Chapter 33: Consequences

The curse mage didn’t send out any more mana-draining curses at him. They seemed to realize that they didn’t work anymore. But little did they know, it took Julius a lot of focus and mana to fend off the attack. Still, he was glad the enemy wasn’t just spamming it at him. Instead, they went back to their original attack.

However, that was just as annoying too. The only way Julius could block the insidious black mana was to cover himself with [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] before it hit. Although he was able to detect the attack before it reached him, the constant activation of the skill was taking a toll on his reserves. He was over half down on life and fire mana.

Julius was so focused on detecting any more curses heading his way that he almost missed the gathering of earth mana around his feet. Fortunately, he noticed it just in time and jumped as the ground split open and sharp stakes made of stone almost impaled him.

What?! Do they know earth magic as well?

Julius was already taken by surprise that one of the trolls knew curse magic but now it was throwing out earth magic as well. It did not bode well for Julius.

He needed to take out the mage. Julius was confident in fighting Tier 3 trolls, but he had zero confidence about taking on a Tier 3 mage on top of it. He just didn’t have enough experience or knowledge of magic. He had learned basic exercises but he hadn’t learned how mages fought, or how to defend against them. That was something he was hoping to learn at an academy. The other trolls were at least what he was used to, slow, strong, with extraordinary regeneration abilities.

He would like nothing better than to stop and launch a massive missile at the troll mage, but he didn’t know exactly where this enemy was. Also, it would let the horde of regenerating rageful monsters catch up to him. He quickly healed himself again, curing his blindness and deafness, and then continued running.

To his immense relief, he finally made it to the base of the mountain. He planned to use the steepness of the cliff to give him a better line of sight for shooting the trolls. Also, he was hoping that it would prevent them from dodging as easily and he could easily lodge a spike into their heads. He had scouted out a path earlier and quickly scurried up the route, trying to get as high up the cliff as he could. It was a path that was large enough for Julius to scale quickly, but narrow enough that it impeded the trolls. The incline was also quite steep, but not enough that it was vertical.

Not long after, the first of the trolls had made it to the base of the mountain as well. Julius was praying that the trolls were lousy climbers. If they weren’t then he was screwed.

Julius pulled himself over a particularly large boulder and made it to a large ledge then paused. He looked over the edge and could make out a wave of dark shapes at the base of the mountain all climbing their way up to Julius. Using [Spatial Perception] he estimated that there were still a hundred or so trolls left.

Using as little mana as possible, he created explosive needles and had them hover over his shoulder. He took a deep breath to center himself and then began to fire down the needles on the unsuspecting trolls. Julius emphasized his accuracy over speed, he couldn’t afford to waste mana, especially when it was already too low for his comfort.

The trolls weren’t exactly the smartest of opponents. When they saw their companion’s faces getting pierced by an explosive needle, they continued making their way up with no sign of hesitation. It was easy, almost too easy.

Julius had not seen any of the troll leaders yet and only the regular trolls had been climbing. Even at the base of the mountain, he couldn’t detect any stronger trolls or their supposed chieftain. It worried Julius, but at the same time, he had to focus on dealing with the trolls climbing up and trying to eat him.

Some time passed, and Julius was still laying down fire on incoming the trolls. He had taken down around several dozen but they were still coming and he still hadn’t seen any signs of the others.

Suddenly, he felt movement above him and then a mass of earth mana behind his back. He reacted instinctually and quickly rolled out of the way. Right after he moved, he saw a pillar of stone jut out from directly where he was just a second ago. If he hadn’t been fast enough, he would have been knocked off the cliff and fallen over a hundred feet down back to the floor.

At least he found his answer to where the other trolls had gone. It seemed like they had gone some other way and blocked off his route further up the mountain. It was his mistake to assume that they would not know their way around the mountains.

There were over twenty of them standing at the nearest flat ledge, most of them leaders. At the front was a unique troll, it was a little bit taller than the others but instead of a soft red aura, there was a dense bloody aura surrounding it that suffocated Julius even from down here. Yet, what surprised Julius was the troll chief’s slimness. It was quite sleek around the shoulders and looked a lot more athletic than the other trolls.

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Honestly, that made the troll seem much more dangerous. The other trolls were like beefed-up roid junkies, with too much muscle to move around quickly. This one reminded him of a nine-foot-tall Lebron James. He was quite confident that this was their chieftain

He was so concentrated on the troll chieftain, that he had almost overlooked the other trolls. In the back of the group, he could barely sense a smaller troll holding a staff of some kind. Julius would have completely missed this troll if not for the dense waves of mana emanating from the creature. It was like the mana itself was interfering with the atmosphere. He could safely say that he had found his mage.