The US team has successfully eliminated five teams at once without losing a single hair strand!" Janna commentated in excitement, "What a marvelous strategy and synergy!"
Her excitement was being shared by the millions of live viewers, who were spamming in the stream chat 'Pog' and 'Wow' emojis in a frenzy, making it impossible to read the actual written sentences.
"Sigh, if only the drones' vision wasn't hindered as well by the fog, the battles would be more thrilling to watch."
Dejected, Micheal sighed while looking at the stream screen showing everything in black and green, giving them a somewhat clear overview of what's happening within the fog.
Alas, they could forget about seeing the thrill of abilities clashing together and such, as they couldn't even differentiate between the teams.
If the two drones weren't programmed to follow only the US team, they would have already lost them and started watching another team unbeknownst to them.
Thus, the viewers never actually saw the abilities used by Felix's team! This left them guessing if they used anything new in their battles or not.
...
Meanwhile, Felix and the rest immediately started moving towards the package position, following Johnson, who started showing exhaustion signs.
'John, energy?' Felix asked.
'30% and declining rapidly.' Johnson replied.
'Alright, don't puff out any more fog, just try to sustain the created one for five minutes or so.' Felix said while gazing at two teams, one to his left and the other to his right.
They were walking slowly in the same direction as them.
He decided to ignore them for now since the three nearest teams to the package had already made it to the center of the fog, where the package was stuck on a tree.
Before long, one of them would climb the tree and find it. Then, he could open it up right there and see that the tracker was still inside.
Felix was certain that they would take it and escape instead of securing the entire package since it was heavy and bulky.
He didn't want to be forced into chasing them down, as more variables would come up the further they stray from the plan.
But in reality, he was just lazy to put in such an extra effort.
...
'We are here.' Johnson sent a message while narrowing his eyes at three bloodliners climbing up a tree each.
Meanwhile, their teammates were guarding them underneath, turning their heads back and forth akin to radars.
Since his vision was left intact, he watched them from twenty meters or so behind a tree.
He wasn't about getting found out by bloodliners with vision abilities since the known range for the best rare tier 1 vision ability was merely 10 meters.
'Damn it! It's the Canadian team.' John knitted his eyebrows in annoyance after seeing the red maple flag of Canada in their outfits.
He knew that it would be problematic for them to make a move since the US and Canada were close allies!
And they were explicitly given orders by George to avoid battles with them since it wouldn't bore suitable for the country to have its team eliminating its oldest and closest ally.
Obviously, this applied to only close allies and not everyone.
That being said, Johnson didn't give a shit as it was the captain's problem to handle, not his. He gave out his report and tried his best to hold himself from sitting due to exhaustion.
'Canada? So bothersome.' Felix scratched his nose in vexation.
He wanted to send a message by the Queen, warning them to leave. But, communication between teams was blocked.
He didn't want to shout his threat out loud since it was stupid as he would be giving off the team's position plus their identity.
Besides, shouting would be disrespectful and humiliating as the Canadian team would absolutely not retreat while under their citizen's watch!
By Felix shouting threat, he would be actually giving them no choice but to battle him.
If they did, he would f*ck them up pretty badly. This would embarrass the country even more.
He truly wanted to avoid the political storm that would rise after so. He could already envision the shitty news about it.
'F*ck it, just go around them.' Felix waved his hand dismissively, 'After we take care of the other two and the fog clears out, both the team and their countrymen will see the aftermath. And they are not stupid to not realize the price of fighting us.'
Upon hearing so, Johnson turned left and carried on moving, thoroughly ignoring the Canadian team, who were wasting time searching empty trees.
Boom! Bam!!...Argh!...
However, just as he took the first step, the sounds of explosions and people groaning resounded thunderously from the direction he was heading to.
The team didn't need to ask Johnson to see what's going on as the wind produced from those massive explosions had hurled the fog in every direction, clearing out an entire area!
This led the team to see with their own eyes, two teams going at it.
