As if like a board of chess, Felix could read the entire battlefield from what his senses were feeding him.
He could clearly perceive the dead Rank 2 monster, Selena jumping down from its huge body, and Roven breathing heavily as he muttered anxiously.
"Felix...and you Selena....try to stick to the plan alright, guys?"
Selena narrowed her amethyst eyes as she ignored his words and stomped her way towards Felix who was eyeing the approaching spiders.
"You! What was that just now?!", she stood behind Felix and asked with a demanding tone.
Turning around while gripping his sword, Felix was taken aback by her question as he shrugged confusingly.
"What do you mean by 'that'? Is something wrong?"
Seeing his nonchalant and ignorant face, Selena gritted her teeth in anger as she pointed at the dead Rank 2 Spider.
"That! I was just about to kill it and you interfered, why did you do that?!"
Felix looked over at the dead monster and scratched his head before replying with a cool smile.
"Oh, that? You don't have to thank me, I just wanted to help you....."
At this point, Selena's face had turned reddish due to all the anger, so she did what she would normally do when she got angry.
"YOU BAASSTAARDD!!"
Kicking off the ground, she raised her broadsword above her head and brought it done towards Felix with all her power.
Caught off guard by her sudden attack, Felix instinctively stepped back as his skill Battlefield Awareness kicked in to help him.
"What the fuck!!"
He quickly dodged the attack with another Agility Burst as her broadsword crashed onto the spot he was just standing on.
"Selena! What the hell are you doing?!"
Roven yelled in panic as the two members of his group stood in a battle stance against each other.
"Yeah Selena, put down your sword! Why the hell are you attacking me?", Felix exclaimed awkwardly with his sword raised in defence.
He knew he had wronged her by stealing her kill but he didn't think she would react so....aggressively.
'Is she getting skill points too or what?'
Selena pointed her broadsword at his face and huffed angrily before slowly calming down.
"I don't like it when someone pokes their nose in my business, so stay out of what I'm doing and don't interfere! I can handle those monsters on my own!"
Felix and Roven glanced at each other for a moment in confusion, before turning back to her as Roven reasoned.
"But...but Sir Evan ordered us to form groups of three. The rest of them are already done, so the three of us are the only ones left."
He shrugged helplessly and pointed at the two of them.
"You, me and Felix. We'll have to work in a team for this task, there's no other option."
Selena became silent for a few seconds before shaking her head.
"No. There is another option."
Felix gestured at Roven towards the monster for him to hurry, making him nod but before he could open his mouth, Selena continued as she waved around her broadsword.
"The other option is that the two of you will watch me fight those Rank 2 monsters, and do nothing else, but watch!"
"Whoosh!"
Saying so, she kicked off the ground to jump over them while conjuring some metal chains and launched herself towards the distant Rank 2 Deadly Spiders.
Felix and Roven quickly turned around as they stood speechless.
Felix blinked a few times and let out a dry chuckle as he argued.
"Keh...you're blind or what? Didn't you see how I distracted that Spider when it was about to attack you?!"
There was no way Felix would let someone mistake his support for their success.
"You would've been wounded, if not died, had I not assisted you. Are you really an idiot?"
She widened her eyes in realisation at his words.
"S-Shut the hell up, you're the idiot!"
Selena took a step back and blushed slightly in embarrassment, as she did understand she had made a blunder during the battle to show off her strength.
Her sudden change in attitude surprised him as he didn't think she would react like that due to her mistake.
Waving off his hand, Felix gestured towards the front as he sensed some movements there.
"Whatever, now you understand it's dangerous fighting alone, especially in this narrow tunnel. So stop making a fuss and cooperate with me."
He glanced at her with an intense look and muttered in a strangely forced tone.
"No words can express how much I want to set myself loose and massacre those spiders, but I'm holding myself back because of Sir Evan's orders.....so why don't we stop our talk and get to work?"
His words made her freeze as she looked directly into his ruby crystal eyes, the only part of his body which currently showed his true emotions.
And inside his eyes, she saw something....
Something that she had seen numerous times during her missions of hunting wild monsters, but even that paled in front of this.
She saw in his eyes, hunger, greed and craze, and a slight hint of obsession, when he talked about massacring the spiders.
What she didn't know was that she was absolutely right with her thoughts, as Felix was just thinking about it.
'I gotta kill those spiders! There are finally some Rank 2 ones, I can't miss this chance, that's 100 skill points for each of them! I have to hurry before the other teams finish their opponents....'
Felix rested his sword on his shoulder and tilted his head towards the spiders as he called out.
"So....Selena, what do you say? Want to kill those spiders together?"
His offer made her go silent, pondering as she felt conflicted about fighting in a team which she had never done before.
No matter where she went, people would fawn over her for her status, beauty and talent. The same followed at the guild, which tired her both mentally and physically, from the expectations and pressures, making her feel that being alone seemed much better.
It even made her want to leave the guild at some point, but the Mystic Society guild was the only thing left that connected her to her dead mother, so she could only remain there.
With her ignorant father being there just a bonus, for always being busy with the guild and never spending time with her.
Staring at the silver-haired boy who seemed to be getting restless by each passing second as he constantly glanced behind at the monsters, Selena sighed and rubbed her forehead.
"You do realise you're just a Rank 1 fighter, right? How are you so confident of holding your ground against a group of Rank 2 monsters?"
Felix paused as he made a sarcastic face.
"Though I'm honoured you remembered my Rank.....isn't it too late to ask that question?", he gestured at the front with a strange face, "I mean, who do you think was fending off the other Rank 2 monsters while you were fighting this one?"
There was a look of confusion on Selena's face before she looked at the directions Felix was pointing at, where she saw a shocking scene that made her widen her eyes.
A number of Rank 2 Deadly Spiders screeched around helplessly in the distance, their thin and sharp legs sunken into the ground with dust and rocks covering their bodies, a sad state for their rather grandeur entrance.
"W-What..."
Felix didn't allow Selena to continue her words as he started walking towards the immobilised and weakened Rank 2 Deadly Spiders, this time even without her presence.
"You'll get left behind if you don't hurry up, Selena. Or would you like to just sit down and watch me kill them?"
Seeing him use her own words against her, Selena gritted her teeth and stomped her legs to catch up to him.
"W-Wait....I'm coming. Don't you dare fight them without me!! I'll kill you!!"