The trolls ranged between levels 45 and 49. They were big and fierce and powerful, but I'd fought trolls and ogres and giants for 2 days and nights, so I rushed straight at the group, embracing my own rising battle frenzy.

The trolls were coming at me, spread out in a loose line to block escape. Too bad for them, I wasn't interested in escape.

I triggered Energy Ward, then Tether Slide, with tethers set at the chests of the leftmost and rightmost trolls. At the same time, I mentally dumped a lightning cube into my bag of popcorn and took a potion of Lightning Immunity.

The glowing chains of Tether Slide gave the trolls a hint of my plans, but no trolls had ever been accused of being really smart. So they lashed at the chains, distracting themselves for a critical second as Tether Slide yanked me into the air.

I landed feet first on the chest of the first troll, smashing Earthshaker Maul into its skull with all the force of my momentum before Tether Slide yanked me sideways. The first troll's head simply exploded and it fell in a lifeless heap.

As I soared across the group to the other side, I flung the bag of popcorn into the air. Popcorn kernels sprayed out in every direction, flying up above the monsters as they raised weapons to try clubbing my flying form.

Before they could finish their swings, the popcorn exploded into bolts of chain lightning that arced and jumped between kernels and through troll bodies in a fantastic torrent of crackling destruction. Corn kernels exploded into huge, fluffy popcorn that settled down around the trolls like snow as the monsters shuddered under the electrical barrage. It did little real damage, but totally distracted them for a couple precious seconds.

I landed Maul first on the last troll, and that weapon was as amazing as its description claimed. Three thousand pounds of destruction hurtling through the air delivered absolutely horrific force, enough to shatter another big troll's head.

It collapsed, but I had already leaped off, spinning in the air to deliver another head-shot to the next troll in line. Trolls were big and tough, their skin hard to penetrate, but head shots with enough force worked every time.

Dropping to the ground, I waded into the remaining 3 trolls, willing the handle to expand for the first time. The Maul handle smoothly stretched to 10 feet and I slammed it into the back of the next troll's head, crushing its spine.

Energy Ward was pouring life force into me from the 2 remaining trolls. The closest one, who had stood in the middle of the group, was bigger than the others, with the highest levels. With a mighty roar, it swept its club horizontally with enough power to shatter my head like I'd done to its companions.

I ducked the blow, but before I could unleash my maul, a whiplike rope of pure black magic snaked out from the troll and wrapped around my body. Was the big, dumb beast actually using magic on me?

Yup.

"Congratulations, Lucas! Mimic has captured Flesh Hook. Seize a nearby target and yank it to you. Time remaining to re-cast the spell: 15 seconds."

Oh. That made things simple.

The rope of magic yanked me off the ground straight at the waiting troll's chest. It dropped its club and swept both enormous clawed hands in to catch me and probably crush the life out of me.

That would take it half a second too long, though. I dumped the Maul into my inventory and punched up into the troll's chin with all my strength and the full momentum of his own spell, while triggering the Upper Cut spell I'd gotten from Cyrus after I got beat up by Fulvia. For good measure, I snapped open my Wolverine claws.

The mighty punch from both clawed hands, doubled from the power of the spell, cracked the ogre's jaw and snapped its head back, while driving my silver claws deep into its head. Soul slice added spiritual damage, slicing through its spirit right up into its brain.

The troll toppled backward and I slid down its torso, dragging the ethereal blades of Upper Cut that extended out the back of my hands all the way down.

The final troll lunged in, cudgel the size of a small tree smashing down with terrific force. I side-stepped with the help of Energy Ward and pulled out an item I'd been wanting to try.

"Bone drill. Uncommon. Throw or stab this drill into an enemy and it will instantly drill through any bone, then return to your inventory. Cooldown: 1 minute."

The cudgel struck the floor with a resounding crash, but I'd already jumped, easily soaring up to the level of the surprised troll's face. I threw the bone drill point-blank into its huge forehead.

The long, golden drill bit buzzed and blurred when it struck the troll's head, punching through without slowing. Even before I started falling back to the ground, the drill punched out the far side of the troll's head in an explosion of blood and bone and brains, then disappeared back into my inventory. The monster's expression turned to confusion just before the lights in its eyes winked out and it collapsed.

I triggered Loot and Soul Feed on the fallen pack of trolls, then rushed out of the clouds of stinking black smoke, followed by streams of life force that topped off all my pools and supercharged my physical stats. Great little fight, but I needed to focus.

