In a short while, Blade Curser and Saltz Master were the first to break through the ceiling of the troposphere layer, followed by Felix a couple of kilometers behind them.
Whoosh!!
The moment they went through it, they got smacked right in the face with a sudden wind gale, throwing them off balance and slowing their speed down to the minimum.
Just as they attempted to regain their balance, they got smacked from the left side with another forceful gale, throwing them off tens of meters off course!
'Those gales sure aren't a joke.' Felix hugged the parachute while letting himself get played by the wind.
In those situations, it was always better to go with the flow and wait for the final results.
Blade Curser and Saltz Master seem like they thought the same as they had allowed themselves to be taken by the gales as well.
When the rest of the players reached the troposphere layer, they were also subjected to the same treatment, allowing Felix and those in front to keep their lead steady.
However, after 30 seconds of being played like a toy by the forceful gales, Felix had realized that this might take a long while.
He couldn't count on his luck to remain in front forever since the gales were hitting them randomly.
Who knows if someone would be sent downward by a sudden gale while they get lifted up?
'Since those gales keep coming forever, it only means that this area was meant for this obstacle.' Felix reasoned, 'If the gales were hitting us once in a while then it would be guessed that the obstacle was meant to be in the entire troposphere course. So, I need to find a way out before others realize it.'
Felix didn't know exactly if the area span for a kilometer or five kilometers. But, he already started thinking of a method that could resist the gales and help him continue going down at his fastest speed.
After a few moments, Felix realized that he had only one method to help him out!
'Shit, it's going to be expensive but I will finally be able to fly at almost the same height as Saltz Master.'
Without a split second of hesitation, Felix snapped his finger while calling in his mind, 'Size Manipulation, x18!'
Immediately after, Felix's body began growing rapidly while his anti-chill suit kept expanding with him.
Felix always wore clothes like those due to this ability since he didn't want to rip them out like the Hulk every time.
"Holy, when did Landlord get himself bigger than a freaking whale?!" Kayn's eyes bulged out of their sockets immediately after he glanced at Felix's small screen and saw his current behemoth size.
He was commentating on a fight ongoing at the end of the pack before. But after spotting Felix's mindboggling situation, he immediately swapped the camera focused on Felix.
"IT'S A BLUE WHALE FLYIN...Oh, it's just Landlor...LANDLORD?!"
"Chillax, have you never seen his previous games? This is nothing."
"Can his abilities get any weirder?!"
The viewers' reaction was split between those who were familiar with Felix's abilities and those who weren't.
It was natural that the viewers who never size manipulation would react like that since Felix's size was currently 18 times that of the other players!
In comparison, Blade Curser and Saltz Master appeared like two ants who were about to get crashed by an elephant!
That's because Felix's plan worked as the weight he had gotten made it impossible for those gales to push him as they please!
This helped him bridge the gap greatly between him and those two since they had yet to make a move and save themselves from the gales!
'F*ck mee!' Blade Curser didn't hesitate to cover himself in a sphere made out of hard clay for protection against Felix.
But, by doing so, the gales actually stopped working on him as well! This allowed him to continue dropping at his fastest speed again!
'Chance!' Saltz Master instantly extended his palm towards Blade Curser's clay sphere and cast a humanoid shadow on it!
Then, he closed his eyes and when he opened them, he was connected with clay's sphere!
He knew that he could have totally done the same with Felix's humongous body but he wasn't stupid to repeat Blood Merchant's mistake.
Saltz Master understood that being so close to Felix was the true meaning of asking to get killed!
After all, he would just need to use the electric field and Saltz Master would most definitely feel the electricity charging through every particle of his body even if he morphed into a living shadow.
Previously, Felix's golden beams were damaging him but since the beams were thin, he was easily able to stomach the pain and recover from it. But it's different for the electric field!
However, he might have managed to evade Felix but it didn't mean that he could hitchhike Blade Curser freely.
"Clay Spikes!" Blade Curser shouted as he folded his hands inside the protective sphere. Since he was an Earth Elementalist, he was able to sense Saltz Master's existence easily.
Whoosh Whoosh!...
Hundred of pointy sharp spikes had protruded from the surface of the sphere, turning it into a spiky ball immediately!
Saltz Master immediately detached himself from the sphere after realizing that it was impossible to evade all of them.
However, he didn't plan on retreating without putting a decent fight as he had turned his arm into a thin sharp dark blade and tried to slice the clay sphere into two!
PENG!!
Alas, his attacks ended up in failure as his arm didn't manage to go through even the outer layer of the sphere!
Whoosh!
In a quick fashion, Saltz Master turned himself into a living shadow and let the wind do its job by taking him away from Blade Curser.
"Saltz Master sure is extraordinary in ambushes against targets with weaker defenses, but against Earth Elementalists? He is as hopeless as Sensation was against him!" Kayn commentated.
Felix didn't avoid aiming at Blade Curser for no reason.
He knew that his defenses were going to be a pain in the ass and simply a waste of his energy.
By taking him down, he would be doing a favor to Saltz Master who was clearly countered by Blade Curser.
Whoosh!
'I am finally out.' Felix thought while feeling that the wind trajectory wasn't as random as before.
He immediately shrunk himself back to normal and returned to his nose-diving posture. His fast decision from before had helped him bridge the gap to only two kilometers!
'I need to get closer if I want my abilities to cause trouble to them inside the thunderstorm.'
Felix narrowed his eyes at Saltz Master's body that got reconstructed tens of meters away from Blade Curser.
Both of them returned to their normal state without pulling anything funny again. Felix ignored them for now and eyed the gloomy thunderstorm that was in their plain of sight.
If he had to guess, he would say that they were only 3 kilometers above it!
But due to the previous wind gales, they had already lost most of their velocity from jumping out of space.
This entailed that their speed was currently the same as a normal skydiver. Still, landing with their current velocity was going to get any of them killed.
Felix believed that the gales were introduced like that so the players wouldn't reach the ground so fast, ruining the final layer for the viewers.
RUMBLE!! RUMBLE!!
Now that they were outside of the gales' zone, they were able to focus on the thunderstrikes that were loud enough it would make a kid piss himself in fright.
The players were needed to go through it without dying!
"If Krialder wasn't eliminated, he would have been as delighted as Landlord." Kayn said while zooming the camera on Felix's wide grin.
"That's his shameless grin alright." George laughed slightly.
"Hehe, brother Felix must be planning to pull something bad in the thunderstorm." Olivia chortled in pleasure.
She sure had come a long way to actually openly support Felix and his attempts to kill other players.
The old pure Olivia wouldn't even open her eyes during it!
Meanwhile, Felix's thoughts were completely on his upcoming plan in the thunderstorm. He had gone through a lot of shit to finally reach the only advantageous area in the game.
The plans he created in the practice run based on his lightning abilities would sure make any player dread entering the same thunderstorm as him.
'Two kilometers difference. Let's enjoy our time thoroughly ladies.' Felix licked his lips as he eyed Saltz Master and Blade Curser who reached the edges of the thunderstorm.
Meanwhile, Erebus couldn't help but have a bad feeling after seeing Lady Sphinx and Jörmungandr faint confident smiles.
'Inherited Thor's abilities...' Erebus frowned his eyebrows as he pondered, 'What could have possibly unlocked in his other passives and actives...'
It wasn't just him who noticed that Felix had yet to use at least three passives and two active abilities in his battles.
If he reached this far without them, Erebus didn't know if he simply was keeping them as tramp cards or they were simply too useless in these situations.
He was about to find out now...