As the group drew closer to their destination, Aaron could clearly sense Kreel the Goblin growing increasingly anxious and restless. Still, since the fellow had been fairly cooperative along the way, Aaron could hardly give him trouble without cause, even knowing there was definitely something wrong with him.
"Watch out!" Just as he had countless times before, Kreel, who was leading the way, suddenly called out a warning. Every time he gave this warning, it meant a Red Dragonflight was flying nearby, and they needed to find somewhere to hide to avoid being spotted.
At first, Aaron had been too slow to react and needed Vereesa or Falstad to help him out. Later, he too became adept at quickly finding a suitable hiding place.
But this time was different. They waited for ages without seeing a Red Dragonflight fly overhead. Vereesa looked up at the sky somewhat impatiently, then climbed straight to the top of a nearby hill. Yet she saw no sign of the Red Dragonflight that should have passed this way, and she could not help frowning.
Seeing Vereesa standing on the hilltop, Falstad and Aaron followed her up, while Kreel quietly trailed behind them.
"Vereesa, has that Red Dragonflight left?" Aaron looked around as Vereesa had and asked casually.
"It has."
"Oh no, that greenskin has run off!" Just then, Falstad suddenly cried out. Aaron looked back and discovered that the cunning Goblin had indeed vanished.
They hurriedly searched the surrounding area for traces of him. Without his guidance, they could barely take a step here. After all, even Falstad, who was theoretically a native of the area, had long since moved to Aerie Peak, not to mention that the Red Dragonflight flying overhead from time to time posed an enormous threat to their safety.
"Oh no! There's a trap here! Stay back!" While Aaron was thinking about this, he suddenly felt the ground give beneath his feet. Looking down, he saw that both feet had sunk into the ground, and he hurriedly warned the other two.
But when he looked toward them, he discovered that all three of them had fallen into quicksand. No matter how they struggled, they could not get free, and their efforts only made them sink faster.
The gryphon managed to escape the trap with its wings, but when it tried to swoop down to rescue its master and his companions, pillars of mud rose out of nowhere from the sand and blocked it. Seeing this, Aaron abandoned his attempt to summon a mount to escape the trap.
This trap was clearly not natural; he just did not know what awaited him next. Aaron simply stopped struggling, but because of his heavy plate armor, he was sinking faster than the other two.
Seeing that the sand had already risen past his chest, Aaron simply stopped struggling and cast Divine Shield on himself. Then he let whatever was gripping his ankles drag him down until he sank entirely into darkness.
Once Aaron felt solid ground beneath his feet and opened his eyes again to take in his surroundings, he immediately took out his shield to protect himself before looking around. What he saw were three creatures he very much did not want to see:
Three skeletal Trolls with vicious eyes were staring at Aaron with their terrifying gazes. Judging by their ragged cloth aprons and other tattered adornments, Aaron was certain these fellows were doing very badly for themselves.
"Vilebranch Trolls?" Aaron bent down slightly, concealing himself as much as possible to avoid being struck by the axes in the Trolls' hands.
"What a troublesome little man. Xinai, go deal with him." The Troll who was clearly the leader of the three casually pointed to the one-eyed Troll beside him as he spoke.
"Can I have the first bite once I've dealt with him, Geli?" The one-eyed Troll seemed rather slow-witted. He walked toward Aaron with his axe in hand, drool running from the corner of his mouth.
"No, Xinai. I'm the boss. Do as I say." The lead Troll took out some rope and headed toward Vereesa and Falstad, who appeared to have passed out, with his other subordinate as he spoke to the one-eyed Troll.
Well, it seemed the lead Troll was not very bright either. Perhaps none of this group of Trolls were particularly bright.
But Aaron had no time to concern himself with the intelligence of Troll tribes now. The Troll named Xinai had already closed in on him. Judging by height alone, the Troll stood over two meters tall even while hunched over. Combined with that burly frame, it made Aaron feel somewhat apprehensive.
"Hey!" The one-eyed Troll shouted, pushed off with his feet, and hurled himself at Aaron as though he meant to crush him beneath his body.
Faced with such a ferocious charge, Aaron instinctively thought of dodging. He darted aside, avoiding the Troll's attack. Seeing that the Troll had entered his attack range, Aaron wasted no time and thrust his sword at him.
Unexpectedly, the one-eyed Troll reacted nimbly, shifting a few steps to evade Aaron's attack. At the same time, his axe swung toward Aaron's outstretched arm before he could pull it back.
Aaron immediately withdrew his hand. Although his arm escaped the blow, the sword in his hand took the Troll's strike squarely. The impact jolted his wrist and nearly knocked the longsword from his grasp.
Seeing that his opponent outclassed him in both fighting skill and raw strength, Aaron simply abandoned the idea of trading moves with him. He activated Divine Shield and charged. Relying on the fact that attacks could not hurt him while the skill lasted, Aaron quickly closed in on the one-eyed Troll and fought recklessly, leaving several wounds deep enough to expose bone.
But Aaron soon noticed that the Troll's wounds had begun healing rapidly, and inwardly cursed his luck. Just one Troll was already this difficult to handle. If all three surrounded him, he feared he would not escape even with wings.
Seeing the Divine Shield covering his body begin to dim, Aaron decided to go all the way. Abandoning his shield, he gripped his sword with both hands and delivered a heavy sweeping slash, leaving a wound across the Troll's abdomen. Then he thrust again, running the Troll clean through. The one-eyed Troll's eye rolled back, and he fell unconscious.
Aaron pulled back his longsword, took a few gasping breaths, picked up his shield, and turned a wary gaze on the remaining two Trolls.
By then, the two Trolls had naturally already noticed their companion fall. They abandoned their efforts to tie up the unconscious Vereesa and Falstad and charged toward Aaron with hostile looks.
Unlike the reckless one-eyed Troll, these two were clearly much more patient. Rather than attack Aaron directly, they kept circling him, occasionally raising their axes as if to throw them without actually doing so. They simply used this method to keep dividing and draining Aaron's attention.
Watching the two Trolls, Aaron could only lament that he had no reliable means of attacking at range. If he threw his shield, he might not even hurt either Troll and would instead give them an opening.
"If only I had Judgement," Aaron muttered. As one of the few ranged attack skills available to a Paladin, he had never missed this hammer-throwing skill so much.
With that thought in mind, Aaron made a swinging gesture with his hand. A streak of Holy Light actually formed into a warhammer and flew straight out, smashing into the cave wall and kicking up a cloud of dust.
"Not good! Get him, Woshi!" The lead Troll's expression changed at the sight. He had seen clearly that Aaron had thrown a hammer of Holy Light out of thin air. That meant Aaron could keep using it as long as his Holy Light did not run out, unlike the axes in their hands, which would be difficult to retrieve once thrown.
"Yes!" the bald Troll answered in a muffled voice, waving his axe as he rushed toward Aaron. The remaining Troll raised his axe, apparently intending to throw it and hack Aaron to death the moment he exposed an opening.
"Go!" Aaron raised his shield with one hand and hurled a Hammer of Judgement at the Troll hanging back with the other. The attack actually struck its target squarely and knocked the Troll to the ground, something even Aaron had not expected.
Seeing that only the target directly in front of him remained, Aaron took a deep breath, raised his shield, and stepped forward to meet him. He caught the axe on his shield and thrust out his longsword. Without paying attention to how the Troll reacted, Aaron unleashed every attack skill he currently knew. Only after seeing the bald Troll stagger and collapse did he slowly breathe a sigh of relief. His legs went weak, and he nearly fell to the ground.