Vile Evil Hides Under The Veil

"Die!"

Baran said before stretching his hand in front of Eren. Immediately a levitating mass of quicksilver appeared in front that looked highly viscous. It had a water-like fluidityHowever, the dense mana imbued in it gave the impression that it was something heavy instead.

The quicksilver mass approached Eren at an incredible pace while changing its shape. It had now taken the shape of a huge silver arrow. The tip of the silver arrow looked extremely deadly as it reflected the moonlight it was awash with.

But soon Baran realized that Eren was much faster than he had given him credit for. The arrow struck Eren but it turned out to be an afterimage he had left behind before disappearing.

Baran's D-Rank mana sense wasn't something to be scoffed at though. He stretched it and found Eren's location before guiding the arrow-shaped quicksilver towards him.

The arrow was aimed to hit Eren but it was deflected by a wind-element blade that had appeared in front of him all of a sudden. The next thing Baran saw was a barrage of wind-element arrows coming at him from above like a downpour.

Altashia had finally decided to intervene. And yet she couldn't be seen anywhere on the battlefield.

'The sky!'

Eren and Baran both thought of the same thing. They stopped what they were doing and looked up to see a huge bird flying over them.

Craw!

A distinct croak was heard on the battlefield as Altashia joined with her demon beast Roo Roo. It had changed its size drastically and was now serving as a mount for Altashia. Even among her talented peers, Altashia was considered to be one of Edinburgh's best of her generation because of this advantage. That she had a demon beast.

Contrary to Eren, Altashia's demon beast was approved by Edinburgh to be bound with her. But as a consequence, she had to serve in the army for some years.

Baran dropped the idea of killing Eren because he felt a serious threat coming from Altashia even while she was technically a rank lower than him. He summoned his quicksilver back and used it to create a makeshift shield in front of him to protect him against the wind-element blades that didn't look normal to him.

This was also a weapon-centric attack launched by Altashia with her army-issue runic scythe. The weapon was unusually large. The blade span of the weapon was almost 2 meters and the staff of the weapon exceeded the welder's height.

Yet, Altashia seemed to have no problems handling her weapon. In fact, she could handle it masterfully as if the weapon's size was normal for her.

Eren first created a distance between himself and the battlefield now that the Orc Lord's attention was divided. He then found a secure spot for him to watch someone else use their demon beast in the battle. Maybe he could learn a thing or two from the pair.

'Hmm! This will do,'

Eren found the top of one of the tallest trees outside the battle zone and sat on one of the tallest branches before starting to smoke again. Then he saw Altashia releasing some more wind-element flying slashes at the Orc Lord who was defending against them using his quicksilver spell.

'Hm? Why is he scared of Ace Rank attacks? Even though he might have been injured due to…'

Eren stopped his sentence midway when he saw what happened in front of him. Altashia stopped releasing wind blades after a while. She then looked at Orc Lord with narrowed eyes before swinging her empty hand horizontally as if trying to play a string instrument.

She looked as if she was about to perform a solo dance to some slow music. But the effects the act generated made it anything but elegant.

The surrounding ground and trees along with Baran's quicksilver that had sustained the barrage of wind-element blades suddenly caught fire. The fire had been generated from the same slashes that were left behind by the wind-element blades.

'Holy ***********. This is an ability, right? Or is she using any artefact as a handicap to enhance her output? Either way, this is huge.

How shallow were my previous life's standards that I found this to be extremely unbelievable.'

Eren thought as he took a long drag from his smoke and released it to make a mini cloud in front of him.

'Damn. I need to get my hands on Altashia.'

Then he looked at his smoke suspiciously as if it had put those words in his mouth.

'Erm… I need to get my hands on her secrets.'

Eren corrected himself and took another puff before rehashing his thoughts again.

'Maybe both.'

He nodded to himself as if to have reached a satisfactory answer to one of the most complicated questions. He watched as the slashes in the ground and other elements present in the surroundings acted as a source of fire all around the Orc Lord.

'So that's why Baran was avoiding the flying slashes. Yet it doesn't make any sense that the Orc Lord would avoid such attacks for spells of Ace Rank level. Unless…'

Eren thought to himself as he watched with keen interest.

By now, the orc Lord was surrounded by a sea of golden fire. He dispelled the quicksilver to dissolve the mana-induced flames that were mixed in it before making it appear once again in front of him.

'Just…'

"Demon spell…"

'What I…"

"Burning Abode."

"Thought…'

Eren finished his thought as Altashia's extremely low voice echoed in his ears. He then saw the flames converging around the Orc Lord and created a cabin-like shape. It trapped with Orc Lord within it before releasing a dense mana pulse. As if something had happened inside the house.

'Craw!'

Roo Roo croaked at the same time the mana pulse was released in the air. That mana pulse blasted some of the fire that was coating the flaming cabin and made it spread to the surroundings. Everyone else who had begun to fight their own battles stopped when they felt the mana pulse.

There was no doubt in everybody's mind that the mana pulse that had been released was indeed of the Ace rank. Due to its sheer density, it somehow reached the Adept level.

As the flame house dispersed into thin air, everyone, including Eren, looked for the Orc Lord within it. Or at least his charred body.

But all they found was nothingness.