Adrenaline Junkie [Book 2 Complete]

So, a Boss core has an even longer duration, compared to its normal counterpart, Archie thought as the Verdant Serpent's Beastcore activated and began to flow into his body, starting at the center of his mouth. That's something to keep in mind.

Archie exhaled through his nose, tufts of green steam curling into the cold air, eyes snapping open as he stared down at the slumbering mountain troll below. Muscles taut, he slowly rose from his crouched position atop the tree branch, boots creaking ever so slightly against the bark.

From his satchel, once modified to be able to hold the Spirit Nucleus, which was now re-remodified back to its original size, he retrieved three rocks, each about the size of a tennis ball.

As his fingers closed around them, the spiritual link between him and the Verdant Serpent Beastcore pulsed with quiet intensity as it coursed through his body. Sickly green energy crawled over his limbs like a murky fog, sharpening his reflexes and amplifying his sense of taste to a near-maddening clarity.

It was rancid.

He could taste the rotten flesh of the dead humans three kilometers back on his tongue. Not to mention the stench of the sleeping mountain troll.

Activating Adrenaline Rush to 10%, a light shroud of steam began to rise from Archie, intertwining with the energy radiating from the Verdant Serpent Beastcore. Without hesitation, he hurled the rocks with full strength toward the massive boulder beside the troll's crude den.

They struck with a sharp, echoing crack, sending shards and dust into the air in a burst of pale stone and lichen.

Through the cloud of dust that blanketed the area in which he struck the mountain troll, Archie's eyes narrowed ever so slightly.

No visible cracks. No dents. Just scraped off moss and the remnants of pulverized stone scattered across the rock's surface.

He exhaled again through his nose – another puff of faint green mist. Figures.

His mind quickly ran through numerous scenarios in which he should wake the mountain troll in order for them to fight.

He wasn't going to attack it while it was sleeping.

It wasn't because he had thoughts on honor and anything stupid like that, no.

It was simple, really.

He wanted a fight, a bloody, gritty one – where the winner would walk away with a body so mangled they'd be unrecognizable to any living being, teetering on the edge of life and death.

This was his way of making things right, a delayed atonement for the fight he had with the Final Boss of the Group Tutorial.

Archie reached into his spatial storage and pulled out four thin iron sheets with his left hand, holding them splayed between his fingers like oversized throwing cards.

They were what he used to use to practice his runes with before moving onto mana-infused steel sheets, as the runes he'd etched onto them would end up exploding in his face due to them being unable to withstand the mana that would run through them.

While they were catching metaphorical dust in his spatial storage, they were perfect for what he had in mind.

He activated Runic Archive.

Tens of glowing, neon blue mana pathways flared to life across the surface of each sheet as Delayed Detonation scripts etched themselves into the metal.

Without hesitation, Archie flung the iron sheets forward in a tight spread, angling them to arc just over the slumbering mountain troll's broad, moss-and-lichen-covered back.

As they left his fingers, the gate linking the Fire runic base to the rest of the array unlocked.

A surge of molten red mana burst forth, devouring the unattuned energy within each script like a ravenous wolf unleashed from a cage and into a field of sheep. The Delayed Detonation runic script covered sheets of iron, now airborne, glowed hotter and hotter as the mana pathways pulsed brighter – the blue overwhelmed by violent red.

Just as they aligned above the center of the boulder-back, the sheets of iron reached their absolute limit – their surfaces fully molten, glowing like molten metal within a crucible.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The explosions rang out in rapid succession, sending ripples of force through the patch of Sloughshade Woodlands they were in. The brittle iron sheets disintegrated as the runic script imploded on itself, scattering molten slag and charred moss in every direction.

The molten debris hissed against the wet mud, steaming as it cooled – but the boulder atop the mountain troll remained unmarred.

But the troll stirred.

Its massive frame twitched. Moss rippled across its back. One titanic hand dragged through the dirt, carving deep furrows. Then, without yet opening its eyes, it groaned.

And then it did.

The mountain troll rose.

Mud cascaded off its back in heavy globs and splattered atop the mud beneath it. What moments ago resembled a massive boulder-covered mound now shifted and heaved, revealing a grotesque fusion of earth and flesh.

The creature's torso, all taut sinew and pulsating veins, bulged from beneath the armor of craggy stone that sheathed its limbs and upper back like a natural fortress.

Its head emerged last, twisted, hunched a bit off to the side as though its neck had once broken and never properly healed right. With one eye remaining sealed shut beneath layers of scar tissue, while the other blinked slowly, revealing a dull amber glow that flickered with confused irritation.

"Hrrrrhh… noise," it rumbled, voice thick and wet, like gravel dragged through syrup. Its massive left hand pawed at its face, while the club-like right arm dragged a furrow through the mud beside it.

Archie stood atop the branch still, watching with narrowed eyes and the same calm he'd worn when throwing the first rocks.

Morning, sunshine, he thought dryly to himself moments before he lobbed another small rock down – this time at its exposed head.

It tapped off the troll's temple with a dull plok and bounced harmlessly into the mud.

