Minute Mage: A Time-Traveling LitRPG

Chapter 85: Worn Down

I stumbled to my feet, glancing around in search of the Mountain Troll. When I got knocked back from the monster, I’d landed far away – off at the edge of the quickly-encroaching ring of Ghouls that surrounded us. I backed away from them while also trying to keep prepared for an attack from the Troll. It was standing across our little arena, and turned to face me. Its eyes had that magical sheen that told me it was still in its speed-enhanced state. Just how long would this shit last?

It rushed at me again, seeming to disappear from my vision and reappear in front of me like it did before. I was prepared to dodge, but before I even had the opportunity to move, its fist slammed into me, punching me even further back and straight through the crowd of Ghouls behind me.

You have been sliced by claws. 33 damage.

Your Health is 161.

I slid across the ground, narrowly missing the claws of some of the nearby Ghouls as I flew back, before finally settling to a stop. I was so far away from the cave mouth by now that Erani and the Dryad were just dots in the background, dwarfed by the quickly-approaching Mountain Troll. I hurriedly activated Regenerate – my Health was getting pretty low, and it seemed like I’d need it here.

You have activated Regenerate. You will gain 15.9 Health over the next 10 seconds.

35.7 Stamina Cost. Your Stamina is 54.1.

Wait – why were the numbers there so low? I should’ve gained a bit more Health than that.

Then I remembered. I’d been hit by Ghouls a few times now, and my Stats were lower. Which meant that my Health/Minute had decreased, and so Regenerate healed me for less.

The Ghouls around me approached closer, but they weren’t my main worry. The Troll was getting close, bounding toward me with its supernatural Dexterity. Part of me wanted to try shooting it with another few Ray of Frosts for the damage, but I knew that wouldn’t work here. My Mana was at 229, and I could tell just by looking at it that a few more Rays of Frost wouldn’t kill this beast. Erani and the Nymph were too far away to help, and the Troll would likely take this fight even further away, with its massive swings that sent me flying.

But without my Mana-intensive methods of fighting, that left only one way: Noxious Grasp. It’d been a while since I’d last been forced to use that Spell exclusively to deal with a monster, and I wasn’t looking forward to doing it again. But this time, I had a couple things working for me to make this fight go my way.

The Troll appeared in front of me once more, but I’d gotten at least slightly used to its blinding speed by now, and was already leaping back to dodge. It swung its fist out, and when it did, I activated Noxious Grasp and tapped the monster’s meaty hand as it passed by in front of me.

You have struck Level 24 Mountain Troll for 3.2 damage and drained 3.3 Stamina over the course of 0.2 seconds using Noxious Grasp.

0.6 Mana Cost. Your Mana is 160.

By tagging the Troll with Noxious Grasp, the Fester of Venomous Grasp would take hold for 5 seconds. Of course, I didn’t have Crippling Chill or anything active to artificially drain the monster’s Stamina, but that didn’t mean it wouldn’t go down at all. Simply by fighting, its Stamina would slowly decrease, and with Venomous Grasp, it’d decrease twice as fast. And that wasn’t even considering the fact that, whatever that speed buff was, it probably cost Stamina to activate.

I couldn’t beat the Troll with raw power. That much was obvious. But maybe I could slowly tire it out. With my high Mana/Minute, I was getting an extra point to cast my Spells with almost every three seconds, and the Troll would only get weaker with time. The longer I could drag this fight on, the more my chances of winning would increase.

The Troll stumbled from its missed attack, glaring at me with an angry grunt. It seemed to be slowing down bit by bit as the moments went on, so it wasn’t quite as true with its strikes as before. It lifted its leg and stomped straight at me, but I rolled to the side and barely dodged as the beast’s foot slammed into the ground, shaking the ground and kicking up dust all around us.

I coughed and tried to get back to my feet, but got caught by a backhand that sent me flying back once again.

You have been slammed into something. 29 damage.

Your Health is 132.

I groaned. It fucking hurt, but at least I still had a good buffer of Health to protect me. Back when I was lower-Leveled, even a single hit like that would’ve surely broken a bone. I once again stood back up, bleeding from the mouth.

“Won’t back down,” I muttered to nobody in particular. “I’ll keep getting back up. You can’t put me down.”

The Mountain Troll responded with a deafening roar and yet another charge. Its fighting style wasn’t exactly refined, but it more than made up for it with raw power. It slammed its fist down at me, but I backed away, managing to dodge and tag the monster with Venomous Grasp once again, refreshing the Fester. It reached out and tried to grab me, but I ducked under its massive hands just in time and lunged in to try and work against its range advantage.

Once I was close enough, I reached out and grabbed its leg with a single hand, simply dragging my fingers along its thigh and keeping in contact while also trying to keep away from its sharp claws that were reaching for me. I ducked and weaved around its legs, keeping my eyes out for the Troll’s rapid swings and attempted grabs aimed at me.

I didn’t get greedy, though, and after a few seconds and a few close calls, I let go and leapt back, out of its range.

You have struck Level 24 Mountain Troll for 76.1 damage and drained 76.6 Stamina over the course of 4.7 seconds using Noxious Grasp.

