Return of the Mythic Bloodline

Chapter 472: Fighting the trolls

Ume’s body began shaking. Cold sweat broke out, dampening her hair to her cheek, and her chest rose and fell heavily under unsteady breathing.

"N-No! Taranis!" She suddenly cried out, her eyes snapping open.

"I’m here, Ume. Calm down," I said, holding her hand.

She instantly clung to me tightly, as if afraid that I might vanish.

Only when she had completely calmed did I ask, "Did you notice anything noteworthy in your vision?"

Ume nodded, taking deep breaths before revealing, "Above the broken sky, the sun was black with a white halo surrounding it. There was also a broken watchtower nearby, although its clock was still moving."

She held my hand tighter, her lips trembling as she continued, "It was 1:49. The exact time y-you..."

"I understand," I replied as she found it difficult to speak any further. "I’m sorry you had to go through this."

"It’s fine, as long as this remains only a vision," she murmured, resting her head on my chest.

At the same time, Nymeria hugged me from behind, her arms wrapped around my stomach. She was as terrified of the prophecy as Ume was.

After staying like that for a few minutes, I explained, "From what you saw in the sky, it must be a solar eclipse."

I drew out my phone and checked the date of the upcoming solar eclipse.

"20th February. This is the earliest solar eclipse," I revealed. "Today is 22nd December, so there are still two months before the day of prophecy."

I placed my hand on both Nymeria’s and Ume’s cheeks and said, "I promise I will not die. Now that we know the exact day and time, we will figure something out, together."

I rose from my seated position and moved towards the edge of the roof.

"Where are you going?" Nymeria called from behind.

"I need to make this body stronger to face the upcoming calamity," I said with a warm smile. "I will deal with the monsters here and return right away."

Their expressions clearly said that they wanted to come as well, but they held themselves back. They knew that I needed to face the trolls myself to grow stronger.

After one last glance at them, I teleported to the ground using Void Steps.

"Vivi, claim the second reward from the quest."

"Initialising host’s request..."

"You have received the next quest of the series: Doomsday.

Doomsday Quest #2: The Boss Monster of the San Francisco Dungeon Break must be killed.

Status: Pending

Reward on completion:

1. Skill: Soul Conjuration level up

2. New Skill: Extreme Yang Transformation

3. Next quest of the series.

Penalty on failure:

1. Termination of the entire series."

"Oh, a new technique?" I mumbled, reading the screen. "With how generous the rewards are, I can already predict the extreme difficulty of this quest."

As I drew closer to the rift, the trolls increased exponentially in both strength and numbers, their height nearly matching Grendel’s.

Had it been me before the Second Ultimate War, I would never have considered fighting these trolls at my current realm. But now, I possessed something that far outclassed its limitations.

From my inventory, I drew out Shinku No Sabi. The blood-red color of its blade began to change as the Soulforce from my hand flowed into it like liquid, transforming into a spiral of deep black and luminous white. No energy leaked from the blade, as if it were not energy covering it at all, but the blade’s true color.

Ding...

"The lock on the skill: Expert Sword Technique has been lifted."

Ding...

"The lock on the skill: Sword Aura has been lifted."

"Warning! The host’s realm is too low to maintain Sword Aura. A large amount of Yin-Yang energy is being consumed."

A horde of trolls, standing atop the ruins of fallen buildings on either side of the broken road, turned their sharp, glaring eyes toward me as they sensed my presence.

With a guttural, inhuman roar, they hurled themselves at me, their gigantic bodies blotting out the sky above.

However, before they could reach me, I vanished from the ground, reappeared behind them in the same split second, and swung my sword like a wave of water, smoothly passing through the neck of each troll.

I did not waste another second on their falling bodies and pressed forward. I needed to kill as many trolls as possible before my Soulforce reserves were emptied.

Thus, a wild hunt erupted across the crossroads where hundreds of trolls, each at least A-Rank, spread through the ruins of what had once been the highly advanced city of San Francisco.

