The light of the sun was fading beneath the horizon, and the roads of Etron were sparsely populated. A handful of civilians gawked at me as I fled from the source of a deafening explosion, caked in a thin layer of gray dust. They were too surprised to try to stop me, and I was already long gone by the time any of them thought to ask me questions.
As I ran, I periodically tried cycling mana through my shield bracelet. Even after running more than a hundred meters, I could not manifest any form of Source magic.
What’s happening? I should be out of the ward’s range by now.
Do you know anything about wards, Johan? That was an “Initialization Ward.” It temporarily disregulated your upper core such that you won’t be able to initialize any Source spells for a few minutes.
I had to stop my jog after less than two hundred meters as my body was overcome by a fit of wheezing coughs. Once the coughing had subsided, a new sound reached my ears. Screams of pain and terror filled the air of Etron, and these screams were joined by joyful bellowing that could only be created by monstrous throats.
My one remaining glove was removed and returned to my pocket, revealing the blood rune written there in dried blood. I chanted the activation phrase, and the blood began to glow bright crimson.
Blood Enhancement (Lvl. 3)
My heart started pumping faster, and my blood began pumping through my organs and muscles at a much faster speed. Sensing my heightened heart rate, my adrenal glands began secreting adrenaline, putting me into a fight-or-flight state.
Overuse of [Blood Enhancement] would cause long-term damage to the heart and lungs, I was sure. Even my own limited use of the Skill couldn’t be good for me, but a brief trip to a Priest or a swig of a healing potion would fix any heart damage.
With renewed vigor, I started running toward the source of the screaming. It would weigh on my conscience heavily if the townspeople of Etron died when I could have saved them.
What are you doing!? We need to leave, now!
I turned a corner at full speed and the cause of the commotion was made immediately apparent to me. Two massive, five-meter-tall trolls stood in the center of the road. The trolls’ skin was a faded green color, but most of their bodies was clad in chainmail and gambeson. Each troll carried a massive club that must have weighed more than an average man, and they swung those clubs at an astonishingly high velocity.
Trolls were smart enough to use tools, but they were far too stupid to make anything more advanced than a sharpened stick. The armor they wore could not have been of their own design, meaning that they had allies among humans. Some human group must have made that armor and given it to the trolls.
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A moment after I turned the corner, one of the trolls’ clubs blurred in the direction of a civilian and struck him in his back. The man’s upper body was immediately severed from his lower body, and a shower of ragged meat sprayed against a nearby building. Most of the man’s torso exploded when it struck a nearby brick wall, but his head shattered a window and tumbled inside.
About a dozen other panicking civilians fled from the trolls. Many of them had just been sitting down to eat outside of a bakery, and they fled inside the shop. When one of the trolls reached the bakery, it was not slowed in the slightest. The troll swung its club at the door to the bakery, causing the door to shatter inward and the ceiling to explode upward. The shattered timber that had once been the bakery’s roof flew several dozen meters into the air before crashing into the ground more than a block away.
Many of the civilians inside of the bakery were killed or wounded by the troll’s withering attack, and it only took the troll a few seconds to pull back its club and prepare to strike once again.
“Mulciber ignis tormentum!” I shouted the activation phrase for [Volcano Cannon], and an orb of molten rock crashed into the troll at supersonic speed.
DAMAGE DEALT: 255
The orb struck the troll’s shoulder before instantaneously returning to its natural size. Milliseconds after the troll was struck by my attack, it was engulfed entirely in blazing magma that adhered immediately to the entirety of its upper body. Much of the magma ricocheted off the troll and crashed into the cobbled street, but none of it hit any civilians.
The troll didn’t even have enough time to scream before it died. I suspected that much of the magma had got into its mouth and had adhered to its lungs. The troll spasmed once in surprise before its body locked up in shock from the trauma. It fell to the ground, causing a massive, dull sound to echo through the street.
The civilians cheered as the troll fell, but their joy was short-lived. The remaining troll turned its hateful eyes toward the source of the attack and saw a puny Mage pointing a glowing stick in its direction.
The remaining troll screeched like a wounded animal and stabbed its claws into the cobbled ground beneath it. The troll’s long, jagged fingers wrenched out of the ground, bringing with them a sizable clump of stone.
USEABLE MANA: 12/37
My teeth scraped against each other as I realized that I wouldn’t be able to fire off another Volcano Cannon before the troll would be able to throw that mound of stone it had wrenched from the ground. Considering the amount of force that the trolls could call upon when, the prospect of getting hit by the troll’s attack was grim.
[Observe]
Name: War Troll
Class: Barbarian
Level: 25
HP: 205
Fortitude: 20
Strength: 28
Agility: 11
The troll had strength far above that any human could naturally reach, and it most likely had Skills that allowed it to increase its physical stats even further. I looked at the troll as it pulled the clump of stone back far behind its head and realized that my shield was not enough to stop the troll’s attack in its tracks.
Gritting my teeth, I threw all of my concentration behind defending against the coming attack.