Too Stubborn to Die Chapter 53

Club strikes and monstrous claws flew through the air, but they always fell short of Aaron, who danced around the towering troll with the elegance of a superpowered Muhammad Ali, slipping attacks like it was his day job.

However, his body was mostly on autopilot. His thoughts were elsewhere, focused on the mana he was pushing into his attacks.

Even if the troll stood there and took his attacks without firing back, killing it would be no easy task. Sure, his haymakers caused damage, but they healed at such a stupid speed. In fact, the only reason he thought it possible was his ridiculous regeneration for his level.

Several seconds later, the troll’s claws cut through the sky, creating a tear that split the air and soared toward him, ripping Aaron in two.

The attack hadn’t actually been that fast, and had his focus been on it, he would have easily predicted it. But Aaron had been focused on his task and had reacted too late.

But he had started to sense something, and charged back into the trial. Like with his mana sphere against the toxins, he was gradually getting a feel for the mana within the troll, allowing some of his mana to seep into its wounds every time he attacked.

The technique likely wouldn’t be useful outside of the trials. Dying several times just to understand how somebody's Skills worked wasn’t very practical in a normal fight. But that wasn’t why he was doing it.

If understanding the troll’s healing pushed him closer to figuring out how Vitality worked, then it was worth the effort. Besides, it might even help him unlock a Skill that had identification properties. Something that would help him understand his enemy’s attacks without dying. And so, he kept going, grinding against the troll.

He powered his haymakers just enough to break the skin and make the troll bleed, and continued to move quickly and avoid counters.

Breaking the melee and bouncing up into the air with [ Gust Step ], Aaron stopped to eat, and then shot back down into the battle.

This was a routine he continued, allowed thanks to his speed advantage over the troll.

It did bring up an interesting thought, though. The troll was slower than it probably should be. Even if its other Stats were lacking, it was obvious the troll had ridiculous strength, since when it did hit him, it completely obliterated him. That Strength alone should be enough to power its speed significantly.

Even if it weighed half a ton, or more, such strength should allow it to move faster, Aaron thought.

However, he remembered a conversation he had with Douglas in passing. Narrow paths made for powerful Skills and warriors, but often came with drawbacks.

Might this troll have received some kind of speed penalty in return for ridiculous healing? It seemed plausible, especially with its club Skill that had attempted to slow Aaron.

If not for [ Relentless Scourge ], it’d have slowed him right down and been very difficult to deal with. He sensed as much from the aura that Skill gave off. How would he have dealt with that, considering how fast the troll healed? This wasn’t an enemy you wanted to attempt going blow for blow with.

It was an interesting thought, but Aaron refocused on the task at hand. Ultimately, it didn’t really matter how the troll came to have its strengths and weaknesses. However, it was good to know. Perhaps he would face somebody in the future with a seemingly overpowered ability, and if he did, it was good to know whether searching for a balancing weakness was sensible.

Several deaths followed as he attuned himself to the troll, though it took the hulking monster quite some time to land a lucky strike.

But gradually, he felt it. There was no inspection window or System telling him exactly what he felt, but Aaron was certain this wasn’t a Skill.

A… a heart?

His brow twitched as he attempted to understand what it was he felt, and then his chest pounded as if injected with adrenaline.

“That’s it!”

The troll tilted its head curiously at Aaron’s random outburst and then immediately threw itself back into the battle.

Every time he hit the troll, he felt his heart pumping Vitality stronger and stronger, and he pushed his mana toward it.

Between blows, he focused on the beating heart he felt within the troll, and how it powered its regeneration. Visualizing it in his mind, he attempted to mimic the monster, focusing his energy into his heart, and attempting to cycle it through the semi-dormant organ.

But the battle continuously dragged Aaron from his thoughts and training. Not that he minded. This was a fight, after all.

Through the following strikes, he gradually altered the mana he poisoned the troll with as he grew in understanding of both its health and his own, drawing down on his adipose tissue, and shrinking in the process.

But unlike the toxins, which were a Skill, pure Vitality couldn’t be countered so easily. Pouring energy into it was hopeless. The Vitality and Mana cancelled each other out, and the troll had far more HP than Aaron had MP.

However, he found that he could temporarily dampen it, which led to another observation—even with the Vitality pumping through it dampened, the troll healed at a remarkable speed.

Like Aaron with his various forms of energy, the troll used multiple methods of healing itself. This was an important realization for defeating it, for if he could not overcome the Vitality itself, he could at least attack the second method of self-healing.

