"Oh! Mr. Rouge and Mr. Quake-element tank! Long time no see, guys. Time really flies, doesn't it?"
Eren ignored the evil stares of the elves and greeted his fellow batchmates with a smile on his face. He looked at them with a peculiar look before continuing.
"Anyway… would you mind giving me these kills? Rest assured that I'll give them just punishment for their transgressions against your teams."
The rogue and the tank had fought with Eren in the past. They both looked at each other to see what each other was thinking.
The tank pondered for a bit before speaking up.
"Eren. I'm glad to see you, man. My name is Jaman in case you don't remember.
As for these kills, are you sure you don't want to join us? I'm all for sharing Karma points if it's with you after…"
The rainy atmosphere made Tank's voice sound a bit muffled. Eren shook his head in denial, his wet hair sticking to his face. He wiped his face with his hand and interrupted his batchmate's speech.
"I wouldn't be traveling solo if I was a team player, Jaman. I would like all of you to leave the area for good and never come back no matter what happens here."
Eren looked at the masked elves and flashed a grin before adding up.
"They are not who you think they are. And I don't want to stress you out by divulging their identities just yet. You'll find out about them eventually. But till that time… you just gotta trust me."
Eren didn't think he should spread the truth about the Elven masks just yet. Things would be a bit difficult for him to hunt them down if the moderators present inside the Sansara World came to know about them. They might not eliminate them by hand. But they would start keeping an eye on the infiltrators all the same.
Therefore, Eren decided to keep the identities of the infiltrators mysterious. He took out his Sativa Stick, coated it with his fire-element mana, and lit it up amid the rain. Taking a long drag of smoke, he continued.
"I'm not asking for any handouts or anything in return, am I? In fact, one might say I'm doing you a favor. All your opponents' struggles are fake. These participants would have killed you all for real had I waited a few more minutes.
Not that I'm questioning your skills. The fact that these "participants" have come for you is evidence enough that they consider you to be a future threat.
However, in life, not all those who have talent become successful. Not all those who are physically large and strong survive. Survival comes to those who are adaptive to life's changes. Simple as that.
So, what will it be?"
Eren asked while releasing a lungful of smoke into the air. The downpour changed the smoke's path a bit. But it was largely unaffected.
The Tank and Rogue came to a unanimous decision to take Eren up on his offer. Most of them had already come to realize that their participants were acting a bit weirdly while fighting with them. It was as if they were creating an array layout with their moves using some unknown mechanism. They were waiting for the array layout to complete so that they could get rid of all their opponents in one go.
That's right. The infiltrators were working on activating a battle formation while the Rogue and Tank's squads were unaware of it. Eren intervened at the right time before the battle formation was completed, preventing the infiltrators from clearing many names off their hit list.
Eren had already seen the might of a battle formation when he had clashed with Oliver's team. Argo had to awaken his demon soul fragment at that moment to break the battle formation.
The butcher didn't want to overexert himself by allowing his targets to get stronger through the activation of battle formations. His motto was always simple– get rid of enemies when they were at their weakest.
The Rogue and the Tank had only studied the theories of battle formations in LA. However, that handicap didn't stop them from confirming Eren's analysis.
Eren's batchmates agreed to Eren's request. They even thanked him for his intervention before deciding to leave the battlefield.
***
The Rogue and Tank had come to understand how capable Eren was after their fights with him. The on-field assignments allowed them to evaluate their battle styles as a whole. It also enabled them to understand that the struggles Eren had displayed in the ranking wars were the same kind of struggles they had to go through in real-life battles.
Eren was several steps ahead of the common students in LA right from his first year. Plus, he had a way of getting things he wanted from everybody by persuasion or force. Eren had also established a city of his own, elevating him from the status of a commoner. If someone like him requests something so simple, it would be in their best interest to grant their wish.
The Rogue had grown back his chopped nose by this point. Still, he felt like the wound was still fresh when he looked at the conniving son of a bitch that was Eren. It was Eren who cut his nose to provoke him after all.
The Rogue agreed with the Tank's decision as well. Rather, he felt that they needed to maintain a safe distance from Eren. The guy looked more dangerous to him than the whole team of elven infiltrators combined.
***
All the participants from LA retreated. In the end, Eren became the sole opponent for all of the elven infiltrators.
The infiltrators didn't want the Rogue and Tank's combined team to leave. But they couldn't just follow them or make sudden moves because of the half-done battle formation. If they tried to move in the wrong direction, the formation would hurt them instead.
AN: Battle formation was explained in chapter 964.
