Adrenaline Junkie [Book 2 Complete]

Archie stood atop the troll's broad, rock-covered back, his chest heaving with each breath. Rain streamed down his face, mixing with the blood, mud, and grime caked across his armor and headdress. The storm had risen in intensity into a torrential downpour.

He wiped his mouth with the back of his wrist and then crouched, reaching down to grab the troll's severed arm.

He crouched low, rain pelting his back as he gripped the troll's severed arm, dragging it closer. The thing was massive, even up close – each finger thick as his forearm, its stone-colored nails were cracked and stained with dried blood.

He turned the limb slightly in his grip, inspecting it in the pale moonlight that filtered through the sloughshade canopy.

Archie's eyes widened slightly in surprise as a detail about the arm caught his attention. The stone wasn't just armor layered over its skin, like a shell on a snail, as he initially assumed it to be.

It was fused – grown directly into the flesh, knotted through muscle and sinew, with thick veins visibly rooted within the rocks.

He slowly turned the severed limb in his hand, letting the rain wash away some of the blood, mud, and grime, revealing the jagged edges where the troll had torn chunks off to use as projectiles.

The breaks weren't clean like they would've been if the stone were just outer armor. They were patchy, raw, and uneven, like... a scab.

Archie frowned.

That's metal as hell, he thought.

He traced a line along one of the fractures with a finger, rough stone merging seamlessly into thick, pale flesh. No twitch. No scream when the mountain troll had done it mid-fight. It didn't even hesitate when it was flinging giant ass rocks.

Maybe it didn't feel pain. Like a lizard that could shed its tail to survive, only this thing shed boulders.

Or maybe it felt everything… and just didn't care.

…Respect, Archie nodded to himself, glancing down at the mountain troll below him that was very much still alive according to Vital Sight, as well as the faint risings from its back.

…Didn't think I could knock him out, he shrugged and raised up the mountain troll's arm to his mouth to take a bite out of it to supplement Vital Metabolism.

Just as he was about to take a bite out of the troll's arm, his gut suddenly dropped. There was no Sixth Sense blaring in his mind or anything other skill warning him about anything. Just his gut instinct.

Not wanting to freeze up like he had before and get tossed aside like a ragdoll, he reacted instantly.

He leapt, rocketing upward onto a mana platform suspended fifteen meters above the downed mountain troll, still gripping its massive arm. Just as he braced himself to take a bite and fuel Vital Metabolism, a wet, rumbling sound resounded beneath him.

Archie's eyes snapped downward.

The troll's shoulder split open with a sickening tear, flesh peeling in slick, ropey strands as something gray and serpentine began to slither out from the socket. Twisting mid-air, Archie watched with a grimace as a new limb – smooth and pale – pushed its way out like a worm forcing itself from a carcass.

Ah fuck, Archie thought as he watched. It has a regeneration cybernetic; no wonder it's not feeling the effects yet.

Then, stone began to bloom across it.

Chunks of rock formed like fungus sprouting from flesh. Pebbles fused into plates. Armor knitting itself back together with a grotesque speed. All while the troll's body rolled, then shoved itself upright with that newborn arm twitching into action.

… I guess I was really close when I called it a lizard-like, Archie chuckled to himself as he watched as the mountain troll pushed itself upright.

Lightly turning his head from side to side, Archie weighed his options.

Staying up on the mana platform would make this a ranged fight, and that was just boring. Sure, it was safer. Smarter. But it wasn't satisfying. Not when the bastard who tore off his arm was still standing.

He dropped.

Boots hit the mud with a wet squelch, water splashing around his ankles as green steam hissed from his armor. Across from him, the mountain troll snarled, the wound across its jaw already beginning to knit back together, tendons squirming beneath regenerating flesh. Steam curled from its moss-coated back like breath on a cold morning – visible through the torrential downpour.

His left wrist flicked out three rods that slipped between his fingers, faintly glowing with mana. Meanwhile, his right hand, the one the troll had torn off and he'd just regrown, lifted the segmented limb he'd severed earlier.

Without breaking eye contact, he brought the troll's arm to his mouth and ripped out a mouthful of flesh with a wet tear. He chewed, slow and deliberate, glaring at the beast with the full intent to insult.

His face twisted. He spat out the meat with a splack and a cough, spitting whatever was left in his mouth into the mud.

Yeah. That's about what I thought, he grimaced as he wiped his mouth across his muddied bracer in an attempt to get rid of the taste with something earthy. Its tough, chewy, and tastes just as good as I assume piss would taste like.

The mountain troll's eyes flared wide – its nostrils flared. With a bellow of rage that rattled the forest, it lunged to the ground. It gripped into the mud, tearing free two massive chunks of rock from beneath the surface and flung them one after another.

Archie grinned. Trolling is so, very fun.

The first boulder sailed overhead, and he sidestepped the second, his boots kicking up the mud as he sprinted forward.

More stones came, faster and larger. Some spun like discs. Others arced like cannonballs.

He reached into his storage with his free hand and pulled out three of his wrapped sandwiches – thick slabs of troll heart meat stacked between bread and veggies, and stacked them atop one another. He took a massive bite out of them even as a stone slammed into the earth beside him, spraying mud and rock across the back of his headdress.

