Chapter 193: Mutant

The only method to kill a troll was to cleanly behead it. Even then, Vlad kept silently staring at the severed head of the troll, the Aura Blade in his hand crackling with lightning.

From the beginning of the battle, this troll had been fighting beyond all the limits of a troll’s abilities. Its skin was tougher than it should have been, its reflexes were absurd for its size, and not to mention its preposterous regeneration.

What if it broke the norms again and healed even after getting its head severed? Thankfully, it remained dead even after a whole minute.

Vlad sheathed his sword and stepped back from it. Alisha had already reached the ground by then.

She poked the troll’s head with the edge of her long wand before revealing, "This is not a regular troll. It’s a mutant."

"A mutant?" Vlad asked, his brows rising as he leaned against a tree.

"You must have already observed that it was far stronger than a regular troll," she explained, lowering herself beside its corpse. "I wasn’t sure before, but I can say it with confidence now. The Genesis Artifact is hidden somewhere in this area. The mana radiation of the Genesis Artifact is the only phenomenon capable of evolving monsters."

She veiled all the severed parts of the troll in her bright mana, stopping the bleeding from the cuts. She placed its corpse inside her storage ring before shifting her curious black eyes toward Vlad.

"You are even more incredible," she said in a mildly surprised tone as she slowly walked toward him. "This troll should be a Peak Rank Three Monster. Yet you defeated it with barely any struggle."

"Your support spells really helped," Vlad answered, his tone impressed. She was really much more than just a healer. The troll couldn’t even put up a fight because of her sense-distortion spells.

Alisha shook her head. "I’m sure that you would have still defeated it without my help. By the way..." She continued, her eyes narrowing in curiosity as she slowly approached him. "What was with the sudden surge in your Sword Aura at the end? You almost seemed to become twice as powerful, slicing through that troll’s skin like a knife through butter."

"Think of it as my ace card," Vlad gave a vague reply, clearly avoiding the question. ’I went ahead and activated fifty percent of my true Sword Aura. Almost a quarter of my mana reserves have been depleted. I need to be more careful from now on.’

Seeing Vlad dodge the question, she decided not to pry any further. After all, everyone had their secrets.

In truth, Vlad had never activated his true Sword Aura against the troll. He had been fighting with only thirty percent of its actual lethality. When he saw the clear opening at the end, he increased the lethality to fifty percent for only a few seconds and quickly chopped it down.

Even then, his mana reserves had been reduced by almost twenty percent. No wonder he had never heard of any D-Ranked knight. They would suffer from Mana Deviation even if they tried to learn Sword Aura because of the sheer amount of mana it required.

While he was still having these thoughts, Alisha had already reached his side.

"Oh right, the troll did kick you pretty hard," Alisha’s voice pulled him out of his thoughts as she leaned forward. "Let me heal your wound."

"You don’t need to," Vlad denied, his tone respectful. "That didn’t even leave a scratch."

"Oh, alright." She took a step back, but suddenly, her foot slipped on the icy surface, and she fell forward, her head lightly bonking on his chestplate.

"I-I’m sorry," she blurted as she tried to push herself back, but her feet kept skidding on the icy surface.

"Wait, Senior Alisha. Let me help."

He grabbed her by both shoulders and was about to push her back when he heard a low, familiar voice.

"Commoner?"

His eyes shifted toward the trees on his left, where Seraphina stood with an unreadable expression on her face. Her crimson hair swayed in the cold breeze, her eyes hidden beneath the strands of her hair.

Vlad gently pushed Alisha back and rose to his feet.

"You are back already?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. The troll she had fought must have been a mutant as well, yet she had already returned.

Seraphina moved toward them without answering, each of her steps causing Alisha’s heartbeat to race.

’Oh dear... she saw us at the worst possible timing,’ Alisha exclaimed inwardly. ’She must be thinking that I was hitting on Vlad. I need to clear this misunderstanding, or I would suffer the wrath of Lady Seraphina herself.’

She had only parted her lips to give an explanation when Seraphina spoke, reaching Vlad’s side. "The trolls were mutants. You didn’t suffer any injuries, right?"

"I’m unharmed," Vlad replied with a faint smile. "What about you, Lad—Sera?"

His choice of words immediately caused Alisha to release a low gasp, her hand flying to her mouth. ’Awww... he just called her by her nickname. That was so cute!!!!’ she screamed inwardly, feeling incredibly excited.

"I’m Seraphina Cendral," she smugly declared, swaying her hair in an elegant motion. "How could mere trolls cause me any harm?"

"You kept saying trolls..." Vlad noticed her choice of words, his eyes narrowing. "Don’t tell me..."

"Yes, a neighboring troll appeared soon after I killed the first one," she revealed in a casual tone. "So I took care of that one as wel—"

Her words stopped mid-sentence as Vlad suddenly grabbed her wrist.

"C-commoner?" She blinked, slightly taken aback by the sudden grab.

"You are wounded," Vlad muttered, his eyes fixed on the long but shallow scratch along her forearm, which was covered in dried blood.

"Oh, this happened while I was putting the trolls’ bodies in my storage ring. A nail accidentally scratched me," she explained in a neutral tone.

Alisha stepped forward to take a closer look at her arm. "It might be poisonous."

A faint golden energy covered her index finger as she dragged it along Seraphina’s forearm. The scratch completely vanished as if it had never been there to begin with.