Chapter 105: Exposed.
A few seconds earlier....
Felix rushed around the alleyways while using the skill Flashback at many corners of the buildings to find his way to the Rank 2 bandit.
As he did so, he reached a corner where he could hear clanging noises of swords and some people speaking.
'Is he here?'
Taking cover near a wall, he stopped running and peeked over to the scene before clenching his fists in anger at what he had witnessed.
'Steve!'
Felix saw how the Rank 2 bandit kicked Steve all over his body and then threw away Roven, who was coming to attack him, before raising his sword to stab into Steve.
It all happened in just a few seconds as he took some time to process what was happening
'No! I've to stop it!', Felix reacted swiftly and submerged his body underground.
He pushed his body to the limit and rapidly swam all the way toward the bandit before hastily rising from the ground with his sword pointed upwards.
"W-What-"
The bandit heard a shocked exclamation of Roven from behind him, but he ignored it and focused on a non-vital point on Steve's body to stab.
"Sqwelchh!"
As he was just about to bring his sword down, a shortsword penetrated his back and emerged out from his belly, meeting the tip of his own handheld sword.
"Huh!?"
The bandit groaned in bewilderment, glancing at the blood-stained sword poking out from his stomach just when he was about to injure the boy.
Turning around sluggishly, the bandit caught sight of a silver-haired boy kneeling behind him while holding the sword that was still pierced into him.
"Y-You-", realizing the cause of the pain, the bandit widened his eyes in anger before going berserk.
"HOW DARE YOU-!"
He bellowed furiously and tightened his fists before sending a punch to Felix's face.
'Dodge!'
Swiftly using an Agility Burst, Felix retreated backwards to a corner and avoided the punch, which slightly shattered the air.
The bandit didn't have the patience to get surprised at the boy's quick speed as he angrily jumped at Felix without any care for the sword stabbed into him.
His thoughts were not stable at the moment as he had seen a sword piercing and coming out of his body, and if it were not for the potion he had used, he wouldn't be able to survive that attack.
"Shit! Why is he not hurt from my attack?!", Felix shouted speechlessly.
"Be careful Felix, that guy drank some black vial potion. Your normal attacks do not affect him."
Holding himself against the wall, Roven warned him even though he had a lot of questions to ask the boy.
'Black vial potion? Wait-! Isn't that the same trick those dark guild's grunts at the Arena did?'
Realising that fact, Felix became serious about the situation and readied himself for their clash.
'Whatever the case, I've got to pay this guy for hurting Steve and kidnapping Eric....
Narrowing his eyes, Felix focused as the passive skill Unanimity gave him a relaxed mind and pondered a plan to deal with him.
The bandit jumped beside Felix and slashed his sword, intending to kill the boy who hurt him.
With no weapon in hand, Felix didn't try blocking or counterattacking, and instead simply dodged the attack with an Agility Burst.
'I can't use too much of this skill, or else I'll get tired.'
After dodging the attack, Felix moved near to the bandit and held onto his shortsword, which was pierced into the bandit's body, before using his skill Corrosion.
An invisible baleful energy rushed out from within Felix's body, which he controlled and sent into the bandit's body with the sword as the bridge.
The already bloody eyes of the bandit turned redder when he felt an infuriating pain rotting his insides.
"Aghh- Aaaghhh!"
He screamed in agony, unable to cope with the harmful energy seeping into his body, and flailed his arms around forcibly to push away the boy.
Felix got hit by the bandit's powerful arm on the chin as he flew away, and crashed on the ground, clutching his face.
"Y-You..what did you do to me!?"
Shouted the bandit in anger and with a hint of fear in his voice.
The pain he felt just now was something he had never felt in his whole life. Even with the strength boosted by the drug potion, he thought he couldn't handle being under that terrible energy for more than a minute.
The bandit grabbed the shortsword that was impaled into his stomach and threw it out towards a far corner so that the boy wouldn't get it back.
