Chapter 220 – To the Arena!


    “So, Troll or Steampunk themed?” John asked, the decision which of the three new kinds of dungeon they should try first was already settled.


    “I think Trolls sound fun,” Rave cast her vote.


    “As long as I can punch it,” Thana didn’t care.


    “My powers would likely be of more use in a Steampunk environment,” Lydia gave food for thought.


    “So, one for each and one doesn’t care, seems like I have to decide,” John tapped his finger on the table, holding a mental council with his familiars, as he looked at the list of Instant Dungeons he had available. “Let’s go with Trolls,” he finally decided.


    They left the mansion and Abyssal Rome as a whole and shortly thereafter were inside the Arena.


    “Ahurg! Ahurga! Ahurg!” The thundering shouts all around were the first things John noticed. They were standing inside a primitive looking, but fairly huge, arena. The circle in the middle was a simple, dusty plain. Walls of crudely worked tree trunks, their ends sharpened, separated the ring and the watcher’s areas above. About three quarters of the arena’s seats were carved out of a grey mountain, only the last quarter, which was separated by a massive gate, was made exclusively from woodwork. To the right of the gate was an area hidden under layers and layers of cloth. To the left was a simple tower from which a narrator screamed into a horn.


    The narrator, as well as the shouting onlookers, were tall humanoids. Covered with green or grey fur and possessing a two metre tall, muscle-packed physique, they made for imposing figures. They were slightly hunched forward, giving them a gorilla-like feel, and had tusks of varying lengths protruding from their thick lips.


    “Yo, we have de new challengah he’!” the announcer screamed, “Long tis had been sinz the arena of great Troll warlord Jin’Vol was challenged! Diz da proud heart of true Troll empire, mon. What does da warlord deem to be unworthy enough to be of dis puny intrudahs’s first enemy?!”


    The wooden gate slowly rose off the ground, like a portcullis, and revealed the enemy behind. It had three horns, two underneath a bony shield that extended from the upper half of its head and a third one over its beak mouth. The creature’s skin was of a brownish-red and leathery; the being was also heavily armoured with magically glowing plates hanging over its four-legged form. Sharp gemstones had been worked into the tips of its horns.


    “That’s a fucking dinosaur,” Thana pointed out.


    “A triceratops to be exact,” John said.


    “Good job, balls for brain,” the blood mage cracked her knuckles, “pointing out the obvious.”


    “T’is the mighty Dodanga! Da warlord does da best choices! Da intrudah’s stand no chanz’!” The announcer screamed in excitement. The boss scraped its left front leg over the ground and lowered its head so that the middle of its three horns pointed at its target. It picked the worst one.


    With a deep bellow it charged straight forwards. Thunderous shocks went through the ground as its massive body trampled forwards. The crowd exploded in cheers. “DODANGA! DODANGA! DODA-!”


    The dinosaur’s face caved in. Its bone shattered and skin stretched. Then, its body was catapulted backwards in a squall of gore only to disappear a moment later. The crowd was silent, frozen in disbelief. Thana grinned to herself. “I beat him in one punch, man!” she laughed and tip-toed herself over to the bundle of money. “I am fucking awesome!”


    “T-t-t-t-t-tis impossible!“ the narrator screamed out; “Dere must be da cheats involved here!” The crowd booed at John and his party in agreement. “Dis little girl can’t be as strong, as strong as...” The narrator suddenly found a pale hand pressed on his mouth. Thana had easily jumped the distance from the middle of the arena up to his stand.


    “Hey, fuck face,” she said, “I am Thana, and I am not judging you based on your height. Goodbye, asshole, you are dead!” She made her promise true a moment later. Using her grip on his skull, she threw him off the stand with a double-spin. He crashed into the veiled tower at the other side of the gate.


    The tower toppled over to the sounds of Thana’s insane laughter and revealed the troll warlord. He was at least twice as tall as his brethren and clad in a terrible looking, greenish grey armour. He was also dead before he could grab his mighty blade, as Thana jumped over and broke his neck with a flying spin-kick.


    The two successfully intercepted Holgoh’s charge. Or, well, intercepted was maybe the wrong word. It was just that, the moment they became the closest thing to attack, Holgoh instantly started running towards them. He brought his swords down like hammers, his bloodshot eyes were wide with frothing rage.


