Eren briefed Renita about the arrangement he had made for her with Ace Almera. The girl was very impressed with him as a result, thinking to herself that the guy cared for her in his own way even when he acted recluse.
Renita agreed to Eren’s arrangement without a second’s thought. She had meant it when she said she’d follow his advice to a T. Eren also breathed a sigh of relief knowing that most of the girl’s free time would now be spent on her class-specific training instead of following him that borderline on stalking.
Eren wished to do the same with all the other members of his team. Jake needed a tank to show him that sometimes having one versatile spell in one’s arsenal wasn’t enough.
Steve needed a capable berserker to tell him doubting his strength was the worst thing a ranker like him could do. And Becky needed a fine-tuning in controlling her mana consumption.
Ana and Bel had officially started their ranking journey, thanks to Eren’s aid. The butcher had provided them with the tried-and-tested potions to help them breakthrough into F-Rank safely after he returned from his mission.
Things were sorted with Ana. She was already working as an apprentice under a D-Rank healer in one of the academy’s infirmaries. Eren didn’t need to worry about her. Bel was also self-sufficient in his class-specific skills. But the guy needed combat training. He was completely opposite to Renita in this regard.
Eren was guiding his team members as he always did at their usual place when he heard a voice from behind him.
“Yo. Steve and the cunning asshole Eren. What’s up?”
Eren furrowed his brow when he heard that. He was cunning, he knew that. But he hadn’t shown his assholiess to anybody yet. And he certainly didn’t permit anyone to spit facts about him.
So he looked behind him. And saw Ron’s Raiders coming towards his team. The other members White Raven were sent on the edge after it saw the opponent’s team led by its dual berserkers- Ron and Dino.
“You bastard, Dino. What do you mean by cunning…”
“Steve, calm down. I’m sure our friends didn’t mean it in that way. Let’s talk with them. The rest of you guys, stay here.”
Eren calmed Steve down before things went out of control. The skirmishes needed to happen inside the battlegrounds. The ones that happened outside the battlegrounds would be heavily penalized by the academy. The scrooge in Eren always thought about his Merps before he let his other emotions take over.
A calm-looking Eren and a pissed-off-looking Steve headed to their ex-opponents. The former had told his team to stay behind and they had obliged. Ron also ordered his team to halt at a distance before marching forward with Dino in tow.
The two pairs met in the middle. And had a brief staring content. It was Ron who broke the silence first:
“Eren Idril, how are you? Don’t pay attention to this loudmouth. He is still salty about his loss at your hands.”
“Oh, I’m fine, Ron. Thanks for asking. And I certainly don’t mind a dog that barks. You know what they say about barking dogs right?”
Eren smirked at Ron without paying any heed to Dino who was looking at him menacingly. The butcher would normally ignore the jeers thrown his way. But something told him the opposite team had come here to negotiate. The first rule of negotiation was never to appear as the weaker side.
“You damn rat. You had gotten lucky that day. And our teammates were shi…”
“Dino, shut the fu*ck up before I lose my cool here. We are here to talk business. Not settle the old scores. Now’s not the time.”
Eren had a chuckle after he heard Ron’s statement. It looked like he was confronting Dino and criticising him for his impolite actions. But Eren could see that Ron was just as pissed about his loss as Dino, if not more. He just didn’t let it cloud his judgement.
“Eren, we’ve come here on an important business. Let’s keep any differences we have on the sidelines. And make a truce. You know why we are suggesting this, right?”
“The inter-year ranking wars.”
Eren didn’t waste time dragging the conversation. He had already figured out why these dual berserkers had come to him. Ron nodded his head before continuing:
“That’s right. The inter-year ranking wars are always a lose-lose situation for first-year students. And almost nobody can get away from it, no matter how strong their background or battle prowess was.
But what if we join hands together to go through this situation?”
Ron tucked his hands inside his trousers’ pockets and waited for Eren’s reply. Something told him the guy who had beat him fair and square knew what he was talking about.
“You mean forming two teams out of the team White Raven Crew and Ron’s Raiders. One team would be geared towards absolute loss. While the other would have a fighting chance to win their ranking war. Correct me if I’m wrong of course.”
Said Eren and looked at the remaining members of Ron’s Raiders standing behind Ron’s back. The odds still didn’t look promising to him even if they were to apply this tried and tested method of first-years.
“*Sigh. Dino was not wrong about the cunning part he said about you. That’s right. Let’s break our teams temporarily for this inter-year ranking war and minimize our losses. What do you say?”
Ron sent the ball in Eren’s court after that. By now he had realized that Eren held a very important position in the White Raven Crew. he wasn’t sure about Steve’s standing so he preferred talking to the close-combat expert for now.
“Well, the idea is not bad. It’s tempting even. But we’ll only agree to co-operate with you under one condition.”
Eren said and looked at Steve. But now the berserker had gotten used to acting like a silent leader. So he folded his hands and waited for the real leader of the team to make a deal with the potential allies. All he had to do now was look stoic and act like he knew what Eren was talking about.
“And what is this condition you speak of?”
Ron raised his brows and asked that. He had an inkling that Eren’s condition wasn’t going to be in his team’s interest.
