Pran saw the blood troll's hand with its palm open, right in front of him. He quickly tapped his right foot, moving his body slightly to the left to dodge the blood troll's attack, and while continuing to move forward he used his forward momentum to run his sword from the wrist to its shoulder in a straight light.
Slice!
The blood troll once more hollered in pain as its dark greenish blood started to flow like a waterfall. It used its other hand to smack at the annoying bug who was inflicting so much pain on him. Pran moved to the side but noticed that the blood troll didn't follow his movement and was still going through its attack motion without stopping.
Despite his initial fear, Pran quickly calmed down and breathed a sigh of relief after realizing that the blood troll was still blind. It must have smelled me coming and must have made that attack. Fucker nearly gave me a heart attack!
Pran once more focused on attacking the blood troll not giving it time to recover even slightly. He kept up his swift attacks, circling around the creature without losing momentum, and it started to show its effect. Very soon the blood troll was covered with deep gashes of which some were showing bones and horrific wounds and its blood was flowing nonstop.
Pran focused his attacks on the blood troll, determined not to give it a moment to recover. He circled around the creature with swift, fluid movements, slicing deep gashes in its flesh. Some wounds revealed bone, and its blood flowed freely. Pran could smell the strange metallic tang of blood in the air, while the creature's breathing had become ragged, and was looking almost dead. Despite the troll's size and strength, Pran remained agile and relentless, using his speed and skill to wear it down.
Suddenly the blood troll let out a deafening roar, and disregarding its injuries and still flowing blood, started to run towards the back of the prison where there was another passage and the other strong being.
"Trying to run away, huh!" Pran murmured under his breath while he flipped the dagger he was holding and caught it by its tip and then threw it at the base of the blood troll's head in a precise and fluid motion, in hopes of severing the spine from the head, but even if it didn't happen it would still inflict quite heavy damage.
Swish!
Schink!
The dagger did penetrate the targeted area but was not able to sever the head with the spine but still managed to inflict heavy damage the blood troll screamed and heavily fell to the ground with a loud thud and skidded for a bit before coming to a halt. At the same time, Pran was not far behind and reached the blood troll in a flash.
Pran without missing a single beat, moved right beside the blood troll who was writhing in pain and a small puddle of dark greenish blood had already started to form. He lifted his sword high while gripping it with both of his hands to decapitate it.
Just then all the hair on his body stood and an intense sense of trepidation gripped his heart. Without even thinking he moved his head slightly to the right, and in that instant, an arrow grazed his left ear and then got embedded in the wall behind him with only its fletching visible.
Pran lifted his head to look at the direction that the arrow came from. But when he did his heart once more skipped a beat, because he see 2 hobgoblins riding 2 giant wolves followed by around 10 goblins coming from that direction. Previously he didn't sense them because even in this situation they were not much of a threat to him, but the bigger reason was he was still only focused on the second strong foe.
Behind the goblins that were charging toward Pran along with the hobgoblin riders, he clearly saw 3 goblins standing as if casting something. And judging from the patterns drawn on their faces they were probably goblin mages, stronger than the goblin magician he killed before. But when his sight landed behind them he saw a tall figure welding a great bow in the process of knocking another arrow, it was another blood troll, but what made his heart sink a little was the figure standing beside it.
It was a black goblin. Its stature was bigger than a regular goblin, around five feet, but with a very athletic build. Its eyes were golden colored while its ears were not as large as a goblin's, and were closer to that of humans but were still pointer. Its facial features resembled more like humans than goblins. Its hands were on the elongated side, with four fingers that had sharp nails as if there were deadly daggers. And when it saw Pran, it licked its lips with its reddish tongue and gave a wide grin.
When Pran saw it doing that he cursed: "Shit! A Shadow Goblin! This is more troublesome than fighting two healthy blood trolls."
But Pran soon gripped his emotions and calmed himself. He still had more than 70% stamina and almost all his health remaining, and the situation was as worst as could have been if his opponent was a strong magic user. Because right now he was still able to handle foes who relayed on the physical abilities to fight him. He didn't have any skill or spell to use against a strong magic user.
Sure, the goblin magic users were still a problem to deal with, but they were not something that he couldn't handle.
Pran took a deep breath and disregarding every other foe lifted the sword high once more still gripping it with both of his hands and decisively swung it down with all his might, right onto the neck of the blood troll who was lying below him in its own blood, to decapitate it, making sure to at least remove one variable from the upcoming battle.
When the Shadow Goblin who was standing on the other side lost its grin and squinted its eyes. Right then the blood troll standing next to who had almost knocked another arrow on its heavy bow, saw Pran's movement and its eyes widened. It quickly finished knocking the arrow and fired it in hopes of stopping Pran from killing the blood troll that was lying on the ground writhing in pain.
Swoosh!
Pran heard the sound of a sharp object slicing through the air, indicating the speed and power of the incoming arrow. Despite noticing it, he didn't hesitate to finish what he had started. The arrow, though fast, was still slightly slower than Pran's swift movements, and before it could pose much of a threat to Pran he had already swung his sword down with lightning-fast movements onto the writhing blood troll's neck, successfully severing its head from its spine.
Pran knew that he will only have a small window of time to avoid the incoming arrow and that too only because the blood troll was a beat slower in firing the arrow at him. If it was any faster he would have to give up killing the blood troll, and then it could have become a dangerous variable down the line in the upcoming battle.
After finishing the kill and without any delay Pran let go of the hilt of his sword and dropped onto the ground, successfully avoiding the income arrow. He then swiftly grabbed the sword with his right hand and the dagger with his left hand and got up. While sheathing the dagger back on his back his eyes darted around the prison chamber, and instantly he located his shield at some distance.
Pran sprinted towards his shield while the hobgoblin riders and the goblins were hot on his heels. At the same time, the three goblins who were casting something had finished what they were doing and soon a fireball and two ice spikes appeared above their head and they motioned those in Pran's direction.
While this was happening, the blood troll's hand knocked another arrow and aimed it at Pran. Seeing that Pran was moving to the side, the troll focused on assessing where he was moving before firing the arrow in that direction instead of directly targeting him.
Shit! Pran cursed inwardly upon noticing the spells coming toward him. He tried to quicken his pace but suddenly felt uneasy and kicked the floor to deviate from his original path. As he did so, he saw an arrow embed itself next to the shield he was headed towards.
Pran instinctively looked towards the blood troll that had fired the arrow at him. As he did, he almost stumbled and was nearly hit by one of the ice spikes. He somehow managed to maneuver himself to the side to avoid a direct hit but was still too close when it hit the ground and exploded into smaller ice shards.
Thud!
Peng!
Foosh!
Luckily, Pran had already focused his mind on the incoming ice spike. He used his sword and dagger to deflect many of the ice shards, but two of them still managed to hit him, and hard. Although they didn't penetrate his armor, they were enough to knock him back and stagger him for a bit.
"Gagh!" Pran grunted a little from the impact but soon managed to stable himself and once more moved towards the shield that was lying not far from him now.
The blood troll was still in the process and knocking another arrow and the goblin mages once more started to cast while the group of hobgoblin riders and goblins were still a bit away from him, but he knew he didn't have much time before things will become even more dangerous for him.
The reason why Pran almost stumbled and got hit by the ice spike directly and was now in a hurry, was because, while all of this was happening, he and everyone else had failed to notice a crucial detail: the Shadow Goblin that had been standing next to the blood troll was now nowhere to be found.