    Aclysia and Gnome both blocked one sword and both almost sank to their knees under the impact. The boss pressed down on them, wanting to crush them with his excessive strength. A silver stripe, Lydia’s rapier, flew forwards, aiming for Holgoh’s face. The boss simply moved his head to the side, in the nick of time. A cut, shallow but long, stretched over his cheek and oozed green blood. It healed visibly and was closed by the time Rave came around.


    Cat ears standing at attention, she kicked the boss in the side. Neither that nor the aftershock of light that followed startled the painless berserker. Whether he took damage or not was not visible. Rave jumped backwards just in time to avoid the berserker’s hand trying to catch her. He had dropped the sword with which he was pinning Gnome.


    The stone elemental saw her chance, tossed the sword aside and summoned a spike from the ground with a simple stomp of her feet. The attack hit Holgoh in the stomach, but it failed to penetrate skin, instead breaking upon contact.


    ‘Go for the eyes!’ John instructed, and the airborne trio of his sparrow, Sylph and Salamander closed in on the berserker, now pressing down even heavier on Aclysia. A flash of lightning, a stream of fire and a ray of mana all went towards the berserker’s face.


    Seeing the three pests coming for him, Holgoh managed to turn his face away, but not to completely dodge. The left half of his face was scorched completely. John smirked, having an opponent blinded on one side was helpful. However, he was still on his guard. ‘Here goes hoping that trolls being weak to fire holds true,’ John thought, ‘because if he heals that as well, this will be a long fight.’


    John ignored the windows and waited for any signs of the fabled troll regeneration to occur, but, unlike the earlier cut, nothing of the sort happened. “Jane, concentrate on using high-heat attacks,” he shouted at his girlfriend. “Try to nail his feet to the ground or immobilize him otherwise,” he instructed Lydia, the same order went out to Gnome. ‘Aclysia, try to keep him occupied a bit longer. Salamander, Sylph, we will try to hit his face again. Momo, be ready to distribute mana to Salamander.’ A questioning feeling from Undine, wishing for instructions. ‘Just stay safe in the back and ready in case something goes south and you need to heal,’ he hastily informed her, and then everyone went to work.


    First order of business was to alleviate some of the pressure from Aclysia. Holgoh was no longer keeping himself occupied by just pressing down on her but instead went into a wild offensive. Frenzied flailing of forceful haste from the frothing berserker’s fist and blade hailed down on Aclysia.


    This was the one time John wanted Defensive Stance back. It was lost, like most of Aclysia’s abilities, when Artificial Spirit had reset to make room for Momo. Normally the loss was inconsequential, the Skill had given Aclysia extra Stats for blocking while standing still, but right now that would have been really dandy.


    The hail of attacks was so ferocious that the group didn’t manage to get an attack in as Aclysia was forced back, and back, and back. It was a combined effort by Lydia and Gnome that finally took the pressure off Aclysia.


    A series of small metal darts rained down on Holgoh’s foot, penetrating his heel. At the same time, Gnome had created a cavity under his foot that now broke in as his weight shifted to his unharmed foot. That brought him out of balance, and Aclysia jumped away one last time, now with her back against the wall.


    That was the only opening the group needed. The aerial trio stormed at the troll. He forced them to disperse by hacking at them with his sword. That merely spread the attack from his face to the rest of his body, though, as all three attacks hit and the smell of burned fur and flesh filled the air.


    “Now I got ya,” Rave exclaimed triumphantly as she forced her hand right between the trolls'' tusks. She had come from his blind side, and with wrecked balance still bound in the after effects of the motion to attack the aerial threat, he had no way to counter in time. An explosive flash of hot, bright light turned the berserker''s face into a burning mess.


    But that didn’t kill him.


    With a gurgling roar he twisted his whole body around and rammed the side of his arm into Rave’s sides, sending her flying. ‘Undine take care of her!’ John instructed as the rest of the group surrounded the blind boss.


    Blood and spit running from its burnt mouth, it thrashed around without a target. That attack he had just delivered was the last time he knew where his enemy was. They stayed away from the berserker as Salamander consumed buckets of mana to douse him in flames. After minutes of whittling him down, the berserker met his end, screaming in anger until his last moments.


    These lacked the usual sass...was Gaia having an off day?


    Was that an editor’s note?


    “Okay, what the me is going on?” Gaia asked, stepping out of a dimensional rift.