I set a tether point and used Tether Slide to shoot up to the open staircase spiraling around the central column. From there, I could see over the entire area and into all of the partially walled-off sectors. Alpha was easy to spot. He'd fought his way through 2 sectors, killing 20 trolls along the way. The entire cavern was one continuous scene of blood and slaughter and carnage.

Four trolls remained, fighting Alpha close to one of the spiraling walls. They were bigger, all level 49, and worked together better than the pack I'd fought. They looked battered, but so did Alpha. The enormous damage my traps had done, plus the continuous fighting had finally started taking a visible toll on his insane regeneration. His fur was bloody, with wounds slowly closing, and his unstoppable rage had faded to a determined fury.

Perfect time for me to crash the party. I didn't want a troll to kill Alpha. That would be insulting.

So I used Tether Slide to shoot down and drop-kick the back of one of the trolls, sending it tumbling into a second monster and knocking them both to the floor. My abrupt entrance caught everyone's attention, and for a second, the fight paused as they all turned to stare.

Alpha growled. "Finally you dare come out to fight."

"Says the coward who wore a full-body shield to a straight-up duel. You don't even have the guts to face me in your human form."

The trolls backed up a bit to regroup, their panting breaths like industrial bellows on overdrive.

"You wish to die by my humanoid hand?"

"You wish. You can't kill me as a wolf, so you must suck as a humanoid."

That taunt against his honor could not go unanswered. As I hoped he would, the big, proud dummy triggered Lycanthropic Transformation, his body shaking and writhing as he transformed.

And got bigger.

Huh. Maybe not so dumb. Alpha as a human-ish guy was one scary dude. He stood over 7 feet tall with piles of muscle packed onto a perfectly sculpted physique, displayed to all the world since he wore only a frayed pair of tan trousers.

Alpha slammed his open palms together and grinned. His blocky head and square chin were framed by a shaggy, black hair and beard. He looked like a viking god.

"Witness my perfection and die by my hand!"

I shot him in the groin with a pair of exploding crystal darts.

Not even Alpha could ignore a double punch to the nads. He grunted, staggering, glancing down at his bloody midsection, distracted just long enough for me to close the distance and sweep a heavy diamond club across his knees.

The crack of the strike echoed across the chamber as Alpha toppled to the ground with a shout of fury. I slid to a halt closer to the trolls, tossed the club into my inventory, and extended my Wolverine claws. I planned to hurt the bastard before I finished him off.

Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

Alpha's energy reserves might be getting low, but he recovered from the latest wounds with shocking speed, rolling almost immediately back to his feet. He glared and spat, "Act of a coward."

"You can't talk. You're the one turning my people into murderers of their own kind."

Alpha strode toward me, huge, bare hands rising. Behind me, one of the trolls took a heavy step and Energy Ward, which was still active, nudged me to one side. The sly troll devil had thrown a weapon.

I dropped to the floor instead, letting the heavy, iron-banded club sail overhead, hoping it would crush Alpha's sternum. He caught it.

The 4 remaining trolls had apparently waited long enough. They came on in a rush, a line of trampling monstrosities. The one in the middle was missing his club, so I dove between his legs, slashing his knees with both sets of Wolverine claws. He bellowed and crashed to the floor, sliding all the way to Alpha, who smashed his head in with his own club.

Two of the other trolls kept charging Alpha, giant weapons sweeping in or crashing down, but the last one turned back to attack me. He wielded a crude ax with a serrated head 6 feet long, and launched an overhand chop that would have sliced me in half.

I side-stepped and Energy Ward pulled life force from the big guy. His ax struck the ground so hard the weapon shattered. Stinging bits of sharp iron ricocheted off my legs and chest or deflected just past. Thankfully, none penetrated, while Energy Ward poured in more power it stole from the huge beast.

It roared in rage and tried kicking me with a leg the size of an oak. Powerful, but slow.

"Thank you very much." I slipped the kick, seized the leg, and heaved. The troll flailed wildly as I tossed it 10 feet straight up.

Whoa! Strength of 52 was no joke. I caught the troll under the stomach as he dropped toward the floor, then spun and launched the monster at Alpha, just as the boss werewolf knocked the last troll staggering. He'd already killed the other troll who had just attacked him. Looked like he was just as deadly in human form.

