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Chapter 84: Trolled
The beast in the cave with us lunged at me while I leapt backwards to avoid the rabid bite. As it moved forward, toward me and toward the mouth of the cavern, natural light began falling on the monster that could previously only be identified by its pair of glowing red eyes.
It had rough gray skin, and was at least twice as big as me. Its ugly, scrunched-up face with a big nose and permanent scowl looked down at me and growled as it bared its hands out, showing off the sharp claws that tipped its fingers. Its powerful legs walked forward, and its sharp fangs dripped with drool.
I hurriedly did all that I could, casting Crippling Chill, Ray of Frost, and activating Gravity Well on the massive cave monster.
You have cursed Level 24 Mountain Troll with Crippling Chill. For the next 15 seconds, it loses 7.76 Health and 6.21 Stamina each second, and its Dexterity score is lowered by 15.5.
33.5 Mana Cost. Your Mana is 887.
You have struck Level 24 Mountain Troll for 55 damage using Ray of Frost.
You have cursed Level 24 Mountain Troll with Ray of Frost. For the next 5 seconds, its Dexterity score is lowered by 7.4.
14.5 Mana Cost. Your Mana is 872.
With the Light Plate I was currently wearing, the Spells I cast were discounted by about 40%, leading to the much lower costs of my Spells that were displayed here. It’d allow me to be much more liberal with my casting, to say the least.
The monster – a Mountain Troll, apparently – roared and stumbled as all three effects hit it in unison. In total, it’d lost about 23 Stamina and become 55% heavier at the same time, and that sudden toll obviously affected it. Still, it was far from immobile, and it quickly recovered.
“Get back!” I yelled at Erani, pushing her closer to the mouth of the cave as it stood back up and charged.
The Mountain Troll quickly closed the gap between us, the claws on its meaty hands out and seemingly aimed at me. While it charged, I shut off Gravity Well, then instantly re-enabled it. The resulting fluctuation of gravity obviously confused the Troll, suddenly feeling lighter and then heavier right after, and it slowed a bit because of that confusion. I used the time that confusion bought to raise my hand and shoot off a few Rays of Frost, trying to keep my distance from the monster.
Each impacted its head, dealing 52. then 56, then 58 damage, and lowering my Mana to 807. It flinched under the heavy fire of Spells and snarled at me, spittle flinging at my face.
I’d been practicing that Gravity Well technique to keep in my back pocket as of late, and it really seemed to work. I’d used it on myself to try and perfect my timing with it, and it really felt incredibly disorienting to have your weight played with like that, especially when it was flicked on and off so quickly.
That said, I also noticed myself building up a tolerance to it as I used it on myself more and more – especially when I did it quickly – so it wouldn’t work on a single enemy forever. At least, not at its current Rank. Perhaps it’d work even better in the future.
But for now, I needed to deal with this Troll. It lunged at me yet again, and this time it got to me before I could slow it down. Even with the many curses and debuffs I’d stacked on the monster, it was still incredibly quick.
It lashed out with its meaty claw-tipped hands. I twisted to dodge the first, and the second hand stopped suddenly – the Dryad had thrown out her whip and wrapped the spikey wire around the Troll’s wrist, using it to hold the monster back. I used the moment to rush in and tackle the beast, though by ‘tackle’ I really mean ‘run into its torso’, since it was so much taller and heavier than me. Still, with the debuffs continuing to weigh it down, I managed to push it back. All Noxious Grasp needed was contact, anyway.
It roared the moment the Fester of Venomous Grasp took hold of it , instantly sapping away its Stamina at twice the normal rate. Since one of its arms was still bound up in the Dryad’s whip of thorns, it used its only free hand to reach for me and try to swat me away. I tried to maneuver my way around to the other side of its body where it couldn’t reach me, but it was surprisingly flexible, considering its bulky form, and managed to grab my arm and fling me away.
You have struck Level 24 Mountain Troll for 66.4 damage and drained 66.8 Stamina over the course of 4.1 seconds using Noxious Grasp.
11.5 Mana Cost. Your Mana is 731.
I tumbled across the stone ground of the cave and all the way out into the chasm’s mouth, squinting at the sudden sun – and at the fact that I’d banged my head during the aforementioned tumble.
You have been slammed against something. 32 damage.
Your Health is 276.
“Fuck,” I muttered groggily, trying to stand myself up. Yeah, it definitely hurt. Judging by the sound of explosions and feeling of shaking earth coming from inside the cave, it seemed like Erani had taken over in my stead.
Something brushed up against my shoulder as I got to my feet. I looked behind me, confused, and saw–
You have been bitten. 17 damage.
Your Health is 259.
Your flesh has been necrotized. For the next 24 hours, your Strength, Endurance, and Dexterity are reduced by 1.
“Shit!” I yelled and shoved away the Ghoul that’d just chomped into my shoulder. Just like with the Dark Plate before, the Ghoul had been able to bite straight through the Light Plate as though it weren’t even there. I held out my hand and hurriedly shot off Rays of Frost until the undead died.
You have offered major contribution toward the slaying of Level 8 Ghoul.
You have earned 36 XP. Your XP is 827.
I sighed. I hadn’t expected there to be Ghouls–
Shit!
I dodged out of the way of a set of claws that tried to pierce my arm – another Ghoul. I took a step back, cursing it with Crippling Chill and–
You have been scratched by claws. 6 damage.
