Epoch: A Berserker's Rise

Chapter 41: Goblin Fortress (9)

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The Troll wasn't a defenseless creature so when it saw the sword that sent it flying around previously, it swung its heavier weapon, the hammer, to clash with it. Adam and the Troll weren't far in Strength from each other, but thanks to Adam's sword passive skill, the hammer was forced back while the sword continued its course.

-200 HP!

The strength behind the sword had lessened a lot despite winning against the hammer, and thus the damage dealt wasn't that impressive.

The Troll's eyes turned red with rage, it couldn't believe a puny human had overwhelmed it in term of Strength. It took a single step back to dodge Adam's following attack, but failed to do so.

It's rage heightened as it roared toward the ceiling and its arms muscles suddenly became slightly bulkier. It waved its two weapons with more speed than before and pushed the Dwarven Brothers back and then attacked once again toward Adam.

The later let his body fall to the ground, dodging the cleaver. The Troll almost laughed seeing this as its hammer was still coming for the human's head. However, before it could laugh it felt pain coming from its leg.

Adam had just pierced his sword into its thigh, his sword a few centimeters inside the flesh. Moreover, the sword was placed in such a way that it protected his body against the hammer. Still, he activated [Parry] which had just its cooldown ended.

The hammer clashed with the sword, an unprecedented force behind it. Adam himself barely had any contact with the ground, and so even though the blow didn't cause him any damage it still sent him flying.

It was exactly what he wanted though. Adam gripped his sword, which was in the Troll's thigh, as he was sent flying, and so a huge gash appeared on the Troll's thigh, travelling all across its length, tearing through both flesh and armor.

Critical Hit! -2000 HP! Heavy Bleeding!

This was way above the damage Adam should normally do with no skill, but this was because the strike had mixed Adam's Strength, his sword's damage and the Troll's own strength. Moreover, it seemed the anatomy of a Troll wasn't that different from a human as he had cut at least one big artery, resulting in the Heavy Bleeding.

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The Heavy Bleeding was big enough to negate the Troll's natural regeneration, and even deal some additional damage every second.

At the point, the Troll was absolutely furious against Adam, and wanted nothing more than shred him into pieces. It ignored the two brothers, even though they used provoking skills, and rushed toward Adam.

However, Adam ran behind the two brothers, and so the Troll was forced to deal with them first if it wanted to attacked Adam. The three of them then began circling around the boss, dealing damage to it every second.

Unfortunately for them, at some point the Troll recovered from its Heavy Bleeding, and so their DPS lowered a lot. Still, its HP was nicely going down, and a few minutes into the fight its HP was only at 30%.

However, the situation was getting grimmer as Louisa's heals were getting scarrier, MP was going down fast too. Adam quickly took a look at the other group, and was relieved to see they were all still alive, but lthe High Shaman only had 20% of its health left.

Turning back to the Troll, Adam was in a pinch. Every time it used a skill, Adam would lose some HP, even though his sword allowed him to stay firmly in place, every time his weapon clashed with its own, the difference in strength would damage him.

And dodging its attacks was impossible since if he did, the brothers would be the ones suffering.

The Troll was visibly getting annoyed too, and it seemed to hesitate for a moment before doing something unexpected.

Using one of the skills it used the most often, its muscles enlarged. Adam was ready to receive its attacks with his own [Mighty Strike].

However, the Troll didn't attack, but instead threw one weapon at each brother. The weapons were sent with such strength that the surprised brothers barely had the time to protect themselves before the weapons crashed into them.

Despite protecting themselves, it looked like the Troll had used another special skill. Vastrik was hit by the hammer, and even after putting up his arms in protection, a loud crunching noise was heard as he flew away.

As for Vodmir, the cleaver collided with his gauntlets, stopping the blade from ripping his chest apart, and directed it slightly up, making it slash into his shoulder.

The Troll then rushed at Vodmir, but before it could reach him Adam appeared next to the Dwarf and kicked him away, next to his brother.

With the bold move from the Troll, the two brothers had been taken out, and Adam was now on his own against the boss. The good thing was that it had lost both its weapons, and cool only fight with its fists and teeth now.

But even now, Adam wasn't sure he could take the boss on his own. The Troll was five levels higher than him, a meter taller than him, its Strength was matching his and its Endurance was above his.

Adam's advantage over the Troll was his speed, that it lost its weapons, and the fact it only had 30% of its health left. His DPS was big enough to negate the boss' regeneration rate, but now the question was, would he be able to last longer, or would the Troll win this battle of attrition?

Adam rushed toward the Troll and dodged both its fists when an idea came to his mind. He baited a strike toward the Troll's head, which it splendidly took, and then used [Charge] against its left knee.

With the short period of stun, Adam had a large window to attack the Troll and lower its health bar by a huge chunk.

In fact, it wasn't the first time he had this opportunity, using [Mighty Strike] and [Lunar Strike] at the same time was deadly, but Adam knew he wouldn't be able to kill it in one strike.

Instead, the Troll's health would fall below 15%, and it would very possibly activate a Berserk State. Once it comes to this, Adam would be forced to put his all against the empowered Troll. If he wasn't able to kill it, then the Berserk Troll would have its regeneration boosted enough to gain multiple % in seconds, and it would then attack the others, killing everyone.

Of course there was the probability of the Troll not having a Berserk State, but Adam would rather not take an unnecessary risk. In fact, he was confidant he had a chance against the Berserk Troll, but that was only a chance, and he didn't want to put his fate on a chance.

That's why he decided to take the second path, the safer one. The High Shaman was losing more and more HP, and would soon fall below 15%. Even if it had a Berserk State, Adam was pretty sure the others would be able to kill it and survive.

After all, one of the most important rules in this kind of game is the Golden Triangle. The rule of the Golden Triangle was simple, each corner was a type of warrior: Mage, Assassin and Warrior.

A Mage was strong against a Warrior, a Warrior was strong against an Assassin, and an Assassin was strong against a Mage.

Any good leader would have to base their tactics on this rule, if they didn't want to die. Despite its lower HP, Adam knew his chances against the High Shaman were way lower than against the Troll. And it was the same for the Dwarven Brothers and Baugh.

On the other hand, June, Breyn and Eddy were stronger against the High Shaman, and weaker against the Troll. June and Breyn were assassins, while Eddy was a swordsman, the middle ground between a Berserker and an Assassin.

That's why, right from the beginning, Adam's tactic wasn't to kill the Troll. Instead, he had taken the brothers with him to occupy the boss while the others killed the High Shaman. Once it was killed, they would come help with the Troll, and it wouldn't have a chance to survive.

In this composition, the only misfit was Baugh, he should have been with Adam and the brothers because he was weak against magic too, but the Assassins couldn't be left alone, although they were strong against Mages, this was a Chieftain Boss, so they needed someone to take damage for them while they kill the boss.

Actually, most of Louisa's MP had been used on Baugh, so that he would die.