The Lone Wanderer

The troll king scanned Percy from head to toe for several seconds, seemingly contemplating his words. Eventually, he appeared to have made his mind up, nodding with determination.

Accepting that he was no longer a match for the human as he was, he decided to finally let go of his pride. First, he stabbed his club into the ground, before letting go, leaving it upright. Then, he reached for his back, squeezing one of the crimson mushrooms. Percy recognized a rush of mostly fire mana sinking into the creature’s frame, spreading through it.

Whatever it did, it wasn’t a painless endeavour in the slightest.

The troll king’s bulbous eyes quivered, his pupils taking on a reddish hue. He gritted his teeth, a few of them making cracking sounds, threatening to shatter. The creature’s muscles visibly shook, before swelling – in a manner not too dissimilar to what Synchronization did to Percy. However, it wasn’t his mana channels spreading raw power through his body, but the boiling blood in his vessels. Like snakes, his veins bulged and squirmed along his skin.

Percy readied his stance, waiting for his opponent to attack. Though the troll wasn’t done preparing quite yet, it seemed. He pinched a second mushroom, and then a third, releasing a pained groan as he continued to push his body far beyond its limits.

It wasn’t until a minute or two later that the creature regained his composure. He picked his weapon up, lifting it horizontally before his torso. Grabbing each end with a different hand, he pulled the misshapen boulder apart, splitting it in two uneven halves. These crumbled further into pebbles, rolling up his forearms.

‘Copying me?’ Percy grinned.

He watched as the chunks of earth condensed into a pair of oversized gauntlets, clearly inspired by his own. Of course, the crude constructs were a far cry from the Phantomscale Gauntlets, both their design and the lack of runes leaving much to be desired. Still, between the troll king’s higher grade and nominally stronger affinity, Percy had no doubt they’d pack quite a punch. Literally.

“Bring it on then!” he taunted.

The creature didn’t need to be told twice. Tensing his calves for a moment, the troll king pounced on him with a speed that would have seemed impossible just seconds ago. Percy barely dodged the first punch, his opponent’s newfound agility shrinking the prediction window greatly.

But that was only the beginning.

The second blow was even harder to evade, the third one landing squarely on his chest. The network of strings nullified much of the force, though whatever dregs remained were still enough to knock the breath out of his lungs, sending him flying backwards.

‘Strong!’

By the time he arrested his momentum, the troll king was already upon him again, a new rain of fists – some fake, some real – appearing before him. Suffice to say, Percy was instantly on the backfoot, trying to dodge as many as he could. A few he sidestepped, weaving and bobbing to narrowly evade others, letting a couple glance him.

But the troll king didn’t give up. Between whatever the mushrooms had done to him, and his change of weapons, his attacks had grown several times quicker, yet without losing much of their previous strength.

‘Shit. I can’t find an opening!’ Percy thought grimly.

He had his hands full just defending against the flurry of punches. Then again, that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. Over the past month, Percy had developed not one, but two Refined spells, focusing on different aspects of defence. Yet, neither Greater Foresight nor the Phantomscale Raiment had been properly woven into his fighting style, nor had he pushed either to its very limits.

‘Might as well then.’

Over the next hour or so, Percy took advantage of the troll king’s temporary boost, using his furious assault as a whetstone to hone his magic. With the Dance of the Savage Gods as the fabric, he tried to stitch the disparate components of his arsenal together. Tiptoeing around the battlefield, he taught himself when to dodge and when to block, sharpening his instincts and his footwork both, learning how to best leverage his new tools.

Initially, he was clearly on the losing side, eating way more blows than he cared to admit, getting pummelled through trees and muddy pools alike. At some point, however, he started finding openings in the troll king’s movements. Perhaps it was the indiscriminate effect of the mushrooms taking its toll on the monster’s body, or maybe it was just Percy’s improvements giving him an edge. Either way, opportunities began to flash before his mutated eyes one after the other.

Seamlessly shifting to Takeo’s style, he seized every chance his opponent gave him, responding to the assault with blows of his own. At first, Percy’s punches didn’t even faze the troll, however. His gauntlets were great for absorbing impacts, but not so much for delivering them.

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Yet, where there’s a will, there’s a way.

Soon, Percy started taking advantage of the creature’s momentum, using the troll’s inertia to reinforce his own blows, essentially causing his opponent to fall into his punches.

‘Let’s see how much more of this you can take…’

However, Percy wasn’t the only one using this bout to improve. Getting used to his new weapons, the troll king soon grew even faster still, sharpening his new instincts, learning alongside Percy how to fight at this level.

