Neil had been under the effect of the blood for 20 minutes and the effects had become very obvious by now.
His body was swelling to its largest as it seemed his muscles were seemingly growing.
"So this is what it looks like" Amelia said to herself, her first time seeing a blood butchered in action.
Other than his body Neil's personality had completely changed as instead of his average lack of focus and and random comments and thoughts he now looked at only one thing. The enemy in front of him was what he was searching for and he stared at it prepared to fight.
Amelia was curious what exactly he'd do after his battle but decided not to focus on that and instead just take out the surrounding creatures as he fought the crystal troll.
Neil began to approach the troll in an impulsive manner not caring about the surrounding monsters in the slightest.
He threw himself at the monster axe in both hands, the troll quickly reacted to him dodged out of the way.
Neil ran headfirst into the wall of the corridor. He quickly recovered though and in a matter of seconds turned around to face the troll again.
"Still need to use some intelligence" He said to himself seemingly retaining some of his mind even while under the effects.
A few of the crystalbacks had been killed at this point which he only briefly noticed.
For his second approach at the troll Neil again rand in but this time with some more control and reason in his approach.
He held the axe in both hands again but purposefully made no move for a specific attack. He realized that the troll was likely smart enough to read his moves so he'd need to conceal them for as long as possible.
The troll realized Neil's plan and decided to begin attacking itself.
The troll brought it's massive crystal club above its head and with surprising speed brought it down where Neil was standing.
Neil was too focused on his own attacks and wasn't able to fully avoid the troll's smashing attack.
He leapt out of the way but felt contact on his shin.
He went to stand and could feel some weakness in his right leg that had just been hit.
"Yeah, that's definitely broken" He said to himself, just glad he couldn't feel the pain at the moment due to adrenaline.
Neil shook his head while staring at the troll and began for his third approach, this time with as clear of a mind as he could get. He would let himself be guided the fight and not try to plan it out.
"Don't mess it up this time" He heard Amelia from behind him.
'She must've already killed all of the crystalbacks' He thought to himself with a growing rage at his own inability.
The troll was preparing another attack but this time Neil stood ready. The troll came at his with a large side swing directly in front of it.
Neil yet again fell into a slide, going underneath the club. He swung his axe directly at the legs of the troll and successfully planted it into the trolls left ankle.
"Graaahuaah!!" The Troll yelled in both pain and anger after being hit itself.
Neil ignored the yells and stood in front of the troll and pulled his axe out of its ankle. He was now face to face with troll and was too close for either of them to use their weapons.
The troll suddenly wore a happy expression and went to bear hug Neil. It was planning to use it's overwhelming physical power to beat Neil, as in its kind it was obvious who was stronger with the clear size difference. While Neil was well built and six feet tall he still was dwarfed by the eight maybe nine foot tall troll that was also much wider than he was.
Neil wore a calm expression as the troll went to bear hug him and he grabbed it back, specifically around its legs.
The troll became confused as Neil was able to lock a tight grip around its large legs and was now holding them in the same way it was locked around his chest. It went to squeeze Neil around his chest when it suddenly felt it's large self lifted.
"Huehwah!!" The troll groaned out as Neil held it up around it's legs. Unknowingly the troll was helping Neil ad it would've been much harder to hold it if it was also holding him.
"What the hell are you doing?!?" He heard Amelia yelling in confusion.
"Having some fun!!" Neil yelled back to her. In an exhilarated voice.
"He's really lost it" Amelia said to herself as she watched someone pick up a troll for the first time.
"Here we go!!" Neil yelled out, it seemed he had lost his serious demeanor and now was more focused on the fun of the battle.
Neil held the confused troll up and moved his arms up to it waist, staying locked the whole time.
Once at the troll's waist he pulled in and brought the trolls waist past his own in the left side and turned his right shoulder into the troll's chest. And then before the troll could react he slammed his and the troll's body into the ground as he hard as he could.
"What was that??" Amelia said to herself, she couldn't believe she had just seen a human body slam a troll. It was something that had never even occurred to her as possible.
Neil pulled himself up from the ground first and grabbed his axe up from the ground near him, as he had dropped it to commence the slam.
'It's starting to recover' Neil thought to himself seeing the troll slowly making movements.
Once Neil had ahold of his axe he immediately brought it above his head to yet again perform his signature downward cleave into the trolls chest.
