“That was also because of you guys.”
The compulsive liar came up with another blend of bullshittery and truth right on the spot.
“What do you mean?”
Becky didn’t let go of her inquisitive tone. But her luck was on her side. The butcher didn’t finalize on making her disappear.
“You see, I could handle Dino on my own. But things would have gotten difficult for me if he had joined hands with Ron and you were still far too away to help me.
It was clear that you couldn’t handle Ron even with all three of you combining your forces. What chances do I have to go against both of them? Even with my element advantage, I could only delay the outcome.
Their combined attacks shouldn’t be underestimated. And especially Ron. You saw how surgically he fights despite being a berserker. With him around to guide his lackey, Dino too would have turned into an absolute menace for me and Becky.
That’s why I had to put on a show. A show that would provoke Ron into doing something stupid. And it worked. He drank his berserking potions and used the effects on me instead of tackling you guys into a one sweep move.
You know you guys are weak and inexperienced right? He could have wiped the floor with you guys had he put his mind into it.
Ron overestimated you and you underestimated him.
You could argue that it was still going to be our victory since he still had me and Renita to deal with even after defeating you. But Renita with her ranger skills is almost useless against berserkers like Dino and Ron.
All she could do to Dino was keep him busy and annoy him. He didn’t get injured by her wind bullets at all. But the impact would hinder his movements. So all he did was try to dodge some of the sprays of incoming wind bullets coming his way.
But that act wouldn’t be enough when two berserkers are eyeing us.
I played to Ron’s rage so that he could use berserker’s charge on me, using a good amount of portion from his potion boost to cover the distance between us in a jiffy. So that when he approaches me, I’d have a half spent berserker to go against.
I didn’t want to criticise you because you were inexperienced. But now that it has come to this, let me say that the other team was better than us as a team despite having lost. You guys spent too much time on playing it safe and almost caused us to lose our first interclass ranking war.”
Everyone looked at Becky after they heard what Eren had to say. They felt that she had opened her mouth unnecessarily.
Eren had a habit of extending his speeches so much that he’d force the other party to rage-quit on him. This time too he went above and beyond to highlight his team members’ inefficiency and incompetence to hide his terrorising side.
And another reason Eren went into detail about his way of dealing with things was that the referee was listening. He wanted to make sure that there are no penalties for him and his team for his bending of rules just enough not to make them.
Thankfully, the referee found some sense in Eren’s talk. He nodded his head at him before announcing the results of the match:
“The White Raven Crew wins this round. The amount of 10K merps would be deducted from the leader of Ron’s Raiders group. And it would get deposited into Steve’s account, the leader of the winning team.
Battle points would be allotted individually as per the performance of the students belonging to both sides. And a random battle pass would be credited into a student named Eren’s account in a short while.”
The referee looked at Eren and his team after he announced the match’s results. He also declared the appropriate rewards to them and everyone else present in the crowd.
Then he got close to Eren and spoke up in a normal tone that wasn’t meant for the battle’s audience:
“Kid, you fought well. And your explanations are mostly valid. But they are drawn on assumptions. That meant you unleashed so much violence on your opponents because you assumed their leader to be too strong to deal with normally.
And you targeted your opponents’ sensitive body parts without any hesitation, knowing full well they are also students like you and not your enemies in real life.
But you are clever as well. You would stop just before it was enough for me to intervene.
You say that your violence was to counter your opponents’ strategy to use tag-team battle moves on you. But your battle performance speaks otherwise.
It seemed like you had planned this. I don’t know what these guys have done to you. But I’d suggest you don’t settle your grudges in this way. Otherwise, things will only get difficult for you.
About the battle pass. You know you would have gotten two battle passes instead of one right? I can not penalize you by serving punishment to you. But it is still within my right to reduce your battle awards.”
‘Fu*k you, old man! Take those passes and shove it up your wrinkly ass. My revenge tastes sweeter than honey right now. This was worth it.’
Eren had this thought on the inside but acted apologetic from the outside. He gave a courtesy bow to the referee to show that he agreed with his view.
The referee turned and went away after seeing that his speech had brought a student on the path of righteousness. He had a smile on his face as he went away, thinking that he had succeeded yet again in guiding the youth in the right direction.
Unlike the intraclass battles that were held in quick succession, the interclass wars would have some time between two matches. So the crowd left after a while.
