Caerni forest. A region about five days away from the city of Ludan. Gilaahan.

'On my mark.'

Eren received voice communication from Raina and clutched his axes in both his hands. He was standing atop a giant tree's branch, waiting for instructions that had just reached him. He was standing inside a small runic array that hid his presence.

Eren and a few more rankers from Raina's team were going to attack a team of Spiders led by Bahlam Dorian. The Awakened ranker Spider wasn't Eren's target. He was supposed to be handled by Raina and her assassination squad.

Bahlam Dorian was leading a big party of Spiders through the dense and untamed vegetation of the Caerni forest. The kingdom of Ludan had asked him to complete a difficult mission related to a demonic rankers' hideout. Even though the House of Spiders had rebelled against the system, it still needed to perform a few duties. Otherwise, they'd give a legal excuse to the kingdom to unleash its wrath on them.

It was clear to Bahlam that the Stardust guild's influence in the kingdom's internal affairs was increasing. The mission he was assigned was no coincidence. It wanted the Spiders to leave the safe zone and become vulnerable to attacks. Thus, he and his team were very aware of their surroundings, as if expecting an ambush.

However, ambushes worked best when people had been expecting them and started getting stressed over them. Knowing about these things can sometimes make one mentally exhausted and less prepared.

'Go.'

Raina's voice was heard by all the Stardust guild members assigned to the mission. Everyone in the surrounding area who had hidden using various means suddenly started working like clockwork.

Yana led the frontal assault that was supposed to act as a decoy. They were planning to use the divide-and-conquer strategy.

Blitz Steps

Igni Chains

Igni Wave

Eren followed her lead and jumped from his position, latching the Igni Chains around the branches of trees that were in the way to guide his fall. The branches would catch fire behind him.

"Watch out. We are under.."

One of the Spiders at the front of his party couldn't finish his words. Eren chopped off the head of the vanguards that Yana left for him as she moved ahead. Eren and five rankers stayed behind to handle the Spiders at the front of their group.

"You bloody Stardust bi.."

Eren used his axe to cut the healer's throat before she could curse him. For some reason, he yanked off the larynx of his victim and handed it to her before disappearing from his position.

Yana and the other Stardust rankers who were with Eren suddenly felt a chill down their spine as they watched Eren reap the lives of his enemies. However, they unanimously decided to ignore Eren's kills because they had to deal with their own targets.

Eren appeared like lightning in front of his enemies. And he disappeared like a ghost, leaving the now-lifeless bodies of his victim to fall to the ground.

Eren was too fast and wild for his enemies. He had targeted all the rankers with a lower rank than him. By the time 10 seconds had passed, he had killed 5 Spiders in quick succession. That was one kill per two seconds.

"Aaaaaaaaaa! I'll kill you, you Stardust worms. Spiders! In formation."

Bahlam screamed with his mana-imbued voice from behind. By this time, the easy kills had already been done. Nobody killed as much as Eren.

Various noises started appearing from various directions at the same time. There were several mana pulses scattered in the surroundings, indicating that the Spiders and Stardust members were fighting up close.

'I guess that's about it. Hehe. This is indeed bad guys vs. bad guys.'

Eren took a long breath when he finished his quick kills. The Awakened ranker's scream tingled his skin even from a considerable distance. He then looked in front of him and around him.

"Hehehe. Guys, the revenge feast is about to start. All the best."

Yana said and laughed ominously before disappearing from the ground. A bunch of Spiders left with her against their wishes. Rankers from other Stardust guilds and Spiders experienced the same phenomenon one after the other.

Eren looked at the runic imprint that had appeared on his right forearm and looked ahead. One space-element Awakened ranker had imprinted the Stardust members with his runic imprint, which was part of a spatial array laid far from the current battlefield.

The spatial arrays were also made to work in conjunction with isolated arrays. The Stardust members used the runic imprints as keys to enter the isolated spatial arrays and forced Spiders to follow them inside.

He had then started tagging the Spiders with his runic imprint using his elemental array artifact. The tagging was done at random.

The Stardust guild members would get teleported to the isolated arrays along with the opponents that had been tagged with the same runic imprint related to a particular spatial array.

The Stardust guild members were supposed to handle the Spiders in a group. However, Eren wished that he was given free hand in handling his opponents his way without anyone from the Stardust guild members disturbing him. Hence, Eren would be alone with the opponents that would get teleported with him.

Of course, some Stardust guild members didn't like Eren's proposal. He was telling them that was a nuisance and would only get in his way. However, nobody came forward and objected to it after being subjected to Eren's cold stare.

However, Eren's workload didn't lessen because he was fighting with the Spider alone. That's because there were only a few runic imprint keys that could be generated per teleportation arrays. And the number of Spiders that were supposed to get teleported was already decided.historical

The Spiders and Stardust members started disappearing in chunks, leaving Bahlam and his main party alone. Before Eren disappeared from his position along with a bunch of Spiders assigned to him, he vaguely saw Raina appear behind an enraged-looking Bahlam.

The battlemage was sure that the night elf had a smile on her face as her assassin squad made its appearance.

However, Eren couldn't keep track of what was about to unfold between Bahlam's main party and the Stardust guild's main force. He was supposed to act as a side character in the fight by ensuring the enemy side characters are taken care of.