life.
.....
Moments before getting flung into the air, Felix noticed something he hadn’t expected to see on the Vice-Leader’s face.
‘He’s smiling?’
Indeed, the Vice-Leader appeared to be, as a slight smirk emerged on his face upon seeing the events unfold before him, the revelation sending a torrent of questions into Felix’s mind.
However, before he even had the chance to entertain any of them, he was suddenly thrown into the air, heading straight for the Vice-Leader’s approaching figure.
Panic emerging in his heart, his mind raced as he searched for a way to escape his predicament without getting killed.
Subconsciously activating an Attribute, he waited for the right moment before using it.
[Hollow Wings has been Activated]
[Description: Enables short bursts of speed while gliding or floating]
Similar to his other Attribute descriptions, this one was also far more useful than it appeared.
Having experimented with it a bit before, he came to learn that as long as his body was suspended in the air or he was falling from a height, he could use short bursts of speed to either slow his descent, escape from an attack, or distance himself from danger.
The Attribute was only limited by the wielder’s imagination.
Not to mention, it only used a very small amount of Mana, so he decided to keep it hidden from everyone else, reserving it as a last-minute resort for only when his life was truly in danger.
However, as he noticed that the Vice-Leader was clearly in control of the situation, Felix had to make it look like he was dead so as to avoid a confrontation with him.
As such, he timed his movement as best as he could.
Only using the Attribute the moment the Vice-Leader swung his arm to attack.
Making it appear as though he’d been killed by the slash, whereas he’d merely been wounded while avoiding the attack that would’ve otherwise split him in two.
....
‘Shit! Despite timing it perfectly, I still got cut deeper than I expected.’
Placing a hand on the wound on his chest that was deeper than intended, Felix couldn’t help but let a slight smirk appear on his face at his luck in escaping a slash that could’ve killed him, only suffering a cut instead.
As he wasn’t in contact with the moss on the ground, he was unable to activate his other Attribute that would’ve otherwise enabled him to predict the Vice-Leader’s movements before he made them.
But since he couldn’t, he could only roughly time it as best as he could.
However, despite playing dead, even crashing hard against the ground due to being unable to fully avoid the assault, the Vice-Leader had still noticed that he wasn’t truly dead yet, intending to finish the job while Felix continued pretending.
‘Good thing I activated Flora Echo the moment I hit the ground, otherwise I’d be dead by now.’
Thinking this, Felix glared at the smiling Vice-Leader with a frown as he asked,
“Why are you doing this? I don’t recall us doing anything that would warrant you suddenly deciding to kill us all.”
As he said this, a different thought passed through Felix’s mind.
‘I need to buy as much time as possible to come up with a way to escape, or I’m going to end up getting killed. For real this time.’
Cackling upon hearing Felix’s question, the Vice-Leader snarled lightly.
“Cute attempt at trying to buy time. Too bad you’re going to die either way!”
Hearing this, Felix felt cold sweat run down his spine at being seen through.
However, the Vice-Leader’s next words surprised him again.
“But! As I’m in a good mood thanks to the spectacular performance you and your pal put on to keep me entertained, I’ll give you a reward. Think of it as a farewell gift from me.”
“After all, everyone has a dark side just waiting to burst out. Watching you get betrayed by that friend of yours was hysterical! Almost made me not want to kill him.”
“Almost!”
A dark smile appearing on his face as he said this, the sound of blood dripping from his sword seemed to grow louder as silence stretched for a brief moment before he continued.
“As for your question as to why I did it. Let’s just say, convicts don’t need a reason to kill someone, now do they?”
Hearing this, Felix was immediately stunned by the revelation, causing him to absent-mindedly mutter to himself.
“A convict? But why would anyone ever give convicts the opportunity to grow stronger and become Streamers... Unless...”
“The peace isn’t as stable as they claimed!”
Feeling his thoughts shift into overdrive, Felix couldn’t help but shudder at the implication.
As the only reason he could imagine why the higher-ups would even consider empowering a hardened criminal was if humanity was in a far more dire state than they let on.
