"Is it still following us?" Alice asked as she punched another Raptor into the head, waves of necrotic energies rotting away at its skin, skull, and brain beneath.

"Yes, it's staying out of sight, but it's definitely following us," Debby answered, flinching as a rock flew by centimeters in front of her face.

A shot fell, the offending Monkey falling from the nearby roof moments later.

"KIEEEEEAKAKAKAKA!!!" Alice's head shot around, searching for the source of the scream, just in time to distract her and allow the coming Raptor to bite down on her thigh.

Before the Raptor's teeth could penetrate her Bone armor, Carl appeared at her side, killing the beast with his own Skill before throwing it to the side.

"Shit! Okay, Ava, we will be fine on our own for a while. Take a look and kill the bastard if you can. Hopefully, that will stop this madness!"

"Are you sure?"

"Yes! Go, now!" Alice answered, kneeling down and punching the ground, the necrotic energies flowing through the earth and into the Street shark that had been about to attack her.

Lightning crackled, immersing the scene in bright flashes of blinding light as it jumped from target to target.

"Dodge the corpses!"

Alice looked up at Daniel's cry, jumping to the side as the corpse of one of the tumorous vultures was about to crash into her.

Without even looking, Alice kicked at the soul that was shooting at her close to the ground, punting the little creature away. It was deep black and looked like a mixture of feral cat and rat, covered in mist-like shadowy tendrils.

"Harry, under you!" Alice quickly warned the veteran while also noting Ava's soul stretching to the side, reconstituting itself somewhere in a hedge next to the road.

The whole situation had started maybe half an hour prior. They had gotten close enough to the High school, the base of the Trolls, that Debby had been able to feel them. It was then that the first Vulture attacked them. Alice noticed the divebomb attack the moment the bird entered her Soul sense range, and Daniel shot the bird down at her warning.

It was something that had never happened before, but they had made the mistake of thinking that it wasn't of much importance. Just one bird among many that was acting a little different.

Then, a few minutes later, several Monkeys appeared all of a sudden and began to throw rocks at them from the surrounding roofs. The good thing was that they had terrible accuracy. The bad thing was that their overly long arms allowed them to throw those rocks with incredible power. Every time one of those projectiles impacted the ground, they would break into shrapnel of broken rock and asphalt, leaving behind holes in the street.

Quickly, more and more monsters began to come after them, oftentimes acting out of character and all of them working together.

At first, they had decided to stand their ground, thinking that it would be over quickly, whatever it was that was going on. But after almost fifteen minutes of combat without an end in sight, Alice finally decided to call the retreat. It was at that time that Debby noticed one of the Trolls leaving their base, following after their group. And according to her, it was an especially intelligent specimen.

"On the left!" Debby's mental voice cut through Alice's thoughts.

Taking a quick look, Alice saw a gigantic shadow dropping down from the roof, landing with a loud rumble behind the hedge.

"Fuck!" Alice swore under her breath. "Harry, can you take it out quickly?"

"Not without using the Anzio and wasting the enchantments," his answer came immediately.

"Daniel?" she turned to the next solution.

"I could, but it would take the rest of my Mana."

Which meant they would be exposed to the vultures, Alice thought. We can deal with single attacks, but if larger numbers come at once, Daniel's chain lightning is the only option.

"Carl, can you punch its brain out?"

"Not without running out of Stamina. I can still hold on for a while, but protecting the others is the best I can do."

Fuck! Alice swore in her mind, collecting and absorbing a nearby soul without even thinking about it. Soul absorption was an incredibly convenient and powerful Skill that let her fight almost indefinitely as long as there were enough monsters around that were easy enough to kill.

The downside to that was, however, that she didn't notice at all how low on Mana and Stamina the others were running.

"Can you deal with this on your own for a while? I'm going to try and finish it quickly," Alice quickly made her decision.

"Go," Harry's answer came immediately.

It would be a lie to say that Alice wasn't scared. Not once had she fought a Goliath completely on her own, always having had someone help her out. At the same time, she was now a lot stronger than in her first fight with one of the giants. Most notably, she now had defensive and offensive Skills and not just ones that made her capable of surviving even worse injuries.

Punting away another of those shadow creatures, Alice turned to the left, immediately sprinting towards the hedge at the side of the road. Still a few meters away from it, Alice jumped, flying through the air until her feet skimmed the top of the hedge, landing close behind it, before the Goliath could reach her.

