Draven let out a sharp exhale.
Slow.
Controlled.
His eyes never left the blue troll.
The glow behind them deepened.
Not brighter—
Sharper.
Focused to a single point.
Across from him, Aldric straightened fully.
The lazy sarcasm drained from his face.
Crimson mana no longer flickered loosely around him—
It compressed.
Dense.
Viscous.
Like liquid gravity clinging to his frame.
The sunlight still bore down—
But he forced more mana outward anyway.
Veins of red traced along his arms.
The air shifted.
The blue troll felt it.
It roared and charged again—
Confident.
It wouldn't remain confident for long.
Draven moved first.
Not reacting.
Initiating.
He stepped forward instead of back.
The troll's fist came crashing down—
He didn't dodge.
He slipped inside the arc at the last possible second, his shoulder brushing past the descending arm.
His glowing eyes tracked the mana flow again—
Not just the crystal this time.
The feeding channels.
The regenerative circuits.
The layered protection.
He saw the weak intervals between pulses.
There.
The troll's other arm swung—
Aldric appeared and caught it mid-strike.
The impact shattered the ground beneath his feet—
But this time—
He didn't move.
Crimson energy surged from his palm, locking the limb in place.
Blood magic coiled around the troll's arm like tightening chains.
The troll tried to pull free—
It couldn't.
Aldric's voice was calm now.
"Hold still."
Draven lunged.
Not wild.
Not brute force.
Precision.
His hand pierced through the troll's abdomen—
But he didn't stop at the first layer of bone.
Mana surged from his palm—
A focused burst that disrupted the regeneration channels at the exact interval between pulses.
The blue troll's healing faltered.
For a fraction of a second—
It stopped.
That was enough.
Draven drove deeper.
Through reinforced bone.
Through mana shielding.
His fingers closed around the crystal.
The troll roared—
Regeneration straining to restart—
Aldric's chains tightened, crimson spikes erupting from the restrained arm and pinning it further.
Draven twisted.
Not outward—
Downward.
Shattering the crystal in place before tearing it free.
The glow inside the troll's body flickered—
Once.
Twice.
Then died.
Completely.
Regeneration ceased.
The blue skin dulled instantly.
The massive body froze—
Then collapsed forward like a falling tower.
The impact shook the forest.
Silence followed.
Heavy.
Final.
Aldric released the mangled arm and stepped back as the corpse hit the ground.
He glanced at Draven.
"…That was cleaner."
Draven stood over the fallen variant, fragments of shattered crystal in his hand.
Mana surged through him.
He absorbed it without ceremony.
The pressure in the air shifted again.
Not from the troll.
From him.
Forty-one percent—
Two.
Closer.
The cultist stared in stunned silence.
Moments ago, it had been overwhelming.
Now—
It had been one-sided.
Aldric exhaled, the crimson aura around him fading slightly.
"Told you."
He rolled his shoulder once.
"Playtime's over."
Draven didn't respond.
His gaze had already lifted—
Toward the deeper forest.
As if expecting something stronger to answer.
The blue troll's body lay still.
No regeneration.
No pulse.
Dead weight.
Aldric studied it briefly, then glanced sideways at Draven.
"You were holding back."
He wiped blood from his knuckles.
"You didn't use mana at first."
No accusation.
Just observation.
"If you had, it wouldn't have dragged."
Draven said nothing.
Didn't deny it.
Didn't explain.
His attention shifted past Aldric—
To the cultist.
The man was pale, breathing unevenly, but standing.
Draven stepped toward him.
"Can you track where it came from?"
The cultist blinked.
"My lord?"
"The troll."
A pause.
"They don't wander alone."
The cultist swallowed and looked toward the crushed path carved through the forest.
"Yes… trolls move in territorial clusters. If a variant is present, there is likely a nest. Or a den."
Aldric's eyes sharpened.
"Good."
Draven's expression didn't change.
"Track it."
The cultist hesitated only a second before kneeling and placing his hand against the ground.
Mana rippled outward in thin, searching waves.
Refined.
Tracing.