Like corn hole, troll edition, the big meaty troll projectile slammed right into Alpha just as he turned toward me. The impact smashed Alpha off his feet, and the two tumbled to the ground in a heap, with the troll on top.

Roaring with glee, my troll throwing dummy started pummeling Alpha, who was momentarily stuck under the heavier monster. The other troll he'd just wounded rushed back in too, heavy maul slamming down.

Alpha heaved, rolling the troll pummeling him into the path of the maul. The giant weapon crunched the troll's spine and it howled in pain, legs going limp from paralysis. The troll who had just hit its companion winced. Alpha heaved the injured troll off and rolled to his feet just in time for the last troll to slam the maul down again.

Alpha caught the maul.

The force of the blow staggered him half a step, but he caught it, huge muscles bulging from the strain. Then he ripped the weapon out of the troll's hands and lunged, driving the haft into the troll's chest so hard bones in its chest snapped with audible cracks despite the protection of its armor and thick hide.

The troll staggered back, clutching at its chest. Alpha dropped the maul, stepped in, and kicked the troll's knee. It's leg shattered and the monster lurched forward, making it easy for Alpha to grab its giant head with both frying-pan sized hands. With a heave of his mighty shoulders, Alpha snapped the troll's neck.

Grunting in satisfaction, Alpha spun just in time to catch my maul in the face. The blow smushed Alpha into the floor so hard his legs buckled and blood sprayed from his mouth.

He started regenerating quickly, but I raised the maul again. How many crushing blows could he survive?

He met my gaze and managed to wheeze, "No more distractions. No more games. Now you die."

"I'm usually a big fan of optimism, but today I'm more a fan of you suffering. A lot."

Alpha howled and a wave of pure force slammed into me, staggering me back several steps. The loser could use his howl magic even in humanoid form?

"Congratulations, Lucas! Mimic has captured Apex Momentum Howl. Time remaining to re-cast the spell: 15 seconds."

Like all his howl spells, that one was pretty good, but I didn't feel like using his own howl against him this time. Instead, I reached down and seized the paralyzed troll's legs.

With a heave, I swept the giant monster off the ground and used it like a club, slamming it down onto Alpha. He'd bought a couple seconds to heal, but it wasn't enough, and the troll smashed him into the floor again. Not as effective as hitting him with my maul, but so very satisfying.

Yanking the meat club back, I did it again, and again, like a weird twisted reality Avengers movie where Loki got to slam the Hulk back and forth into the ground in Iron Man's penthouse instead of the other way around. The troll roared in berserker rage at being manhandled like that, while Alpha shouted in absolute fury. After slamming the troll onto Alpha half a dozen times, Alpha finally healed enough to roll free.

Leaving the troll to succumb to its injuries and the steady drain from Energy Ward, I advanced on Alpha.

Crouching, he shouted, "Enough!"

With a shivering convulsion all through his body, he transformed back into his terrifying werewolf form. Going from human to wolf seemed to work faster, but it still gave me a second.

I dropped Energy Ward, then re-cast it, using Force Weaver to also stack on my recently harvested spell Soul Ravage.

"Soul Ravage. Spell. Rare. Spear through an enemy's mind to deal mental and spiritual damage. Amount of damage increases with the difference in mana pool size."

I also used Elemental Harmony to dump 2 more potions of Stygian Ichor into the mix. Mana poured out of me. A lot of mana.

"Congratulations, Lucas! New synergies unlocked to form the new spell Ravaging Death."

A black tornado formed around me, whistling like an out-of-control freight train. Flashes of gold spun and twisted within the raging magical wind.

Alpha dove through the tornado and it began sucking power from him. That was great. The fact that Energy Ward did not deflect him like I expected, not so much.

He crash-tackled me off my feet, then reared over me, jaws hinging wide. Before he could snap them over my head, whips of that gold light in my tornado slammed into his snout, face, and torso, knocking him sideways and leaving black gashes that did not immediately begin healing.

He cringed a lot more than a purely physical wound like that would have caused. So it was hitting him at other levels too? Mental and spiritual damage had to hurt a lot. He didn't retreat, though.

We rolled to our feet together and more energy kept pouring into me from Ravaging Death. At the same time, fur began billowing off of Alpha's body, as those whipping golden lights tore chunks free in little tufts all over. Blood sprayed as muscle shredded too, while black streaks started marring his body. Some of the wounds started healing, but far more slowly.

