‘Ting’ ‘You have killed [Valiant Vigour Lvl 350]. No experience is gained due to maxed level. Insufficient potential experience accumulated.’
‘Ting’ ‘You have killed [Valiant Vigour Lvl 338]. No experience is gained due to maxed level. Insufficient potential experience accumulated.’
‘Ting’ ‘You have killed [Valiant Vigour Lvl 371]. No experience is gained due to maxed level. Insufficient potential experience accumulated.’
‘Ting’ ‘You have killed [Valiant Vigour Lvl 344]. No experience is gained due to maxed level. Insufficient potential experience accumulated.’
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‘Ting’ ‘You have killed [Iron-Skinned Trooper Lvl 394]. No experience is gained due to maxed level. Insufficient potential experience accumulated.’
‘Ting’ ‘You have killed [Iron-Skinned Trooper Lvl 483]. No experience is gained due to maxed level. Insufficient potential experience accumulated.’
‘Ting’ ‘You have killed [Ulstire-Boned Brawler Lvl 655]. No experience is gained due to maxed level. Enemy 355 levels or more above your own, sufficient potential experience accumulated. Experience converted to Natural Potential.’
‘Valiant Vigour are the soldiers or civilians that focus on health regeneration?’ The soldiers must have died before the Shamans were able to stop draining their life force. Ulstire, that’s the metal the Imperial armour is made of. Is it common on the Tova continent as well? Did it make its bones metal or is it just a name for tough bones?’ Ebony was a bit impressed by the Troll’s vitality. It actually died after the surrounding soldiers did despite being the target. The horizon was a sea of purple with both flames mingling. He didn’t personally see what happened but even as the earth melted and so did the unlucky few who didn’t stay away from his target, his target’s body was still in one piece.
The unlucky target should’ve had his entire internals blasted and pierced by the vibrating shards exploded by the release and reversal of Gravity Vortex. Those shards would either turn to concentrated mist or petals that freeze any surface they touched while melting from the heat. Disintegrated by intense heat. The Brawler’s body must not have held or the flames wouldn’t have spread. The ice portion fully melted in a short time so it was mostly dark flames that remained, her conjured blood that splattered around to act as fuel. The most important point was that one of the two Frost Elves helped to freeze his target right under both Benumbed and Vigiot’s patriarchs' noses. They should’ve left that area by now. Only the target, initial unlucky Trolls and connected Vitality suppliers died.
“Watch where you step! Traps that drain your strength have been set!” It seems like they weren’t sure if the traps drained vitality. This area had been under the Troll's territory for a long time, traps were expected.
Christy and her partner sealed off the centre with their spells but it seemed like Ebony’s little bomb angered the Trolls far too much. Balls of flesh rolled past the storm of hail without regard to the amount of damage they sustained.
Cap Dwarf’s giant snakehead arms flung to catch two but both his earthen limbs crumbled, hardly slowing the tossed Trolls down.
Korta conjured enormous stakes where the Trolls were going to land. The expert warriors shifted themselves to allow their limbs to get skewered, cutting them off swiftly. They grinned and roared, flexing their muscles. Their limbs explosively regenerated, bones, nerves and all. They put Rhoats and Shaman buffed Trolls to shame.
“You can put me down now.” They haven’t got far enough and it was quicker if he was on his feet.
Only 13 Trolls were tossed over, it was still easy enough to retreat with Korta and Cap Dwarf watching their back. Lucas fearlessly challenged one of the Vigiot Tribe’s Kings but he had enough presence of mind to cast a tidal wave to separate the Trolls from going any further. Korta took the opportunity to make the best use of the water.
Having elements on their side made it very advantageous against the race dominated by pure warriors.
“You’re not in your best condition.”
“Put a bit of your fire into these, they can’t sense how much mana is in them. We can use it to scare them.” Ebony didn’t complain and continued to be princess-carried. General Bernand had been at the far rear but he heard and saw what Ebony did. Ebony could pick out the vibrations or voices of certain people with his range and was able to tell that the old General was asking people to pass him fire mana ores that fire mages who couldn’t conjure fire used to power their spells.
He didn’t care if they were duds, he tossed hundreds of softball-sized ice. Some on the ground, some directly at the Trolls. Lucas got frightened after witnessing the power behind one of their bombs but the other elders and Frost Elves could sense the massive difference in mana. Fearless Trolls didn’t care but some of the ice balls that they crushed in contempt burst right in their faces. It was up to those holding the rear to see if they could make use of the opportunity to land a good one. At most, it would blow up and burn a tiny bit of their skin unless they ate it. He wasn’t willing to make her spend her own mana pool’s worth of mana.
“IS ELVA MADE OF COWARDS!”
