“Bastard, who do you think you are…”

Faim was about to continue giving his threat to Eren when he felt a strong presence pressuring him to keep his mouth shut. He looked behind Eren to see Mia looking at him with expressions of anger written on her face.

And from the looks of it, Miranda was about to do the same as well. Reece looked at Faim like he was some lowlife that didn’t need to breathe the same air as her and her dear Eren.

‘Aaargh! I hate this man even more now. Bastard’s screwing with three beauties at once. And I’m struggling to find one for myself. How unfair life’s about to get to me.’

Faim’s jealousy over Eren intensified instead of decreasing when Mia thought of intervening. But before he could say anything more against Eren, the elf ranger shut him up as well as other rankers surrounding her with her words.

“I was there. Eren has indeed killed Six Spiders. Do you also doubt the report I submitted, Faim?”

Mia asked in a cold tone while increasing the pressure on Faim. The guy was about to lose his footing after being subjected to the aura of an Awakened rank. Mia dispelled the pressure just as he was about to give up.

“I… I never would do something like that, miss Mia. It’s just that he may be lying to you and everyone else about the incident.

I’ve found out from somewhere that you weren’t present at the scene when the guy took care of six Spiders. Maybe he just struck a deal with them and pretended to kill them.”

Eren started laughing with a hint of anger in it when he heard Faim’s excuse to mess with him. He looked him in the eye before asking him.

“You think I’m Spiders’ mole?”

Eren drew out his two axes from his storage and pointed at the exit with one of them.

“I heard that your team was ambushed by Spiders and you lost one of your team members. Now I understand that grief can be expressed in many ways.

But don’t dump your emotional baggage on me, Faim. My kills weren’t to belittle the tragedy that happened to your team.”

Eren said and stepped towards Faim. Faim was about 6 inches taller than him. So Eren had to look up to look him in the eyes. And yet, Faim felt like his vantage point didn’t make him superior when the one who was staring back was Eren.

“You can mask your emotions under the guise of gossip, mockery, and narcissism. But I certainly won’t let it fly by when someone tries to mess with me just to feel better about themselves.

I’ll walk a mile to avoid a fight. But when one is forced on me, I’ll not back down an inch.

You want to see how I fight, right?”

Eren looked outside the guild’s exit before continuing.

“Come. I’ll show you. But let me warn you. I’ve stopped sparring with Meta rankers since last week. That’s because I can’t guarantee their safety anymore.

Prepare to lose a limb or two if not your life. That’s the kind of conviction you need to have if you want to spar with me. Tell me, are you in?”

***

The people in the surrounding area felt a heavy bloodlust coming from Eren. The Hex casting had allowed him to integrate his mana sense into his spells. However, it had also subconsciously taught him to pour his emotions into his mana sense. A power that usually belonged to the Awakened rankers.

One of the reasons why Rank-2 rankers were called the Awakened was because they could experience a distinct form of clarity in their consciousness. Harnessing the power of the mana brought a certain kind of clarity. It enhanced the Awakened ranker’s elemental attainment and made them exceptionally stronger than Meta rankers.

This clarity allowed them to interact with even more depth with the surrounding mana than before. As a result of their breakthroughs, their consciousness and sense of mana were tempered. Thus, an Awakened ranker’s aura manifestation and their distinct presence couldn’t be ignored.

However, a Meta ranker could use his aura to suppress another Meta ranker. This was a rare phenomenon not often seen by even the natives of Gilhaahan.

‘What… What kind of farce is this? First Mia. And now this guy is trying to bully me too.’

Eren’s bloodlust and the pressure that he exerted on Faim were not comparable to Mia’s, who had received the blessings of the higher rank. Yet, for some reason, Faim thought Eren was more dangerous than the elf ranger.

Just as Eren had said, Faim was experiencing his negative emotions of grief, cowardliness, and defeat. He had to deal with them after his party was ambushed by the Spiders.

He had only managed to get away from the ambush because of the trump cards he had secured beforehand. And yet, all he could do was run away from Spiders while sacrificing one of their injured team members while escaping.

It was obvious that Faim was not having it easy. He was only a step away from reaching the Awakened rank. He was the Stardust guild’s potential premium asset. As such he was given the responsibility of leading a team for the first time.

Faim’s first mission ended in total failure and him losing a member because of the Spiders’ intervention. But as soon as he returned to the guild defeated and battered, he heard about Eren’s battle with the Spiders.

The most frustrating thing to Faim was the fact that he was leading a party of seven members and the Spiders attacking him were seven people strong. He was forced to retreat even when they were in equal numbers with the Spiders. Whereas Eren had managed to kill six out of seven Spiders.

The only Spider he was not able to kill was the one that managed to escape. The battlemage’s feat was so incredible for his rank that people found it downright impossible.

Thus, acknowledging Eren’s strength for Faim was highlighting his own incapability. Something Faim found trouble accepting.

Faim had been wanting to confront Eren for a long while. But the guy was rarely around. So when he saw Eren chatting idly with three ladies, he couldn’t control himself. He wanted to show to the other team members that he was not a weak ranker compared to someone like Eren. it was just that his circumstances were different. Because his opponents were different.

And lastly, Faim wanted to convince himself.

***

“We’ll see who loses their limb to whom. Lead the way.”

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