He closed his eyes, following residual energy.
"The variant came from deeper northwest," he murmured. "Lingering mana… heavy… clustered."
Aldric crossed his arms.
"How many?"
The cultist frowned.
"…Several B-rank signatures."
He swallowed.
"And something larger."
Silence.
Aldric looked at Draven.
"Well."
A faint smirk returned.
"Looks like you'll get your percentage."
Draven's eyes remained on the forest.
Something larger.
Good.
He turned.
"Move."
The cultist rose quickly.
"Yes, my lord."
Aldric rolled his neck and followed.
"Next time," he added casually, "try not to test your durability first."
Draven didn't answer.
They moved deeper into the forest—
Toward the source.
Toward more trolls.
And something stronger waiting within their territory.
---
The forest thickened as they moved northwest.
The air grew heavier.
Not humid.
Dense.
Mana saturation increased with every step.
Broken trees became frequent.
Deep claw marks scarred bark that hadn't healed.
Aldric ran a finger along one of the gouges.
"…Fresh."
The cultist nodded nervously.
"Yes. Active territory."
A low rumble echoed in the distance.
Not a roar.
Breathing.
Large.
Draven walked ahead.
Silent.
Measured.
His senses stretched outward, brushing against ambient mana.
There.
Multiple signatures.
Clustered.
B-rank.
At least five.
And—
Deeper within—
One that pressed back against his perception.
Heavier than the blue variant.
Denser.
Older.
Aldric felt it too.
His smirk returned, slower this time.
"…That's not just 'something larger.'"
The trees thinned.
Ahead, the forest opened into a rocky basin carved into the earth like a crater.
Bones littered the edges.
Not just beasts.
Other creatures.
Some humanoid.
Half-crushed.
Half-eaten.
The cultist swallowed hard.
"Troll nest…"
Several B-rank trolls turned as they stepped into view.
Gray-green hides.
Massive frames.
Their eyes narrowed.
They sensed the death of their kin.
The ground trembled faintly—
Not from them.
From the center of the basin.
Aldric exhaled slowly.
"You want to clear the small ones first?"
Draven didn't look away from the center.
The mana there pulsed once.
Heavy.
Ancient.
Watching.
The B-rank trolls roared and charged as one.
Draven moved.
An arrow split the air, piercing one through the eye before it took three steps.
Aldric vanished in crimson mist, reappearing above another and driving both hands down through its skull.
Two bodies dropped instantly.
The remaining trolls spread out, attempting to flank.
Draven wasted no motion.
He stepped into the nearest swing, crushed its sternum inward, and ripped out the core in one fluid movement.
Aldric restrained another with blood chains, tore its spine free, and extracted its crystal.
Fast.
Efficient.
Brutal.
Within moments—
The basin floor was layered with collapsing B-rank corpses.
Crystals in hand.
Mana thick in the air.
Then—
Silence.
Not empty.
Pressurized.
From the center of the basin, a massive shape began to rise.
Not charging.
Not rushing.
Standing.
Slowly.
Stone cracked and slid from its shoulders.
Its skin was darker than the blue variant.
Deep cobalt.
Nearly black.
Thicker.
Layered like armor.
Its height dwarfed even the previous troll.
Scars crisscrossed its torso like carved runes.
And its eyes—
Not dull.
Aware.
Aldric's smile thinned.
"…That's the den leader."
The cultist could barely speak.
"B+… or low A-rank…"
The troll king stepped forward.
Each footstep sank into stone.
It looked at the bodies of its fallen kin.
Then at Draven.
It did not roar.
Did not charge.
It simply reached down—
And lifted a massive slab of broken rock as a weapon.
Aldric cracked his neck.
"Well."
Crimson mana thickened around him again despite the sunlight.
"This one's yours or mine?"
Draven's eyes glowed.
The mana pressure around him spiked subtly as the absorbed crystals settled within his core.
Closer.
Not enough.
But closer.
He stepped forward.
The troll king tightened its grip.
The basin trembled.
This time—
It wouldn't be brief.
And it wouldn't be one-sided.
Not immediately.