"Hehehehe. This old fart finally decided to get out of his comfort zone. I'll not spare him this time."
Supposedly coming from all directions, Layla's voice could be heard in the surrounding area. She sounded joyful as if she had caught a pretty-looking butterfly in a jar.
"Boys… you can now join this all-you-can-kill buffet. The one who kills the most will get a kiss on his preferred cheek from me. Exciting, isn't it?"
***
Warning bells sounded in every ranker's head who was part of Oliver's force. This was the first time Layla had launched such a large-scale isolation array. They were all sure that knowing the homunculus' weird tricks, it wouldn't be easy to escape.
Layla had planted this array only for one reason - Biru. It served less as an isolation array and more as a prison to trap the B-Rank entity that was the old man. When sprung, the array will use all the B-Rankers as batteries to power the barrier walls.
The array was supposed to be a defensive array that the Master rankers would use on their own initiative. But Layla made some changes to the array design while introducing some potions as the array eyes to get the desired effect.
As a result of this array, Biru felt like his already frail body was now subjected to fatigue of unknown origins. He could move inside the array just fine. But he couldn't use any form of magic anymore. The array disk of unknown effect that Biru had taken out of his storage became useless after Layla sprung the isolation barrier.
If Oliver's forces decide to attack the barrier, they'll only make Biru's condition worse. Layla had also told Eren and Ivor to leave Biru all alone and not attack him. Layla wanted Biru to stay alive for as long as he could before Oliver's forces figured out the trick.
The isolation barrier would have affected a select few entities like Oliver too if Eren and Ivor hadn't spoiled the base of the array due to their duel. Now they needed to kill more to justify their actions.
Thankfully, Layla had a stun effect on the isolation barrier using her supplementary potions. This stun effect would not work on Biru but he was not the target of the effect in the first place.
***
'Ugh. Who would want to be kissed by this little brat? Ivor… you can go ahead and claim that "reward" all for yourself.'
The joint voice communication left Ivor speechless and Layla grumpy as Eren spoke. He decided to focus on the quality instead of the quantity of his kill.
But first, he needed to follow one of the core tenets of his attack. This had been ingrained into his mind in the past timeline by the Paladin of Pain.
'Always attack the healer first.'
Eren repeated the line in his head before spearheading the kill campaign.
Demon Beast Transformation
Mark of the Seven Sins: Domain of Wrath
Stunning Speed
Total Control
Blink
Eren appeared behind the group's healer and grabbed her by the throat. He had decided to amplify the stun effect's advantage further using his time element spells.
Twist and pull.
He twisted her neck 360 degrees before lifting her head like some kind of chalice for toast. The carotid artery and muscle groups hanging from the neck were gripped. He used them like a lasso to throw the head in one direction after a single spin.
Interestingly, the pulled head was heading toward a ranker while Eren was heading the opposite way. Of course, the head was laced with a potion. But it was a silent poison concoction this time instead of a simple bomb. Something most rankers would not run away from just after a single glance.
Lightning struck in a near-stagnant world and a confused-looking ranker found himself staring into Eren's eyes up close. The butcher's hands had turned beastly. They ripped out the newly promoted Adept ranker's arms from their shoulder joints in a single pull.
Eren then used the ranker's body being put into shock to his advantage. He inserted his right hand into the man's rectus abdominis with his beastly claws.
The ranker's heart was grabbed before it was destroyed using Blitz Bolt.
Since the isolation array had been successfully erected, Eren decided to start with his fiercest powers. He stacked Demon Beast Transformation with Sin of Wrath to elevate his body stats by a huge margin. As a result, he became faster, stronger, and more brutal than was previously expected of him.
He could pull off stunts like these at this point because he had trained his mana circuits to a degree of expertise. Otherwise, stacking body stat increments would have remained a fantasy.
Her torso was missing a head. Her body, on the other hand, was turned into a wraith creature. Her stature increased and a horrified-looking head appeared in her original head's place.
Her muscles ruptured and increased in size and quantity before ripping her skin apart. The new skin was replacing the old skin which made her look red and hideous.
The evolution of Eren's Ability increased hand in hand with the increase in his ranking status. The domain of wrath now allowed him to summon fiercer and more powerful wrath creatures than before. They were also under greater control than before, allowing Eren to concentrate on his fights instead of worrying about regulating the wrath mana inside them.
Ivor had also started attacking Eren while Layla was regulating the prism barrier in hiding. She didn't like dirtying her own hands when dressing if she could avoid it. She judged that Eren's presence in the battle was more than enough to fill her absence.
Everything happened so fast that only Biru was able to keep track of what was happening. He sensed a powerful barrier overlapping the prism barrier, turning this place into a prison for all of the rankers involved.
Biru looked around and found that Oliver and his forces were too stunned to speak or do anything. And when he looked in the healer's direction and saw the state she was in, his face became devoid of blood.
Biru immediately understood that Layla had invited a different ranker to take care of Oliver's force for him. An ambassador of violence they had never encountered before.
AN: Merry Christmas to all VEH readers. Wishing you many blessings, much happiness, and a stress-free holiday season.