The ones on the left had an infuriated expression, while the others on the right were either shaking their heads in disappointment or had an annoyed expression.And in the middle of their battle, there was a silver metallic box that was at least a 1-meter cubic size.
Its surface was still lustrous and unaffected by the fire, ice, and acidic mist surrounding it.
If it wasn't for the parachute burning next to it, anyone would have assumed that this chest was a bank safe and not the package!
Felix and the rest instantly hid behind the closest thing to them. They started watching the battle in intrigue.
They had not a single thought of intervening before they understood the entire situation.
'Should I hold the fog to keep the area visible?' Johnson asked swiftly after seeing that his fog was coming back again.
'Do it.' Felix agreed.
After he received a confirmation, Johnson manually forced the fog to freeze.
Alas, before Olivia and the rest could appreciate having their visibility back, the battle had ended just as it began!
No one was attacking anymore as both teams retreated further from each other, leaving the package all alone in the center of the area, appearing like a trophy begging to be taken.
However, those two teams merely sent two bloodliners in the direction of the package.
The moment they reached five meters away from it, they stopped and started staring at each other with opposite expressions.
The man on the right side of the package had an afro-like hairstyle and was wearing a red and black outfit.
He was looking nonchalantly at a petite girl with short braided caramel hair.
Upon seeing that she was giving him an unfriendly vibe, he clicked his tongue in irritation, 'I guess we can only split the package now.'
"I apologize on behalf of the team for striking first." Unlike his hidden irritation, the afro man bowed his head politely and added, "But the moment my teammate noticed the noisy footsteps of your team approaching us rapidly, we had no choice but to send a warning shot."
"Warning Shot?" The girl snorted in derision at the man's apology.
She glanced at four of her teammates, who were passed out with scorched black skin or frozen in ice, and gritted her teeth in resentment.
"Angola Captain, do you take me for a fool?" She yelled, "Who the f*ck fires a warning shot with tens of elemental abilities all at once! If my shields weren't strong enough to handle your 'warning shot', my entire team would have been wiped out!"
She was not mad that he was aiming for the kill since that was to be expected in this competition. But from the fact that he tried to play it differently after his attempt failed.
She knew that he wanted to silence them by one single attack and escape with the entire package under cover of what remained from the fog.
However, now that he failed, he clearly didn't want to enter a battle with them anymore.
He knew that other teams wouldn't take long before reaching here and collapse on both of their teams after they notice the sealed package.
The Angola captain merely scratched his cheek carelessly, "Didn't I already apologize? It was an honest mistake. Now, how about we talk this out peaceful.."
"F*ck off!"
The braided girl didn't wait for him to finish off his bullshit as she flipped him the finger and retreated to her teammates.
Then, she did the unexpected as she shouted at the top of her voice, "THE PACKAGE IS HERE WITH THE ANGOLA CAPTAIN!"
Her voice was loud enough; it traveled far and beyond, reaching even the disqualified teams who regained their consciousness and retreated outside of the fog.
"Good luck sending warning shots to all of the teams at once, you f*cker."
Spitful and somewhat frustrated, She glared at him one last time before turning around and bolting with her team in the opposite direction.
It was clear that she already informed her team about her sudden outburst as her teammates piggybacked those four heavily injured bloodliners.
Meanwhile, the Angola captain just kept looking at them retreating into the fog with mouth agape, not knowing how did things derail from his expectation so fast.
He knew that any smart and reliable captain would never do what she did, even if they were offended and insulted.
Why? Simple actually!
They were f*cking representing their entire country and given massive responsibility to bring them as many flags as possible.
Those flags translate to representative slots, which translate to having votes in the World Council. Having those votes meant actually influencing the decision making!
Yet! The girl under the public watch of her country had just given up on a chance to get the tracker to spite him?
He didn't think for a second that was even possible!
He wasn't the only one shocked by the girl's irresponsible retaliation, as even the viewers from each country's stream were left in disbelief.
Micheal swiftly broke out of his daze and swiped his finger at the Malaysian's stream, wanting to check if the citizen of Malaysia were barraging their captain with insults or not.
