'Hmm. Adelman's ring, huh? First Jario and now this guy. Demonic rankers seem to be very familiar with this ring. I need to find out more about this artifact.'
Eren adjusted the ring on his finger with his other hand and thought to himself.
He had deployed his lightning-element healing spell while he was waiting inside the barrier. He was regrowing his flesh at a visible rate as lightning streaks danced all around his body.
The ring still had one charge remaining to cast another defensive barrier around him. But Eren figured out that was not required anymore since the sound element arrows that were clashing against his currently deployed barrier were not rune-empowered.
"Ran out of trump cards, did we?"
Eren's cold voice was heard by Viyu as she kept on firing her long-range spells at him. She had panicked and sorrowful expressions on her face. Hearing Eren's voice added a facet of anger to it. Because it told her Eren was completely fine inside.
"Die… you bas… Aaaaaaaah!"
Viyu was still shooting at Eren with her runic bow when she felt a sharp pain in her chest. She looked down to see a Bichua had pierced her heart from behind. It looked like somebody was even better at camouflaging than Shima. And they had done their job very well.
"You!"
Viyu turned back and saw the face of her former team member attacking her. Ariadne had made use of Viyu's shaken mental state and the fact that everyone was concentrating on Eren.
She had turned invisible with her illusion spells when she saw that Eren had crashed on the ground, screaming. She didn't like the odds of her fighting against so many Spiders when he was down.
She didn't want to betray someone like Eren. But she also didn't want to aggravate the Spiders more than they already had been. So the survival specialist decided to wait and watch by killing the first opponent she had and disappearing along with his body.
Eren's breakdown, Viyu's sabotage of Shima, and in the end, the fight between Kazak and Rollo had kept the Spiders busy in their heads. They did not have time or energy to spare and keep track of Ariadne who was less threatening between Eren and her.
"No hard feelings, Viyu."
Ariadne said and pursed her lips before twisting her Bichua inside Viyu's heart. She then pulled it out and released the grip on her victim's shoulders. Viyu dropped to the ground with her eyes wide and disbelief was written on her face.
She couldn't have guessed that Eren wouldn't have to lift a finger to kill her. Death came knocking on her doors when she was least expecting it.
'Shima must have cursed me pretty badly before dying. As you sow, so shall you reap.'
Viyu had those thoughts running through her head when she took her last breath. The whole thing happened so fast that the Spiders only started looking at Viyu when she was dropped on the ground.
"Bitch…. I'll fucking kill you."
This time it was Kazak who charged Ariadne when he realized what she had done to Viyu. Using a runic halberd with a giant blade, the berserker sent a flying attack at her while approaching her with his berserker-empowered spells.
Zoom. Swoosh. Cut.
Ariadne had a stunned expression on her face as she was chopped vertically by Kazak's flying acid slash. Her vertically split body started producing smoke as it was being corroded by the acid.
Kazak approached Ariadne and continued to attack her. He was very angry and frustrated by the whole turn of events when Viyu died. So he wanted to vent his emotions on the one enemy he could afford to vent them on.
Acid Whip
Acid Spikes
Acid Blades
Kazak rained down several mid-range spells on Ariadne whose vertically split body started getting corroded by the berserker's spell. However, he found that something was up when the body started changing its looks.
By the time Kazak reached Viyu's side, she had already died. And when he looked at her killer's body, it turned out to be another Spider that Ariadne had killed beforehand.
"Aaaaaaargh… that backstabbing whore!"
Kazak was about to get out of control after he realized that Ariadne had pulled another trick on him. She wasn't a strong fighter. But one had to say that she had made effective use of her illusion spells.
Ariadne had vanished into thin air. Waiting for her next kill in the shadows. By this point, she had confirmed that Eren was bound to win this struggle for survival. So it was in her best interest to do her job and aid him however she could.
