I have Nine Lives

Chapter 107: Going one step at a time

It took Manitola around 5 minutes of brainstorming to say:

"I'm not sure how we will be able to move the troops if you don't want to use the bridge."

"Below the ravine, there is a long winding river and if anyone will fall in it they would surely die, the walls of the ravine are very smooth so we can't scale them."

"The quicker route towards our destination is also available after we cross the bridge..."

Landers felt a rather sour taste in his mouth as he listened to Manitola, he didn't want his former alliance buddies to capture any of the cities or villages on the other part of the forest, considering they were just at the entrance of the continent which was kind of unpopulated because this wasn't the most resources rich area.

The capture of the first stronghold meant that they had the advantage but if they let the others capture strongholds in more resource-rich areas all of their work would be for naught!

"Ok then, you are the expert on the Sparron continent, do you have any ideas on how we would be able to move such a huge amount of troops?"

"Hmm, well I can't say I know how, if we talk normally it's impossible besides the slow way."

Landers frowned as he asked again:

"Is there really no way?"

Manitola shook her head indicating that there was really no way.

Landers felt quite angry but he shook his head to clear his mind, there was no reason to be angry, in this situation it would be more likely for him to get extremely annoyed.

He wasn't sure why he got angry.

Landers sighed before doing some more hand signals indicating for the troops to move onto the bridge and walk.

The troops didn't say anything as it was an order and they slowly made their way to the bridge in groups of two, while the bridge was wide enough only for 2 people, it was a rather long bridge and it could support a few more people, however, Landers didn't exaggerate as it was unknown how much weight the bridge could bear.

They had to take things slow, step by step which annoyed Landers and bored Felix.

Felix shook his head as he looked at all of the aligned troops, the more he watched them go the more bored he became, they were so many and they were going rather slow to not move the bridge.

He looked at Landers and got an idea as he said:

"Hey Landers, what do you think If I go ahead and scout the areas ahead to make sure the intelligence is correct?"

Landers looked at Felix and realized he only wanted to do that because he didn't want to stay still and wait here but having a scout in this situation was a good idea, while Manitola's information was genuine how would she know if anything changed while she was away?

Now they needed to make sure if the information was also up to date!

Landers nodded and told him:

"Ok then, go ahead to verify the information but make sure you are careful, who knows what type of traps would be ahead?"

Felix nodded telling him that he understood then jumped atop of the troop's heads using them as springboards to travel the bridge.

The soldiers were indignant at first but when they saw who was doing it they kept mum and let him do as he pleased.

Felix arrived at the other side of the bridge and saw the opening of another forest there, he entered slowly as he activated his stealth technique then looked around, he had memorized the map that Manitola had drawn so he knew where the villages were supposed to be situated.

The forest was just like the other one, he felt being watched even though he was invisible which showed the trees weren't actually looking at him through physical eyes but with some other senses.

He felt rather strange as he walked through the forest by himself.

He was really being looked at rather intensely compared to before, it was like millions of little eyes were targeting him insistently and he was naked in front of them.

It wasn't a nice feeling at all!

Felix looked around the woods and then unleashed an attack on a nearby tree which he felt looked the most insistently at him.

His claws went directly through the bark as if it was tofu then a cry could be heard coming from the tree.

A small green wisp left the tree as it started to turn red while it circled Felix.

"Huh?"

Felix couldn't understand a thing the wisp was currently shouting at him but he guessed it wasn't anything nice.

The little thing continued to circle him while spewing intelligible things until it calmed down and perched atop Felix's head, the moment that happened Felix felt as if the eyes around him suddenly stopped peeping at him as they all disappeared in unison, Felix was still in stealth so he wondered how the little thing identified him.

However the moment he thought about that the wisp disappeared as well!

But he could still feel him on his head, he was rather light but he still had a rather strong presence.

Suddenly he felt something wanting to connect with him, it came from his head!

Felix decided to connect with the wisp considering he had made all of the other eyes disappear.

A voice appeared in his head that said in a very high-pitch tone:

"Don't harm the trees, you big bully!"

Felix knew it came from the green wisp as he responded:

"I only did it because the observation was getting on my nerves..."

The wisp understood it so he said:

"That's why I shielded you from the eyes of my brethren, but don't take it wrong. We rarely see someone with so much natural power in them, we are just interested in you and maybe you would want to sign a contract with me?"

Felix was puzzled, contract? What the hell was this little thing talking about? Also, Felix remembered that Landers said that the trees weren't supposed to be sentient, wasn't this wisp basically the soul of the tree?

Seeing that Felix wasn't talking made the-wisp start the conversation again:

"You see the contract with us is beneficial for both parties, we..."

The wisp started to explain the benefits of the contract while Felix just found everything that happened up till now to be rather strange.

What natural energy? Why were these things attracted to him?

He came at first thinking that he would be able to scout and not waste time waiting for the troops to cross the bridge but he came face to face with a strange tree wisp?

He wasn't sure what he was supposed to do in this situation, ditch the wisp and go back to scouting or talk with the wisp and make the contract? From what he could sense the thing wasn't lying as its emotions could be seen from its color, Felix had already found a secluded place where he exited stealth and the green wisp was staying in front of him chattering intensely.

His head almost hurt considering he was sending all of that information directly to his brain as he patted it and said:

"Can you stop for a second so I can understand everything clearly."

The wisp started to turn pink from embarrassment as it stopped and Felix questioned:

"So this contract you spoke off... you get to become a flesh and blood person if we create it?"

"Yes, Yes indeed! If I stay with you I would be able to leech from your natural energies and after a long time passed I would evolve into a real person!"

"And I will get your abilities to absorb the surrounding natural energy and combine it with hex energy?"

"Indeed, Indeed, and you will also be my master after the contract had taken effect, so you won't have to worry that I will betray you after I become a real person!"

"Hmmm..."

It would be a lie to say if Felix wasn't tempted, the ability to fuse natural energy with hex energy was something only natural-born shamans could use, the natural energy meant harnessing the elements of nature just like Siracha had his own lightning armor that improved his fighting prowess by a huge deal.

This was another way for him to improve his fighting prowess and from what he understood from the incessant chattering of the little guy in front of him, the ability would become permanent, and his descendants would also carry it over.

Felix had somehow found out the origins of the shamans without even trying, however, he wasn't that interested in what he found as he asked the-wisp:

"Are you the strongest of your kind?"

The wisp also explained how the stronger the wisp the better the talent of natural energy and hex energy combination, there were a few talents that Felix was interested in and all of them were combat-related, the stronger the wisp the better the chance to get a combat-related ability.

Felix waited patiently for the wisp to express itself, he had enough time considering there were still around 149,000 people that needed to cross the bridge.