The troll blinked. Slowly.

"Who… do dat?" it muttered, staring into the trees with the vague expression of a drunk waking up. Its rocky knuckles dragged low beside it, tearing into the mud with ease.

Its eye squinted.

"Bird…? No… rock bird…?"

The hulking brute began to rise to its full height, nearly four meters tall, its moss-covered back groaning under the shift. Stones embedded in its hide ground against each other as the mountain troll searched the tree line.

Then it sniffed the air and turned in Archie's direction.

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"Who… do dat?" the Mountain Troll growled, its deep, gravelly voice grinding through the trees like stone on stone, blinking groggily as its massive eye swept the treetops.

Its lone, bloodshot eye scanned its surroundings, glazed with confusion at first, until it locked on Archie standing atop the now-bare branch. Bits of moss and scorched bark still rained from the earlier explosion.

Mud sloughed off its back in thick slabs.

Archie didn't move at first, then slowly raised his right hand.

He pointed at himself.

With a grin tugging at the corner of his mouth, he then began to throw quick jabs into the air. With his shoulders loose and feet bouncing lightly atop the thick tree branch.

The troll squinted at him.

"...You?" it asked, tone thick with disbelief. "You wake me up? With rock?"

Archie gave a short, deliberate nod.

The troll blinked again. Then it tilted its head, confused.

"You?" it rumbled. "Wake me… with loud noise? Poke me wit' rocks?" Its mismatched lips curled into a lopsided grin—part teeth, part crumbling stone. "Heheheh… You stupid, little monkey."

Archie smirked, then launched himself forward.

Savage Charge.

The branch cracked behind him, and he became a green blur, adrenaline and Verdant Serpent mana coursing through his veins. The troll's eye widened – just slightly – before Archie's fist collided dead center with its exposed, scar-riddled belly.

THWOK!

A tremor ran through the troll's gut. It staggered – half a step – then looked down.

Then, a low chuckle, wet and slow, started to build in its throat. It tilted its head back slightly.

"Heheh… you hit me belly?" it said, voice vibrating with something between amusement and contempt. "You wake me… don't kill me… just to tickle belly?"

Archie's grin widened.

In a flash, he cranked Adrenaline Rush to 45%, his muscles tightening with a surge of volatile green mana. His right fist pulled back from the troll's belly and then-

Relentless Flurry activated.

So did Thornscourge Expansion.

A barrage of punches, each one wrapped in spiraling brambles of both light green and sickly colored green colored mana, hammered into the troll's underside. Thorns bit into tough skin and shallow muscle, flaring on contact, spraying bits of blood and cracked moss in every direction.

The troll growled and swatted with its massive stone-covered fist.

Archie saw it coming.

He ducked, barely dodging the overhead strike, as the massive arm slammed into the forest floor, shattering the earth with a deep crack that sprayed rock and mud everywhere, missing Archie entirely.

He was already moving.

Dashing forward, lightly splattered with mud, Archie's sprint shifted into a full-on charge.

His left forearm – now wrapped in a glowing green mana lance intertwined with thorn-wreathed vines – drove straight toward the troll's right eye.

The mountain troll snapped its right eyelid shut in panic as the human in front of it suddenly became a blur.

It hit dead center, but the troll's eyelid didn't give.

Archie's eyes widened mid-air, cursing silently as he dismissed his spear construct, shattering it with a thought and followed through with a raw, thorn-coated punch.

CRACK!

Its head snapped to the left as Archie's right foot touched the ground.

Then a quick uppercut with his other fist followed his punch, catching the mountain troll square on its square-shaped rocky chin.

The troll blinked, staggered slightly… then smiled.

"Tickles…" it whispered.

Before Archie could recoil, the troll lunged forward, suddenly fast, and Archie had barely a heartbeat to duck under the swing.

Too slow.

Pain flared across Archie's left ear. He stumbled forward, clutching his head with his left hand, his balance lost.

Why am I.. Does it have an agility-based cybernetic?

The troll loomed there, hunched low, drool dribbling from one side of its cracked mouth. Between its teeth, it held something.

Archie's ear.

It slid it into its mouth with sadistic glee.

Crunch!

The troll chewed slowly, staring directly at him. One eye half-lidded. Grinning.

Archie's chest rose and fell. A twitch flicked through his brow. Blood trickled down his neck.

The troll leaned closer.

"Mmm… crunchy."

Ah, fuck you, Archie thought.

A surge of vital energy coursed through his body like a pulse of hot lightning. In under a second, flesh knitted, cartilage reformed, and the chewed-off piece of his ear grew back, steaming slightly in the damp woodland air.

No pause.

Archie launched forward, feet slamming into the mud and kicking up clumps behind him. The towering body of the troll loomed ahead, already moving to strike him.

Too slow.

Archie ducked low, sprinting under the troll's bulk in a blur of motion, his right arm cocked back.

Blood dripped from his fingers, trailing in the air.

SHHT – CRACK!

His fist slammed into the troll's stone-covered neck. Retaliation activated.