Unlike other trolls, these were properly geared, with thick metallic straps protecting their necks, the only weakness they had.

Yet there was no metal in existence that I could not cut with my perfected Sword Aura. I appeared like a shadow behind them, sliced off their heads, and teleported to the next troll before the earlier head could even touch the ground.

One by one, they fell lifeless, not even knowing what was striking them. Terror and confusion spread among the remaining trolls. They began forming groups, protecting each other’s backs.

Yet their struggles proved futile. With Void Steps, I could teleport anywhere my eyes focused on, provided that place held Yin energy. I could even teleport in mid-air, which was exactly what I did.

They searched for the enemy on the ground, but I appeared above them, cutting them down with a single swing of the sword.

In the span of fifty seconds, I killed two hundred trolls and hit my limit.

"Alert! Only 5% Soulforce remaining! Cancelling the Sword Aura to avoid Soulforce Deviation"

"Tch, there are still about five trolls left," I muttered, landing on the ground.

The remaining five trolls finally found me, the hunter who had been killing their kind from the shadows.

They roared at me in fury, their voices alone sending my hair fluttering backward.

As they were about to reach me, I teleported to the ruins of a building about a hundred metres behind them.

From my inventory, I grabbed a Soul Stone and began absorbing Yang Energy from it.

At the same time, I commanded, "Come forth, Prime."

The debris beneath me darkened, and from within it, Prime emerged, holding a mace and radiating a dark energy.

"Hold them for a few seconds," I ordered as the trolls came bolting at us, shaking the debris beneath my feet.

Prime nodded before hurling itself into the air, meeting them head on.

As it fought them, I focused on absorbing as much Yang Energy as possible from the Soul Stone.

Only a few minutes passed before Prime was beaten to the brink of destruction by the relentless strikes of the five armored trolls.

"I can’t afford to spend a hundred thousand Yin energy to resurrect it again," I muttered, throwing the Soul Stone back into the inventory before charging at them.

I climbed Prime’s body with quick steps as it held back all five of them. Upon reaching its shoulder, I drew in a lungful of air and breathed out,

"Breath of Grave!"

White, cold mist released from my mouth, striking the face of every troll directly. For just a moment, their bodies were completely frozen.

Without wasting a second, I channeled the Yang energy into my palm, forming a compressed sphere of bright white energy.

"Pure Yang Orb!"

I smashed the orb into the side of the leftmost troll’s neck. A bright white light burst outward, sending the troll slamming into its companions beside it and creating a chain collision. Once all of their necks were aligned at the same level as they stood shoulder to shoulder, I leapt to the troll at the far end, drew out the katana, and drove it into its neck at the exact point where the orb had struck.

For just a split second, I activated the Sword Aura again, driving the blade further and piercing every troll’s neck simultaneously.

It still was not enough to finish them. They were high-class trolls. Their heads needed to be fully severed to kill them.

"GROOOARRR!" They roared, already breaking free from the freezing mist.

However, before they could move, I whispered,

"Blood Debt!"

An ear-splitting explosion followed, and a towering cloud of blood mist bloomed outward. Chunks of bone-filled flesh rained from the sky, bathing my body in grey blood.

"Huff... huff..." I breathed heavily, standing amidst the aftermath, the rusted blade of Shinku No Sabi pointed at the ground.

---

"J-Jesus Christ, what the hell did I just witness?" Jerry gasped, his eyes wide and his mouth hanging open in shock.

He was standing on the roof of a distant building, having watched the fight from the very beginning. After taking Tom out for emergency treatment, he had ventured back into the city in the hope of finding survivors who might still be trapped.

He was definitely not there to check on the two unknown awakeners whose mere glimpse had stirred his entire world.

Yet he had never expected to witness someone cutting down terrifying monsters like trolls with a single swing of their blade.

"No one would believe me if I hadn’t recorded it," Jerry mumbled, touching the camera embedded in his helmet.

He retreated from the building and began making his way out of the city, murmuring,

"What else are you hiding, E-Ranked Awakener Raj Singh?"