Three distinct mana pulses had made their presence known, indicative of three E-Rankers executing the spells in their arsenals.
The first E-Rank male that was leading the attack took out a long spear from his storage and pointed the tip of his weapon towards approaching Ronny. The E-Rank female with a male's body, who was also taller than the male ranker, took out a crossbow and aimed it at her enemy from over the shoulder of her teammate.
Since the Sedated Perception was activated Ronny saw that the two-pronged approach taken by the duo was well-calibrated. He couldn't dodge the spear, courtesy of its extended range. And he couldn't back away from the crossbow E-Ranker pointed at him.
The spear of the E-Rank was soon coated in mana as a weapon-enhancing spell was cast over it by the wielder. The weapon's tip caught fire and it spread all around the weapon.
Crossbow arrows seemed to be made of water-element mana. It made the edges of the arrows reflect light in rainbow colors. Although the multicoloured arrows were pleasant to look at, Ronny knew their effects would turn out to be anything but that for him.
As Ronny was observing the two E-Rankers, his opponents were also doing the same. The leading E-Ranker saw that Ronny's body suddenly turned red as he started approaching him. Then the guy was engulfed in lightning element mana and a strong mana pulse was spread in the surroundings as a result.
'We miscalculated. This guy won't be easy to deal with.'
The Spear wielding E-Ranker had this thought as he got nearer to his opponent in real-time. He aimed the spear to be lodged right in Ronny's right thigh while he drew out another spear from his storage. He was also preparing to cast the same weapon-enhancing spell on his secondary weapon.
The spear-wielding guy soon realized that Ronny was not at his previous position anymore even though he observed that his spear had struck him right where he wanted it to be. That's because he didn't feel the recoil from the weapon he was expecting after piercing something fleshy.
'Damn it. The guy's fast. I should inform that gorilla…'
The spear-wielding guy thought of relying on his "gorilla" teammate more after he realized that Ronny wasn't as easy to deal with as he thought he would be at first. But his chain of thought was soon interrupted by the sheer force he felt over his chest, where his heart was.
The spear ranker looked down and saw that a dagger coated in lightning element mana had struck right over his heart. The force behind this attack was so powerful that the ranker wondered why he wasn't pushed back.
But he soon found the answer he was looking for. He felt a hand gripping his left shoulder, causing him to bear the consequence of being struck by the dagger while remaining in the same position.
Ronny's blurred image soon started appearing clearly in the spear ranker's vision. He still had deadpan expressions from before. But his eyes— the guy's eyes were oozing bloodlust.
Ronny appeared right in front of the spear guy, within his reach. He had made use of the space the spear guy had left free to manoeuvre his dual spears. If the spear had granted him extended range, it had also made him vulnerable to short range attacks initiated by the butcher.
But that wasn't the spear guy's end. He was wearing chainmail armour inside the clothes of his fire element that immediately burst into flames after it had been struck by Ronny's dagger. The fire-element mana fought off with the lightning element residue the dagger was trying to spread all over the ranker's body.
The armour's flames could not remove all the lightning residue. The spear guy felt as if his outer skin all over his body was getting numb after it was subjected to the electrical shock.
The spear guy didn't wait for long. Then he dropped his left weapon and aimed his chop at Ronny's neck. He also cast his movement spell that caused his feet to glow with fire. Plus, he adjusted the spear in his right hand so that the weapon's hilt would target Ronny's side waist.
The spear guy did all that in one swift motion as he used his movement spell to retract and fall behind where his teammate was. But he again found that the end of his weapon had struck the guy's afterimage.
The spear guy gulped after he saw the kind of opponent he was facing. He felt even more dread after observing that the guy's first afterimage could still be seen; albeit in a blurred, almost-disappeared manner.
'Damn it. I should have let that gorilla take the lead. This guy is insane. I might get killed in a few moves if I continue to fight him alone.'
The spearman thought this as he let loose his mana sense around him to anticipate Ronny's sneak attacks. He picked up on something that was coming from his right side. But before he could take countermeasures, the attack had landed on him.
Ronny had attacked the spear guy using his dagger. The latter had realized that it was the same place he intended to hit the guy with his spear.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaah!"
The spear guy howled as his right thigh was pierced by Ronny's left-handed dagger. The former understood that the move was meant to make a statement. A statement meant for him– tit for tat.
The spear guy remembered his earlier bravado in telling the guy to drop dead peacefully. He had genuinely believed at the time that he was doing Ronny a favour by letting him die peacefully.
The lightning element mana had found a new outlet to affect the spear guy now. The spear guy felt like his body had suddenly gotten naked. It was as if he had become an unranked boy from his childhood again. He felt the cold the way an ordinary kid would.
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AN: Thank you John_Dover and _Transcendent for your gifts.
Thanks, Daoist930799 and AndrewMurry for sending Luxury Cars.. Also, thanks Tanner_Minnick for the massage chair. ;)