He kept running and chewing, doing his very best to supplement the resources needed for Vital Metabolism to continue to repair his body.

Another stone came, to which he reacted by bounding off a broken stump, flipping over the hurtling projectile mid-chew. Mud streaked across his jaw as he landed in a crouch and kicked off again.

Three more sandwiches appeared in his hand. He tore through them while hopping sideways onto a chunk of debris, using it as a springboard. His trajectory bent low and fast across the terrain, skipping over puddles and ducking past shattered trees, his body blurring with speed.

The mountain troll hadn't stopped – it screamed and tore out two more massive boulders from its side, one aimed at the ground before him, the other arcing overhead.

Archie twisted mid-air, bounced off a rising root, and landed just past the impact zone – a shockwave chasing him from behind.

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He stopped.

A second passed. Steam rose around him in thick curls. Rain hissed on hot armor. Bits of meat, tomato, and other lingering remains of his sandwiches fell from his mouth as he finished chewing.

The mountain troll stood tall again, heaving, steaming, furious, and missing large chunks of its rocky carapace.

Kinda reminds me of that one chihuahua I saw a couple months back in a short documentary about the horrors behind dog shows, Archie mused, smirking slightly. Both seething, angry, and looking patchier than my beard.

He swallowed the last of his triple-stacked sandwich and shot forward.

The troll let out a guttural bellow and sprinted toward him at full tilt.

Mud churned beneath their feet as the distance vanished.

The troll's first swing tore a gash into the earth behind him, inches.

Archie ducked under a second haymaker; its fist full of rocks breaking up a tree trunk instead. Splinters exploded outward.

Ducking low once more, he landed a quick elbow to the upper side of the troll's leg. It grunted, and he sprang back before its leg could drop on top of him.

Another punch sailed past his head, slipped it with a lean, rolled across the mud, and came up in a full sprint. He vaulted over a root the troll kicked up, trying to catch him, then used that momentum to hurl a knee into its abdomen. It connected with a meaty thud and a crack.

A hammer fist from above came down, but Archie sidestepped it and drove a hard right into the mountain troll's ribs, then leaned back just enough to let its spinning backhand cut across his nose and tear through the cartilage.

Archie's bloodshot eyes burned with adrenaline.

They clashed again, fist meeting fist in a thunderous impact that staggered them both momentarily.

Archie snapped himself out of his daze and shot out two quick jabs, ducking low, and driving a shoulder into the troll's gut. The mountain troll countered by ramming its knee upward, but Archie spun around it, grabbed the edge of its rocky carapace, and flipped himself onto the mountain troll's back.

The mountain troll roared and twisted, trying to swat him off. Archie sprang clear mid-spin, landed on one hand in the mud, and vaulted up just in time to avoid a sweeping slam that crushed a bush behind him.

He sprinted back in, low to the ground, ducked a swipe, stepped on the troll's thigh, and drove a savage punch into its jaw. It spun from the hit, off-balance, and Archie followed up with another hook to the temple, then a palm strike to its stone-like nose that sent a spray of blood and stone chips flying.

As he landed onto both of his feet and his eyes were trained onto its face, he saw it.

Both of the mountain troll's ears spasmed, reminding him of the lights of a train track.

Ah. It's just about to get into Berserker mode, according to the hunter. Archie paused, heart pounding in his chest.

The troll's pupils dilated. Its veins glowed with searing mana, arms swelling with pure mass. Its roar that it released wasn't just angry, it was enraged, and it erupted from the depths of its soul.

Archie's smirk sharpened. He dropped into a stance. Power coiled through his limbs as adrenaline washed over him. Then he inhaled deep enough that it rattled in his chest like a loaded chamber, and with zero restraint, he roared back.

A roar exploded from his lungs with such raw force it shredded through his vocal cords mid-release, tearing through the cursed seal around his throat.

A primeval bellow forged from agony, defiance, and sheer excitement. Blood laced the edges of the soundwave as it ripped free, his throat visibly straining, spit and red mist spraying from his lips.

Their roars crashed like two colliding avalanches. Branches snapped overhead. Mud rippled beneath them in rings.

Archie's voice cracked, tore, and finally gave out with a wet, ragged hiss. He spat blood and laughed through the torn vocal cords and charged towards the enraged mountain troll.

They met in the middle with a thunderclap of flesh and stone.

Archie's fist collided with the mountain troll's in a raw, concussive shockwave that kicked up water, mud, and wind in a wild burst. Their first blows didn't land on each other; they collided mid-air, knuckles crashing like boulders falling off mountains. A split-second pause. Then they exploded into motion.

Adrenaline Rush surged to 65%.

Archie's pupils dilated to the size of dinner plates, veins bulging across his temple and neck like cables under pressure. His skin began to tear from within as muscles swelled, ballooned, and flexed against the constraints of his flesh – threads of red muscle fiber peeking out beneath plates of armor that hissed and groaned under the strain.

Steam poured from the seams. Blood sprayed in thin arcs from burst pores, his body held together only by the steel mesh and armor hugging his frame.

