205 Slaying Behlam

Igni Bolt Blasts

Eren had been shooting Igni Bolt Blasts continuously for 6 minutes straight. The target every time was any of Behlam’s limbs.

“AAAAAAAH!”

Another bunch of Igni Bolt Blasts detonated on Behlam’s limbs even when he tried to dodge the attacks. The Awakened ranker’s condition this time was critical. He couldn’t understand how his attacker could bombard him with so many spells without dying himself from mana exhaustion.

Behlam was surrounded by a sea of fire. Igni Bolt Blasts were not the only attacks he had to endure. Eren would often use his axes on him. At first, they failed to penetrate an Awakened ranker’s mana defense layer. Slowly but surely, however, that began to change.

Eren was chipping away at Behlam’s defense over time. Because of that, he had successfully landed a bunch of slash wounds on the Spider.

Another round of cursing followed, and Eren ignored them all. He focused on slaying Behlam in another four minutes. Or at least make him so injured by that time that he would eventually succumb to his condition.

“Listen to me you brat…”

Igni Wave

The battlemage sent a couple of Igni Waves Behlam’s way using his axes. These fire-element attacks were amplified by the fire domain, allowing them to breach the defense layer.

“Aaaaaaaargh! Your mother…”

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

Behlam resorted to attacking blindly. He gripped his axes and sent wind-element flying strikes all around him. The Rank-2-powered attacks cut through the sea of fire and a pair of them headed straight for Eren. He was already on his way to changing his position. But the attacks Behlam launched were too fast to dodge.

Eren managed to duck under the first flying attack. But the second attack cut through his left shoulder and almost made him lose it for good.

Eren had already closed off his mouth using a rune lock. And he was glad that he did. Otherwise, he would have let Behlam know where he was by screaming to his heart’s content.

Eren would have been able to dodge the flying attacks better if he could use his mana sense inside the fire domain. But he had the same handicap as the Spider he was targeting.

The potion bomb Ariadne had used couldn’t distinguish between a friend and a foe. So Eren was dependent on his other enhanced senses to attack Behlam and dodge the attacks heading his way.

Eren had a red face as he processed the pain silently. His eyes had gotten a bit numb even inside the sea of fire. He ignored all his pain, however, and changed his position.

This was not the first time Behlam’s attacks had affected Eren. The guy was night-blind but not brain-dead. Eren hadn’t given him any chance to track him. Within the fire domain, he was as quiet and ruthless as he could be. The fire domain also masked his presence from Behlam’s other enhanced senses.

But Behlam could always attack blindly or wager his chances. His guesses would be correct less than half of the time. And even those few instances were enough to critically injure him.

Blitz Heal

Eren

Started healing himself using his lightning-element spell while continuing to attack Behlam. He also drank up another bottle of healing potion. Following that, he shot another round of Igni Bolt Blasts at the Spider before proceeding to change his position.

3 minutes…

2 minutes…

1 minute…

15 seconds…

The effects of the potion bomb thrown by Ariadne were wearing off. Since Eren could use some of his mana sense in his vicinity, he knew that Behlam could do that too.

Behlam’s wounds intensified as Eren kept on targeting him. The dry blood in them threatened to spill out every time he made drastic moves. Eren had injected so much mana into his attacks that the Spider was experiencing foreign mana invasion in his wounds, further inflaming them.

5 seconds…

“Hahahaha… Soon. I’ll soon kill you, you fucking mongoose. And I’ll kill you slowly for your impudence to attack me.”

Behlam’s condition was precarious. But he was still a long way from giving up. Eren, however, was not disheartened.

Eren had been preparing one card since he got Behlam inside the Igni Lotus. He took a long breath before casting the spell against an Awakened ranker for the first time.

One Up: Igni Bolt Blast

Swoosh. Zoom. Boom!

“Aaaaaaaaargh!”

