Despite the danger, Paul was eted to find that the Cave Troll was in the higher ranges of Emerald as that would make the perfect challenge for him. They were rge and lumbering, but their natural regeneration was terrifying, and their bodies were reinforced against physical damage.

  Its gaping mouth alone was at least two meters across as it naturally hung sck, gaining its name from camoufging it as the opening to a cave, assisted with the hump of its curved back creating a hill-like appearance. It would lure prey in by emitting a sweet fragrance from the gnds at the back of its throat that would inflict any who smelled it to become ravenously hungry, causing creatures and people to come to investigate.

  The creature’s skin also had a natural mimicry ability that would take on the appearance of the nearby ndscape, further helping it blend in and make potential food unaware. The only known weak point it had was its legs. Cave Trolls rarely traveled and would only deign to relocate after going too long without food, assuming either the resources of the area had been completely depleted or learned to avoid the cave nothing came back out of.

  While the Soul Cage had boosted the raw power and attributes of the beast by a terrifying amount, the Reapers were still making it behave outside of its normal patterns which gave Paul the advantage of getting that first critical strike at the target’s weakest point.

  After informing the others to spread out and focus on the smaller group of Sapphire Caste Bouldrings, which were rge, round rock elemental-type monsters that liked to roll over their enemy in packs, Paul cast his own Boon on himself, “Behold the fury of the righteous.”

  Ability: Righteous Fury

  Type: Boon (magical, arcane)

  Cost: High mana.

  Cooldown: 10 minutes.

  Current Caste: Emerald 10

  Crystal Effect: Increase your Strength and Agility attributes for a short duration.

  Sapphire Effect: Increase your damage dealt for a short duration.

  Emerald Effect: Increase your Mind and Fortitude attributes for a short duration.

  He also felt a couple of Boons from Everin take effect barely a moment before he triggered his favorite opening move, [Meteor Strike]. He rocketed forward to smash his [Bde of Wrath] directly into one of the legs of the troll, taking it clean off with the resulting explosion and knockback. The Fire damage seemed to be extremely effective, as he had thought, but the limb was already beginning to regenerate even as the monster cried out in pain and anger.

  The initial strike was like a whistle signaling the start of an utter brawl as the other Emeralds targeted the weaker swarm and Paul continued working through his rotation of abilities.

  He applied the [Nemesis] Bane from his blessed Talent, quickly followed by activating [Wrath From Above], leaping high into the air directly above the troll, and used his new [Wings of Zeal] to maneuver through the air while channeling one of his few Spells, “May the swords of the wrathful bring punishment to the wicked.”

  Css Ability: Swords of the Wrathful

  Type: Spell (channel, construct, elemental, magical, blood, fire, light)

  Cost: Moderate mana per second.

  Cooldown: 5 minutes.

  Current Caste: Emerald 10

  Crystal Effect: Channel mana to construct a sword each second to impale a nearby enemy target from above and inflict Light damage.

  Sapphire Effect: Each second constructs three swords and inflicts additional Fire damage and [Burning].

  Emerald Effect: Each second constructs six swords and inflicts [Bleeding].

  Burning (bane, elemental, fire): Inflicts ongoing Fire damage.Bleeding (bane, magical, blood): Inflicts ongoing Blood damage.

  Brilliant greatswords of light appeared in the air before him to rain down on the gigantic Cave Troll, which gave a wail of pain that sounded like a torrent of wind rushing through an echoing cavern. The bellowing sound itself was one of the monster’s abilities to weaken the physical damage he could inflict, but it wouldn’t matter to his fmes.

  Paul nded on the massive hill of its back as he cut off the spell, not wanting to drain too much of his mana, and triggered two stacking combination abilities at once that fed off his stamina instead, [Accelerating Strikes], which increased the speed of his attacks while dealing Fire and Light damage with each swing, and [Ferocious Assault], which increased his Strength and Agility while dealing Dimension damage and a confusing Bane with each hit. He then proceeded to repeatedly sm his greatsword against the rocky creature, letting the speed, attributes, and damage ramp up.

  Luckily, the troll, while resilient, had no resistance to the [Dimensional Confusion], [Burning], and the extra magic damage his attacks were inflicting. The creature’s perpetual confusion from that former Bane created an effective means of protection from counterattacks as it stumbled and chomped at nothing.

  When he felt like a decent chunk of damage had been done, he triggered his Execute ability, [Judgment of the Zealous], and was grateful for the Passive Boon ability that increased its effects.

  Passive Ability: Strength of Purpose

  Type: Boon (magical, arcane)

  Current Caste: Emerald 9

  Crystal Effect: You have increased Strength and Fortitude.

  Sapphire Effect: The effects of other Boons on you are slightly increased.

  Emerald Effect: The effects of your Execute are increased and Execute effects upon you are decreased.

  Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to down the incredibly tough monster, but that just meant he could use his Execute over and over again each minute until it died. Hopefully that would be enough to push his final ability over the threshold and into Ruby Caste. So that’s exactly what he did.

  He could sense the other Emeralds on his team handling the other enemies as Sapphire monster auras were snuffed out in rapid succession. However, it seemed like Everin had told the others to leave the Cave Troll to him since he needed the challenging experience to bring a faster end to the war on its way to their home.

  Paul knew he was making actual progress when the monster seemed to go wild, filing and trying to dislodge him from his comfortable spot, half-buried in the thing’s back. It seemed to finally realize that it needed to stop him from gouging and burning chunks out of it to prevent its inevitable demise.

  The hill-monster suddenly lurched to the side, crashing towards the ground. His raven bck wings, which had been helping to keep him banced on its back, extended further to nimbly unch himself into the air in a powerful gust. He managed to avoid the potentially crushing blow under the panicking creature and gained a decisive advantage with the new opportunity presented before him.

