Chapter 553 - 553. Control

The large brown troll was the settlement boss, Warrior Cave Troll, a level 35 special elite. Jeanny held the players who were just about to head out to engage the monster.

"I will deal with it," Jeanny said.

"Sis, do you want me to support you with my music?" Viral Cora asked.

"No need," Jeanny replied as she moved forward.

The Warrior Cave Troll was holding a giant cleaver. It hit its large cleaver onto the ground several times as it walked, creating cracks along its way. Small sparks of lightning could also be seen whenever the cleaver hit the ground.

Jeanny twirled her spear before lowering her stance as she waited for the boss to make its move.

The boss stopped some distance away from Jeanny as it observed the crowd behind the spearwoman. The crowd was appearing to let this spearwoman fight by herself. The troll snickered. They were underestimating it a little too much.

The snicker turned to a growl. The large cleaver that was on the ground, were violently heaved upward. The crescent-shaped lightning energy shot out, cutting the ground as it headed towards Jeanny, creating a long deep groove along its path.

Jeanny was expecting to engage the boss in melee, so she was slightly surprised by this long-range attack. She was not flustered, though. The crescent came as a vertical attack. She spun her body to the side, evading the crescent energy.

"Look out!" Jeanny heard Viral shout as she landed.

Jeanny was shocked to find another crescent energy approach. This time the crescent attack was horizontal. She jumped up. The inherent skill of a Dragoon allowed her to jump 300% higher than normal, similar to Assassin, Battle Monk, and Hidden Weapon Specialist.

The troll boss, seeing his opponent was in the air, made a super jump itself. it used two arms to swing its cleaver with all its might at Jeanny.

The troll must have assumed that Jeanny was powerless in the air due to no footing. But ever since becoming a Dragoon and receiving the boost in jump, Jeanny had practiced fighting in the air. Her Jump Attack skill could even bring her five meters into the air, higher than her normal jump. She couldn't expect her opponent to stay at the same position after teleporting, so she had to learn to adjust her stab mid-flight.

Her diligence had paid off. She was not unhinged when the troll boss came at her in the air. She thrust her spear as the troll's cleaver arrived. Jeanny had practiced so that she could unleash Seven Spears Assaulting Heaven even on air.

Her first thrust clashed with the troll's cleaver, resulting in a loud clang. Her second thrust caused the cleaver to be thrown back, exposing the troll. Her third spear stabbed at the troll's neck, causing critical damage. Her fourth spear stabbed in between its eyes, scoring another critical. She added Penetrating Stab into the fourth stab, amplifying its damage.

The four spears had been executed in rapid succession. Jeanny then kicked the troll before somersaulting backward and landing. The troll, on the other hand, fell heavily on its back.

Her teammates cheered seeing the spectacle.

"That's our leader!" Bowler yelled.

The troll rose back up, it shook its head while holding it with one hand. Its eyes glared at Jeanny. The growl that came out was no longer condescending but was instead full of rage.

It furiously hit the ground with its cleaver multiple time, then roared loudly. It lifted its cleaver high and held it with two hands, lightning crackles around the cleaver. Seeing that pose, Jack, who watched from afar half-expecting the troll boss to start uttering the most badass battle cry in history, "thunder… thunder… thunder… thundertroll, ho…!!" But disappointingly, the troll only roared intelligible syllables. The large cleaver, however, started shining yellow. Clouds of yellow lightning enveloped and swirled around it. The cleaver also seemed to be getting even larger.

The troll boss lunged. It swung its cleaver horizontally. Surprisingly, an energy wave followed its swing, extending two meters away from the cleaver. The energy destroyed everything in its path.

Jeanny, who thought she was standing outside of the troll's swing, was caught off-guard by this energy wave. She hurriedly placed her spear in front of her to parry. When the energy wave hit, she was still blasted away, suffering almost 1000 lightning damage despite the parry. Jeanny had 2710 HP in her current level of 38. This one hit took away more than one-third of her life.

