Ralph's body crashed to the ground with a distinct thud. The guy almost lost his consciousness because of such a brutal attack on his brain. It was only through the sheer will that he was keeping his eyes open, if only barely.
Eren was about to manhandle him some more. But alas, he didn't have time. Jayce had decided to intervene. With his earth-element spell that turned his skin stone-like, he didn't have to worry too much about the repercussions of Eren's lightning spells.
Jayce swung his hammer with all his might and aimed the impact at Eren's leg. The kneecap region to be precise.
Blitz Steps.
Eren used his movement spell to coat his legs with lightning element mana before using the mana-generated momentum to jump as high as he could. The hammer missed Eren's leg barely as he jumped in the air.
Blitz Storm.
Eren cast his AoE spell, this time with more effectiveness than before because he was just above Jayce's head. The spell's lightning streaks had the victim within their reach.
Jayce was still completing his hammer swing when a shower of sparks of lightning rained down on him from above. The guy was bathed in lightning as his hammer swing was completed.
Eren didn't stop after casting the AoE spell. He knew the spell would have a reduced effect on Jayce. So he chose to overload Jayce's contact with lightning.
Nothing was really impervious to lightning. It was only a matter of lower or higher resistance. All things had their breaking point. And Eren was about to test Jayce's by overloading him with his lightning.
Blitz Steps.
Eren gripped Jayce's head by sandwiching it between both his feet before casting his movement spell. The spell was cast not to move away from Jayce but to make him experience the lightning hell Eren was intending to subject him to.
No matter how tough and resilient Jayce's skin was, it couldn't do anything when an electric eel incarnate like ranker detonated his lightning spells so close to his brain. As a result, his body froze and he experienced the stun effect.
Jayce felt his body become numb as he felt Eren's shock treatment. He would have succumbed to the treatment and fallen unconscious if it wasn't for his earth-element mana that was fighting against the foreign mana invasion.
Blitz Storm
Blitz Storm x2
Blitz Storm x3
Blitz Steps
Blitz Steps x2
Blitz Steps x3
Eren poured more and more mana into all of his spells at the same time. Usually, an official ranker who was only in the first stage of the Meta rank didn't have the spell casting proficiency that was needed to cast multiple spells at once.
Stan, Jayce, and Ralph also had their limits. Plus, they also had limitations on spell stacking. It means to cast the same spell multiple times to increase its potency. Various factors such as proficiency in casting spells, mana core, elemental attainment, mana circuits, etc determined these limits.
But Eren had almost removed all his restrictions because of his digested memories and his infinite mana core. He was stacking his lightning spells like crazy.
In a few more seconds, Jayce was brought to his knees before losing control over his body. He fell flat on his face as his body was pushed forward by Eren's jump at the very last moment.
Only then did Eren breathe a sigh of relief and canceled all his spells. He too had been reaching his limit. Not in terms of his mana expenditure. But he felt like his mana circuits would be fried if he continued using the spells the way he was using them.
'Not invincible, huh! Kind of a bummer. But never mind. I respect what I have been given but I'd strive to have more.'
Eren thought to himself and chuckled.
'Be happy. But never be satisfied.'
A thought rippled in his mind from his digested memories.
He still had blood on his clothes and skin. But it was all dried up. The Blitz Hel spell had done its job well. Now he only had bruises and some minor internal injuries that he could heal over time. For now, his pulsating mana circuits needed a short break.
Eren took a long breath and looked around him. He had taken care of all his opponents. Stan was lying on the ground with expressions of disbelief painted on his face. He was still wide awake. And yet, he was the most out of his mind of the trio.
Ralph was whining and crying like an injured dog about to succumb to its injuries. And Jayce had passed out. Now that he had lost his consciousness, his stone-skin spell was no longer effective. He was as vulnerable as he could get.
Eren looked above him and stared into the sky as he contemplated what had just happened to him. There were so many things he needed to do in this life that he had stopped thinking about them. But now, with his infinite mana powers added into the equation, he needed to broaden his horizons. His goals.
'Raquel!'
Eren immediately thought of a name. But he immediately shook his head in denial, saying 'too soon' to himself in his head.
'First things first. I need to sort this mess out.'
Eren thought and started walking in Stan's direction with calm and collected footsteps. The latter was snapped back into reality when he felt someone approach him with his mana sense.
Stay away from me. Don't you fokin dare come near me."
Stan said as he dragged his body backward with his hands. He wanted to create a distance between himself and Eren, a job he was miserably failing at because of the latter's unhindered stride.
Eren chuckled when he saw Stan's condition. The usual beautiful smile that he used to greet people with was no more. It was replaced with expressions of horror and dread. These negative emotions were injected into his restless psyche by the same person who he had called a lowlife.
"Let me borrow your lines, Stan. I'll let you know my way of showing gratitude."
Eren said with the same graceful smile Stan used to have on his face.