Hagduin was a tall sun elf with a ponytail.
Hagduin's body was missing. But the chopped head was easy to identify because of the ponytail. Meeshah had color drained from her face as she looked at Hagduin's head lying on the ground a few steps away from her.
"How... How did you kill him?"
Meeshah asked Eren while thinking of ways to get away from the scene. She also found it unbelievable that Hagduin was killed. Because he was more skilled than her. He also had a better crew than her to assist him.
***
Eren had clashed with Hagduin's team on day 2. The elf with the ponytail had used Spatial Domain Lock on him that locked his entire team with the butcher.
Eren was more than happy to get locked in one place with his potential victims. He used the Condition Continuum Perk and prevented Hagduin from canceling the Perk that he had activated himself.
The fight with Hagduin and his entire allied team lasted for a few hours. In the end, Hagduin's own Perk bit him in the ass as all of the rankers that were with him got killed inside the Spatial Domain Lock. The butcher had raked in loads of Karma points on day 2 as a result of wiping out the entire elf group. It had allowed him to buy many Perks, both permanent ones as well as those with one-time use. He had used some of them to tackle Meeshah's team.
The Sansara World's automated system had a synthetic consciousness of its own. It took out Hagduin's Perk and allowed Eren to use it as a limited-time Perk. Meaning he could use the Spatial Domain Lock Perk three times.
***
Hagduin's Perk was very useful for Eren when it came to slaying an entire group. And its limited use made it even more precious. Thus, he didn't want to use it on Meeshah's team at first.
However, he did not know how many Karma points Meeshah had. And he could see on her face that she was getting desperate. So when it was only the butcher and Meeshah left at the scene and the earlier Perk restrictions were lifted, the butcher used Spatial Domain Lock on Meeshah just to play it safe.
This Perk also prevented Eren's opponents from using any of the teleportation Perks. This was something Meeshah had completely forgotten to do because of the stress she was forced to be in.
Eren's Perk kept draining his Karma points while it was active. But the butcher's rate of earning Karma points exceeded the drain rate by a huge margin. So it was still an affordable Perk for him to use.
Eren didn't want to spend more Karma points on Meeshah's team than he had to. Each point was critical, and he needed to make use of his Perks wisely.
Thus, he decided to finish his job instead of answering Meesha's question. His image was blurred from Meeshah's perspective. He appeared in front of the teammate she was with before launching a close combat Perk on her. Its name was Unlimited Knife Works and it was supposed to be used in conjunction with dagger-like weapons.
Unlimited Knife Works allowed its users to accelerate their weapons to an absurd amount within dimensional confinement. The vector force acting on the weapon would be regulated by the Perk and its direction would be decided by the user's slight movements.
Therefore, the slashes and stabs made with the Perk would be so fast that they would defy rankers' physical limitations. One could also see it as a Stunning Speed spell specifically made for the weapon arts.
Of course, one needed to be quite skilled with the dagger arts, to begin with, to use the Perk effectively. The Perk was akin to a superfast flying vehicle. For one to use the vehicle, one must know how to drive it in the first place.
The butcher had selected this Perk right after killing Hagduin's team. And he was yet to try it on anybody. Now that there were only two potential targets, he had room to experiment.
"Aaaaaaar...!"
The scream was cut short because of how quickly the victim's body almost disintegrated. Unlike his Bombing Perk, the butcher was very happy with the results of this Perk.
The Perk came with its own set of disadvantages for the current Eren.
First was the fact that he made a few mistakes but they couldn't be exploited by his enemy. Second, he came close to dropping his weapon as a result of a strong vector force acting on it. Despite this, he was able to maintain his grip on the weapons before executing his dagger arts with them.
Eren also felt a bit of strain on his wrists when he activated Unlimited Knife Works. The strain came from subconsciously trying to control the speed of the self-accelerating knives manually. This needed some getting used to before he could make use of the Perk to its full potential.
Lastly, the Perk had a negative impact on the weapons he had gotten from the Sansara World. He knew that they would get dulled if he kept on using the Perk for his every attack. The weapons would have been worn down at this point if he had used them to attack Meeshah's team from the beginning.
Weapons were relatively costly to buy in terms of Karma points. Hence, the butcher decided to limit the use of Unlimited Knife Works if and when he was in a pinch.
Meeshah felt numb to the cries of her last teammate getting killed by Eren. Perk and the butcher's Dagger Arts worked well together. The ranker's body was chopped into minced meat within a second after the butcher used the combination.
"You... everything about you... The information is lacking. You are many times more dangerous than those phony reports paint you to be.
You should have been first on our hit list."
Meeshah didn't try to run away from Eren this time after seeing her teammates' posthumous condition. The butcher juggled his daggers around him and wiped away the blood marks. He smiled mildly before responding.
"Hmm... I'll take that as a compliment."
Meeshah gulped empty air before deciding to voice the only request she knew the butcher would be willing to fulfill.
"Grant me an easy death. I don't want to suffer."
Eren wasn't surprised by Meeshah's request. He nodded before agreeing to it.
"Alright. Sleep well... Mademoiselle."
In the next moment, Meeshah's vision started to dim. She didn't know what hit her and she was glad about it.