However, when he looked at the chat and saw that the viewers were actually spamming applause emoji for their captain, he was left bewildered.
Since this was a foreign stream, the Malaysian team's language and the viewers sounded like gibberish to him.
Therefore, he requested from the all-knowing Queen to translate. After reading the chat this time, his confusion was cleared out instantly.
He couldn't help but commentate it out loud for the American viewers, "Their Healer was part of the four heavily wounded bloodliners!"
The moment Janna and the viewers heard this, they immediately recognized that the Malaysian captain did the right thing!
After all, if their healer was unconscious and heavily wounded, there was no way that the captain was going to carry on remaining next to the Angola captain.
He was bound to see that her teammates weren't getting healed back in shape and figure out that he had luckily managed to take down the healer in the previous elemental salvo!
By then? He wouldn't bother to waste his time talking as he would straightway carry on the battle!
Thus, the package was already lost for the Malaysian team, which explains the girl's frustration.
However, Instead of just running away, she wanted to ruin the Angola team's chances of getting the package.
Alas, she made it difficult for all of the teams, Felix's included.
'So bothersome.' His annoyed expression as he looked at the fast-approaching two teams from the back said it all.However, his eyes soon brightened up after noticing that the shields of the Angola team were turned off due to the buffer probably wanting to save up on energy for any upcoming battles.
After all, no one was in sight and they couldn't keep the shields active forever. The buffer's energy wasn't infinite.
Despite so, Felix noticed that a shield was left on a man in the middle of the formation. He guessed that was probably the healer.
'Change of plans, we are striking first.' Felix informed his team while manifesting red bombs in his hand.
Meanwhile, the Angola captain had ordered his team to prepare for a retreat with a livid expression.
After so, he swiftly went to the silver package and keyed in a password on a screen that was on the top of the chest.
The password was given to him by the instructor after the gathering, just like everyone else.
Peep!
The moment he heard the sound and saw that the small screen had turned green, he clasped on the grip of the door and opened it wide.
Poof!
However, just as he wanted to look inside, he was smacked in the face with a bloodish red bomb, making him blink his eyes once in confusion before they rolled at the back of his head.
Thud!
"Captain!!"
His teammate shouted in worry after seeing their captain fall to the ground unexpectedly.
Alas, they weren't given a single chance to think things through, as one massive bloodish red bomb was sent in their direction.
With Felix's behemoth strength that could slap a 1st stage bloodliner to death, the bomb thrown by him traveled so fast; it neither appeared in the eyes of the bloodliners nor the stream.
POOF!
Just like their captain, their faces were packed with raw confusion before their eyelids closed shut after getting engulfed inside a humongous cloud of red mist.
Thud Thud Thud!
The bodies lying randomly on the ground just showed the viewers the true horror of getting ambushed by Felix without having protection shields on.
There was no resistance, no back and forth fight, just two bombs were all it took for an entire team made of the elites of Angola to be sent packing home!
Upon seeing that everyone was already on the ground, Felix and his teammates dashed from the woods and split up in their way.
Felix went for the package and the captain, while the rest went to disqualify the passed out team and take care of the dumbfounded healer, the only survivor from the ambush.
Alas, being a healer meant that he was a sitting duck for Noah and the rest.
Only after seeing Noah knocking the scared healer out cold, did the viewers from the stream regain their wits back.
"What..what was that?!" Micheal stuttered with widened eyes.
The Angola team was done for just like that? He didn't dare to believe his eyes neither did the viewers.
They knew that Felix had poison bombs and poison pillars, but the ambush happened so fast they didn't even know what ability Felix used.
The fact that the inducement was changed from paralyze to hypotension made their thoughts get disarrayed even further.
After all, they still had no idea that Felix was able to switch to multiple inducements.
This made them assume first that Felix had just used his peak active ability instead of poison bombs.
Especially when the last bomb's explosion was big enough to cover the entire team!
However, this didn't explain to them why was the first bomb red and small just like his paralyze bombs!
