Gao’larg’s men even brought barrels for him. Only a few Trolls could enter the circular ray of light. Apparently, the magic rays could detect if someone had any intention of interfering at all. If either Ebony or Gao’larg had the intention to escape, they wouldn’t be able to pass through the ray of light. Well, the rays would just move and expand as they moved.
The barrels were filled with alcohol.
Ebony partook. A sip was enough to surprise him. It was better than more ales and beers he had drunk in taverns or restaurants here. The main surprise was that the alcohol recovered health, it caused his life force to replenish faster. Around 10% faster.
“It’s not much but try this.” Ebony took out a small jar of frost plum wine and opened it to share. He didn’t want to open them so early but it was primarily experimental so the current opportunity seemed worth it.
“Sweet! Refreshing!” Gao’larg looked as if he enjoyed it. The Troll’s alcohol was also sweet with a bitter aftertaste and far more potent in terms of alcohol content. He wasn’t worried his experimental wine would make either of them drunk. The giant Troll was already down two barrels of his own alcohol. The barrels were the size that could fit a cow or two.
Their meal ended pretty fast but Gao’larg showed off his muscle flexing and posing techniques for a long time. They drank as he got Ebony to copy his movements. Ebony actually took off his robe and copied Gao’larg without hesitation. He didn't have a shirt on as they froze and shattered from the start.
He was too lean and his shredded body didn't really pop out no matter how he flexed so he had nothing to show after the hour-long session.
Gao’larg tipped the last drop in his barrel before he tossed them out at his tribe members. Ebony kept all the plates, containers and jars in his bag and put his robe on.
Icicle didn’t fully repair itself but it was back in shape, only its edge wasn’t sharpened. Frost Edge would do as a temporary fix.
The ray of light circling them exploded to a diameter of at least 2 km before they even faced each other.
Gao’larg rotated his shoulders and swung around his new greatsword. It wasn’t that hard to get a replacement for the large version but his smaller weapon was custom-made. Other swords at that size were for younger Trolls and those weren’t built tough enough for his strength. It was also double-edged instead but Gao’larg wasn’t bothered by that. Although he asked for another smaller blade it hasn’t made its way to him.
Ebony’s shoulder regenerated and only ached. His back and belly injury from the first Mountain Cleave were still in a weakened state but he was almost out of that weakened state after drinking Gao’larg’s alcohol. His legs healed up first, they were only injured from his own movement skill. Phantom’s Flicker had indeed gotten refined but he didn’t bother checking out the specifics. He would know when he used it.
Gao’larg probably had a tier 3, maybe tier 2 movement skill but it was very high level. Probably one of the skills that got to level 600 before he evolved. Ebony didn’t believe that Gao’larg or the Patriarchs didn’t have at least the first few evolutions that had 250% Fortifications. If they really maxed out every evolution, it was hard to say if Christy and her fellow Frost Elf could beat the Emperor ranked Patriarchs. The Frost Elves weren’t Emperor ranked as far as he could tell.
“Fury Rush!” They weren’t going to wait for Gao’larg’s smaller weapon, he insisted that it was no issue. He roared and shrank a little but only lost a metre or so in height and width. He had no issue with balance from the change in ratio with his weapon. A couple of random swings were all he took to gauge his reach. That was pretty impressive but he could see why Gao’larg doesn’t really care about perfection. Gao’larg just needed a rough gauge since his techniques were full of wide swings without as much precision and accuracy.
Ebony took note not to fall into a trance and remembered all of his opponent’s skill names. Gao’larg’s skin tone darkened and he still had a wispy red aura armour. A jumping lunge and overhead slash came immediately.
He pulled off a proper deflection with his slanted roof guard but Gao’larg expected it. Fury Rush was similar to his Raging Torrent but it was just a mash of wild swings left and right instead of hammering downwards. Gao’larg stopped Ebony’s counter with a backhand before his overhead swing even landed on the ground.
Although he predicted it, he was trying to polish his skill with the greatsword. Suppressing his natural evasion, his body lagged as it tried to think of a way to deflect that with Icicle. His mind had long realised that his skill with the greatsword wouldn’t make it but he needed a way for his body to learn that fact. Dodging like usual won’t let his body learn. Doing the same thing with Ning Xin wouldn’t teach him as much, the gap was too big when it came to swordplay.
