A troll's fist tore through the space where Aldric had been standing a second earlier.
He flipped backward, landing lightly on shattered stone.
Sunlight filtered through the broken canopy above.
Bright.
Harsh.
Restrictive.
Aldric clicked his tongue.
"…Damn sun."
His blood magic flickered thinner beneath the light—harder to condense, harder to shape. Under a night sky, he would have been overwhelming.
Here?
He was restrained.
Another troll roared and charged again.
Aldric's eyes sharpened.
Fine.
If his control was reduced—
He would force it.
Mana surged from his core in a violent pulse.
Crimson energy thickened around him, heavier, denser. Veins of red crawled along his forearms.
He exhaled slowly.
"Should I just end them once and for all?"
Not fear.
Not panic.
Calculation.
Across the clearing—
Draven moved.
A troll's arm swept horizontally.
He ducked.
Another fist came crashing down.
He stepped aside.
The ground shattered again.
Dust rose.
Through it—
His eyes glowed faintly.
Crimson.
Not emotion.
Analysis.
He wasn't looking at their size.
Not their strength.
Not their regeneration.
He was looking at their mana.
At the flow beneath flesh.
At the pulsing currents feeding their healing.
There.
Deep within the chest cavity.
Behind dense bone.
The magic crystal.
The core.
The source of regeneration.
One troll lunged again.
Draven let it come closer.
Closer.
Its mouth opened in a roar—
He stepped inside its reach.
His glowing eyes locked onto the faint pulse within its torso.
Found it.
In that exact moment—
He launched forward.
Not backward.
Not defensive.
Forward.
His arm drove straight into the troll's chest.
Through hide.
Through muscle.
Through bone.
The impact echoed.
The troll's roar cut off mid-sound.
Draven's hand burst through its back in a spray of blood and shattered rib fragments.
He didn't stop.
He twisted.
His fingers closed around something solid.
Warm.
Dense.
Pulsing.
The crystal.
The troll convulsed violently as regeneration tried to compensate—
But the source was already in Draven's grip.
He ripped it free.
The glow inside the troll's body vanished instantly.
Its flesh stopped knitting.
Its wounds remained open.
The massive body collapsed like a felled tree.
Dead.
Completely.
Aldric watched.
"…Oh."
Another troll roared and charged in fury.
Draven turned.
Eyes still glowing.
He had seen it once.
Now he knew exactly where to strike.
The second troll swung.
Draven slipped beneath the blow—
And drove his hand through its sternum with brutal precision.
No hesitation.
No wasted motion.
Crack.
Rip.
The second crystal came free.
The troll dropped instantly.
No regeneration.
No recovery.
Aldric smirked slowly.
"Well."
He rolled his neck.
"That works."
The remaining trolls hesitated.
Instinct flickered behind their dull eyes.
Their kin had fallen too quickly.
Too completely.
Draven stepped forward.
Calm.
Unhurried.
His hand dripped with blood.
Two glowing B-rank crystals clenched in his grip.
The ground trembled again—
But this time—
The trolls felt it too.
And for the first time—
They hesitated.
The hesitation lasted less than a second.
Aldric vanished.
Not a blur.
Not a dash.
He simply wasn't where he had been—
And then he was standing before the nearest troll.
The creature barely had time to register him.
Aldric's arm moved in a lazy backhand swing.
It looked casual.
Effortless.
The impact was not.
The troll's head tore clean off its shoulders.
Not crushed.
Not broken.
Torn free.
Blood exploded outward in a violent arc, painting the broken trees crimson.
The severed head spun through the air and crashed into the ground with a heavy thud.
The headless body swayed—
Regeneration already beginning at the neck stump.
Flesh writhing.
Bone attempting to extend.
Aldric didn't give it time.
His hand snapped forward.
Straight through the chest cavity.
He pierced muscle and bone without hesitation, fingers closing around the core before the healing could stabilize.
The troll's body jerked violently.
Aldric ripped the crystal free.
Regeneration stopped instantly.
The massive corpse collapsed at his feet.
He stood there for a moment, blood dripping from his forearm.
Then he glanced sideways at Draven.
Crimson eyes faintly amused.
"I just didn't want to get dirty."
Behind him, the severed head twitched—
Then went still.
Dead.
Truly.
The remaining trolls roared in fury.
One charged Aldric recklessly.
Another lunged toward Draven.
Draven stepped into his opponent's attack again, precise as ever. He avoided the wild swing and drove his hand directly into the creature's chest, targeting the exact pulse he had already mapped in his mind.
Crack.
Rip.
The crystal came free.
The troll dropped instantly.
No struggle.
No second chance.
Aldric caught the charging troll's wrist mid-swing.
The ground beneath them fractured from the force.
He smiled faintly.
"Too slow."
With a violent twist, he spun the massive creature off balance—
Then drove his knee into its sternum, shattering ribs inward.
Before it could regenerate—
His hand pierced through its back.
Another crystal torn free.
Another body collapsing.
Silence returned to the clearing.
Four B-rank trolls.
All dead.
No regeneration.
No survivors.
Aldric flicked blood from his fingers.
Sunlight still pressed down on him, limiting his control—but the mana surge he had forced earlier still lingered faintly around his body.
He glanced at the pile of corpses.
"…That's more like it."
Draven stood a short distance away, holding the extracted crystals from his own kills.
His expression hadn't changed.
But the mana around him felt heavier.
Closer to the threshold.
The cultist stared at the battlefield.
Four B-rank trolls.
Erased in moments.
His breathing turned uneven again.
"My lord…"
Draven looked at the crystals in his hand.
Then at the remaining ones embedded within Aldric's blood-slick grip.
Progress.
Significant progress.
But—
The ground trembled again.
Heavier than before.
Not from the dead trolls.
From deeper within the forest.
Aldric felt it too.
His smirk thinned.
"…That doesn't sound like another troll."
The tremor deepened.
Something larger was moving.
And it was coming closer.