Whatever this other energy was, it moved fast and multiplied, fueled by the health created by the monster’s Vitality, but separate.

That’s it. Mana fuels external energy, stamina, internal, and health, healing.

It seemed obvious, but he had gone in thinking of health as just that, health. But it was actually the energy used in healing, and he theorized that even healing spells would consume HP.

He felt his heart beat harder as the theories were internalized, and he delved within, between a series of quick strikes, pushing his third and final energy into his heart.

A wave of Vitality burst free, causing Aaron to gasp at the sensation. But the organ’s power hadn’t truly been awoken just yet. That said, he had felt it within him and knew where to look now.

However, he needed time to sit down and ponder this. Even against a slower opponent, this fight moved too quickly for such a thing. Besides, he couldn’t actually train healing against an enemy like this. The troll’s power was too great, and he was easily finished in a single strike. He needed to be able to heal, to have wounds to push his Vitality towards.

I suppose it’s time to put an end to this.

His insights into Vitality were invaluable, and now it was time to test how much he had learned. Awakening the organ could wait until after the trial.

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Detecting the skill, Aaron poured his mana into it with every strike. The troll still healed, but every time he hit it, its healing slowed. Soon, several wounds marked its body, and it became bloodier and bloodier as Aaron rained down blows unopposed.

The fight was far from over, but at least he could somewhat counter the Skill that was healing the troll. Without that, it was likely impossible. The Vitality Heart alone provided too much healing potential, so when paired with a healing Skill, it was too much for the underleveled human.

The battle continued back and forth for a while. The troll was slow, but even a grazing strike ripped Aaron apart, killing him instantly. And as such, it took him a couple of attempts to properly feel his opponent out.

With every engagement, it was looking more and more hopeless for the troll. Aaron had figured it out, or at least enough to impose his will.

But he had one more thing he wanted to try before this fight was over. Mostly to satiate his own curiosity.

“Let’s see how you like this, big guy,” Aaron said and used [ Gust Step ] to fly above the troll.

Inhaling deeply, he looked down at the irate troll and blew. He had eaten a serving of Tainted Chili Con… Everythingbefore the fight, and [ Oozagh’s Breath ] caught light against the flaming pot, and a flamethrower extended from his mouth, dousing the troll and eliciting an angry screech.

Bubbling growths lined the rough, burnt skin of the troll, and Aaron flooded mana into [ Gust Step ] as he shot back down toward the monster. The flames hadn’t killed it, but they had undoubtedly caused damage, and with its healing already damaged greatly from his strikes, it did not recover.

Wounded and slowed, it was unable to react in time to dodge or counter the powered-up haymaker that slammed into its chin with near full force.

A shockwave burst out as his fist clashed with the troll’s head, and viscous green blood sprayed as the monster was blasted away from him and sent tumbling into a roll across the hard earth.

Brow perking, Aaron watched on, impressed as the curdled hide of the troll didn’t just not heal, but appeared to be weakening further.

“So, trolls really don’t like fire, then? Huh, whaddya know?”

Already stuffing his mouth and chewing between words, he watched as the monster staggered back to its feet. Its face was a gnarled mess. The monster’s jaw was entirely missing, and burnt, broken flash hung loosely all over the place. Although it still healed, albeit greatly slowed, wherever the burns were not too bad.

There were obviously weaknesses to expose, but it was still pretty impressive how good the troll’s healing really was.

Aaron inhaled again and blew more flames before shooting forward. But a fraction of a second before the flames engulfed the troll, it had clapped its huge hands, sending a powerful shockwave blasting back, and extinguishing the fire.

At least I got you to show me another Skill.

Unfortunately for the troll, Aaron was too fast, and it was too wounded. When they clashed, new wounds opened up across it, and he continued to flood the corrupting mana into them, further destabilizing its healing ability.

But the troll wasn’t out of tricks, and a moment later, undulating growths rippled across its damaged form.

“That is… gross,” Aaron grimaced.

The troll’s body distorted and shifted, and a second later, its flesh twisted into balls that burst free from its body. Slimy and rolling across the ground, four medicine-sized balls freed themselves from the troll before the body fell limply to the ground. A moment later, the balls began to shift and twist, and limbs popped free.

Aaron just watched in amazement. Sure, he could take this moment to attack, but he wanted to see what was going to happen. It was one of the joys of being able to respawn. He might as well take advantage of it while he could.

