Vile Evil Hides Under The Veil

The attack still damaged his hair and gave him a weird haircut though.

"Aaaa... Oooooooooooogh!"

He cried in pain again, loudly at first before the cry became suppressed. Altashia was confused by it. Surely, a berserker like him shouldn't cry about his hair getting cut mid-battle. But then she adjusted her specs in a geeky way and looked at the scene carefully.

Eren had appeared in between the two opponents and was seen standing over the axe that had struck Sid in his shoulder. With his other foot, the butcher had practically stepped on Sid's face. It suppressed his scream because the heel of Eren's footwear was right inside the berserker's mouth.

The wound on Sid's shoulders worsened because Eren had stepped on the axe with his other foot. In addition, he refused to allow Sid to relieve the pain by putting his shoes in his mouth. If Sid could die of embarrassment and uncontrollable anger, he would have died many times by now.

"Purple Reaver!"

Eren used the heel of the foot that was placed over the axe as an axis and spun rapidly before launching his weapon attack. As Sid was unable to anticipate an attack from the orc leader, the latter was also unable to anticipate an attack from someone like Eren right when he thought he had the berserker.

Eren had used the same diversion tactics the Orc Leader had employed. He had used Sid as the bait to launch a surprise attack on the orc– knowing full well that his teammate was going to get brutally injured because of this. But the same tactic allowed him to cut both of Orc Leader's arms off in one swift attack.

Breeeeeeeee!

This time it was the orc's turn to wailing in agony. His eyes turned red and his already-opened mouth opened exaggeratedly as he looked hatefully at his newest assailant. He used his movement spell to retreat while gilding the nearby golems that were surrounding the trio to attack both of the human rankers.

"You are on your own now."

Eren said to nobody in particular. But the one the message was meant for heard it loud and clear. The next moment, Eren disappeared from his position.

'Eren oh Eren… how can you be so petty even during the battle? Hehehe!'

Altashia laughed when she saw what had unfolded on the battlefield. She had to admit that the butcher had indeed saved the guy's life. But he had also made sure that the berserker received his not-so-subtle response to all the slanders Sid had thrown at him.

Next, she saw Eren focusing on the retreating Orc Leader. He now had a bunch of fire snakes surrounding him that followed him in his pursuit. They would engage with any golem coming his way– allowing him to continue the chase.

The battle progressed as both of Altashia's teammates gained their advantage back. Soon, Eren disappeared from his position and appeared right in front of the now-handicapped orc, like some ghost.

Swish!

An orc was decapitated the next moment while Eren was seen spinning in front of the now-cut body like a mini fire and lightning typhoon. Blood gushed forth in a fountain and reached for the sky before bathing the butcher in its shower. At least that appeared to be the case.

But the monster's blood fell to the ground without touching any part of the butcher's body. It was then made clear that the mini typhoon was an afterimage and Eren had again disappeared from his position.

'Hmm. Roo Roo, did you mean to say that Eren is as good as me as a ranker?

It's unbelievable that he has progressed so much in the way of the elements at his age without any firm background. He is indeed admirable.

Sorry for doubting you, dear. Hehe! You are a good boy!'

Croak! Croak! Croak!

The baby crow started croaking frantically as if he had something to add to his owner's assumption. But all he received was a gentle tap on its head. So it stopped croaking and indulged in being petted by its master.

********************

There was another human ranker Vs Ord Leader battle going on in the other corner of the battlefield. It was between earth-element ranker Lyon and a hammer-wielding monster who had a diamond-element affinity.

Lyon Muff Dyke was Team Altashia's tank. Although he had one of the most common elemental affinities, his inherent nature 'Absorb and Repel' made him special. He could create walls and use them to defend himself and his teammates just like any other earth elemental tank. But instead of hardened walls, the walls produced by Lyon were more rubber-like.

His inherent nature had allowed him to use his opponent's physical attacks on him. Any attack that was sustained by one of his walls would be converted into a stationary force inside the wall by it getting depressed at the point of impact. Then it would release a burst of dense mana pulse from the same spot the attack had landed on. This dense mana pulse was powered by the opponent's force itself.

Lyon would convert that mana pulse into a spectral punch by coating his earth elemental mana over it. This way, the opponent would be forced to fight with themselves every time they fought with the tank.

The Orc Leader that was battling with Lyon was frustrated by now. He had various blunt injuries on his body even though he had a diamond-elemental defence spell active. This was because his offence as a diamond element monster was much more prominent than his defence.

Lyon observed the situation at hand and thought that what he had done so far in playing safe was good enough. Now he needed to wrap up his battle.

For the first time since the start of the battle, Lyon summoned his weapon– a pair of runic gauntlets. The runic details shined when the tank put them on. He struck his fists at each other before launching an attack on the ground.

Lyon struck the ground with his fists with an exceptional force that seemed to be generated out of nowhere– with no momentum backing it up. And yet, the ground didn't seem to have gotten affected. The force just seemed to have seeped right into the ground without leaving any trace behind. It only generated a light mana pulse as a response and the ground beneath his feet seemed to have turned jelly. But that was it.

But the next thing the diamond-element monster saw was that his vision was changing as he was taking a flight in the air. His nervous system took some time to process the impact. But the next thing he felt was a huge force ramming just below his chin, which was the reason behind the guy's sudden flight.

'Hehehehe! It always gets them.'

Lyon thought to himself and chuckled as he watched his opponent getting thrown off about 30 feet in the air. Now he only needed to give a finishing blow to the orc.

But then, he opened his eyes wide as he saw something. He made an unsightly face as he shouted at somebody that was also seen in the air like a ghost just behind the in-flight orc.

"Damn it, Eren! No kill-stealing, you **** thief."