Infinite Mana In The Oasis

A green-haired woman was trapped inside the Lotus-shaped fire domain that had been created in the middle of the forest.

This young woman had a pretty face and cherry-red lips. Her eyes were as pitch black as the moonless and star-less night skies and her skin was supple and snow-like. She had a pink hue on her cheeks, indicating that this ranker was full of vitality.

This young woman had the right curves in the right places. Her prominent feminine features made her look more mature than her age.

Her wood element nature was apparent by the soothing and nature-like vibes she would exude. Yet, at this time, those vibes were nowhere to be found. Anxiety, worry, fear, survival instincts, and other extreme emotions had put this striking woman on edge.

Eren quickly closed in on Lagertha after he had taken care of Tohir. At this point, he wanted to get rid of her as soon as he could.

Eren charged at Lagertha without any weapons in hand. He had simply coated his hands in Blitz Bolt that he would release as soon as he got within the striking zone.

Bzzt. Swoosh. Boom!

Eren was surprised when Agatha cast an armor spell on herself just before meeting Eren's fist with hers. The first to get wrapped into wood-element armor was the hand she had used as a fist to meet Eren's.

Her entire body was encased in wood-element scales and vines in the next moment. Unlike her usual wood element manifestation, the armor was completely wooden. Also, the vines of the armor were a bit dry, showing that the armor was more focused on durability than flexibility.

Lagartha didn't stop there. She fortified her wood-element armor with green vines that were all over the ground. This way, the armor would be resistant to both fire and lightning attack.

Eren's Blitz Bolt was released as soon as contact was made. Lightning cracked and started to turn the wood that came into contact with it black and charcoal-like, generating white smoke as well.

However, the lightning failed to affect Lagartha because of her wood-element fortified armor. Since the lightning was not able to penetrate the insulating armor, the wood-element ranker stayed safe.

'This is what they call Aspect fusion, right?

Impressive!'

Eren had a thought in his head as he exchanged some more moves with Lagartha. He had heard about elemental aspects and aspect fusions. But this was the first time he saw it getting applied. And that too by a Meta ranker.

'This girl is a prodigy. That stupid Geer should have let her lead the team.'

Eren criticized the way Spiders handled things for no apparent reason. It was as if he was criticising kids for misbehaving. Only, the punishments he had dealt to so-called kids were extreme to say the least.

***

Eren had to say the girl in front of him was a genius. A prodigy among a bunch of prodigies. She should have been the leader of the party and not some random nobody like Geer.

Every element that gets adopted by a ranker would have an aspect attached to it. The elemental aspect of the ranker is what determines how that element manifests. Two rankers could have the same element but different elemental aspects to them, making them employ a completely different set of spells.

In the beginning, a Meta ranker would only have one aspect of an element. Their elemental attainment would also be restricted to that one aspect.

The elemental aspect would also dictate how the same spell can have varying outputs. The purple-colored lightning element was purely focused on speed, while the red-colored lightning element was focused on its destructive nature. Furthermore, the blue lightning element would be focused on the burning, causing objects to char instantly.

In other words, when a lightning element ranker who possessed the speed aspect of lightning used their lightning-based spells, the manifestation of lightning would be purple. Plus, they would receive the biggest boost to their movement spell because the aspect of lightning they had awoken first would be more compatible with it.

Similarly, when a ranker awoke to the incineration aspect of the lightning, their spells would generate more heat, and their spells would generate incinerating effects as well.

Eren had a blue lightning aspect that was associated with incineration. That's why most of his attacks would leave an incineration mark on his opponents. The Solid Spark he had executed on Tohir was one such example.

The Blitz Shards he created would also explode and incinerate when used with Igni Shards. That's why he would often use both the spells in combo ever since he had gotten his hands on the Igni series spells.

Eren's fire-element and his fire-element spells were highly compatible with his lightning-element spells for this reason. The combo spells of both elements would give him greater results than the individual summation of the two.

That was not to say Eren had difficulty executing his movement spell or other spells. It was just that lightning spells without a focus on heat or explosion would not be boosted by the first aspect he awoke.

One had to say that Eren was already very agile and nimble using his movement spell even when his blue lightning didn't really complement his movement spell. Incessantly, he wondered what kind of agility he would be able to unlock when he achieved lightning's speed aspect.

The reason why Eren referred to Lagartha as a prodigy was because not only had she unlocked two aspects of her elements, but she had also managed to combine both her aspects to fortify her spells.

Unlocking two or more aspects of the element was already considered a rare event. However, spell fusion was rarer to the point of being non-existent when it came to Meta rankers.

Aspect fusion not only allowed the user to fortify their spells but also made them go easy on mana consumption. The aspect fusion was the result of in-depth elemental attainment that would normally take a long time for a ranker to achieve.

Such elemental attainment was akin to nature helping you do your bidding. Therefore, those with multiple elemental aspects or aspect fusion which were the result of higher elemental attainment could sustain their spells for longer.

Eren could guess that Lagartha was not very proficient at Aspect fusion even though it looked like it was not her first time doing it. She could only tap into it when her life was in mortal peril. Otherwise, she would have made use of it from the beginning to gain an advantage.

Still, Lagartha achieving what she had achieved at such a young age was not something to be scoffed at. She was only a step away from attaining the rank of Awakened. Eren could guess that her Rank promotion would have brought even greater gifts for her.

Too bad, she wouldn't survive the fight. At least that's what Eren was confident about, thanks to the fire-element domain he was in.

***

Lagartha had injected an all-stats recovery potion into her system just before Eren killed Tohir. She had used that time to prepare herself for the fight ahead. She had earlier planned to fight Eren using the forbidden potion. However, the all-stats potion was the next logical thing.

It seemed that Lagartha knew a bit of mana-based martial arts too. She only focused on diverting the opponent's attacks instead of striking. As a result, she would defend more and attack less. However, Eren became more impressed with her level of expertise.

Eren kicked Lagartha under her left rib cage and sent her away from her previous position. He then used the kick's recoil as a force to create more distance from her.

Eren knew he couldn't beat Aspect Fusion with his relatively ordinary spells. The only thing he could do was overwhelm her with his abundance of mana.

"Alright. Fun time is over. There is no use for you anymore."

Eren was done using Spiders as live dummies. He could have killed them all by burning them at the same time when the Igni Lotus was activated. He only got up and personal to vent some of his frustration. After all, he was interrupted right when things were blossoming between him and Mia.

It was about time he killed the last Spider and called Mia back. He will be aptly rewarded for his valor and heroism by the elf.

A moment later, flames from inside the fire domain started filling the void they had left behind. Soon, the entire space inside the fire domain would turn into a furnace, burning almost everything except Eren.

No matter how potent Lagartha's armor spell was that was based on her aspect fusion, it was bound to bow down in front of Eren's infinite mana. It was only a matter of time.

"Wait... spare... spare me. Please. I have something to tell you."