Chapter 36: Gray-War Trolls (1/2)
Kadiz massive body flew like a projectile untill it made a devastating impact with the hard rocky ground, bouncing off a couple times before hitting a massive rock. His troll regeneration kicked in and he recovered almost instantly before getting up to his feet. His head felt dizzy for a moment, and he couldn't believe what had just happened. Was this a dream or did someone like him just get tossed around like a weakling.
”Your regeneration ability is impressive. That should mean you still have a lot of energy to continue, alright bring it on.”
Kadiz unconsciously took a step back at the continuous casual tone of the young man before him. There was no way a war troll like himself would continuously fail to notice the strength of their opponent after trading blows with them. His previous attacks were amongst his most powerful, and yet, the man had managed to shatter both of them so easily like he was blowing out a candle flame.
That was not even the scariest part, the fact that this man looked at him with not even a shred of hostility in his eyes made him uncomfortable. He didn't even think he was being considered an opponent much less a worthy opponent. The man looked at him with as much interest as you'd give a pet. Well, one you wanted to use as a test subject. His mouth was dry yet Kadiz still swallowed a mouthful of saliva.
”What nonsense!”, Kadiz bellowed. ”Me a pet? Me! The great Kadiz Ral Ke Lizor, the left hand of Lord Zerahut, The Undead king of the west.” Kadiz let go of the handle of the Hamaxe in his hand as he held his head, roaring both in pain and absolute fury. He continued, ”I cannot lose! I will never lose.”
Kadiz tightened the grip on the chain of his hamaxe as the grey mist his body exuded turned to pure black smoke. Silvery glowing runes and glyphs of different shapes and sizes started appearing all over it's body.
Tyler had no idea what this mad troll was screaming about but he had a bad feeling about this. He then saw the runes and glyphs appearing on the trolls grey body and no longer took this lightly, he was unable to read or decipher the runes or glyphs even though he had already studied basic magic runes so he had no idea what they meant.
The Gray-War Troll tugged on the chain and pulled in his weapon, he then gripped his hamaxe tightly and some of the runes on his right arm squirmed around like they were alive before moving through the handle of the Hamaxe unto it's blade. The weapon vibrated softly and the troll planted it's right foot firmly on the ground. The massive body of the Troll forcefully kicked off the earth with a mighty bang, and lunged at Tyler with incredible speed.
The practically flying troll flung the axe side of it's weapon down at Tyler in a swift motion. Tyler quickly brought the great sword forward to block the attack, he was fast enough to consider the attack slow however, with the resounding sound of metal hitting metal Tyler slid back a few feet, his weapon trembling in his hand.
A frown grew across Tyler's face, ”That wasn't just brute strength, was it? Interesting. Those markings should have something to do with this.” He didn't get the chance to analyze further as the mad troll charged at him again, immediately closing the gap. It swung the Hamaxe diagonally and Tyler hurriedly took a step back, enough to avoid the reach of the Hamaxe.
However, the Gray-War troll immediately let go of the hilt of the Hamaxe, extending it's reach with the chain. Tyler had no choice but to meet the attack with his sword. Swinging the large great sword would be too slow to meet the attack so he brought the weapon to his side, using his left arm as support.
The hammer side of the Hamaxe meet the great sword and another resounding clang was heard with Tyler being pushed several meters to the side, his weapon vibrating violently. Kadiz continued his relentless attack and chased after Tyler to close the gap, his movements swift and fast. Tyler wouldn't learn anything from just defending so he swung the great sword with his right arm at the approaching troll.
There was a sound of clashing metals again and the great sword was deflected, but it wasn't by the Hamaxe. Rather the weapon was deflected by the bare skin of the Gray-War troll's left arm that still had it's glowing silver runes intact. Tyler's eyes narrowed.
While that had only been a probing attack, the Gray-War troll had deflected that strike with only it's skin. It would seem that the runes on its skin did more than just improve it's speed and attack strength, it's skin was now harder than most metals.
Tyler chased away these distracting thoughts that had no place in a high speed battle. The troll had continued it's attack after deflecting Tyler's. It swung the Hamaxe at him from above and Tyler forcefully controlled his body from the awkward position of having his attack deflected and jumped back a few feet.
|Blindness|
One of the runes or glyphs on the Kadiz chest flashed red and a wave of the black smoke like aura from the Gray-War troll swept at Tyler in an instant. Unable to block it a vail of black curtains covered his vision and everything went black. Kadiz had used a spell that causes temporary blindness at Tyler, he then continued his mad dash to close the gap one more time and swing his hamaxe with all his might.
The vail in front of Tyler shattered almost instantly as he had forcibly resisted the spell without much effort, but that instance was enough for the Gray-War troll to close the gap. Tyler saw the large weapon coming down at him, he twisted his body to the side and avoided the horizontal strike. He was about to use this opportunity to launch a counter strike of his own when, suddenly another rune or glyph in the trolls chest glowed and it used an actual skill.
|Flow Control|
This was a skill that Tyler knew well, it was something every experienced warrior had in their repertoire. He immediately regretted his decision to attack right now. The Hamaxe stopped short of hitting the ground and switched directions with a red arc of light trailing behind it as it sliced through the air aiming at Tyler.