It wasn't just them, who were left in utter bewilderment and shock. As the Canadian team, who were planning to make a move at the Angola captain, froze in their positions with cold sweat running down their spine.
They never thought that another team was lying this close to them!
Worst of all, they were strong enough to take care of an entire team in less than five seconds!
"Ca...Captain he is taking the tracker." A smart-looking girl, wearing circular glasses, stuttered in fear and anxiety at the sight of Felix, playing with a black device in his hand.
The ripped open package of the tracker was lying next to his feet.
The captain's expression turned ugly instantly after seeing the American flag in Felix's jacket.
He realized that his team had been screwed big time by not making the first move!
After all, if the US team were given orders to not harm them, the Canadian team were also given the same orders!
If they ambushed Felix and his teammates under the public view of the world, the political storm would whirl in their direction!
He didn't know if Felix made the first move intentionally or it was merely a stroke of bad luck on their side.
But what he did know was that as long as the tracker was in the hands of Felix, they could forget about getting it by using force!
'The other teams are coming here.' The Canadian captain ordered, 'Hide deeply and wait until the tracker lands in the hands of another team. Then, we might have a chance to get it back.'
Although his teammates were still frightened by Felix's ability, they still didn't cower and run away just because of it.
Unless there was absolutely zero chance of getting the tracker, not a single team would dare to withdraw under the observation of their citizen.
So far, the Canadian team still had a chance since they noticed that the only reason Felix's ambush worked so well was due to the Angola team's shields were turned off.
They weren't retarded to repeat the same mistake.
'Not leaving huh?' Felix glanced in their direction with a faint playful smile, making the Canadian team shiver at the thought that he could see them.
However, soon they sighed in relief after seeing that he was glancing in every direction.
They assumed that he was worried about getting collapsed on by the other teams.
"Captain, they are all out cold." Johnson said loudly as he approached Felix with the rest.
Meanwhile, he sent a mental message, 'The two teams are here. One in front and the other to my right.'
'Alright, start part two of the improvised plan.' Felix notified them in secret while speaking out loud, "Carry whatever you can and escape into the fog."
"Argh! Captain, my energy is about to run out." Johnson clasped into his heart dramatically, making Felix's eyebrows twitch.
But he still played along and shouted while holding a black box on his shoulder, "Just hold for 30 seconds!"
"I can't! Argh!" Johnson let out one last groan before dropping into the ground with his eyes closed shut and limbs spread further apart. The posture he chose truly appeared like a starfish.
The moment he dropped, the fog encasing the entire area disappeared immediately like it was never there.
Promptly, the entire forest brightened up by the sunlight again, exposing everything within it.The viewers were speechless after noticing from above, two teams were in the process of preparing an elemental salvo from both directions of the package, aiming at Felix and the others!
Now with the fog gone, they were exposed redhanded to everyone!
The colorful effects of the abilities were too hard to miss.
"Well, hello there." Felix addressed the dumbstruck teams casually with a hand wave.
Seeing that he didn't receive a response, he coughed and asked, "Are you going to carry on with your ambush? Should we turn our backs and act like we didn't see you?"
At this moment, both the teams knew that a lifelong embarrassment was going to stick with them until their death.
They couldn't imagine how they looked in the eyes of the world after this shitty ambush and they didn't dare to imagine it.
It was already embarrassing enough to get caught like this with their abilities prepared. Yet, they had to end up landing in this situation next to Felix, who wouldn't hesitate to make fun of them for it.
Fortunately, Felix's aim wasn't on them but on the Canadian team, who were hiding on branches and using leaves as cover.
When the fog was still around, the visibility was impaired since there wasn't much sunlight to work with.
Thus, although the Canadian team wasn't exactly in the fog, they weren't worried about being noticed. Especially when they were keeping quite a distance from the package.
But now?
The sunlight exposed some bits of their outfits and they couldn't do anything about it since the moment they moved, it would just get worse for them.
Just as they were feeling thankful about those two teams attracting the attention of the US team, they were horrified to see that every member of the US team turned in their direction with cunning grins.