Quickly, she dropped down and jumped to the side, evading both the fist and the stone spike that followed when it impacted the ground instead.

Before the monster had a chance to recover, Alice ran at it, punching it into the leg with as much strength as she could.

Activating Necrotic burst fur, skin, and flesh surrounding the point of impact were drenched in deathly energies, allowing Flesh grafting to take hold. With a grasping motion, Alice ripped the affected flesh from the creature's body, leaving behind a gaping, bleeding hole.

The Goliath roared in anger, but not much pain. Jumping away to evade the Goliaths swing, Alice took a look at the wound on its leg, realizing that it was more shallow than she had thought. And not just that, despite the Necrotic burst only costing her two Mana, her rather violent application of Fleshgrafting had cost her an additional ten.

Quickly, she recovered her Mana through Soul absorption, her mind racing as she tried to find a way out of the situation.

Punching the monster to death was clear that it wouldn't work, and while muscle density affected her legs twice as strongly, which might have been enough, she was by far not proficient enough in kicking techniques. If she tried, she was more likely to injure herself rather than her opponent.

On the other hand, the brain and spine were already confirmed by Alice to be more resistant to the effects of her Skill. While that hadn't been enough to prevent an instant kill against weaker creatures, if it was coupled with the Goliath's already higher degree of resistance against her Necrotic burst, then Alice doubted that such attacks would have any effect at all.

Distracted by her thoughts, Alice missed the timing, the stone spike slamming piercing through her armor and into her side, before catapulting her into the wall of the building.

Dropping down, she slammed into the ground, holding a hand to her side and seeing it return bloody. With a sigh, she activated Undead constitution, numbing the pain and allowing her to continue fighting at her best. At the same time, her bone armor regenerated, neatly preventing any further blood loss.

Wait, blood! Alice suddenly realized that the Goliath actually did have a convenient weak point she could exploit, at least as long as its biology was remotely similar to humans.

Roling to the side, Alice barely evaded another spike, glad for the fact that the monsters didn't seem capable of changing their aim once they had begun to swing their fist. Without that gap, Alice had her doubts that she would be able to evade all these attacks.

"Their coming in our direction!" Debby suddenly cried out in her mind, "According to Ava, the enemy was some kind of Troll shaman protected by two Goliaths. She failed to kill the shaman. But she managed to take out one of his guards, getting injured in the process. She is hiding right now."

"How bad is it?!" Alice was shaken, the momentary distraction almost causing her to get hit again.

"She said it's not too bad and that she can hold out for a while."

Knowing her girlfriend, Alice couldn't tell if that was the truth or not. Chance was that the injury wasn't actually anything too big, but Ava was out of Mana and Stamina and couldn't rejoin the fight. But knowing her, she could also be heavily injured and not want them to worry about her.

Fear and rage boiled in her heart in equal measure, to the point that she could feel a change in her own soul. She took a step forward and crouched down, just barely evading the monsters swinging arm. Then, she focused her mind, focusing on the opponent in front of her. Similar to Ava, killing intent exploded from her soul, causing the Goliath to flinch back.

Jumping straight up directly in front of the Goliath, Alice stretched her arms out to the sides before bringing them forward in a clapping motion.

With a dull slap, the sound muffled by the fur, her flat hand impacted the monster's neck on both sides, releasing two necrotic bursts at once, feeling her fingers sink into its neck with the help of Flesh grafting. Using her grip as leverage, she planted her feet on the beast's chest, pushing off with all her strength.

With a disgustingly wet tearing sound, Alice jumped away from the monster, two clumps of dead flesh in her hands, leaving behind gaping holes on both sides of its neck, the twin wounds spraying blood in rhythmic squirts.

Feeling sick, Alice shook out her hands. The flesh got flung away, but her fingers were still stained red with blood.

She took two steps back, distancing herself from the Goliath that was stumbling towards her. With a last, gurgling roar, it fell forward, lying still.

_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_

Level Up!

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

It was already the second time in this long fight that she leveled up, and almost instantly, Alice felt better. No, not better, but at least a little less mentally tired since her Mana regenerated to full.

"How are you faring?" Alice asked Harry, him being the one in charge when she wasn't there.

"Better than before. Carl and Daniel leveled up and got back their resources, so they are fighting at full capacity again. I suggest that I take Max and Debby to look for Ava once you return, while you deal with the Troll and its subordinates," the soldier suggested.

