Chapter 14: Friends

Felix watched the lion man in front of him with interest, he was around Felix's age and he wore the normal military uniform which consisted of a blue armor that covered his whole body, he didn't have his helmet on. His head was full of a golden mane and his deep blue eyes were gazing at Felix with a gaze that said that he wanted to learn something from him.

Felix motioned for the lion man to come near him so they could find a less populated place where they could talk, after all, the military talk shouldn't be shared with the civilians, even though most of the tribes were warmongering people that didn't mean they didn't have civilians, actually up to 70% of the population of the tribes was made up of civilians who either weren't blessed with a good enough physique or they didn't have a talent for fighting.

Felix took the lion man to a nearby restaurant where they were served some meat of unknown origin along with some fruit wine, Felix motioned with his glance as he asked:

"What do you want to ask me?"

The lion-man coughed as he stopped stuffing his face with the food and blushed while scratching his mane:

"You see I was quite hungry and I saw that you just got your salary and I..."

Felix shook his head, he just couldn't do anything about that as he couldn't put the pouch of currency anywhere else on his body as it was too big, when he would finish some of the money he would be able to stuff it into one the pockets of his vest.

Felix decided to treat the lion-man to some more food as he chatted with him and asked:

"So you must have joined the army right? I'm not familiar with the inner workings of the lion tribe, might you be able to tell me a few things about the tribe?"

The lion-man gave out a toothy grin as he took a big gulp of the fruit wine and said:

"Sure thing brother, after all, you have treated me to a good feast."

The lion-man then introduced himself:

"Sorry I didn't introduce myself earlier, my name is Lindo and to answer your question I can only tell you the basic knowledge that everyone knows, after all, I'm not privy to the upper secrets of the tribe."

The lion-man swallowed the last piece of meat on the table and patted his stomach as he said:

"The military ranks go through from scout rank 9 to rank 1, then sergeant, lieutenant captain and general, generals are the highest ranked and rarely appear in public as they are people who can fight thousands of people alone either with their wits or physical prowess."

When he talked about the generals his eyes shined brightly as he thought he would be able to reach their prowess one day.

He continued his explanation:

"To advance in rank is very easy, if a superior thinks you have enough potential and did a few important missions you can gain a rank up till below his, so technically speaking a captain can only promote you to the lieutenant rank."

"There are quite a few captains out there but there are only 10 generals, I'm not sure what even their names are, as there have been quite a few years since they had to move out and fight, they are like legends of our lion tribe, as for the captains, they have a number in the hundreds and they each have their ranking."

Felix nodded his head in understanding and asked one more thing:

"Do you know which rank does captain Landers holds?"

Lindo scratched his chin for a while before he said:

"Landers? Hmm, I think he is around the middle rankings, not too high but not too low either, he is a conservative fellow and I don't know much about him, after all, I'm not in his squad, is he your captain?"

Felix nodded and said:

"Thanks for the information Lindo, by the way, my name is Felix."

Lindo gave out a laugh as he patted Felix's head and asked:

"Are you shy? Why don't you turn into your humanoid form?"

Felix decided to not answer and just left the money for the bill on the table, the currency of the lion tribe was some bronze bones inscribed with letters that made no sense to Felix.

Lindo seeing that Felix wanted to leave jumped up after him and said:

"Brother Felix, don't be in a rush, since we filled our bellies I think we should spar as well, after all, in the lion tribe it's customary to have a good fight after we eat some good food."

Felix didn't have anything to do and he wanted to see at what level he was compared to the youths of the tribe so he took the invitation to the spar.

Felix followed Lindo to the walls of the capital where the sparring ring where the army members could spar to their whole heart's content.

Felix appeared silently on the sparring field and Lindo's eyes widened in surprise, he couldn't even hear Felix's footsteps, even though he was a cat and his paws were meant to hinder sound there were still some very low sounds that the lion tribe could hear, but Lindo could not hear anything from Felix's steps, he was also very fast!

This fired up Lindo quite a lot as he jumped on the other part of the field and entered a fighting stance, he was quite puzzled as he was that Felix was still in his normal form and said:

"Felix, are you looking down on me? Why don't you transform into your humanoid form?"

Felix decided to answer him this time as there was no harm in telling him, Landers knew anyways and he must have reported his condition to the upper echelons:

"I cannot transform into a humanoid form, you see my situation is quite peculiar..."

Lindo's eyes widened as he heard his explanation and then nodded his head as he seemingly understood something:

"Indeed, you are quite bigger than normal cats, at first I just thought you were extra fat but it seems I was wrong there, sorry!"

Felix's right eye twitched at the fat remark and sighed as he turned invisible, Lindo turned around and kept his nose up to smell anything but he couldn't find Felix's silhouette anywhere!

Lindo kept his guard up as he felt that something wasn't right when he heard something above him, only to see Felix dropping down on his head with his claws ready to impale his head!

Lindo narrowly dodged the attack by rolling on the ground and then counterattacked with a spin kick.