Chills coursed in their back after seeing their grins as they knew that whatever was about to come wasn't going to please them one bit.
"Friends from Canada." Felix scratched his nose with a polite smile as he asked, "How about you do us a favor by helping us take care of those two?"
'God f*cking damn it!!!' The Canadian Captain's expression turned unsightly the instant he heard so.
He knew that he had fallen into an unenviable situation!
The Canadian captain guessed that his team's position was already compromised while they were still within the fog.
After all, he understood that it was impossible to know, which country they were representing without seeing the flag on their chest or know someone in their team.
They were hidden almost perfectly on the trees, giving off only bits of their clothes. Thus, it was impossible to rely on that and figure out their identity.
Now their plan of waiting until the tracker lands in others' hands wasn't even an available option since they were requested help from their country's ally.
If they rejected the request under the world's eyes, it would look neither pretty for them nor for their country.
He didn't have the thought of acting deaf to Felix's request since they were bound to show themselves sooner or later.
Left with no options, the Canadian captain jumped from the tree followed by his teammates. They immediately gathered and entered a battle formation.
Everyone's eyes were on the Canadian captain, wondering what would be his response. Even the two teams withdrew their abilities at once since they already lost most of the advantage.
If they attacked now, Felix and the rest would be able to dodge the abilities salvo while letting a few hit the water spheres that were protecting them.
20 meters distance or so was more than enough for even a bloodliner with trash reflexes to react in time.
Plus, they had no intention of helping the Canadian captain out of his plight. They were happy enough to have their embarrassing scene replaced with another unrelated to them.
After a couple of seconds of silence, the Canadian captain coughed and replied in dejection, "As much as I want to offer my assistance to my dear American friends, I am afraid that we can't." He swiftly clarified, "The competition rules forbid the teams from helping each other, and I don't want my team and my country to be punished by the Organization."
Alas, his excuse didn't even take root in the mind of the listeners before Felix exposed him nonchalantly, "We are banned from assisting each other in collecting flags or sharing the tracker, not fighting."
"If you don't want to help, just say so." Felix shook his head in disappointment as he placed down the tracker back on the package and closed it again.
He didn't want the items inside to be damaged by the upcoming battle.
He turned to his teammates and ordered, "Prepare for battle, it's going to be just us."
Johnson, who was acting dead for a while, immediately stood up and scoffed, "If we knew that our countries relationship meant so little to you, we wouldn't have stopped ambushing you in the fog earlier."
"Forget it, Johnson." Kenny smiled bitterly as his body turned invisible, "It is what it is."
The more the Canadian team heard the uglier their expression got. Their country's image was literally getting ruined live, especially after what johnson had just mentioned.
They didn't know if that was true or not, but they were inclining to believe it as they discerned that the US team wouldn't dare to lie to them.
After all, they might not know but the viewers sure did. This meant, the US team truly showed them mercy when they could have ambushed them.
From the end result of Felix's ambush on the Angola team, they knew that the outcome of their team wouldn't be any different.
In the eyes of both countries, it would seem that the US team had honored their close alliance while the Canadian team didn't.
That was the last thing that the Canadian captain wanted to see.
'F*cking politics ruining everything as always.' He cursed in his mind while showing a different attitude on the outside, "You got it all wrong! My team will gladly support our dear friends if it was just about battles."
He walked forward with his chest pushed out, "Let us handle the Philippine team."
"They are all yours." Felix smiled faintly while turning his head back in front. Then, he started sizing up the other team who was wearing a white outfit stripped with blue lines.
He looked at their flag and noticed that it belonged to the Argentinian team!
Not that it matters much to him as even with five teams ganging up on him, he would be able to demolish them all at once.
However, he didn't want to use any abnormal brute force in this competition unless he was pushed into doing so.
'F*cking prick.' The Canadian cursed Felix in his mind while giving him a polite head nod.
He then focused on the Philippine team, who were also facing them with a solemn expression.
The situation turned into two against two, which was to the liking of everyone except for the Canadian team, who were forced into this.