Leaving them with little choice but to empower any potential Streamer without making it obvious to the public so as to avoid worldwide panic.
Though Felix had always suspected that humanity was walking on thin ice with the peace they currently enjoyed, what if that ice was even thinner than he’d imagined?
Or worse...
‘What if it shattered a long time ago, and they’re simply covering it up? Or was the entire peace thing nothing more than a ruse to keep people in line?’
The thoughts were disturbing.
But not nearly as disturbing as if they actually turned out to be true.
As the consequences would be dire, far worse than he could possibly imagine.
It would mean that despite the Streamers’ aid in the battle against the Trolls, they still weren’t making enough of a difference in the grand scheme of things.
Meaning they were fighting a losing battle.
Causing those in power to resort to empowering convicts with the potential to become future Streamers.
However, such methods were a double-edged sword, as convicts had no real reason to sacrifice their lives for others.
So why would they bother fighting for someone else?
Especially if they eventually became strong enough to kill their captors.
‘There’s probably a means they developed to keep them in check outside. But I doubt that applies here as well.’
Realizing this, Felix couldn’t help but gulp slightly as sweat trickled down his face.
Listening to Felix’s assumptions, the Vice-Leader couldn’t help but snicker.
“Oh my! We really did give you less credit than you deserve. Haha! Wasn’t expecting you to be this sharp. Too bad you’re going to have to die now.”
Flicking the blood from his curved blades in one smooth motion, he whispered,
“And here’s a little secret as well. I’ve been wanting to kill those insects for a while now.”
“And most of all... You!”
With that, he didn’t bother saying anything else, simply tightening his grip on his blades and beginning to walk towards Felix.
Realizing the Vice-Leader was actually a lunatic upon hearing this, Felix finally understood why he barely talked.
Though Felix had thought it was simply because he was socially awkward at times, like him, never would he have imagined he was so wrong.
Multiple questions spiraled through his mind as to why all this was happening and how he could escape.
But seeing as the Vice-Leader was now casually approaching him, he decided to set them aside for now.
Contrary to what one would expect, Felix didn’t bother running.
Instead, he simply took off his shoes as he awaited the Vice-Leader’s assault.
Noticing this, the Vice-Leader simply scoffed at the attempt, knowing fully well that Felix couldn’t have given up so easily and was likely hoping to avoid his attacks with his Attribute.
However, recalling how he’d predicted the Alpha’s attack well enough to distract it when even Hans hadn’t noticed it, he became slightly wary.
Not to mention, Felix had also dodged his earlier attack before he even made his move.
So he couldn’t afford to underestimate him.
“Though I don’t know how you were able to escape my attack mid-air, nor how you dodged my earlier attack before I made it.” As he spoke, his body began dissolving into the shadows.
“But I do know this...”
“Your Attributes still have weaknesses I can exploit.”
Having dissolved fully into the shadows, the place immediately became eerily silent as only Felix stood calmly with his eyes closed and his feet nestled in the moss-covered ground.
Recalling how Felix required a certain level of concentration to use his Attribute, as well as having to focus in a certain direction to make full use of it, and recalling how difficult it had been for him to locate the Alpha when he couldn’t see where it was, the Vice-Leader concluded that Felix’s Attribute demanded more effort to pinpoint things outside his line of sight.
And coupled with the fact that the entire crystal room was mostly enshrouded in dim lighting, creating countless shadows, this was practically his domain.
With this in mind, his figure suddenly emerged behind Felix.
A swift diagonal strike was made, intending to split him apart before he even registered what had happened.
However, before his figure had even emerged fully from the shadows, Felix immediately jumped into the air and zoomed a short distance away, causing the attack to meet nothing but air.
Shocked by this, it was the Vice-Leader’s turn to be surprised as he stared at Felix in a daze, baffled at how he had predicted his location before he even emerged.
Noticing the Vice-Leader’s surprised expression, Felix’s eyes remained closed as he smirked in return.