Felix approached the captain's fighting grounds and he could feel his surroundings getting heavier as the Hex energy in the air was going under the lion shaman's control. With the current absorption of the surrounding Hex energy, the lion shaman killing speed increased!
Felix's hidden body started to slowly unveil itself as the hex energy in the air was getting absorbed by the shaman, it was slow but if more time passed by his whole body would be revealed, right now only parts of his fur could be seen if you concentrated a bit but if he moved quick enough he would still be relatively hidden to those that didn't have good eyesight.
Felix tried to identify the location of both Catro and Landers but there were some captains still fighting around and disrupting his senses.
He wasn't sure what to do in this situation, so he decided to do the simplest thing available to him:
"CARTO, LANDERS, YOU SHOULD SEE WHAT'S HAPPENING, LETS LEAVE TOGETHER!"
Felix's shout attracted everyone's attention to his location, but Felix didn't stay in the same spot after he shouted those words, Landers's voice could be heard from the distance as he appeared in front of Felix and picked him up putting him on his shoulder:
"I didn't know the shaman would do something like this, it seems the generals were informed but those below the rank are..."
Felix continued:
"Expandable cannon fodder?"
Landers nodded:
"Exactly."
Catro interjected as he appeared in front of Landers:
"It seems we all have been bamboozled by the shaman, it seems that it was all an intricate scheme for him to regain his youth and centralize the power of the lion tribe, I don't say its naturally a bad thing for us as we are members of the tribe, but it seems the price he has to pay for regaining his youth is a bit extreme..."
He looked at the shaman slaughtering the remaining tigers as he gave a toothy smile to the injured lion tribesmen infantry who was trying to back and run away from their now savage leader.
Landers shook his head seeing this and decided it was time to defect!
There was an extremely high chance for them to get killed as well as they haven't been informed of this previously, as captains were someone with a little bit of clout in the army if they weren't informed that meant something wasn't right.
Suddenly the shaman shouted:
"ALL CAPTAINS AND ABOVE THAT ARE FROMTHE LION TRIBE ARE EXEMPT FROM THE SACRIFICE IF YOU SACRIFICE A CAPTAIN FROM THE OTHER TRIBES! THIS APPLIES TO OUR COUSIN TRIBE AS WELL!"
That meant Felix would have been spared if he could kill a captain level person.
Landers' eyes hardened as well as Catro's as they looked at the captains that were around them, the lion captains started to suddenly turn unto their allies while the tiger captains tried to flee!
There were few cat captains but they existed so they decided to group up with Catro as he was one of the relatively stronger captains.
Both Landers and Catro nodded at each other then Landers told Felix:
"I will keep you with me, you have done well in this war and I will grant you one corpse so the shaman will spare you, just keep tight on my shoulder and all of this will end soon!"
Landers seemed to be intent on protecting Felix for some reason, was he really so impressed by the young cat's talent or did he have any other reasons that were unknown to Felix?
Once Felix was so close to Landers he could easily feel the man's power as he fought a nearby pig captain, it was the same captain that was with them at the training, the pig captain was heavily sweating in his armor as he said:
"Please Landers, be reasonable, we have trained together so many times, please don't do it!"
He had his hands behind his back as he was begging mercy from Landers.
Suddenly he launched a sneak attack as a small dagger appeared in his big hands, he thrust it forward towards Landers' heart without any mercy, he had a sly smile on his face but before he could continue smiling Landers took in a deep breath.
His muscles started to bulge for a second as veins appeared on them then his hand immediately went through the pig's armor as a second later he had his still-beating heart in his hand.
The pig slowly swayed from side to side as he fell to the ground dying without making another sound, Landers crushed the pig's heart as he muttered:
"I know about all your tricks, you said yourself about how many times we trained together."
Landers said that with a frown on his face as he looked at the lifeless body of his former comrade. He shook his head, it wasn't time to think about such things, he took look over at Felix who staying passively on his shoulder, and gave him a small nod and a smile as he said:
"The next one is for you."