'Captain, we need to be careful of those red pillars.' A lanky man with long thin arms reaching his knees warned with a nervous expression.
His teammates flinched after remembering the video they watched of those red pillars destroying the Hilton team that was close to their strength back then.
However, their captain merely cracked his knuckles and ordered, 'The moment you notice that your barrier was broken, hold your breaths and withdrew at the back of the formation until Santiago shield you again.'
Upon seeing that his teammates nodded their heads in resolution, he smirked one last time before snapping both of his fingers, activating his morphing ability.
Two abrupt huge lumps started to emerge from both sides of his waist.
Alas, those lumps didn't come out peacefully as the pain of having his skin wrapped like that, made the Argentian team take quick and short breaths like a woman having contractions before birth.
The pain he was experiencing was understandable as those two huge lamps continued to extend forward slowly while shaping up into two beastial arms!
They appeared like they belonged to reptile species with their thick blue skin and white bent claws.
The instant the transformation was over, the Argentinian captain loosened up his tightened fists and started opening and closing his beastial hands until he was doing it at a faster speed than his real hands.
'Look and behold at those two bad boys.' The Argentinian straightened up his back in pride as he kept lowkey flaunting those two arms by moving them around.
His teammates completely ignored this sight as they simply focused on activating their abilities as well.
Two of them morphed like their captain and another disappeared out of sight after leaning against a tree.
Meanwhile, the rest either had elemental abilities fully prepared for launch or were buffing out the front-liners. Yet, they still didn't attack as they were waiting for the captain's order.
Currently, their captain was paying close attention to Noah's and Nathan's transformation that was on the verge of finishing.
For Noah, his arms morphed into Yeti's giant arms, which were laced with a thick white fur.
On the other hand, Nathan's morphing ability which he got after reaching the greater purity, turned his legs into a furless brown Kangaroo's ones!
He was hopping on his place while having his hands situated in front of him in a boxing posture.
With his bronze metallic shimmer on his entire skin, it was clear that his fighting style was going to be up close.
'Tsk, not bad.' A bit salty by the dashing appearance of his foes' morphing abilities, the Argentinian captain clicked his tongue while stepping forward with his team as one, advancing in a slow and careful manner.
They had their shields up, their abilities up, they were set for battle!
'Walton, where are you at?' Unworried about the approaching team, Felix asked while snapping both of his fingers creating two bloodish red bombs inside his jacket's pockets.
His teammates were already ready and waiting simply for his order to move.
'I am already here.' Walton responded while lying between bushes 30 meters or so away from the team, peeking at the current situation with only one eye.
Before the fog cleared out, he was given orders by Felix to head straight for the Package area. But since his vision was hindered by the fog, he was going even slower than the others.
Thankfully, after the fog went away, he was able to cast *Upsurge* and fly here, making it just in time.
'Good, go flank them with Kenny. We will be holding them dow..'
Booom! Whoosh!! Phew!...
Before Felix could finish up his orders, the sound of abilities clashing against each other or landing on the pitiful trees, rumbled from behind him!
He took a quick glance and noticed that the Canadian team was using abilities as cover for their four front-liners to close up the distance while the Philippine team was doing its best to foil their advancement by barraging them with tens of abilities at once!
As they fired those abilities they kept retreating one step at a time in a single formation like an ordered army.
Fire, one step back! Fire, one step back! Rinse and repeat.
Since the elemental abilities fired were just fireballs, ice lances, wind blades, and those kinds of low tied abilities, they were able to keep spamming them without worrying too much about their energy consumption!
They might be small and low-tiered but those abilities sure pack a punch if they directly landed on a bloodliner.
This led the Canadian front-liners to struggle into advancing as their entire focus was put on dodging those abilities.
They might be shielded and protected but they knew that if the shield took too much damage, it would end up breaking and they would be required to return next to their buffer to get shielded again!
Upon seeing their struggle, Felix chuckled in amusement as he thought, 'I should be nice and give them 5% of the Package's content.'
"Felix! Focus!"