'Oh look, our target is in sight. Like a lamb to the slaughter. Haha.
You know what to do. Go!'
Claho ordered his men to take action. And they all seemingly disappeared from their spots.
****************
Eren felt some presence suddenly making itself known in front of him. He looked ahead to find out that a medium-sized man was approaching him using his water element movement spell. His feet had been coated in water that was helping him jump and spur his stride forward with exceptional agility.
"Where do you think you are heading, kid?"
The one who approached Eren from the front was a close combat expert. He declared his intentions with his words and his actions and he swung and flaunted his Warhammer without any head attached at the tip.
Without the head, the Warhammer looked like a rod of metal that wasn't useful at all. But then the man imbued his water-element mana into it and the runic inscriptions on it lit up. The weapon was now completed.
There was now a sizable hammerhead on the Warhammer, made of dense water gathered at its tip. The shape looked solid even though the moonlight was getting passed through it. The more the close combat expert poured his mana into the weapon, the denser and more powerful the hammerhead got.
Eren stood up on his colt's back and drew out his katars. He didn't say anything as he saw the hammer-wielding ranker approach him without any fear.
'The weapons they are using! They are a cut above the standard Ace rank weapons. I wonder how much money I'd get after I sell them.'
Eren had a random thought as he channelled his mana into his legs and cast his lightning element movement spell. He had stopped worrying about the colt since the enemy decided to blow their cover. So when he cast a lightning-element spell over the colt's back, the Novice rank mana beast fainted on the spot. It crashed onto the ground without a moment's delay.
But Eren was not at his usual spot anymore. He launched himself backwards and created a room for himself to deal with the close combat expert approaching him.
'Any moment now.'
Eren thought and clenched his katars tightly. Without thinking he did a cartwheel flip and executed his lightning element attack-type spell on his weapons– Blitz Bolt. He swung it without any hesitation. Purely on his instincts. And the butcher's instincts were right on target.
A person's head was chopped off at that moment.
The killer was barely aware of his actions. But the victim died without even knowing how he died.
The Warhammer soldier approaching Eren from his front was too stunned to advance. He was only a few meters away from his target. Yet he felt like the target that he was approaching so fearlessly wasn't something he could deal with on his own.
A soldier from the Edinburgh kingdom who was assigned to the city of Osan to protect it from the cultists died a silent death at this moment– without his killer uttering a word from his mouth.
The Warhammer ranker's feet felt like they had been trapped in quicksand after he watched Eren stare briefly at the about-to-fall body of his victim. He disappeared from his position before the body hit the ground– leaving only a few sparks of lightning in his place.
The Warhammer guy saw that Eren had appeared in front of another of his fellow squad mates. This was a woman Ace ranker that was only supposed to support the mission.
Eren again used his katars to his advantage. Before she could draw her sword, he used the punching daggers as if it was some form of agile artistic handiwork and drove one of them right through her heart.
The water-element soldier didn't know what he was seeing at the moment. All the surrounding noise had been cut off from him as he watched the butcher do what he did best- butchering people with an emotionless face.
'No. Not emotionless. What... what is that?'
He see a faint smile on Eren's face. As if the guy is happy that he got jumped by their squad.
As if he found relief in being ambushed the way he was ambushed. The solider of Edinburgh had first thought they were doing something unjust. But now it felt to him that killing this demon was exactly what their job entaild then to do.
'The question is... can we... can we do it? Can we kill this monstrosity that doesn't feel human at all?'
The Warhammer guy stopped channelling his mana into his weapon as he had this random thought in his head. The hammerhead first started dripping water before completely losing its shape all of a sudden. The water fell on the guy's torso and dripped on the ground. And yet, the feeling of being drenched because of his spell wasn't enough for the guy to snap back to reality as he watched his target targeting his peers.
There was mayhem taking place in front of the Warhammer-wielding ranker. He was supposed to close in on his target. The command was to act as if he was about to attack Eren while grabbing all the attention for himself. The guy that the butcher had cut the head off of was supposed to engage with Eren in their simulation.
The water-element close combat soldier wasn't briefed by Claho on what he was supposed to do after the one who did the sneak attack failed in his execution. He wasn't briefed on what he was supposed to do as another of his female peers was getting killed by their target. Though he doubted he could take action against a cold-blooded killer like Eren even if he was informed of the possible countermeasures.
The guy lost his grip on the unique artefact he was endowed with through the mission as his hands started shaking. He felt dread as he watched the butcher place his foot on the female ranker's tummy while she was standing stunned in front of him. He used his foot to push the body of the female ranker forward as he drew the lodged katar that was stuck in her ribcage out.
The butcher swung his katar as soon as it was drawn out of the ranker's chest and spun it around with his agile hand movements– like he was performing a circus act of juggling with his weapons. This juggling act was done to get rid of the blood and flesh the edge of the lodged weapon was coated with. Since the butcher pulled it so abruptly, the wound ejected blood and flesh when the weapon was pulled out.
Eren, who stood in front, was about to be sprayed with blood and flesh. But he swung and juggled his weapons at surreal speeds before disappearing from his spot.
The Warhammer guy saw the spray of blood and flesh hit empty air. There was something else flying in the air too. A lump of flesh that took a while for him to identify as the female ranker's left breast.
Eren had either yanked or chopped the female ranker's left tit and left her to die on the spot.
Was it the breast getting chopped or yanked? The water-element soldier acting as the witness to the whole scene couldn't be sure. His mana sense was barely keeping up with Eren after all.
He couldn't hear the noise of duels, victims' screams, the cries of his fellow soldiers or commands getting dished out by Claho and Kelmar on the voice communication. He had been reduced to nothing but a mute spectator at this moment.
AN: The hammerhead of a hammer consists of its face, neck, wedge, and cheek. Plus, a typical Warhammer has two faces on either side. That's where a certain shark breed's name is derived from. The illustration of Warhammer that has been used as a reference for this chapter will be posted on @Graybacknovels Insta soon.