Before he could say anything else a punch came from behind him almost taking his head off his shoulders, he jumped forward at the last moment making the hit only brush his back the hit also brushed Felix giving him a small injury on his tail. Felix gave out a small hiss in pain but kept his mouth closed.
Landers frowned as he looked behind him only to see the komodo dragon captain, he had a crazed look on his face as he said:
"I always wanted to fight you without any stops, isn't this a good time for it?"
His already relatively strong form started to double in height and weight as his muscles bulged to the point that they were bigger than his head, they looked extremely solid as his armor burst apart showing his well-toned and scarred body of a brownish color with spots.
He launched himself crazed at Landers, his strength was so high that the air was cut from his punches, however, due to his massive body, his speed was quite low to the point that even Felix could see his movements properly.
Landers looked at the komodo dragon with a nostalgic look on his face as he easily dodged all of his hits by waving around them, his opponents attack speed wasn't something that could hit him even though he had Felix on his shoulder who he was protecting at the same time.
He looked directly into the komodo dragon's crazed eyes and said with a sigh:
"It reminds me of our first meeting, isn't that right Sircho?"
Sircho eyes wavered for a second threatening to return to normal but then his crazed expression overtook it as he attacked Landers faster and faster!
He was overcoming his bulky form slowing him down by burning the Hex energy in his body to increase his speed, seeing what he was doing Landers' eyes started to moisten a bit as he gave him a few pats on the back when the komodo dragon tried to look behind him his head started to slowly slide down to the ground, he had a satisfied smile on his face that looked like he finally experienced Landers' true strength.
Felix's eyes widened as he felt the wind suddenly brush in his face before looking backward and seeing Sircho's head slowly sliding to the ground and his body deflating like a balloon reaching the same height as before, he didn't know what type of technique Landers used.
Landers looked down at the body and then at the sky as he muttered:
"Please guide his spirit well, komodo ancestors."
He let Felix down near the body and said:
"The shaman should come soon to grab the captain's bodies, all you have to do is claim the body for your own and he should let you live, I will have to help the others now."
Felix's natural response to bodies wasn't something that many people know, as he sat near the body of a captain which had an increased amount of Hex energy still lingering in it, combined with its high quality made Felix almost salivate on the outside, his saliva was almost dripping from his mouth as he stood close to the corpse.
Fortunately for him the shaman finally finished the infantry and quickly appeared on the captain's battlegrounds, he easily absorbed the dead captains as they disappeared into himself and then some type of fluorescent light would go up from his body into the skies.
Soon he reached Felix and he had a big smile on his face as he asked:
"So a little tyke has killed a captain all by his own?"
Felix didn't lie and told him the truth, seeing his truthful confession the Shaman chuckled as the corpse beside Felix disappeared and said:
"You are lucky you are interesting and your body doesn't contain any bit of Hex, but because you are interesting something else will have to happen to you."
As he looked behind Felix he could see different threads being connected to Felix's main soul, he decided to see what would happen if Felix lost one thread.
He put his hand forward slowly as he pushed it towards the threads that only he could see and severed it quickly with one chop.
The thread didn't disappear after it was severed as the lion shaman thought, it just started to wander around Felix as if it was free from being chained to him.
Felix started to feel light-headed after he watched the shaman chop into his direction for practically no reason.
His body started to slowly sway from side to side as his surroundings started to black, he collapsed on the ground with a small thud as he became unconscious.
Finally seeing a reaction the shaman started to caress his chin as he shouted:
"Keep this young cat safe, I have more things that I need to know from him, you even have to give your life for his!"
A few lion captains appeared in front of Felix as they bowed and took him to the camp where he would be kept to rest.
A strange expression appeared on the shaman's face as he muttered:
"Is he a person blessed by the gods?"
Then he shook his head and continued absorbing the people around him, he still needed to give energy to the ancestors, or his youth would reverse and he would age again, his scheme going to waste and all of the energy he sent and lives he spent wouldn't come back, since he was so far into the plan he would need to see things through to the end!