Behlam’s body was thrown in the air when Eren’s last fire-element arrow struck him in the middle of his chest. In contrast to previous Igni Bolt Blasts, this time the arrow was made from rank-2 mana. As such, the impact it generated was on another level. Furthermore, the arrow’s piercing potential and detonation were more lethal compared to rank-1 attacks.

Eren finally managed to conjure a rank-2 variant of the spell using a support spell he had received from Kino. He would always mess something up when using One Up in practice. However, this time the life-and-death situation enabled him to cast the spell correctly.

Casting One Up was not easy. It basically allowed a Ranker to defy their rank’s limits and use a higher-ranked variant of their existing spell. But doing so required the utmost concentration. One’s intelligence stat needed to hit a certain mark to even think of casting this support spell.

Eren had chosen the Igni Blast to use One Up with because it was the simplest spell in his arsenal. And it worked so well because Behlam wasn’t expecting him to cast a spell of that caliber.

As a result of the arrow’s impact, Eren witnessed Behlam taking a pseudo-flight. The arrow had pierced his chest before detonating inside him. It baked his heart and other internal organs. When Behlam landed on the ground with a loud commotion, he was almost dead.

Cough! Cough! Cough!

Behlam started coughing when he lay flat on his back. He raised his head with difficulty and looked down at his chest.

The effects of the potion bomb had been completely erased. He could use his mana sense just fine at this point. However, the Spider knew that it would be too late to do anything.

“How…. How… the fuck did you cast a rank-2… cough cough cough”

Behlam dropped his head back to where it was and tried to ask Eren a question. However, he couldn’t complete it since he started throwing blood through his mouth.

“A special support spell. You don’t need to learn more.”

Eren appeared beside Behlam and looked at him seriously before replying. He took a long breath and sighed before continuing.

“You were a good opponent, Behlam. I won’t say I am sorry for fighting with you using underhanded methods because that won’t be true. But I do thank you for the resources I’ll get my hands on because of you.

The least I can do is get rid of the pain for you. Rest easy.”

Igni Wave

Eren said in a grim voice before swinging his ax down. He didn’t care if Behlam listened to his parting words or not.

Behlam’s head was severed from his torso, granting him a quick death. With his death, Raina’s ambush on the Spiders was completely successful. Something she wasn’t aware of.

Eren dispelled his AOE and looked at the starry sky above. The daylight was soon going to break. As such, the horizon was illuminated in bright yellow and orange.

There was a certain freshness in the air that filled Eren’s lungs. It washed away the smell of burning and the taste of smoke from his system. His bruised and battered body was on full display. His ruined clothes revealed his toned physique, sharpening his aura as a battlemage.

‘Every ending is a new beginning.’

Eren had a random thought as he breathed in the fresh air and tried to measure the skies with his gaze. He stayed in his position for a while, planning his future actions.

Ariadne saw the Igni Lotus disappearing. But she wasn’t sure who had won. She only approached Eren when she confirmed with her mana sense that Behlam was dead.

“You really pulled it off.”

Eren saw Ariadne appearing beside him and saying something under her breath as she looked down at Behlam’s corpse. He chuckled before responding.

“You thought that we’d kill each other off?”

Ariadne took a brief pause before commenting.

“I won’t lie, Eren. That was indeed a possibility. There was also a possibility that only you would die and Behlam survived. I was just trying to figure out if I should run or really really run far away?”

Eren smiled mirthlessly before shaking his head. He also knew that targeting Behlam wouldn’t be easy. He wouldn’t have gambled with his life if he didn’t have One Up his sleeves.

“Alright. Let’s clean this scene before checking out our loot.”

Eren said before gesturing to Ariadne with her eyes that she needed to completely get rid of Polo’s body. He cut Behlam’s hand that had the I-Rune before setting the corpse on fire.

Eren didn’t want to declare that Behlam was dead. Otherwise, the Stardust guild would have the right to claim Behlam’s loot. After all, a team had gotten rid of the enemy team.

But the guild’s bindings would only apply to him if and when Behlam is declared to be dead by him. And he had no plans to share his loot with the other rankers.