'You had said that I should die peacefully before the start of the battle, right?

I can use that line against you. But consider yourself lucky that I don't want to irk that old foggy anymore than I have to.'

The butcher pondered this as he drew his daggers again. He looked at the angry Hilda as he closed in on the duo. She was looking at him with a lifetime's grudge.

He just snorted his nose at that gaze. They were the ones who attacked him. He wouldn't care about their love stories when they were the ones who had decided to become a hurdle in his path.

The butcher played with two daggers using one hand. He used his other hand to drink a bunch of potions and stabilize his condition just before he was stepping into Hilda's attacking range.

"You monster. Just before he was about to propose to me, you had to put him in that state. I'll kill you. I'll kill you right here, right now."

Hilda proclaimed and aimed for Ronny. The latter ignored her bravado. He wasn't a big fan of conversing mid-battle unless it was him buying time anyway.

The butcher disappeared from his position just when the homing arrows were about to hit him. That's because he had already activated his spell combo by then.

Sedated Perception

Stunning Speed

Blitz Steps

Blitz Bolt

Blitz Shield

Ronny wanted to limit his mana consumption this time. So he reduced the number of spells in his combo.

He had recovered some of the F-Rank mana using the potions. But using it for E-Rank was going to be extra taxing for him. Plus, he had already taken care of Ashton. And it'd be a while before Gerish entered the battlefield.

It didn't take long for the butcher to go behind the water element ranger's left side away from where she was aiming at. He was about to target her but he saw that Ashton was moving towards him with his fire-element movement spell.

'I'll help my gorilla kill this bastard if it's the last thing I have to do. Besides, my death is not set in stone. I can ask for Lord Adept Jerry to fix me if we finish this fucker off on our own.'

Ashton was preparing to travel all the way to help the woman he had neglected so far. In helping her, he also saw the path to his survival. First-aid potions had already been administered to allow him to fight.

Ashton knew he couldn't battle the way he could before the mortal injury. But he believed that his grudge towards the ghost would enable him to transcend conventional boundaries. In short, the spearman was betting his life on the protagonist's luck, if he had any that is.

'Ah. The nuisance. Time to finish it off.'

Ronny changed his target of attack after thinking about it. He bolted towards the approaching spearman while dodging the barrage of arrows.

Ashton relied more on his mana sense than on his other senses in this round. As a result of which he could sense the danger approaching him even though he couldn't keep track of the butcher.

'I'll show you the real beauty of using dual spears.'

Ashton started swinging the two spears in sync around him. Standing in its centre, he created a sign of infinity around him using the swings of his weapon. This was the move he was about to perform before the butcher foiled his plans and attacked preemptively.

Ashton felt a tug on one of his weapons when he was practicing his dual spear wielding arts. The mana sense also confirmed that it had struck something fleshy. But this realization didn't deter him from giving up his weapon art.

But before he could rejoice in his short victory, he felt his stomach getting hit by something heavy. He started flying in the air in a particular direction before he could understand what had happened to him.

Ashton tried to look at his previous position while he was getting flown out in the air by sheer force. It was thanks to the armour he was wearing that he only took off the ground. Otherwise, the force was concentrated enough to punch a hole through his stomach.

The spearman saw that Ronny was lying on the ground with his right leg in a position that indicated it was the reason behind him flying off. The leg had an enhanced coating of lightning surrounding it indicating that his opponent had enhanced the power of his kick using his element.

Ashton also saw that Ronny had left a trail of him sliding down from his initial position to where he was standing a few moments before. That meant his opponent wasn't deterred in the slightest by his weapon art, and chose a straight path to confront him, albeit in a clever manner.

The spearman then found comfort in seeing that Ronny's left shoulder had been heavily injured by his spear. The tug he had felt just before he was forced to fly off in the air must have caused that injury.

'I injured him. Hahaha! I injured this damn ghost. He is not that invincible after all.'

Ashton started celebrating his small victory as he was flying. But his celebration quickly came to an end when he heard Hilda's screech:

"Nooooooo! Ashton. Watch out. I can't change the directions of all of them."

'What is that gorilla on ab'

This was the last thought Ashton had.

Before he could look at his teammate to know what she was talking about, his body was pierced all over by a bunch of arrows that were laced with corrosive water element mana.

The butcher had made Ashton fly in the same direction Hilda's barrage of arrows were coming from. At the cost of an injured left shoulder, he had taken care of the spearman and the incoming arrows at the same time.

'Look at the guy's smug face. Hmph! He thought he had one up over me.'

The butcher berated his dead opponent as his body started to fall on the ground. He also got up quickly and changed his position to gear up for the battle with the ranger.

===============

AN: Thanks Roronoa_ZoRo for the gift. Also, thanks to Pure Michigan for the inspiration capsule.