It gets worse before it gets better...(3)

"OH, GOD! HOLY SHIT! OH NOOOO!" a man could be heard screaming at the top of his lungs on the outskirts of a dark forest. He had a very strange accent while saying those words.

There was a Troll in front of the man which was screaming as well, as it had taken the man's continuous shouting as a war cry.

Behind the man, a young silver-haired boy had just arrived to face the troll. But upon hearing the man's continuous shouting he couldn't help but think his irrational wailing had some sort of message. After all, anyone would notice that his panicked shouts were only making the situation worse.

'Wait.....WAS THAT ALL A MOTHERFUCKING JO-' He was about to speak in his mind but the troll had fastened its pace to approach the man. Dusk didn't care about the man but as he was right behind him the Troll had probably noticed him too. So he took out his knife and stood beside the middle-aged man who had stopped screaming a moment ago.

"Huh?! What are you doing here?!" the man asked Dusk with a fearful look.

But Dusk ignored his question and shot back his own.

"What Tier were those mercenaries?" Dusk asked the question he was wanting to find out. It was necessary to know just what Tier his strength was above when comparing himself with the Troll.

"T-Tier? I think they were Tier 3! But never mind that! The Troll! It's coming!" He pointed at the larger humanoid figure that was quickly approaching them.

"I can see that," Dusk replied and stormed toward the troll. Instead of letting it come to him, he chose to approach it himself instead. Although Dusk's goal here was to buy time, If the troll came any closer then there was a chance that it would spot Dawn a bit further away from them. And turns out the mercenaries were at least Tier 3. So even though the troll would be significantly stronger than them, he was confident that he would at least be able to hold his own against it.

The Troll had noticed Dusk before, but its first target was Brad as it thought the human was waging war against the Troll. But sensing Dusk's killing intent that was growing stronger as he drew near, its target changed. Now the giant humanoid figure had started focusing on the young boy instead.

Dusk didn't mind this. Although it would have been nice to use Brad as bait, the man was too close to Dawn's location and even if he did bring him here and offered him to the Troll, that would only give him an extra second at best in buying time.

When Dusk was finally right in front of the Troll. He could see it towered over him with its 6-meter (Around 18 feet) tall build. It was obvious even from far but it got more apparent when he was directly in front of it.

The Troll who had now chosen Dusk as a target didn't remain idle when Dusk was in its attack range. It thrust its hands forward hoping to grab him.

But Dusk did a backflip to avoid its hand and dodged it. But the Troll seemed to really want to grab Dusk for whatever reason as it tried a few more times with both hands.

Its movements were slow but the hands were large enough that the range of attack made it slightly difficult to dodge even for Dusk. Though he would have no issues if this was all the Troll would do.

But the Troll had gotten frustrated when it found the puny human to be too nimble to catch. So in its rage, it swung its club down directly where Dusk stood.

The club was large and had a much bigger range than the Troll's hands. Dusk knew it would be too risky to try and dodge the attack normally. Even if he did avoid a direct blow, the shockwave on the earth that would be caused by the strong attack would surely inconvenience him.

So he controlled the mana that was swirling everywhere around his body to shift to his feet and leaped between the Troll's legs. He was able to avoid the attack completely with this. But he wasn't planning to stop there. He started chanting,

"Recreate: Throwing knives, Modify the blades to have a sharper edge...Recreate..."

He jumped a great height as his feet were still infused with a significant amount of mana despite needing some for magic too. He was able to land on the nape of the humanoid creature.

He was tempted to slash at its nape just for the sake of making a reference to an anime he knew, he did exactly that.

The Troll started crying out in pain after its nape was slashed. It tried grabbing Dusk but he already jumped to the side before that and threw 2 knives he had created at its eyes.

The Troll wasn't prepared for the attack so two of its eyes were pierced by the extra sharp knives. It howled in pain as it grasped its face. It started digging into its eyes to pull out the knives. The scene was quite grotesque and made Brad who was standing much closer to the fight than Dawn, feel nausea. Dawn couldn't make out the details due to being further away but she looked away as she could tell the scene would cause her to vomit.

