The Holy Man of Another Century Gospel

Chapter 23 Giant Troll
The strongest opponent Leslie had ever faced was a centaur barely taller than him. Encountering it in the wilderness, with nowhere to flee, he mustered his courage and engaged in a bloody battle with the centaur, wielding its massive hammer. Ultimately, at the cost of half his body being shattered, he decapitated the centaur, surviving and ultimately reaching the fifth level. This was his pride as a warrior, but also a nightmare that occasionally terrified him in the middle of the night.

And now, the young master of the City Lord's Mansion asked him to challenge a monster that he might not be able to see its entire appearance even if he tilted his head back.

"Wake up, wake up!"

Seeing Leslie's eyes wide open, as if he was already composing his last words, Eric raised his hand and waved in front of him to wake him up.

"I didn't ask you to challenge it alone."

Leslie came back to his senses and looked through the stone window at the huge monster below. He couldn't help but say, "What kind of monster is this..."

"It's not a natural monster, but a troll pieced together from many rotting corpses. It's the work of the necromancer in the deepest part," Eric said. "I know it's difficult to deal with, so we need to discuss a battle strategy first."

Is the strategy to let him die?

Leslie's attention wandered again.

"I'm not asking you to die." Eric glanced at him. "That monster only looks scary. Actually... well, it can actually kill me with a slap. But it probably can't kill you."

"..."

The captain of the guards turned pale.

"Its characteristics are its tough skin, thick blood, and immense strength," Eric continued. "But its flaws are also obvious: its bulk makes its movements clumsy."

Human life was at stake, so Leslie reacted quickly. "Master, do you want me to restrain it?"

"Yeah." Eric nodded, then sighed. "Actually, the best way to deal with it is to have the warriors carry it... and keep it out of the way. Two mages stand on either side, taking turns attracting its attention and slowly wearing it down."

To be precise, the two mages took turns overflowing their hatred, making the bulky troll run around in a hurry, while the warrior was responsible for blocking and restraining it so that it would not hurt the fragile mage who was outputing the damage.

This is a stable and efficient playing method that was explored and summarized by the closed beta players in the previous life, but this condition does not exist here.

"But we don't have the conditions." Eric looked at their team. Except for one nun, the rest were all warriors.

"Has Sister Alena learned any offensive divine spells?" Eric asked anyway, to see if he could use her as a half-mage.

"Yes." The head nun nodded, "Holy Light Punishment."

Holy Light Punishment, the most basic mid-range and long-range output skill of the [Faithful] profession, is equivalent to the mage's fireball.

Eric didn't give up, "Anything else?"

"No." The head nun shook her head. "I only began formally studying divine arts after entering the monastery. By then, there was no need to fight, so I didn't deliberately study."

"I see." Eric felt a little disappointed, but didn't say anything. Holy Light Punishment was fine, after all, it had an extra bonus against undead targets, so the damage wouldn't be too low.

"Can you teach me?" He now has more than a hundred points of faith. When it is inconvenient to get close, he can still deal some damage from a distance.

"Of course you can." Alena glanced at him, "But casting Holy Light Punishment requires a divine medium."

Eric was stunned, and after thinking carefully, he realized that Holy Light Punishment was indeed a rare low-level divine spell that required a medium to perform.

"Then I'll teach you later."

It seems we can't get two long-range firepower. If I had known earlier, I would have borrowed Sophie's Holy Spirit Pendant.

Eric looked at the cave hall under the stone window again, sighed, and then began to make pre-war deployments.

As he said before, Leslie was mainly responsible for holding the monster back and attracting its attention, while he would move around to assist.

Alena stood farther away and attacked with Holy Light Punishment. The other guards were mainly responsible for protecting her. If they had enough energy, they would assist the captain of the guards in restraining the enemy.

"That's basically it." Eric glanced at the team members. "We'll see what happens when the fight breaks out."

"Yes!"

After completing the deployment, they left the stone window and went down along the passage. At the end, beyond the slightly lowered exit was the hall.

As the group stepped onto the hall's floor, the corpse troll, which had been staring at the light ball overhead, cast its gaze over. Its body was massive, but its head was the size of a normal human, a contrast that was indescribably strange.

"Uh...ah——"

The low roar turned into a roar, and the next moment, the corpse troll turned and walked towards them.

"Stand apart!" Eric warned as the battle began, retreating to the side. "Leslie!"

Boom, boom——

The troll's footsteps were slow and heavy. Leslie felt the ground beneath his feet was shaking, as if a mountain was walking towards him.

"what!"

The captain of the guards roared angrily, emboldening himself and refocusing his slightly distracted consciousness. Gripping his sword tightly, he charged towards the troll.

The troll's attention had already shifted to the other guards who were spreading out, but before he could make any move, he suddenly felt a pain in his body.