"Chink!!" Neil had missed and instead swung his axe into the stone floor. The troll was able to rouse itself back into fighting right before Neil Neil's attack and rolled to the right, dodging it.
"Shit!!" Neil yelled angrily as he again prepared to swing at the troll.
The troll was quicker though, picking up it's club from the ground and immediately swinging it at an unsuspecting Neil.
"You really gotta learn to expect your enemies attacks" Amelia said out to him in an exhausted voice. Just watching the fight had left her feeling tired of the weirdness and some of Neil's fighting faults. She had decided that on the floor she would try and train him some, if only to have more entertainment as a spectator.
While she was enthralled with her own thoughts Neil was slammed in the side by the large club which sent him into the wall for the second time in the fight.
'I'm becoming too damn used to that!!' Neil thought to himself feeling the aches of his body as he picked himself up yet again.
The troll had sent yet another swing towards him but Neil sidestepped the vertical swing and did a spun himself once before sending his axe square in the trolleys back, stopping him abruptly as well.
The troll didn't yell to this but instead turned towards Neil rapidly. Expecting this Neil pulled his axe out of the creatures back and immediately went for a low swing at the troll's ankle that he had already hit.
The troll lifted its foot, dodging the attack and then went to kick him with the lifted leg.
Neil dodged the kick and grabbed the troll's leg as it was still extended in the air.
This was the opportunity he had been waiting for. As he held the leg with his right arm he rapidly brought up his left arm with his axe in hand.
The troll wasn't in any position to dodge so it decided to go to attack Neil as well.
But before it could bring down it's arm that was holding the large crystal club Neil sliced sent a chop into the bicep of the raised arm.
The trolls arm went limp and it dropped the club.
With its leg still in the air the troll went in for a head-but against Neil as it had now lost it's weapon.
With this Neil grinned, he had finally found the way to end this battle. As it head-butted Neil, he stood firm even under the immense pain and definite concussion he had gotten. He raised his left arm again and sent his axe into the head of the troll before it could retract it.
"Kwehh" The troll cried out as it fell over and went limp.
Neil pulled out the axe from the head of the troll and turned towards Amelia.
"Ready to go?" He asked her as his body was dripping blood from the numerous blows he had taken. He was currently fighting strong urges from inside to try and attack Amelia but a combined reasoning that she was his comrade and just a general desire to live kept him from sending any attack her way.
"Yes, I've decided I'm gonna teach you some on the next floor." She responded to him.
He simply nodded upon hearing this and turned around. He grabbed his pouch and put both the troll's corpse and it's club into his pouch. He would investigate the club and any possible equipment of the troll later.
He then limped his way to the next crossroad, as his ankle injury was now showing its effects.
"You got any potions I could have?" Neil asked to Amelia.
"Maybe later, you'll live until the stop if my guess is right, so just keep walking. If we come across another group then I'll give you it" She responded to him.
Neil turned and gave Amelia a scowl as a response and then started going right. As much as he was currently desiring more good battles he was able to convince himself not to go towards more due to the state of his body.
Amelia followed him and after a few more minutes of limping the staircase was now in sight.
"Screw this!!" Neil yelled as he got to the stairs and simply through himself down them and instead of walking. There was a small risk that he could break something in the process but he placed trust in his vitality as he tumbled down the long stairway.
"You're stupid and crazy" Amelia said to him in an exasperated tone as she met him at the bottom.
"I prefer unique" Neil responded, not letting the insult slide even in his state.
He then quickly passed out as it seemed he had used his last strength to get himself to a safe place and was now done.
"Impressive first showing newbie" Amelia now said to the unconscious Neil in a much kinder voice.
She opened his mouth and poured a potion into it.
"I must say you deserve at least that" She said to him as the liquid left the bottle.
"Time to set up again" She said to herself as she opened a colorful bag and pulled out numerous camping items including a tent, multiple logs of wood and a fire starter.
She set up an a camp and put Neil into the camp.
She seemed to be experienced with all of these things as she was able to do them with quite ease.
'I must say, it's nice to have someone else to watch and talk with. Maybe I should do some more adventures with him.' She thought to herself as she sat down near the fire.
She decided that she'd at least try and teach him some as they continued through the dungeon. She owed him that much for his help and for his entertainment. She had already forgotten about how she saved his life in their first meeting and what caused her to come to the dungeon in the first place.