The troll leaned back and roared. If not
for Sebastian’s newfound strength as a [Core Formation] cultivator, his
body may have not have been able to withstand the sound wave. The rocky
landscape shook. Everyone shielded their ears, but they immediately
returned to throw every Skill they had at the monster as soon as it
finished its roar.
Bishop wielded his giant axe with a speed that felt
unnatural for something so large and heavy. Dolan sent the strongest
arrows he could create toward the beast, turning its side into a
pincushion. Silas’ advanced swordsmanship cut into the troll’s side,
taking pounds of flesh with every slice. All the while, Rafi caused the
environment around the monster to shift and falter, disrupting it as
best he could.
The dark of night was lit up by the flashing essence of
their Skills. Clashes of steel and hardened, troll flesh echoed
throughout the region, accompanied by the occasional screams of pain as
the troll took hit after hit. The landscape of the small, rocky valley
was rearranged as boulders shattered and mounds of dirt and rock were blown away from the battle.
Sebastian wasn’t holding back either.
He remained at the troll’s back as best he could, and he
jumped in to deliver the most powerful attacks he could muster whenever
the opportunity presented itself.
Now that he had reached [Core Formation], his strength
had multiplied. Although he didn’t have the wherewithal to truly analyze
his new power in the midst of the chaos, he instinctively felt that he
might even rival Silas in terms of pure physical ability.
In spite of his new strength, he still didn’t have any
proper Techniques. His swordsmanship was still weak and the [Spirit
Union] Technique wasn’t exactly an offensive Technique.
Using the powerful essence powered by his Core, even
though it was still tiny, gave him the power-up needed to even be a part
of the fight. Just a few weeks ago he wouldn’t even be able to break
the troll’s skin.
Even so, each wound he left on the troll healed before the next cut.
They were on the troll like ants, biting away as it thrashed and tried to get them off.
It violently swung its massive club, but each time it hit
nothing but air. The more cuts and hits it took, the more frustrated it
grew. The giant troll stopped swinging wildly when it realized that
wasn’t working and instead began using its club as a shield against the
arrows and Bishop’s axe.
Trolls weren’t the most intelligent monsters, but they
lived their lives in a constant state of fighting, either for food, for
survival, or for mating. As a direct result, they had a natural
understanding of timing, and how important it was to take advantage of
any window of opportunity which might lead to its victory.
It ignored Silas’ and Sebastian’s small cuts, realizing
that they couldn’t do any real damage, and it blocked most of Dolan and
Bishop’s attacks.
The party knew that they would lose in a battle of
attrition. They had to do as much damage as they possibly could, either
to force it to run away or to kill it outright.
They did have one advantage that the troll didn’t have, though, teamwork.
Rafi noticed the shift in the flow of the fight and used a
great deal of his energy to cast a spell, not on the troll itself but
on the ground beneath it. The rocky ground underneath the troll’s right
foot softened in a flash. It sunk down into the rocks, submerging its
entire ankle. Rafi pushed another surge of energy with expert timing to
solidify the rock again, trapping its foot in solid, magically hardened
stone.
Bishop made use of the opportunity. He sent another swing
of his axe toward its side, knowing that it was in no position to block
it.
The troll let him. It also knew how to make use of an
opportunity. The ape-like beast knew that it could take a hit, and that
the tiny human wouldn’t be able to attack and dodge at the same time.
In that split second after its foot got trapped, it instinctively made a plan and acted on it.
Just as Bishop was mid-swing, the troll threw a backhanded fist directly at Bishop.
The troll was right, he couldn’t dodge. His axe lodged
itself into the trolls side, but Bishop was sent flying into the side of
the valley, embedded into the rock. Without Bishop’s energy to sustain
it, his axe shrunk and fell to the ground. As the wound on the troll’s
side began to close, the troll turned its attention toward Dolan and
Rafi—the two opponents it deemed most annoying, who happened to be quite
near each other at the moment.
