194 We Can Live with Dignity; We can’t Die with It
‘Finally!’
Eren’s eyes shone with delight when he finally found someone he could do martial arts with. Most rankers depended on spells and artifacts and paid less attention to their movements and agility. If Halder was anything like those rankers, he would have lost his head by now. Eren’s ax attacks were too wild for any normal ranker to parry or dodge.
Eren had a light smile on his face as he exchanged moves with the dwarf. He found out that Halder was very comfortable with his short stature and stout build. He used them to his advantage in his martial arts, making them part of his strength.
Halder could generate more momentum for his swings, courtesy of his mana-based martial arts and his strong arms. His footwork was also equally impressive, not letting Eren catch him off guard with his attacks.
Halder’s biggest problem was Eren’s airtight defense. He couldn’t inflict any lasting damage on his opponent.
Eren’s bear armor would repel most of his attacks. Even when Halder concentrated consecutive attacks at the same spot, the damage Eren received was insignificant. Eren’s Jeet Kune allowed him to dodge or parry most attacks aimed at him effortlessly.
The attacks that did land on him were treated fairly quickly by his lightning-element healing spell. It looked like the more Halder fought with Eren, the more he was getting injured. And the more he got injured the more brutal Eren’s attacks got.
“Aaah!”
Halder’s thumb was chopped by one of Eren’s wild attacks. He lost the grip he had on the weapon as a result. Eren used this chance to launch a barrage of ax swings at him. Only Halder’s torso, which was protected by the armor, had remained safe. But his limbs lost chunks of flesh from various angles.
Halder’s broadaxe had a huge blade that was attached to the weapon’s handle by a runic metal bridge serving as its joint. This joint was struck by one of Eren’s ax strikes. He followed that with another strike launched by his second ax before launching Hex Igni Wave.
Swoosh. Clang. Break.
Halder’s broadaxe was finally broken by Eren’s attacks. And he had a happy smile on his face while doing that. The mage had sweat beads on his forehead. To the observers, it appeared that he had done a fruitful workout rather than having been involved in a serious conflict.
“Stop… stop fucking playing with me, you pale-ass bastard. If you want to kill me, kill me with honor. Come at me with everything you got.”
Halder threw away the blade-less handle of the ax he was holding and expressed his frustration to Eren. He could see Eren’s face plastered with a smile while dealing with him. It was apparent that the battlemage was using him more like a warm-up than his real life-and-death foe.
Halder considered Eren’s act of conducting himself on the battlefield as disrespecting his opponent. However, Eren only had to enjoy a battle with fellow martial artists in his mind.
“A ranker can die but his honor as a warrior cannot be trifled with.”
Eren stopped in his tracks when he heard Halder’s words. He realized what he was doing with the dwarf and could understand what he was trying to imply.
“Personally, I’m against dying, no matter what it takes. But I understand your point and will respect it.”
Eren said and lightning struck in his place. A red-orange flying attack was summoned out of the blue. It cut through the air and produced a wave of haze in the vicinity. In the next moment, Halder’s head was chopped off clean while his body was still standing steady.
“Rest in peace.”
Eren mumbled to nobody in particular as he appeared behind him just when the latter’s chopped head dropped to the ground. The battlemage swung his axe around him to get rid of the blood before looking around.
Shaking his head, he adjusted his hair as his eyes narrowed.
“Hm. One down. Where should I go next?”
***
Only two minutes into the conflict, Eren had taken care of one of the most capable fighters in the Spiders’ group. The rest of the Spiders were keeping tabs on the fight from beginning to end with their mana sense. As a result, they were made aware of Eren’s battle potential. All of them couldn’t help having grim lines on their faces when Halder lost his life fighting with Eren.
There was one Spider, or to be precise, ex-Spider, who was glad of the recent turn of events. Ariadne felt her instincts had hit the bull’s eye when she observed Halder had lost his head.
‘Sigh. We can live with dignity; we can’t die with it. Not that the poor imp had any better choice when he thought of facing off against that man.’
Ariadne said to herself as she processed Halder’s last words. She was battling with a demonic ranker who had been hired as a Spider member by the guild just like her. She had decided to attack a fellow demonic ranker like herself after choosing mutiny.
The illusionist had a bit of a soft spot for Halder because he had tried to approach her many times using various tricks and gifts. Of course, she had accepted his gifts upon his insistence but rejected his advances. So she would be lying if she said that she felt nothing about Halder’s death.
However, she was glad to have changed sides. She could never jeopardize her safety for her emotions.
“You know a lot about him, don’t you, bitch?”
Ariadne’s opponent asked while looking at her hatefully. They had both stopped their movements to take a breather. The illusionist chuckled before answering carelessly.
“Hehe. Yeah, you can say that. Particularly after the Spiders learned about Geer’s incident. Reading about that case was an eye-opener for me.”
Ariadne said and chuckled. Despite receiving the leaked report from the Stardust guild, the Spiders were guessing that Mia was the one who had subjugated Geer’s entire team using some artifact.
But seeing her and Eren’s picture in the report made Ariadne realize that things weren’t as simple as the Spiders were making it out to be. Eren was still not on the Spiders’ radar. However, he was on Ariadne’s. And she had decided not to fight with him because she had realized what he was capable of.