A spike of force rebounded through the rock as a spiderweb of cracks bloomed outward from the impact site. Dust burst from the troll's thick hide as a sliver of its stone armor around its neck chipped off and spun into the air, almost teasingly as it passed by Archie's left eye.

The troll grunted – not in pain, but... with amusement.

Archie responded by striking the same spot on its neck as before, this time activating Hyper Impact. But unlike before with his previous strike, he didn't use a closed fist – his hand was clenched, all but the middle finger extended, driving it like a spike toward the small chip in the troll's neck armor.

The moment his finger hit the fractured groove in the troll's stony neck, the air boomed around him.

A sharp, bone-jarring noise echoed in Archie's ears as the blow landed. The stone cracked further, but so did Archie's right Embergrasp Gauntlet.

The reinforced armor encasing his middle finger crushed inward like foil, mana flaring violently around it as the force of impact reverberated back through his hand. Flesh split, blood flooded inside the gauntlet.

Then came the response.

Before he could even pull back, the troll's left hand snapped forward, much too fast for its size, and produced a meaty thwack as it struck his open midsection.

Archie was smacked aside and flung like a ragdoll, the blow hammering deep into his armor and ribs, sending him tumbling through the air and into the trunk of a tree, splintering its bark and shattering its low, thick branches before slamming to a stop as his head cracked into the bark of the tree.

The troll's mocking chuckle followed a second later, low and darkly.

"Try poke Troll with finger... get slapped like a fly."

It bared its rotted teeth, bits of Archie's blood still smeared on the tips of its rocky teeth.

Archie groaned, pushing himself off the cracked tree trunk, bark crumbling beneath his boots. Vital Metabolism surged through the right side of his body, tendons knitting, bone realigning, muscle regenerating. His broken gauntlet hissed and crinkled as it reformed, metal flexing back into place.

Huffing, he raised his still-healing hand toward the troll, middle finger slowly extending skyward.

A single, bloodied digit. His reply.

Boom, he mouthed.

An instant later, Fire mana exploded in a vertical blast beneath the troll's chin. The eruption struck with such for it lifted the five-meter, ten-ton monster into the air and blasted it backward.

The troll slammed into the mud with a thunderous squelch, gouging a trench through the wet earth, limbs flailing as it skidded nearly ten meters through the mud and stone beneath it.

Archie stood with his shoulders low, steam rising from his skin and armor.

In his left hand, the faint blue glow of an echo of mana lingered.

Three reinforced steel rods, infused with mana that he had speared through the small crack on its neck armor, were reduced to slag.

He rolled his neck, grin widening despite the blood running down his chin.

Delayed Detonation scripts are now officially my favorite type of runic script, Archie thought as he broke into a sprint.

Archie sprinted, boots churning up mud as Adrenaline Rush surged to 50%. His breath came fast and sharp, but his focus was crystalline – every inch of the world slowed around him.

The troll hadn't even begun to rise when Archie closed the distance.

He launched himself forward like a bullet, closing with a low slide beneath the troll's dazed form. Mid-slide, he pivoted and slammed a spiraling overcut into the front of its jaw, activating Retaliation once more. The shockwave cracked out like thunder, rattling nearby trees.

"RAAAAAGHHHH!" the troll bellowed, spittle and broken teeth flinging into the air as its jaw snapped backward.

Archie didn't stop.

His right elbow followed next, slamming into the troll's sternum. Then a knee, reinforced by Thornscourge Expansion, exploded into its exposed belly, rupturing moss and bruising stone-flesh.

The troll reeled, chest heaving – then its eyes flared with cruel clarity.

"No more hit!"

It rolled onto all fours, snarling, and in a sudden burst of terrifying speed, lunged forward, catching Archie mid-step.

A massive stone-clubbed arm swept sideways.

Archie ducked.

But not low enough.

As its massive four-fingered hand grabbed hold of his right arm, Archie's momentum slammed to a halt mid-stride. His boots dragged twin trenches through the mud as the troll's grip clamped down like a vice of living stone.

"Got you," it rumbled, amusement thick in its voice.

Before Archie could react, before he could even think, the troll yanked.

With a sickening rip followed by the snap of steel and the tearing of sinew, Archie's entire armored right arm was torn clean from his body.

His vision flared white with pain.

Blood sprayed out in a high arc, splashing across the troll's face and shoulder, and the mangled remains of his gauntlet clattered to the ground somewhere far behind him.

Archie stepped back, wide-eyed and clutching his shoulder with his remaining hand, grasping desperately to prevent further blood from leaving his body. Feet firmly rooted in the muddied earth, preventing him from sitting on his ass. Vital Metabolism surging forth, attempting to seal the wound, knitting flesh and halting blood loss with extreme speed.

The troll looked down at the arm dangling in its grip, then bit into it.

It chewed.

"Mmm… this part even crunchier," it slurred with a mouth full of Archie's forearm, jagged teeth grinding through metal and bone alike.

Archie's lips peeled back in a feral grin, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth. His entire torso trembled, but his eyes blazed with fury.