It took hours for them to travel at full speed to Dalawood. When they arrived, smoke and debris could be seen from afar. The whole group could see that the village was now more like a ghost town. There were no people walking on the roads inside the village. All they could see was smoke and broken wooden houses.
"Are we too late?" Borrin asked, his teeth gritted.
The whole group entered the village slowly, including Ferin, Emy, and their group.
"Check for any survivors," Luceran ordered the soldiers. Dalawood was small, it took only fifteen minutes to walk from one end to the other. Spreading out the soldiers would make it easier to find anyone still alive.
"OH NO! It's Old Jack!" a man screamed, looking at a headless body on the ground.
"No no no… Gini." Another man knelt and hugged the lifeless body of a woman whose shoulder was almost detached from her body.
As Luceran and his group kept walking to the center of the village, they saw many lifeless villagers on the ground. Some had been tortured to death, some eaten alive, like Old Jack, and others were killed instantly with blunt force or a blade.
Corpses, blood, debris, and smoke decorated the village. A slow, heavy feeling of grief, unwillingness, and rage built up in everyone.
"How cruel," Vena said, covering her mouth. Her group was also shocked by the gruesome scene.
Kellen looked pale. Luceran clenched his fists tightly. People could see that his hands were shaking a bit. His eyes were sharp, as if he could pierce someone with a look. It was clear that rage had taken him over.
"HERE! Someone is alive! Help!" a voice cried out.
The whole group rushed toward the sound, finding themselves in front of a wooden house that was still standing despite damage to its walls. A soldier was kneeling, holding a middle-aged man bleeding from his mouth. They could see a pierced wound on his stomach.
"Kellen, can you do something for him?" Luceran asked.
Kellen took a step forward, placing his right hand on the wound while his left hand made signs and he chanted. A faint glow appeared on the wound. It glowed for a few seconds before disappearing. He had just cast a healing spell called 'Regeneration,' a light element-based magic.
As the faint glow vanished, water started to appear on his right hand, slowly moving to cover the wound. The water glowed slightly and moved on the wound. By the time he retracted his hand, the wounded man coughed and slowly moved his body.
"That's George, our village hunter! He's still alive!" a woman in the group shouted.
George slowly opened his eyes. Borrin approached and knelt beside him. "George, right? Can you tell me what happened to Dalawood? Are there any other survivors? Where are the trolls?"
George looked at the commander, his face still tired and half-conscious. As he looked around slowly, his eyes changed, and veins popped on his head as they turned red. He began to remember the tragedy and cruelty that Dalawood had just experienced. He then looked at the commander again and yelled at the top of his lungs, his eyes bloodshot.
"Save them! Save them all! Those green bastards took them to the other side of the gate. They are executing them one by one for entertainment! Kill those bastards, please!"
"Don't worry. We will make sure that they pay the price of their actions twice over," Luceran said with a reassuring look.
"Men, take care of him. The rest, follow me." He ordered his men to move.
Around twenty people knelt with despair on their faces. Some were bruised, and some had blood dripping lightly from their heads. They looked down at the ground with a blank stare, as if all hope had been bled out of them.
There were twelve trolls circling around them, their heavy footsteps as if mocking rhythm for them. Beside the tallest troll, who stood over two and a half meters high, was a giant cauldron filled with boiling water with a red-yellowish liquid. From above, people could see pieces of human bodies floating in it.
A troll grabbed a teenage girl from the kneeling villagers. She struggled madly, her desperate screams filling the air. The kneeling villagers reacted instantly, their blank stares replaced by a flash of rage.
"You fucking beasts! Release that girl!" "Just take me instead! Take me!" "Bastards, untie me! I will kill all of you!"
The shouts of rage and fury exploded from the villagers. The trolls made a weird, gurgling noise when they heard the human's response, as if they were laughing.
The tallest troll held the girl in his massive hand. "Khe he he, funny humans, puny humans. You are food." He laughed madly, showing his two long, protruding fangs.
