Chapter 24: Thick-Skinned and Tough-Blooded

Storm Step!

Eric narrowly dodged the troll’s fleshy arm, the attack landing on the ground with a thunderous crash. Before he had even regained his footing, Eric proactively closed the distance, slashing several times at the troll’s back.

Roll!

Anticipating the move, he rolled sideways, avoiding a heavy smash from the troll’s other arm. Leslie lunged in at that moment, picking up the assault. Although he could not deal holy damage, his immense physical strength allowed him to hack deep gashes into the troll with his broadsword, inflicting significant pain.

Finding an opening, Alana chanted another Holy Smite. The holy light struck the troll, scorching its flesh and sending white smoke hissing into the air. Aggro shifted once again. After casting her divine spell, Alana immediately monitored the troll’s movements, ready to dodge any counterattack.

Just as Eric had predicted, when the target of its aggression was close enough, the troll would refrain from using its body-slam move. The ground trembled as the troll approached, and Alana took short, quick steps, her nerves taut.

It’s coming!

The troll brought both arms down in a simultaneous smash. Alana reacted swiftly, retreating several steps, leaving only the rising dust and debris to touch her. Meanwhile, Eric, who had been stealing damage from behind the troll, quickly reclaimed its attention.

The trio circled the troll, maneuvering constantly. The other guards had virtually no chance to intervene; stepping in rashly would only cause chaos. Although they managed to dodge every attack, escaping unscathed each time, the fatigue of constant, high-tension combat began to accumulate rapidly after reaching a certain point.

"Why won't it go down..." Leslie gasped, unable to stop himself from cursing, "Is this thing unkillable?"

"It’s definitely killable," Eric said with conviction, though he felt a bit uncertain inside.

There’s no health bar to see!

The creature was naturally tanky, and since the damage they dealt was difficult to quantify, it was hard for him to judge what stage of the fight they were in. Half health? Near death? Observing the troll’s condition revealed nothing.

Between the hacking and the divine scorching, its body was already a mangled, scarred mess, and its upper torso was a charred, blackened ruin. Yet, its form remained sturdy, and the force of its smashing arms showed no signs of diminishing. This corpse troll was an artificial construct of the dead; it could not be judged by the standards of beasts or other living things.

Boom!

Dodging a heavy strike, Eric stood his ground, taking the brief moment of respite to re-examine the troll before him. Although its frame was massive, it could barely be considered humanoid. Could its vital point be in the heart, or perhaps that normal-sized—yet eerily out of place—head on its neck?

Eric quickly ruled out the former. This corpse troll was stitched together from bodies by a necromancer and was completely solid inside—he could feel the feedback through his blade when it pierced the flesh—there were no internal organs to speak of.

As for the head...

Eric shifted his gaze upward, locking eyes with the troll’s rage-filled face. Normal size, complete with eyes, ears, mouth, and nose—it was a perfectly natural, fully corrupted human head.

Eric suddenly had a feeling: that was the troll’s vital point!

The problem was that the troll stood four or five meters tall. He and Leslie had been circling its lower half for ages; how were they supposed to reach its head? The detachment of City Lord’s guards they had brought were all sword-wielding warriors with no archers. If one had to name a ranged option, it was only Alana’s divine spells. But based on the actual results, relying solely on Holy Smite didn't seem sufficient, and overusing it risked drawing the troll’s full aggro onto the High Sister.

"The vital point must be its head!" Seeing the troll approach, Eric quickly shouted a warning. "Leslie, do you have any combat arts that allow you to leap up and strike its head?"

"If I had that kind of ability, I would have gone to develop my career in the Imperial Capital long ago, young master!" the guard captain retorted sharply.

"Then think of a way that doesn't require special skills!" Eric paced for a moment, noticing the troll’s aggro was still on him. Looking toward Leslie, he saw the man was taking the opportunity to rest. He couldn't blame him; Leslie had done the most work in the first half of the fight. Especially since he lacked special attacks, he had been forced to hack and slash wildly to hold the aggro, making him the most exhausted person on the field.

"Can we chop its legs off?" Driven by duty, Leslie didn't let his young master bear the pressure for long, quickly raising his sword to rejoin the fray.

The aggro shifted, and Eric, who had been chased around, felt an immediate sense of relief. Standing firm, he looked at the troll’s thick legs. He and Leslie had landed who knows how many blows, only to cause superficial wounds. The necromancer had packed the creature with so much material that its body was terrifyingly dense.

"It doesn't look like we can chop them off," the maneuvering High Sister chimed in. She was under the least pressure and had the clearest view of every aspect of the battlefield.