On the side, Felix was back on his feet with blood leaking from out from his mouth and nose.
'It's as I thought, Corrosion works on him just like how it worked on that monster turned human from Arena, but it's too dangerous if I get into a close range with him....'
Felix frowned as he deliberated on a better way to deal with the Rank 2 bandit.
But he couldn't continue his thoughts as the bandit rushed towards him with an outraged face.
Felix gritted his teeth and decided it was better to go all out at the moment without holding back anymore because there was no time for him to come up with a better plan.
'I'll deal with the consequences later!'
Raising his hands forward, Felix hurriedly used the skill Earth Spikes and created many spikes to attack the bandit.
"Swishh!!"
Many rocky and sharp blades arose from the ground around the bandit and quickly besieged him in all directions.
The running bandit was shocked when suddenly the earth below him trembled and many spikes attacked his body.
"Aagh!!"
A few parts of his body were slit from the sharp spikes, inflicting bloody wounds here and there.
Widening his eyes, the bandit hurriedly dodged the incoming spikes and jumped out from there as he glanced at Felix with an astonished face.
"N-No way....even you are a mage?!"
The bandit muttered in a state of bewilderment as mages were very rare, and this team had two of them.
Felix didn't reply, and used this chance, when the bandit was still shocked, to come up with a new skill to defeat the enemy.
'System, how many skill points do I have?'
[Ding!]
[Skill Points: 480.]
'Alright, now what kind of skill should I create?', he pondered while staying on guard against the bandit.
There was not much time left before the bandit attacked him again, so he furrowed his brows and quickly thought of a solution.
'Wait- can't I just pretend to be a mage then?'
Felix didn't forget the bandit's question, who asked whether he was a mage or not.
'Eric has the ability to conjure fireballs as a mage, so it shouldn't be strange for me to manipulate the earth or something given that I already have some similar skills...'
Coming to this point, Felix easily came up with a few skills that were related to Earth, imagining their power and tried creating all of them.
'System, create all these skills.'
[Processing the skill's power scale....grading the skills....estimating the possible points required.....skills successfully moduled.]
[Ding!]
[Skill Name: Quicksand
Description:
The user can create a quicksand, where the targeted area softens and liquefies, transforming into a viscous state which traps the enemy and sinks them deeper the more they struggle.
The skill's power depends on the user's mental strength and concentration.
Cost: 180 skill points]
[Do you wish to use 180 skill points and create the skill 'Quicksand'?]
[Ding!]
[Skill Name: Dust Blast
Description:
The skill allows the user to release a sudden burst of compressed dust and debris, creating a shockwave that knocks back enemies, obscures vision and inflicts damage.
Cost: 110 skill points.]
[Do you wish to use 110 skill points and create the skill 'Dust Blast'?]
[Ding!]
[Skill Name: Terra Drain
Description:
Allows the user to draw the earth's energy to replenish stamina and vitality while absorbing nutrients and minerals from the soil to heal wounds.
Cost: 120 skill points.]
[Do you wish to use 120 skill points and create the skill 'Terra Drain'?]
At once, the system displayed to him the information of all the three skills he thought of just now.
'Damn, these all are amazing....'
Raising his lips at all these new skills that he could afford, Felix gave in to his greed and didn't waste any time before creating them.
'System, quickly create all these skills.'
[Affirmative.]
The system replied before more notifications came one by one.
[Ding!]
[Successfully created the skill 'Quicksand'.]
[Ding!]
[Successfully created the skill 'Dust Blast'.]
[Ding!]
[Successfully created the skill 'Terra Drain'.]
After creating all the three skills, Felix smirked evilly as he imagined some exciting ways he would deal, or rather play, with the Rank 2 bandit now.
The bandit on the other hand remained in his previous state of shock, finding it hard to accept that some random kids had the potential to become a Mage, unaware of the silent turn of the tables on the battlefield.
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