I have Nine Lives

Now that they had an objective they were really pumped up and raring to go but the problem was that Goro was hungry again!

They still had some food left but it seemed Goro was fixated on the banana images Wu Xiao showed him, and it was understandable considering those were indeed Goro's bananas given to him by his father so he felt quite cheated at this moment, let's not even talk about his anger.

Felix walked closer to him and patted his thick thigs to make him feel a little bit better but that didn't stop his stomach from grumbling.

They were in a precarious situation as the Haron team had already gotten ahead of them by quite a lot considering their ability to fly and siphon their hex energy into one person to create a barrier strong enough to withstand the poison in the forest.

However, it was debatable if their barrier could withstand the poison at the center considering their strength wasn't as high as Goro's, considering their specialty was soul attacks and debuffs.

But first, they needed to feed their friend.

Goro was still looking at the sky while salivating and his stomach was grumbling, he had a strange expression on his face as he looked towards the direction the ravens flew.

Felix knew that he felt really bad considering those bananas were from his father while he wasn't sure of their significance to him they must have been some rather precious fruits if they could facilitate the growth of a tribe like Goro's.

While Felix wanted to help him regain his lost bananas it was currently impossible with their current team set up and objective, if they wanted to win this even they had to go further into the forest and activate the hex formation.

Goro finally stopped looking at the sky and looked down at Felix as he patted his stomach and waited for the food.

Felix glanced at his team and motioned with his eyes that they needed more food to feed Goro.

This in turn made things a little bit awkward as after they fought with those 3 ravens, Lindo, Altraeimo, and Bizkier got hungry as well, Lindo had an easier time as he already started eating considering Goro didn't like his food but the other two felt quite wrong. It was obvious they had very little food left after feeding him once and they had their needs as well.

Felix found the situation to be quite awkward as Lindo was eating and the other two looked at each other, Altraeimo didn't even know what to do in this situation as he didn't belong to the Tarot continent, what would happen when they would activate the formation? He would become a loser!

As for Goro Felix was sure the Ape didn't really care about this competition at all as he was forced by his father to come here so there wouldn't be cooperation problems.

Altraeimo didn't do his best against the ravens as he didn't want to waste his stamina on them nor reveal his abilities but now he felt like it was a good time to break the cooperation between them.

Even though he couldn't create a shield as good as Goro's he could do by with his techniques.

Seeing that Altraeimo wanted to back out made Felix think about what he should do here?

He was rather helpful even though he didn't put 100% of his power in his attempts at helping, he did feed Goro as well and it would be rather selfish to ask him, an outsider to donate for the good of the Tarot continent, it wasn't even sure what would happen with the people that ended up on the last place... well considering the elimination time Felix knew that the last place was the Sparron continent.

Actually, while they did give them the objective they were still rather secretive regarding the punishments and rewards of this event, Felix knew that it was meant as something akin to a war simulation for future invasions but would the losers really be invaded afterward?

He could only wait and see at this point.

Felix sighed as he looked at Altraeimo's vanishing figure and decided against following him, he was an outsider and they were only in a mutually beneficial relationship, now that the mutual benefits were pretty much gone he could only leave, Felix wasn't a person that would backstab his former allies but if he decided to make trouble for them in the future he would immediately attack to kill!

Goro didn't really understand what happened but he was pretty surprised seeing that Altraeimo disappeared, wasn't he a friend that gave food?

Seeing that he was confused Felix just stood there, he wasn't sure if Goro would even understand if he explained to him so he gave a look at Bizkier and gave him another eye message.

Bizkier finally relented as he sighed, even though he was hungry he wouldn't die of starvation and Goro's help was imperative, he took all out of his various fruits and herbs and gave them to Goro with both hands.

Goro immediately smiled as he took the food from his hands and stuffed his mouth with a multitude of fruits and herbs until he burped and nothing remained behind, his hunger was sated for the moment.

Felix, Lindo, and Bizkier then jumped on his shoulders as he activated his barrier and they started going further into the forest.

The trees shook as Goro used them to propel himself towards the centre of the forest at high speeds while Felix looked at Bizkier who's stomach was grumbling.

Bizkier was a little bit irascible after his food was taken from him so he glared at Felix and said:

"What are you looking at?"

Felix just patted him on the shoulder and said:

"You have done the right thing for the good of the team."

Bizkier hadn't been praised like this before, he had been praised for various things like his talent or his beauty by the female elephants but he was never praised for his intelligence, well mostly because there were no times for him to exhibit it. But he could also feel that Felix's words were truly sincere which made him rather happy even though he was hungry. He didn't have any friends back in the tribe due to his strength, he was a loner pretty much like Lindo.

Felix looked at the front as their speed increased, his refined soul could innately feel that there was a huge conglomeration of Hex energy ahead of them and that would only mean one thing!

The formation!

Goro stopped as he seemingly hit an invisible barrier, he put his face near it sticking it to the invisible barrier making his face look flat, it looked quite funny if you were on the other side of the barrier.

Felix could smell danger in the air as sizzling sounds started to be heard, it was Goro's barrier!

The purple mist around them was so intense in color and power that it even started to melt Goro's perfect barrier!

However Goro glared at the mist as he started beating his chest and his aura increased as the barrier stabilized, it seemed that he wasn't using his whole strength to create the barrier, maybe he was even as strong as a captain, physical strength speaking because of the lack of his intelligence his battle power wasn't that high.

The same could be said about Wu Xiao, while his intelligence was high and his control of hex energy was exquisite, his raven body made it hard for him to exert his strength beyond his soul techniques, after all not everyone was as balanced as Felix, he was pretty much strong in all aspects but not overwhelmingly.

Felix didn't know how to breach the barrier so he looked at Lindo and Bizkier who were also analyzing the barrier, he was sure that brute strength wouldn't be enough and it wasn't known what kind of response the barrier would trigger after a physical impact.

Bizkier touched the barrier as he analyzed it for a short while, Lindo knew as much as Felix so after he looked at the barrier for a short time he gave up and left the task to Bizkier who was smarter than both of them, academically speaking.

Bizkier wasn't sure what the barrier was made of even after analyzing it for a while but Goro seemed to be able to withstand the poisonous clouds around them pretty easily so he could have enough time to analyze it properly.

Above them the 4 ravens were whispering to each other as they tried to see through the poisonous mist, they felt the convergence of hex energy below them and knew that the formation was there but how could they breach it and activate whatever was inside it?

Wu Xiao glanced at his 'teammates' before looking at the cloud of poison below them, he knew Felix's team was below even though his compatriots had no knowledge of it but it wasn't time for him to tell them, he wanted to wait until the barrier was breached before he would swoop in and get the rewards!