  With the idiotic troll turned over on its decimated hump, it exposed the weaker underside. Paul triggered [Meteor Strike] and [Judgment of the Zealous] for a final time. The rainbow sheen of Radiant damage coated the dark obsidian bde of his greatsword as he aimed the tip straight down toward the monster’s center.

  Fmes licked at both the weapon’s edge and his own body as the effects of turning himself into a meteor proceeded to annihite the gargantuan creature from the inside out in a wave of explosive incineration. The empowered sword radiated a devastating aftershock of Divine magic throughout the monster, and shredded it into nothing more than rubble.

  He had probably managed to cast the Execute about a dozen times by that point as the fight had dragged on. Sensing the shift within himself, he knew his goal had been accomplished, and he would ascend as soon as he returned home to meditate.

  With a brief touch and thought, he looted the creature, creating a flurry of green ash and a small pile of treasures at its center. He recognized an Aspect and two Spirit Gems among the pile of Emerald Mana Bits, but he would need to take them to get identified ter.

  He had been thrilled at first to find that his particur fvor of looting ability preferred to generate those types of items as it gave him plenty to choose from while cultivating his abilities in those early days when progressing was quicker, but long term it was simply another form of Bits for him and had lost a lot of the excitement of obtaining the precious items.

  Perhaps one of the kids can use it ter? he thought idly, and Orebe responded.

  “You will spoil them too much.”

  He chuckled, but was distracted by Everin’s approach, his face set into a rare frown instead of his usual wicked grin as he said, “I think there’s a problem here.”

  “I thought it went rather well,” Paul replied, bending down to put the items into the dimensional pouch on his hip, “I think I can go back already after that.”

  “There wasn’t an Emerald Caster.”

  Paul turned abruptly, realizing their mistake, “You think they escaped?”

  “I think they left the lumbering giant and the Sapphire group as a decoy while they went to hunt,” the Cleric replied.

  He felt his heart sink, “The nearest parties would be northwest of us.”

  “I suggest we move faster to make sure they’re not sughtered before we get there,” Everin said, “Leave those who can’t fly to keep clearing to the south as we pnned, we’ll go find our slippery Emerald Reaper and get you back home to ascend.”

  Polissa Teras thought she had been doing rather well in leading her party so far in the first few hours since they had engaged with some of the enemy’s Crystal forces, having been paired with supporting a group of high-level Sapphires that were well-versed in monster fighting. The summoners were well protected as they sent in their creatures to assist and divide the enemies.

  Her brother, Simmon, was shining even brighter with how well he was keeping everyone alive, using seeds that bloomed into life-saving heals along with his other summons delivering potent heals to their companions. She had no doubt that he would make it far as an Adventurer one day while her path y more at home in Tulimeir. She pnned to hit Emerald at least, like her fathers, but likely wouldn’t press beyond that with her duty to the city as a noble heir.

  The privilege that gave her a leg up when it came to becoming a Caster in the first pce would also be her chains to the low Caste area they called home. Not that she minded too terribly, resigned to her duty, and she did love her home, but she would make sure that her brother went further.

  Moha’s birds were littering the field with shards of ice and bdes of wind as they swooped and soared across the battlefield, continually keeping Po informed of the shifting circumstances and numbers. She even used one of her longer cooldowns to construct a giant everfrost tree that reached at least ten meters into the air and had the dryad perched upon it, granting both a marker on the ft ndscape and creating a Zone Boon that made their allies stronger.

  Even Tanner was doing well, despite not having gotten a new bonded Familiar yet. His packs of snolves and stampedes were great at both overpowering an enemy and separating groups from each other. His summons were able to quickly reinforce areas of the battle where their side was weakening, which in turn saved many Adventurers from receiving killing blows.

  Just when it looked like they were about to finish overwhelming this current group of Caged monsters, something odd seemed to be happening. Fshes of crackling light streaked across the field, taking out Crystal Casters one by one. Even a Sapphire Mage was taken down in a single shot and the chaotic call for retreat sounded when Moha yelled out, “Emerald Reaper with lightning arrows!”

  As the dryad made her way down from her perch, Polissa turned to her brother, who was a few meters from her, as he called out, “We need to cover the others!”

  Those were the st words Simmon would ever speak as a shaft of solid lighting took his head completely from his shoulders.

  Po felt her entire body go numb from the shock and horror of watching her little brother’s body colpse to the icy ground.

  She distantly felt someone pulling on her arm, trying to drag her away, and that was when she spotted them: a feminine figure cd in matte bck armor pting with a glossy face shield. It wasn’t a bow of any kind she was familiar with that the Emerald Caster held, but a sleek steel cylinder with some kind of shoulder stock that she would sometimes see on heavy crossbows. It had a trigger like those as well, but no string to unch the bolts from.

  It was an odd-looking weapon, and it was even odder when the enemy pointed the device towards the sky instead—as though to shoot a bird, but Moha had already called them all back. An arc of lightning shot straight into the air above the center of the battlefield and then seemed to burst apart to drop an angry storm upon them.

  Polissa briefly thought she’d be with her brother again soon, but then she was falling and unable to see what was happening as someone shielded her from the onsught of Emerald Caste Lightning magic. It was only when the cacophony of thunder ceased that she looked up to finally focus on Tanner’s face, his eyes already gzed over in death, and she began to sob in despair and fear.

  A sudden crash shook the area and Moha pushed Tanner’s perforated and electrocuted body off of her to help her stand so they could attempt to run. The explosion of fire and light in the distance gave her an idea of what had caused the mini earthquake, and Moha confirmed her suspicions with a trembling voice, “Lord Waynd is here now, Po. It’ll be okay.”

  Her voice broke as she managed to choke out, “None of this is going to be okay. My family will never be okay again…”