13.2 Mana Cost. Your Mana is 96.

It turned and took another swing at me, which I dodged. It seemed the Stamina drain was beginning to really slow the Troll down by now, and I could more easily dodge its strikes. Plus, its eyes were losing their magical sheen, so the supernatural speed was also wearing off.

I took a breath. We were entering the home stretch. Just wear it down a bit more. It swung again at me, and I tried to back away again, but it seemed to be learning my fighting patterns as well as I was learning its, and it reached out a bit further to hit me. I just barely didn’t get out of the way in time, and the monster’s claws scratched along my stomach.

You have been sliced by claws. 18 damage.

Your Health is 114.

Still, as it touched me I managed to get off a split-second of Noxious Grasp yet again, refreshing Venomous Grasp’s Fester. Even when it was hitting me, it was still weakening itself.

It swung again, and again, and again, and I kept ducking and weaving, only ducking in once every five seconds to refresh the Fester. Little by little, the Mountain Troll got more and more lethargic and lazy with its movements, and I got more and more familiar with its patterns. I was in a state of absolute focus, feeling like I was truly seeing all future possibilities and reacting to each of them in perfect time without error.

And I didn’t have room for error, either. Even if the Troll was slowing down, that didn’t mean it was easy to dodge its attacks. I rolled between its legs, bent over backwards to barely avoid the thing taking off my nose, and leapt straight over its lower swings that tried to swipe through my legs. Beads of sweat dotted my face and my legs felt like they’d collapse in on themselves any moment. Its Stamina was being drained faster than mine, sure, but that didn’t mean I didn’t feel any fatigue at all.

Still, I wasn’t taking damage, and that was what mattered. All I had to do was keep flowing through the swipes–

You have been bitten. 20 damage.

Your Health is 94.

Your flesh has been necrotized. For the next 24 hours, your Strength, Endurance, and Dexterity are reduced by 2.

Shit! I glanced behind me and found a Ghoul that’d snuck up and sunken its teeth into my shoulder. My entire body sunk, growing a bit weaker. I tried to yank myself away from the undead’s clutches, but just as I did–

You have been slammed into something. 36 damage.

Your Health is 58.

“Fuck,” I groaned and stumbled back to my feet. Gods-damned Ghouls. Had to be fucking everywhere.

The Mountain Troll rushed forward in yet another supernatural burst of speed. Looked like it was activating that ability one more time, putting in a last effort to take me out now that I was disoriented. But I wouldn’t let it – I still had one last trick I could pull, and now that it was throwing out the last of its resources, I’d do the same.

The moment it got within range, I cast one last Crippling Chill and Ray of Frost at the Troll.

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 62.

You have struck Level 24 Mountain Troll for 52 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 48.

With its already low Stamina, the Dexterity debuffs really hit it hard. And the constant drain from Crippling Chill, taking away over 12 every single second after the Fester was taken into account, only sealed its fate. With a start the beast stumbled over itself, not having expected to have so much taken away from it all at once. And with its hyperactive speed, it couldn’t catch itself, falling face-first into the ashy ground and sliding to a stop in front of me.

It wasn’t dead, but it wasn’t getting back up. Stamina must’ve finally hit 0. I walked over and placed a hand on the unconscious body, activating Noxious Grasp once more. There was no reaction as I began to drain away the last of its Health.

I also kept an eye out for nearby Ghouls. Finally, I could actually take a breather and look around myself. I plopped myself down on the Troll’s unmoving arm while I waited for Noxious Grasp to do its thing, gasping for breath and resting my throbbing legs.

My Health had fallen down to 58, my Stamina was low – having fallen to 29 after so much exertion in the fight – and my Stats had been severely lowered. Hells, my Dexterity was getting close to dropping below half of what it should’ve been. In conclusion, I was beat the fuck up.

“Arlan! You okay?!” A distant voice called out to me. I looked over to see Erani and the Dryad running over to me, pushing aside the Ghouls that attempted to attack them.

“Yeah,” I breathed when they got to me. “Just waiting for this damn thing to die.”

“It’s not dead already?” Erani eyed the motionless body.

“Nope, just out of Stamina. Damn thing used up so much when it used that speed ability that it tired out before dying.”

“I sorry for not saying anything,” I got a message from the Dryad. “Hard to do when fighting.”

“It’s okay,” I said back. “I was probably too busy to listen, anyway.”

It was then that I got a notification.

You have struck Level 24 Mountain Troll for 262 damage and drained 264 Stamina over the course of 16.2 seconds using Noxious Grasp.

45.4 Mana Cost. Your Mana is 2.

You have offered moderate contribution toward the slaying of Level 24 Mountain Troll.

You have earned 353 XP. Your XP is 1252.

Threshold reached. 1000 XP.

Your Level has increased to 15.

Due to achieving Level 15 in the Minute Mage Class, you have been granted the following benefits:

-You have gained 1 Endurance.

-You have gained 2 Conjuration.

-You have gained 1 Intelligence.

-You have gained 3 Stat Points.

-Recursive Growth has activated. You have gained 1 Strength, 2 Dexterity, and 1 Conjuration.

-Time Loop Talent Rank has increased to 15.

-You may choose a Spell to learn.

-You may choose a Talent to obtain.

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