“You could challenge someone one on one if you want,” Ebony replied with sound magic instead of shouting.
The Trolls only roared in deviance. If they were to fight one-on-one with Korta, the Frost Elf would wipe them clean. At least, that was what Ebony felt. From the loud silence of roars, he was probably right. The mid-level strength like him, Ning Xin, Athena and Lucas were probably their target before any sort of actual duel.
The Patriarchs' squads had the upper hand as 3 Frost Elves, 1 Dwarf, 1 lizardman disciple and 2 Generals from Fourth Tide weren’t really enough. It appeared that he was extremely lucky to have taken 1 out as it didn’t look like Korta could take them on even with some help. At least, not quickly.
Ebony and Ning Xin would likely be fighting the heirs or something. If they were dead, it would be harder for the rest of the Imperial Army to survive. The undying Trolls could then wait out for their tribe members as they were pretty much undying if they put their minds to it. When they went on the defensive, they were far harder to kill.
“How is this a duel?” He shook his head, he just wanted to force the Trolls to hurry up and fight like the proud warriors they were. “It’s their shamans’ plan isn’t it…how sad.”
“Mmhmm.” His prince with blazing wings had already told him that the Trolls seemed to be more angry at their own people than they were at the Imperial Army. Especially the stronger or more prideful bunch.
“Please let me down.” She finally relented and let him down.
Since only the Patriarchs' squad were on their tails, all of them annoyed when they saw what Ebony did.
It took some time before other Trolls started appearing behind. By then, they already retreated to a relatively safe distance from Christy and the others who were conducting the real battle. The battle that actually mattered.
Mallory and the other Generals were worried that Fourth Tide’s Tribe Patriarchs would abandon their war front and come over but that wasn’t too much of an issue. The Empire would just follow suit.
“You and you! Formal challenge, do you accept!” Lucas yelled while looking back to confirm if he did things right.
“Bring it little lizard!” The Benumbed Tribe Troll didn’t think that Lucas would challenge two of them from different tribes. Although they might work together in squads, the Benumbed Tribe was familiar with hunting with other Tribes. Lucas randomly pointed to one from Benumbed and one from the Vigiot Tribe.
“I eat lizards a hundred times your size but you shall do it for a snack.”
A ray of light emitted from the ground and enveloped Lucas and the other 2 Trolls he challenged.
“Is that what’s supposed to happen, can they not leave until their opponent is dead? Does this mean no one can interfere?” Ebony watched the light barrier expand into a 5 km diameter ring. It was a bit worrisome if Ning Xin challenged someone and he wasn’t able to interfere.
“In a sense, they can’t escape. The circle will just expand if the battle’s range requires it. It should be possible for us to walk in and out only if you don’t have the intention to interfere. Unless the records are wrong.”
The Trolls weren’t inclined to accept challenges from the Frost Elves or people like Radiance Envoy and one of Fourth Tide’s men who appeared to be a good fire mage. The other guy who fought by their side was probably a rogue with the short daggers he wielded and the throwing knives attached to him. It was hard to say if they were the best weapons for such giant opponents but he was actually doing a far better job than the fire mage. Ebony would even say he was more effective on the field than Cap Dwarf. The Frost Elves were using ice to slow their opponents but these Trolls were using their life force to create friction and heat within themselves. The rogue could inflict some sort of paralysis or stun that prevents these King warriors from chasing the bulk of the army.
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Ebony didn’t have the time to recall which academy it was that dealt with status-effect rogues.
In an hour or so, the rest of the Troll already caught up. Plenty of light rays denoted challenges all around. It appeared like he succeeded in pushing this to happen faster. The rays of light could overlap but it seems like both sides try not to interfere with each other as much as possible. No Shamans accepted a challenge by themselves yet.
They seemed to be aware of most of the Imperial combatants, by title. A wide area spread out for the large group of soldiers vs. soldiers and Shamans. This kicked out Ebony and the others. Mallory seemed to be included in the group fight. If she was as good as her fame, she would probably bring the Imperials to victory without much casualty. The only problem was that this group had those Spirit Shamans. The corrosion cloud and earthen battlefield were said to be a combined effort of many of these Spirit users together with Old Hag as the main caster.
Ning Xin found the squad of Hunter that chased her before and challenged their entire squad along with the 3 Shamans.
Ebony’s specific hunters seemed to be dead or split up since he didn’t see any. He looked around but there weren’t many Trolls left alone. Most were in the army fight. Since no one challenged him, he just fought anyone he saw but no lucky blows were landed. He wasn’t silly enough to accept a 1 vs. dozens either, the rays of light weren't a barrier that trapped them with him. If it was, he wasn’t really afraid of getting ganged up unless it was the King-ranked guys.