It was clear that Gao’larg held back his power only for him to catch up and start his rage-filled swings. Ebony watched closely and could see the streams of sword paths. ‘He copied ceaseless onslaught to this degree?’
Just like how he was copying Gao’larg’s fierce moves, his opponent saw the value in increasing fluidity in his movements. But the Troll implemented the changes faster than he could. ‘I really have no talent with weapons.’ He didn’t imbue and reflect mana vibrations when defending so that Gao’larg’s weapon would last longer. He was improving by the minute, the battle wouldn't end until he was satisfied. Until Gao’larg the warrior no longer had anything to offer.
The Troll was dull but he was able to tell that Ebony was using him as a whetstone. It fueled his rage and encouraged his muscles to burn hotter. “We’ll see who’s sharpening who!?”
Ebony wasn’t embarrassed about getting found out at all. Both of them held eye contact and a fierce grin could be seen on Gao’larg’s face.
He didn’t impede Gao’larg’s power with gravity and only strengthened his own blows to close the gap in strength. Both of their styles were changing and melding with every clash.
The Troll didn’t like to see them getting into the flow of exchanging blows as Ebony was better at that. He used Hammering Wave again to throw Ebony off the flow and break some of his momentum. “YUEERAA!” A downward Mountain Cleave came at him at the end of Hammering Wave. Gao’larg made use of the fact that Ebony wasn’t attempting to dodge to deal as much damage as he could. It resembled Ceaseless Onslaught and Stalactite Drop.
Ebony could receive the blow with an injured shoulder, but that was when Gao’larg was exhausted and had little strength. There was no time to think if he could receive the attack or not. He was going to receive it regardless. Frostblaze Augmentation was transforming bit by bit as well. He had no time to wait till he was safe to experiment. He had enveloped his body with his domain but he expanded it a little to conjure some magical hands to hold Icicle’s blade to block. His Will protected him without his input. The addition of mental strength helped him pull through.
‘Crap…’
He noticed the glint in Gao’larg’s eyes as the hard reception of Mountain Cleave was just to give the Troll the chance to push further as a rain of blows fell. Raging Torrent’s every strike was less than half as strong as Mountain cleave since it was a single-handed technique and the randomness of the strikes but it was faster and far harder to remove himself from.
Instead of keeping in a purely defensive state, Ebony was able to deflect and counter rough blows from Raging Torrent. He subconsciously tried to flex and pull more physical strength out as a copy of hammering waves was pulled off to knock Gao’larg out of position. Sadly, his physical prowess was a bit too low to achieve the same effect. Not even gravity magic helped to close the gap.
Gao’larg laughed infectiously as his tribe members cheered from beyond the circular ray of light. Even those who had no intention to interfere stood far away.
He had a vague understanding of how Skills increase a person’s power beyond their actual physical stat. It was so simple, it was a mere exchange. When it comes to physical skills, the most common energy used is stamina. Although it wasn’t something as easy to sense or manipulate consciously compared to mana or even life force. Phantom’s Flicker took a ton of stamina and these Trolls’ active physical skills that pull far more power than their stats suggest also come from the expenditure of stamina.
Most people just do it without conscious control over stamina but the skills work the same way for any race. This realisation didn’t really help him create a new skill or anything but he focused even more on sensing and testing Phantom’s Flicker. The way his muscles contract and relax wasn’t how he usually moves but he wasn't Ning Xin, he didn’t memorise or control every muscle so he needed time to test out the difference between that and his old movement skill. It would be good if he could translate that to his whole body and unleash more strength by a simple conversion of stamina to power.
It was pretty obvious, that was Ning Xin’s source of strength. Life force must be more closely connected to stamina compared to mana. She might be subconsciously burning the stamina for power but it was through the manipulation of life force. He wasn’t in a situation to ponder about the specifics or details. In any case, it wasn’t as if he needed to consciously manipulate stamina for more power. No warrior of whichever race present seemed to be using it consciously. They might just believe it was their skill levels providing them power.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
It makes sense that people can get tired almost as easily as unclassed humans if their stamina consumption increases along with their output of power. When it came to physical output, Ebony was always in energy-saving mode. Using the least amount of energy for the most power only made sense.
He altered his mindset to bring out as much power as his body could bring out instead of using just enough energy. He had the illusion that Icicle was able to push Gao’larg off slightly more.
“YAHAAHAHA!”
