Rip. Swoosh. Zoom.
Meera sent Oliver flying with her fierce wind-element attacks. The latter had many wounds on his body that attested to how valiantly he had fought against the living undead.
Oliver was sent in the same direction as the prism barrier. Under Layla's control, Oliver was let inside the barrier instead of getting wall-plastered over it. Meera followed him quickly before the barrier became seamless once again.
Boom.
Oliver's body crashed into the ground like a meteor at a low angle. For a few seconds, the vector force acting on his body refused to decrease, creating a deep trench on the ground as he was dragged forcefully over it. When he finally stopped, Oliver was found in worse condition than he was a moment before– covered in dust and grime.
Meera appeared beside Eren in very poor condition. Her right shoulder had been dislocated and her guts could be seen through the injury she had on her tummy.
Oliver's attacks had damaged her. He needed to treat her right away so he took out Ice Fairy's Kiss and handed it to her. The latter gulped the contents of the vial down without any complaints or appreciation.
"Aaaaaaargh!"
Cough! Cough! Cough!
Oliver cried in pain and coughed up blood as he tried to get up. Meera's uncaring attacks really did a number on him. She engaged with him in a way that put her own safety at risk. But since she was a living undead anyway, all the repercussions of this kind of battle were Oliver's to bear.
His black clothes looked drenched in blood and his eyes seemed wild. If his face was visible to everyone, they would see he had hideous expressions contrary to his usual stoic look.
"You… cough cough cough…"
Oliver finally managed to stabilize his condition and stand up on his feet after forcefully getting rid of the foreign mana invasion. His internal organs were a mess and he had a killer headache. But that didn't stop him from speaking his next words.
"Heh. You got me there, Layla. Ivor Osan and the butcher. Two people who I had been meaning to find for so long found me instead.
You managed to swindle Sir Arthur and use his resources for yourself. You shook hands with those two people and gave them the powers that were promised to us.
Then you managed to stay on the run for so long and hurt us brick by brick. Cough… Cough... Cough. It's an impressive achievement on your part. I'll give you that."
Oliver scanned the area around him and saw Eren busy with some kind of ritual near an unknown elf. An elf whom Oliver had never seen before. This elf had recently broken into Expert rank through unknown means and died shortly after. The butcher started his pre-spell ritual right after that.
Oliver could not understand what was going on with Eren. But he soon found out that he couldn't approach Eren carelessly because the cause of his misery was standing beside him– Meera Medinah. She had been fixed anew because Eren had spent an expensive healing potion on her like it was no big deal.
Oliver looked around some more and found out that someone had killed more than half of his team members in the most efficient way possible. Someone who couldn't be seen or felt with normal senses alone.
Oliver also found out that Ivor was busy fighting with five team members of his team at once. The pseudo-lightning domain had disappeared and Ivor looked exhausted. He had managed to kill 7 out of 12 well-equipped and well-prepared Adept rankers. This kind of achievement spoke volumes about how much effort he had put in.
Ivor cursed Eren for treating this fight as a joke. The guy had barely contributed and instead used Kirin as his proxy. Ivor could see Eren experimenting with a dead elf dude. He didn't know what Eren was doing but he could bet anything that it wasn't anything he wanted his usual people to know about.
Eren had also dispersed his domain of wrath after Kirin got active on the field. Kirin and Meera assumed all responsibility for his safety as he got busy creating his second living undead.
With the battlefield in this condition, Oliver didn't know if his words were heard by Layla or not. Because she couldn't be found. He didn't know to whom to direct the rage he was feeling inside his heart. He needed a vent to let his anger out.
Thankfully for him, the butcher's domain of wrath wasn't active. Otherwise, he would have turned into one of the fiercest wrath creatures.
Oliver had tried to keep tabs on what was happening inside the prism barrier for the most part even when he was fighting with Meera outside it. He knew that Eren had used the wrath creatures as pawns to attack the rankers alongside his summons.
Oliver realized something strange on the battlefield after he got inside the prism barrier once again. Everybody alive was busy fighting something or someone. But there was one person on the battlefield who wasn't attacked by anyone.
Oliver looked at Biru and the latter tried to avert his eyes. He immediately understood that the old man had also figured out the trick Layla had used on him.
Oliver's eyes turned red in anger as he looked at Biru. It was as if he was angry at Biru for trying to keep himself alive even after knowing that it was his well-being that was preventing anyone from escaping the nightmare.
Oliver disappeared from his place and appeared right behind Biru. Before the latter could react to what was happening, Oliver slapped his back with a peculiar-looking array disk in his hands.
The Master ranker couldn't retaliate because he couldn't use his spells anyway. So it was easy for Oliver to target the old man who was anyway destined to die in the mess. Oliver didn't want himself or the remaining five members of his team to die with the old man.
If Layla could use Biru to power her prism barrier, Oliver could also use the defenseless old man's life as a launch pad for his battle formation.
