Suddenly, the goblins ceased their advance as a loud grating sound was heard outside the weapons vault. It was as if something was dragging a metal object along the floor. This was accompanied by heavy footsteps. It was clear to them that some new monster probably a boss level one came up as they killed a majority of the goblins. It put them all on edge as they heard the sound.
"I am out of the battle state," said Harry in the team chat putting a stop to the tension. He was continuously checking his panel for his status. He was ready to get out of the palace. As the mission was only Shadow's any of them could escape by channelling their hearthstones.
"Great! There is troll coming. Channel the hearthstone now. Go and deposit them in the shop. Don't sell any of these and get Lizzie along with you," replied Shadow. "We will try to clear out as many as possible in the meantime."
"Yes. Also tell her to stop selling the dynamites and get them with you two. We will probably need them to secure this fort," said Rudra as Harry was channelling his hearthstone. Rudra was extremely determined to get a hold of this fort and use it as a base. Though it was quite close to the White Heart City, it was bound to be useful sooner or later. At least, he would be able to sell it to the city in the worst-case scenario that he couldn't use it well.
"Get away from the door," said Shadow peeking out from the gap filled with burnt and cut up goblin corpses to confirm his guess about the troll. "It is more than 8 feet tall and holding a club that is 5 feet long. It probably would be able to push open the door," said Shadow as he moved away.
"Get the cannon and dynamite ready. We will throw them all on it as soon as it enters," said Shadow. Blinding White and Little White Feet were near the hand cannon aimed perfectly at the entrance. The rest were also waiting for the troll to enter and bombard it.
There was a loud bang as the door which Shadow and others managed to close partially with great difficulty slammed open. There was a spiked club made of metal stuck in the door. The size of the club itself was extremely intimidating. The force of the door being opened raised dust all over the room and a bunch of weapons and ammunition which they didn't take for lack of space in their bags crashed onto the ground due to the vibrations.
A horde of goblins about 30 in number came running into the room followed by a large silhouette of a troll. It was bald with red eyes and long ears, had four long fangs coming out of its mouth with an inch-long claws and had a dark green color. Despite looking ferocious and hungry like a beast, it was slow as it had a very large torso and legs giving it a disproportionate shape. It had one of its legs on the door and was trying to pull out the club which was stuck on the door.
[Forest Troll] (Boss Monster)
Level 13:
HP: 8000/8000;
They could have immediately attacked if not for the horde of goblins which were attacking them. "Aim for the Troll, I will clear the goblins," said Merlin as he used the skill chaos wave. As soon as he used it a grey mist almost indistinguishable from the dust spread onto the goblins putting them in a stunned state.
"Dynamites at the troll," shouted Shadow as they all threw dynamites at the troll putting it in a state of stun as well as causing damage to it. The dynamites also cause fire damage and had a blow back effect on the troll and goblins. The goblins which were in a stunned state all fell down due to the blowback effect, but the troll hardly moved due to the dynamite.
"Did you prepare for the chaos wave skill when you heard it approaching?" asked Shadow surprised at the speed and effectiveness of Merlin's skill. Chaos wave was a skill that required certain time to chant and use it. If it was disturbed during the chant, he would have to start again. So, it wasn't a skill that could be used instantaneously.
"The sounds indicated that it was huge and if it entered, it would definitely create enough space for a horde to support it," replied Merlin as he continued attacking with other skills.
The hand cannon was also fired during this time and hit the troll in the middle of its chest. The troll which was already stunned and due to the mass use of the dynamite staggered backwards as it was hit by the cannon ball. A huge red value of 1500 HP immediately showed on its head indicated its loss of HP due to the cannon
"Reload the cannon. Aim at its head," said Rudra to Blinding White as he went ahead to attack the horde. Apart from Merlin, he was the only one who managed to get a few strong AOE skills. He quickly used Harpoon Tackle forcing the goblins away to the sides as he managed to reach the troll and continued with Earth Shattering strike. The aftereffects of these skills provided enough time for Little White Feet who was being protected by Blinding White to reload the hand cannon and fire it.
This time they made sure that it would hit the troll on its head. The hit reduced its health by an amount of 3000 HP. With the dynamites, the two cannon balls and the various attacks of the players, the troll had already lost a large amount of its health and had less than 2000 HP. Moreover, the attack from the cannon had smashed its nose and mouth causing it to fall back in a dazed state. Its head was also in a tilted state as if it had broken due to the cannon.
"Continue with the dynamites and spam your skills," said Rudra as he used Whirlwind Slash on the goblins which were close by putting them down again.
"Hold on to the hand cannon load but don't use it," said Shadow as he and they rest continued attacking the troll and the mobs. The troll seeming already passed out and even let go of its club after it was hit by the second cannon shot. Shadow quickly went to the troll and used his clone skill to deal damage. But the best part was done by Rudra. He had already changed his weapon to a broadsword he found in the vault and swung at the troll's neck to behead it, effectively killing the troll. After that they continued to attack the remaining goblins of the horde. Though they managed to finally kill the horde, it wasn't without casualties.
"How many are dead?" asked Rudra as he began looting the goblins. He had already looted the troll, but he got only a small piece of armor from it.
"Tang, Rick and Tetsujin are dead," reported Slaine. Even though they had a cannon and dynamites, the horde that followed goblins was overwhelming. Tang was a guardian and Tetsujin had the highest agility after Shadow and Duck 'n' Roll, but they still couldn't escape when a number of goblins ran towards them.
"That is bad. We depended on Tetsujin quite a bit. He always made sure that he held back one of the goblins in the rooms," said Duck 'n' Roll.