He already tried to enter the group fight that Mallory and General Bernard were taking command of but he just rammed into the ray of light. But if he were to trespass another’s battle unintentionally when he dodged an attack, he went through it without feeling a thing. It was a weird spell.
There were some Benumbed and Vigiot Tribe members who simply stood near the rear and watched the fights. They were only level 380ish but it was obvious from their aura and Ebony’s gut feeling that they were similar to the King-ranked fighters who were fighting 11 to 6 since Lucas took two away for a personal battle. It was clear that these Trolls didn’t trust Shamans to buff them, their own skill with life force manipulation must be far higher. They similarly wanted to trap Korta so that he couldn't cause havoc to younger Trolls but he could keep doing that until he accepted a challenge and any invitation with Shamans could be denied as he wished.
Most Shamans appeared to have relatively weak offensive capabilities and Korta probably wanted to take down the 11 warrior Kings as fast as possible. For some reason, the centre battle wasn’t demarcated by a ring of light. Perhaps Korta or anyone else had the chance to step into the Battle between Old Hag and the two Frost Elves.
Ebony taunted the Trolls and forced them to duel. He ignored those who wanted to have more than a 1 on 1. They couldn’t stop him from flickering around and slapping some petals onto them or knocking their heads with a sonic-infused kick. He was actually very troubled at his new skill that made short-distance bursts basically impossible to control. It was the best part but he couldn’t control it, so he was insistent on fixing this flawed skill right here and now. He actually did so in his simulation, one of his greatest benefits from the night or day before. But he had to implement it with his body as he didn’t even have enough data on Phantom’s Flicker before.
There were finally a few solo or duo challenges that he took up but ended pretty quickly with the help of his domain and landing a few compressed petals.
“Finally gain some courage?” Ebony saw the incoming Benumbed leader with exposed muscles that looked as if it was carved from stone.
“I, Gao’larg, grandson of Benumbed Patriarch, challenge you, Seeping Cold Abscission to a duel.” Gao’larg had an extremely dark green skin tone, almost black. He had two giant single-edged swords, one far larger than the other. Both were fashioned out of rock or stone. The oddest physical trait was his tiny size, for a [Resilient Champion Lvl 386] he was only roughly 5 metres tall. For a race that flexed their size and muscles, none of them scoffed at Gao’larg’s tiny size.
‘Seeping Cold Abscission? They have a cooler title for me than the Empire.’ Ebony thought that the Trolls had better naming sense than the Empire.
“I accept.” Ebony tried to sense the ray of light but there wasn’t any mana fluctuation that he could sense.
He drew Icicle out which caused Gao’larg to raise a brow. “Are you also a warrior?”
There was quite a heavy accent that made it hard for him to make out what the Troll was saying.
“You have seen better, tell me where I can improve.” Ebony had an overhead blow charging towards Gao’larg.
It seems like he had a hard time translating Ebony’s words but the time for words was over.
Gao’larg drew the larger greatsword swiftly, letting Ebony’s swing glide down to the ground. Ebony had all his augmentations and enhancement running at an all-time high. Gao’larg took a deep breath and exhaled, summoning a dense red mist of life force. The red aura reformed into a second skin covering every inch of his body. The freezing flames had a hard time digging through the layer of armour. Just like Ning Xin, the Troll raised his body temperature but he did so by flexing his muscles including pumping his heart faster.
The red demon’s physical stats spiked but Ebony already went deep into a chain of Ceaseless Onslaught right after his first attack got parried. Firm Path only danced and weaved around like the path of his greatsword. If anyone could sense the absolute control over gravity mana they would be shocked by the dozens of threads of gravity flowing about him. It was only possible within his domain which he kept at about 3 to 4 metres in diameter as that was his maximum reach and the tip of Icicle’s blade. His momentum only grew faster and more unstoppable.
Frigid Refraction was also cast, tricking the eyes that a few of his slashes were heading for the Troll while it was just one of his previous attacks that got delayed.
Gao’larg used both hands for his sword but he resorted to using his forearm to deflect Ebony’s attacks. He got pissed and pushed Icicle back with enough force to send Ebony barrelling through the air. Ebony made use of the momentum and used Phantom’s Flicker on a conjured platform with Firm Path pulling his blade and body to make sure he didn’t lose too much of his momentum.
It didn’t work for long as Gao’larg dipped forward. He created the opportunity to go on the offence. A wide swing was placed right in his charge and Ebony couldn’t change directions in the midst of Phantom’s Flicker, it would cost too much stamina and his pull of gravity wasn’t strong or fast enough. So he had no choice but to have Icicle face the wide swing directly.
It was good that Icicle was reinforced by his mana as it was deeply sliced into as he lost the exchange when it came to power. Two red feet sprouted out from Gao’larg’s knees and he jumped after Ebony, an overhead swing smashed towards Ebony’s body. Not ready to be split in half, his feet flew up for a bicycle kick onto the flat body of the greatsword as long as Gao’larg was tall.
