"Aaaargh!"

Rog cried in sheer agony as his left arm was chopped off of him by Eren's sudden attack. His leg was injured so he couldn't get away from him even if he knew his opponent was coming for him.

Eren's weapon arts had improved over time. He could handle his blade better. His lightning-coated mana had taken its lethality to a completely different level.

The assassin was not proficient in front combat. His movement spell was his most effective advantage. And that had been compromised. So all he could do was defend himself to the extent of his abilities while holding his ground.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Eren exchanged a few moves with Rog before deciding to apply Jeet Kune Do in a free-flow manner. He saw that his attack had pushed the assassin's only arm back. Eren saw his chance and he took it.

Eren's legs made sudden movements. They first propelled him forward before pulling him away from his forward momentum in quick succession. Eren Tachi disappeared and he became weaponless all of a sudden.

His feet shuffled back and forth. They also moved side to side and forward and back. Eren combined those peculiar movements with his movement spell, giving his stride a touch of elusiveness.

Even while processing the pain and setback, Rog was in complete control of his faculties. However, he failed to see what Eren was doing at this point when he saw him taking his weapon out of the equation.

Before Rog could figure out what Eren was doing, he felt something hit his jaw with tremendous speed. The assassin's vision changed as his legs suddenly became limp. It was as if he had suddenly lost control over his motor functions because of suffering through the punch's impact.

'Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. The hands can't hit what the eyes can't see.'

A ripple of thought entered Eren's mind as he successfully finished his maneuver. He was about to finish Rog for good when he felt a certain invisible force acting on his body. His body was repelled away from the assassin, forcing him to create a distance from his target.

"Aaaaargh!"historical

Rog suddenly activated the artifact that he had worn as a ring. A dome of energy shield was created with some of the last embers of his mana. The dome first repelled Eren in the air before making sure that Rog was safe inside it.

Rog had dislocated his jaw after he took Eren's sudden punch in his face. He quickly recovered an all-stats recovery potion from his storage before gulping it down. He also executed his healing spell, which coated his body in a mist.

Crack!

Rog adjusted his jaw with his hand while cursing Eren's seven generations for the pain he felt. He quickly focused his healing spell on his face and took a long breath. The assassin observed that he was safe inside the energy shield his artifact had created for himself and decided to stand up.

"You.. you are hiding something. You are not as much of a rookie as I first thought you were."

Rog said while looking intently at Eren. The latter just shrugged his shoulders before responding.

"Your small talk to buy time isn't going to save you from your current predicament, Rog."

Rog narrowed his eyes on Eren as he felt exposed by his statement. His surprise soon turned into amusement, and he continued speaking.

"Hahaha. Eren, you are good. I won't underestimate you again.

Heh! You have earned my respect, man. Listen, you can't kill me and I can't kill you. We both have our treasures to depend on after all.

Why not call it quits and join forces? An unexplored testing ground awaits us. Why not share the benefits it has to offer?"

Rod said with a serious tone and a mild smile on his face. He knew he was saying all the right things no matter what his intentions were. Eren looked rational enough to get what he was saying. At least he thought that was the case.

Eren looked at Rog and chuckled before responding.

"I don't trust you to honor your words, Rog? Plus, I want to keep this site a secret as well. And what was that saying? Oh yeah.. I only truth the dead to keep a secret."

Rog became livid when he heard Eren throwing his words back at him like a boomerang. He showed his ring to him by raising the back of his hand in front of him and pointing at it.

"Do you see this? You won't be able to hurt me as long as this shield is active. I still have two more uses for this artifact. No matter what kind of treasure.."

He believed Eren was also using a unique artifact, as he was, to support his extravagant spell casting. However, just like his artifact, every artifact had its limits. He was sure that Eren wouldn't be able to keep up with his monstrous mana consumption eventually.

Rog didn't want to take chances. He had already recognized Eren to be a threat to his life. It was better to call a truce for the time being and figure out the rest of the plan to keep Eren's mouth shut.

But Rog wasn't expecting Eren to reject his logic-driven suggestion.

"No can do, Mr assassin. Truce can only happen when both sides have the same magnitude of disadvantage in continuing the fight. You're in hot waters. I am not."

Eren said and summoned the lightning shards that were behind him to come forward once again. He again arranged them to form two giant hands. The shard-based hands over his head started mimicking his real hands' movements.

Eren raised his two fists in a defensive formation in front of him and chuckled before speaking further.

"Jacob needs some company on his journey to the afterlife. It would be very lonely for our poor Jacob if he did not have his "friend" to accompany him.

So you'd have to forgive me.."

Eren's words stung Rog's psyche once again. Those were the words he spoke to Eren. Before he could verbally retaliate against Eren's words however he saw one of the fists made of lightning shard travel towards him with exceptional speed.

Eren was trying to forcefully break Rog's artifact-granted barrier.