Boom!

The summoned elephant struck the plant monster head-on and lifted him using his tusks. This was the same plant monster who had attacked Eren and almost deprived him of his vitality.

Swoosh!

The tusks released lance-like wind-element projectiles that pierced the wooden body before shooting upwards. It caused the monster to leave the ground and leap into the air.

“Maw!”

As the elephant aimed his trunk at the monster in the air, he released another trumpet sound. The mid-region of the trunk took on the shape of an air bubble from within as if a bowling ball was stuck in it. The growth was compressed by the beast soon after its formation. He shot forth a compressed ball of wind element. It was shot at the monster with such velocity that after hitting him, a gaping hole appeared in his torso.

Swoosh! Swoosh!

The wind-element elephant bullets were up to 3 inches in diameter and were shot with extreme velocity. The summoned elephant riddled the plant monster with these bullets. Some of these bullets were detonated inside the monster’s body, allowing the compressed wind-element mana to expand rapidly.

Two seconds after the monster was lifted into the air by the summoned elephant, he was already dead. And this was even though he was trying to regenerate his body using the vitality he had taken from Eren.

One had to note that the summoned creature was not this strong by default. It was Eren’s recent mastery of the wind element that was expressing itself through the summoning spell.

Gulp! Gulp! Gulp!

Eren dodged the vine trap headed for him using his movement spell. He drank an all-stats recovery potion while doing that. It brought some vitality back to him. He was already a bit pale, to begin with. But drinking the potion brought some life back to his face. The wrinkles on his face vanished and his muscles started working the way they were used to.

‘Damn. That was a close call.’

Eren thought to himself as he used his movement spell. Unlike before, he was able to dodge the vine traps effortlessly. That’s because he was using the Speed Aspect of the lightning. Something he wasn’t familiar with before.

Purple lightning.

Unlike before, Eren’s legs were clad in purple lightning. They allowed him to increase the effects of his movement spell by many levels. This enabled him to get more out of it using less mana consumption and fewer execution complications.

It seemed that there were four more plant monsters that had appeared after Eren’s summoned elephant had killed the first monster. They kept the beast busy while Eren had to deal with the previous three monsters.

Eren retrieved the pair of crossbows and aimed at the approaching plant monsters. The three Vargas had opened a joint front against him. They were trying to box him in using their coordination. Something they had refused to do in the beginning.

In the next moment, Eren found out that his difficulty in dodging the monsters’ attacks had increased. They were also shooting wood-element shrapnels at him. They were making use of the roots sprouting from the ground all of a sudden, trying to hinder his mobility.

In addition to Alfem and Taranbiest, Eren used Igni Waves from his weapons. But somehow, they gained access to an expedited recovery. It allowed them to survive Eren’s onslaught.

The battle continued with time and the monster numbers were increasing despite Eren’s efforts to cull them. It was as if the third stage of the testing grounds had an unlimited supply of them stashed somewhere.

No sooner than he killed a monster or two with his actions or through his summoned creatures, another would appear to take its place. Eren felt like a stalemate had been reached even though it looked like he was winning.

Eren’s wind-element-summoned creature did the most damage to the plant monsters. He destroyed the monsters within seconds using various spells at his disposal.

Spell integration.

Spell integration was another concept that wasn’t strictly element-specific in nature. It allowed someone to cast two or more spells as one instead of overlapping them by casting them separately and combining them on a superficial level.

Spell integration increased the complexities of casting spells. But the tradeoff was worth it when one looked at the result. The effects of two compatible spells getting integrated were greater than the summation of the effects of two respective spells if they were to be cast separately.

The more complex a spell integration was, and the more compatible the integrated spells were with each other, the greater their combined effects were. Due to how Eren used spell integration in conjunction with the summoning creatures, they got innate powers that weren’t available from rudimentary spell casting.

The spells the summoned creature was using were Eren’s wind element spells. He had successfully managed to integrate them into his summoned creature, thanks to his epiphany.

But the summoned creature had its limits as well. They did not come from Eren’s supply of mana. Since he was acting on a borrowed consciousness, the beast had an inherent limit placed on his active summon time. It was dependent on a lot of factors. But now, it was running out because of his excessive use.

“Mawwww!”

The summoned elephant crushed another plant monster under its feet before shooting a pair of elephant bullets at him using his trunk. By using his lance-like tusk projectiles and shooting them at critical velocity, he killed another monster.

Eren’s summoned elephant was dispersed in thin air after killing a pair of monsters, causing a huge wave of wind-element repulsive force that knocked the plant monsters surrounding him.

Eren decided not to summon the elephant again. He had come to realize that no matter how many elephants he summoned, it would be useless if the monsters just increased their numbers in return.

As of this moment, he had already killed over a dozen plant monsters. Still, their numbers would just get replenished over time. The battlemage needed to find another solution to his problem.

However, Eren was glad that he was able to fight these monsters right after he received his recent epiphany. Their crazy spawn rate didn’t bother him in the least because he had infinite mana core and he wasn’t in any life-threatening situation anymore.

He took this opportunity to apply all that he had digested in his epiphany. As part of the current battle, he was strengthening various concepts.

The summoned elephant was not the only summoned creature he had. Using Alfem and Taranbiest together with spell integration was what he had decided to do.

The butcher maintained a safe distance from his opponents while summoning a new batch of firebirds and lightning hounds. He also made the existing summoned creatures, that battle with him against the rest of the monsters, transform themselves.

A series of mana pulses spread as Eren’s summoned creatures started transforming. The firebirds developed scales made of Igni Shards over their bodies. This was more than just overlapping a spell over a mana body. The scales this time were part of the summoned creatures’ bodies, giving them minute control over the shards and enhanced detonation potential.

These birds could rain Igni Shards over their opponents using the flapping of their wings. They could use breath attacks followed by their detonation, making it their finishing move.

The claws of some of the firebirds turned into arrowheads for Igni Bolt Blasts. The birds could also rain breaths of fire on their opponents, courtesy of the spell integration of Igni Breath.

The firebirds could only use one integrated spell at a time before they were detonated. As such, the spell effects couldn’t overlap for now. However, the damage potential of Alfem had increased by leaps and bounds because of the spell integration. The summoning spell had stopped being a rudimentary spell for Eren. With spell integration of his choice, he had made the spell his.

Furthermore, some of the firebirds were not a mix of orange and red. They were made of white flames that represented a different aspect of fire.

The same could be said for Taranbiest. The lightning hounds also received a huge upgrade because of the spell integration. They grew Blitz Shards over their bodies. The blue beasts’ legs were coated in purple lightning, indicating that some of them could use Eren’s movement spell Blitz Steps.

Some of the lightning hounds had developed a dense ball of mana inside their bodies that would explode as Blitz Storm. Some had their limbs turned into Solid Sparks.

Some of the lightning hounds had completely purple bodies. They represented the speed aspect of lightning with their very being.

Within a few moments, the entire scene inside the third stage changed. Eren’s summoned creatures transformed into sinister beings that remained tame under his control.

One could say that Eren acted more like a summoner than a battlemage at this point. He looked at his surroundings before taking a lungful of air that was charged with his lightning.

Eren jumped using his movement spell and soared into the air. Narrowing his eyes, he mumbled to himself.

‘Let the fireworks begin.’

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