Warlock Apprentice
Chapter 1657: Section 1658: Trom’s Predicament

Chapter 1657: Section 1658: Trom’s Predicament

Trom’s engagement with the Ocean Troll didn’t go as smoothly as he had anticipated.

Although the Ocean Troll was slightly slower in attack speed, its anticipation of attack trajectories was almost comparable to Mind Reading Technique. Trom often found that the Ocean Troll could almost guess his intentions, even if he was launching a surprise attack, the Ocean Troll would react immediately, making Trom feel restricted.

Moreover, each counterattack of the Ocean Troll was nearly at the Wizard Level in energy. Every hit Trom took could cost him half his life. Therefore, Trom had to expend more physical strength to evade the Ocean Troll’s assaults.

Before discovering the Ocean Troll’s weakness, Trom was trapped in this vicious cycle.

He thought he was "dragging it out," but it felt more like being "cornered" by the Ocean Troll in an unsolvable loop. As time passed, Trom’s physical strength waned, and the scale of victory inclined more towards the Ocean Troll.

Trom was aware of it, but his attacks were ineffective against the Ocean Troll, and without finding a weakness, he became extremely anxious.

Anxiety leads to mistakes.

Just like now, Trom’s anxiety caused him to slightly enlarge his evasive trajectory, and the Ocean Troll immediately captured this opening. The Ocean Troll swung its Trident, predicting Trom’s movement and thrust it down fiercely.

Trom had quick reflexes and immediately understood the Ocean Troll’s intention. He tried to change direction but found that as the Ocean Troll swung its Trident, numerous water pillars rose from the sea surface, blocking all his escape routes.

Trom reproached himself for being too anxious, but regrets were of no use now; he had to find a way to break through the current dilemma.

He quickly calmed his mind and soon identified the only escape route—

Continue forward!

Only the direction where the Ocean Troll swung its Trident was free from the blockade of water pillars. If he was fast enough, he might be able to escape before the Trident struck.

Once he set his goal, Trom gathered his strength, transforming into an arrow shooting forward.

The final outcome proved Trom’s judgment was not wrong. He successfully evaded the ordeal, but he still slightly underestimated the terrifying water energy attached to the Trident.

Although he was not impaled by the Trident, the energy fluctuations generated as it descended grazed him.

Merely being grazed by the energy waves, Trom felt as if he had been directly hit by a herd of magical bulls, his insides felt shaken.

And this was just a mere graze, plus he was protected by Cassiomere’s fur, yet it was still so painful. One could imagine how tragic it would be to be seriously hit head-on.

Of course, given Trom’s current physical condition, such injuries seemed to be no big deal. But now he has another troubling issue; in his effort to avoid a deathly strike from the Trident, he had used up almost eighty percent of his remaining strength. Now, his physical power was nearly depleted.

If he couldn’t find the giant troll’s weakness, surrender was the only option left.

Just thinking about surrender made Trom feel a headache coming on.

This giant troll, by all means, should have been an opponent he and Onassis faced together. But in the end, Onassis, because of the beating from Trom that left him immobile, got pulled into the unknown seas by the whirlpool, leaving Trom to face the giant troll alone.

Most importantly, the fact that the match hadn’t ended indicated that Onassis was not dead yet!

Perhaps right now, Onassis was hiding somewhere, silently watching Trom’s struggle with the Ocean Troll. He wouldn’t have to lift a finger to secure an easy victory.

The thought of this made Trom’s teeth itch. How could such a solid situation have gone wrong?

That Water Pattern Witch must have been toxic, shouldn’t the final be about witnessing his and Onassis’s glorious fight? Why did she draw such a dreadful scenario!

Trom grew angrier the more he thought about it, with Onassis’s face popping up in his mind one moment, and the Water Pattern Witch’s face the next.

If he had to admit defeat for not winning against the giant trolls and settle for second place in the New Star Competition, he would find it hard to accept such an outcome.

While Trom was lost in his thoughts, he failed to notice that the water vapor around him was mysteriously increasing.

When the density of the water vapor reached a certain level, the Ocean Troll suddenly let out a loud roar. This roar seemed to carry an energy fluctuation that made Trom feel dizzy. By the time he regained his senses, he was horrified to discover that he was trapped in a bubble.

Unbeknownst to him, the surrounding water vapor had formed a pale blue bubble that unfortunately enveloped Trom.

On this bubble, there was the familiar presence of Water Elemental Energy, which undoubtedly was the handiwork of the Ocean Troll.

Trom could only curse his carelessness while rapidly looking for a way to escape the bubble.

After all, having mingled in the Abyss for many years, Trom had seen all sorts of strange tactics and had a wealth of combat experience. With a calm mind, he quickly figured out how to break free from the bubble—by targeting the weak point of the energy and launching a fierce attack to shatter it.

Trom took two seconds to locate the weak point of the energy, then he didn’t hesitate to launch an attack at this point.

But at that moment, the Ocean Troll’s Trident was also aimed at Trom.

The Ocean Troll raised his right hand high, wielding the Trident and stabbed viciously towards the bubble where Trom was. Trom had to break the bubble quickly — once it burst, he could escape.

However, the bubble was tougher than he had imagined, Trom immediately realized upon contact.

Even with all his strength, it would take two to three seconds to break through. Judging by the Ocean Troll’s speed of attack, after two seconds, he would definitely be impaled by the Trident!

Thinking of this, Trom clenched his teeth, pulled back the attacks he had already launched, and switched from offense to defense, covering his body with defensive energy. At the same time, he took out Cassiomere’s fur and draped it over himself.

He was prepared to endure this strike.

Watching the Trident getting closer and closer, Trom’s heartbeat almost reached his throat. He didn’t know if choosing to endure was the right decision, but he just didn’t want to give up so easily.

Boom——

After the loud noise, Trom did not feel any pain in his body.

Could it be that the pain had exceeded the limit of the brain’s warning mechanism and had become numb instead? Or was it that his body was already dead and what was thinking now was his soul, hence he felt no pain?

Trom couldn’t help looking forward, but unfortunately, his vision was obstructed by the intense white light, and he couldn’t see anything.

However, this white light didn’t last long and gradually dissipated.

At that moment, Trom finally saw the situation in front of him.

He was not dead, nor had his body become numb from reaching the peak of pain as he imagined. Instead, the Trident had not struck him at all.

The Trident had come to a halt several meters away from the bubble.