Every now and then, the effect of the fire mana showed signs of declining, forcing the creature to consume more of the crimson mushrooms, desperately clawing more strength out of his body. Of course, this boost came with a hefty price, but the troll king didn’t pay that any heed. He used some of the green mushrooms every few minutes, restoring his stamina and undoing some of the damage.

Watching him, Percy knew this wasn’t sustainable. The creature would eventually run out of mushrooms, or his body would fall apart at some point. And sure, that was probably true. That said, it seemed the demi-human hadn’t run out of surprises for him just yet. As the mushrooms on the troll’s hunchback grew scarcer, he gradually straightened his spine, his bones creaking as they settled in place. At the same time, the monster’s movements grew even faster, his undeniable handicap slowly lifting.

‘Just a little longer… His boost is going to run out in a couple more minutes…’

Gritting his teeth, Percy persisted, ignoring the painful blows slamming into his armour, rattling his organs. The two combatants pressed on even more fiercely than before, commencing the final act of today’s duel, both of them too stubborn to accept defeat.

One fought gracelessly, not unlike a wild beast. The other danced around him elegantly, taking a technique that had already been honed for millennia, adapting it into his own, intent on elevating it further still. Yet, despite all his efforts, Percy could tell he was falling behind. Not by much – the difference to his opponent was downright minuscule, almost imperceptible. But, having fought the troll king for several hours already, he could tell where it was headed.

‘I need to do something. I need an edge.’

Four more fist shadows rained upon Percy. The first three he dodged, though the last one was about to land right in his face. His helmet would probably save his life even if he got hit, but the troll wouldn’t miss his chance to punish him further.

Deciding to take a gamble, Percy allowed his focus to sink into the components of his armour once more. Yet, he wasn’t trying to negate the attack this time.

The instant before the punch connected, Percy suddenly gained an unexpected burst of speed, his figure shifting out of the fist’s path like a teal blur. Suffice to say, the troll king raised an eyebrow at this turn of events, though Percy didn’t give him a chance to comprehend what had happened.

Taking two swift steps – far faster than any of his prior movements – he circled around the demi-human, putting all his weight before a cleaving hook. The creature barely turned his head in time to receive the blow right to his face, his right tusk shattering in an explosion of yellowed shrapnel.

Not allowing his focus to waver, the troll king still went for a counterattack, trying to swat Percy aside with his backhand. It didn’t do much, as Percy blocked with a crossed guard, sliding a couple metres back before diving in for another clash.

The two continued their fight for a few more minutes, before a similar situation repeated itself. Pinning Percy in a corner, the troll king was about to land a savage blow, when Percy blurred out of the way at the last second, responding with another brutal counter. This time, he dug his fist in the creature’s liver, bringing him to his knees.

Only after receiving a few more blows did the demi-human recover again enough to push Percy back, resuming the brawl for a while longer, just to get punished with a knee to his face a few seconds later. Uncertainty overcame the troll’s expression, as he failed to grasp how Percy could tap into those momentary boosts each time.

‘If only you knew…’ Percy smiled bitterly.

Naturally, his heightened bursts of speed hadn’t come out of nowhere. They were all hard-earned, with Percy putting his very life on the line for each and every one.

One feature of his Phantomscale Raiment that he hadn’t used before, was its ability to turn incorporeal at will. Earlier, he hadn’t really had a good application for it, though the narrow brawl against the troll king had given him an idea.

By robbing his armour of its substance, he could remove some of the weight bogging him down, allowing him to move a little faster. Of course, the price for this boost was that he had to completely forsake the protection afforded to him by the spell, leaving him vulnerable to the troll’s attacks.

Should he fail to dodge, the demi-human’s savage blows were guaranteed to turn him into minced meat. Additionally, should he mess up the transition, he could easily cause the armour to fall apart, leaving him without it for the rest of the battle.

‘But I won’t make a mistake. I won’t allow myself to.’

In the end, the troll king lost without even understanding what had happened. Laying with his back on the ground, he panted heavily, his battered limbs splayed out like a starfish, his thick hide bruised in countless spots. Even worse, the effect of the mushrooms finally ran out, causing his body to shrivel like a dried waterskin, his expression twisting into one of agony.

Percy on the other hand wasn’t doing much better. While he had won, today’s battle had taken everything he had and then some, as he’d pushed both his mind and his body far beyond their limits.

Still, a satisfied grin tugged at his lips. One that even his rugged breaths failed to fully break. The troll king had been a worthy opponent. Arguably, the strongest Yellow he had ever met. In the past few hours alone, he’d progressed more than he would have after fighting the weaker trolls for months.

And… that was without even taking his prize into account.

Turning to the king’s attendants, Percy’s grin widened further still, his unspoken request eliciting nods of understanding – and even ones of respect – from the creatures.

It was finally time to see what those mushrooms were all about…

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