The space Eren chose to morph into existence was right in the middle of his two targets. He executed the Blitz Bolt through both hands without wasting any time. Before the crowd could even see the cannon fodders’ epic struggle to stop being cannon fodders, they faced a vicious blow behind their necks.
Eren’s simple attack literally and metaphorically made the hair on their backs turn straight. With his simple attack, the butcher made quick work of his two opponents.
The side characters were taken care of. Eren narrowed his gaze on Veronica next. It was about time he returned the “complements” thrown his way by the mage with compound interest.
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Veronica was battling with Steve who seemed annoying to her. That’s because the guy also had an earth element affinity, which gave him a fighting chance against her.
Veronica had turned the sizable area around her into a pond of lava with the help of her AoE spell. She was standing in the middle, creating whips of lava that shot forth from the pond from time to time. Steve was targeted by these whips whenever he approached close to her to take care of her.
If this was a normal berserker, she would have taken care of them by now. That’s because her lava pond made it difficult for the berserkers to close in on her even with their signature berserker charge.
Plus, the lava whips provided her with a very effective offence and defence mechanism packed into one move. So whenever an opponent would approach her, she would just wait for them to get near her before trapping them into her lava pond.
Veronica’s lava would eat away the invisible yet protective mana layer the rankers had coated over their bodies, making them prone to serious burns. And she had enough control on her AoE spell to increase the temperature of the lava even more if and when she needed to.
Veronica’s lava, like her, was always boiling and seething. So usually her opponents would give up and forfeit their involvement in the match when their mana layers would get burnt away by her lava attacks.
And yet, Steve proved to her that she wasn’t the only one that was in total control of her spells. All these weeks fighting with Eren and learning from him the true path of a berserker had opened the guy’s eyes to a new reality.
Steve now understood the attitude required to be a berserker in a true sense. Berserking isn’t all about amplified power that is powered by berserking potions.
Emotions also served as another type of fuel in a berserker’s path. Aggression that caused rankers to shut off their brains wasn’t always ideal. Total control over their movement and battle style didn’t tap into the berserker’s true potential either.
But a controlled aggressiveness that made use of those emotions while keeping the ranker’s rationality in check granted the berserkers to truly make full use of their path.
Steve had emptied a berserking potion in his mouth by now. As per Eren’s instructions he wasn’t allowed to underestimate his opponent. And he could clearly understand that Veronica wasn’t someone who he could tackle easily in the first place.
So he had to be fast and efficient with his battle style. He executed his earth element spells and made his hands and legs get wrapped in earthen armour. As the armour was mana-infused, it was lightweight while allowing easy movement.
The armour was what kept Steve safe from Veronica’s attacks. Of course, he was struggling to keep his armour on for some time without it getting hardened. This was because he came into contact with the lava.
But Steve had no problem with his armour getting crumpled down in the first place. He would cast the spell again and make a supplementary layer of armour appear on his limbs.
Then Steve would charge at Veronica once again, making her almost unable to concentrate on any other detail happening around her battlefield. Plus, the berserker would always choose creative ways to get close to the lava mage.
He would sometimes go for a direct charge. And sometimes his direct charge would turn out to be a decoy to cast another earth-element spell in the lava mage’s direction.
Eren had guided Steve in choosing the right kind of earth element spell that would bode well with each other. And he had also polished his berserker’s battle style closer to perfection than ever before.
Earth Spikes!
This was another spell Steve now had in his arsenal. Of course, he needed to get close to his opponents for it to work. But with his mana sense spreading forth in the surrounding, he would be able to cast the spell in any direction he saw fit.
Plus, Steve could now stack his Earth Spikes spells. He was able to cast up to three Earth Spikes spells simultaneously by now. He was able to accomplish all this because earth elements were readily available no matter what his environment was.
And the fact that the earth element was one of the great elements that focused on simplicity allowed Steve to stack three spells with only a few weeks’ dedicated work under Eren’s guidance.
The Earth Spike spell had turned out to be a nuisance for Veronica. She was still relatively safe standing in the middle of her self-created lava pond. But the spikes would breach the defences set by her mana and would always make contact with her. That’s why she was forced to change her direction and line of attack from time to time.
Steve kept her busy. But it didn’t look like he would be able to tackle her successfully by getting close to her. Neither did Veronica look like she would be able to break the stalemate anytime soon.
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The berserker and the lava mage both had their hands full with each other. So they couldn’t pay attention to Eren who was getting close to their battlefield at a rapid pace.
Eren saw it was almost impossible for him to sneak on Veronica because of her AoE. So he decided to use his berserker as a decoy.
“Steve! Now!”
Shouted Eren and executed his movement spell.