Rollo hadn't followed Kazak after he watched Viyu die in front of him. He didn't feel any sympathy for her after she had killed Shima for whatever reason. He felt that it was her Karma that had led the ranger to her end.
Another Spider had succumbed to circumstances just like that.
Eren looked at the remaining Spiders one by one and took a long breath. He was impressed with the way Ariadne had played her role in the situation. She struck just at the right time and left him to do the heavy lifting once again.
'Alright. My wounds are all healed. Let me put an end to this whole thing.'
Eren thought to himself before dispersing the barrier. He didn't need the summoned creatures to take care of two opponents.
Rollo and Kazak both looked at each other before nodding their heads. It was time to bury the hatchet and deal with their common enemy first. The one who had just escaped his self-imposed prison.
Various spell fluctuations were observed in the vicinity all at once. The three rankers disappeared from their positions and clashed in the middle of the battlefield.
The sparks flew and the sounds of weapons clashing against each other could be heard in quick succession when Eren started dealing with two rankers all by himself. His mastery over the Twin Star Arts as well as the Jeet Kune Do was put to a test.
Eren had to maintain Blitz Heal along with his regular spells because of Kazak's acid-element spells that kept on damaging his skin. He would often use the Blitz Storm spell to catch both opponents off guard and launch a powerful attack at them using his exceptional weapon control.
The orange and red lines produced by the Igni Wave blazed around Eren as they repelled the attacks thrown at him by the two rankers. Both Spiders sustained multiple serious injuries before long.
Bzzt. Swoosh. Cut.
The battlemage cut off Kazak's scalp when he tried to duck under Eren's almost unpredictable axe attack. He had managed to save his neck but ended up losing his epidermis over his head. His red hair was separated from his head along with the scalp.
"Aaaaargh!"
A serious injury to the top of the berserker's head caused him to cry in pain. Rollo came to his rescue and attacked Eren with all he had, offering him a breather.
Rollo led Eren a bit away from Kazak as he gritted his teeth and prevented his hands from touching the open wound that almost exposed his white cranium. He took out a healing potion from his storage.
"Hang on, Rollo. I'm com…"
Kitching!
The vial in Rollo's hand was destroyed by Eren's Igni Bolt Blast. He had managed to draw his crossbow and take aim at the guy while he was busy fighting with Rollo.
Swoosh. Swoosh. Swoosh.
Kazak found himself at the receiving end of three more Igni Bolt Blast shots fired at him one after the other. They all detonated on his body and surrounded him with a cloud of fire-element mana.
"Aaaaaargh!"
Kazak couldn't power up the way he wanted to after Eren managed to stop him even while he was busy with the other opponent. It wasn't that Rollo was any weaker than the berserker. Using his summoned swords and weapon mastery, the knight attempted to hold Eren at bay.
However, Eren had managed to overpower Rollo even without employing the Hex spells. He was only alive because of his heavy armor set. Otherwise, he would have his limbs or his head chopped by the battlemage. Maybe both.
But the heavy armor the knight-class Spider was wearing could only sustain Eren's barrage of targeted attacks for so long. It began to send increasing numbers of injuries through its protective layer to its wearer.
Kazak managed to get himself out of the cloud of fire-element mana. His exposed skin had been burnt a bit by the intense flames he was surrounded with not too long ago.
But before he could look around and join Rollo in his duel with Eren, he noticed something hurling itself at him. At first, he wanted to change positions or duck thinking it was another Igni Bolt Blast. However, he stopped in his tracks when he saw the object that fell on the ground just beside his feet.
Rollo's chopped head lay on the ground. His shocked and fearful eyes were now staring at Kazak. This was the first time the berserker had seen the knight's face because the latter had always kept his headgear on him till now.
Rollo's eyes lost life in them only when he looked into Kazak's. The torso-less head was trying to say something to him but there was no voice since the needed vocal cords were no longer there. However, Kazak managed to understand Rollo just fine by lip-reading.
'It's no use.'
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