Pitchook!

Sid pierced a golem's torso with his runic spear. The blade passed through the golem's body and came out from the other side. He retrieved it again only to attack the golem in the same manner but in a different area it's head with blurred features.

'This delusional fool is not a complete idiot after all. He is trying to find a golem's heart first.'

Eren concluded as he watched the battle. A golem's heart was a dense cluster of mana that was inside the golem. It was what made the golems functional.

Golems didn't need additional healing spells. The caster only needed to make sure the golem's heart doesn't get pierced and it would keep on regenerating itself as long as it was given sufficient mana.

Another golem took a shot at Sid with an earthen sword in its hand. Sid had to move his attention away from the guardian golem that was protecting the Orc Leader and focus on the attacker.

"Lightning Bull's Rush!"

Sid cast another of his berserking spells. This was supposed to be a spell he would use after drinking the berserking potions. Instead of concoctions, he relied on his army-issue armour to enter the berserking stage. The gems embedded in the armour along with the runic inscriptions etched over it were lit up.

Immediately afterwards, two golems were destroyed almost at the same time because of Sid's Bull Rush. The spell enabled him to use his Beast Contract spell and create a spectral form of a bull around his body.

In sync with his caster's movements, the spectral bull destroyed two golems that came in its way. But to his shock, Sid found out that two more golems had been created in the meantime and he was busy destroying the previous ones.

It finally dawned on Sid that he should have focused on the Orc Leader at the cost of self-harm by the golems. That way his suffering would have ended sooner.

'Heeeeeeeeelp Seeeeeeed, Aeeeeeeeeren.'

A feminine voice sounded in Eren's ears through his ID storage while his Sedated Perception was still active. It was asking Eren to intervene in Sid's battle. So the butcher cancelled his time-element spell before responding with only one simple word.

'Sure.'

They were the captain's orders after all. To be frank, he was expecting them to reach him much sooner.

Eren took a long drag out of his smoke before throwing it on the ground and extinguishing it by stepping over it with his right foot. He soon disappeared from his position.

******************

Altashia was keeping tabs on the battlefield through a vision-enhancing artefact worn over her eyes in the form of simple-looking glasses. If Eren was there with her, he would appreciate the geeky charm she exuded at the time.

Altashia caressed the head of the baby crow sitting over the soldiers as she remained hidden. She was waiting for the Orc Lord to show up, assuming that there were no dangers to his life.

'This guy is weird.'

Altashia commented to herself as she watched Eren enjoying his smoke right in the middle of the battlefield. She should have reprimanded him for being so careless and irresponsible. Especially considering that he was acting as the team's deputy vice-captain.

But then she remembered the burst of power Eren had exploded into a few moments before to take care of his opponent. No matter how keenly she looked at the guy, she could never decipher him completely.

Altashia considered herself to be pretty all-knowing about the men she had come across. Most were smitten by her beauty but were afraid to talk to her. Their interactions with her could only be summed up in one word awkward.

She knew she was a talented ranker. That made her even more intimidating. So she had no friends in her childhood. Royal Ren was an awful place when it came to making friends. That institution was full of politics and power plays that she didn't want to be part of.

This environment forced Altashia to adopt an aloof attitude that was part of her defence mechanism. Instead of people around her limiting their interactions with her, she would do that herself by trying to act like an introvert. Soon, her introverted nature moulded her into the kind of woman she was. It became a part of her.

Altashia was aware that Sid had feelings for her. But to be frank, she didn't consider him as her equal in any of the fields she excelled in. it wasn't that the guy was mediocre. But her expectations were just that high. That's why she wasn't involved with anyone romantically.

But then she met Eren Idril and something in her heart started beating along with the heartbeats. She would feel strange vibes coming from him whenever she was close to him or interacted with him, however, limited that was.

Her womanly instincts told her Eren was interested in her. However, he never exhibited any sign of the same. So her mind was in a split. Her interest in the butcher grew as a result.

Altashia smiled mirthlessly when she saw Eren taking this fight nonchalantly. This was even while he knew there was a danger of an Orc Lord taking the bait and suddenly showing up. It was as if he had seen things that were much more terrible than the intense battle unfolding around him.

Altashia soon had to snap out of her reverie for Eren. Because she realized that Sid was soon going to be in a pinch. She sighed as she understood Eren's stance. He didn't reply to any of Sid's unreasonable taunts. But he had other ways of getting back at the berserker.

Altashia had come to realize that Eren's mindset was detrimental to team play even when he could do team play very well in the army drills. The guy was just that talented even in things he didn't particularly believe in.

Altashia also felt that Eren was a dangerous man. He was willing to see Sid die at the expense of being overwhelmed by the Orc Leader's golems that he was constantly producing.

Eren wouldn't intervene in the battle anymore unless she told him to. So Altashia finally used her voice communication channel to command the guy.

Despite all his anti-team actions, Altashia didn't develop any negative feelings about Eren. She thought it was cool, which surprised her.

Eren seemed almost as talented as Altashia if not more. The exceptional ranker in her treated the butcher's coldness as one of his charms. Her brain processed all those emotions and information about Eren on a conscious and subconscious level, and created intrigue for him in her heart.

AN: Guys, Code Red. I'm kinda simping on Altashia! ;)