Once the small balls of fire exploded upon impact with the ground, the surrounding landscape was engulfed in a blazing firestorm, the heat of which was intense enough to scorch the marbled floor black and increase the temperature of the surroundings by a few times. At the same time, Felix could be seen being propelled forward with incredible speed as flame burst beneath his feet each time he took a step.
While Vincent and Nevis were regaining their balance after rolling on the solid floor, Felix overtook them and landed in the center of the blazing firestorms. At that very moment, Felix stretched open his hands causing the raging firestorms to be pushed behind him and to each of his sides, creating immense walls of flame that blocked one-third of the track.
The sight of Felix's flame walls blocking all the projectiles amazed one of the three instructors and annoyed the others. Why isn't he aiming to complete the race? How come he summoned a damn flame wall to deflect all the projectiles? Just what is he planning to do?
A moment later, the angry voice of Nevis resounded.
"Sneaky bastard! Why the hell did you attack us?!"
Felix Walken turned around with a smile on his face and glimpsed at Nevis who was seething with uncontrollable anger at the moment, before glancing at Vincent, only to see him glaring right at him, and both Vincent and Nevis could be seen standing a few meters behind him.
"Your expressions remind me of the old times, when the commoners and the wealthy merchants couldn't do anything but silently endure the injustice done to them by my hands with a pent-up expression!" Felix spoke loudly, reminiscing with a carefree smile on his rather handsome face that looked devilish at the moment as massive flame walls burned on each of his sides.
Vincent frowned and said, "I don't care about the kind of psychopathic life you have lived neither am I interested in hearing about the sadistic experience you might have amassed over the years. I will let you go for sneak attacking me. So be a good boy and step aside before I get angry."
"Sneaky bastard, hurry up and get out of our way! Otherwise, I don't know how badly I will beat you once anger makes me lose my rationality!"
As soon as Nevis and Vincent said those words, Felix looked at them with an apathetic stare.
"So what if you get angry?! Especially you, Nevis! What can you even do to me in that state?! You look like a dog that's about to die in a few moments. It will be for the best if you give up on the race!" Felix said in an arrogant tone as blood profusely leaked out of the wound on one of the arms of Nevis.
"Who are you to tell me to discontinue taking the exam?" Nevis grimaced.
Felix smiled and said with a smug expression on his face, "Like you, I am just another participant."
Nevis finally had enough of his bullshit. He leaped towards Felix with a belly full of anger and hurled a battle energy-infused punch at his face.
"Stupid baboon!" Felix thought as flames burst beneath the soles of his boots.
He easily dodged his speedy punch by maneuvering his body to the side at a speed faster than the eyes of Nevis could follow.
"Let me return the favor!"
The second he dodged Nevis's attack, one of Felix's palms balled into a fist, punching Nevis in the guts with a fiery fist.
Nevis was hurled away as he then crashed on the ground and rolled a few times before coming to a halt.
"God damn! I can't win against him because of my injured arm. The searing pain keeps on distracting me. Due to my injuries, it has become harder to control my battle energy." Nevis mumbled in a low voice as he wiped the blood trickling down the corner of his mouth.
At that very moment, a sweet voice reached Vincent's ears.
"Big brother, what's going on?" Leila asked as she came to a halt right beside him.
"He is blocking our way forward for some reason," Vincent replied as he pointed at Felix.
"Why would he do that?" Leila asked with a bewildered expression. She couldn't comprehend why someone would pick a fight with someone else for no reason.
"I don't know. Anyway, I don't want you to get involved with a nut head like him," Vincent said.
"I can hear you!" Felix stomped his feet in anger.
At that time, a lot of participants had caught up to them. They came to a halt as they were certain that they will be severely injured if they tried to pass through the flame walls. Only a few powerful participants such as Geom and Varth had a chance to pass through the flame walls, but even then only by moving extremely fast and discreetly so that they won't attract Felix's attention.
"Why the hell are you doing this to us?"
"Why are you blocking our way? We have never offended you in any way!"
A lot of participants complained as they looked at Felix with ice cold and murderous glares. If looks could hurt, Felix would have been wounded from head to toe.
They were feeling angry as he blocked their way for no reason, but no one challenged him to a battle as they knew they didn't stand a chance against him.
"You think you didn't offend me, huh?" Felix said as anger seeped out of his eyes. "All of you have offended me!"
He was offended when his father chose to accept the words of others instead of his own son. He was offended when his family's saints accepted the false accusations filed against him and ripped him apart from my royal status. Felix was offended when the peoples who went around everywhere with him and used his money and called him their best friend turned their back on him and started to ignore him once he fell from grace. Felix was offended when he lost his reputation because of his girlfriend that cheated on him with his best friend right after he fell from grace!
That girlfriend belonged to the great royal hollow family. That's why he hated everyone with the surname Hollow.
Moreover, he was offended when the bastard from the Hollow family, Varth embarrassed him. Lastly, he was angered at the participants for doing nothing except laughing at that time.
A few moments later, he said, "This is the stage I selected to release the anger bottled up inside of me, and you are the ones selected to become the targets of my wrath!"