Hit and run.

This was the strategy Eren was implementing at this point over and over again. Bulal was behind him, yelling and cursing at him to his heart's content.

The old demon was angry that he was being played by a small-time punk. His injured state had made things more difficult for him. He tried to get out of the Pointlet forest as soon as he could. But every time he tried to do that, he would receive Eren's attacks from behind.

Bulal had decided that he would take care of Eren first before even thinking about finding his way out of the forest. Because from the looks of things, Eren didn't plan on stopping.

Bulal was also surprised that a Meta ranker could fight him till this long after coming out of another fight. He should have run out of mana a long time ago after casting so many attacks to overwhelm him with.

The biggest weakness of Bulal at this point was the lack of people or corpses he could use to make flesh golems out of. He had used all his flesh golems on the battlefield when he was battling against Kiara. So he didn't have many means available to him to take care of Eren in his current condition.

"You cowards rat, stop running and face me if you dare."

Bulal yelled as he strained his legs to chase after Eren. The latter chuckled before answering him.

"I don't dare. That's the whole point of me running away from you."

Bulal was livid when he heard Eren's answer. He decided to ignore his injuries for the time being and used one of his flesh-altering spells.

In the next moment, Bulal's leg muscles pumped up. As the muscle definitions on his legs became more prominent, the wounds on his legs stopped spilling blood.

Bulal executed his movement spell after altering his body. In the next moment, he was right in front of Eren, who was fleeing with all he had.

Eren realized at this point that the clash was inevitable.

"I had enough of you trying to meddle in my business, you worthless worm. I'll fucking kill you and be done with you for good."

Bulal declared before coating his hands in red mana. He was about to use the same spell on him as the one he had used on one of his men right before the teleportation array got active.

Eren stared intently at Bulal as he approached. He already knew there were risks in confronting an Awakened ranker despite the fact that he was severely injured. However, he had still decided to march on.

No pain, no palm.

No thorns, no throne.

No gall, no glory.

No cross, no crown.

Eren gripped his axes and charged ahead to meet the Awakened ranker head-on. His senses worked overtime as he got closer to him.

Blitz Steps

Blitz Shield

Blitz Shards

Blitz Storm

Alfem

Blitz Heal

Eren sent his mana circuits into overdrive and cast the maximum number of spells he could. He cast a defensive spell before surrounding his body. Then he strengthened its defensive properties further with all the lightning shards he had already created.

The lightning shards that were swarming around him like a swarm of bees suddenly started to land on his body like pieces of a puzzle. These shards made Eren look like he had scales covering his entire body made of lightning. He then cast his AoE spell that surrounded his body with lightning bolts over his defensive spells.

Finally, his healing spell was cast in anticipation.

"Die! Kekekeke!"historical

Bulal Blood laughed maniacally as he touched Eren with his bare hands. He tried to inject his Awakened-grade red mana into his body to trigger the flesh golem transformation. With his other hand, he tried to punch the Meta ranker in the guts with his enhanced strength achieved by flesh-altering.

Eren felt like his muscles were about to burst after some of the red mana breached his fortified defense and entered his body. The foreign mana invasion caused his muscles to tear up, which was the beginning of the flesh golem transformation.

He then felt that Bulal's punch was going to create a hole in his stomach. The old demon hadn't held back anything in that punch.

"Aaaaaaaaaah!"

Eren cried in pain. His eyes were bloodshot, his facial expression spoke volumes about his current situation. And his eyes had gotten watery due to his sensors processing nothing but pain and more pain.

Despite his pitiful expressions, Eren held on. All his experiences culminated in him making this decision. And he wanted to prove to himself that those experiences weren't in vain.

While Bulal was busy battling mano-a-mano with Eren, he didn't pay attention to anything that was happening around him. If he had paid attention, he would have seen a huge swarm of fire sparrows about to appear all around him from thin air.

Eren gritted his teeth and looked in Bulal's eyes which were reflecting nothing but unmasked cruelty and revenge-driven satisfaction. The old man was holding Eren by his neck as he injected his mana into his body.

But Bulal's eyes, which were used to the moonlight and twilight darkness, suddenly needed to readjust themselves. They needed to be readjusted because there were multiple sources of fire that had appeared all around him.

The fire sparrows looked like fireballs with wings. They all started burning brighter as they flapped their wings and opened their beaks in intimidation. In the next moment, they all attacked Bulal's body at the same time.

Since the fire-sparrows had Eren's mana signature, the fire generated by them wasn't harmful to him. But he did feel the impact of the blasts that would get generated after the fire sparrows imploded post-collision.

Eren held on as he listened to Bulal's cries. He gripped his axes so tight that his fingernails started leaking blood. After that, he began attacking the Awakened ranker with his two weapons while using their enhanced momentum to make his attacks more effective.

This was the test of patience. Who breaks first? A demonic ranker with his Awakened ranking status or someone who had his infinite mana and unwavering resolve to face his opponent?

The fire sparrows continued to attack Bulal while Eren attacked him with his weapons. At first, his attacks weren't useful because the old man's natural mana defense layer was way too strong for him to hurt him.

But slowly and surely, that defense was chipped away because of the continuous assault of the firebirds. Eren and Bulal kept on engaging in close combat as the firebirds were detonating all around them. Both of them wanted to settle the score for the moment at this point.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Alfem was very effective against flesh-altering spells. Just when Eren thought he couldn't endure any more of his suffering, his ax struck the old man's chest and drew blood. It gushed out of him like a blood fountain, making him believe that each of his attacks was working.

"You... You are the real demon! Aaaargh!"

Bulal couldn't help saying that to Eren as he saw his cold-blooded eyes staring at him intently. He was equally shocked by his opponent's continuous use of the spell. It was as if the guy had infinite mana to spare.

'Patience is the art of concealing your impatience.'

Eren thought to himself as he saw his ax lodging itself in Bulal's chest near to his heart. He gripped the weapon once again and imbued it with his mana before activating the weapon spell.

This time, Eren didn't try to control the weapon and let it go wherever it wanted to, on its own. As a result, the weapon broke through everything that was trying to hold it down and came out from the other side of Bulal's chesta€“ through his back.

Eren had basically killed the demonic ranker known as Bulal Blood. His reign of terror was officially over.