Looking down, I saw a sword stabbed into its body.

"Uh-ah-"

The roar of rage erupting from above was so deafening that Leslie felt as if he had almost gone deaf for a moment, but he was also well aware that his sword had successfully attracted the troll's attention. Having struck a blow, he didn't hesitate to fight, quickly drawing his sword and retreating, narrowly avoiding the pair of flesh arms that were smashing down on him.

Boom!
Amidst the silence, the ground trembled again, raising a circle of dust, which showed the great power of the troll.

Leslie was still frightened and retreated even faster. If he was hit hard, he, a fifth-level warrior, would be doomed.

The troll's movements were indeed as slow as the young master said. Without a sudden burst of speed, it would be basically impossible to catch up with him. Leslie breathed a sigh of relief. He had even saved the Storm Step technique for escaping.

His warrior nature also made him quickly start looking for the opportunity to attack again.

Unable to hit or catch up, the troll's huge body suddenly tilted and rushed towards Leslie as if it was about to fall, and its speed was surprisingly not slow.

Leslie narrowed his eyes and rolled on the ground, barely avoiding the troll's attack.

boom!
The troll, having lost its target, couldn't stop and crashed straight into the rock wall, making a loud noise.

Leslie panicked when he heard the rustling of small gravel falling above his head.

Don't let it collapse here!

We don’t even know how many meters underground we are. If it collapses, no one will survive.

Leslie's side attracted the troll's attention, and the others quickly dispersed in the hall.

After standing still, Alena held the dagger in one hand and tightly grasped the pendant on her chest with the other hand.

Holy Light Punishment!

After a brief chant, a ray of holy light descended from the sky and hit the troll directly.

With a hissing sound, as if the tenderest skin was pressed with a red-hot iron, Eric saw a wisp of white smoke coming out of the troll's body, followed by a deafening roar.

Alena's Holy Light Punishment was truly effective, drawing the troll's aggro directly towards her. Even though she had a calm demeanor, the roar made her face turn pale.

"not good……"

Seeing the troll turn and run towards the head nun, Eric immediately called out, "Leslie!"

The captain of the guards also realized that something was wrong, so he dodged behind the troll and chopped its leg with his sword.

The troll felt pain and paused for a moment, then his arm came straight towards him with a sound of wind.

Unable to dodge whether moving forward or backward, Leslie rolled sideways. Seeing that the troll's moves were old and there was no time to retract his strength, he quickly slashed at the other thigh with his sword several times.

The troll suddenly roared in anger, and the hatred that was pulled away by the head nun was pulled back by him.

Eric saw the opportunity and rushed forward, swung his straight sword, which was coated with golden light and pierced the body of the troll who had turned to Leslie without any hindrance.

呲——

Holy damage is particularly effective against this type of undead target. The troll tilted its head towards Eric, but before it could make any further moves, another ray of holy light descended from the sky.

Holy Light Punishment!

The burning of the holy light caused the troll unbearable pain and anger to the extreme. He immediately abandoned Leslie in front of him and Eric behind him, tilted his body, and rushed towards Alena again.

Boom!Boom!Boom!
The heavy footsteps shook the ground. Alena's face was pale, but she was not scared enough to be stunned. She immediately ran towards Eric.

She was far away and could observe the troll's movements more carefully, such as the collision that caused its body to fall, and it seemed impossible to change direction midway.

Sure enough, even though the troll turned its head and roared with a stench that hit Alena's face when it passed by, it was unable to stop and crashed straight into the rock wall in front of it.

There was another loud bang and an unsettling shaking.

"We can't let it keep crashing like this," Leslie said anxiously.

"Hmm." Eric glanced at the top of the troll's head, also worried that the mine would be collapsed by the troll. "It seems that the distance can't be too large, otherwise it will use this trick."

The troll that hit the rock wall shook its head for a while, turned around, and stepped towards Alena again.

“Don’t run too far.”

Eric tilted his head slightly and spoke to the head sister who had already run to his side, his eyes still looking forward. "We will contain it. It's not moving that fast, it can't hit you."

Alena shifted her gaze from the troll not far away to Eric's face, and nodded slightly, "Okay."

The troll came over again with heavy steps. Leslie went around from behind and slashed at it hard, temporarily restraining it.

Boom!
The troll was still adjusting his posture when he leaned over and a heavy blow missed. Eric immediately stepped forward and swung his sword continuously.

He had already realized that when dealing with this weakly holy undead troll, the penetrating damage caused by a single stab of the sword was far less effective than the multiple holy damage caused by high-frequency attacks.

With another painful roar, the troll turned its head suddenly. Alena subconsciously took half a step back, and then found that its attention was no longer on her.

The hatred has shifted...

Just as this thought came into Eric's mind, a shadow loomed and a fat, deformed troll arm came crashing down on him.

boom!
(End of this chapter)