Chapter 22: Heaven Hammer

Axel watched from a rocky perch up high as the group of eight alchemists, Leader included, made their way down the ravine, their carts laden with yet more barrels of drinks and stores of meat.

Lune had made the preparations, but more than that, she was bringing her entire force with her, too. Those seven other assistants trailing behind her were all Level 15 and above. A commendable force, under most circumstances, but against the army they were going up against, they would be slaughtered instantly.

Axel had been hesitant in their inclusion—he was already risking much by trusting Lune—but the Elf had been insistent.

“We need all the help we can get,” she had argued. “The Giant’s bombard would almost certainly not kill all the trolls, no matter how tightly we pack them. We will need my Venombrew Maidens to handle the survivors while we deal with the primary threat.”

Axel could see the logic in that. The toxin intended for dispelling the Troll King’s absurd regeneration would only last 10 minutes. Any eternal forces that might disrupt them from fully engaging the Boss could prove fatal.

Lune had made it clear that once those 10 minutes were up, if the Troll King were not dead, the rest of them would be soon.

Night had already fallen, but darkness evaded the Troll Camp as large bonfires were already set up. The moon was bright as well, with nary a cloud in sight.

The conditions were good for a battle. Axel only wished the odds were better.

[Your plan carries multiple points of failure. This is risky, even for you.]

“You have only known me for all of one day. Supposedly.”

[And it is enough for me to know your practical brand of recklessness enough. It is one thing to die valiantly against impossible odds outside your control. It is suicidal to simply charge towards your death.]

Axel shrugged. “I need to kill all the Zone Bosses anyway. This strategy is the best shot I have at slaying the King.”

[And if the Eldarin betrays you?]

“I’ll make sure to kill her first before I die.”

The group reached the camp, and the trolls stirred to wakefulness at the smell of supper. The alchemist party headed closer to the Troll King, setting up their feasts within the large clearing before the Throne.

Soon, the drinking was underway. The assistant alchemists made their way with empty carts back to the foot of the ravine, where they would be safe from the coming bombardment.

Their Leader, however, remained at the clearing.

“Once my assistants are clear of the blast radius, prepare to contact your Giant and have him cast his spell,” Lune had instructed. “It wouldn’t harm either me or the Troll King, given the Fae Tyrant’s protection against higher allies, but the troll army would suffer heavy casualties. If possible, try to get as close to the camp as you safely can, so that you can join me in the fight immediately. Strong as I may be, I will not survive against that enraged bastard for long, even with his regeneration crippled.”

The trolls continued the revelry. As more of them wandered near the drinking point, he saw the first few eager drinkers hobbling. Some already collapsed, fitfully snoring while propped against a nearby debris pile or tent.

Step One of the plan was working. Not all of them were clustered close together, but the troll density was now vastly better than it was before when Axel first scouted the place.

As for the main target… Axel watched as the Troll King seemingly exchanged words with Lune. There was a tense moment where it seemed like the cask she prepared for him would be rejected.

Then, the woman took off her mask, exposing her beautiful face to the pungent air. The axe cut he left over her features had scarred, but somehow the imperfection added to her allure rather than detracted from it. 

The elf did not flinch, even as the Troll King leered and inched closer to her. Axel could not imagine how horrid the stench from its breath must be.

“Now that’s an ugly bastard if I ever saw one,” Axel murmured. “Poor woman. Can’t imagine how the wedding went. Smell alone would have likely killed a normal person.”

[That’s a wretched thought. Though if it is any consolation, she looks intelligent and resourceful enough to have found a way and avoided it.]

The Troll King’s flabby, filth-ridden hands reached to touch her, but Lune swiftly bowed out of the way and presented forth with the cask again. She said something, and the Troll King’s expression turned pleased.

It picked the entire cask and drank it down in a single gulp.

The moment he set down the empty barrel, Axel saw Lune glare meaningfully at his hidden position on the rocky slopes. A quick check showed that her assistants were now safely sheltered behind a boulder some distance away.

“Here we go,” he said, rising to his feet. “Let’s hope she’s right about this not harming her.”

In his palms, Axel willed his focus to lift. A gust of wind swirled across his hand.

