"Blitz Bolt."
Eren executed his go-to lightning element spell for the first time in his battle against the wraiths. He ran towards the approaching apparition and directed the bolt generated from his finger to pass through its heart again.
Screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
The mana defence layer couldn't completely prevent the sound from entering Eren's ears as the apparition screeched with all that it could. It was infused with the lightning element mana as the bolt ran through it. The form started dissolving in the air as a result.
And yet, the apparition continued screaming at its opponent who by now was frozen in his steps. That was because the screech had temporarily made him lose control over his body. He had goosebumps on his body and it felt like his soul was getting affected by that screech.
The dwarf's apparition had opened its mouth unnaturally wide as it produced that soul-shaking voice. Eren's lightning-element defensive element was still intact. But it looked like the attack was not something it could block on its own.
'*Sigh! You owe me a hundred, Eren.'
Alephee sighed and spread her soul sense to wrap Eren's body within it. The invisible and immaterial protection granted by her was what allowed Eren to finally gain control over his body. He was about to thank his companion but her urgent voice was heard in his head again:
'The sword wraith managed to break its siege. Behind you.'
Eren opened his eyes wide when he heard Alephee's voice. He rolled to the front and tried using his movement spell to get far away from his current position. But he couldn't manage to do that while remaining unscathed.
The sword warrior of the elven race swung his sword unnaturally as he spun around. The move was fast as if he was chopping a huge tree in one go with that amateur-looking stance.
The action taken by the sword wraith was so sudden that it created afterimages of the sword. This made it look like the motion he had performed just now was pathetically slow. Due to this, no matter how quickly Alephee warned Eren, his right leg was slashed in the back. The Achilles tendon of his right leg had a huge slash on it as a result.
"Aaaaaargh!"
Eren yelled in pain as he managed to get away from the sword warrior. He ceased using his movement spell when he was at a sufficient distance from his attacker.
The sword did not manage to reach the butcher. But the sword's dark blue mana infused attack converted the rest of the imbued mana into a flying slash that injured the butcher. The attack's dark blue mana was concentrated in the form of a slash. Thus, it was able to break through the butcher's defensive spell and its inherent defensive layer with ease.
The dark blue mana started pervading Eren's body as it numbed the feeling of pain after a few moments. It was as if he had no slash wound on his right leg at all. If Eren didn't know any better, he would just assume that his right leg didn't have any injury at all behind its back.
This was one of the scariest parts of the battle against the wraiths. A sense of pain was needed to gauge the danger the injury carried. If the ranker doesn't feel the pain and is not aware of the injury, the dark blue mana would progress at a faster rate. This is because the ranker wasn't aware it had entered its body.
"How did he…"
Eren wondered how the sword guy managed to break through the siege first even though he had already assigned two fire snakes to him. He finally got his answer when he looked around.
The fire snakes were no more. All of them were dispersed. The wraiths who had been subjected to the fire-element attacks were slowly walking towards him with even more of their bodies missing.
Eren realized that the dwarf's attack had paralyzed him and his mind. His stacked animated spell in the form of fire snakes which shared his consciousness was dispersed when that happened.
'Wait a minute. If all the fire snakes are disappeared, where the fuck is that old hag…'
Eren's mana sense suddenly sent him warning signals that were coming from his left side. But it was already too late. The old hag had sneakily approached her prey and touched him on his left arm, just below the shoulder.
"Screeeeeee!"
Eren's thoughts were still a bit distraught. Therefore, he had forgotten to strengthen his natural defence layer one more time post his mind-freezing moment. So when the old hag opened her mouth to scream at him, he took the full brunt of that attack.
'Not again.'
Alephee spread her soul sense and covered Eren's head with it. By the time Eren snapped out of the mind-numbing effect, the old hag had managed to break through his unstable defensive spell and inconstant defensive layer. She touched his bare skin with the tip of her right index finger's long nail.
Eren's life force was drained at a rapid pace when the human female wraith managed to touch him. The nail had also managed to inflict a wound on Eren's body. The old hag sent her dark blue mana into Eren's system through that wound.
Ideally, Eren's lightning-element spell shouldn't have been broken so easily by the old hag. But since he had suffered an injury to his right Achilles heel and his body was invaded by the foreign mana sent through it, his defensive spell became unstable. In addition, the old hag's screech that sounded so close to him made his overall defence even weaker.
Before the butcher could do anything about the invading dark blue foreign mana wreaking havoc inside his body or get away from the old hag, the sword elf wraith's next slash was upon him.
The sword wraith had managed to cover the distance between him and Eren when the latter was busy dealing with the old hag's screech. The wraith sent his flying slash towards his opponent before he reached him.
Eren's left hand has now been grabbed by the old hag– basically pinning him to his place. His right leg was injured. Plus, he was distraught in mind and mana control.
He only had one thought running through his head as he saw the flying dark-blue slash approach him at a rapid pace:
F!
AN: Three more chapters coming up soon! ;)
