Gian was panicking.

He could have never thought that someone like Eren would bring him to his knees. Every time he thought that he had understood Eren’s limits as a ranker, the guy would go ahead and surprise him.

The use of potion bombs came out of nowhere. He would have been a done deal if he hadn’t deployed the defensive artifact he was wearing as his belt.

Gian knew that things had gotten serious when Eren managed to hurt the red lightning panther. The spirit beasts didn’t have mortal shells. Their tamers would need to manifest mana bodies for their souls to reside in. The beast’s soul would be called back to the caster’s mana core, which would serve as its new home.

However, the spirit beasts processed the pain and other senses the same way when they were alive to some extent. Furthermore, their souls could be damaged by brutal attacks.

Eren’s use of mana disruptor bombs had managed to harm the red lightning panther’s soul by creating an anomaly inside the mana body while its soul was occupying it. As a result, the spirit beast’s body was dispersed from the spot and its soul returned to its tamer.

To recover instantly, Gian used an alchemy product stored inside his belt pouch. He then stood up and activated his movement spell just before Eren reached him.

Boom.

Eren’s lightning-powered axes hit empty air as Gian disappeared from his position. The battlemage followed after Gian and continued attacking him with his Twin Star Arts.

Gian was slowly recovering from the initial damage as the effects of the alchemy injection kicked in. His burned skin was making a speedy recovery. His other wounds were also showing signs of healing. His depleted mana storage also started to recover.

Gian knew that he would have to face the consequences of using an alchemy injection on himself. It might cause his ranking status to regress due to the forbidden formula it contains. But at this moment, he didn’t care. He needed the injection’s assistance to tackle Eren. And he was ready to pay the price. At least he would be alive to pay the price.

Eren’s icy blue eyes shone with cold light as he observed Gian making a speedy recovery. He didn’t want to waste the progress he had made thus far. Therefore, he decided to use another potion.

This was a debuff potion.

Eren took out another vial from his storage before imbuing it with his mana. He then crushed the vial and let the contents of the vial come into contact with the air. Since the potion had Eren’s mana signature, the debuff would not affect him but only the opponents that were in the vicinity of him.

Gian felt like his vision had been turned upside down when the debuff effect affected him. It altered his vision and threw him off balance. His defense was broken instantly when the debuff hit, allowing Eren to launch a series of lethal attacks on him.

Swoosh. Swoosh. Swoosh.

Eren started chipping into Gian’s natural defense once again using his axes and his mana-based martial arts. The guy was basically a lump of meat on the chopping block with the way he was struggling to defend himself.

Gian tried to close his eyes to get rid of the debuff. But it made the situation worse as vertigo hit him and made him compromise his balance even further. He was using his mana sense to move and defend against Eren. But it too had its limits. Especially when his other senses were providing debuff-influenced signals to him.

‘Attack his balls!’

Aleph provided Eren with a valid suggestion. And the latter took action without hesitation. When it comes to life and death situations, there is no such thing as a low blow. Plus, Eren had already targeted a Meta ranker while he was mortal. This suggestion just made him remember his past briefly.

Eren charged his axes with lightning and fire mana before creating momentum by spinning around himself. His hands blurred and his weapons seemed to disappear into thin air. The kick that landed on Gian’s chin lifted his body and sent him flying.

Gian was in a precise position in front of Eren for a fraction of a second while he was flying. And the battlemage used that opportunity to land a vicious blow on him.

Swoosh. Zoom. Chop.

Eren’s right ax appeared between Gian’s legs. And his left ax became visible after it lodged itself deep inside Gian’s left thigh.

The vector force was already acting on the close combat expert’s body when Eren attacked him. The debuff effect ensured that he was defenseless against Eren’s attacks.

“Aaaaaaaargh! You fucking maniac!”

Gian screamed in pain when Eren’s ax swung between his legs from below and cleaved a very sensitive place. The blade lodged itself deep at the intersection of his legs, cutting into his ballsack and even his junk.

The ax blade had traveled through his pelvic symphysis, broken his pelvic brim, and cracked his sacrum before stopping at the pelvic bone. Gian flew through the air with such a severe injury. Eren made things even more difficult by pulling his weapons out using Igni Chains.

Swoosh. Zoom. Crash.

Gian landed a few meters from his previous position. He kept screaming and cursing Eren even after his body stopped being dragged across the ground.

After a short pause, Eren appeared near Gian and looked at his condition. The guy had created a puddle of blood near his groin because of the vicious injury he had inflicted.

“You motherfucking bastard. Kill me. Kill me this fucking moment. Or I will..”

Gian tried to curse Eren some more when he found out Eren was looking at him like some animal in the zoo. He had subconsciously accepted the fact that he was done for. The curses he was throwing at Eren were only his way of coping with the pain and his grim situation.

“Don’t need to threaten me. I can see in your eyes that you have given up. I hope that you know that you signed up for this when you decided to target me for something your brother caused himself with his own hands.

You decided to blame me for your mental relief. And you are cursing me at this point for the same reason as well. I know that. And I know that you know that. It’s just that it is difficult for you to accept it as reality. That’s something I can’t help you with even in your final moments.”

Gian stared at Eren’s feet with hatred in his eyes as he spoke. Since his vision was inverted, he saw Eren’s face where his feet were. And the most frustrating thing about the debuffed vision was the fact that it wasn’t coherent even when it was inverse.

Eren thought that he had applied the potion correctly to Gian when he saw its effects live. Since he was about to break into the Awakened rank, most of the Awakened rank potions designed to be used by Meta rankers were slated to become obsolete. So using them on Gian at this point served the potion’s purpose well.

Gian started laughing hysterically when he heard Eren. He couldn’t help but agree with some of his comments.

“Hahaha. You are good, Eren. I guess that’s it for me. I’ll… cough… cough… cough”

Gian started spitting blood amid his speech and his laughter turned into coughs. He coughed to his heart’s content and took a long breath before finishing what he was saying.

“I guess I’ll see my brother soon. I accept the fact that I don’t want to die sooner. But there’s no escaping reality. The way you fight, I dare say that I would have met a similar end had I attacked you first.

However, you fucking bastard. You didn’t have to do this. You could have finished me off gracefully. But what the fuck is this?”

Gian pointed at his groin as he asked Eren. It was safe to say that he had started to lose his grip on his sanity. Maybe it was the injury he was facing along with the debuff. Or the regrets he was feeling at the moment. OR… the death of his brother had really gotten to him. Maybe it was a combination of all those things.

However, Eren saw that Gian was slipping deeper into his insanity.

‘Only those who want to rise above dreams and delusions are alive. A tired man is already in the grip of death and insanity. His life becomes more chaotic as his end approaches.’

A random thought rippled in Eren’s mind as he got behind Gian. He placed his hand over Gian’s head and let Aleph do his thing. An otherworldly mana fluctuation spread throughout the room when Eren’s palm created a mini cyclone around Gian’s head. This was the cyclone made of cryptic runic inscriptions that illuminated themselves as they started to disintegrate Gian’s face.

The Awakened-ranker-turned-madman was dying while speaking random things. And his elemental attainments were being claimed by his opponent at the same time.

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