Vile Evil Hides Under The Veil

It wasn't easy to keep reinventing one's self.

It was difficult for the individual as well as for those around him. Steve couldn't employ Eren in normal battle tactics anymore because of his experiments. And nobody had the right or the guts to tell Eren otherwise.

Therefore, Eren's team members started keeping a safe distance from him.

They didn't want to get involved in his experiments and suffer the consequences. After all, they didn't have the convenience to heal themselves using their Ability.

Ana would have been overworked to death if everybody kept acting like Eren mid-battle. That too, when the stakes were this high. The rest of the White Raven crew members neither had the guts nor the privilege to try something as crazy as what Eren was doing.

Eren's killing efficiency had dropped way down from its usual level at the beginning. However, he quickly recovered all of it for the most part in relatively no time at all.

Eren's gauntlet-covered fists started getting coated in his enemy's blood. He was even more brutal than Steve with his attacks, exploring various nuances of his opponent's anatomy.

The butcher always targeted his opponents' weak spots. He didn't care about his opponents' personal boundaries or gender. It was to the point that most members of Eren's team started feeling sorry for his opponents after hearing their heart-wrenching screams.

***

Steve's demon beast Wilber also felt pressured by Eren's presence. The participants were only allowed to keep their demon beasts inside the Beast Space. They couldn't summon demon beasts to fight their battles for them. Nevertheless, tamers were allowed to use Demon Beast Transformations and Demon Spells.

Steve's Demon Beast Transformation allowed him to adopt Wilber's physical characteristics while boosting his body stats. Plus, the body-strengthening art he had gotten from Wilber paired nicely with the Demon Beast Transformation.

It allowed Steve to explore the limits of the beastly transformation defined by normal rankers. The berserker's offensive and defensive capabilities were elevated at the same time. Plus, the body-strengthening art gave him elemental resistance to various spells.

Steve became an unstoppable hurricane after stacking many of his advantages together. He dealt with his enemies with almost the same level of brutality as Eren.

To test Steve's limits, Eren told him to take care of the moderator all by himself. And the berserker managed to excel at his task with stellar distinction.

Steve had become a purist in terms of his battle style.

He didn't make much use of his Perks or spells. The guy was comfortable dealing with his opponents head-on. Most opponents weren't even able to land serious injuries on him.

***

Upon Eren's orders, the White Raven crew didn't wait for the enemy to turn hostile. It attacked the moderator as well as a few participants who were with him when the meeting took place.

Not even Becky posed a question about Eren's decision this time. The teams needed to ensure their own safety before even thinking about forming alliances.

The team's path to the Lama Ruins was bloody and full of violence. It only allowed the defense mechanism to kick in for a few teams who it judged were genuine participants. The butcher insisted on killing all the rest of the enemies.

The team's Karma point accumulation kept on increasing by leaps and bounds. All the members made use of various individual and group-based Perks available for their use. Most were used to counter the opponents' Perks while the others provided them with the edge they needed to dominate.

Renita stayed with Ana when Steve and Jake weren't around to defend her. She also supported Bel in his ranged attacks. The historian had also improved greatly. With a bit of help from the ranger, he was able to tackle and hold off multiple opponents at the same time without losing ground.

Ron and Dino managed to keep up with the rest of the team. They performed their roles as support for Steve's berserk charges well. They were told to concentrate on the offense and allow Steve to take a breather.

With seamless team play and excellent individual performances, the White Raven crew managed to get inside the Lama Ruins safely. What they didn't know was the fact that many teams had been eliminated during this time when they were trying to get inside the Lama Ruins.

***

Metal towers and metal buildings.

The Lama Ruins featured various metal constructions. From overhead hydro pipelines to runic cable cars, everything was made out of various mana-imbued metals. Even the ground beneath was made of metal sheets.

Some of these metal constructions had gotten old and rusty. They had a layer of red and brown rust on them. The rest of the metal surfaces would shine dimly or brightly from time to time depending upon exposure to sunlight.

There were various blind spots present inside the Lama Ruins. It seemed that the teams were encouraged to attack one another while they were busy getting their hands on Sage's legacy.

A team of rankers chose to stay low-key in a particular corner of the city. They started activating various security measures in their surroundings as a form of precaution against potential enemies.

Steve and the rest started arranging the flags in an array diagram shared with them through the Sansara interface. These flags, which the White Raven crew had collected from its enemy teams, served as the keys to opening the entrance and keeping it open.

Eren had already told his teammates that he'd be the one to attempt to inherit Nira Nightshade's legacy. The gains he receives from the Sage legacy will be shared with his teammates. The ones he could share, that is.

The flags were arranged systematically and the array was partially activated. At this point, various teams inside the Lama Ruins were waiting for the notification to arrive.

The wait was eventually over.

All the arrays created by the participants inside the Lama Ruins lit up at the same time as the notification arrived. A spatial tunnel was opened at the center of these array layouts.