The tenth strike landed true.
Unlike the others, a crunch rang, the unmistakable sound of shattering bone.
The troll king's elbow unnaturally twisted as he swung it. His own raw strength worked against him, worsening the fracture as jagged bone tore clean through the sinew and flesh.
"RRRRAAAAAAAARRRRRRR"
The Troll King bellowed, not in pain, but pure, blistering rage. He flung his mangled right arm in a wide arc, throwing dark, viscous blood across the chamber.
The half-mended muscle fibers were torn apart under the strain, splitting like overdrawn cords. His arm was left only held together by little more than shredded cartilage, tendons, and cracked bone, barely clinging to the ruined elbow.
Vlad stepped back, chest heaving, spit and blood filling his mouth, while his head throbbed with mind-tearing pain, a result of pushing his trait past his limit, and yet his eyes burned with pure resolve, not showing the slightest bit of pain.
He had achieved what he wanted, so without a moment's delay, Vlad circled the troll king, and in a fluid motion, he leaped onto the giant's broad back, gripping a thick handful of hair to stay anchored.
The creature buckled slightly from the sudden weight, and before it could react, Vlad drove the butcher knife deep into its shoulder with a wet, slicing crunch.
Vlad released his grip on the troll's hair and, using the butcher knife, slipped to the front just as its mangled arm came crashing down, narrowly avoiding being crushed beneath the brute force.
A Cutlass with a pristine blade appeared in his hand, the same one he acquired after killing Swail, and as their eyes met, Vlad plunged the silver blade into the troll's abyssal left eye.
As expected, the blade stopped inches above the pupil and was stuck in a nearly invisible layer. The troll's maw twisted as it moved forth, aiming to chomp Vlad to death; all the while, both his arms shot forth to cut his escape.
Vlad let go of the butcher knife and punched the hilt with all his strength, hammering it into its pupil before twisting it as he spun upward, avoiding the jaws of the troll, and landed on his head.
It was a critical hit, deleting nearly three percent of the Troll King's overall health as damage, and as Vlad leaned back to avoid its claws, he pulled the blade back, cutting through the pupil and dealing additional damage.
He left the blade buried in the troll's eye and slipped to the side, clinging to its hair. Maddened by pain and rage, the troll slammed its feet into the ground, the impact launching its bulk a few feet into the air.
The troll landed with a thundering crash; all the while, it swung its crippled arm, desperate to swat Vlad from its back.
As its eye bled and its erratic movement worsened the damage to his arms, the troll king's health dropped below 20%, instantly triggering its last lifeline.
'Dark Tyrant's Might'
In a flash, darkness began to gush from deep within the Troll King, quickly swallowing his massive form.
Pure, malevolent energy surged out in thick, pulsing waves, inky black tendrils twisting and writhing through the air like living things.
The oppressive force slammed into Vlad, nearly knocking him away, but he knew this was his chance, his last chance to deal any damage.
He moved to the front, yanked the cutlass free, and, without delay, pinned it straight into the Troll King's right eye. The Troll king, momentarily frozen from the ongoing powerup, gave Vlad the time to grit his teeth and hammer the blade in deeper.
The darkness oozing from the troll king seeped into Vlad, eroding his vitality in mere moments; his health began to drop rapidly, his stamina following closely behind.
Yet Vlad kept hammering the blade deep into its eyes until the hilt was pressed against the pupil, and its eyes were a dark, bloody mess, and now the troll king's health had dropped to the 15% mark.
Vlad felt his vision blur and strength leave his body, but he did not bother to jump away, knowing he had given his all and he no longer had the means to stay alive.
It would be his victory if the poison running through the troll king's veins could consume its remaining life, and the troll king would win if he somehow survived long enough to ascend.
Vlad did not need to stay alive to win because the battle was considered active as long as the poison he gave the troll king was doing damage.
However, killing the troll king this way would make him lose all of the items dropped from clearing the dungeon and killing the special boss monster, but he couldn't care less about them.
Vlad kept hammering his fist onto the blade until the very moment a dark tendril lashed out. It struck like a whip, launching him into the air.
His ribs cracked on impact, pain spreading across his chest, and a heartbeat later, his body slammed into the chamber wall with bone-rattling force.
Vlad slid down to the floor, his body a bloody mess, his health dropping to the critical low of 7%, his left side completely paralyzed, immense pain clouding his senses.
But Vlad stared at the lumbering darkness in the distance, his mind speculating every detail to confirm his chances of victory.
There were little over two minutes left before the ten minutes ended, and as if knowing his end was coming, the Troll King did not roar or rush to kill Vlad; he stood there, the dark tendrils seeping into his flesh, as the creature tried to fight the poison.
The darkness around him pulsed like a slow, heavy heartbeat. His one remaining eye glared at Vlad, not with fury, but with something colder, deeper.
Recognition and Hatred.
Vlad's health slowly eroded by the darkness, and while he drank a health potion, it only delayed his demise by a few seconds.
After forty seconds, Vlad's health reached its last point, and to his dismay, the poison had begun to slow down, not being fast enough to drain the remaining 8% in just the last eighty seconds.
The last thing he saw was the Troll King still standing at death's door, yet still unyielding, darkness coiling around him as his presence grew more suffocating by the moment.
'I did my best,' He thought as he drew his last breath, and then, as the darkness swallowed his senses and the pain faded into numbness.
{You have died.}
The system notification rang out loud and clear like a cruel bell toll.
As his vision returned, Vlad found himself staring up at the familiar ceiling of his room. A dull, persistent ache pulsed at the back of his head, nothing unbearable, a clear tole of him over-exerting his trait.
Vlad sighed as he stepped out of the capsule, having already made peace with the failure and planning to acquire what he needed in other ways.
Vlad's main goal was to acquire the demon king artifact, which he successfully did, and while he failed to stop the demonkin rising, he was never sure if his actions would stop it since Lucid had a thousand ways to make it happen.
The real price was the artifact, and now he had it; the rest was just the bonus, which he could easily acquire with other means.
Now, Vlad had twelve hours before he could enter the world of Ascension again, so he decided to spend them with his family, completely unaware that he had succeeded and that his accomplishment had created more of a buzz than he could have imagined.
---------------
The sudden Grimroot Dungeon announcement created chaos among the players. Panic gripped the cobbled streets as players flooded toward the dungeon entrance, while some rushed to warn the villagers.
"Move! MOVE!"
"Why did the event trigger? The quest said 93 days left. NINETY-THREE." This question rang the loudest, but no one had any answer.
"This has to be a glitch, a bug, or maybe something happened that triggered it, there's no way it was supposed to be like this."
"Damm it, we were getting closer to clearing the damm special dungeon,"
Curses mixed with orders rang as guilds took the lead, with dozens of their top-tier players having already begun forming war formations.
"We have just ten minutes, so everyone moves your hands," Xander, the leader of Sky Lions, roared, "Cut these damm trees and move them to the entrance,"
"We only have a single chance to succeed, or the Dark Troll king will destroy the village sending us to someplace else,"
Xander roared as dozens of players cut and placed the prepared trees all around the area while mages dug pits.
"Tankers to the front, set your shields high. Mages, prep your best spells, Archers, be prepared. We don't have time for second guesses. I want traits active the moment that thing shows its face."
Like a living tide, players began to settle into roles. Their weapons gleamed in the low sun as every face bore the same intensity. This was their only chance, and failure was not an option, at least not for the sky lions.
But just then.
A voice echoed in every player's mind.
Clear. Cold. Unmistakable.
{Congratulations to Player V322**** for clearing the Grimroot Dungeon.}