“Hahahaha!” Ebony infused his Will into Frostblaze Augmentation in his body and controlled it to flow just as he would control a Glacial Model. He could deflect Raging Torrent! So he started to use it to power Ceaseless Onslaught and his retreat slowed down. In an hour, he stood his ground and parried every blow of Raging Torrent.
Gao’larg switched to a two-handed grip and activated Mountain Cleave as if it was just another normal strike from Raging Torrent.
‘It flowed!’ Ebony saw that Gao’larg managed to maintain momentum from his rush and use it for Mountain Cleave.
He was ready for this blow for a long time and the mana in Icicle was ready to explode as Stalactite Drop any time. His smaller and shorter frame meant that he was at a disadvantage as it was more like a stalactite uprising instead of a drop. To begin with, Stalactite Drop was a spell, not a physical skill where he held the weapon. He felt the shockwave of his own skill throughout his body.
Icicle was cut halfway through before it burst and split into halves while Gao’larg’s weapon met the same fate as his previous weapons.
As for the wielders, they met a similar result. Fleshy injuries riddled Gao’larg’s body. His arms weren’t attached anymore as both arms had ‘pop’ all the way up to his shoulders. Not a single spot on his body was unharmed as his flesh was mutilated till bones were showing at numerous spots.
Ebony was as tough as nails but he was in a similar state as the previous clash except he didn’t have a target injury on his belly or spine, with his domain on and his control over the stability of mana. Vibrations hurt his opponent more than they hurt him since he could ‘silence’ them to a high degree. Gao’larg was far too strong for him to completely stop the shock in his body even with Will and his domain.
He tried to move his body without any mana manipulation but found it unmoving. He didn’t pant like Gao’larg but he knew that he was just as exhausted if not more.
He dragged out bits of ice mana that were sent into Gao’larg’s body due to Icicle snapping and the ice mana within invaded the Troll. Neither of them moved a finger and laid down on their backs in peace.
The broken part of Icicle was within 600 metres and he knew where it landed. It took some effort to conjure ice mana on the broken piece of wood and drag it back to Icicle. He did his best to align the wood frame and splinters together.
“Can you fix yourself?” He whispered to Icicle. The weak glow was concerning but the wood started to shiver and rejoin. He fed the poor thing as much of his pure mana as he could. Icicle vibrated softly. “No ice, I'll give it to you after you recover.” The vibrations increased in response.
“I don’t have any good grub either so you’ll be patient with me.” Icicle gave up and quieted down after that.
He tried to look around but Ning Xin’s duel was going all over the place and she wasn’t anywhere nearby. He should be able to get a better look if he wasn’t so lazy and stood up but he felt that she was fine. It was too bright and hot in one direction to miss it. She wasn’t messing around like he was.
Gao’larg had incredible recovery speed but Ebony wasn’t as injured so they got up about the same time.
“Any more grub?”
“Only dry and hard stuff.” He had plenty of dry rations but they ate a lot of jerky and earlier. The giant ate more than 10 times a normal person would and he didn't even enjoy the rations. Feeding themselves must be an immense hassle, their numbers seemed far too great to feed properly. There must be few tamers because it was hard to even feed themselves. ‘Hmm. Maybe not, they might be part-time farmers or breeders. Those underwater swimmers, are the enormous fishes that fetched the Trolls over to Elva under their control? I wonder how big the fish have to be to carry so many Trolls. Did they eat these fishes or are they using those fishes to get underwater monsters as food?’
He still took out dried biscuits to munch on. Gao’larg sadly had to deal with it. He knew better than to complain about getting food from his opponent.
“Worried about your broad?” Gao’larg took the barrel of water he gave to wash the blood and gunk off.
“She will win.” The Trolls weren’t able to regenerate as well with her fire magic and she wasn’t holding back her magic as much as he was. Baldur was also only in the 390s and it was already impressive that he was still alive against her.
“Baldur is strong.”
“She’s stronger.”
They gobbled their dry snacks down. Icicle wasn’t done repairing and Gao’larg’s replacement blade was taking some time to deliver. Most of them were within a ring of light and it wasn’t hard to traverse but the Trolls would have to pass by Christy and Old Hag’s battle. Making their way around would take time.
