"Tough luck for Landlord's team."
Micheal gave Felix and his teammates a sympathetic look, knowing full well that Manananggal would never allow them to pass the floor even if they gave the best performance in the entire game.
He was absolutely right...
'Hehehe, he finally landed in our hands.' Saurous grinned widely as he spoke telepathically with Manananggal and Wendigo.
'Brother Manananggal, you know what to do.' Wendigo was also grinning.
Manananggal didn't reply as he was eyeing Thor and Jörmungandr with a faint smile, pissing them off even more.
Although everyone knew that Manananggal was most definitely going to be treating Aspidochelone's team unfairly, they refrained from getting themselves involved in their drama.
The moment Aspidochelone had chosen to include Felix in his team, he signed off to be taking shit from the Darkin faction.
"Looks like master Felix will have only two methods to climb past this floor." Mistress Candace sighed while standing behind Asna.
"No, he has only one option." Asna shook her head, "Felix will never allow himself to go for the second option since he knows that it will cost him the game."
Asna was confident in her deduction since she understood that the second option would almost kill off any chance that Felix had to stay at the top of the tower.
If he didn't manage to kill Manananggal in the next few hours, his team would be eligible to either get teleported to ally with another team, or a team would be sent to help them out.
"You are right..." Mistress Candace said, "It will take other teams at least two hours to reach the tenth floor, then another two more hours of constant struggle before they get eligible for assistant...That's a whole four hours wasted."
"That's not everything." Asna added in annoyance, "That old f*cker will most definitely choose the other team to pass his floor even if Felix's team did the most work."
If it were up to Manananggal, he would prefer leaving both teams trapped in his floor even if they had delivered a noteworthy performance.
Alas, this wouldn't fly well with the primogenitor owning that team.
"Luckily, master Felix's team will get dropped by a floor, and they will have a new opportunity to face a different primogenitor's copy." Mistress Candace informed.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtIt was done like this, so the teams would have a new shot at climbing the floor instead of staying stuck against a single primogenitor's copy for the entire duration.
"There is nothing good about that."
Asna understood that by the time Felix engages against a new primogenitor's copy, Cherufe's team would have already left him to eat their dust.
Felix knew so too, which was why he decided to take his time in preparation against Manananggal.
'Guys, we will be dealing with Manananggal at 5% of his strength.' Felix tightened his eyebrows, 'His external manipulation range will be over tens of kilometers.'
'Based on what your masters told us, he is capable of causing blood clotting to any creature that entered his external manipulation range.' Rotspawn frowned.
Since the Darkin faction were enemies, Thor had already spilled everything there was to know about their abilities.
The ones that they needed to be really worry off were external blood clotting, blood cloning, blood transformation, and lastly blood revival.
'Since he can sense blood in his range, it will hard for us to get closer to him.' Barbyclaw said with a worried tone, 'I doubt we can even use the same strategy since we will die before we can get close to him.'
'You don't have to worry about that.' Felix snickered, 'I was taught a new inducement by my master that is capable of masking our blood. As long as you gets in your bloodstream, you will be invisible before him.'
As the mortal enemy of Manananggal, Jörmungandr naturally had created many inducements that were targeted at him.
'That's great.' Nina said composedly, 'This will help us get close to him from underground.'
'Though, because he has 5% of his strength, his senses would be enough to spot us if we got too close.' Rotspawn said, 'We can try to minimize the tremors, but he will still sense them and put some distance.'
'Indeed, we need a distraction.' Felix nodded, 'One of you will be marked with my void energy and the rest will be responsible over distracting him.'
'There is another issue though.' Webor scratched his head, 'Who told us that he will be staying above ground? He can be flying with his wings or above a blood cloud.'
'...'
Upon hearing so, everyone felt like their strategy was falling apart.
Webor was right, nothing assured them that Manananggal would be on the surface obediently and wait for them to show up.
In fact, they didn't know if he was looking for them at the moment, seeking to eliminate them before they could strategize against him.
There were many ifs.
'The only way we can know for sure is by testing.' Felix said, 'Our first three battles will be purely for gathering Intel...Only after we are satisfied with the odds, can we use our killer strategy.'
'Agreed.'
'That's how it should be.'
'I hope the copy isn't as sadistic as Manananggal.' Barbyclaw gulped, 'I heard rumors that he loves torturing his opponents.'
'Don't worry, his shitty personality isn't copied.' Felix sneered.
Felix was probably the only one bold enough to curse and belittle a proud primogenitor...The others didn't dare to do the same even though they were speaking telepathically.
'Let's begin.' Felix cracked his neck while jumping inside the void realm, 'Do as you please.'
In other words, there was no strategy in place. Still, Webor and the rest decided to move together.
'The environment is somewhat in our favor.' Felix thought while examining the map.
It was a mountainous region that was rich with giant trees and life.
There were no other lifeforms in it, making Felix sigh in relief...The last thing he wanted was giving Manananggal new sources of blood.
In a short while, Felix had finished scouting as he had located Manananggal effortlessly.
As they had feared, Manananggal was spotted sitting above a magnificent blood cloud.
He was as pale as ever and his gorgeous bloodish red eyes that would make any girl fall over heels for him.
He kept looking around him, surveying the surrounding area with his guard risen to the max.
As a mere dummy Ai, there was no way he would be acting causal and underestimating his challengers.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmWhoosh!
Suddenly, Manananggal's copy turned his head to the southern direction and narrowed his eyes at a mountain.
'They had been found.' Felix frowned while staring at his allies, digging swiftly through the mountains in Manananggal direction.
Although Felix didn't give them coordinates, it was common sense to scout the center of the map first.
Felix didn't give them the Blood Cloak inducement because he would rather not expose this trump card so early.
'Is he going to use blood clot ability?' Felix refrained from warning his teammates and started examining Manananggal's movement.
Instead of using blood clot as they anticipated, Manananggal flew in direction of Webor and the others.
When he appeared above them, he pointed his fingers at the ground and released four strings made out of his blood.
The strings penetrated the grounds crust and started seeping through it, like it was a living organism. When met with hard objects, it turns into liquid and go around it.
In a few short seconds, the blood strings had placed themselves exactly in front of Webor and the others, unbeknownst to them.
'What if those blood strings are the same as parasitic discharge of master Thor?' Felix was alarmed at the thought.
He didn't have an issue with the death of his allies since they would be revived, but if they were enslaved?
That's a whole different issue!
He swiftly changed his mind and teleported in front of those blood strings...Then, he got rid of them easily with his void seekers.
Obviously, his interference didn't go unnoticed by Manananggal's copy.
However, he couldn't do anything as Felix had returned to the void realm immediately after doing the deed.
'Now, he will be wary of me.' Felix sighed while eyeing Manananggal's copy alerted expression. But, it was much better than having his teammates enslaved.
This time, Felix didn't intend to keep such information to himself as he appeared next to his teammates and warned them about the blood strings.
'There was such a thing?' Webor sweated, 'I was focusing on the blood clo...F*ck! It's happening!'
Before Webor could finish his sentence, his expression got twisted in pain after sensing that his blood was starting to thicken.
'Quickly, get rid of the clotting!' Felix ordered while concentrating on the rising clots within his body.