Vile Evil Hides Under The Veil

"Those are counterfeits. Hahahahaha!"

Eren said before drawing a few potion bombs from his storage. He dangled them the same way Claho did before speaking up.

"These are the real deals. Some of them have yet to hit the market. Come and get some."

Eren said and taunted the leader of his enemies. The latter was even more on Eren than he already was because of his unfazed attitude. He didn't understand what Eren was trying to say. But he had come to realize that Eren was determined to harm some of them no matter how cautious they got.

'Commence the attack. Don't forget to attack in pairs or groups. Finish this fucker off. We'll grieve about our dead comrades later.'

Claho sent orders via ID-stone-linked voice communications. He maintained a safe distance from Eren while guiding the others in his team.

He saw a group of four rankers attacking Eren while a pair of ranger rankers got close to him. This was complete bullying without considering the rankers' code.

Eren could not use his movement spell and create a distance from his approaching enemies. He couldn't get much away from them anyway considering he was surrounded. So he let go of playing defensive. The butcher activated the only spells he could activate at this point.

Stunning Speed

Sedated Perception

The time-element spells could still be cast for Eren without any problem. He couldn't use them to their fullest potential because his other spells were getting disabled for him. But his enhanced perception and his entire body experiencing time differently allowed him to see how his approaching opponents were planning to attack him.

In an almost stagnant world, Eren saw a bulky guy running straight at him. He was accompanied by two rankers on either side. The last of the four rankers was moving around him– probably aiming to attack Eren from behind.

A party attacks from all directions. Eren also saw that two ranger rankers had pointed their ranged weapons at him. The male ranger was using a crossbow while the female ranger was using a bowsword. Both of their gears looked top-notch because of the distinct mana pulses they generated.

Eren smiled when he saw the setup Claho had used to take care of him. No matter what he did, no matter how skillfully he made his moves, he knew that he would not be able to come out unscathed from this attack.

'Layla! I can't delay things any further. You might want to speed things up. I'm going to have to start the party early.'

Layla preferred concentrating on activating and maintaining the operation of her makeshift array instead of replying to Eren's update. But she chanted some incantations a bit faster than she had been previously doing.

A switch was flipped inside Eren's mind as he said this. He gripped his katar in one hand and played with two vials of potion bombs with the other hand.

Claho saw that their team's berserker was charging toward the butcher with ferocious momentum. His stature and his muscular build had already made his presence intimidating. Plus, the semi-transparent tiger-head created with the berserker's wind-element mana added extra impact to his charge.

Claho was glad that they had prioritized activating the element restrictions array before dealing with Eren. The guy's reaction time was no joke. Lightning-element rankers were known for their exceptional speed. But Eren stood out the most out of all those rankers Claho had come across.

Claho found joy in the fact that Eren was locked in his position. But he didn't allow himself or his team to be easy on him. The only way the butcher couldn't hurt them was when he was dead and stayed dead after all.

Claho watched as his team's berserker clapped his hands together while releasing his mid-range offensive spell. The giant wind-element tiger head that had surrounded him opened its eyes and started approaching its target with equally overwhelming momentum.

Eren stood in front of the approaching spectral tiger's head and began moving about his katars at exceptional speed. He seemed to have realized that the tiger-head was a cluster of wind blades stacked together. The offensive spell was linked with the wind-element armour the berserker wore. He had also progressed enough in the way of the elements to be able to use armour as he did.

Claho's vision was blocked because Eren was caught in the middle of the swarm of wind blades that had assumed the shape of the tiger head. The wind element mana had also created a cloud of dust around Eren.

Claho or anyone couldn't properly get a read on Eren's condition because of the peculiarity of the mana pulse generated by the artefact-linked spell the berserker had released. All they could hear was a distinct sound of metals clashing against something that seemed tangible.

Clank! Clank! Clank!

Then all of a sudden, all the soldiers suddenly sensed Eren outside the cloud of dust. The ranker near him quickly continued on his trail, thinking he had a chance to land another blow on the running butcher in his injured state. The target had gotten sucked into the wind blade storm of that magnitude and was injured as a result. This was not an opportunity a soldier like him would miss.

Eren's appearance after he got out of the wind-element blade storm was bloody and pitiful. He was injured. He had cuts all over his body. His blood had started to paint his clothes red.

His hands were injured the most. That was because he used them the most to dodge or defend against the wind blades that targeted his vital organs. And since he had been using unelementalized mana to protect and defend himself, the severity of each of the injuries was higher than usual.

Eren quickly found out that the ranker soldier closest to him was hot on his trail and others would follow soon. However, he did not attack the person who approached him just now. His target lay not too far from where he was standing.

Claho had fucked up by not prioritizing Stephan's safety the way he should have been. He was currently being attended by a Novice ranker who was making him drink the healing potion.

Claho must have thought that Eren would be too messed up in the wind blade storm to reach for Stephan who was critically injured because of getting bombed by Eren. but he wasn't completely taken care of yet.

But thanks to his time-element spells that weren't taken into account during the elemental restriction array, Eren was able to avoid getting critically injured. He had already predicted that big attacks would always leave an opening for him to act on as long as he could weather them without getting incapacitated.

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The illustration for the bowsword will be uploaded on Insta handle soon.