Chapter 10 – A Swift and Deadly Dance

Pran had no choice but to change his tactics a bit after finding out that it was a Blood Troll that he was up against.

While the blood troll was still thrashing around due to its pain and had its back against Pran, he swiftly moved right before its back and rapidly slashed it thrice.

Swish! Slash! Schink!

The blood troll once again winced in pain as the slashes made deep gashes on its back and dark greenish blood started flowing out. It slightly moved its body to the right and sent its long right hand bulging with rock-hard muscles as a backhanded smash towards Pran, trying to hit him.

The blood troll was fast but Pran was even faster. Instead of dodging the backhanded smash he lightly kicked on the hand with his left foot and used it as a springboard, and flew towards the hobgoblin that was in the middle of its jump to try and split Pran's head with its axe.

Pran used his shield which he was holding in his left hand to deviate the axe's trajectory and used the sword in his right hand with a downward cleaving motion to behead the hobgoblin in one fluid motion. He then used his right foot to kick the hobgoblin's forward-falling body to spin in the air to launch himself back at the blood troll, while sending the headless body into the incoming goblins behind it.

It all happened in the span of just two breaths, and Pran was back right before the blood troll who now had fully turned around, while the hobgoblin's headless body crashed into the two goblins that were behind it with a loud sound.

Smash!

One of the goblins lost consciousness due to that impact unknown if it was alive or dead, while the other one was alive and was grunting in pain. Hobgoblins were already 3 times heavier than normal goblins and the body was kicked with enough force that the breastplate it was wearing now had a sizable dent in the chest area.

Pran once again slashed the blood troll a few times but this time the wounds were a bit shallow than he would have liked them to be. The blood troll was already in pain and anger, so without caring about its safety it clasped both of its fists and smashed forward wanting to crush the annoying pest before it.

Pran was not flustered and moved just enough that that smash missed him and then he used the clasped fists as a stepping stone and jumped right before the blood troll's face. As he was still in the air he lightly spun and locked on one of the two remaining hobgoblins who was now aiming at him with an arrow and threw his shield aiming straight at its neck.

Woosh!

The shield flew like a bullet, and as the hobgoblin had just released the arrow to hit Pran, it arrived right in front of it, and without giving it any chance hit its neck accurately. Even though it had a blunt edge, the force was still enough to rip the hobgoblin's head from its body and still flew before crashing into the wall a bit further.

While that happened the arrow had also reached Pran's chest and without panicking he used his sword to deviate the arrow from its path and sent it into the right eye of the blood troll while he used the same flowing motion of his sword to stab the left eye, which was showing the signs of healing.

This time also, neither the arrow nor his stab was able to penetrate deep enough to damage the brain of the blood troll to kill it. But Pran was already expecting that, so he was not disappointed. At least he was able to nullify the healing of the blood troll's eyes for the time being and was now free to focus on the remaining goblins and hobgoblins to dispatch them quickly.

Pran once more swiftly moved towards the remaining goblins and the hobgoblin, his heart racing with adrenaline. And as he slashed at the nearest goblin, he drew one of the daggers from the sheath on his back and threw it at one of the two goblins who were aiming their bows at him.

Swish!

Schink!

With a swift motion, the dagger penetrated the goblin's head, killing it instantly and causing the arrow it was aiming to miss its target and hit the wall instead. The other goblin who was still aiming at Pran used the chance to fire at Pran when the latter took a moment to aim and throw the dagger and was now focusing on slashing the goblin near him.

Swish!

The arrow flew towards Pran. While it was true that he didn't focus on that bow-wielding goblin, he was still on alert to his surrounding because even if these remaining goblins and hobgoblin wouldn't be able to do much damage to him, he didn't want to take any chance. As the arrow neared him, he was already done with the goblin he was attacking. He kicked on the floor and moved to the side dodging the arrow with ease, his senses still sharp despite the chaos around him.

