"Fireballs!"
Eren stacked his fire-element spell and directed them towards the bunch of wraiths that were eyeing and screeching at him. Eren had jumped about 20 feet in the air. As he was getting pulled down by gravity, he executed two more fireballs to ease the fall and damage the monsters simultaneously.
"Screeee!"
A sharp, deafening noise reached Eren's ears and almost made him lose his balance as he landed on the ground. Alphee came to his rescue at the time. She covered his body with her soul sense.
'Don't attack the wraiths carelessly. Use your powers well. First, seal off your ears with your defensive mana layer. And use the fire snakes to your advantage.'
Eren showed that he agreed with Alephee by blocking off his ears using his defensive mana layer. Then he caught the weapons that were about to hit the ground near him.
Swoosh!
Eren lit his katars on fire and swung them towards the nearest wraith that had come to confront him. Since the wraith was near him, it had already caught fire.
The wraith was an elven sword warrior. He was much taller than Eren. He ignored the slash Eren's weapon caused on his torso. Then he swung his sword at Eren. But the latter dodged it by tucking under the swing and getting near him.
By now, Eren's animated fire snakes had formed a perimeter around him. The surrounding fire snakes fought and prevented the wraiths from breaching the perimeter. The snakes that were inside the perimeter fought with the remaining wraiths that were near Eren.
Eren couldn't hear the sound of the battle anymore. His skin was tingling from the vibration of sound that bombarded him. Plus, the chill he felt before was intensifying at the moment.
The elf warrior wraith laughed hideously after Eren's precise attack landed on his back from below. He punched towards the latter with his empty hand while holding his sword above his head.
'Watch out. The wraith is looking for collateral damage. He is planning to attack your body at the cost of chopping off his hand.'
Alephee's voice was heard in Eren's mind as he was about to engage with the elf warrior again. He retracted his hand just when it was about to hit the guy's lower rib cage. Eren retreated immediately and tried to distance himself from him.
But soon, he saw through one of his fire snakes' vision that another wraith was about to attack him from behind him. While retreating, he kept an eye on the elf warrior wraith.
'Damn it. There are just too many.'
Eren cursed and stopped retreating before employing his movement spell to its fullest potential. He dodged to his left just when the dwarf elf was about to attack him from behind using his axe.
Eren's skin tingled again. He knew that both the elf and dwarf wraiths were mad at him for not being an obedient victim. They both were screeching at him at the same time.
His natural defence layer felt the tremors produced by the mana-infused screech. But before he could stabilize from just changing his position and attacking one of the two wraiths, another monster attacked him from the front. It had the body of a human female.
Eren couldn't change the direction of his movement in time. He was missing his time-element spells more and more in this battle. Those spells were a boon for quick and calculated movements that he could plan after seeing the attack coming. The time-element spells had allowed him to dominate most of his opponents while avoiding any fatal injuries.
The female wraith didn't carry any weapon. But the nails on her hands were longer than normal. Her fingers also had been elongated. The flesh on her body had dried and shrivelled– forming wrinkles all over. But her eyes carried a hint of water in them.
The old-hag-looking female wraith was fast with her hands as she didn't carry any weapons. She smiled hideously at the butcher as she grabbed his right hand. The one he was using to stabilize his position by placing it on the ground and using it as something to kill his momentum with.
Eren felt as if all his energy in his right hand was being sucked dry as soon as the female wraith grabbed his hand. He watched to his horror as his fleshly hand was starting to turn wrinkly and losing its original colour.
"Get the fuck off of me, you fucking old hag."
Eren shouted loud and swung his katar at the hand the female wraith had used to touch him. He saw that the female wraith was still flashing an unsightly smile as she swiftly evaded the attack aimed at her.
Eren felt the chills invading his body even after the female wraith left his hand. The netherworld-ice element pervaded inside him and started to freeze his flesh and bones. Even a portion of his blood in the nearby veins had turned into tiny blocks of bloody ice.
'Quick. Run your fire-element mana through the right hand and expel the foreign mana currently trying to shut the organs down. I've stopped it from spreading further in your body with my mana sense. But it would take efforts from your end to get rid of it for good.'
Eren retreated as he heard Alephee's suggestion. He gathered three of his nearest fire snakes and assigned them to the three directions around him. He stopped amid his fire snakes and observed what was happening around him with vigilance.
Thankfully, the elf warrior wasn't that fast because his right foot was twisted in a weird direction. The femur bone of the right leg seems broken as well, preventing him from following Eren at a steady pace.
Eren guessed that the elf warrior must have overexerted himself to close his distance from Eren and attack him first. As a result, his right femur bone was broken and his right foot was twisted.
The dwarf warrior had just taken his axe out of the ground where Eren stood a few moments ago. The female warrior smiled coquettishly at him again. She seemed to be high on something.
The female wraith's eyes that were just moist a moment before had produced two distinct lines of tears on her cheeks now.. But contrary to the usual emotion associated with tears, the monster seemed ecstatic.