Chapter 30: The Hunt

Julius managed to find and hunt down another three groups of trolls before the sun started to set. They were unexciting fights for the most part. Julius would launch his assault from a distance at a group of unaware trolls and every time he would kill them before they could even get close to him.

There was only a single time when a leader had noticed the attack before it reached them. It had activated its enhancement skill before the spike landed, but it didn’t make much of a difference. Julius killed it all the same.

He never felt any pressure or danger during these fights, so he didn’t receive many level-ups. However, his newly evolved skills were still low level so they naturally didn’t take much to rank up.

[Arcane Construct lvl 2 -> lvl 3]

[Pure Compression lvl 1 -> lvl 3]

[Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal lvl 2 -> lvl 3]

[Kinetic Reinforcement] still hadn’t leveled up even after he had been using it the entire time during his hunt. However, he could feel it was close. It was right about to cross the threshold holding it back. All it needed was a little push.

He had given himself a day to eliminate as many trolls as he could. He had done well on that front, taking down over two dozen trolls in a few hours. However, now that he was running out of daylight, he wouldn’t be able to hunt down many more without attacking the camp directly. Therefore, he permitted himself to play around for a little bit.

With an excited smirk, he dashed off again to find one more group.

The next group he found was making their way back to the encampment. It was a large group of six with a larger troll at the head of them.

Perfect, Julius thought with a smile.

He created five disks and sent them shooting toward the group. Like his past fights, they didn’t have time to react and were dead before they noticed the attack. The troll leader on the other hand was completely unharmed. Julius hadn’t sent any attacks at it.

The remaining troll had gotten its bearings back quickly and immediately activated its skill, covering it from head to toe in a red gleam. Then it took the axe strapped across its back and bum-rushed Julius’s position.

This troll seemed stronger than the other leaders he had fought earlier. Its red aura was more solid and released a pressure that the others hadn’t. Its higher physical prowess was made apparent as each step it took exploded the ground. It was faster than the other troll leaders and Julius estimated it was at least as fast as himself.

Julius began to feel the normal sensations of fear, anxiety, and excitement course through him. The adrenaline started to make his heart race and he could feel [Savage Dance] activating, retraining the overflow of these emotions. He had learned that while [Savage Dance] could effectively mute these sensations, he couldn’t extinguish all of them. Finding a delicate balance of passion and rationale was imperative. Not enough passion and he found his attacks lacking in strength and creativity. Too much passion and he found himself getting lost in the moment with no control over himself.

That was why he allowed himself to feel a small amount of each emotion, even negative ones like fear and pain. They kept him on his toes, honing his focus to heights beyond what he thought possible.

The troll was almost on top of him, bringing its massive axe around it a crushing blow. Julius hadn’t released any of his techniques at it while it charged him. He wanted to put this thing down the old-fashioned way. With his two fists.

He took a quick step back, avoiding the axe blade by a few inches, and then ducked under the ensuing backswipe. He got into the guard of the troll with a single burst step and uncorked a crippling blow to the thing’s chest, knocking it off its feet and breaking several ribs in the process.

Julius tried to capitalize on the opening but had to avoid the kick from the downed troll. It had quickly regained its footing and the wound on its chest had already healed by the time it got back up.

The troll looked at Julius with more caution than before. It wasn’t attacking recklessly anymore. It started to examine him and waited for him to make another move. This was the first time Julius had seen such intelligence from a troll and subconsciously upgraded the monster’s threat in his mind.

The two of them just shuffled around each other for a few moments, getting a feel for one another. But it was Julius that made the first move. He created a large curtain of flames and sent them right at the troll’s face, taking away its line of sight. Julius couldn’t see the troll either, but he didn’t need his eyes to fight. [Spatial Perception] was keeping track of the troll better than his eyes ever could.

With no vision, the troll wasn’t able to see Julius coming in from the right. Using [Arcane Construct] and [Pure Compression] he created brass knuckles around his fists. Then as the troll lost track of Julius, he delivered a crushing blow to its kneecap, blasting over half of it right off, dropping the troll to one knee. Julius took advantage of its limited mobility and released a combination of strikes at the troll’s skull.

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