He heard the troll long before he saw it, the thunking sound of broken trees slamming into the ground and occasional roars of challenge made the use of his tracking boon rather obsolete.
He felt like it must be considering him to be a rival to its domain rather than prey, otherwise wouldn’t it be going after him quietly?
He honestly wasn’t too sure if this was a good thing or not. It did mean that the troll was likely to be more cautious, but, on the other hand, if he failed it would probably kill him quickly, rather than toying with him like it had with the deer.
He’d chosen what he considered to be the best possible battleground; it was a small clearing populated by a vampire vine that had murdered all the tree life here.
It gave him a clean shot at the troll, and ensured he wouldn’t be easily snuck up on by any of its goblin slaves.
Thomel watched as a large tree got knocked over near where he had started creating the super bullet.
In short succession, another three trees were smashed into pulp, and the troll had roared itself temporarily hoarse with all the screeching it was doing.
He must have really enraged that creature if it was going through that much effort to draw him out. It was even ruining his temporary base!
All the better for him; a tired troll would make this all so much easier. It must have taken a fair bit of effort to regenerate its facial features and broken ankles, though he wasn’t too sure about the organ damage.
He’d done his best to make sure it lost an innard or two but he hadn’t stuck around long enough to see if he’d actually dealt proper damage to its digestive tract.
Whatever the case, he had done the best he could; even if it was a super troll, it should still have had to expend a lot of energy to heal those wounds and continue this rampage. Or so he hoped.
Breathing in and out, Thomel counted to ten and looked up at the sky. It was starting to become night and the stars were coming out.
It was so refreshingly clear and alive; back on Earth, the light pollution combined with all the smog made night skies like this impossible.
Even the Arctic probably didn’t have such beautiful skies. The amount of money some people would pay for this experience would be ludicrous.
Then again, probably not. If the directors and CEOs actually cared about it, then they would just come through to another world like what he was doing.
It wouldn’t even cost them a single cent; they would just call it an inspection and set up a minuscule base in one of these worlds.
Shaking his head, he pushed down his negativity and just enjoyed the moment. If he was going to die, at least it would be under such a beautiful night sky.
It was a shame he wasn’t somewhere high up, or he could have watched the sunset.
The silence was interrupted by the resurgence of the wrathful troll's rampage. He watched as a branch nearly as long as himself went sailing through the air.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
Then he heard the signature thunk of another fallen tree and the troll’s roar. It had gotten so hoarse that it sounded like it was being strangled.
Still, the challenge in its voice was unmistakable. It wanted him dead, and it wanted everything to know that it was what had killed him.
A flash of semi-desperate inspiration came to him in that moment; perhaps it was only showing off to the goblins and smoothing over its damaged pride, but what if this was also an attempt to show its rivals that it was still in charge?
Was there any chance he could find any other creatures in this rainforest-like biome to fight on his behalf against the troll?
Maybe some giant tiger or even just an actual giant? Or any other manner of creature; he would take anything, truth be told.
But he was doubtful that there were any nearby, and, even if there was, the difficulty in setting everything up combined with how little time he had made it all implausible.
No, he had set upon a path and it was too late to turn back now.
He’d stuffed the super bullet to the brink of popping with all the powder and had patched up the puncture with some chewed-up energy bar. It was far from ideal, but all he needed was one clean shot at the troll's neck, and he’d blow it clean off.
Another tree fell to the ground, and he heard the beast roar out again. It was more of a growl at this point.
If the troll intended to intimidate him, it actually did the exact opposite; it made him feel confident that its regeneration powers were drained, though it could just be constantly damaging its voice box again and again.
Looking left and right, Thomel tried and failed to spot any goblins. It didn’t mean they weren’t there, though.
Which was why, even though they were practically useless, he had loaded up the magazine with the ruined bullets as well.
Better something than nothing. Maybe he could injure them and dispatch them with his makeshift knife.
Hearing the troll’s rampage suddenly increase in intensity, he shouldered his gun, aiming down at where his boon and ears were telling him it was coming from.
Bursting into the clearing, the troll threw off a thick mesh of vines that were stuck to its front and then spread its arms wide to roar at him.
He took the golden opportunity and fired, closing his eyes just as the super bullet pierced the troll's neck and exploded in a deafening wave of fire and noise.
He even felt some of his eyebrow hairs get singed by it.
Opening his eyes, he gazed upon the results of his desperate final gamble and was relieved to find the troll collapsed onto the ground.
Before he did anything else, he hurriedly checked his status screen.
image [https://c10.patreonusercontent.com/4/patreon-media/p/post/98728523/c02876ba4eb3428ab2cd85d5374d8825/e30%3D/1.PNG?token-time=1711152000&token-hash=K2hJgdwumLKior1eD08Y72Uo489bzaarUJYprjmDO_o%3D]
He hadn’t levelled up… the troll had to still be alive!
Thinking quickly, he rushed at its prone form and pulled out his pitiful attempt at making a blade.
By some miracle its head was still attached by a few veins and scraps of flesh; he could probably just leave it be and it would die.
But he couldn’t take that chance, so he started to saw its head off, mutilating the corpse with the same ferocity, if not greater, than what it would have had when it killed that deer.
It was poetic almost, and also very, very gruesome.
After nearly a full five minutes spent hacking away at the flesh which kept desperately trying to knit itself back together, he was done, and the troll was dead.
He’d kept an eye out for any approaching goblins, but there had been none. This troll seemed to have gone for him alone.
He wondered what the scientists would think when they saw him appear coated in tar-like, green blood.