The Giant had said to simply aim and fire. The wind blast would do next to nothing, but the gales summoned upon impact would notify Ymir of where he wanted the bombardment to fall.

Axel aimed towards where the greatest mass of trolls had congregated. Half were already dozing, while the other half were clearly drowsy. When the spell plopped upon the ground amidst them, none of them even reacted.

Five seconds passed. Then ten. Just as Axel was beginning to suspect he had been tricked—and Lune no doubt a second from blazing fury as she was about to get molested by her ‘husband’—the sky stirred.

Then, the Heavens fell.

[Rank C Exotic Aoe Spell detected! Seek Cover!]

[Sky Titan Ymir Casts ‘Heaven’s Hammer’!]

Whatever happened next, Axel didn’t see it. 

Because he was immediately blasted off his feet.

The man was flung into the air, the shockwave folding his body in half. It took him several seconds to fall, after which he felt damn near every bone in his leg shatter, along with whatever was left of his ribs and spine.

[Warning! Health below 20%!]

[Boss Raid Combat Initiated!]

His eardrums were gone entirely. His eyeballs damn near disintegrated from the sudden explosive pressure. If not for his absurdly high endurance, Axel was certain he would have died.

He had risked going as close to the camp as possible, toeing the 500m distance the Sky Titan Ymir had warned. A part of him greatly regretted his decision.

The rest of him, however, was simply stunned with manic awe.

He tried to speak, only to realise his lungs had imploded from the explosion. He could not see, hear, or speak.

Thankfully, his arms could still move. He summoned a health potion and quickly drank its contents.

[Health restored]

He coughed, spitting blood and chunks of lung. His bones mended themselves, and the soldier shakily stood up. 

The moment his voice returned, Axel choked out a wet sob. His bloody spittle soon rose in pitch, however.

Before long, it had transformed into a wild, howling laughter. “Fucking Hell! That was bloody AMAZING!”

That was a mere Rank C spell?! I have to get my hands on more magic!

The soldier’s eyes re-grew and flickered. After a few painful blinks, his vision returned. He beheld the sight before him…

And what a glorious sight it was. Every structure over two metres, wooden and otherwise, was gone; flattened into paste. There was an enormous crater about a hundred metres across at the centre of the explosion, so ugly and misshapen it was as if the hand of God itself had come down to gouge a hole in the earth.

The twenty or so trolls within the epicentre were gone, with not even their smouldering corpses remaining. There were only puddles of smoking meat and crushed flesh sticking out of the ground.

Those further away from the blast suffered horrid injuries, with not many left who could be deemed alive in any conventional sense.

The air no longer reeked of pungent odours; only the sickly sweet smell of ozone pervaded his recovering nostrils.

[If you are done being awestruck… I think your new friend desperately needs your help.]

His handler’s words, accompanied by an earth-shattering roar, snapped him out of his senses.

Hundreds of metres away, the Troll King stood, alive and well. There were no walls or structures around that obscured his immensity. Even the scrap Throne was levelled. 

Lune was similarly unharmed, with a strange, greenish barrier about her. She had been shielded from the blast by the so-called Tryant protection.

But her present safety was far from assured.

The Troll King’s roars were horrifying, louder and more bestial than anything Axel had heard, save for the Giant’s fury earlier that day. A massive halberd, its edge blood red and its handle a brilliant gold, manifested in his hands.

The Troll King swung at his wife. Lune was already moving, daggers flashing as she ducked and struck with a fencer’s grace, stepping onto the whistling halberd and springing over the King’s head in a somersault.

She landed on a rock outcropping behind it, feet flicking to hammer kicks onto the back of its skull. The meaty impacts echoed across the clearing, and the Troll King stumbled. 

In one motion, she plunged both daggers into the back of the enormous creature’s head. It slid in completely with a bloody squelch, before their tips burst forth from the Troll King’s forehead.

For a moment, Axel thought the King already dead, but the creature roared a grotesque, gurgling war cry, spinning with a speed that belied its obese bulk. Its fat arm caught Lune in his wild swing, sending her flying.

The King then pulled the two daggers out from the back of his head, completely unfazed, before picking up his golden halberd and resuming his assault.

Fuck me. This is going to be fun.

[Show me a good time, Axel.]

With a bloody smile, Axel sprinted towards the fight.