Jeanny fell hard on her back, her body felt numb from the lightning energy. The troll boss was chasing after her. Giant Steve almost rushed out to help, but Jeanny deftly bounced herself up to a standing position. "I'm fine!" She cried, preventing the others from coming to her aid.

The troll boss lifted its cleaver high up and cleaved down. Jeanny jumped to the side and rolled on the ground as the cleaver crashed into the ground, creating a spectacular explosion.

It didn't stop, it dragged its cleaver on the ground in a circular swing motion. The energy wave again followed, about to devour Jeanny who was still in a sitting position after her roll. As the energy wave was about to hit her body again, she vanished.

Confused, the troll looked left and right, searching the spearwoman. Suddenly, a spear pierced into its skull from above. Jeanny had been ready for the energy wave and used Jump Attack to both evade the attack and deliver her counterattack.

From the troll's head, Jeanny then jumped to its back. She executed Hundred Spear skill to the monster's back. Uncountable spear images pierced through the troll's back. The troll wanted to swing its cleaver to its back, but Jeanny stabbed at its elbow, stopping its swing.

The troll wanted to swivel its body to face Jeanny, but Jeanny also moved following the monster's back, while stabbing at its knee to slow its turning. Every time the monster tried to turn or hit its back, Jeanny used her spear to prevent it or move herself to stay on her opponent's back.

"She was very good at controlling her opponent," Jack commented.

"Yes. She got the knack of it, whether controlling her friends or her opponents," Domon said.

"Then why only teach her a pure offense spear art?" Jack asked.

"Who said I only teach her a pure offense art?" Domon asked back.

"But, I only saw her using Seven Spears Assaulting Heaven."

"You are not paying enough attention. Look at her footwork."

Now that Jack paid attention, Jeanny movements were indeed profound. It was as if she could predict where her opponents would be moving to before they actually moved, and adjusted her position to follow. All the while using her spear to limit her opponent's movements.

"What's that art called?" Jack asked.

"No name," Domon answered. "It's a modification of Eight Diagram Illusory Steps and her ability to read and predict opponent's move. Not quite mana-sensing, but close. She was very observant of every detail of her opponent's movement to make the prediction. I simply aided in sharpening that particular instinct of hers. Once her opponent got trapped in her control, it would be very difficult to escape."

The troll boss was helpless as Jeanny kept on restricting its movements and harassing it from its back. At one point of desperation, it decided to jump high. But Jeanny had also jumped before it did. She then swung her spear downward and smashed the troll that was coming up. The troll ended up getting slammed back into the ground.

The fight became one-sided. The others who were tense and were ready to give aid once they saw Jeanny was in trouble, was now relaxing. Some were even sitting on the ground as if leisurely watching a show.

After some while, the troll boss dropped dead and turned into dust. Some gold coins, mana cores, and equipment dropped. Jeanny picked them up before giving her order, "let's destroy the settlement core."

"Allow me!" The Man uttered. There was no more guardian. Destroying the core was child play under this situation. The Man and some of his minions started hacking at it until it crumbled. Bright light soon appeared accompanied by a shower of loots.

When Jack arrived here, he had been added to Jeanny's party. Jeanny's leadership was at Advanced Expert now, allowing her to form a team of seventy players. Since they numbered almost one hundred players, there were originally two teams that assaulted this monster settlement. But around thirty players had perished due to Crowds of Sins' assault. So the two teams were reshuffled into one party under Jeanny, including Jack who arrived later.

With him in the party, Jack also received abundant exp points for clearing this settlement. The exp might have been divided between almost seventy players, but this was still a high-level monster settlement. Since Jack had set all the exp to go into his new ranger class, it shot up from level 1 straight to level 8.

Seeing his ranger's level, he said to Peniel, "I need to level up this ranger class to level 15 first and get the advanced class before we continue looking for Aubelard."