Rafi had been pumping out magic to make the melee
fighters much stronger. It might not be clever enough to understand the
details, but it recognized the simple pattern of him doing magic and the
others becoming stronger, or the environment turning against it. All
the while, Dolan had been pestering the troll with a seemingly endless
supply of powerful arrows, each one packing enough of a punch to be a
problem.
It raised the club and threw it, with a might that surpassed comprehension.
Dolan had recently reached level 50, and was a ranger who
specialized in moving quickly. Utilizing his Skills to the absolute
peak of his abilities, he only barely dodged the incoming club the size
of a large tree trunk. However, just being grazed on his back as he
vaulted over it was enough to send him tumbling.
He at least survived, Rafi didn’t.
Even as impressive as he had been in the few melee
encounters he had been forced to handle over the past few weeks, he was
nowhere near fast or nimble enough to avoid the missile of a club coming
at him.
“NO!” Silas screamed.
The troll tore the stone ground apart like clay as it lifted its foot free from the rocks that had trapped it.
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It briefly locked eyes with Silas and slammed its foot
toward him. The swordsman—who had lost all the color in his face—quickly
used his Footwork Skill to escape the incoming attack. The troll had
expected that. It followed Silas at a dizzying speed, and while he was
still midair smacked him into the ground with its open hand, killing him
instantly. A splatter of blood and gore on the rocky surface was all
that remained, like a bug on a windshield.
Stone was still stuck to the troll’s foot, and in
frustration it stomped into the ground and kicked the rocks on the
valley slope to try and remove it.
Sebastian had cleared some distance from the troll and
had just reached Dolan to make sure he was still alive when Bishop called out. The leader of the hunters had climbed out of the hole he was buried
in, covered in blood, and he looked over his shoulder toward Sebastian
and Dolan.
“D, Baz… Run! I won’t be able to hold it for long, but I can give you two enough time to get away.”
Dolan opened his mouth to speak but didn’t know what to
say. They were both experienced enough to know that this was the only
hope any of them had to survive.
A part of him wanted to object, to rush back into the
fight and die together, as a team. Another part, a stronger part, wanted
to live. It wasn’t pure selfishness, however. He recognized Bishop’s
sacrifice for what it was, and there was too much history and respect
between them for him to reject his friend’s final wish for them to
survive.
He clenched his fist and turned to leave. Just as
Sebastian was about to follow him, Bishop called out again, “Oh, and
take this.” He took a small bag off his belt, which had somehow survived
the carnage, and threw it to Sebastian. “My token and keys, it’s not
much but it’ll help once you two get to Celder. Now hurry. Run!”
Bishop picked up his axe and used every bit of energy he had to pounce at the troll.
Sebastian and Dolan didn’t look back. They just ran, as fast as they could.
The echoes of fighting continued for a while as they ran, but the sound of the struggle grew dimmer.
Then, with a final crash, it stopped completely.
The two ran west.
None of them said a word.
With the storm gone they could run at
top speed across the rocky terrain. After several hours of running in
silence, they entered another forest biome. It resembled a pine forest
except the trees had leaves, not needles. They were tall and majestic
with bare trunks. Only up high did branches fan out to form a colorful
canopy.
Sebastian’s mind was empty as he ran. Whether the trauma
had simply wiped away every thought or if his mindset had changed as his
mind and body evolved with his cultivation was impossible to know.
All that mattered was running.
And to do that as fast as possible, he circulated his
essence, especially following the path laid out for the [Fleeting Cloud
Step].
Even just circulating his essence, though he had yet to gain the true Technique, helped him run at extreme speeds.
Trees rushed past him, the wind screeched, and yet the
ground where he ran remained remarkably calm. As though someone had
merely jogged or even walked briskly past rather than sprinted at full
speed.
Soon, the dawn of a new day lit up the forest, and yet
Sebastian and Dolan kept running. Neither of them dared to stop—not just
for fear that the troll or some other powerful monster might catch them
if they did but because if they stopped, it would become real.
For Dolan, the other hunters were basically his family ever since he lost his sister.
And for Sebastian, he might not have known them for too
long, but they were his only friends in this world. His teachers and his
protectors. Dolan’s presence was all that kept him sane.
