Chapter 976 Refusing Confrontation
Felix knew that he could use the dragons" pride and his clan"s reputation against him, but he wasn"t that much of a hypocrite.
He recognized that if he was placed in the same tough spot and was desperate to win, he would most definitely do the same.
Thus, he refused to preach what he didn"t practice.
"Hand it over." Prince Arentis ordered while extending his hand.
"You already shown that you have given up on your face." Princess Anastasia sneered, "I won"t hand you anything unless we signed a contract on it."
"Fine by me."
Knowing that prince Domino must be rus.h.i.+ng over here with his teammates made prince Arentis agree to anything just to hasten the exchange.
Princess Anastasia wrote a short contract that enforced him to hand over the hostages first.
"I have no issues with that." Prince Arentis said, "But, I want to add a new term that forces you to wait an hour before chasing us."
"You"re dreaming." Princess Anastasia snickered, "You will be given ten seconds just like me. That"s non-negiotionable."
"I say if it"s non-negotiable or not." Prince Arentis said as he tightened his grip on Chemmed"s neck, "Understood?"
"You have one minute." Felix took over command after noticing that princess Anastasia was losing her boldness at his threat.
"Dogs should know their pla..."
"Enough of your c.r.a.p." Felix eyed him coldly, "You have one minute...Take it or let"s drop this act and fight already."
If prince Arentis was interested in fighting, he would have done it the moment those two appeared before him.
"The other dog is fast approaching with his team. I am not sure that I will walk out of my fight with this b.a.s.t.a.r.d in one piece and in time."
Prince Arentis might be proud but he wasn"t delusional.
He knew that Felix was a force to be reckoned with. If he had to fight him, he would do it only when he was sure that prince Domino was far away from them.
Hence, it was much better to just secure the ancestral wine jar and leave in their topmost forms to defend it.
"Don"t bother using those two as your leverage before me." Felix confessed indifferently, "I couldn"t care less if they died right this instant."
"But she does..."
"She already did her duty as a captain by coming here." Felix interrupted him to avoid affecting princess Anastasia, "If you still kill them, no one will give her s.h.i.+t for it."
"Cunning b.a.s.t.a.r.d!"
Prince Arentis" expression got twisted briefly before being restored to normal. He knew that Felix had him by the throat by giving him an ultimatum.
Fight or agree to his condition.
Although the public was won by him earlier, he would lose it in a heartbeat if he kept pus.h.i.+ng for negotiation while an actual fight was on the table.
As dragons, they favor fights more than those petty schemes even if they could understand them.
"Let"s move."
In the end, prince Arentis agreed to Felix"s condition, knowing that he couldn"t waste any more time on this.
After they signed the contract, Cursur threw Chemmed and Tando at them, forcing them to act fast and catch them.
"Looks like their souls have suffered intensely for them to stay unconscious this long without many physical injuries." Asna reasoned as she eyed those two"s condition.
Felix agreed with her as he had tasted the green flames" effect on the soul personally.
Whoos.h.!.+
Princess Anastasia threw the ancestral wine jar as well with a reluctant expression. She would be lying if she said that meeting the ancestor didn"t pique her interest.
Unfortunately, she could only want prince Arentis and Cursur to fly with it as far as possible from them.
"Don"t worry, I will get it back again." Felix promised while preparing at least fifteen Railgun rings in a straight direction!
Due to his neverending spamming of the Railgun rings for the past six days, it acted as great training for his mastery over them.
Now, he felt like he could push the boundaries and attempt a fifteen rings speed boost.
"Though, I can"t take you with me." Felix said, "You take care of those two and keep providing me Intel about that idiot"s location."
"Will do." Princess Anastasia didn"t even try to argue with him, knowing that she would merely hold him back.
...
"Captain, one minute is too short." Cursur complained, "That human will catch up to us in no time."
"There are no other alternatives." Prince Arentis said, "At least, this way he will chase after us alone, giving us more leeway to handle him while flying."
"I see."
