183 Seeing the Tip of Something Dreadful and Evil

“We’ll see who loses their limb to whom. Lead the way.”

Faim snorted and accepted Eren’s challenge. The latter smiled wolfishly before swinging his axes around him.

“Remember. You asked for it.”

The crowd watched as the two Meta rankers headed toward the guild’s practice arena. Since this was the start of the day, rankers would usually be busy reading through the mission list and heading toward their respective fields. As a result, the arena would remain unoccupied for most of the time.

“What’s happening? Why is there so much rush here all of a sudden?”

Reece, Miranda, and Mia were about to follow the crowd that was going to be the audience of the spar. But they heard the question thrown their way and looked back to see Rhea Reaver and Ekay Mayne approaching them from behind.

Reece looked at Miranda and Mia before pitching forward to explain the situation. She hadn’t seen Eren agitated by such a simple comment like this. Previous Eren would have let Faim’s comment slide off. However, she started to notice the changes in Eren’s presence more and more.

Reece had multiple thoughts running through her mind as she explained the recent turn of events.

Rhea Reaver looked at Ekay with a stressed expression before commenting.

“I think we should stop this fight. Eren might kill the guy by accident.”

As Rhea said, she cast her movement spell to disappear. She was trying to make Faim back down. An endeavor she knew she was most likely to fail in.

“Why is Rhea so jittery about this spar? The arena has a dedicated healer present at all times. I’m sure Eren and Faim both would be fine.”

Ekay shook his head when he heard Miranda’s words. He observed Eren’s almost blurred figure before speaking up.

“You don’t understand. I, Litho, and Rhea fought with Eren after he got back from his mission with Mia. He wanted to recalibrate his moves with his enhanced body stats. So we volunteered.

Ekay looked at the three ladies and ran his fingers through his long golden hair as if remembering what had happened a week back.

“The guy has become a killing machine. It’s like he had been practicing those moves for decades.

The kind of weapon handling and agility he displayed were in leagues of their own. It was almost like his movements were restricted by his low-ranking status all this time. And the more he rose in his rank, the more he was able to truly tap into his potential.

And how he moves on the battlefield is also very peculiar. He is less dependent on his movement spell and more on his body’s flexibility and muscle control. Like one we typically find within mortal martial arts.

If he adds his mana-based martial arts to the mix, then… Let’s say he becomes a completely different ranker. One you’d have a hard time defending against.

After seeing what he can do, I wouldn’t want to get anywhere near him for a spar unless I have my defense down pat. Even then… I’d talk myself out of fighting with him.

It’s like he learned these things before becoming a ranker. And that bloodlust he sometimes gives off is not normal either. It’s like we are only seeing the tip of something much… dreadful.”

‘And vile.’

Ekay thought the last word to himself before looking at Reece with curiosity.

“Reece, was Eren ever trained in mortal martial arts before being a ranker? Was he ever involved in a life-and-death situation before? Because I have heard mana manifests differently for some people who have felt extreme emotions. Especially when they were mortals.”

Ekay asked Reece, knowing that she knew him the closest because they had been living together for so long. However, Reece could only shake her head in denial.

“No. Never. Eren was very lowkey and mostly kept to himself when he was mortal. He would often study the Oasis and its algorithm. Often, he would do light exercises prescribed by captain Miranda to boost his chances of becoming a ranker. But that was it.”

Ekay didn’t say anything for some time when he heard Reece’s response. He then chuckled when he realized Reece’s worrisome tone. He waved his hands to make her at ease before speaking up.

“Haah! Don’t worry. Maybe we are just creating a mountain out of a mole. It’d be fine. Let’s just go and see what he’s up to.”

Ekay said and led the ladies to the practice arena. He had thoughts of his own as he continued walking.

‘Eren almost killed me and Litho that day when we were sparring. Even he understood that he was way out of line for a sparring session.

The bastard had told us he wouldn’t spar with Meta rankers anymore. Why is he making an ass out of that poor man?’

***

Rhea’s warnings to Faim had fallen on deaf ears.

A spacious sparring arena that was six meters below the normal ground level. A dome-shaped, almost-transparent isolation barrier was raised over it to keep the effects of the fights inside the arena.

A bunch of rankers from Stardust guild surrounded the arena. All of them were looking down at the only two opponents who had occupied the sparring space.

“Ready when you are.”

Eren said casually, dropping his axes to either side, near his feet. He then stretched his neck and made a few bone-cracking sounds. He looked at the pensive-looking Faim and had a thought.

‘Should I stop using the axes so as not to kill this goofball by accident? Or should I train my will and control over my consciousness using him as a dummy?’

“Today, I’ll expose your lies to all of the rankers in the audience. Killing six Spiders? Heh! I’ll believe you at least killed three before running away from them like a scared chicken if you can stay in the arena with me for five minutes straight.”

Eren looked at Faim before deciding something in his head.

‘Second option it is. I’ll treat him as my live dummy.’

A series of distinct mana pulses were felt by the audience as they watched the two rankers deploy their spells at the same time.

The lightning cracked and Eren appeared right in front of Faim. His axes that had stayed in their previous position were pulled all of a sudden when the Igni Chains manifested and latched onto them.

Zoom. Swoosh. Boom.

The axes crashed onto the shield artifact Faim had drawn in the nick of time. His real defensive spell took a while to kick in. it was about to coat all his skin in black scales. But before the defensive spell showed its effect, the guy’s body was flung back by the force behind the two axes’ impact on his shield.

Kinnnnn!

Faim’s ears buzzed a bit when he tried to hold onto his shield despite the vibrations it was generating. The axes had lodged themselves on his long shield. They would have cleaved it in many pieces had it not been fortified by the defensive runes over it.

However, Faim did not have time to worry about his shield. Because Eren had appeared over his head while his shield was in front of him.

Solid Spark

Blitz Shard

Lightning-element mana began to congregate before solidifying into two distinct rod-like shapes. These lighting rods had tongues of lightning trying to break away from their shapes.

Eren let go of the Igni Chains he was holding and manifested two Solid Sparks near him. He grabbed them while he was upside down in the air. He spun around and threw the lightning rods at his opponents at breakneck speeds. He used the throwing action’s recoil to straighten himself up in the air.

Bzzt. Swoosh. Kaboom.

The lightning rods were coated with Blitz Shard just before they hit their target. As a result, the Solid Sparks were detonated as soon as they hit the target which was Faim’s back while he was brought to his knees.

Eren landed on the ground at the same time detonation took place. Once again, Igni Chains fell onto his hands. He tugged at them to get inside the mana cloud of lightning and fire.

Faim realized that he had bitten more than he could chew only a second after the battle started. But it was too late to regret his decisions. Finally, his defensive spell was cast just before the lightning rods struck his exposed back.

Faim was a snake beastkin. He had a bloodline of a very powerful mana beast. The defensive spell he had deployed over his skin was an inherent spell passed through his bloodline. As a result, it was much better than normal spells.

The beastly bloodline also gave him access to the ice element in addition to his earth-element compatibility. As a result, he could use spells of multiple elements. Faim was counting on his spells’ versatility when he accepted sparring with Eren.

The black snake scales shined as they coated Faim’s entire body. Since they were cast with his earth-element mana, they had high resistance toward Eren’s lightning-based attacks.

However, something told Faim that it wasn’t enough to defend himself against Eren. He was half considering calling it quits when he felt a dangerous sensation coming from behind him.

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