Chapter 130 - Strike Back (2)

"That's a creationist? If he is a creationist then I'm the true Casanova of this world!" A soldier's excited voice echoed through the surveillance room.

"Is that the best thing you could come up with?" The female soldier behind him smirked, "But I agree, our Section Chief is no ordinary man... I mean just look at his monsters or summons or whatever they are! Just two of them managed to kill four of the six trolls. And he didn't even have to lift a finger to do so."

They were watching the live feed of the battle that was going on in the courtyard of their base. The Brigadier General was also present inside the room when everyone started praising Arnold and his summons.

"No wonder he wanted to take on the horde of monsters on his own. With an army of monsters like that it, it'll be much easier to battle alone rather than team up with someone else and which might cause unforeseen problems." Yet another soldier chimed in.

Every word spoken in favour of Arnold was like a wound to the Brigadier's self-respect. He. was. fuming. But he had no other choice but to keep his cool as deep inside, he knew what the soldiers were saying was 100% true. Arnold was no ordinary man, and he knew it very well. But he just couldn't get past it.

He was supposed to be their leader! All of them had worked under his authority every since this base was established! He treated them like a family, and they turned on him the moment another man appeared? Is this the way his family appreciated his existence? After all, he has done for them? Unacceptable! He'll be the one to lead this base no matter the cost. No one can threaten his authority over his soldiers, his family!

But what could he do to save his honour? Nothing.

All he could do was to stand there in silence as one by one, his soldiers slowly turn against him.

****

BACK IN THE BATTLEFIELD...

The tables had turned on the trolls as they no longer had their numbers advantage over Arnold's summons. Not like that would've mattered either way. Seeing that, both of the remaining trolls were occupied by his summons, Arnold quietly, put on the hoodie of his robes. With a harpoon held tightly in his hands, he was ready to charge towards the arbalist.

'Come on shoot at someone already!'

Arnold was ready, but still, he had to wait till the troll shot the arrow. Once the troll shot an arrow, he needed at least ten seconds before he could shoot again. Arnold was planning on taking him down within this time frame.

As the time came nearer, Arnold became impatient mostly because of the fatigue he had.

'I've waited for enough.' Arnold took a deep breath, and was about to charge when the troll finally took his shot at Asterios, as usual, Dead came in between and blocked the attack while Asterios jumped at the other troll.

___

Your summon has used the skill [BATTLE CRY] lvl. 3.

___

'Well done Asterios!' Arnold's smile widened as the notification appeared in front of his eyes.

The battle cry was a skill, exclusive to Asterios. This ability had two independent effects. One, it boosted Asterios strength temporarily by 15%, and two, Asterios took all the aggro from the monsters on himself. The only issue with this skill was its duration, which was roughly about 5 seconds, but right now it was enough for Arnold to get closer to the arbalist troll and get it over with.

Without wasting a single second, Arnold activated his RAPID FLASH ability that boosted his ability, even more, a few long strides later the troll was within Arnold's attack range, but it was true the other way around as well.

Right as Arnold was about to throw the harpoon, the bast*rd troll realised what was Arnold's intentions and attacked him first. But the troll didn't use his crossbow to do so, instead, he attacked Arnold with his foot, maybe intending to kill Arnold like an ant.

STOMP!!!

Dust and rubble were rose in the air and a crater small was formed at the place where the troll slammed his foot, but surprisingly Arnold wasn't inside it.

Thanks to the residual effect of Rapid Flash, Arnold easily managed to dodge the attack and slip between the troll's legs. The troll quickly turned around to attack Arnold once again, but as he turned around, it's crotch erupted into flames. The pain was too much for the troll to handle and he fell on his knees while tightly holding on to his crotch.

Arnold wasn't proud of what he did, but it was necessary to do so.

While Arnold quietly slid between the troll's legs he threw the harpoon into the beast's crotch and pulled the 10-metre long cable that was attached to the bottom of the cylindrical container. As soon as the cable came off the container, the mixture of sodium, potassium, caesium, and rubidium, instantly reacted with the oxygen present in the air and caught fire. This fire then lit up the gunpowder inside the container, which exploded and resulted in troll's crotch getting mutilated.

Arnold's inspiration behind making this weapon was pretty simple. It was his first attempt at replicating the effects of frozen lance but with a twist, as he wanted to add the fire element in it. The weapon was still in its early stages but Arnold was already impressed with its effect. It required some alterations but his experimental weapon was successful.

Due to the intense pain in his crotch, the troll lost control over his hardening ability and luckily, a small part of the back of his neck revered back to its furry nature.

Initially, Arnold had planned on dealing low blow after low blow to the troll until it died out of pain or humiliation, but if the troll was offering him a better solution then he wasn't going to refuse it. After all, He was a man of honour.

Thus Arnold started climbing on the back of the troll-like a professional rock climber. While this was happening, the remaining troll was being taken cared of by Asterios and Dread. Together, they managed to quickly dispatch him. As soon as he was dealt with, they rushed to help Arnold but Arnold declined.

"I GOT THIS!" Arnold yelled at them.

His summons diligently obeyed his command and stepped back, but they were alert, ready to help him if the need arises. Sadly they were waiting in vain as Arnold took out two more harpoons from his inventory and proceeded to stab them deep into the troll's exposed neck.

'Will two be enough to kill him? Nah, I should add one more, just in case.'

With that Arnold took out one more of the harpoons and stabbed it into the troll's neck as well, before grabbing the cables that were attached to the cylindrical container, and jumped down. Gravity did it's work and accelerated Arnold's descend, making it easier for him to tug at the cables in his hands. Just like the last time, as soon as the cables came off, cylindrical containers simultaneously exploded after coming into contact with air, but something was different this time as instead of an explosion, hot lava poured out of those containers.

The rain wasn't enough to stop the troll's neck from melting and soon the lava severed his head off his shoulders. The last troll was dead.