Prince Arentis was playing for the long game. Now that he had his hand on the ancestral wine jar, nothing else mattered but to keep it on him for the next twenty hours or so.
Meanwhile, thousands of kilometers away, prince Domino could be seen picking up speed in direction of prince Arentis" next destination.
Because he had the exact location of prince Arentis, it was much more efficient to predict his course and intercept him than chase him from behind.
Naturally, to be efficient, he had to leave his teammates behind.
"Get it done, son." Clan head Ygos said indifferently, "If you can"t even beat those two boffins in a game setting, you can forget about our investment in you to defeat the elder dragon."
"I will make it happen." Prince Domino a.s.sured with frigid eyes.
Prince Domino wasn"t putting Felix second most of the time without a reason. This ceremony meant everything to him.
The level of importance it carried in his case couldn"t be compared to the other three princes or even Felix.
That"s because his goal in life was to become the next elder dragon. But, he knew that it wouldn"t be possible without his clan"s heavy investment in him to boost his strength.
This level of investment was possible only by the four clans as it relied heavily on bloodline treasures.
No one but them and the elder dragon had the quant.i.ty possible that he needed.
...
"Three, two, one..."
The instant one minute pa.s.sed, Felix disappeared through the Railgun rings, leaving behind him a chaotic windy hurricane and a thunderous explosion.
"This is too fast for me!" Felix shouted internally with a panicky voice after realizing that his quick reflexes weren"t able to match up with his current monstrous speed!
In other words, he was traveling blindly and could easily smash through a mountain before he could even react to it!
Not wanting to risk his life over nothing, Felix slowed down his speed until he was finally able to see properly.
The moment he did so, he spotted prince Arentis and Cursur tens of kilometers ahead of him!
The viewers were absolutely awed as they didn"t expect that Felix would bridge a minute gap in less than two seconds!
"How the h.e.l.l did he get here so fast?!!"
"Okay, this is getting a bit horrifying."
Prince Arentis and Cursur reacted even more strongly after they checked behind him and saw Felix.
They knew that he would catch up to them sooner or later, but no way in two freaking seconds!
"Maybe, I should have given you more time." Felix taunted the moment he had gotten close to them.
Whoos.h.!.+ Whoos.h.!.+
Prince Arentis and Cursur responded by firing flaming projectiles at him, hoping to merely slow him down.
They did succeed as Felix was forced to focus on evading the projectiles.
They didn"t just fire a burst and stopped but kept releasing them continuously. This made it impossible for Felix to counter-attack.
To break through their pressure, Felix had to expand on the distance between them.
Unfortunately, their external manipulation range reached at least three kilometers, meaning that he had to stay outside of it to escape their pressure.
To make matters worse, they weren"t stopping to comfort him.
This was the first time Felix had fought someone with a vast external manipulation range, who wasn"t interested in direct confrontation!
"As long as they aren"t stopping, you aren"t going to catch them." Asna commentated.
"I can see that." Felix nodded with a frown.
Felix knew that it would be difficult for him to hit them from two kilometers while they were flying at their top speed and on high alert.
By the time he set up his railgun rings and manifest his abilities, they would have already crossed tens of kilometers away.
As for fighting them at close range? Felix wasn"t that confident to deal with them both while he had already exposed most of his tramp cards.
"If you had a similar external manipulation range, you wouldn"t be this struggling." Thor said.
Felix couldn"t retort against that.
If any of his elements could be controlled from kilometers, he would be using them to block those attacks the moment they were launched.
In addition, even counter-attack from the least expected directions.
"Should I force my way in?"
"Don"t you dare!" Asna cursed, "I don"t want to have my soul burnt again!"
Asna might have a high soul pain tolerance, but it didn"t mean that she loved it. Felix forcing himself was definitely going to get him torched a few times by the green flames.
"I guess I can only exhaust them elementally." Felix decided to bait them to keep firing projectiles until they couldn"t handle it anymore.
It was a boring and slow strategy that might take hours, but it was better than nothing.