Chapter 98
The massive troll in front of me lets out a roar as it turns.
I’ve fought trolls before, but nothing quite like this. These must be a unique desert variant... and supersized!
The beast begins charging at me with flailing limbs and its heavy club showing off a newly grown pair of red eyes and sharpened teeth. With my blade on fire, I activate bloodlust and berserker just for good measure while charging right back at it.
In two clean cuts, I slash a fiery “X” across the monster’s front side, cutting it into 4 pieces. The massive chunks of burning flesh hit the hard orange rock floor with a thud. I watch the remains burn to ash.
While deactivating my skills, I turn to my team members.
“These are going to be a bit tough. We need magic to defeat them, preferably fire.”Ñøv€lRapture marked the initial hosting of this chapter on Ñôv€lß¡n.
Nessa smirks and raises her sword.
“Looks like I’m all set then!”
She lights it on fire, then Maria speaks up.
“I’ve fought similar monsters back in basic training! Ice magic works too, it’s just not as effective as fire.”
I nod slowly, then turn to Abby and Bruce. The green-haired girl speaks first.
“There’s a troll dungeon in the capital. I’ve trained there a few times.”
Bruce gulps and turns to her.
“So... How do you beat them...?”
Abby grins.
“It’s pretty simple. Brute force.”
I open my mouth with a confused look on my face but tighten my lips and hold back as Bruce replies while swinging his hammer around.
“Oh yeah? So I can just smash ‘em to bits?”
Abby nods with a light chuckle.
“Kind of. Once their MP runs out, the regeneration property they possess also loses its effect. The longer we can keep them fighting, the better chance we have of killing these trolls off.”
They both nod at each other with a serious stare.
I smile.
“Well, looks like the two of you have some work to do.”
The troll dissolves and I pick up the mana crystal it drops. The five of us sit around planning our descent into the canyon while enjoying a small break to eat and drink some of our rations.
I continuously keep track of our surroundings with enemy detection, but we aren’t disturbed at all for over 25 minutes.
Eventually, our moment of peace is over, as another impossibly large desert troll stomps into our general vicinity. Maria perks up.
“Let me take a crack at this one!”
It barely lets out a grunt. The club drops from its hands to the floor as the sorry excuse for a monster gets incinerated on the spot. Its remains are unidentifiable piles of ash on either side of my trail of flames.
I look to my right side to see Maria freezing their troll’s legs solid while Nessa decapitates the monster with a fiery slash. After a few more hits for good measure, the two of them defeat their beast with ease.
Lastly, I look to Abby and Bruce.
Bruce is keeping the Troll occupied with his hammer and shield. They seem to be similar strengths, but the troll is having a bit of trouble moving forward with the large spears of rock stuck through its legs.
Abby darts around the troll hitting it with cheap shots as the monster focuses on the tank.
The two of them tag team the oaf, landing hit after hit. Every time Bruce’s hammer makes contact, portions of the monster’s flesh are blown away, but unfortunately mended on the spot. Abby’s spears of rock create holes in the monster’s legs and vital spots, but they’re all regenerated in a matter of seconds as well.
Of course, this is going all according to their plan.
Nessa, Maria, and I let our trolls dissolve and collect the mana as we watch the two of them work. It takes a while... and 1 MP potion each, but after these series of cheap hits, and defensive maneuvers, the two of them break down the trolls MP and start to deal actual damage.
The first sign of this is a solid hit to the side of the head by Bruce. He breaks the monster’s jaw and it roars out in pain. Usually, it would grunt to itself and regenerate its shattered teeth and droopy lower jaw, but this time around it just stares the tank down with murderous intent.
Both Abby and Bruce grin ear to ear making eye contact with each other, then going in for the kill.
Abby creates two massive spears of stone in each hand glowing bright green while running at the beast. Bruce yells out a battle cry while lifting his hammer high in the air.
Abby skewers the beast in two places. One massive spear stabs directly through the chest, while the other lodges itself in the troll’s right eye.
Finally, Bruce jumps high in the air bringing down his mighty war hammer with impressive strength. Bones crunch under the pressure as it makes contact with the top of the giant monster’s head in an explosion of blood and brains.
The Troll falls to its knees with a final whimper. The two of them smirk while turning toward the three of us. Abby jumps in the air excitedly.
“Woohoo! I gained 2 levels for that!”
Bruce grins and throws his hammer over a shoulder.
“Same. We’re going to need to be able to do that ourselves though. I’m not ready to face the boss alone....”
I nod while walking near the edge of the overlook.
I peer down toward the back of the dungeon while my other four teammates talk amongst themselves.
The massive number of high-level beings on my enemy detection radar finally becomes clear to me... It was not other hunters after all...
I turn around and wave the other over.
“If we can make it through this, I’m sure the boss will be a walk in the park.”
The five of us take in the view.
There’s a pit 500m below us, it’s around 1km long and 1km wide. At the very back, I can see the faint glow of a boss room portal.
Guarding the entrance... I see over 100 giant desert trolls. They all pace around frantically, attacking each other and anything that moves. The disgusting creatures are covering every last square meter of land between us and that portal.
Bruce gulps, Abby glows green, Nessa draws her silver sword lighting it on fire, Maria glows blue freezing the ground beneath her feet, and I... Well, I stare out at my prey in awe.
“It’s time to burn every last one of these trolls to ash.”
