‘Time to show them that the numbnuts can still be crushed even when they are made of metals.’
Eren had consciously selected Dino’s left side. The copper berserker had kept his weapon to his right. So his left side was less guarded and he’d face difficulty to launch an attack with that arrangement in response to the butcher’s approach.
For the first time since the fight started, Renita became useful to Eren. She kept Dino busy while maintaining a safe distance from him. She knew a berserker’s charged attack wasn’t something to be scoffed at. The gunslinger made full use of her long-range expertise to keep the metal mean machine at bay.
This was all Eren needed at the time. He approached Dino who had already detected him because of the former coming into his mana sense’s range. But that didn’t matter. Because Eren was too fast for Dino to respond on time at this close range.
Eren reached Dino’s left side just when the latter dodged an array of wind bullets and was prepared to break into his next sprint move.
Eren activated the Blitz Bolt spell and let it run through his katars. Then he adjusted his stance before launching himself directly onto the moving metal slab he knew to be Dino.
The katars lit up with blue electric tongues. Eren found an opening at the guy’s left underarm and aimed his katars for a brutal punch. Dino was still trying to find balance after he had dodged Renita’s attacks. So even when he knew Eren was going to attack him, he couldn’t do much about it. That, and the fact that Eren had been crazy fast.
A distinct metallic clunk sound was heard as soon as the tip of his katar made contact with the berserker. The katars couldn’t pierce the metallic skin at first. But then the electric tongues made contact with the shiny skin.
And then… Dino was zapped!
If the earth was the worst elemental affinity for Eren to deal with, then affinities like metals were a huge blessing for him and a curse for his opponents. In his previous timeline, Eren was bullied by these two numbnuts only because he had to regress in his path to become a newbie berserker.
But this time he was a close combat expert with all his perks stacked together. Plus, he had his past life’s experiences. And with his enhanced BTP value, he was practically an overpowered character if he fought one on one with these kids.
Dino’s irises were scrolled upwards and his eyes turned white for a second after experiencing that lightning spell. And thanks to that, his metal armour spell was broken. The katar that was trying to create pressure on the skin suddenly found reduced resistance.
The katar pierced the skin and made its way inside. It breached the skeletal protection by utilizing the space between two rib bones. And the tip of the katar was only an inch away from piercing Dino’s heart.
The referee was caught unaware of Eren’s brutal move. He was about to intervene in the fight when he saw that Eren had retrieved the katar.
The attack was just to scare Dino. And apparently, it worked. Because Dino had dropped his greatsword after being pierced by Eren’s katar. He was about to declare his bail-out when he felt a punch heading his face that couldn’t be blocked by him on time.
Eren too retracted his katars in his storage after seeing that the guy had dropped his weapon. Otherwise, the referee would have gotten the reason he needs to intervene in the battle. He didn’t want that to happen at this time.
Dino could only watch as that punch landed squarely on his nose. And the attack didn’t end there. It was followed by a barrage of punches, all aimed at his nose that had been long broken by now.
Yet, Eren wasn’t satisfied with simple punches. So he executed the Blitz Bolt again on his fist and connected the said charged fist onto Dino’s pretty face. The guy nearly passed out after facing the effects of the lightning spell and force behind Eren’s punches head-on.
Dino fell to the ground. Renita was about to approach Eren and Dino’s little battlefield. But their de-facto leader warned her with his eyes that she needed to join the rest of the team instead of coming here. This little precious metal man was his to play with:
Renita saw a strange spark in Eren’s eyes at that time. The butcher’s emotional condition was influencing the way his spells and their effects behaved. The Blitz Bolt spell that he meant to only run through his fists had made his eyes shine with lightning in them. Even his open mouth seemed like he was hiding a sparkly source of light inside.
The ranger wanted to argue with Eren but she wasn’t even given a chance. Eren sat on Dino’s chest and started punching at his face with all the energy he got while running Blitz Bolt at maximum potential.
The streams of lightning flew every time his fists connected with the guy’s now-beaten-to-a-pulp face. The butcher was enjoying the moment. The same rules of the LA battles that these guys had used to beat him to a sorry state every time were now helping him vent his frustration of a lifetime.
Dino would have passed out long ago now. And that would have relieved him from his misery as the referee would have announced his exit from the battle in place of him.
But Eren didn’t let that happen. Whenever the guy was about to pass out, the butcher would launch a controlled Blitz Bolt at Dino’s vital spots to trigger the body’s do-or-die response and keep him awake. Then he would follow with another barrage of fists aimed at his nose.
Dino didn’t know things would turn out like this. This guy who was sitting on his chest, punching him over and over again while keeping him conscious was a demon incarnate. He didn’t understand why Eren was so fixated on making him suffer so much.
Eren was about to throw another punch when he noticed a great force was heading his way. He looked up from his current smash-all-you-want assignment to find out that Ron was using berserker’s charge to approach him.
‘Come, if you want to come.’
Eren smiled merrily at the sight of the incoming enemy. He launched another spell by spreading his hands in a welcoming gesture just when Ron was a few meters away from him.
Blitz Storm!
This was Eren’s AoE spell. It created an area of the dense lightning field with Eren and almost-passed-out Dino at its centre.
Ron was already running on fumes after fighting with Eren’s teammates all by himself. Although he stood his ground, their attacks had still affected him. He was able to fight and keep his senses only because of the boost gained from the berserking potions.
But all that boost couldn’t save him from Eren’s Blitz storm. The butcher was the bane of their metal armour spell. Ron couldn’t see the whole thing but he had realized from Dino’s state that Eren’s spell countered their body armour spell perfectly.
It wasn’t like Ron and Dino weren’t aware of the natural element weaknesses they shared against Eren’s lightning. That’s why their initial plan was to let their earth-element tank handle the guy as the dual berserkers kept on pressuring the enemy team’s remaining teammates.
But that plan fell apart when their tank tanked on handling Eren. they would have never realized that Eren was this decisive in his approach to tackle them.
Ron was trying to keep calm as the head of his team. But after seeing that Dino was brutally getting his ass handed to him by Eren, he knew their chances of winning this match was zero. Eren had all his teammates standing in the battle ring while he only had himself to count on.
Even if this lightning maniac doesn’t participate in the fight anymore due to running out of mana and watching the whole thing from the sides, his teammates were enough to wear Ron down with each passing moment. And no amount of berserking potion consumption was going to change that. It would only delay the inevitable.
Therefore, Ron had used another berserking potion in the heat of the moment. Not to tackle Eren’s teammates. But to deal maximum damage to Eren. this was a kamikaze move meant to make Eren pay the consequences of terrorizing his berserker teammate.
But the terrorist himself was already prepared for Ron. Eren knew about how Ron thought. He was aware the iron-metal-man would target him as soon as he figured out the battle’s eventual outcome.
That’s why Eren was so miserly with his mana expenditure. He allowed Ron to come into his AoE spell’s range before executing it at the right moment. But he knew that was not going to be enough to deal with a charged berserker.
Eren’s Blitz Storm made the guy whose chest he was sitting on finally get his due rest. He passed out. But the butcher stopped caring about him as soon as he saw Ron approaching.
Sedated Perception was activated!