Things happened quickly after Eren disappeared from his position.

Geer sensed that Eren was gunning for him. So he quickly raised his broadsword and placed it in front of him. The action was made just in time, enabling Geer to parry it effectively.

Swish. Bzzt. Boom.

Geer felt a tingle run through both his hands that were holding his broadsword when it clashed against Eren's axes. Eren deflected Geer's force all at once and made it swing above him as he ducked under the swing. He kicked Geer's hand that was holding the broadsword and directed the swing.

Using that kick, Eren controlled the swing's orientation, trajectory, and speed so that it confronted the incoming water slash.

The broadsword that had been coated in light blue flames at this point instantly evaporated the flying water slash launched by the lizard Wesen who was the team's tank and mid-range fighter.

Eren had used Geer's attack to fend off the attack launched on him by another opponent. He knew that he wouldn't be left alone fighting with Geer. The Spiders wouldn't just be around. They would target Eren while he was busy dealing with Geer.

Geer, the dart shooter, and the tank were placed close to each other. The four out of seven Spiders were a bit away from where Geer and Ereren had just clashed. They watched as Eren disappeared from his position only to attack their leader out of the blue.

The three Spiders, therefore, decided to neutralize Mia while the fourth Spider decided to join the fray that was dealing with Eren.

Eren wasn't aware that he would soon have to fight three members at once. He was busy dealing with three rankers who were trying to attack him from multiple directions after initially getting startled by him.historical

,m The ranger who shot darts at Eren and Mia was a goat-like Wesen or beastkin named Tohir. To shoot the dart accurately and with homing effects, he used wind element spells.

The ranger was around 5.7 in stature with a lean build, making him light on his feet. he had decided to maintain his distance from Eren instead of fighting head-on.

Eren battled Broadsword user Geer and the water element tank along with the beastkin Shar, who kept on shooting darts at him with various debuffs.

Eren exchanged multiple blows with Geer and Shar at the same time. The tank Shar had a water-element shield artifact that he would use to defend against Eren's lightning-element attacks. As a result, the shield was not effective against Eren.

Eren would scatter the water-element walls created by Shar in an instant with his fire and lightning element attacks. Geer would then get closer to him so that he could land a decisive blow on him.

But that's where Geer would come in. The de facto leader of the Spiders wasn't too proficient with his movement spell. And his weapon mastery was subpar at its finest. But he could coordinate well with his team.

He timed his attacks well and waited for Eren to launch a counter against Shar. he would then launch an attack on Eren while he was about to initiate his offensive, disrupting his flow time and again.

Shar also followed the same pattern. He, Tohir, and Geer tag-teamed to handle Eren. They would soon be joined by another member of their team.

Eren's movement spell wasn't to be scoffed at. He made excellent use of the agility his element had blessed him with. Even among lightning users, he was outperforming most of his generation.

Eren's dual-weapon moves were too precise and difficult to counter. Driven by mana-based martial arts, they would have allowed him to dominate each of them completely if he was fighting them one on one.

However, team play was superior to individual prowess most of the time if the rankers involved in the conflict were of the same rank. At least that's what Eren had them believe for the time being.

***

Only 15 seconds after the fight started, the gloomy forest was suddenly thrown into chaos in the middle of the night. The mana in the surroundings surged as the two-person team clashed against a party of seven.

The remaining party members of Geer's team approached Mia while Eren was battling with the three. The fourth would join the ranks soon to get rid of Eren for good.

There are two Wesen in a three-person team attacking Mia named Shifa and Vinah. both were the snake-like beastkin. They were accompanied by a human mage Lagartha.

Lagartha was only a few meters away from a serious-looking Mia waiting for them to close in on them when she sensed a distinct mana fluctuation in the surroundings.

Someone was stacking spells and combining them like crazy. As if they didn't care what happens to them after their mana reserves run dry post the execution.

"Shifa! Vinah!

Fall back, damn it."

Lagartha said while suddenly changing her direction. Since the three ladies were approaching Mia from different directions, they could see each other's faces.

Shifa and Vinah saw the panic in Lagartha's eyes. They immediately understood something was wrong. Unlike the mage, these two Wesen girls were completely focused on killing Mia. As such, they subconsciously ignored the mana fluctuations.

Alfem!

Taranbiest!

Blitz Shard!

A horde of lightning hounds appeared on the ground surrounding the three ladies. Their red eyes looked at the three ladies menacingly as they started growling. The lightning streaks dance around their lightning-element bodies.

A swarm of firebirds appeared in the sky, casting away the darkness with their bright fire-element bodies that would have made them look like fireflies if they weren't flying so close to the ground.

Soon, all of the summoned beasts started getting covered in Blitz Shards, giving them more destructive power than before as well as changing their appearance. All these beasts looked like they were covered in lightning scales on their bodies.

"What in the world.."

The mage sensed the mana signature used in the spells and immediately understood it didn't belong to Mia– their elf target. She looked at the man who was fighting with the rest of her team members with horrified expressions.

Eren was waiting for the moment Mia gets approached by Geer's party members.

When both sides were at a standstill, he had already begun the spell-spamming process. And he manifested all his spells at once when he confirmed that Mia was being attacked.

Bzzt!

Shifa was the first to get hit by a bunch of firebirds crashing onto her body from multiple angles with their kamikaze attacks. The snake-type Wesen's scaly skin immediately caught on fire when she was subjected to this much fire-element mana.

"Aaaargh!"

Shifa screamed in pain and agony. She was a clay-element user. So she immediately tried to cast a clay armor spell on her body despite being overwhelmed by the overload on her pain receptors. However, she felt that her left leg was bitten by something just when she was about to cast the defensive spell.

One of the lightning hounds zeroed in on her while she stayed in her position to deal with the pain. It bit her leg with its canines and released a torrent of lightning-mana inside her body.

Shifa's central nervous system was compromised when she was exposed to such a sudden amount of lightning mana while she was dealing with another threat to her life. As a result, her spell execution failed and she received a backlash on top of everything.

Cough! Cough! Cough!

Shifa coughed blood when the spell backlash affected her mana circuits and damaged her internal organs. And this is because she was a beastkin who was usually known for their higher body stat values. She would have been in a much more dire condition had she been a human ranker.

Shifra kicked the lightning hound that was biting her after casting a partial clay armor on her bitten leg. She then crashed to the ground when her legs gave up on her.

Vihah, who was approaching Mia from a different direction, was also subjected to the same fate. She had been bit by two lightning hounds on both her legs. So she had it much worse than her sister Shifa.

All this happened within a few moments of Shifa, Vinah, and Lagertha zeroing in on Mia. one had to say Eren had timed the execution of the spell just right.

If he had executed the spells late, Mia would have been in a serious situation. If he had executed the spells too early, the trio would have just tried to maintain their distance from her and would have attacked him instead.

Even while trying to save her, Eren had used Mia as bait first. It was the same as paying a tax for leaving the battlefield early.

The other firebirds were gearing up for the dive to follow up on the attack. They screeched at the trio with their orange-red beaks open. Their eyes were as menacing as the lightning hounds if not more.

But before the snake sisters could get cooked to perfection in Eren's attacks, Lagartha retreated to a sufficient distance and executed her spells. She was aiming to pull the two beastkins of her party out of harm's way.

Lagartha gulped empty air as she looked at the man who had set such a detailed trap for them. She was certain that the report they received was bullshit.

If potential danger was to be considered as a parameter for the hit-list, Eren was a ten times bigger threat than Mia Silver.