Your Health is 253.
Your flesh has been necrotized. For the next 24 hours, your Strength, Endurance, and Dexterity are reduced by 1.
I turned around yet again, seeing yet another Ghoul that’d snuck up on me and attacked, raking its claws against my back. I quickly glanced around, and realized that I was absolutely surrounded. Ghouls were on every side of me, and all were approaching.
Fuck, I thought. We’d been in one place for too long. The longer we lingered, the stronger our scent grew, and the more Ghouls would come. And the smell of fresh blood from my wounds definitely didn’t help.
I spun around, glancing at the dozens of Ghouls and casting Crippling Chill on all the nearby ones, trying to make sure none of them could get to me. Luckily, a single Crippling Chill at its current Rank seemed to be enough to take care of most of them, with its Dexterity debuff and Stamina Drain, so once I hit any of them with it, they’d almost immediately collapse.
Glancing at my immediate surroundings, I felt like there were no more nearby that I missed. My Mana had fallen hugely – down to 335 – but even then, there were still more staggering toward me from further away. They weren’t quite threats yet, though, so I got a moment to breathe.
It was in that moment that I heard an explosion – much nearer to me, this time – and a grunt of pain. I looked over to the dark cave, and saw the glowing red eyes of the Mountain Troll snap up to stare at me.
“Arlan!” I heard a gasp of a shout come from Erani.
And at that exact moment, the Troll lunged from the cave. It snarled, spittle flying from its hinge-jawed mouth as it took a leap out of the chasm mouth and straight toward me. It was incredibly fast, coming right at me from a single bound, and I realized belatedly that Crippling Chill had worn off the beast at some point. The notification must’ve slipped past me in the mess of Crippling Chill notifications I’d gotten when cursing the Ghouls.
It stomped into the bright field of the wasteland, kicking up the layer of dust and ash covering the ground as it roared at me and charged. I renewed its curse of Crippling Chill and activated Gravity Well the moment it came into range.
You have cursed Level 24 Mountain Troll with Crippling Chill. For the next 15 seconds, it loses 7.76 Health and 6.21 Stamina each second, and its Dexterity score is lowered by 15.5.
33.5 Mana Cost. Your Mana is 292.
But even with the two curses pulling double duty, the Troll was just barely slowed, and I only managed to jump out of the way because it seemed to get confused about which of the many humanoid bodies standing around was me.
It crashed into a few of the Ghouls that’d collapsed onto the ground from my Crippling Chills and killed a couple of them, according to my Contribution notifications. Then, it turned, looked at me, and roared. This thing was fucking loud.
Now that it was in direct sunlight, I could see the various wounds it’d sustained from its fight in the cave with Erani and the Dryad. It was burnt, slashed, stabbed, beaten, and seemed like it’d been bashed against a wall a couple times. But it was still standing, and it looked pissed.
“Arlan!” I could hear Erani running up from in the chasm, “watch out for the–”
She was interrupted by the loudest roar yet from the massive monster, and it charged at me yet again.
“Fuck!” I leapt out of the way, rolling across the ground and trying to stay away from the still ever-approaching ring of Ghouls. I held out a hand and shot off a few Rays of Frost as the Troll crashed through the line of undead, hitting it in the back and covering it in a layer of rime.
You have struck Level 24 Mountain Troll for 53 damage using Ray of Frost.
You have cursed Level 24 Mountain Troll with Ray of Frost. For the next 5 seconds, its Dexterity score is lowered by 7.4.
14.5 Mana Cost. Your Mana is 256.
You have struck Level 24 Mountain Troll for 50 damage using Ray of Frost.
You have cursed Level 24 Mountain Troll with Ray of Frost. For the next 5 seconds, its Dexterity score is lowered by 7.4.
14.5 Mana Cost. Your Mana is 241.
You have struck Level 24 Mountain Troll for 57 damage using Ray of Frost.
You have cursed Level 24 Mountain Troll with Ray of Frost. For the next 5 seconds, its Dexterity score is lowered by 7.4.
14.5 Mana Cost. Your Mana is 227.
It turned and roared yet again, obviously upset at its unsuccessful charge. I braced myself to dodge again, but this time it didn’t run at me right away. Instead, its eyes suddenly shined an even brighter red than before – I suspected I’d be able to see its eyes from all the way across the wasteland at this point – and seemed to gloss over with a magical sheen.
And then, it seemed to disappear. Except, no – it was just moving so fast, my eyes couldn’t keep track of it. And then, it reappeared right in front of me, its clawed hand already in the middle of a swing. Before I could even process what was happening, the fist hit me and sent me flying.
You have been sliced by claws. 41 damage.
Your Health is 212.
You have been slammed into something. 18 damage.
Your Health is 194.
I rolled across the ashy ground of the wasteland, tumbling across the ground until finally settling to a stop.
Yeah, that supernatural speed was no joke. It was such an intense boost that it more than canceled out the Dexterity-draining effects of Cripping Chill and Ray of Frost, and it didn’t seem like Gravity Well would do much to the Mountain Troll in its current state, either. I’d been hit so far away that Erani and the Dryad were well out of range to offer any immediate help, and my Mana and Health were both getting low. And now with the monster’s extreme boost in speed, it was even stronger than before.
The Mountain Troll turned to look at me, its eyes still shining that extra-bright red.
The only question was, how could I beat it?
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