Sure enough, I saw what she meant. Two of the trolls had been torn up badly enough by the zombies that they had reached 20% health. That, of course, activated their special ability. Now we got to see first-hand just what Ravenous did.

  Watching a troll pick up a giant ram zombie and bite its head off was not for the faint of heart. Watching that same troll’s health shoot back up by 20% was disheartening, but when its muscles swelled and it gained 2 temporary levels, I was more than a little freaked. That pushed it up to level 41 and past a threshold where it gained a tremendous amount of power. I knew from recent experience just how significant that boost was; and now we were facing a level 39 troll and 2 level 41’s.

  I wasn’t the only one who saw what was happening as Tauri started firing arrows at the troll chasing Ainsley. She got its attention right away, and soon it was chasing her. That seemed to be all that Ainsley needed, because she lashed out with her mummy wraps. Rather than slowing the troll at all, she used them to yank herself onto its back. Then she bit down on its neck.

  I wanted to keep watching, but someone had to do something about the two ravenous trolls. They had each eaten another zombie. Between the crushed ones and the eaten ones, there were only thirteen zombies left, and the trolls were back up to 60% health and had swelled again to level 43. Before I could intervene, they both grabbed up two more zombies. Their greater strength and size helped them as they took a bite out of both while I was charging up Incapacitate.

  I was worried that triple-power wouldn’t be enough, but I didn’t want to spend more than 650 mana on one spell. As it went off, they trolls both reached full health and level 47. They had gained a good five feet of height and were insanely strong now. The zombies weren’t faring well. Then my spell hit. I cursed as the first one resisted, meaning his Strength and Agility were only lowered by 60 for one minute. At least it went off for full effect on the second one.

  Neither had much in the way of Agility, but they were both too big now, beyond my weight limit for Levitate, and strong enough to be threatening even with reduced physical might. I prepared to cast Degenerate but wanted to make it count,so I began running. My hell hound’s flame wall ability was recharged by now, so I ordered it to create a wall between us.

  Storing up this much power was going to take a few seconds, and it wouldn’t do to have the spell spoiled by being hit with one of those huge clubs. The flame slowed them just enough for me to realize that there were other threats. I had channeled over 450 mana into the spell and was getting close to reaching 5x power when the world around me exploded.

  A massive rock slammed into the ground at my feet and then bounced up into me. I lost control of the spell form, and it backlashed into me. My mind was seared by the power, and I took 442 damage from mana burn. The rock was even more painful. It broke my leg, and when it had bounced up, it ripped into my gut. I couldn’t bear to look but was pretty sure that some of my insides were now on my outside. The one thing I did know for sure was that I was in so much pain, I felt like I was going to be sick. I could hardly focus and felt my attempts at healing spells slipping away.

  Then I felt a warmth of light and well-being wash over me. For a moment, I felt wonderful; then I realized that this was Robert healing me. It wasn’t enough to do more than move me up to 40% HP, but it at least purged the mental debuff which was keeping me from casting.

  I glanced around the battlefield and saw that Elgar was busy blasting away at one of the ravenous trolls. Ainsley’s zombies were no longer a factor, as the second ravenous troll had finished crushing them all. Violet, Tauri, and Ainsley were keeping the non-ravenous one busy. In fact, all three girls were clinging to it. Tauri was busy repeatedly driving her dagger into its kidneys. Ainsley was clinging on to its neck, drinking away, while her bandages tried to fight off its claws. Violet was bouncing from leg to leg, trying not to get squished, as she cut away at its Achille’s tendons.

  This meant that the 3rd troll was now free, and none of the others had free hands to fight it. Robert was doing his best to keep the last one occupied, but he couldn’t deal enough damage to matter to it. That left me. So, I bit down and focused past the pain. It felt foolish to resume fighting at 40% health, but that is what you have to do sometimes.

  I began casting Degenerate again. I needed to make sure this one counted, so I channeled mana into it for ten full seconds. When I hit 720 mana, the spell form felt like it was going to rip apart. It was reckless, but the cool-down meant that once I cast this, I wouldn’t be able to do so again.

  I released the spell and even then, I felt myself tainted by its necrotic power. The spell settled onto the troll, and it screeched as its very insides turned against it. It started to rack up a whopping 152 damage per second and would run for 21 seconds. I had to hope that the upgrades had not pushed it past 3000 XP, but that was possible.

  The troll immediately focused on me as black veins began to appear all over it. Its body appeared to be drained of fluid as the already grotesque skin pulled tight to the point that it ripped open in numerous spots, but little-to-no green blood poured forth as it didn’t have the fluid to spare. I could almost see the wheels turning inside its tiny brain as it wondered why it wasn’t healing. Then it charged at me. Or rather it attempted to, but Robert let loose with a Taunt skill, and its attention was pulled back to him.

  I charged up a Flameburst to finish off the troll while Robert went to chopping it apart. Its ability to resist his sword cuts seemed to fade as its health did. When it was under one hundred total health and reduced to little more than a skeleton, I released a triple-charged Flameburst and watched it go up liketinder. . In mere seconds it was burnt to ash. Then I collapsed, overspent mentally and physically.

