‘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.’
Eren said this to himself and quickly came up with a wild plan. He decided to stack the effects of Sedated Perception in his current situation. He already had an autonomous spell running for him. So it wasn’t too difficult for the butcher to execute Sedated Perception.
The miscellaneous spell was soon activated. As he thought, the spell’s effects were stacked and the slowly approaching, self-revolving wind shurikens even had their revolutions slow down to a halting degree.
Eren’s body was also slowed down and he felt like he had been immersed into an invisible form of jelly. He activated Blitz Steps to his fullest potential. But that wasn’t enough. So he overdrew his mana, sent his mana circuit on a hyperdrive and extracted the very potential of his movement spell.
The hyperactive Blitz Steps finally allowed him to make his way through the storm of shurikens almost unscathed. He had small cuts on various parts of his body due to some shurikens that were clustered so much that he couldn’t dodge all of them. But the cuts were shallow and didn’t cause him more than a little discomfort.
Eren should have used the three-spell combo of Blitz Steps, Blitz Shield, and autonomous Sedated Perception. That would have allowed him to protect himself better while approaching Renita head-on.
But the butcher wanted to see if the effects of Sedated Perception could be stacked. He wasn’t sure if and when the spell would get automated again by the gem. So this was the best opportunity for him to see the effects of stacked Sedated Perception.
On the other side, Renita witnessed Eren getting hit by a barrage of her wind shurikens. She immediately regretted her decision to launch her trump AoE on the boy.
‘Maybe I went a little too far!’ She thought to herself. Eren was only asking her to be his teammate. There was no need to go to this extreme to prove her superiority, after all.
But the ranger’s regret soon turned into an absolute shock. That’s because she witnessed that what those barrages of wind shurikens pierced wasn’t Eren but only his afterimage.
The same scene repeated itself in several places. Eren’s various afterimages would appear on the battlefield. They would get pierced by loads of wind shurikens only to get dispersed into thin air. But soon another afterimage would be seen at a different place, following the same fate.
‘Damn it. This wretched boy was hiding his skills deep. I should have been crueller in my usage of Wind Shurikens. Now I should…’
Renita’s chain of thoughts was soon cut short. That’s because she realized that she was staring right at her opponent’s eyes. Their lips were inches away from each other.
Her jawline was being gripped by Eren’s one hand. The latter’s other hand had executed Blitz Bolt at the tip of the index finger. He directed his index finger close to Renita’s neck. The bolt of lightning was just a centimetre away from making contact with her skin.
Renita had goosebumps. The skin of her neck was sending a threateningly tingling sensation to her brain. She looked down and found the reason for the same. Eren’s offensive spell was barely keeping itself away from her neck.
The moment a ranger lets a close combat expert get close to them is also the moment of their loss. There’s just no way they can get away in time before the latter strikes them.
“I accept de… I accept defeat.”
Renita declared loudly. She hesitated to say the word ‘defeat’ but soon overcame it, thanks to her rationale. This was her only way to get away from this monster. She could read it in Eren’s eyes that he’d not waver or hold back in executing the spell on her just because she was a girl.
He’d severely injure and incapacitate her to gain victory anyway. And that was a best-case scenario. Had it been a real battle, she would have been already dead.
Eren only let go of Renita’s face after hearing her declaration. He didn’t feel even a shred of a hormonal spike by being this close to a beauty like Renita. The reason he had pulled this move to intimidate her was that he was desperate.
That’s right! Eren regretted stacking the effects of Sedated Perception. That’s because he was feeling giddy as soon as he stepped out of the spell’s effect. He could barely see what’s in front of him at the time.
The butcher didn’t intend to go so close to Renita’s face at first. But his depth perception was heavily affected due to the side effect of stacked time-element spells. That’s why he used his hand to hold Renita’s face to get a sense of her proximity. By the time he realized how close he was to her, the latter was already shivering a little. So he decided to stretch his act and executed Blitz Bolt.
The entire audience including Lin’s panel had gotten quiet during this time. Eren’s previous performance was already shocking enough for the students of 1/C. But the skill that he had displayed during his match with Renita had left even Lin’s panel of professors dumbfounded.
Eren concluded that Sedated Perception shouldn’t be stacked even if the gem allows him to do so in the future. At least the current him should stay away from doing it in real battles. Otherwise, he’d be vulnerable to attacks befalling him post his spell execution.
Eren was glad he could test the effects during the ranking war. It was the best place for him to experiment with a lot of combos and analyze their advantages and disadvantages with a fresh perspective. He was intended to continue this trend for his next battles as well. But he’d have to stop his battle session today with this fight.
It took a while for Lin to get over the situation:
“Eren Idril wins the duel in the battle ring four. Boy, you’ve overdrawn on your mana reserve. Your mana circuits have also been affected. I’d suggest you don’t continue any further. But I’ll ask anyway. What will it be?”
“*Sigh!
Adapt Lin, you are right. I think this should be enough for me.”
Eren looked at Renita after saying that. His face had gotten pale. And he looked like he’d lose his balance anytime. He started walking towards the hall’s exit right after admitting that he won’t continue his winning streak.
Only after hearing Lin’s speech did Renita understand that it wasn’t her that had pushed herself the most in their battle. She looked at her opponent closely to register her moment of defeat deep in her memory.
Eren had small cuts all over his body. His light-coloured, slightly torn clothes now had various red spots on them. His body was swaying a little as he walked towards the edge of the battle ring. But at that time, nobody dared to make fun of his situation.
The butcher had gotten over the restrictions placed by the inherent difference in class. That was enough to gain everybody’s silence.
Renita stood at her place and subconsciously admired Eren’s fierceness as she saw his departing figure. Then she remembered how her face was extremely close to his a while ago. Her cheeks immediately flared red as a result.
Renita wasn’t like most teenage girls. She knew she looked beautiful but didn’t try to encash it. Nor did she brag about it to her peers. She maintained a stoic air around her that was also devoid of any arrogance or pride.
But she never realized that her fabricated stoicism came from the fact that her beauty was validated by the people surrounding her. What if somebody her age decides to get over her visual appeal and act neutrally to her? Would she still be able to remain aloof in front of him? She found out the answer to that question at this moment.
Eren’s behaviour had somehow irked Renita. He seemed indifferent even after getting up close and personal with her. The girl started doubting the standards of her beauty she considered herself to fall into because of it. And the reason behind that second-guessing also bothered her.
‘Hmph! This wretched boy needs to be taught a lesson. I’ll clip his wings soon enough. And there would be plenty of chances for me to do so. I’ll be in his team after all’
The lady ranger decided to plan for the future.
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Author’s Note: The term spell stacking is used when the caster enhances the overall effect of their spells by overlapping them. In most cases, The spells need to be of a particular element and/or kind to have the stacking effect. The more familiar term would be spell spamming. But I can’t use it here for obvious reasons.