Eren’s squad was one of the venturing squads.
It had him, Reece, Rhea, Ekay, and Mia in it. A full moon night made things a bit easier for them as they moved cautiously into the forest in the middle of the night.
Eren had killed two demonic rankers in total while he was at city hall. It had given him the corpses of two demonic rankers he could loot from.
The rankers had found various clues on the corpses of the demonic rankers that made their search in the forest a bit easy. They just needed to find out the markers mentioned in the clues to figure out where they were and where they needed to go.
Soon, the rankers found what they were looking for. A tribe-like town was in front of them with shabby constructions serving as houses for demonic rankers.
The attack squads let the perimeter security squads man their positions first. They took a while to arrange an isolation array strong enough to even trap an Awakened ranker who was close to achieving Arch rank for a while.
Zinn!
The isolation barrier of formless energy sprang up that only allowed one-way entry– inside. Since this was a special array for the Awakened ranker, even rankers from their side wouldn’t be able to freely get in and out of it.
Kiara, Miranda, and Roland were standing in front. Three Awakened rankers used their mana sense to judge the situation. It was Kiara who engulfed her fists into orange flames before speaking out.
“As heartless as it might sound, we will worry about the hostages later. Our priority is to subjugate and kill Bulal Blood and all the demonic rankers who are with him.
Failing to do the task would only mean that there would be more incidents like these. Remember this, sometimes you have to become the beast to kill a beast.”
Kiara said seriously. She knew how gory the battle was going to be because of the simple fact that Bulal Blood would be their opponent. He was a heartless man who was willing to extend to any lengths to achieve his goals.
She took a long breath and looked at the raiders before speaking.
“Let’s go.”
***
“My men, prepare to welcome our uninvited guests.”
Bulal told his subordinates when he noticed an isolation barrier had been raised to cover the entire tribal area he controlled. However, he wasn’t afraid or angry. He started laughing like a hyena before saying out loud.
“Hew hew hew hew hew hew hew! I shall use the blood of these younglings to advance to Arch rank.”
Bulal said while laughing inhumanly. The laughter soon turned into a severe cough, letting his audience know that the guy was as old as he looked. Breaking into the Arch rank was his only hope to get a new lease on life. And he was doing everything in his power to achieve just that.
JBulal had realized something at this point. Jario had failed miserably in bringing the rankers into a sacrifice-ready condition. This was even though Jario was equipped with the miasma pearl crafted by him to easily achieve this feat.
But the old man didn’t mind. If his old age had taught him anything, it was that not everything would turn out according to one’s plans. One needed to adapt to their circumstances instead of trying to find what they could have done in the past and criticizing their past selves.
“Aaaaaaaa!”
The demonic rankers that were below the raised platform Bulal were standing on released a battle cry when they saw the rankers entering their tribal ground.
The demonic rankers used their movement techniques and approached their enemies in one go. Two distinct clusters of forces could be seen from the air approaching each other, about to clash with one another.
Various spells were cast at the same time by all the rankers and demons involved in the clash. Clouds of dust soon engulfed the battlefield, reducing visibility, which was already low due to the nighttime.
Swoosh. Kirr. Slash.
A lightning streak illuminated the area that was occupied by Eren and his new enemy. He had already exchanged a few moves with the female demonic ranker.
The woman looked ravishing in her sultry clothes. She had a large bust and shapely legs. Her dark black hair and her rosy skin made her appear gorgeous under the moonlight. She didn’t look like a demonic ranker at all. Except for the fact that she had a deviant mana signature.
This woman had two Bichuas in her hands that she handled effortlessly. It looked like she had a hybrid element.
This woman was wearing a tight blouse and short-skirt-like apparel made of animal fur. Her body-hugging wear made her look as wild as the forest she was living inside.
However, Eren had seen why the woman wasn’t afraid of wearing unranked clothes in battle. His weapon’s mana-coated attack wasn’t enough to leave a bruise on her left arm’s skin. This was unnatural. This was especially true since she was only in the 7th stage of the Meta rank.
The demonic rankers always had weird tricks up their sleeve. So Eren wasn’t that surprised when he saw his opponent unharmed. Nevertheless, his job became more difficult.
Reece and others were battling with other demonic rankers around him. Each had their hands full from both sides. The powerhouses from both sides had their own battleground that was at a distance from the mayhem the Meta rankers were causing among themselves.
Eren was busy keeping track of everything around him when he heard his opponent’s seductive voice.
“Hehe. You… You seem like a feisty guy. What do you say we do to get away from this noisy crowd and find someplace to get cozy with each other?”
The woman’s voice was almost hypnotizing. So much so that it messed with Eren’s perception of time for a fraction of a second. And yet, it was enough for the demonic ranker to launch a decisive attack on Eren.
