Ebony arrived atop the wall to see that the forward camp that was slowly retreating was in shambles. He was familiar with the scent of blood and the scene of carnage so he was fine. The only additional feeling was pity.
It was weird that he felt pity out of all other feelings but Everlasting Tranquillity kicked back to high gear, just like old times. Trolls standing at 8 to 10 metres tall were grabbing soldiers by their legs and chewing their bodies out like fries. They stood there withstanding any attack thrown at them. Once they moved their arms a bit, another soldier would be helplessly grabbed. Sometimes more than a single soldier would be caught. The Trolls savoured their prey differently. Some squeezed a few together and drank their juices before tossing the dried-out lump and swallowing them and others spit out bones and armour after chewing. Two of them were even challenging each other to see how many targets the bones spit out could pierce.
“You guys are making it hard for me to feel bad about killing you.” Honestly, this was closer to what Ebony imagined a war with people-eating giants was like. Not flinging spells and rocks at each other for months or shaking hands and demarcating a spot to have their strongest warriors duel to the death to decide the winner.
The soldiers were running back to the safety of the barrier and walls but many of them were panicking. General Bernard was doing his best to get his soldiers to move orderly but not every soldier heard him or his voice wasn’t able to pierce through the fear that some had. The situation wasn’t at its worst yet as there was still a defensive line being held. They must have reacted and formed up really quickly.
He knew that they were buying time till reinforcements arrived but at the rate the Trolls were pushing, that was quite the dream result. The Frost Elves weren’t present as far as he could see so he raced to the blazing light cutting through the army. Seems like she was still reasonable enough to follow Cap Dwarf.
His body decided that Cap Dwarf had made the best decision and went for the weakest link in the army. Unfortunately, it was the enemy's greatest spearhead. A squad of King-ranked warriors bathed in blood and an even darker layer of Vitality was slowed down there. Their rank was obvious from their size.
General Impes could be seen fighting out there with the other high-rank soldiers but the Trolls relied on the ridiculous layer of Vitality to dismiss casual attacks and aim for weaker soldiers to eat. General Impes similarly used a large sword and wore heavy armour. She was a bit slow compared to the King-ranked Trolls. Ebony knew she was around level 390 or so, it was pretty good that she wasn’t getting squished to death and could even gain the attention of two of these Trolls. The other 3 Generals dealt with one or two each and there were 2 Trolls left that were free to roam.
There were also Grand Knights that were strong but didn’t have a high rank, a group of them led by a Commander were risking their lives to hold back one. The last remaining King ranked Troll was unrestrained but Cap Dwarf would reach in the next 10 seconds.
Thousands of Grandmaster Trolls 7 to 8 metres tall were devastating the rest of the army with never before seen vigour. Many of them were part of the Benumbed Tribe that worked together with the Vigiot Tribe. They were doing everything they could to destroy General Bernard's formations but the soldiers were picking themselves up fast. Formations were effective, good teamwork goes a long way and Grandmaster Trolls wasn’t able to overpower and break through tight formations.
Ning Xin didn’t rush towards the remaining King, like Cap Dwarf. He knew it wasn’t because she was more self-aware but that Cap Dwarf called dibs. She started unleashing her fury on the other Trolls. As for where her fury came from it might be because Cap Dwarf was one step ahead of her. Ebony did the same, staying within a kilometre of her as much as possible. It was a range he could reach extremely fast, within one or two steps, any more and he was uncomfortable.
With refined Everlasting Tranquillity at level 463, he had a 2415% increased mana and stamina regeneration rate or a 25.15 times multiplier. Base effective Wisdom of 2211 meant a regen speed of 2211 mana per hour for a human but his Fortification increased that by 500% or a base 60% mana regen instead of a base 10%. So he naturally regenerated 13266 mana per hour without his Core Skill. With it, over 330,000 per hour or around 5560 per minute.
His domain was costly, even after getting used to it and knowing where to cut down on mana it cost over 2000 mana per minute for a 5-metre radius. Mana cost only increases exponentially somewhat proportional to volume. It wasn’t something a Master like him can use consistently unless he had greater elemental mana efficiency from his Fortifications. He could barely sustain a 8-metre radius domain until his Will ran out but that was very inefficient against giant opponents. He could choose to decompress the mana inside him and that would easily let him cast a bigger one for an extended period of time but he would never do that unless really necessary.