However, Felix quickly dropped to the ground the moment he rolled on the ground and disappeared again, thus Lindo's kick hit only the air.

Lindo continued to keep his guard up as he looked around for aerial attacks as well now, he even looked down to make sure Felix wouldn't pop out from the ground.

Felix's attacks missed here and there but Lindo's attacks didn't do anything either as they couldn't reach Felix's body.

Felix's speed was getting closer and closer to a cheetah's, him eating the body of that cheetah increased his speed marginally however he still wasn't as fast or strong as one, but the changes were visible in the fight with Lindo.

Suddenly Felix appeared under Lindo's stomach as his claws were very close to his stomach, ready to cut it open and spill his guts on the floor.

Lindo gave out a hearty roar as his stomach hardened and Felix's claws left only some shallow marks on it.

However, blood still dripped continuously from the marks even though they were shallow.

Lindo grasped his stomach as he hardened his muscles to the point that they sealed the scratch and gave out a toothy grin showing his sharp fangs and said:

"You almost made me spill all the food you gave me."

Felix didn't say anything as he entered in his killing mode, in this type of mode he would attack only the vital areas but since they were sparring he would stop once his claw was centimeters away from claiming his life.

Lindo realized that Felix's actions turned deadly as he narrowly dodged one slash from his claws that almost made him lose his head!

Lindo dodged the slash by moving his head backward but there was still a small slash on his neck that made him start bleeding, Lindo became serious as he put his hand over his neck and sealed the bleeding spot.

His mane turned up as it started to glow a deep blue color, he was starting to use his innate ability along with Hex energy!

Felix felt that danger was coming his way so he immediately disappeared again and Lindo started roaring!

His roar created shockwaves that cracked the ground around him making Felix drop out of his stealth a few meters away from him, he wanted to clutch his ears but he couldn't as he had to dodge his physical attacks.

The roar was constant and he only stopped when he ran out of breath, it seemed his Hex capacity was also quite big as Felix was starting to get dizzy from the damage done to his eardrums.

Felix could feel that there was a small delay before he took in his breath and created the roar, he used his instincts along with a small calculation to discover the opening and then dived right in!

Lindo's eyes widened in surprise as he was finishing taking in his breath for the roar when he saw Felix's claws almost reaching his eyes!

However just before his eyes were clawed out he pushed his hand forward to punch Felix and throw him back!

Felix coughed up a mouthful of blood as he dropped to the ground, he could feel his lungs burning as the punch landed on his upper half.

Lindo stopped his roaring attacks as he quickly went to Felix and helped him up, then said:

"Sorry, sorry, I forgot how fragile the cat tribe's bodies are, let me make it up to you."

Lindo took a satchel out of his armor and out of the satchel he took a red herb that he turned into a paste with his hands alone, then he put the paste around Felix's injured area, Felix couldn't move properly after he was injured but after the red paste was absorbed by his skin he could feel his lungs quickly healing.

Felix made a few steps and he could feel a little pain when he took in breaths but it was quickly fading away leaving only a cool sensation on his chest along with his healing lungs, it was just like eating mentos but instead of feeling that sensation in the mouth you would feel it in the lungs.

It wasn't that nice but at least it wasn't painful.

Lindo scratched the back of his head awkwardly as he said:

"Anyways, I think we fought enough, you are very strong for a cat tribesman, you aren't a scout anymore are you?"

Felix nodded, he was a sergeant, Lindo's guess was quite accurate, even though he looked like a newbie on the surface he must have got some experience under his belt or he wouldn't have been able to knock Felix away at the last second, he would have either panicked or dropped to the ground to dodge, however, if he dropped to the ground he would have been open from an above attack that could have reached his brain, Lindo's counter-attack was beautifully executed and perfect for the situation.

Felix stopped checking his body as he asked:

"What's your rank, Lindo?"

Lindo immediately replied easily:

"Sergeant, what about you, brother Felix?"

Felix just responded with the same, Lindo laughed as he patted Felix's head again, Felix didn't say anything as he enjoyed the sensation, Lindo finished patting him and then told him:

"I think I will have to go now, my captain will kick up a fuss if he doesn't see me in the camps tomorrow, anyways let's keep in touch, I know where Landers's office is so I will come if I want to hang out, if you want to hang out just go and ask about Drodio's camps, I should be around there 80% of the time the other 20% would be used for missions."

Lindo waved at Felix as he quickly disappeared, he went further and further into the capital leaving Felix alone.

Felix walked slowly as he left the training field behind, he wondered where he could spend the night considering he had so much money on him, there were almost 2500 pieces of bronze bones left in his bag.

He wasn't sure if that was enough to buy a house but he could at least find a place where he could pay rent for a night, he didn't want to sleep outside with all of this money visible.

Felix then went to find a place where he could sleep and it didn't take him much time at all, after twenty minutes of searching he found an inn where he booked in a room and went to sleep.

However, his sleep wouldn't be peaceful this time around...