"What about climbing up?" Leslie took a backstep, barely managing to dodge the troll’s swinging arm. The high-intensity combat left him with little energy to land extra strikes when the troll’s moves left it exposed, let alone whether they would be effective. Better to save his strength to stay alive.

Eric looked at the troll’s back. It was pockmarked and covered in enough wounds that it seemed possible to use them as handholds for climbing. But he immediately realized the risk was immense. Climbing the troll’s body would mean losing most of his vision, making it hard to react in time, and he would lose the space to dodge. If the troll swatted at him, it would be easier than swatting a mosquito.

"I'll try it."

Leslie heard the hesitation in his voice. Dodging, he took a moment to glance over; Eric had already approached the troll’s rear.

Driving his sword deep into the troll’s body, Eric kicked off, leaping upward. He hooked his other hand into a wound on its back and began to climb. The first step went quite smoothly; with the aggro on Leslie, the troll seemed completely indifferent to the other enemy crawling on its back.

His body swayed with the troll’s movements. Eric pulled out his broadsword and stabbed it into another spot further up to create a new handhold. Pushing off with his feet, he climbed a bit higher, but suddenly felt the troll’s body pause and go still.

"Young master, look out!" Leslie’s warning followed immediately.

Eric had been on guard the whole time. Without a moment’s hesitation, he kicked off and jumped directly away from the troll, abandoning the sword he had left embedded there. The next moment, the troll’s palm slammed into its own back with a dull thud, clearly not holding back even against itself.

"Why don't you just slap yourself to death!" The situation was perilous, and upon landing, Eric couldn't help but curse.

Failing to swat the "mosquito" on its back, the troll wobbled, didn't even turn its head, and began to stumble toward Leslie again.

"Give me a sword!"

Turning to call out to the other guards who couldn't join the fight, Eric guessed that the troll had a higher priority for enemies climbing on its body. This made him even more convinced that the little head was its weak point!

"Young master!"

A guard brought him a sword and immediately retreated to the side. Eric took the weapon and chased after the troll. On the way, he applied a "Blade of Divine Judgment" buff. Once he stopped, he began hacking wildly, finally drawing the troll’s aggro and giving Leslie, who had been chased for half the fight, a chance to breathe.

Bracing his body, he felt his hands trembling. "Young master, this can't go on."

"I know... if all else fails, we retreat." Eric backed away, his eyes fixed on the troll, wary of its sudden attacks. "It definitely can't keep up if we really start running, and I doubt it will follow too far. We'll figure something out after we disengage."

"Is it enough if you can just strike its head?" Alana suddenly spoke up.

Eric glanced at her quickly. "Do you have a way?"

Alana wasn't entirely sure. She hesitated slightly, then quickly said, "Before the troll charges, its body seems to tilt first, like it's about to fall. What if we make it actually fall?"

Eric froze, then immediately realized, "That’s a way!"

Because no one dared to take that charge, and even less dared to let it slam into the stone walls—potentially collapsing the underground hall—the three had circled the troll until now while maintaining enough distance to make it abandon the charge. Eric and Leslie had long forgotten this vulnerability, but he hadn't expected Alana to remember.

With the concept in mind, the method of execution occurred to Eric as if it were a matter of course.

"You all, go to Leslie’s side!" He turned and shouted to the other guards. "Wait for my signal!"

The guard captain immediately understood his plan. "Everyone, come here!"

The guards gathered around Leslie. Eric, while eyeing their position and the troll’s movements, dodged another attack and then took off running, suddenly widening the distance. The troll, as expected, began to tilt its body, adopting the stance of leaning over to accelerate for its next charge.

"Charge!" Eric roared.

Leslie and the guards around him shouted as well, all throwing their bodies against the troll.

"Charge—"

The troll was already in a tilted stance, and the sudden force from behind left it with no way to resist. It crashed to the ground with a massive thud.

"Don't let it get up!" Leslie, squeezing out his last shred of strength, led the charge and threw himself onto the troll. The other guards followed, using their bodies and strength to pin the troll’s massive frame down.

"Young master, quickly..."

When Leslie looked up, he found that Eric, who had been far away just a moment ago, was already right in front of him, his blade held high.

Standing with his feet staggered, Eric gripped the sword with both hands. He concentrated every ounce of his strength into one point and unleashed it all with a roar.

"Sever!"

The broadsword descended, wrapped in golden light, carrying an unstoppable momentum and power as it sank deep into the troll’s neck. After a barely perceptible moment of resistance, the blade sliced through and rose from the other side.

Black blood sprayed!

Rising along with it was the head, which looked all the more abnormal for being so normal, its expression now frozen in place.

Thump.

The head hit the ground. Alana collapsed onto the floor, staring blankly at the scene.

"We got it..."