"Let us first move the door back, loot the goblins and the remaining armaments in the room first. We can make a plan after we scout again. Quite a number of goblins have come after the alarm. We might have a simpler situation than we expected," said Shadow as he came to the door and with the help of others again moved the door and left only space enough for one player to get through at a time.
They collected all that they could from the goblin and even replaced their equipment with those available from the vault. They also managed to collect a total of 50 level 10 crossbows and ammunition which could be used as a secondary weapon. The only thing that they regretted is not having enough bag space and their inability to move the hand cannon which couldn't be placed in a bag.
"Let us not open any more vaults for now. We can open anything we find later. We best clear the gates so that the ones who died can easily enter the fort and move the resources," said Rudra as he felt very bad in leaving all the equipment there. Even Shadow whose focus was on the unique equipment felt bad about wasting the equipment. If left unclaimed for a certain period of time, all armaments would disappear. This was common in many games.
Shadow and Roll went out of the vault to scout. As Shadow expected, the nearby rooms were all empty. Even after reaching the central area of the semi-circular corridor which was connected to the outer area and the gate, they couldn't find any goblin or other monster. Shadow made his way to the outer area and found it to be empty except for an archer each on top of the two wooden towers. These archers were still monitoring the area outside the gate.
"Shall we take out the archers? After that the dead guys will be able to get in easily," asked Shadow.
It was quite simple for them to do this. The towers had wooden rungs forming a makeshift ladder to climb it. They easily reached the archers in stealth and directly pulled them off the tower. The fall itself almost killed the goblin archers and put them in a crippled state. When they followed up with their attacks the goblins died quickly clearing up the outer area.
"Get to the outer area and check their tents. The area is clear," reported Shadow in the team chat.
"We are on the way," said Rudra as he came out of the vault along with the others. They also carried the hand cannon with them. They all began to check the tents and soon found a few armaments, but these paled in comparison to the ones that they found in the vault.
"Sorry, let us put the searching and looting of all thing on hold," said Shadow as he realized that they didn't have any more bag space left.
"Yeah. That is a good call," said Rudra sarcastically. "By the way, I got information from the city gate. Sirius Imperials have managed to get into the city. There are about 10 of their members. There were apparently a few others who came close enough but failed to kill the boss monster near the city."
"Oh! It is fine. Get those guys out of there. We are already here and have a good advantage over anyone else who might come now," said Shadow.
"Lizzie and the others who died are going to come here in about 10 minutes. Let us get ready, we haven't cleared the right part of the inner area or went into the core area yet," said Rudra.
"Roll with me," said Shadow as they both went back to the inner areas scouting the right part of it. This was necessary as they couldn't go into the core region which was locked. They had to find Rozarius, the spectre, before they could do that and reach the shrine. The map showed Rozarius to be in the right side of the inner semi-circular area.
The only concern of Shadow was that there would be another troll in the fort. It was expected since the spectre already mentioned that there would be trolls in the fort. He and Roll managed to quickly check the right sector in stealth. As he expected, there was another troll at the end of the fort. The goblins were also no longer in their rooms, but around the troll armed and ready. They immediately came back to the gate where the others were waiting for them.
By the time they came back, Lizzie, Tetsujin and other have all returned. Four new players from the Crimson Realm guild have joined them along with Lizzie. So, a total of eight players with empty bags came to the fort.
"Lizzie and you four you need to fill up your bags and return to the city. Clear out your bags and come back again. There are still quite a number of rooms that we haven't checked yet. Also get more members the next time, enough so that we can secure this place, if necessary," said Rudra.
They moved all the best equipment from their inventory into the bags of Lizzie and the remaining four before they went to the inner area. They carried the hand cannon along with them too. There were three more cannon balls that they found in the vault. So, it had three shots which would be very valuable in taking down the troll.
"Place the hand cannon here," said Shadow pointing at a location on the pathway. "There are about 20 more goblins left. We will attack and lure them. Use the cannon only on the troll."
Previously, a number of goblins burst into the room almost at the same time as the troll causing a lot of confusion and three of the players died in that chaos. He didn't want a repeat of that. The goblins were quite faster than the troll and can be lured easily. They wanted to avoid fighting goblins and the troll together. This would allow them to concentrate their attack on the troll when it comes.
Shadow, Roll and Slaine were the once who went to lure the goblins. With their crossbows, it was quite easy for them to lure the horde at the end of the passage. The goblins ran after them and the troll also came but it moves slowly. The troll had a big size which made it hard to move fast through the passage which was only 8 feet tall.
As expected, the goblins came running after them and this time with the troll a bit behind them, they didn't need to worry much and attacked the goblins with full fervor. Rudra and Merlin both used their AOE skill on them causing significant damage and stun effects on them.
The others also piled their attacks on the goblins killing them very quickly. By the time, the troll reached them, there were only six goblins left and these already on their last legs. Though they managed to quickly attack the troll last time, it wasn't that easy to defeat one. Last time, the troll's club was luckily stuck on the door and it wasn't paying much attention to them. The same couldn't be said this time.
The troll suddenly increased its speed when it saw that most goblins were dead and it swung it club at them in a might manner, but the result was very comical. The passageway wasn't wide enough for the troll to make a full swing with its arm which cause the club bounced of one of the walls, slipped out of its arm and fall down behind it. It stopped its advance and started to search for the club with its round beady eyes.
"The game designers must be trolling to put in something stupid like this," said Slaine unable to contain his surprise. Before the others started commenting on his stupid joke, Blinding fired the cannon on the troll starting the fight.
What happened next was more or less a repeat of the previous fight with the troll, but it was much easier due to lack of goblins and that the stupid troll was quite farther away from them. This allowed them to use long distance attacks and with the remaining two cannon balls, the troll had the same ending as the previous one.