1459 Needing a Big Case.
The remnants of elemental fury, lingering flames, dissipating ice, crackling lightning, now seemed trivial against the backdrop of the enormous void Felix had created.
Captain Charleson was the first to break the trance, his gaze still anchored on the spot where the Queen Bee had been.
"By the spirits," he whispered, his voice trembling. "I've seen some mighty displays in my years, but nothing... nothing like that."
Captain Bella, who had so confidently berating Felix all this time, was momentarily speechless.
Her usually stern face was a canvas of shock and admiration. She glanced at her teammates, some of whom were still picking themselves up from the ground, and managed, "That was... otherworldly."
Everyone else's reaction was more or less the same as they hadn't witnessed before such potent destruction. Even the Colosseum's collapse was nothing before this punch since its aftermath resembled a concentrated invisible beam.
A beam powerful enough to erase anything in its path, and they knew that if one of them was behind the Queen, their ending would have been the same!
Unbeknownst to them, this was one of Felix's weakest attacks while using the spacetime resonance!
'I still haven't mastered its control yet.' Felix seemed unsatisfied with his work. 'It should have left no aftermath.'
Felix locked on the Queen Bee's frequency for the sake of erasing it from existence without causing any damage in the area.
While he had avoided the random spread of the vibration waves, he was still yet incapable of stopping them from spreading at all.
"You, this can't be sound element...I have seen great masters of sound element and none of them were capable of causing such potent destruction." Captain Frederick inquired with an eyebrow raised, "Is it really just sound?"
"Yes." Felix answered.
Since sound was a mere branch of vibration element, it was easy for him to use it as a way to avoid explaining himself.
As for the details? Even when everyone seemed skeptical and wanted to know more, it was an unofficial rule to never ask anyone about the details of their abilities.
After all, there was no such thing as affinity or familiarity with elements. Everyone was capable of learning the same elemental abilities if they managed to learn how to master each ability.
The way to learn them the fastest was by copying another experienced fighter's method.
"Damn, if I knew sound element could be so powerful, I would have focused on it more."
"All we have is time, I think I will start learning more about it. Who knows, I might master the same ability."
Most of the law enforcers seemed somewhat envious of Felix as all of them desired to possess such behemoth strength and some of them even had real thoughts about switching to sound element.
"..."
Felix looked at them silently, not sympathetic in the slightest after baiting them to chase a dead end.
...
A couple of hours later...
The news of the rescue mission had gone viral throughout all the law enforcement departments in the heavenly plane... Especially, when the main selling point was a newbie finishing off the Rapid Killer Bee Hive with its monstrous Queen Bee.
Even though Felix didn't want the credits, it was impossible for the law enforcers to steal the win from him by changing the events.
After all, they needed to put an exact detailed report of everything that happened after each case or mission.
The ones affected the most by the news were the other contestants in the qualification stage as they had realized that Felix and Ravager were about to earn a significant amount of points.n,(ov/e1/usb,C-o-m
"Damn it! Damn it! I would have done the same if I was taken there! Lucky bastards!" Nebula banged on the table in frustration and anger at the thought of being left behind in the first day.
"Don't mind it, it's a rough start for us, but they won't be ahead for much longer." Seraphel said as she pushed her glasses up her nose. "Such missions are rare, and they have gotten extremely lucky to be included in them. From now on, they will have to get by with normal cases, and we will pull ahead sure enough."
This was exactly what happened for the next couple of months. Felix and Ravager were seen somewhat struggling with either squad duties or individual cases in their free time.
That's because law enforcers had so many rules they had to abide by when running cases, making it unthinkable to bend the law for even a little.
It was nothing like when he was working under Miss Sanae.
Sometime, he had plenty of evidence to finish up a case, but just as he was about to conclude it, the victim would come forward and drop the case entirely.
This wasted Felix's entire time and resources for nothing in return.
The worst part, he couldn't even punish the victim or question his reasons for dropping it even though he knew he was bribed by the assailants.
The last nail in the coffin was Felix having to present all evidence found, and the method used to find them during his report without lies, he could not rely on his trusted illusion abilities in his investigations!
This forced him to rely only on vibration element, which wasn't as optimal as illusion element.
Ravager was in the same boat as him in this case.
Meanwhile, Nebula and Seraphel turned out to be the perfect duo, and they had solved double the number of cases than all other teams.
Nebula's space/time abilities were legit perfect tools for investigation... Especially, memory recall ability that allowed her to return time in a small area, showing all the scenes happening in that place akin to fading holographic scenes.
Seraphel was also of a great assistance as she had a major network behind her back, allowing her to find information in the least expected areas.
Felix had to rely on Miss Sanae's network on so many cases, but since her network was more underground, it forced him to not use the evidence without giving out the source.
Obviously, Miss Sanae would never approve of such thing.
Right now, Felix and Ravager were seen sitting in their office with signs of distress on their faces.
"We may not see their points, but they must have already surpassed us." Ravager said with a solemn tone.
"We have gotten three thousand points from the rescue mission and more than a thousand honorary points from the other squads." Felix shook his head, "Even with their current output, we should be still ahead."
"But, it won't be for long if we don't make a change in our strategy." Ravager said.
"Mmm." Felix nodded in agreement.
"I think we should aim for a much bigger case; a big one which will win us the competition immediately after solving it."
"It's highly risky."
"I know, duration isn't our ally and there is a high chance of not solving it before the end of the year. But, what else do we have?"
Felix remained silent.
Nebula and Seraphel had proved to be a much more pain in the ass than he anticipated and with the limitations imposed on him, he really discovered no method to keep their lead unless they got lucky with another difficult battle related mission.
"Alright, we will do it, but I will be the one choosing the case." Felix approved.
"Fine."
Ravager didn't decline since he wasn't putting the same kind of results as Felix in their partnership.
"Let's go camp in the central hall."
...
For the next week, neither Felix nor Ravager had accepted any individual case after their shifts ended.
They simply remained sitting under the screens in the central hall, awaiting the perfect case to save them.
Whenever the girls came in and saw them like this, they made sure to leave some mocking remarks before taking off with new cases to solve.
Felix and Ravager always ignored them and kept their focus on the screens, knowing that the moment a significant case show up, there will be tens of other law enforcers competing to accept it first.
"Our shift is about to start, I guess no luck today as well." Ravager sighed as he glanced at his device.
"You may go and prepare, I will stay here for a little longer."
"Okay, don't be late, you know how the captain is."
"Mmm."
After Ravager took his leave, Felix lifted his head again and stared at the large four-sided screens hanging overhead flashing with hundreds of tasks, missions, and cases.
The colors, symbols, and data flashed like a coordinated dance of light and sound, a symphony of organized chaos.
His eyes flitted through the screens, searching for anything that caught his attention. Just as he was about to leave it for now and group up with his squad, a specific case blipped into view on one of the screens.
The header read: Lost Dark Spirit Alert.
He tapped the case, and the screen expanded to show the details. It read:
Location: Eastern Alleyways, Sector 4D.
Situation: A lost dark spirit located. Appears disoriented and lacking memory.
Status: Contained temporarily. Requires immediate investigation.
His eyes narrowed as he read the details...He had a potent feeling that this case was related to fallen specters since it was rare for anyone to lose memories in the heavenly plane.
Knowing that he had no duration to ponder about it, Felix bet on his feelings and accepted the case before it drew anyone's attention.