Johan prepared Wind Blade, hoping that the shaman was not strong enough to be able to sense it from where it sat on a small boulder. As he did so, he gave Jen a signal, indicating that they should go in now.

Jen nodded, and moved in. As she did so Johan unleashed his Wind Blade, carving out the majority of the shamans neck in the process. The troll fell, gurgling as its windpipe filled with its own blood. The other two quickly swiveled around and spotted Johan and Jen.

Johan was currently channeling to cast a second Wind Blade, while holding his spear up ready to strike at either troll should they come close enough to do anything. The troll with the bastard sword came towards him.

Jen was meanwhile being faced down by the troll that held a decent sized tree as a club. She had multiple daggers and knives on her, as well as her shortsword, but Johan wasn't sure if her blades would be long enough to kill such a large creature. Heck he wasn't sure if his spear blade would do anything either.

Johan had almost completed the spell form, maybe about 15 seconds away, when the troll reached him. Quickly rolling away from the beast, he stabbed at roughly where the tendon in its ankle would be. He didn't cut deeply, but it did pierce the creatures thick skin. The troll roared out in pain, and quickly, haphazardly, swung the, relatively, short weapon in its hands.

Although a bastard sword was huge for a normal human, for this guy, it seemed more like a shortsword, maybe even a long dagger. That didn't make it any less dangerous for Johan though. These creatures were strong. He could not get hit if he wanted to survive.

Jen was doing surprisingly well, as he caught a glimpse of her slashing along the back of the large creature knee with her shortsword while dodging.

Johan stabbed into where he could see a large vein in the wrist of the troll, his spear giving just enough reach, instantly he felt the blade sink in and then he slashed up the arm a ways, trying to bleed out the creature. He missed the tendons located in the wrist that would have allowed him to disarm the creature, but if it lost enough blood, that would still do the trick.

The troll once again roared in pain and swung its weapon at Johan, but it missed again as Johan ran under the troll, slashing at the inner thigh as he went, creating another spurt of bluish blood from the grey creature, while also eliciting yet another roar.

Johan could tell that the troll didn't have too much fight left in it, with all the blood it had started to lose, it would soon be too weak to do anything, which was great for Johan.

The troll once again whirled around, swinging its sword haphazardly around, almost hitting Johan who dodged into the attack, this time aiming to cut the tendons in the trolls legs. He managed to cut into the tendon in the trolls ankle this time, but couldn't sever the thick and tightened bit of anatomy. Johan backed off as the troll stabbed just behind its ankle, then proceeded to immediately swipe his spear towards roughly where the tendons in the wrist were. once again he couldn't cut through it, but he had finally finished the spell form. It had taken about 25 seconds with the reduction of focus.

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Johan released the spell from directly under the troll, aiming up between its legs.

The fight almost immediately ended as the various muscles and nerves in the trolls legs were severed and the lower half of its stomach was cut into. With the troll no longer able to move well, Johan quickly severed most of the muscles in the arm holding the sword, and then made sure to do the same to the other arm. Finally, he shredded the trolls throat with his spear.

Once he finished he turned to see Jen still fighting. She was starting to have some issues, her blade wasn't long enough to really cut deeply, and with the lack of reach that Johan had with his spear she couldn't cut the trolls arms often, unless it had just swung its weapon. Even worse was that she was starting to slow down from exhaustion.

Johan quickly approached and cut deeply into the outer thigh of the creature, trying to severe as much muscle as possible, and reduce its movement. The troll roared in pain and swung the club at him, missing as Johan moved around the leg, making sure to cut into the inner thigh as well. He could see the leg of the creature start to shake. Johan quickly cut into the leg again, this time he cut along the calf, though not deeply.

The troll fell over. Between Jen targeting the lower portions of its legs and Johan attacking the thighs, it could no longer bear enough weight on one leg, and fell as a result. Johan was quick, cutting up the legs as much as possible. The troll abandoned its weapon and began to crawl away.

For a moment Johan debated about whether he should let it live, but then he remembered that monsters are called as such because they eat people. If he were to let this creature live, even if it was so wounded, it may eat others.

With that thought, Johan quickly cut its arms, and killed it, similar to what he had done with the other one.

He turned to see Jen laying on the ground, catching her breath. She was covered in monster blood, and so was he, but they had done it. After a few moments of rest for both of them, they decided to investigate the camp.

The primary reason why they had fought was because the troll shaman had formed the silhouettes of their companions. The thought of this being that the trolls may have seen their companions, and maybe even incapacitated them. Though Johan had a feeling that the others were likely fine, as he and Jen alone were able to beat the strong creatures, and Markus was far stronger than either of them.

Looking through the camp, they didn't find much, though they did find a few dead bodies, some of which had been carved up for- most likely- food, none of them were their friends. Johan managed to obtain some coins as well as a few metal weapons that he would be able to sell, especially something like the bastard sword the one troll had been carrying.

"Huh..." Johan said after a while. "I wonder... Maybe that shaman was just really good with illusions. It is said that illusion magic can pull out what is in the mind. If those trolls wanted to attract humans, it wouldn't be too outlandish for us to see illusions of our party members."

"Oh? Illusion magic sounds strong as heck." Jen replied with a bit of thought.

"It can be, though you have to be fairly strong to use illusions like that. Consumes a lot of mana, that's likely why the illusions had no detail." Johan explained, "Either way, the others aren't here. Should we keep going or set up camp nearby? We could probably make it back to the start of the path we took by 2 or 3 in the morning."

"I think we should keep going. Especially since we've confirmed that things like trolls are living on the mountain." Jen replied.

"Alright, sounds good to me. You lead the way since you can see the marks better." Johan said, keeping his spear ready. Jen simply nodded as they continued on.