Vile Evil Hides Under The Veil

Day 21: An area near the entrance to the Lama Ruins.

"Aaaaaaargh!"

A moderator was injured before he could even use his Perks. The next thing he knew, his left arm was torn off from the shoulder joint by sheer physical force. The moderator's heart was punctured when he received a severe blow to his chest that sank his ribcage. One solid punch was all it took for the moderator to die from an attack.

Steve attacked the moderator as soon as he came too close to him. The Boar Berserker followed Eren's plan to a T. He immediately tapped into his body-strengthening art and changed his physique. He became taller, stronger, and sharper. The boar berserker also grew a thick reddish brown hide and some sort of callous exoskeleton over his shoulders and other vital organs.

Steve's eyes were red. His canine teeth had grown out of his mouth. They were curved, crazy-looking, and almost looked like antlers. His limbs were as ripped and muscular as they could be. And his aura was that of a beast rather than a human.

The captain of the White Raven Crew fended off a major threat on his own. He looked around to see that others on his team were almost more or less done with their jobs.

Steve and Renita joined the team shortly after Sage Legacy started appearing. Eren was also with them. There was no point dividing the team into multiple groups when there were only a few days remaining.

Eren felt that his efforts in raising a team to ensure his survival was worth it. Through Ivor's actions, Jason was killed and another Sin Series Mark was obtained. He only needed to ensure that he got his hands on multiple Sage legacies.

The team had fought as a whole for the first time at this stage since the event started. The White Raven crew was practically unstoppable after the remaining members joined.

Eren didn't have to guide Steve as captain of the team anymore. The Berserker knew how to use each of the members of his team. He would tag-team with the Dual Berserkers when required, destroying the enemy frontline as soon as the two teams clashed. He would pair well with Becky to assist her in her mid-range moves. He would work with Jake to bolster the team's defensive capabilities. All of this while ensuring that the team's healer Ana doesn't come under harm's way in any situation.

Steve also tried to keep up with Eren. And for the most part, he managed to do just fine. However, Steve felt a subtle mental burden every time Eren operated on his victims beside him.

Eren's blood lust would sometimes slip through his aura and unintentionally affect the Boar Berserker's psyche. Therefore, Steve decided to let Eren move on his own. The butcher worked most efficiently most times while he was not being paired up with anyone anyway.

***

Eren had gone back to his experiments.

This was apparent when his teammates saw him use his Fists Arts unexpectedly. That too, using the earth-element technique that he hadn't shown them before.

There were many things that Eren had changed about him. But his nature as a ranker and his love for adding multiple facets to his battle style was not something novel for them. They had seen Eren do that multiple times when he was participating in ranking wars.

Eren was becoming more adept at throwing punches with each passing opponent. He had even managed to use his earth-element movement technique in sync with the Fist Arts he had borrowed from Ken.

The butcher made several changes to Ken's techniques. He started fine-tuning them to give them the lethal edge they were missing. He made a lot of mistakes at the beginning and got injured in the process.

However, he never had to seek Ana's help in healing him. The Ability he had received from Nina made him self-sufficient and bold enough to incorporate new techniques into his battle style.

Applying soul sense to incompatible weapons was difficult. However, one's arms were excluded from that limitation. Eren started imbuing his fists with soul sense as well. As a result, his attacks affected his enemies physically and mentally as well.

There was a huge difference between applying soul sense to intimidate opponents and incorporating it into one's physical and elemental attacks. The butcher was still learning to use his soul sense in his elemental spells with Alephee's guidance. However, he didn't need to seek any guidance to incorporate soul sense into his physical attacks.

Ken's Fist Arts opened up a new way of fighting for the butcher. And he was becoming more adept at using it. He was also training his soul sense with it. He was learning to use the soul sense at the right time at the right intensity so that it doesn't mentally drain him in the long run.

One had to say that Eren was leaps and bounds further from his fellow participants when it came to employing his soul sense in his battle style. Hansen could count the participants who could use their soul sense on his fingers. And even they were far away from employing it in their battle styles.

Eren enjoyed the process of experimenting to his heart's content. He neither got disheartened when he made mistakes nor overexcited when he landed his punches right.

He even dragged fights with his opponents, giving them a false sense of hope only to kill them with his go-to moves when things got out of control. Battling like this allowed him to see the errors in his ways and work on them. It also prevented his opponents from bailing out early.

The butcher had learned his lessons well from his previous encounters. He didn't want to perform cardio chasing after his opponents while trying out various things.

The butcher started getting exceptional results right from the beginning using Ken's techniques. As a result, his enemies weren't being butchered to death. Instead, they were being bludgeoned to death.