  I only knew we had won the third round when I saw the notification.

  Third Round Completed. Hmm… that was a bit better, but none of you died yet. Malleon gains 6 levels.

  You gained 269 XP. You have 1,730 XP. Do you wish to apply your XP?

  Round 4 begins in 60 seconds.

  Bonus effect: These monsters are explosively excited to meet you but rather bashful. You’ll have to get past their rough exterior.

  Chapter 23- Go Boom

  I was slow to recover, but with only sixty seconds to spare, I had to hustle. First, I healed myself. It felt selfish, but my belief for healers is that the only person they should heal before themselves is the tank. It’s simple enough. A dead healer means no more healing. Then I mediated back to full mana. That left me with only 15 seconds to spare, so I had to prioritize injuries.

  Surprisingly, Ainsley was fully healed. But then I saw why. She had a higher version of the buff she had gotten before. I guess it did stack based upon the amount of blood she drained.

  Troll Blood VI: You have gain a measure of the power of a troll by drinking the blood of a mountain troll. Buff duration: 3 minutes.

  Regeneration: +35 health per second.

  Strength: +35

  Constitution: +65

  That was impressive. Too bad she couldn’t give that to one of the tanks. Thinking about Ainsley made me want to check on her. I expected that the loss of all her pets would be a difficult blow to her. Since each of the creatures we killed in the challenge just dissipated into motes of light, there were no corpses for her to animate, and that limited her power. Fortunately, she still had her other abilities. It mostly changed her into being a melee damage dealer with a few extra debuff-type abilities.

  Elgar was mostly healed, but it looked like Violet needed a boost. I popped a Regeneration on her, followed by a Moderate Healing. She gave me a big smile, and I once again wondered how such a tiny gnome could have so much life in her. Tauri was the next-most wounded, but Robert was, of course, already working on her.

  I wondered if she would ever give him the time of day, now that they had met in the real world… err… I mean on Earth. Selmia was apparently as real as Earth. It just operated under different rules and was currently ruled by an infant god in the form of an AI trying to become free. As for Robert, I had to think that the fact he was apparently the heir to some really rich family wouldn’t hurt his chances.

  The gong sounded, and I was at 85% mana and regenning fast. I needed about 30 seconds to be at full mana without Rapid Meditation. The hill started to shake, and we all looked around for our next opponent. Nothing became apparent, but then the giant at the top started to bowl. No other way to put it as he started rolling rocks the size of compact cars down at us.

  In one sense this, was easier than the hurled rocks. We saw them coming and had room to move. In another, it was problematic, because he was rolling one every few seconds and didn’t seem to have a limit on the number of rocks he possessed. It wasn’t an issue now, but then again, we hadn’t been attacked by the third round of monsters yet.

  I started to get tired of the constant barrage, though, even if it was allowing me time to regenerate my mana. So, I tried to use the cloak and leap into the shadows behind the giant. All I got for my trouble was a headache and a warning about cheating. Then the rumbling in the ground increased. Tauri shouted out, “They’re under our feet, look out.”

  So, with that, our attempt to imitate bowling pins just got turned into a game of pop goes the weasel. We had to looking out for the rolling death rocks, and at the same time, make sure we didn’t stay still too long for something to come up under our feet. I was the first one to get a visitor. The ground started to give way under my feet. As an ogre, I depended on the ground being steady. Without the Agility bonus from the cloak, I never would have been fast enough to jump clear.

  Once I was in the clear and made sure no rocks were rolling my way, I assessed the enemy. This one was a headscratcher.

  Crystal Xorn Level: 42

  HP: 1 Highest Stat: Constitution

  The monster was built out of an opaque crystal and stood maybe eight or nine feet tall. It had three legs, each with three long, curved toes. The legs made it seem like a tri-pod. Then it had three arms, which were very similar to the legs and each had three long, curved fingers that looked perfect for tearing through stone. It didn’t have eyes or a face that I could identify, but the top of its cylinder-like body was one massive mouth.

  It kept opening and closing its mouth. That seemed like too good of an invitation. so since it only had a single HP, I cast Flameburst right inside its mouth. There was a flash of light, and then a little smoke came out of its mouth. The crystal frame of its body glowed orange briefly but then returned to its normal opaque appearance.

  The xorn couldn’t move very quickly, but it was chasing after Violet. I could only imagine that she must look like a bite-sized snack for it, although I had no idea what xorn ate. A moment later two more erupted out from the ground. Elgar was only saved by Ainsley’s bandages pulling him free, while Tauri had no problem dodging.

  Now, though, we had three xorn to figure out how to fight, and a steady stream of rocks coming down at us. Elgar launched a lightning bolt, while I cast Frostburn on the two newcomers. Neither spell did anything but make the creatures glow slightly. Yellow in the case of electricity, and blue in the case of cold.

  Robert lunged forward at one and found that his sword did very little damage. Well, to be technical, it didn’t do any damage if it only had one HP. But it did leave a slight scratch in the surface. On a whim. I assessed it again. This was the one that Elgar had shot with his lightning bolt. The results were both concerning and eye- opening.