"Sure, go," Alice was happy to agree, quickly running over to the entrance gate. Jumping out of the monster horde and into the mostly empty garden had been one thing, but doing the same in the other direction was something completely different. Even if it cost her a few seconds longer, she wasn't about to risk her life for a few seconds she had to spare.

The moment Alice joined back up, Harry was already prepared, him and their supporters quickly breaking off to the side. At the same moment, Alice noticed another Goliath turning into the street about a hundred meters away.

While Alice was still collecting and absorbing souls to replenish her stock, her eyes were, however, drawn to another figure walking next to the giant. Standing at only half its height, the Troll looked small. However, Alice was aware that that was by no means true. More than any other she had seen before, this Troll was covered in furs, even wearing a primitive necklace covered in fangs that were so large that under any other circumstances, she would have assumed them to be a cheap plastic imitation.

Even more different than the other Trolls she had seen was the tree this one was holding. Instead of carrying it around like a club, it was using the tree like an oversized walking stick. But in the first place, striking with the implement would have been impractical since several branches were still attached at the top, even more teeth, tufts of fur, and some kind of dream catcher dangling of off them.

Well, if I have ever seen a shaman, then it's this... Alice thought. Still, she didn't let her guard down. Just because the Troll looked like one didn't mean it would be one. It seemed like it could somehow control monsters, but that was all Alice could tell.

"You are out of range of the network in three, two, o..." Debby's voice was suddenly cut off, the exact moment the remaining team of three left Debby's range differing slightly.

"Daniel, give the Troll a big one on Go! There is a fifty-fifty chance that the monsters will stop acting like this once it's dead," Alice instructed while she caught and violently twisted the neck of a Raptor.

"Carl, I going to distract it from the front, try and get the Goliath from behind."

"Understood," the reply came from both men.

Lightning crackled, the smell of ozone and burning flesh wafting through the air. Alice was about to say something but quickly dodged as she noticed the now dead Vulture coming at her.

"Three," the Troll was still ninety meters away.

"Two," The world record in the hundred-meter sprint was under ten seconds. And while neither she nor Carl were professional sprinters, their physical capabilities far surpassed Olympic athletes.

"One," Alice could see the Troll rip off one of the dream catchers from its staff.

"Go!"

A thunderclap, louder than any before it rang across the street, the bright light searing an after image into her dead eyes. Just barely, Alice managed to make out the form of a glowing green dome, the electricity harmlessly gliding over it and into the ground.

At the same time, while Alice started into a sprint, Carl turned into a blur.

As the last sound of thunder rolled across the street, Alice had already crossed half the distance to her target, letting out a bellowing roar to get the Goliath's attention. And just in time, as the giant's eyes had been tracking the blur that was coming to a momentary stop behind it.

With the monster's attention redirected at her, Carl jumped at it. At the same moment, the Troll's staff slammed into the ground, producing light green glow, as in the same instant, a wall of thick roots shot up behind the Goliath, cutting off Carl's path of attack.

Seeing it happening, Alice, who had been veering of to take on the Troll, quickly returned on her path in the hope of dealing with the Goliath quickly, taking it out of the equation. But before she could reach it, the Troll shaman made its next move, taking the dreamcatcher it had ripped of its staff and slapping it onto the Goliaths right hip like it was some kind of sticker.

And sticking to the monster it did, but that was far from all that happened. A red aura, similar to what they had experienced just a day prior, flared up around the Goliath. However, it was quickly joined by a green flame that spread out from the charm on its hip.

Alice jumped to the side, barely evading a thin root lashing out at her as another Lightning bolt crashed down from the sky, this time hitting the Goliath. However, it was too late. The two Auras had already started to mingle, mixing into a strange brown. And wherever that happened, roots sprang from the monster's skin, winding around its arms, legs, and body, quickly growing thicker and thicker until the wood grew into a thick armor. Too thick, in fact, for the lightning bolt to leave behind anything other than smoking, scorched Lichtenberg figures, and a small crater the size of a fist.

But before Alice could even consider using that as a weak spot, the wood already regrew, burned pieces falling out only for surrounding pieces to grow larger and fill in the gap, new, thinner roots growing out to fill in what little space was left.A

The monster roared, slamming both of its fists into the ground. However, instead of the stone spikes, Alice was used to, even more roots shot out of the ground all over the place, wiggling and waving around as they tried to grasp just about anything.

"Oh, for fucks sake!"