He then put the girl on the ground, her face pressed against the dirt. The troll took a massive cudgel, a weapon meant for trolls, and slammed it down on the girl's head. The sound was sickening, and her head burst like a tomato.
The villagers' rage intensified. They swore at the trolls with angry, furious faces. The other trolls made strange noises as they watched, their eyes twisted with amusement. The tallest troll then picked up the girl's body and threw it into the cauldron before licking the blood from his hand.
Despite the menacing look of the trolls, the villagers' sad and despairing faces disappeared completely, replaced by pure rage after witnessing the death of the innocent girl. They struggled madly to release themselves from the ropes, but it was no use.
"Gha gha gha…" the trolls laughed at the villagers' last, desperate struggles.
Suddenly, while the trolls were laughing, a lightning bolt streaked through the air and pierced the head of one of the trolls. A smoking hole appeared, and a fountain of blood erupted from the wound. The troll collapsed to the ground, dead.
The laughter stopped instantly. The villagers looked shocked at the scene, their rage and despair forgotten for a moment.
At the other side of the 'execution ground,' a group of fifty people are looking at them with rage. Luceran unsheathed his sword from his waist and covered it with a bluish hue.
"Leave the tallest one to me." He commanded. The soldiers immediately charge the eleven trolls like mad beasts. The trolls, looking at the charging soldiers, took their weapons and roared at them with a gurgling sound.
Vena cast a fireball bigger than a coconut at one of the trolls, but it was easily swatted away with a massive iron cudgel. The fireball exploded harmlessly against the treeline, engulfing the trees in a burst of flames.
Despite their size, the trolls moved fast, appearing in front of the soldiers in a blur and swinging their weapons. Commander Borrin stood in front of a troll and blocked the swinging giant axe with his shield.
Another troll's strike was intercepted by a transparent barrier from Prar's force magic. Though cracks spiderwebbed across the wall, it held for a moment before shattering. The brief delay was enough for the soldiers to dodge. The other trolls' attacks were intercepted by the combined efforts of Kellen, Cassandra, her mages, and the lieutenants.
While the army of trolls and humans were fighting one another, the leaders of each party were charging at one another like mad beasts.
The first charge was a tie, as both did not manage to do any damage to the other party when they both clashed with their weapons. Luceran could feel that the troll is at the early stage of Blood Refinement realm, the same as him. But a purely physical contest would be unrealistic, as trolls were born with immense physical power.
Luceran kept on using his magic to enhance his striking, to attack him from afar, or to impair his enemy's movement. Stone pillars burst from the ground to catch him off guard, but the troll with unstoppable momentum kept on charging at Luceran. Wind elemental particles circled his sword as if charging the weapon with power. He swung his sword vertically, and a sword beam powered with the wind element shot out, aiming at the charging troll.
The troll raised his weapon to block the beam that was coming at him. The blast sent a shockwave to the surroundings and managed to stop him. Not giving him a chance to breathe, Luceran, with blinding speed, appeared beside him, thrusting his sword that was coated with a reddish hue that emanated heat.
Looking at the coming sword aiming at his chest, the troll hardened his skin around his chest. Despite his effort, the sword managed to pierce his torso, albeit only a few inches deep. A gust of fire exploded on his back as the fire mana transferred to his body, ransacking his body from the inside.
"Khuuhk." He moaned in pain. His eyes were bloodshot. He roared and ignored the pain on his chest and swung his iron cudgel at Luceran from the side.
Luceran struggled to pull the sword out of the troll's body. It was stuck fast. He gritted his teeth and increased the fire mana output, trying to maximize the damage. At the same time, he cast a 'Stone Wall' to protect his side.
The troll roared in pain as his cudgel easily obliterated the 'Stone Wall' and slammed into Luceran. The prince blocked the cudgel with his left hand. The impact threw him backward, while the troll knelt and clutched his wounded area.
Luceran got up with a struggle, his eyes fixed on the troll. With difficulty, he moved his left hand, and multiple 'Stone Pillars' burst from the ground. The troll rolled with a struggle to dodge, clearly showing that he was severely injured.