But suddenly felt something was not right, the only remaining hobgoblin had somehow slipped his detection and was now missing.

As he scanned the area for the remaining hobgoblin, he felt a chill run down his spine. His danger sense, honed by countless life-and-death situations, warned him that he was in imminent danger. Without a moment's hesitation, he pivoted on his left foot and turned his body to face the source of the danger, just in time to see a glowing axe descending towards his neck.

Pran's heart skipped a beat, but he remained calm and focused. He confirmed that the hobgoblin had some sort of vanishing skill and waited to use it to strike a fatal blow when he was least expecting it. His body moved with lightning-fast reflexes, and he pivoted again and brought the sword in his right hand up just in the nick of time to intercept the axe. He didn't have enough leverage to stop the attack completely, but he was able to deflect it with his sword, avoiding any serious injury, but was still pushed back stumbling due to the force. And as if the last goblin who was wielding the bow was waiting for this opportunity, it had already fired two arrows at his back.

Pran was fast but was still not fast enough to block both arrows. But once more his body moved instinctively and he kicked his right foot on the ground while using his falling back momentum jumped back and somehow managed to dodge one arrow, while the other once grazed his shoulder, but due to the combat suit he was wearing didn't manage to damage him.

Thwack!

Just then Pran smashed hard with his back and head into the nearby cavern wall, because in the process of trying to dodge and defend against all the attacks he had unconsciously neared it due to his momentum of moving backward.

Pran's vision turned white and his ears buzzed with a piercing noise due to the sudden impact, but it only lasted for just a second and he recovered immediately thanks to his high stats. He shook his head and saw that the remaining hobgoblin was rushing towards him with its axe and while the only remaining goblin had already loaded another arrow and was ready to fire at him.

Pran looked to the side and saw the blood troll was still clutching its eyes in pain and was howling. He knew he didn't have much time before the reinforcement will arrive including that other strong opponent. He wanted to get rid of this blood troll before that happened. So he took a deep breath and withdrew his other remaining dagger and hold it in a reverse grip in his left hand and lunged toward the incoming hobgoblin. He still had a little lingering pain from his previous collision but was not enough to slow him down. Soon the hobgoblin and he clashed.

Pran could see a ferocious glint in the hobgoblin's eyes as if it knew that it will not be surviving this clash. He also noticed that the axe head was also glowing slightly and he knew that even at this junction the hobgoblin was trying to injure him, even at its life's cost. But that was not all, he could see from the corner of his right eye that the last remaining goblin was also ready to fire at him when he was clashing with the hobgoblin. Pran sneered in his heart; Crafty bastards, let's see if you hit me or I kill you first!

He didn't show any panic and collided with the hobgoblin's axe with his sword. Just as that happened he moved his left hand in which he was holding the dagger in reverse grip and slashed the hobgoblin's throat. At that same instant, the goblin saw the opportunity and fired the arrow at Pran, and it soon neared his chest.

The hobgoblin was already letting go of the axe to grip its throat and Pran used that opportunity to move the now powerless axe with his sword before the arrow as a shield. As he was doing that he rotated on his right heel, flipped the dagger, caught it by the tip, and directly threw it at the goblin. He completed all this movement in a smooth and fluid motion in an instant.

Pran took a deep breath and swiftly reached the dead goblin archers and retrieved both of his daggers, jerked off the blood, and sheathed one of them back while gripping the other one in his left hand like he did before in a reverse grip and charged towards the blood troll to attack it.

It may seem that a lot of time has passed due to narration but actually, it only took around three minutes for all this to happen.

Pran knew he didn't have much time left before the other being was here, and if he didn't at least cripple this blood troll, he would have to face two strong opponents, and he really didn't want that.

Pran closed in and was ready to start attacking the blood troll, just then he saw that the blood troll who was crouching down suddenly moved its hand and tried to grip it.

Pran's heart lurched: Shit! Did it get its eyesight back?