Hilda adjusted herself and watched where Ronny was heading off to.
'This guy is plain stupid. He is running towards my master Gerish who would kill him off for sure if the acid bomb doesn't kill him. Hehe!'
But then she saw that something or someone had appeared in front of Gerish. It was the same slimy mass that had flown over her head a few moments back. It soon assumed the shape of a beautiful young lady before releasing an Expert rank mana signature.
The sudden appearance of the C-Rank entity and its release of an Expert rank mana signature deterred the old man from making any move. He tried to fight off the dread he was feeling but it was of no use when that entity released her demon beast aura.
'What in the world?'
Hilda witnessed with a dying light in her eyes how her opponent had secured a trump card all this time. As she watched, the old man trembled and took a few steps back in horror in front of the expert rank monster.
And it felt like it was eager to eat the old man alive as a whole. The mana signature of the C-Rank monster conveyed the monster's hunger to its prey before it could state its plans.
Reen raised her hands and stretched them towards the sky abnormally– as if her hands had been turned into fleshy whips. She grabbed something that was flying far away in the air before retracting them quickly.
Before Gerish could draw his weapon with his shaky hands, Reen attacked the sold-stage Ace ranker with her newfound weapons using the same weapon arts her master was relying on.
The weapons she had grabbed were the daggers the butcher had thrown earlier before drawing out his katars. They were of the F-Rank. But Reen enhanced their potential by imbuing them with her C-Rank mana. She attacked the old man in front of her without any shred of doubt in her mind.
She didn't need the daggers to take care of an Ace ranker no matter how skilled and experienced he was as a fighter and ranker. But her master had told her to use the weapons anyway instead of using her normal method to digest her enemy.
Zick! Zick! Zick!
The daggers started chopping the old man up without any resistance– as if a hot knife was cutting through a slab of butter. Reen only stopped when she made about 100 pieces of the old man within a moment. The pieces of chopped meat only dropped on the ground when she retracted her hands.
"Reen. Now!"
Reen heard her master's voice and knew it was about time to rescue him from his impending doom. She stretched her hand and converted it into a blob of slime before dropping it over the chopped pieces of Gerish. She then absorbed all the pieces into that blob before retracting it and making it assume the shape of a hand again.
Then, Reen stretched her hand in a whip-like motion towards the first fire snake that was in front of her.
********
The giant acidic ball had arrived at a threateningly close distance from the ground by now. But Hilda had stopped smiling because she understood what Roony was up to after witnessing what unfolded in front of her.
She saw that the fire snakes had been crawling in line one after the other. When Ronny shouted at the monster that had taken care of her master, the fire snakes joined together to form a long fire-element rope.
The fire-snakes lost their animated forms and stopped moving when they turned into a very long fire-element rope. It was over 100 meters long and about 8 cm thick. By now Ronny had reached the end of the rope that was closer to Hilda.
Since it was still his tweaked spell, the butcher could control it the way he wanted to use his mana sense. He willed and made one end of the rope wrap around his waist securely.
The mana consumption to maintain the solid-like form of the spell was enormous, especially since the rope's length was so exaggerated. The butcher had drunk multiple mana restoration potions for this reason as well. This was his escape plan he had to invest in heavily.
The butcher had to admit the Potion of Serenity was a one-of-a-kind gift Layla had given him that just kept on giving. He could pull this stunt off because of his insights gained while he was in the ethereal state of epiphany.
By the time Ronny was done from his end, Reen's hand had reached the other end of the rope. She grabbed the rope and tugged it towards her with all her might.
When the ball of acidic water finally hit the ground, it started spreading with a suppressed sound and caused a small earthquake. The post-contact suppressed sound was soon followed by water's natural sound when it is allowed to run wild in an open space. Plus, the sizzling sound of the ground getting scorched and burnt off was mixed within it.
The area of impact for the acidic ball losing its form was increasing at an exponential rate. The last image in Hilda's vision was that of the butcher leaving the zone of impact just before it took over him.
'He sure gave me weird but intuitive advice. Hehe! I shall follow it if I can.'
This was the last thought Hilda had before her body was consumed by the same acidic water she had created with her forbidden spell. Her mana core was destroyed a moment ago so she didn't have a mana signature anymore.
As a result, she couldn't protect herself from her own spell because the mana mixed in it treated her as a foreign entity– something that needed to be destroyed. Before she could succumb to the injuries inflicted by her opponent, the ranger was killed by her own spell and condition.
Technically, it wasn't the butcher that finished off the couple. Both of them died by Hilda's hands. If Hilda's apparition came to life, she would laugh at the irony of her situation.
===============
AN: I'll upload some weapons, spells, and other such illustrations on VEH Discord soon. Plus, VEH Wiki has been optimized thanks to TottalNooB. Check them out if and when you can. ;)
VEH will have its mass release this weekend. Look forward to it.
Also, thanks AC9 and Waakaranai for your gifts.