Every breath was a wheeze dragged through shredded vocal cords. Every punch resounded in his ears like shotgun shells.

The troll lunged with a hook like a falling tree - Archie dipped under it, foot skimming through mud, and rocketed up with a rising uppercut that cracked the troll's chin backwards. Teeth and rock fragments rained down. But the beast didn't fall - it roared and brought down both fists like hammers.

Archie crossed his forearms in front of his face, tanking the strike head-on on which caused him to slide backward, creating a deep trench of mud. He kicked forward mid-slide and shoulder-checked the troll's knee, forcing it to stumble.

Then came the barrage.

Fist against fist. Forearm catching jabs. Elbows slamming into shoulders.

One punch. Two. A dozen.

Each impact jarred bones and compressed muscles, every move threatening to rip Archie's overdriven body apart from the inside. But he didn't stop. He couldn't.

He smiled through the blood streaming down his chin.

The troll swung a haymaker, Archie ducked, spun in, and buried a fist into the creature's gut, the impact caving in armor-plated skin and causing the troll to spit a geyser of greenish-black blood.

Still not enough.

Archie's body was screaming, ligaments straining, joints popping, blood sizzling on skin that should've been pulp by now, but the fire in his chest kept burning.

The troll lurched mid-swing, its movement hitching just enough for Archie to notice. Its pupils dilated. Its snarl faltered for half a breath.

Finally, the Verdant Serpent's poison looks to be visibly working, Archie smirked. Sticking to the old plan was the right choice.

He darted back a step, breathing hard, his chest heaving with a mixture of rage, pain, and excitement. Moving onto step four, Archie thought to himself.

In one quick motion, he both took out an empty potion bottle from his spatial storage and bit down on it. His teeth shattered it with a crunch, shards digging into his gums and tongue.

Blood pooled in his mouth instantly, but he didn't flinch; rather, he grinned maniacally.

He spat the mixture of poisonous crimson flesh and glass like a shotgun blast, right into the troll's face. The glittering red mist and slivers of mana-soaked glass cut across its softer features – its eyes, nostrils, the raw, patchy folds beneath its chin. The troll howled in shock, rearing back, clawing at its own face as the poison found new, raw channels to burrow deeper.

Without waiting, he reached toward the side of his legguards and took out a full Potion of Health from its small spatial storage and quickly downed its contents. The burn of it shot through him like fire meeting gasoline. It supplemented Vital Metabolism; shredded muscle in his limbs began knitting together with grotesque speed, steam curling off his skin.

His torn lips pulled back into a bloodstained grin as he rolled his shoulders, armor creaking from the newly reformed bulk underneath.

The troll blinked furiously, shaking off blood and venom, swaying just slightly on its feet.

The troll staggered, thick streams of darkened ichor leaking from the poisoned wounds on its face and arms. Its breathing was uneven, shoulders twitching, the weight of its own mass starting to betray it.

Still, it roared – defiant and wild.

He stepped forward slowly, rolling his neck until a sickening crack echoed through the clearing. Then he moved.

With Adrenaline Rush still surging at 65%, his muscles bulged and tore beneath his skin, pulsing, unstable, and only barely held together by the reinforced mesh of his armor. Each step was a crater in the mud. He feinted left, ducked a sloppy counter-swipe from the troll, then drove a haymaker into the creature's gut that folded it forward, bile and blood flying from its mouth.

Before it could recover, Archie struck again – his right arm snapping up under its chin in a brutal uppercut that sent cracks rippling across the troll's stone-plated skull. It reeled.

But Archie wasn't done.

"Hold… still," he growled, voice a raw rasp from torn vocal cords before the hexed seal came down in full force and constricted his throat with such force that it reminded him about the one time he saw a boa constrictor in the zoo, choke the life out of some fat looking rodent.

He grabbed the troll's half-formed left arm - the new one still layering with stone - and twisted violently, bracing his foot against its chest. The joint popped. Then snapped. Then tore free with a wet, grinding rip. The troll shrieked - more in fury than pain - and lunged.

Archie spun, using the torn-off limb like a club, and smashed it across the troll's temple. Bone fractured beneath the impact. The troll dropped to one knee.

With a snarl, Archie surged mana through his limbs, letting it flood into his arm like wildfire. Thornscourge Expansion flared brighter – its ever-present thorn-wreathed vines writhing tighter, spiraling up his forearm as if sensing blood was near. And smashed his fist across the mountain troll's bloodied face.

Hyper Impact.

The blow struck dead-center into the side of the troll's skull.

The ground exploded in a shockwave of stone, mud, and debris. The troll's body went limp instantly - arms splayed, one eye still twitching before it, too, dimmed and collapsed onto the mud with a resounding splash.

Silence filled the Sloughshade Woodlands for a moment before the sounds of rain hitting water, wood, and mud came back in full.

Archie stood, chest heaving, fists still clenched. He looked down at the massive corpse beneath him and wiped the blood from his mouth with the back of his hand.

*[Mountain Troll Lv 124] has been slain – XP has been given.*

…I am never going to forget this high I'm feeling right now, Archie swore to himself as he closed his eyes for a moment to relish his victory over the strongest foe he'd ever faced to the death.