3… 2… 1… 0!
Renita started going backwards from her position while activating her offensive spell. Eren aimed to do the opposite of that. He spearheaded his assault with the best combo spell he had in his arsenal.
Blitz Steps and Sedated Perception worked their magic and the butcher managed to shorten his distance from his opponent by a large degree. He was just about 10 meters away from her. A moment was enough for him to cover that distance.
But then Renita’s offensive spell got activated. She created a mana Rifle out of thin air and sprayed a round of wind bullets at her upcoming opponent. That’s right. Renita’s elemental affinity was wind and her inherent nature was precision. The class of a ranger was an apt choice for her.
Eren saw that the wind bullets could tear through the effects of his Sedated Perception and catch him off guard if he didn’t dodge them in time. Renita aimed her shots with pinpoint precision. It covered her front and forced the butcher to defend himself while being forced to turn back.
Eren had to divert from his frontal assault to dodge the incoming wind bullets. He retreated and tried to approach the ranger from a different angle. But Renita was ready for him even from that angle.
She had the convenience of her long-range capabilities. Her offence also doubled up as a defence.
Sedated Perception was only used as a means for Eren to dodge the wind bullets. He had to think about another way to get close to Renita. The girl was skilled enough in her tactics. She kept on changing her position while maintaining a safe distance from him.
That’s why the ranger class was difficult to deal with for close combat experts. The former wouldn’t ever let the latter come close to themselves for the close combat experts to show their skills. Renita’s battle tactics were the biggest obstacle the current Eren faced so far.
Eren couldn’t keep more than two spells active at the same time. This was his current body’s limit. He needed to come up with a different spell combo to break the stalemate. Otherwise, he would soon run out of mana and Renita would win by default.
Eren deactivated Sedated Perception and tried to activate Blitz Shield. The spell would create a defensive lightning layer around him for a few seconds, protecting him from any incoming harm.
But like Blitz Heal, this defence type spell wasn’t suited to be used while moving. It would show flaws if the ranker didn’t maintain a steady layer around them by staying still.
But Eren was ready to face a little backlash. The spell took its time to get activated. So Eren maintained a safe distance from Renita who was equally happy to do the same while taking pleasure in tormenting the latter with her long-range offensive.
By now Eren had been hit with a lot of stray wind bullets. His Sedated Perception wasn’t active. So he didn’t have the means to dodge all the bullets. The bullet impacts would hinder his movements and create bloody spots on his skin. Renita was an excellent marksman for her age. She made sure not to target the butcher’s vital spot too much, lest she gets penalized for doing the same.
Eren’s Blitz Shield was finally activated. His entire body was soon wrapped up in blue lightning that made him look like a non-human being. He didn’t waste time and made use of Blitz Steps to quickly cover the distance that had been widened to a sufficient level now.
Eren tried his best to avoid the incoming wind bullets. The bullets that managed to breach his perception hit the layer of lightning created by his defensive spell. The spell couldn’t negate the impact entirely due to being executed while moving. It did however manage to reduce the penetration power of the bullets, making them less threatening than they were.
Renita was caught in a dilemma. She was using a movement type skill along with her Mana Rifle spell. So she couldn’t execute the third spell either. She had been shocked by Eren many times during this battle. The best combo spell that had worked for her so far wasn’t all that effective against Eren.
The guy would easily dodge most of her precision-driven bullets like it was a child’s -play for him. His movement spell gave her even more of a headache. Her class should have let her prevail against a close combat expert dominantly. But Eren was fighting like he didn’t need a party to prevail against a ranger.
Renita was less speedy than Eren but the difference wasn’t that big. Her movement spell had enhanced her elemental affinity’s advantage. She managed to maintain a safe distance against Eren who tried his best to close the distance. But she knew that it won’t be long before he catches up to her and that’d be game over for him.
Renita was a smart girl. She could see Eren had changed his style of approach. So she intended to do the same. She decided to answer Eren’s fearless, self-harming offensive with the strongest spell in her arsenal now.
Renita let go of her Mana Rifle spell. The semi-transparent assault rifle was soon dispersed into the air it was made of. She spread her hands and soon loads of wind shurikens were materialized around her. They were spinning at crazy speeds and were floating in masses around her. Renita was almost out of her mana storage because of this spell.
But she found her targets. She willed the wind shurikens to target her opponent while guiding them with her mana sense. If the guy survives through even this spell, she’d have to accept this duel as her loss.
Eren was caught off guard by Renita’s change of tactics. He hadn’t approached Renita in a straight line to not make it easy for her to target him with her convenient long-range spell. He was shortening the distance between them at a gradual level thinking Renita would be up against the wall sooner or later.
But so many palm-sized wind shurikens were difficult for Eren to dodge even if he decided to retreat now. Now that the distance had been shortened, it worked against his favour and allowed the wind shurikens to surround him quickly.
Eren thought of stopping Blitz Steps at that time and focusing on Blitz Shield and Sedated Perception. It wouldn’t let him remain unharmed through this ordeal but it would at least let him survive it. But his long experience had taught him that a spell like that would be extremely taxing on the ranger he was battling with.
Renita must have depleted her entire mana reserve by executing this spell. So all he needed to do was to survive the incoming spell. He’ll be injured all over but he’d still be able to win.
Eren was aiming for a hard-earned victory that bordered on being pyrrhic.
But the gem had other plans!
Eren soon found himself in an almost stagnant world, which left him confused and shocked at the same time. This was the effect of Sedated Perception, sure.
But the spell hadn’t been activated by him. Neither was it depleting the mana from his reserve. It was a completely autonomous spell that had been activated out of the blue.
This also meant Eren could keep three spells active at this time!
‘*Sigh! This gem is full of surprises. It probably has a consciousness of its own. And I’m not naïve enough to think that it’d talk to a Novice ranker like me. There are so many unanswered questions around it that I feel that I should just stop thinking about them altogether.
Let’s just completely dominate this battle for now. If I can’t win over a mere teen with a three-spell combo, I might as well quit being a ranker.’