The tremors caused Gao’larg to shiver and his palms burst into a bloody mess but it healed with a lick and some spit. The kick only shifted the aim slightly but Ebony’s body shifted more than enough. A glancing blow scratched off Gao’larg’s red skin without drawing blood as they passed by each other.
Ebony quickly landed on the ground as his manoeuvrability was still better when his feet could touch the floor. Gao’larg’s battle sense when it came to timing and positioning was clearly far better than the average Troll. Ebony still managed to find his rhythm and forced Gao’larg into a defensive position while Ceaseless Onslaught built up.
It went on for a long time, he already reached the maximum amount of momentum his speed and power could reach but cutting through the red aura over Gao’larg’s skin was difficult. He could draw blood but skin deep which were wounds that Gao’larg could outright ignore. Gao’larg’s facial expression only got tighter and angrier.
“Wrong!” The Troll muttered the word only to repeat it louder and louder over time.
Gao’larg had another burst of energy to push him back. Ebony saw the red aura fade back into the Troll and he actually stopped moving instead of going in for another attack. Frostblaze Augmentation died down a bit so that no flames burned on his body. It ate into his mana as much as it ate into his opponent’s shield of life force.
‘I was beginning to have fun…’ He was actually happy about the exchange as he was beginning to make use of more openings and he landed more and more hits over time.
Gao’larg stabbed his greatsword into the ground. The Troll clenched his sharp teeth so tight it was as if a blacksmith hammered an anvil. He pulled out two ropes connected to his trousers and yanked tightly as hot gas puffed out of his mouth.
Ebony watched as the 5 metre-tall Troll shrunk down to half his previous size. It was the first time he saw a Troll shrink instead of expand. Gao’larg tossed the oversized belt that held both his swords aside and wielded his smaller sword which now fit as a greatsword of the same ratio or proportion to his size.
“Greatsword! Not for fancy ritual dances! Greatsword only for overwhelming power and ferocity!” Gao’larg explained while pissed at his earlier display.
Gao’larg no longer had his layer of life force but Ebony knew that everything was compressed within his smaller frame. He did the same and tried to bring Frostblaze Augmentation to the limit without any flames spurting out, it was a waste of mana if his opponent wasn’t affected by it.
The Troll moved into a wide stance similar to a horse riding stance, greatsword resting right above the ground and his arms behind. It was full of areas Ebony would poke at but Gao’larg moved with speed like that of Ning Xin’s peak. Ebony witnessed the most beautiful overhead swing ever, be it the step forward or the unshakable path of the greatsword. He couldn’t imagine anything he did that would be able to push the greatsword by even a millimetre.
He had to take the hit, his body couldn’t pull off anything else in time. He couldn’t even pull off a proper roof guard in time and he was on guard for the attack. Getting blinded by the wonderful execution of the swing wasn’t helping here. His head shifted before the attack came since he knew where it was going to hit. The skin of his ears burned as he received the swing with Icicle and his other hand supporting the blade. Gao’larg’s greatsword pushed his resistance down and embedded itself into Ebony’s left shoulder. Breaking past his collarbone and his first rib from the top before he managed to stop it.
“Got you.” Gao’larg roared as he pushed his greatsword harder.
“Me too.” The moment the greatsword injured him, it started to freeze.
The opponent’s smaller frame made it far easier for him to attack. However, his kicks didn’t do much. Sonic Intrusion wasn’t getting through its dense frame and barely made Gao’larg flinch even when his jaw or head was directly hit. The Troll decided that having Ebony stuck onto his weapon wasn’t helping him so he swung Ebony off.
Ebony also didn’t see how getting stuck was good for him when his opponent had the upper hand in strength so he smoothly released himself.
‘That was an active skill…’ Ebony saw the next attack which still had pretty good form but far less power or swiftness. He did his best with his injured arm, making sure not to play around with spells as much. Gao’larg was a better greatsword user than him, he had to learn what he could. Gao’larg had Ning Xin’s top speed but he hit far harder than her comparatively lighter thrusts and slashes.
Not even Sustained Optimum Condition could help him shake off the effects of every clash perfectly. It was like having a taste of his own medicine with vibrations running through him.
“You have the power of weight! Perfect for a greatsword!”
Gao’larg might not know the term gravity but he was a warrior who was sensitive to the change in the weight behind attacks. His compressed form gave him even greater physical prowess but it was only slightly above Ning Xin’s peak strength and slightly slower unless he unleashed some active physical skill for a burst of power. Ebony barely held his ground with his injury. He couldn’t regain his initiative and was on the defence.