Vile Evil Hides Under The Veil

Eren pointed at Rey using one of his Katars as he continued.

"But you… you are not getting away from me. Summoner class is already rare, giving me a very narrow window for my hunt. So it's good that your House decided to prioritize raising summoners.

You have developed an enmity with me yourself. So that gives me the perfect smokescreen to devour you guys without raising suspicions.

Now it's about time you stop running away from this fight and take me seriously."

Eren said and almost disappeared from his position. Janos was about to activate his spatial artifact once again. But just then he felt Eren's soul sense overwhelm him. Before he could snap out the soul sense attack, Janos saw two eyes in the distance that were devoid of any iris.

Sedating Gaze.

'The fu..'

Janos couldn't think straight when Eren attacked him using the combination of his soul sense and Ability. His movements slowed down considerably, not allowing him to activate the space artifact as fast as he wanted it to.

Zinn. Swoosh. Pierce.

Everything changed at a moment's notice, catching both Janos and Rey off guard.

Janos found out that his heart had been pierced by a spatial dagger. He looked down at his chest with wide-open eyes. But before he could know what had happened and scream in pain, he received another injury.

Zoom. Swoosh. Chop.

Janos' fingers were chopped off when he was suffering from Eren's debuff. A shadow picked up his middle finger that was still wearing the spatial artifact ring and disappeared from its position near Janos. It had completed its job.

"Lord Husband. Here."

Eren appeared not too far away from a silent and horrified-looking Janos. Kirin tossed the finger aside and appeared near Eren before giving him the ring. The latter took the ring and held it with his thumb and index finger. He looked at the angry-looking Janos through the ring's circle.

"Bastard…. Aaaaagh!"

Janos looked at Eren with anger and injustice when the debuff stopped working on him. The guy had chosen to sneak attack him using the elf that had appeared out of nowhere. He realized that Eren was not only way too strong for his rank but also cunning enough to deal with his opponents using any means at his disposal.

Janos hated guys like Eren the most. He liked dealing with arrogant pricks because they would make his job so much easier.

"Lord Rey, pardon my language but snap the fuck out of your daze. I'm dying and we can't run away anymore. Now would be a great time for you to make your move."

Janos diverted his anger to the old man standing close to him. He cursed the man's foggy brain that made him freeze in the most crucial situation of his life.

"Aaaaaaah… Lad! Hang on."

Only now did Rey decide to act. He took out his wooden staff from his storge and activated the runic details on it. He then summoned the creatures using his class-specific summoning spells.

Giant flowers of yellow and green petals bloomed all around Rey and Janos. They bloomed and revealed a treant present within them.

"Krehaaaa!"

The summoned bunch of treants screamed in unison when they opened their brilliant eyes. They quickly created a circle around the two rankers from the House Remus, securing them frontal Eren's frontal attack.

These treants were around 8 feet in stature. Their bodies were made of wood, green vines, and a lot of other tree-like stuff. There were distinct differences in the summoned treants based on their rankers.

Old man Rey had called forth 40 treants at the same time. Five of them were of the D-Rank while the rest were of E-Rank.

The E-Rank treants had somewhat humanoid features. They had a face with two eyes but without the nose and a tiny mouth that didn't look like it could be used for eating because of how small it was

The E-Rank treants had antlers over their heads like that on wild bucks. They had elongated necks and wooden torsos. They didn't seem to have distinct legs. Instead, they were using their roots like their legs to stay mobilized.

Some of these treants had even gotten their legs to penetrate the earth beneath them. They grew a bit larger than the rest.

These treants had two limbs that could be seen as their arms except for the fact that they were too long and flexible. These treants had huge hands and long fingers. They didn't need any weapons. Their talon-like fingers were enough to take care of most of their opponents.

The D-Rank monsters that Rey had summoned could be considered the more refined versions of their E-Rank brethren. They had humanoid bodies and green skin. They had distinct arms and legs made of green vines and wood.

The D-Rank treants had cruel-looking faces. They had two yellow eyes and growth on their faces that served as their noses. They had long ears and buck-like antlers as well. However, they also had dry-vine-like hair over their heads.

The D-Rank treants had well-defined legs. However, they had talons for feet. They were the ones with greater mobility and agility than their E-Rank counterparts.

Old man Rey didn't stop there. He used a different spell to convert the trees surrounding the road into giant tree monsters Turlang. The giant trees suddenly started having odd-looking faces on their trunks. They tried to scream but no voice came out of their monstrous mouths.

Eren was watching the real summoner at work and was trying to learn. He was fascinated with how Rey had used his summoning spells.

'He can summon the consciousness of monsters and make them possess a compatible vessel. Instead of depending on mana bodies, this old fart used his wood-element mana to grow organic vessels for his summoned monsters. And then allowed them to embody those organic shells.

And he can use the surrounding trees as the container of his summoned monster consciousness. This level of summoning… I want this.'

Old man Rey suddenly felt a cold shiver run down his spine when he observed Eren looking at him with eager eyes. But before he could voice his anger, he saw the butcher do something unthinkable for him in this situation.

"Hmm. Seems like I found something interesting for my wife. Kirin darling, give me your hand."

Eren cleaned the ring off of blood by rubbing it against his clothes. He even blew on it to make it shine. The butcher held Kirin's hand in his and made her wear the C-Rank ring that was a perfect match for her rank and her element.

Old Rey and Janos watched with stunned expressions as their opponent put a ring on the elf's finger. Using the artifact THEY used to own a few moments ago.

They had never seen someone using a life-and-death battlefield as their platform to profess their affection for someone. Blatantly using their opponents' wealth to do so.

One could say that the butcher was romantic at heart.

"See? Romance is not dead. But someone else will be."