Blur.
That's what Krista saw as Eren activated his time-element spell separately and disappeared from his position all of a sudden.
He needed to conserve his mana after all. And Sedating Gaze would only work most effectively when it was used for the first time. It would give diminishing returns and start taking a toll on his mana reserves the more he used on his opponents. Especially if there were more than one of them to deal with.
Repel!
Lambert could feel Eren coming because he had already tagged him with his spell and the tag was still working. He immediately broke Eren's movement spell with a spell of his own and made him appear not too far away from him.
Attraction!
Eren's body was pulled towards Krista from a different direction. The two rankers had already separated at this point. They were planning to launch a two-pronged attack on Eren from two different directions.
Krista was ready with her weapon and her spell as she watched Eren's body close in on her at breakneck speeds. The butcher appeared to have no control over his movement. His body almost floated over the ground as he was pushed toward Krista by Lambert's spell.
Krista was about to swing her weapon when she saw Eren smiling at her. Instead of fighting against the momentum, he coated his legs in water-element mana and sped up his advance.
Swoosh. Zoom. Duck.
With that, Krista swung her weapon in a threatening way. But her timing was a bit off because of Eren's movement spell that added to Lambert's attraction force.
Sedating Gaze
Eren ducked under Krista's swing to get to her other side. This time, he turned around and cast his Sedating Gaze on Lambert first to stop him from attacking the elf again.
Sedating Gaze
Eren's all-white eyes turned a bit red when he cast his Sedating Gaze on Krista as well. As a result, Lambert was unable to pull the butcher away from the elf and the elf herself was made to slow down in her actions.
'Hmm. So full of vitality. Should I kill her and take her achievements to myself?'
Eren licked his lips and had an instant gratification thought. He actually started salivating and felt like taking a bite out of the elf's flesh. Seeing the elf's ripe body, he felt like it was calling him to devour it.
'Damn it. This hunger.'
Eren finally managed to prevent himself from killing Krista right then and there. He knew that the third ranker would have tried to interrupt him in case he launched a deadly attack on the elf. Nevertheless, he was almost sure that he would have handled that interruption too while ensuring the elf died by his hand.
This was not the first time Eren had dealt with uncontrollable hunger. He had lost his fingers and half of his right toe fighting with Alephee during their serious spars. As a result, he would often get hunger pangs whenever he had to undergo organ regeneration.
Eren realized how intense Reen's hunger would be after feeling the effects of it on himself. He was amazed that the girl could keep it under control under his orders. A task he might have failed if he was in her shoes.
Krista felt helpless and enraged as her body was subjected to the slow passage of time. She could feel that the restrictions placed on her were much lighter than in the first instance. But she was in greater danger than before because of Lambert's inaction. She could see that he was facing the same challenges as her.
Krista suddenly felt that her life was in serious peril when Eren thought of devouring her whole. His emotions were manifested through his soul sense, making her aware of how vulnerable she was fighting against him.
'This… this is no half-blood. The way he acts… the way he moves… and the way he behaves...
His absurd powers and his sinister presence. There's hardly a human inside this fiend.'
A chill ran down Krista's spine as she was affected by Eren's soul sense that spoke volumes about his designs on her. She saw Lambert was unable to help him and contacted the third member of her team urgently.
'Sneak attacks can kiss my ass. Rupen! Fucking save me.'
Krista tried to contact the third member of her team who had been hiding all this time. Even she had realized that this was Eren's move to flush out the third member. Otherwise, he would have attacked her by this point. However, what other choice did she have?
Krista had forgotten the fact that since she was experiencing a slow passage of time, her voice communication with Rupen and Lambert had been affected. Thankfully, she didn't have to rely on her message. Because Rupen had already decided to show himself after seeing what Eren was up to.
Eren had enlarged his hammer's head. The hammer's head began to swell to a diameter of three meters as he lifted the weapon above his head. The water-element runes were revolving around the hammer's head, indicating that the volume of the water was much more than what its size entailed.
Swoosh. Zoom. Boom.
Eren slammed his giant hammer down onto Krista, hoping the third member would intercept it. And he did. But not in the way Eren was imagining him to be.
"Hold the fuck up."
Another shadow appeared about 10 meters away from Krista and Eren and yelled in a deep manly voice. He raised his hand towards Eren and the elf and cast his spell just as the giant face of the hammer was about to make contact with Krista's head.
Effect Mirroring.
Something weird happened when Eren tried to attack the broadaxe-wielding elf. Instead of her getting smashed under the hammer's giant head, it was his body that was subjected to tremendous force from his front.
Swoosh.
Eren's body was suddenly thrown in the air as if it was him that had gotten hit by a giant swinging hammer. His nose and most of his ribs got broken as he flew in the air at breakneck speeds. When he was hit by an impact that came out of nowhere, his flesh turned to pulp.