Gao’larg challenged him to an arm wrestle. He lost even with multiple arms and his domain up and the Troll roared ecstatically. Ebony challenged the Troll in push-ups after demonstrating once. It took them literal hours but he won with ease.
The Trolls had a sport called the ‘Skull Bash’ where they would punch their opponents in the face by turn. The last one standing won. His Patriarch was apparently the Skull Bash Champ.
Gao’larg fainted.
Ebony felt bad for cheating, he sent a couple of sonic-infused punches to his chin and temple. The giant was even nice enough to compress his frame so that his fist wouldn’t cover more than half of Ebony’s body. Gao’larg never imagined it was magic, he had assumed that Ebony’s attacks all felt more ‘ringing’ but didn’t think it was magic so he probably thought Ebony’s punches were the same.
He went on to win both a short and long-distance race, creating a deeper and larger crater on the ground. He lost both the contest of how high they could jump with and without enhancements. They also played something like shot put, he won the one without enhancement thanks to gravity magic. When they were both enhanced, even gravity magic wasn’t enough to close the gap.
Ebony had been in the midst of his third throw of an extremely dense ball of ice the size of a yoga ball when he saw Ning Xin standing right outside the ring of light with her arms crossed.
Her eyes were yelling “What are you doing?”
Her mantle was torn and even her calves were showing as her bodysuit had torn. Other than that she was unharmed.
“We’re hungry. Our weapons broke.” He felt like he got caught playing without permission.
“Haaa. Make me a room.” Ning Xin sighed and stepped into the ring of light unhindered. Ebony made an igloo for her. She only took off her mantle to put on another shirt and pants before putting her mantle back on.
“You beat Baldur…as expected from Ebony’s broad. Be careful of Gash’ah.” Gao’larg didn’t attack. People who could enter and come near were those who had no intention to cause harm and interfere with the battle. His people entered without getting attacked either.
“Br-broad? Ah, that guy was Baldur? You Trolls have incredible vitality.”
What Ebony understood from that was that Baldur didn’t impress her in any way except for being hard to kill. He asked who or what Gash’ah was but Gao’larg shook his head and said it didn't matter when they were at war.
“Keep playing but don’t disturb my cooking. Anything you don’t eat?” She eyed Gao’larg’s size before deciding on her menu.
“You-you’re going to cook for me? I’m going to kill your man.”
“......Food comes first. You can’t fight on an empty stomach. If you kill him, I’m your next opponent. Most importantly, you don’t have the ability to kill him.” She must have taken her bodysuit off somehow as she washed her hands all the way up to her elbows and bunned up her hair. ‘When did she change out?’ Ebony always thought her bodysuit was weird, he felt like it was better if he asked Kong Jing.
Ebony was a bit shy for getting whacked so hard earlier, she must not have seen their fight.
“Uhm, we won’t be done any time soon.” He transmitted his voice to her. She seemed to ignore him completely and was in her own world, cooking.
She brought out the last of their teratish meat from the underground tomb. The bones were used to make soup with some root vegetables. Gao’larg couldn’t focus on any competition so they just watched her cook instead.
By now, Ebony’s body fully regenerated and had no temporary weakness. His back would take a while more to fully recover but there was just remnant pain, nothing that would affect his movements. Gao’larg fully recovered before they even started competing at random stuff but his exhaustion was clear to see.
Icicle reconnected but was bulging outwards at the area where it reconnected. The runes on Icicle haven't fully reconnected so there was still a durability and capacity issue.
They patiently waited for their meal. Gao’larg’s replacement weapon of both sizes got here in the middle of their meal, they actually brought an entire crate worth. The heir of a Tribe sure had many weapons. Ning Xin almost out-ate the giant and he was clearly in awe.
She stretched and got back into the igloo before coming out with her hair down.
“Hey, If you’re not planning to duel, go back to your people.” Ning Xin glared at each Troll that wasn’t in a duel one by one. They actually stepped back, these guys were so free that they saw most of the battles going on. Perhaps to challenge or directly kill an injured winner that wasn’t a Troll.
“Go back,” Gao’larg told his people. Three were tribeless and other Trolls didn’t listen to him but his Tribe members smashed their fists on these Tribleless's chests and left with haste.
Ning Xin nodded to Gao’larg who sang praises for her food and pointed to those that remained. The proud warrior nodded.
She stepped out of the ring of light, “How many? Whatever, no need for a challenge or some fancy ring. All of you can try.”