“What kind of magic is this?”

Rollo couldn’t help asking himself as he heard the voice in his head as he watched the summoned creatures surrounding him and others respond to it by becoming docile. At the same time, his instincts told him to become docile as well.

“This can’t be done. This man is probably cursed or something by some demonic ritual or spell. We can’t be sitting ducks in this cage.

Roko, lead the newly recruited Spiders and help us make our way out of this isolated area. Use this.”

Kazak said to Rollo before giving him an array disk. The Spiders had taken advantage of the summoned creatures not attacking them and getting together.

The array disk was a space-element device that had spell-collection and spell-release functions. Spell effects could be stored inside the array as long as they could manifest in the surrounding environment.

One could load a series of spells in each of the array disk’s space fractals. And they could release all the spells at once when the need arises. One could only get three uses out of the array disk and Rollo had used it twice.

Of course, Rollo had paid a hefty amount to get his hands on the array disk. That’s because his Summoning Weapons spells could be easily stored inside the device. They could be used to overwhelm his opponents when he was in a dire pinch.

However, Rollo decided to not use the spell for himself. This was no time to be selfish. This was no time to fight. Rollo would lose his trump card in the fight, but all the Spiders would escape the maniac.

Kazak was on a different tangent when Eren was working through his predicament. He looked at Eren carefully before commanding Shima, who he knew from Viyu, had gotten close to Eren and was still in disguise.

“I think you guys are freaking out for no reason.”

Kazak spoke in a deep voice with a serious look on his face. Roko snorted before responding.

“You almost shat your pants with us, Kazak.”

Kazak furrowed his eyebrows before correcting himself.

“Alright. Fair point. WE are freaking out for no reason. Look at the guy. He suffers because of Viyu’s timely attack on him. He is incapable of fighting.

The summoned creatures around us had gotten stronger. But they have lost their will to fight with us. Probably because their summoner is out of his mind and doesn’t know what he is doing anymore.

This is the time to strike.”

Kazak says while looking at the rest of the Spiders beside him. Rollo pondered a bit before adding up.

“But the way he…”

Kazak shook his head and interrupted Rollo before he could continue.

“You don’t get it. I’m not saying we shouldn’t try escaping. But that can’t be the only thing we need to be doing at this point. We also need to attack the guy when he is down.

I get that he is stronger than we had thought. But we don’t have a choice but to fight him.”

Kazak was acting as the de facto leader of the Spiders as he commanded them.

“Roko would lead the new Spiders and try to break the isolation array. But we won’t remain idle.

Rest of you guys, await my commands and follow my lead.”

Kazak’s demeanor changed when he gave those orders to his teammates. They subconsciously preferred him being the leader because they really wanted to be led.

Roko led the ex-demonic-rankers and approached the barrier with Rollo’s array disk in his hand. The rest of the Spiders were now awaiting Kazak’s instructions.

Kazak looked in Eren’s direction. He could feel that Eren’s predicament was settling down. His aura was getting stabilized. Glancing around Eren, he used his voice communication channel.

‘Shima, don’t lose courage now. We count on you. Assassinate the guy and free us from this situation.’

Shima, who was trying to run away from her position, was startled by hearing Kazak’s voice. Her invisibility was still maintained. But not for an assassination attempt on Eren. She just didn’t want to intimidate him.

‘Kazak… I can’t do…’

‘Nobody would be able to do this if you backed down from your task, Shima. This is not a question of what we can or can’t do. This is the question of what we HAVE to do if we want to survive the ordeal.

You will launch a strike on my go. Prepare yourself.’

Kazak said and gave Shima a few seconds to prepare. He then contacted Viyu without looking at her. This was a personal voice channel instead of the group voice communication the Spiders were using.

‘Shima’s strike will probably fail. I hate to say it but you’d have to use her as a decoy to launch your second attack of the same caliber on the monster.’

Viyu opened her eyes wide and couldn’t help looking at Kazak with a shocked expression.

‘The effect the rune generates doesn’t let me discriminate, Kazak. Those sound-element waves won’t differentiate between a friend and a foe when Shima is in the vicinity of the attack. They’ll both die– Shima sooner than that man because of her weaker constitution.’

Kazak narrowed his eyes at Eren before speaking up.

‘A sacrifice is necessary if we want to get away from this farce. I don’t want to agitate the others before the attack. That’s why I only contacted you. However, I will be responsible for making you do this if your attack lands on the target.

If we are safe, I’ll bear the consequences. If we are not, hehe, then at least we tried our darnedest.’

Viyu had conflicting emotions when she heard Kazak’s plan. She wanted to say that she could just shoot Eren when he is down without Shima attacking him. Despite his predicament, Eren would still be most sensitive to her lethal arrows.

He could use teleportation to evade her attacks. And just as Eren didn’t know the extent of Viyu’s attack capabilities, she didn’t know the number of times he could teleport. Using Shima’s attack and Shima by proxy as a decoy was a heartless but logical choice.

Viyu and Kazak didn’t want to let the weapon of subjugating Eren be put to waste. They only had two of them remaining after all.

Viyu also understood the necessity of Kazak’s plan. The rational person in her could see the necessity behind Kakar’s plan. However, she was having a hard time effectively sending Shima to her death.

Kazak didn’t let the two ladies think about how he would defeat Eren with his cunning strategy. He drew out his halberd and gripped it tightly before commanding Shima.

‘Shima, it’s time. Go. Don’t worry, we’ll support you.’

Kazak said and contacted Viyu.

“Raise and aim, Viyu. Show me what you got.’

***

It took a while for Eren to come to his senses. The first thing he did after getting control over himself was to retract the bear armor he was wearing.

The Hex gear set was meant to be used as a conduit between his spells and his will. However, it was now clear to Eren that his will had been marked with something really sinister. It did not try to harm him. But its mere presence was affecting his spells and his consciousness.

As a result, Eren retracted his Hex gear so that his will would not manifest itself in uncontrollable ways. When the conduit was no longer there, the will that was hiding deep within him gradually stopped affecting the surroundings as well as the summoned creatures.

Eren got his focus back after his Hex gear was retracted. He had decided that he wouldn’t use his Hex gear casually anymore. Not until he resolved the issue with his will by consulting with Kino.

Eren knew that his Hex spells were only beginning to get stronger. They were breaking the limits even most Hex users had defined for their ranks. However, no power was worth losing control over. Only when he was in control could he dictate his actions and the consequences that come with them.

‘Seek and ye shall find.’

The battlemage felt the clarity in his head return to him. His stacked summoning spell was broken and all his vicious-looking summoned creatures were dispersed into thin air all of a sudden. A large portion of the burden on mana circuits that had been strained suddenly disappeared.

However, just as he was about to get up from his position, Eren sensed another threatening attack aimed at him. After clearing his subconscious, he realized that he would not be able to dodge it completely.

“Aaaaargh.”

Eren was subjected to another round of pain when he found his left shoulder getting pierced by Shima’s daggers. He had changed his position at the last second and used his own shoulder as a roadblock to prevent her from getting his jugular. He had made sure that the dagger would pierce his shoulder by directing it with his right hand.

Shima understood what had happened only a moment after it had taken place. She yanked off her dagger from Eren’s grip and made him lose a sizable chunk of flesh over his right palm and his shoulder.

Eren was severely injured by Shima’s attack. But that was not a positive thing for Shima and her team members because the attack was nowhere near fatal.

“Aaaah! I missed it. Kazak!”

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