Dusk on the hand had taken a safe distance from the Troll and observed its movements. He hoped the Troll would just keep searching for the knives in its eyes until help arrived but he knew that was unrealistic.

Just as he had these thoughts the troll finally managed to pick out the knives from its eye sockets. Its eyes started to regenerate quickly after that, and after a few more seconds it fully recovered its sight again.

"That really is some impressive regenerative ability. It's just like the book said..." Dusk was fascinated by the Troll. But he had no time to admire it as it growled in anger when it spotted him and started running toward the boy, preparing to swing the club diagonally from one side.

As the club was about to hit him, Dusk quickly slid below it, dodging it's attack. Then he started hurling out a few fireballs at its legs by using magic.

The Troll grunted due to the burning sensation. Fire was a Troll's natural weakness as a Troll obviously couldn't regenerate its wounds fast enough if it was continuously engulfed in flames. It also slows down their regenerative abilities in the affected area.

Seeing that fire really was effective just like how he had read in the book, he decided to prepare a very strong fire attack with his magic.

The Troll swung its clubs a few more times, trying to break Dusk's focus as it sensed he was preparing something. But Dusk was nimble and skilled enough to dodge all the attacks through a series of sidesteps and backflips.

Then Dusk came near the Troll and blasted it with his magic from below.

"Recreation complete: Firestorm." He muttered to himself before joining hands together that were glowing with mana.

Fire shot out of his hands that were strengthened by wind. A Flamethrower started burning the Troll from top to bottom. It wailed in pain as the flames engulfed it completely.

Dusk wanted to keep blasting it with his Fire storm but he knew that wasn't an option. His mana reserves were drying up quickly so he stopped and took a few steps back as he watched the troll burn and cry out in pain.

He was expecting this to continue for a short while but the Troll caught him off guard. Even while engulfed by flames the Troll charged at Dusk at an absurd speed for its size. It reached Dusk in an instant by leaping in its first step.

Time seemed to slow down as Dusk knew this was an extremely dangerous situation. If he was hit by the Troll with its charge then he would most likely die. He didn't have enough mana to cover his body with a strong coating. Dodging was also not an option as the large body of troll at this range was unavoidable.

For once, he really was in a bind.

Then something even more unexpected happened. A force of something shot toward him at his side with great speed, pushing him away from the Troll's attack. He crashed into a tree due to the mysterious force that pushed him away.

As he began to check his own body for injuries, he found the body of a young girl lying on him.

"Dawn..? How did you do that?" Dusk asked as he was confused, from what he knew Dawn wasn't capable of this kind of speed. But with her help, he managed to avoid the Troll's charge.

Then he noticed faint traces of mana on her feet. It seemed like she was able to control mana into her feet and used it to dash and push Dusk away.

Dusk was curious and wanted to ask questions but Dawn was lying unconscious. It seemed that one burst of mana was everything she had in her, leaving her unconscious. Dusk thought it was understandable as he found the speed to be extremely impressive.

But the Troll wasn't done. It came back after missing its chance to ram Dusk like a truck, trying to steal the job of a certain character to send him for another reincarnation. But it failed as it was nothing compared to the original.

As the Troll took giant steps toward Dusk, he put Dawn behind him before approaching it again. But he knew this was too risky now. He no longer had enough mana to continuously reinforce his physical capabilities. If he did that his reserves would dry out completely.

He sighed as he knew this could very well be his ticket to another reincarnation. He could see his dead grandpa waving at him in the sky, wanting him to join so they could train together.

As he was preparing for the possibility of an unending training session with his grandpa, something shot past him and The Troll.

The Troll looked in the direction of what went through him. He found a heavily armored human with a large great sword.

As it was about to roar and head toward the human, its vision suddenly turned upside down. It fell to the ground and could see its body from a distance. Its head...was cut off. It didn't stop there. Suddenly its entire body was cut into a million pieces.

The armored individual put his great sword over his shoulder and then turned toward Dusk,

"Are you okay, young man?" the voice of a man could be heard under his helmet.

Seeing the person, Dusk smiled. Not because he knew him. Not because help had arrived.

He was just glad it wasn't Lucius who found him, with Dawn unconscious behind him. Or he would have to hold off another strong opponent.