It wasn’t reasonable, but as he ran his heart blamed the
Lumerian royalty. If they hadn’t summoned him, if they hadn’t tried to
kill him, he wouldn’t have had to flee the country. He wouldn’t have had
to hire the hunters, and they wouldn’t have been forced to flee
alongside him, and they would never need to be out so deep into the
woodlands.
Hatred and rage fueled his sprint. His brief clash with
Kevin had led him to believe that he had gotten pretty strong, he kept
up with a true Blessed One after all. This troll, however, cemented his
weakness in his mind. There was no other choice. He would have to
improve his skill with the sword, learn new Techniques, and grow strong.
Strong enough that he could destroy that wretched kingdom.
With his current strength, Sebastian could run for a very
long time. They didn’t stop when the sun set again, and they didn’t
stop when the sun rose once more. Not until late in the afternoon on the
second day did they finally feel ready to find somewhere to rest.
They looked for somewhere that could function as shelter
for the night. Since they didn’t have the tent or the magical fence,
they had to settle for a small cave.
Sebastian, fortunately, had had the wherewithal to grab
his bag from the trashed camp when he ran. His manual was the single
most important thing in his life right now, he would never leave it,
even if he had to fight that massive troll for it. Right now he was
mostly glad for another thing in his bag, the map and compass he bought
back in Blackoak. The blankets were nice as well.
Originally when he left Blackoak all those months ago, he
had intended to walk—or even run given his new powers at the time—but
when he learned that there was a simple train to take, he basically
forgot about them in his bag. Now they came in handy. The two were
magically linked so the map showed him where the compass was located.
The map cut off where the Silvervale Woodlands ended and Lumeria claimed
the Calindor Federation began, which meant that for the moment they
were still just along the edge of the map.
“A linked map and compass, didn’t know you had that. That’ll come in handy”
Sebastian shrugged his shoulders. “I bought them before I
even left for Luxendorf, figured it would be good to have. Never really
needed them though, not with your guys’ help.”
A somber silence befell the cave at the mention of their fallen friends.
Sebastian traced his finger along the path he estimated
that they had traveled. Dolan followed along with his eyes before
pointing out a spot on the map.
“There, that’s the old passage. It’s not actually much of
a passage, but it’s a path through the western slope of the mountain.
It hasn’t been used much in the last decade since it’s right on the
border of the troll’s territory, but that’s not an issue now.
Sebastian blinked. “Wait, the troll’s territory? You guys knew about the troll?”
With a shrug, Dolan answered, “Of course, it’s one of the
regional titans.” He circled an area just west of the passage with his
finger. “This area has been claimed by the troll for the past 8, maybe
9, years. And all the way down here is the territory of the Roc, the
Titan controlling the area where we usually hunt.”
“You hunt inside the territory of a monster similar to
that troll?” Sebastian asked incredulously. “Why would you want to go
anywhere near it?”
“We don’t.” Dolan shook his head. “Titans are monsters
rank 6 and up, they should be avoided whenever possible. Their physical power
typically makes them stronger than humans at the same level. The reason
we hunt inside their territories is simple—monsters are attracted to
power. And the Roc, as a big bird, isn’t usually much of a problem for
us hunters down on the ground, beneath the canopy. So it makes for a
good hunting ground. We don’t know exactly why, probably just for some
innate drive to grow stronger, but most monsters tend to clump together
inside the territories of stronger monsters. Areas without a Titan tend
not to have any monsters of value or of any decent level, like the
koblings from the edge of the forest. Similarly, you want to avoid
hunting in the territories of Overlords, once monsters reach over level
80 they basically become living natural disasters.”
“I can imagine,” Sebastian said, subconsciously doing
just that. “So wait, if the troll’s territory is up here, why in the
hell did it ambush us? We were days away from its territory.”
“That’s the question isn’t it. First the dreadbear, then
the nighthounds, the barwendi, and now the troll. Something must have
happened in the western region, something bad enough to make rank 5—and
now even rank 6 monsters—flee their own territories. Hopefully, whatever it is, it's far enough away that we can avoid any more trouble.”
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