He wasn’t an immobile mage, he could just cast a small domain and bring it along anywhere he goes. The size of his domain didn’t truly matter. It just had to be at a comfortable size to extend the reach of his full strength. 5 metres was usually decent. Adding that with any other enhancement he had wouldn’t even dip into his compressed mana pool. This left him with a full pool to cast mana-intensive freezing flames and some gravity spells. Stalactite Drop and Blazing Deep Freeze Petals took the most, his greatsword can handle as much mana as he could imbue and with the help of Will, he can conjure as many petals as he wants by overdrafting his mana.
Together, they laid waste to the tribeless Grandmaster Trolls. It wasn’t really a fight. The Warriors just didn’t have a good way to contest his penetrative cold. All they had was a thicker layer of Vitality than usual. Even when it came to physical strength, only some of them were stronger than Ning Xin and about 50% of them were stronger than Ebony. As for technique, the Xeng crushed them with pure skill with the blade while their swings were always disrupted by gravity pulling them aside. If they were too strong, Ebony was like a phantom they couldn’t touch. They were just hitting his afterimage that remained longer with the help of Frigid Refraction.
Sadly, they weren’t able to kill many before another squad of seemingly tribeless Kings leapt forward. Calculated Hunch told him these were the ‘mass-produced’ ones that evolved with either 25 or 50% buffs to their Fortifications. The pattern was that tribeless usually had Fortifications such as ‘Muscle mass increased by…,’ ‘Bone density increased by…,’ ‘Natural reflex speed increased by…,’ and of course, ‘Base Health Regeneration rate increased by…,’ or ‘Limb regeneration rate increased by…’
Those that come from different Tribes would diverge but generally, all of them had the same Fortifications if they trained, hunted and fought the same way. Weapon-based Fortification was very common as well. There were decent tribeless, such as the Hunters but Ebony avoided them to slay the weaker ones and reduce the pressure on the army.
He surrounded himself with thousands of blue petals that weren’t just a bundle of flames but had a semi-liquid body. They were kept in place with Will, charging towards those Trolls allowing the petals to come into contact with their skin. The layer of Vitality made it troublesome because it took more time but showering them with petals was their death sentence as they weren’t able to touch the petals to remove them and within his domain, shockwaves from strong swings couldn’t tear the petals away. If they could, more petals would take over. Once a Troll was completely frozen solid, it would vibrate and shatter the body before regathering into petals and floating along. Only if it was within his domain though.
‘3 to 4 petals confirm their death, that’s one more than usual.’
He pushed Treading Stride to the limits and dodged one Hunter squad. They had a large symbol of a chipped axe tattooed over one arm all the way to their chest and shoulder blade. The tattoo regenerates with them and was a mark of valiance and strength amongst the Trolls. This particular squad wasn’t his Hunter and they weren’t exactly quick on their feet. Actually, he already killed half of his previous Hunter squad. He wondered if they got new specialised Hunters for him.
Athena came down the cliffs like a meteor and went for the King squad, instantly pinning one to the ground with a bang. Her mana enhancement was pretty overwhelming in a sense, it was a core of mana within her that powered different parts of her body as she liked. This made it very mana efficient and directed attacks were very powerful but it leaves the rest of her body vulnerable if she doesn’t circulate the mana to protect targeted areas fast enough. That’s why she could tangle and even overpower Ning Xin in terms of speed and strength if she enhanced her upper or lower body respectively but couldn’t deal with heat that targets her entire body.
As a freshly evolved Grandmaster months ago, her growth speed was quite enviable.
The King warrior swatted her away from its shoulder but she already dodged to stake the next closest Troll in the neck. It pierced clean through but her supposedly large arrow-like stakes were tiny compared to their log-like necks. A dark red layer of gas enveloped the King’s neck and Athena abandoned her stake without any hesitation.
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The rest of Cap Dwarf’s unit who wanted to fight also joined in and fought off the King-ranked squad, saving Athena from a tough spot. Some of them were faces that said they would not fight any longer. Ayla and Hayec did the same as Ebony and Ning Xin and went to slay the Grandmasters bullying the army. However, they were staying close to the army while the dual-wielding masked girl was getting closer to Athena and the others.
