"You will love the way I make you open up!"
The butcher said this to the wraith before driving one of his katars through the old hag's waist injury right above her pelvic girdle. The katars were already imbued with fire-element mana. That along with Eren's sheer force that he had mustered from his body going into survival mode enabled him to separate the wraith's waist from her torso completely.
"Let's dance."
Eren then held the human ranker wraith's torso like he was holding a girl in his arms for a formal dance. His vitality started draining and the human wraith tried to injure his back with her long nails as well. But he didn't care.
The wraith had her tongue cut out and her mouth had been already mangled. She couldn't hurt him with her mouth. So he could always drink the tears from the wraith's eyes as soon as they ran down her cheeks. Providing he kept up with the loss of his vitality and did not lose consciousness before the tears reached his system.
All these things happen in a short time. By then, the sword wraith had reached Eren's place. Thus, he kicked the human wraith's lower body toward him while he retreated in the opposite direction.
The tears were generated again. Eren drank them up while stretching his tongue just like the human wraith did. His body had been altered to do that after all.
'Blitz Bolt
Blitz Steps
Blitz Shield
Fire Snake
Breath of Fire'
Eren reconfigured his spell combo after he drank the tears again. He was now in a constant cycle of getting his body shrivelled due to the Wraith's Life Drain and getting revitalized after drinking the tears.
Just when the sword wraith was about to swing another attack directly at Eren, he had to redirect his attack towards a lower half of the human wraith's body as it flew straight at him. He cut it up in a single slash. And looked ahead to see that Eren was retreating again. Away from him and towards the other wraiths that had been slowed down due to the exposure to the fire.
"Screeeeeee!"
The sword wraith screeched and tried to follow Eren. but soon he was met with three fire snakes who bared their fangs at him while stretching their fire tongues. They executed the spells they were empowered with by their caster as soon as their opponent came into their attacking range.
Breath of fire!
The sword wraith was subjected to three streams of fire from three different directions. He tried cutting the snakes down. But since they were ethereal, they would just reform and carry on their attacks.
The snakes would indeed get affected by the dark-blue mana invading their ethereal bodies. However, it was not enough to stop the attack they had been assigned. At least not anytime soon.
Eren retreated at a sufficient distance and stopped. The slow wraiths had also surrounded him from behind. If he retreated anymore, he would have to fight them. A fight now was something akin to suicide. He already had his hands full with the female wraith even when she had been cut from her waist down.
Eren drank from the newly created tears and laid the female wraith on the ground. She started crawling and trying to injure his legs as soon as Eren released her. The butcher had to use his movement speed to dodge her attacks. Nevertheless, cutting the lower body of the old hag had made his job easier.
"We should get those pretty eyes tested, beautiful!"
Eren sarcastically said to the screeching wraith as he deposited his weapons in his ID storage. He ran his fire-element mana through his arms and executed the fire snake's spell by tweaking it a bit.
Eren's arms were coated in orange fire. The fire changed its hue as it approached his finger and appeared more incandescent. It meant that the fire coating his finger had more concentration of fire-element mana.
Eren ran the same spell through his legs as well. The legs also had a coating of fire and lightning element mana as a result.
"Sreeeee!"
The human wraith screeched at her oppressor as her remaining two limbs were pinned down by the butcher's legs from either side. Her screech was mixed with the collective wraith noises of all the monsters that had encircled the butcher from every possible angle.
Eren was in trouble. He couldn't be sure he would be able to survive this night even if he managed to take the eyes out of the monster. He could only use them to his advantage.
In hindsight, he had made a lot of mistakes fighting with the wraiths. But since he didn't know about the existence of these monsters, it was only natural that he would struggle.
As a result of the pressure he was feeling from all around him, Eren's survival mode that ran on his instincts remained active all this time. By squatting down, he sat on the chest of the human wraith.
"Screeeeee!"
Sizzle Sizzle!
Eren's fingers touched the area around the wraith's eyes and they started burning the rotten flesh they came in contact with. The butcher didn't wait long enough and inserted his fingers into the eye sockets.
He used all his force to dig both of the eyes out from the eye sockets and yanked them out. His skin tingled when it was bombarded with the wraith's heightened screech as a response to the atrocity he had committed on her.
The eyes started dripping with the mixture of black blood, dark blue mana residue, and vitality-enhancing tears when they were gouged out. The butcher did not think twice and drank the mixture by holding his eyes right above his open mouth. He had used his right hand to hold both the dripping eyes by the muscles and veins attached to their ends.
Eren's left hand subconsciously reached for the female wraith's face as he was busy drinking the weird mixture. His left hand was morphed into a slimy form on its own. The slimy mass was spread all over the human wraith's face.
Eren was subconsciously using his inherent spell on the human wraith.
==================
AN: Thanks to all the readers who have followed Eren's journey. He wouldn't have made it here without your support. This would be the last chapter to be released in February 2022. The two bonus chapters as well as the regular ones will be uploaded tomorrow; i.e. in March.
This month has been a bit tough on me due to me getting down by COVID followed by my unexpected laptop failure. VEH's upload schedule was thrown into disarray as a result. Despite those challenges, we managed to remain in the win-win ranking. Cheers!
Things are going to get more exciting in the VEH-verse. Our boy is on the verge of metamorphosis, which is going to be physical as well as psychological. Plus, the Osan Woods incident is about to take a strange turn (Not so strange if you got the foreshadowing, lol). Hope you stay tuned for more in March and all the months to come. ;)
Special thanks to Aizen and Sharon_Eichenlaub for sending massage chairs.