Yikes. Ravaging Death was trying to peel him like a potato, one layer at a time, while draining his energy, whipping him with energy lashes, and dealing internal mental and spiritual damage.

That had to hurt like crazy, but Alpha ignored the injuries, even as they piled up. The determined werewolf slashed razor claws across my torso, shredding my Crash Test Dummy jacket.

The jacket responded. "Did you just try skydiving through the windshield? Hopefully you have full coverage."

Stupid jacket. My enemy was right in front of me, no longer hiding behind his rune shield. The sight triggered a renewed lust for battle. I could ignore hits too, so I waded in, ducking and weaving, and even catching some of his blows on my Wolverine claws, slashing deep wounds that he'd struggle to heal and which dealt even more direct spiritual damage.

I could tell the claws hurt, but they didn't totally sever his connection to his spirit like Soulrend would have. The Soul Slice enchantment on the blades was designed to hurt totally incorporeal monsters. Maybe having his spirit sheathed in a powerful body offered a lot more protection against that level of enchantment.

So that meant I had to hit him more times. I could live with that.

Alpha roared in my face, snapping at my head with jaws that could rip a bull in half. I punched him in the snout, sinking my blades in again, then stepped around and ripped them down his side.

He back-handed me, sending me crashing into the nearby stone wall. I bounced off and dove right back in again. I ignored other weapons, focusing on my silver, spirit-rending claws as boiling battle fury swept away all caution. The lingering werewolf inside of me rose to the fore, raging in defiance against the Alpha. I would tear him open with my claws, sink my teeth into his throat, and feast on his life blood.

I lost track of time as we ripped and tore at each other, slashing and biting and kicking and throwing each other all around the cavern. My senses sharpened and I savored the scent of blood and gore, the feel of my claws plunging into his powerful form, and the sounds our mingling roars. The wolf inside of me howled, and I howled along with it.

That angered Alpha even more, and he slashed across my already tattered jacket again, scoring 10 deep gashes that scarred my tough under armor. Even though he didn't rip through, he struck so hard that he drove my own armored clothing into my flesh. I punched back, driving silver claws through his heart, and he staggered.

For the first time, I healed faster, my natural regeneration boosted by power from my Tesla Coil bracelet and the rivers of energy being siphoned off of Alpha by my Ravaging Death tornado. He shook off the injuries, though, and hurtled back at me, jaws snapping so close to my head, he ripped off my left ear.

So I kneed him in the stomach so hard he somersaulted several times before crashing into a nearby wall. I sprinted after and tackled him into the wall a second time. We bounced off together, slashing and clawing and beating on each other with unrestrained ferocity.

Slowly, the constant drain started taking more and more effect on Alpha. The many injuries, the constant damage from Ravaging Death, compounded by all the Stygian Ichor he'd ingested finally began overwhelming even his endless regeneration. I could see the truth dawning in his eyes. For probably the first time in his life, he was going to lose a straight-up, close-quarters brawl. And it ticked him off.

With a roar of berserker rage, he threw himself at me one more time, going for the throat. I slipped the strike and punched my silver claws into his chest and through his heart for the tenth time in half a minute. He staggered back, heaving breaths like a bellows, head hanging low. But his crimson-eyed gaze met mine and his deadly maw twisted in a lupine parody of a grin.

Uh Oh.

He howled again, and this time a wave of amber light erupted off of him. At its touch, my Ravaging Death tornado winked out. When the wave rolled over me, my strength ebbed and exhaustion clubbed me in the head, making me sway. The unexpected magical blow also slapped sense back into me and I shook off the berserker rage I'd slipped into.

"What the . . ?"

"Congratulations, Lucas! Mimic has copied Mana Desert. Level 3. Create a wave of suppression out to 3 yards per level that snuffs out all active spells and mana-based abilities for 30 seconds. Remaining time to re-cast Mana Desert: 15 seconds."

Wow, that was insanely powerful. I instantly applied Mimic's new feature and made the spell a full temporary spell, which gave it a total of 4 remaining uses. Alpha was rising to his full height, looking smug, despite having been nearly carved to the bone all over by my Ravaging Death synergized spell.

"You are such a cheater!"

"Then you'll love this," he growled and somehow swelled to double his normal size.

"Well, Furtwangler!"

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.