Ron’s team had already been retrieved by LA’s medical team even before Becky started speaking. So Eren’s team was left alone in the rin.
Soon Ana, Bel, and Ramy joined them on the ground from the spectators’ stand. Ramy couldn’t stop praising their de-facto leader as soon as he got close to him:
“Eren, you were awesome. How can you fight like this at our age? Who taught you?
Hahaha! My decision was indeed right. I chose the right leader to lead me. Now if you could just teach me…”
Ramy started speaking in his lisp. But by now his team members had gotten used to his way of speaking. They would autocorrect his Ws and Rs whenever he spoke something absurd.
Ramy had started painting Eren in the limelight. As if only he had fought and defeated Ron’s Raiders and others who battled with him were mere spectators. Of course, nobody liked that.
“Ramy, we took part in the battle too, you know.”
Jake couldn’t help but register his complaint. But the fanboy was as blunt with his words as the target of his worship was:
“Haah! You could have fooled me. It was Eren who did the heavy lifting. Without him, Ron’s Raiders would have raided your as…”
Ramy butchered Ron’s team name with his lisp because it contained Rs. But he was interrupted by Becky again because she knew he was going to say something very inappropriate:
“Enough Ramy. You should watch what you say around ladies, you doofus fanboy.”
“As Eren says. What you got between your legs doesn’t matter when you are on the battlefield, Becky. You’ll keep on losing if you keep on thinking of yourself as a woman first and a ranker later.
And anyway, you don’t like a lady to me. Not yet.”
********************
Becky was left speechless again. Not by the lord of bullshittery. But his newly acquired stooge. Her nose flared and her cheeks reddened. Agreed, her feminine features were lacking. But this fanboy didn’t have to say that out loud.
And it seemed that Ramy had also acquired Eren’s taste in women when he decided to follow him. The butcher didn’t say anything in the whole conversation but just laughed. This Sound Element Knight was worth putting effort into after all.
Ramy didn’t just stop at criticising Becky. He grilled Jake and Steve too. But let Renita off the hook because she had played her part in helping his idol.
Ana would just laugh at Ramy’s witty remarks laced with his unavoidable lisp. The guy was hilarious at roasting someone.
Bel on the other hand would only let escape hushed laughter from his mouth. He was afraid of offending his teammates too much.
Jake knew how to take humour and criticism well. So he didn’t mind too much. But all the failures accumulated on Steve made him feel disheartened. He promised himself that he would do everything in his power to at least suit the position he was given in this team.
Becky had a headache of her own. She regretted speaking anything critical about Eren.
The guy himself was enough of a problem. But his sidekick was equally a pain in the ass.
********************
“I saw the feed of your first inter-class war, Eren. Not bad, not bad at all. You are indeed improving.
Reshaping your basic instincts is not easy. And it can’t be done in a few days.
But you’ve taken steps in the right direction. But it looked like you had some personal vendetta against Ron’s Raiders. Is there something I should know?”
Marla had called Eren over to her place near the check-post a few days after the ranking war. She raised her eyebrows at the end of her question, expecting an answer from her apprentice.
But the latter just shook his head negatively, telling her he doesn’t want to talk about it. Of course, she respected his wishes. Rankers had a right to have a private life after all.
“Alright, then. There are a few immediate changes you need to make to improve your battle prowess. Your katar handling is shoddy. It needs major work. So we won’t focus on that right now.
What you need right now are constant hand-to-hand combats with someone of your calibre.
Oh! There he is!
Eren, I gave you a hint about an upcoming surprise the last time we met, remember? Hehe! Now’s the time to reveal it.
Meet your combat buddy, Ken Riverine. He is going to be another apprentice I’ll be having apart from you from today onwards.”
Eren turned back to where Marla was pointing and saw a handsome hunk making his way towards them. He was none other than the justice fanatic he knew from his previous timeline, the white knight, Ken Riverine!
‘Fu*k my life!’
Eren cursed his luck again while plastering a smile on his face to meet his so-called combat buddy.
======================
AN: The protagonist is here, guys! If this novel was an eastern fantasy, he would have been called the disciple brother of Eren, if my cultivation knowledge is in check that is. Lol!
Also, did you check the new cover? In case you are not on VEH Discord, the backdrop contains Marla’s visual profile. ?