The Commanders and Captains that were capable of fighting Grandmasters were locked down either commanding their soldiers or protecting them from multiple squads of them. The number of Grandmaster Trolls was just too much compared to the number of Grand Knights. Because the Imperial Army was also warrior dominant, they just couldn’t match the Trolls in terms of physical prowess.
Ebony looked around but he couldn’t spot a single Shaman. He knew they were just waiting for a chance to turn the situation around but he couldn’t stay back and watch Ning Xin charge deeper towards Athena by herself.
“Together.” He didn’t care much about how much more effective they would be if they separated.
‘Where are the elites…that’s Arti.’ A frosty blue bird flew towards them. Orren’s party gave them aerial support but they leapt off onto the city walls and used that to their advantage. They were good enough to give support from up there without hitting allies. Ebony saw that they were injured. Koawe rode Arti back into enemy territory after dropping off Orren’s party. Enya, the Master Snow Rogue and dagger wielder ran off and disappeared from the wall.
‘The real battle’s there.’ Ebony watched Koawe and Arti weaving past giant rocks as they flew past the Imperial Army.
Ebony and Ning Xin barged into Athena’s battle. They had to take one done as fast as possible and Athena wouldn’t hold them back.
Needless to say, he was the support here. He knew he was in charge of weakening their opponent as much as possible while strengthening his allies. Each battle was less than half a kilometre away from each other despite each other’s strength. They were doing their best to stop the Kings from moving deeper into Empire territory and their enemies were doing the opposite.
The distance made it difficult to support others but that was out of his hands and he wasn’t distracted by them.
At the top of the walls, his Glacial Models finished moving all the boxes and were within the range of his Will. He gave 25 of them orders to fight Trolls. They could identify Trolls now and he wasn’t giving them any attention after that. If one got destroyed another would jump off the walls.
Gravity magic was hard to affect King Trolls with seemingly unlimited strength but every little bit counts. It was still useful for his allies.
He cast Battle Song for both ladies but their effect was only 30% of his limit at best. With how compressed his mana was, Athena was uncomfortable for a short while.
It took two whole minutes of building speed and power before Ning Xin started to injure the beastly giant. They were evading strikes just a hair’s breadth away even after their opponent went serious and enhanced himself with Vitality. Ebony’s gravity magic didn’t get in the way of their movements at all. He was already exceedingly familiar with Ning Xin’s and Athena was good enough to adjust herself if necessary. His effortless prediction was empowered by Calculated Hunch.
Most of his efforts were placed on making sure that this Troll doesn’t escape. He already knew how they would retreat once they were in mortal danger. But the three of them weren’t enough to put the Troll in mortal danger. It was the opposite, one mistake and they would be pulverised.
Ebony went in to take the war axe’s blow instead of avoiding and countering like the two women. Athena extricated herself by sliding back and pulling out her bow. Her stakes were both her arrows and her dagger. Icicle was almost knocked out of his palms and a deep cut formed on its body. Icicle pulsed in pain.
The ice mana in it burst and forced the war axe to stay within Icicle. Ebony had to find a way to allow ice to dig through the dark red layer of Vitality. For some reason, these Trolls weren’t backed up by their Shamans and they had to make the best of it.
The Troll raised his war axe up and Ebony was raised along with it. He was about to smash Ebony along with his greatsword while taking the tiny cuts from Ning Xin and blocking the stakes flying at him with his other arm. The head of the war axe was already frozen and a blast of Sonic Intrusion shattered a small layer, freeing him. Firm Path dragged him away mid-air but it was too slow. He didn’t conjure a platform to kick off fast enough. The staked arm punched at him with explosive speeds. This opened the Troll's body for Athena but the Troll didn’t care.
Every limb of the Troll was already linked with a point of gravity mana to assist his allies' evasion. He Willed gravity to link with him and made it repel him. It would push him extremely far away but the damage sustained will be reduced greatly as the punch was just repelling him.
‘...’ Ebony watched as the Troll grinned, the punching arm grabbed the handle of his war axe and accelerated down onto the ground. Repulsion on the ground would only hurt him further, especially because of how durable the ground here was. But it happened in a split second and not even his Will acted fast to come up with any countermeasures.
