161 Mia Escapes
Lagartha was a wood-element user. She manifested thick, green plant vines that sprouted from the ground.
These green vines acted like pythons and approached the snake sisters. The vines wrapped themselves around the snake sisters before pulling them away from their positions, just in time to dodge Eren’s attack.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Eren’s summoned beasts detonated themselves and lighted up the night like some festival of light and fire. The mana fluctuations they caused spread along with the light tremors their detonations had caused, creating clouds of dust all over the terrain.
Shifa and Vihah would have been in a critical situation if they had stayed at their positions only to get bombarded by Eren’s attacks. That’s because Eren had used all his summoned beast for that one attack, which also served as a smokescreen for Mia.
Lagartha placed them beside her on either side by controlling the green vines before focusing her gaze on Mia.
But Mia was nowhere to be found. She had used the opening created by Eren to get away from the battlefield. She had focused all her attention on her movement spell despite the debuff she was facing at the time. She had made excellent use of the opening and smokescreen created by Eren for her.
“She… she ran away. Our target ran away. What do we do now?”
Shifa looked at her dusty surroundings and asked no one in particular. In response, Lagartha just looked in Eren’s direction and narrowed her eyes.
***
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The four rankers from Geer’s team fighting with Eren halted their steps and caused a stalemate when they heard the noise and felt the mana fluctuations. They turned their heads in the direction of the source and found out that it was not too far away from them.
Geer’s face was painted orange by Eren’s spells, leaving him with a stoic expression. He had received Lagartha’s report shortly after.
“Mia escaped.”
Geer commented and looked at Eren. The others followed their gaze and looked at Eren with shocked expressions on their faces. They had come to realize that the man was controlling his summoned spells while still fighting with them.
This kind of control over one’s mana circuits was rare. What was even more unbelievable was the fact that Eren had pulled off this stunt while suffering from a very serious debuff that had yet to wear out.
Lagartha immediately reported Mia’s status as well as the danger Eren posed to the entire House of Spiders. She had told Geer that she would join the fight in taking down Eren right after she stabilizes the snake sisters’ condition.
One of the reasons Eren had detonated all his spells at once instead of controlling them and using them strategically was because he couldn’t control them for too long while fighting off four Spiders all by himself. By detonating all his spells, he had freed his faculties for casting new spells. He could also focus on the four rankers more now that he didn’t need to manage additional spells or look after Mia.
On any other day, Geer would have tried recruiting Eren for the House of Spiders. There were a bunch of illegal ways to get rid of the bidding contract. Of course, one would face repercussions for doing so. But he knew that his guild would have compensated Eren for his troubles.
This was especially true when Geer found out that Eren had no real bonds with the guild he was under. It was just a means to an end for him. Guys like these were willing to switch sides for more profits.
However, Geer didn’t offer anything to Eren. the broadsword user was sure that he had sabotaged his plans to recruit Eren by starting on the wrong foot. Now the only thing he could do was to get rid of Eren.
“Attack! Attack with all you got.”
Geer passed a simple message to all his team members before disappearing from his position. He was approaching Eren who was seen catching his breath.
The stalemate had served Eren well. Now it was time to really let loose.
The lightning struck the ground Eren was standing on, leaving the streaks of lighting-mana residue behind. The ground cracked and the air smelled of ozone as Eren cast his spells.
Blitz Steps
Blitz Storm
Blitz Shield
Blitz Shard
Igni Shards
Igni Chains
Geer and Eren clashed in the middle of the battlefield all of a sudden. Their weapons clashed against each other, creating mana fluctuations. But the next moment, Geer’s expressions darkened as he sensed Eren was once again being overboard with his spell execution.
‘How the fuck can this guy cast so ma…’
Geer was bombarded with a range of spells before he could complete his chain of thoughts. The first thing he noticed was Eren’s agility and his fierceness had shot up. He couldn’t keep up with his weapon handling anymore. He was hiding his strength to be used when the time was right.
Zoom. Swoosh. Clang.
Eren parried Geer’s broadsword with one of his axes. But in the next moment, Eren spun around and deflected the attack while tightening his grip on his other ax. He spun around so fast that Geer’s eyes couldn’t follow.
Before Geer knew what Eren was up to, his chest was hit with something with massive momentum. It was Eren’s free ax that he had thrust onto his chest.
Geer had subconsciously fortified the mana defense layer he had on that region of his body. Still, the ax had managed to cut through it and damage his chest. The blade of the ax was cleaved two inches deep right in the middle of Geer’s test.
The momentum of that attack would have been enough to push Geer for up to 30 meters without any signs of stopping. However, Eren prevented Geer to get away from him. He dropped the ax he had used to parry Geer’s broadsword and used his now-free hand to grip his broadsword-holding hand.
Eren was unable to give Geer respite because of that hold. The latter knew he was not able to spend this much time alone with the leader of the Spiders. The other members were closing in on them with their spells ready to be deployed. Eren needed to wrap things up quickly with Geer. And for good.
Twin Star Arts
Jeet Kune Do
Bzzt. Screech. Zoom.