I have Nine Lives

Felix's breathing was quick as he ran away while dragging Lindo with him, Bizkier was just behind them and he was already out of breath and one tusk missing as he was back to 1 life remaining.

"What was that thing?"

Lindo was the one who asked the question, he was in a confused state as Felix grabbed him by the collar and dragged him through the purple grass in the forest which made him quite dizzy and he didn't really know what happened. He only felt a dangerous aura behind him then Felix grabbed him.

Bizkier caught his breath as he looked back and frowned as he said:

"I'm not sure but..."

Suddenly his eyes lighted up as if he got information from thin air and said:

"He is an ape expert... but there is something strange about him, apes are generally quite smart and they wouldn't act irascibly without reason, but he is in the team with those ravens who have mind-affecting abilities so I guess we don't really have to question how he ended up that way right?"

Felix looked enviously at Bizkier, his god was quite useless in all aspects besides giving him his ability, but this guy's God could give him information on the fly as well? Felix wasn't sure what type of contract this guy had with his god but it seemed better than whatever he got from his.

Sensing Felix's envious gaze made Bizkier put his trunk in the air as he said:

"It would be best to avoid him... Wait aren't we missing one person?"

"Oh yeah now that you remind me... where is the blonde aqua boy?"

As they looked around they realized that they were missing their new ally who disappeared under the rampage of the ape, he wasn't dead that was for sure as the big colored barrier of the foxes must have grabbed the attention of the ape.

"So what are we supposed to do now?"

Lindo wasn't sure what to do considering they all split up and they were supposed to fight each other, should they just wander the forest aimlessly or wait for the others to find them?

After all, finding these types of opponents was easier said than done, they all must have some type of stealth or ability that would cloak their presence, especially the ravens must be experts at such things... the only ones they could deal with would be the Balton team as they looked to have infighting problems.

"For sure we aren't going back there, that ape is too strong!"

"Mhm."

"Indeed."

Now that they had a plan, which was not having a plan they decided to aimless go through the forest to find opponents, in this situation they could also lay traps but they didn't have any useful resources and any makeshift traps wouldn't be useful at all, while the trees were poisonous they wouldn't affect the highly tempered bodies of the contestants so they weren't really useful... unless the poison could be somehow amplified.

Bizkier took a look at the purple leaf trees around them and motioned with his hand for them to stay for a second, he stabbed a finger through one of them, and sap of the same purple color as the leaves started to pour out, he didn't touch the sap with his fingers as he used his force field ability to grab it up and analyzed it with a critical eye.

"Hmm... I guess we could have a plan if I use this sap properly,"

Both Lindo and Felix were brawlers so they didn't know jack of what he was talking about, while they could somewhat lead armies they didn't know how they could use the poison properly because they thought it was too weak.

Seeing their confused looks made Bizkier shake his head as he muttered:

"Plebs."

Then he looked at them with a smile and decided to explain:

"I can use my Hex energy to infuse the poison with a pathogen cell that would amplify its prowess by up to 50% also adding the paralysis effect, my blood can also be extracted and used along with the poison to strengthen it."

Both Felix and Lindo looked at each other for a few brief seconds before they looked at Bizkier.

"Ugh... If I mix my blood and hex energy with this poison it will be stronger enough to affect even those people with strong bodies, do you understand now?"

Understanding dawned on their faces as they nodded at him, while they found Bizkier to be quite prideful and annoying at least he was smart, and now that he had two able-bodied teammates to help him he could use his smarts to his advantage... after all even if he was smart like this what he would do when he was overwhelmed by pure strength?

While the poison would get a small paralysis effect it would only trigger once per person as afterward they would get antibodies and the poison wouldn't work anymore but Bizkier didn't bother to explain to them the intricate parts and he said it would only work once per person, so they should use the paralysis effect only at opportune moments that would decide the life and death situations they would be in!

Bizkier took out 3 small glass bottles from his special bag and filled them with sap before he infused his Hex energy into them along with a few drops of blood from his finger. The purple sap turned a greenish color when it was fused with the hex energy which turned blue when the blood was finally added. He gave one to Felix and one to Lindo and they put it in the pockets of their clothes.

Felix took a glance around and realized that their surroundings were a little bit too silent for his tastes... something was wrong?

But he couldn't feel what it was, when suddenly a blonde head appeared out of the bushes in front of them, it was the young Fishman!

Felix didn't think he introduced himself up till now so he walked closer to him and decided to ask his name.

"So now that we are teammates we should get to know each other, what's your name?"

The young Fishman glared at Felix as he berated him:

"You left me alone with that rampaging ape and he almost squashed me! And now all you do is ask me for my name? Aren't you quite shameless!"

Felix felt a bit awkward at having his deed pointed out before he coughed a bit and said:

"Oh well, you are God's chosen so you have more lives... I didn't even save my own God's chosen so how could I help you?"

The man's anger started to die down as Felix's argument was as solid as the wall of china, what could he say in this situation considering he let Bizkier get decapitated while they were both from the same continent and in the same team?

He was an outsider that decided to ally with them because he was the only youth that was strong enough to be participating in this event, unfortunately for the fishmen, strength wasn't something most of them pursued due to their very peaceful lives.

Not one of them had been in any war and they ate algae and other marine vegetables, so they didn't even have to hunt for their food. Their food supply was also basically unlimited due to the high proliferation rate of underwater vegetables.

"*Sigh* Let's leave it at that, my name is Gustavo Elrio Altraeimo the sixth and you may call me Altraeimo for short."

Lindo whistled, that was quite a long name, normally only a shaman's relatives would have a second name but this guy had 3 names!

Lindo's name was Lindo Enoch just like his grandfather Siracha Enoch, and his father's name was Diorno Enoch, Lindo got a little bit interested in him considering he had three names and asked what did they mean only for the man to shake his head and tell him that he wouldn't understand their meaning as they were translated from his language to adapt to the land dwellers.

Lindo scratched his head and then shook it as he looked at Bizkier before saying:

"I guess we go now?"

"Yeah let's go there is nothing to do for us here and the farther we get away from that ape the better."

Felix took a second look back and he could hear the cries of fear and death of the foxes if he strained his ears for a bit.

He muttered under his breath as he followed the others who were already leaving him behind:

"Only the strongest survive."

Felix quickly ran up to the others and easily caught up with them as he didn't take anymore glances back, for now, he would do his best to survive this as he was unsure of the rules of the event... why did the shamans have to do things hard for them?