Calculated Hunch and Everlasting Tranquillity didn’t act up. With all his defences up, there was roughly a 70% chance the strike won’t kill him so his Will decided on what to do next to pull himself out of the situation.
His slow mind didn’t account for Ning Xin who was the epitome of speed. She flashed at lightning speed and grabbed him out right under the war axe. His Will never repelled her so she could touch him normally. It was heart racing to see the war axe cruise right by her head more so than onto him.
Calculated Hunch didn’t do a good job as she had never shown such blinding speeds before. She let him go and charged for the Troll before he realised it. With her sudden burst of speed, she pressured the Troll to guard her strike with his axe unlike before. The Troll finally took his opponent seriously, by parrying strikes he sent Ning Xin flying but she had her wings exploding with power and pushed her back for the next attack. The Troll couldn’t launch an attack and was on the defensive. From Ebony’s understanding, the only close-ranged fighter who could be on the attack against her was Mr Kidnapper and even then, she was the fiercer aggressor.
As for Athena, she was interrupted by another group of Trolls.
Waning Presence and Frigid Refraction were fully displayed as he unleashed Ceaseless Onslaught from different directions to distract the Warrior King. When the Troll ignored him to defend against Ning Xin’s strike, Ebony would jump to its face and kick it with Sonic Intrusion at full force. The Warrior King’s face burst into freezing flames but he quickly forced it out with a great amount of Vitality.
Ebony dipped away, and the Warrior King only swiped at a wisp of icy mist that was thanks to Frigid Refraction. The distraught Warrior King stumbled around and took both of their unending attacks as part of its brain was mushed up. Sadly, it didn’t even take 5 seconds to get a hold of itself. 5 seconds allowed them hundreds and thousands of strikes in but the steam rising from the Warrior King only showed them that it was still regenerating faster than they hurt it.
Two of them glanced at each other for an instant and broke off eye contact just as fast. Ning Xin changed her target from the vitals on the torso to the head. Ebony stayed on the ground. He froze his feet onto the giant’s calf and Tremor Stomped the back of its knee with his other feet. The Warrior Troll barely shook from that.
‘Stalactite Drop with Icicle in hand…’ A random reminder popped into his head.
The Warrior King violently shook him off before he could lop off one leg with his strongest attack. Well, with the Troll's defensive capabilities, his leg may still be mostly attached. Even if he could chop it off, even a Grandmaster Troll could regenerate it in a minute or so. But as long as Stalactite Drop landed, he was quite sure that he would be able to force his flames deep and throughout the entire Troll’s body. Once that happened, even if the Warrior King survive it would be drastically weakened.
Ning Xin knew that and was putting pressure on the Warrior King as he continued to gather all types of mana he had to cast Stalactite Drop. He had to make sure it was enough to be impossible for the Troll to get rid of quickly enough or at all. He was lucky Athena freed herself from the obstruction and joined Ning Xin. He was still very worried that she would fall sick at any moment. He never let his guard down, it was a magical plague and the Shaman’s presence couldn’t be felt on the battlefield. Who knew if they could strengthen or weaken the plague without a moment’s notice? Logically, even he was infected. The Shamans were wielders of Vitality like the mages were wielders of mana. The plague may be a type of spell and they could manipulate it like mages manipulate mana.
Ebony sped up, he wanted to drag the infected fighters out as fast as possible.
Although there were violent vibrations from the ground, so much so that he couldn’t tell exactly what was going on. An earth-shaking tremor from beyond enemy lines told him that Korta or his opponents were duking it out hard.
He might be charging Icicle up for Stalactite Drop but that didn’t stop him from dishing out kicks that send shocks into his target. It was more than just a little annoying. The Warrior King wasn’t blind, he could see the Icicle glowing like a blue sun and it only continued to get darker. Gravity Vortex within Icicle helped to pull and contain far more ice mana and pure mana for sonic vibrations than it usually could. After his mana liquified, gravity spells could be visible to some. If he continued to strengthen and compress it, perhaps it would be visible at all times to everybody. It was extremely dark purple like what his mana sense ‘sees’.
The cut on Icicle had regrown a bit, it wasn’t extremely fast but its repair speed improved quite a lot.
The greatsword didn’t even seem to be in the way as he moved around and kicked from random directions, many times the next kick came from the opposite direction.
The Warrior King blasted its red aura out and bent its knee, it was trying to get away!