Chapter 185: Rank three monsters

Seraphina closed her eyes as she gradually closed the distance between them. She was about to feel the softness of his lips when they heard the rustling of leaves in the distance.

"S-someone is coming," Vlad blurted, clearly flustered, his head snapping towards the source of the noise.

Seraphina immediately stepped back as well, the limbs of fire beneath her feet vanishing.

"Talk about comically bad timing," she muttered, tightening her fists as she lowered herself onto the branch.

"You said something?" Vlad asked as he also settled into a sitting position beside her.

"Shh!" She pressed a finger against his lips, her pink eyes narrowing as she stared through the gaps between the distant trees.

They could hear the sound of several heavy footsteps coming from that direction. Each passing second made the noise louder as the figures approached.

In the spooky darkness, Vlad saw several titanic shadows that made his breath catch in his throat for a moment. They were even taller than the orcs, reaching almost twelve feet in height. Their massive bodies forced their way through the dense trees, snapping branches in their wake.

As they drew closer, Vlad was able to see them clearly, which only made them even more terrifying. There were five of them, each possessing a monstrous, heavily muscled body wrapped in a coat of coarse, gray-black fur.

Their shoulders were enormous, their arms disproportionately long, and their thick fingers ended in black, claw-like nails. A tangled mane of fur framed each of their heads, while equally wild beards spilled down their chests. The beard of each creature was of varying length.

Beneath their heavy brows, two predatory eyes with black sclera and white irises shimmered in the darkness. Their broad muzzles twisted into grimaces, revealing crooked yellow teeth between thick, animalistic lips.

Some were barehanded, while others carried massive stone maces or thick tree logs as weapons.

It took Vlad a moment, but he recognised these terrifying creatures. Trolls. The skin of these Rank Three monsters was even tougher than steel. Without Sword Aura or Three Ring Spells, not even a scratch could be made on their bodies. They were faster and far stronger than the orcs.

However, what clearly separated them from the orcs was their terrifying regenerative ability. Unlike orcs, who needed days to regenerate their limbs and weeks to heal from wounds that brought them to the verge of death, trolls could heal themselves in the middle of battle. This ability made them arguably as powerful as a Marshal Knight.

Neither Vlad nor Seraphina made a sound as the trolls reached the area below them, surrounding the array, or more accurately, the sphere of concentrated orc blood.

Simultaneously, they extended their arms forward, their fingers digging into the blood sphere. With a forceful shove of their hands, they ripped out the green blood that had turned into jelly from being compressed by the array.

Some shoved their entire hands into their mouths and bit off their own arms to make sure not even a single drop of blood was wasted, while others slowly savoured the delicacy. They opened their jagged mouths wide and stuck out their massive tongues, almost half a metre long, greedily licking the green jelly from their hands before slowly devouring it.

Neither Vlad nor Seraphina made the slightest sound as the trolls enjoyed the blood of the orcs. Those who had bitten off their hands and eaten them along with the blood had already regenerated their arms by the time they gulped down what remained in their mouths.

Once they finished their meal, they did not waste another second there, moving towards the direction from which they had come.

When they had gone a few metres away, Seraphina whispered, her voice barely audible but undeniably devoid of fear.

"Commoner, bring everyone while I follow them."

Vlad shook his head. "You go. I will do the following."

Naturally, Seraphina was absolutely not going to agree, but before she could even voice her rejection, Vlad continued, "I’m more experienced than anyone in the party when it comes to moving through the forest without making a sound. Besides, the team cannot move forward in the absence of their leader."

Vlad’s words obviously made sense, and it was also the right course of action for Vlad to follow the trolls and Seraphina to call back the entire team. However, it would take time for the team to gear themselves and pack all their belongings. Besides, they would need to keep a distance of several hundred metres from the trolls to make sure they did not alert them.

Seraphina immediately shook her head. There was no way she was going to let Vlad follow five Rank Three monsters alone. The thought of him being discovered with no backup sent a shiver down her spine. She had to refuse—

"Have some faith in me, Sera," Vlad’s reassuring words pulled her out of her thoughts. "I can do it."

She looked at him with her hesitant pink eyes, worry etched all over her face. Vlad placed his hand on her head and continued, "Listen to the adults, hmm?"

How could she even deny him now?

"Unh," she reluctantly agreed. "But," she gave him a sharp look, "you mustn’t fight them alone. If they spot you, you need to run away right then."

"Got you," Vlad agreed with a warm smile, brushing his reassuring hand over her head.

"A-and I’m older than you," she muttered while obediently accepting his head pats. "I don’t care about that whole time-skip you had during your State of Enlightenment. I will always be the adult in our relationship."

"Got you, adult Sera," Vlad chuckled, agreeing to her demand even though she sounded completely ridiculous.

"Be careful," Seraphina whispered as Vlad finally lifted his hand.

"I will," he replied.

She gave him one last glance before moving away towards the direction of the camp.

Once her figure disappeared into the distant shadows, Vlad turned his focus back to the trolls on the opposite side, who had already reached around a hundred metres away.