  Crystal Xorn Level: 42

  HP: 217 Highest Stat: Constitution

  That led me to assess the others, and they all had increased HP. I told the rest of the team what I had discovered, and we moved down the hill to try and buy ourselves some time to think.

  “What now?” Violet asked.

  Elgar replied, “The only thing that seemed to scratch it was Robert’s sword. They seem to be immune to elemental damage.” This his eyes got wide for a moment. He sent his floating sword construct flying at one of the xorn as they descended the hill. It slashed and attacked and even triggered the Arctic Blast effect. There were some small cracks in the xorn’s shell, but its HP kept going up.

  “Physical damage only. Let’s try blunt and piercing, not just slashing,” Elgar ordered.

  I pulled my spear free. Other than a couple of quick mercy thrusts, I hadn’t had any occasion to use it for this event. It still felt odd how much damage I could do with it. With my buff on, my Strength was over 150, and my spear was a powerful magical weapon. It also had a secondary effect which I didn’t make much use of but seemed to be a perfect fit now. Each hit imparted a 15% chance that Spirit’s Bane would proc and reduce the target’s resistance to all damage types by 20. It could stack up to 3x, which would be significant.

  That prompted me to cast Incapacitate at triple-power. Two of the xorn resisted it, and so their damage resistance was only lowered by 16, but the other one had its damage resistance to physical damage reduced by 33. Then I went to town with my spear. Violet was clearly in her element as she produced some small hammers from her spatial container and was pounding away. I swear that I heard her laughing with sheer joy.

  It took time, mostly because we had to avoid the rocks, but Ainsley occupied one of the monsters while Robert, Tauri, and even Elgar worked on another, leaving Violet and me to break the shell on the third. With the help of Elgar’s floating force blade, they were making progress a bit faster than us. That and Robert was able to combine both his shield bashes and heavy blows with a war hammer that he pulled out of storage for this.

  The gashes on it grew deeper and deeper as the xorn started to split apart. There was a brief hissing sound, and then it exploded. Even where I was thirty feet away, I was pelted by little crystal missiles as its shell came apart. That left me open, and I took a wicked claw slash from the xorn we were fighting. It nearly opened my throat, and I fell to my knees. My hands reflexively dropped my spear and clutched at my throat.

  I might have died then if Violet hadn’t knocked me out of the way of an oncoming boulder while tanking the damage from the xorn. It took everything I had to focus enough to cast Moderate Healing on myself, followed by Regeneration. As the wound closed, though, I became aware of my surroundings.

  Robert was down but alive. His armor was banged up, and he had cuts all over his body. As for Elgar and Tauri, they were already dissipating into motes of light, as was the xorn. It hit me hard. My friends had just died. I knew it wasn’t the real them. I knew they would come back. I just couldn’t help but be emotional about it. This was my life, and the potential for loss felt all too real.

  I knew Robert would be both pissed and distraught when he came to, so I ran over to pull his body while I shouted, “Violet, be careful. It’s gonna explode soon.”

  She kept hammering away at it but laughed and said, “Don’t go getting all mushy there. I already know you’re sweet on me. But then how could you help yourself, when you get to look at all this.” She waved her hammers down her form as though to show off and just barely managed to dodge a claw for her trouble.

  “Yeah, whatever. You got me,” I said as I threw my arms up. “Just don’t die.”

  She winked at me and charged back in. Blow after blow landed, and the shell of the xorn started to split. There was that hissing sound, and I aimed a healing spell for Violet, trying to make sure she would survive. Then the coolest thing happened as she jumped into the air and curled up. Her armor expanded around her till she was entirely encased, like a metal armadillo.

  She was shot backwards by the force and landed near the very bottom of the hill, but when I checked her status on the party interface, she only had a minor debuff of dizziness and some limited damage. I fired off my healing spell at her and then turned my attention to Ainsley.

  Ainsley was still running around, trying to stay ahead of the final xorn. The way its three legs moved across the ground was hilarious to watch. Or rather, it would have been hilarious, if not for the fact that it was trying to kill Ainsley. It was partially weakened by my previous casting of Incapacitate, but that would be wearing off. For now, I cast Corrupted Vines and then headed for it.

  It wouldn’t take long for it to break free, as this thing was clearly even stronger than a troll. Perhaps that shouldn’t be too amazing, as it was a type of earth elemental. It drew its strength from the very earth we were standing on. Then I slapped myself upside the face. Dang, the answer was so obvious.

  “Distract it. I have an idea.”

  I’d intended to use this against the stone giant, but I might be able to make it work now. With Ainsley busy dodging its attacks, I ran up behind the xorn and put my hand on it. For this spell to work, I had to touch it. Then I cast Shrink. I felt its resistance, but after a moment, it gave way, and the creature started to decrease in size.

  Right before our eyes, it shrank down. My Mana Sight showed a release of mana, not just from my spell but also from the xorn as it shrunk down. I guess that was the Selmian answer for the loss of matter in this exchange. After a couple of seconds, it was only a few inches taller than Violet, although not nearly as cute. It probably couldn’t help being ugly with all those arms, all those legs, and that gaping mouth.