The balls got to their feet like limbed eggs, but within seconds they had completed their transformation into four little, gnome-sized trolls.

“Oh well, at least this’ll be fun,” Aaron muttered as he stretched.

His eyes widened a second later as the four little trolls shot forward with remarkable speed. Outnumbered by the zippy little trolls, he was forced to activate [ Gorgon’s Time Dilation ], and his focus pressed against fate as he weaved through countless attacks per second.

But Aaron had been training for Yendal. As fast as these little trolls were, they were no match for a martial goddess.

The battle moved quickly. He hadn’t even hit E grade yet, and still, the speed at which he fought would have been impossible for a pre-integration human to even keep up with as a spectator. It put a professional boxer slamming their fists against a speed bag to shame.

And while the trolls had given up their size for speed, he felt the familiar energy after landing a strike. But that was easily countered for now, and soon, he landed a well-placed haymaker that blew a hole through one of the little trolls.

Chunks of troll flew across the ground, but the three remaining trolls pressed their attack.

Impressively, the one with its guts hanging out didn’t die. It was healing, albeit slowly. Even if the corrupted mana didn’t entirely break the Skill, it did enough to take the edge out of its power.

Thanks to the speed difference, Aaron hadn’t needed to predict the future particularly far in advance against the big one. But against these little guys, he used every trick he had.

A breath of flames pushed them back, giving him a moment to attack, and he shot toward the wounded one, blasting its head into tiny pieces with a haymaker. But the others were on him in an instant.

His eyes glazed over, and Aaron dodged in a trance-like state as his mind went elsewhere. Simultaneously, as he fought, he worked the threads of fate.

Every movement was studied and chosen based on where fate would take him, and a second later, he slammed another tiny troll with a haymaker.

Despite not needing to learn another lesson from the trolls, this battle was very useful. The fast, little trolls were the perfect sparring partners to put everything he had learned into practice.

Mana manipulation whilst bending fate and weaving through battle, dodging countless strikes a second. It was an accumulation of it all, and it was pushing Aaron to new heights.

Exactly what he needed before facing off against Yendal once more.

The battle flashed across the landscape, moving in exactly the direction he had planned, and when the trolls were where he wanted them, a cascading series of events was unleashed.

He weaved combinations of both flames and strikes together for deadly effect against the trolls.

Dumbfounded, the trolls were playing to Aaron’s rhythm. The attacks landed exactly where they needed to, flying straight through the defenses as if they didn’t even exist. Bursts of flaming breath followed up by semi-empowered haymakers. And within a fraction of a second, the remaining trolls had been blasted into cooked chunks of meat.

One troll had managed to heal itself enough to stand straight, and Aaron flashed out of range to eat.

It was persistent, but the battle was over.

A furious shriek echoed from its lips, and the troll rushed forward. And even though Aaron had only recovered a fraction of his mana, it was more than enough for the individual troll. Four of them had been a challenge, but this was little more than an annoyance.

Within a second, the final troll had been beaten down and fried into a kebab.

“Eh, not bad,” Aaron shrugged over the burnt landscape and crackling meat corpses. This was one of the times he wished he didn’t have an ogre gut, because the burnt bodies smelled a little too tasty for comfort.

I really, really, really hope that doesn’t happen to humans.

Was it wrong that he wanted to collect the cooked meat? There was no point, of course. They were shadows that wouldn’t follow him into the hallway, but the intrusive thought still bugged him.

He wasn’t sure if eating trolls was necessarily taboo for a human, but it still felt weird and uncomfortable to even think about eating a humanoid combatant he had just bested.

Chain Quest: The Shadow Trials

Stage five of [ Trial of Dominance] COMPLETED!

You have tested yourself against a deadly troll and its mutations and have emerged victorious.

Quest Rewards: Skill Book: Advanced Inspect [Unique], Unique System Store upgraded to level 5.

Experience rewarded for completing a quest stage!

Ding!

[ Brawler ] has LEVELED UP!

23 → 24

“Nice, another level,” Aaron murmured as he reappeared in the hallways. It made sense. Back-to-back stage fives should be enough for a level.

He didn’t even bother inspecting his loot. The explanation was clear enough, and he consumed the skill book immediately. He could field test something like Advanced Inspect.

Aaron wanted to jump straight into another trial, but he had a few things to do first.

He was only a level away from his Class evolution, but he could feel his chest pumping. The insights he had gained against the troll had brought him so close to understanding.

With that thought in mind, he knew what needed to be done first.