Both sides struggled.
However, Eren's enemies had it worse.
It was very tough to fight elemental spells with mere weapon attacks alone. Most of the participants hadn't even invested enough Karma points in their defensive gear. As a result, the participants were finding it difficult to completely overwhelm Eren with their attacks despite their sheer numbers.
The participants who remained inside the event till this point were a patient bunch. They knew how to wear a bull down by making him run all around the pit. To expose Eren's chinks in his armor, a high-intensity clash was maintained by all the participants who faced Eren in multiple batches.
A cacophony of screams and curses was constantly being heard on the battlefield. However, all the butcher could hear was the sound of his own heartbeat.
A few attacks managed to breach Eren's defense numerous times. However, they were not enough to stop him. He started butchering the participants' body parts whenever he found a chance to do so.
Eren used his Life Drain on the participants and drained their vitality. He then used the extracted vitality to elevate his body stats with the help of Hero's Heart.
And in the end, just when the participants thought that they had injured Eren with their elemental attacks enough to push further with their attacks, they heard a snap.
Instant Reset.
Blink.
The butcher appeared in the sky with his Wind Fire Wings stretched behind his back. His shirt was ripped off and his bare torso was exposed. His pants were also torn from various places. However, his body was fine and full of vitality. There were no injuries to be found on his tattooed skin.
The participants had various wounds on their bodies. They looked up and stared at the butcher warily– not wanting to approach him head-on.
Berserker Class.
The tribal tattoos etched all over Eren's body started exuding a faint light as the butcher changed his class once more midair. The participants were too shocked by Eren's performance at this point to comment on anything that he showed them he could do.
His eyes narrowed as he removed a gluttony pearl from his storage. He raised his hand and held the pearl between his index finger and thumb. Looking at it with his one eye closed, the butcher laughed wickedly before commenting.
'Alright. It is clear to me that I need to work on my classes even though I am capable of using them in an okayish manner. But... It feels like… I'm still struggling to find a balance between them. There needs to be a certain rhythm that is missing.'
Eren thought to himself as he started retrospecting the battle he just had with the participants. In the next moment, he decided to put his thoughts aside and focus on the current task at hand.
"Let's see what this bad boy can do."
Saying this, Eren crushed the gluttony pearl between his fingers. He then decided to cast one of the simplest fire-element spells he knew.
Fireball.
What happened afterward forced the participants to question if they were inside the Nightmare Domain.
A mini-sun-like fireball appeared in the sky. It packed bright orange flames and had a radius of 30 meters.
The size of the fireball was already impressive. But what was even more impressive was the density of the fire-element mana it was cast on. The fireball lit the whole space up as soon as it appeared, painting the participants' faces in a bright orange shade.
This was not all.
Mana fluctuations from the fireball made it appear as if it was cast by an Expert-ranked entity. As if the caster was threateningly close to breaking into the next rank.
The fireball was made from Eren's elemental attainment. However, it was strengthened by the Way of Fire incorporated into the crushed pearl, which in turn was extracted from the creature of gluttony it was made from.
What's more? The butcher was able to stack multiple fireballs spells one after the other using the pearl of gluttony as their foundation. The pearl contained enough mana in it to save Eren's other elemental spells as well.
Total Control.
Eren expedited the creation of the fireballs in the sky with his time-element spell.
Wind-Fire Shards.
He coated the fireballs with Wind Fire shards to give each of them a shrapnel-like effect.
Hatchlings of the Flame.
Boa snakes with fire wings were summoned into existence. These snakes sat on the newly cast levitating fireballs. Their bodies started coiling around the fireballs as if they were made of fiery stone.
Igni Chains.
Lastly, Igni Chains were summoned to connect each of the fireballs with a bunch of others summoned adjacent to it. As a result, a network of Igni Chains was created. The Igni Chains multiplied by themselves before connecting with other fireballs in their vicinity as well as with each other.
Groundbreaking spell amplification and logic-defying spell stacking– these were the powers granted to Eren using the gluttony pearls as catalysts.
With intent-driven magic, rankers were always known to defy norms. Those who could use intent-driven magic were able to cast spells way above their pay grade without having to use forbidden techniques.
As a result of the Domain of Gluttony acting as the medium, Eren could change the school of his spells. Instead of relying on the mana from his mana core, he could use the mana stored inside the gluttony pearl to cast his spells. Meaning the large-scale AoE he was casting at this point was not using his own mana.
The effects of the gluttony pearl would allow Eren to cast amplified spells for a limited time after they were crushed. He didn't need to do anything drastically different either. The gluttony mana that was stored inside the gluttony pearl would attach itself to Eren's elemental spells on its own and allow him to cast the Sin Series variant of intent-driven magic.
Eren already knew about the pearl's effects. But that didn't help him control his surprise when he looked at what he had cast. He couldn't help whistling to himself to register how impressed he was by the effects of the Sin of Gluttony.
