Vile Evil Hides Under The Veil

'Take the warrior class's specifics into account and think again.'

Eren heard Alephee's suggestion and pondered for a bit while thinking about the close-combat spar he had with his opponent. He had found it pretty unbelievable that a ranker of his same ranking status as him would keep up with him even while his time-element spells were in full swing. Especially when Alephee was pitching in as well.

He then opened his eyes wide, as if he had acknowledged something.

'Altashia… she… she had closed her eyes at that time. I guess her auditory senses were also cut off when she was sparring with me. Did she do that by controlling her mana circuits?'

Alephee replied immediately.

'That's right. That act wasn't random or common even when it looked just that. Altashia had heightened her perception by overloading the mana circuits in her brain and boosting her intelligence stat value temporarily.

The power to temporarily boost stats whenever and however the ranker wants without any trigger requirements or side-effects from them. Therein lies a warrior-class ranker's true potential. But it also highlights the measure of weakness a warrior has to face because of the way they achieve that power.'

Eren's eyes seemed to have brightened when he finally understood Aelphee's words. Those extravagant weapon movements that Eren saw Altashia do were also achieved by following the same principle.

Altashia would just control her mana circuits and boost or adjust the physical prowess needed to handle the weapon. As part of her weapon handling, she would use her non-boosted state, allowing her to seamlessly switch from physical boost to agility when needed. That's how her weapon handling looked artistic and effortless.

'That means Altashia compromises on other functions whenever she is amplifying her spells or attacks. While improving her intelligence stat, she compromised on her other senses.

She compromises on her agility when she performs those single-move weapons attacks. And she compromises on her mana expenditure rate when she is physically boosting herself.

That means…'

Alephee chuckled and completed his sentence for him.

'Whenever she performs something that seems extravagant and logic-defying, her safety is compromised because of her state. The most effective time to attack Altashia is right after she performs one of those big moves. That is the time she is most vulnerable.'

Eren stopped running around and stood in his place when his hunch was confirmed by Alephee. Only now did he truly understand the intricacies behind Altashia's attacks. He had to admit that the warrior class was meant for a ranker like her.

Or more specifically, her talent and her diligent work had both come together in harmony to make her the finest version of herself. One fearsome ranker dominated the battlefield with her presence alone.

Even her seeming weakness didn't come across as a real weakness to Eren. It was just simple logic taken to the extreme. The real problem was staying near Altashia after she performed those big moves and living to tell about it.

'I won't know if I don't try to find out.'

Eren smiled mirthlessly before preparing himself for the incoming attacks.

Blitz Shield

A cloak of purple lightning was formed over Eren's body.

Blitz Storm

Tongues of red lightning started jutting out from the surface of the lightning cloak. Eren had only cast the AoE spell. He hadn't released it yet. He was waiting for the right moment to do so.

'This is it. Here goes nothing.'

Just when Altashia and her animated jackdaws got within a few meters from Eren, he let loose his AoE and approached his opponent using his movement spell– Blitz Steps.

A cloud of red lightning bloomed in the middle of the battle ring. The animated jackdaws' bodies were pierced by foreign lightning mana that only sought to destroy everything in its path. The birds wailed in pain before some portion of their bodies started disintegrating.

Eren didn't bother casting animated spells of his own even when he knew he held an advantage over Altashia when it came to their showdown. That's because he was counting on his next attack.

Red Blitz Bolt!

The butcher started his assault from the front and sent his red lightning attack in Altashia's way. Then he disappeared from his position and jumped using his movement spell. He jumped till he was at the same altitude as her.

Altashia was shocked by the sudden explosiveness Eren had shown her. But she wasn't worried. She flapped her black wings and started zeroing in Eren's direction with her weapon spinning around her.

Red Blitz Bolt!

Eren charged his daggers with his red lightning mana before throwing them high in the sky. It was only meant to be used as a diversion so that Altashia's concentration would be split in his weapon's direction as well.

He then raised his arms and slashed them as if they were swords themselves in Altashia's direction. He had executed a spell he hadn't shown to anyone in the army yet.

Wind Blade Tornado!

This was the wind-element spell Eren had practiced and perfected a few weeks back when Agatha was with him. He had been sitting on this spell for a while until he was confident enough in using it.

The butcher also stacked his spell but didn't initiate the attack with the second attack. He had kept the stacked Wind Blade Tornado dormant to be used later.

Swish! Swish! Swish!

As a result, a large number of wind blades were created in the air all at once before soaring towards their target. Altashia soon found out that she was going to be consumed by a mini-tornado made of wind blades spinning rapidly around her.

Altashia was taken aback by this mid-range attack performed by Eren. And the spell's output made it abundantly clear that Eren's affinity with the element was not low. Plus, he had chosen to attack her when she was relatively close to him in the air. That cut down on her maneuverability to completely dodge the attack.

Eren had forced Altashia to give him another of those overwhelming flying slash attacks at the cost of more mana expenditure. It was like he was baiting her to bring out her top performance.

Altashia was Altashia. She wouldn't try to bide her time by playing safe. Especially now, when she knew she could finally go all out against someone of her generation. She began to enjoy every moment of her fight with Eren once again.

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AN: Eren masters Wind-Blade Tornado in chapter 464.