Bloodletting

*drinks blood*

The troll was all the while enjoying the last member of the first group, which was the knight that miraculously survived the incident where he was being thrown along with his steed at his partner. I just hoped that the troll wouldn't mind me having the body of the LvL 4 mage.

Sure, the knights and the archers might have magic too in order to strengthen their bodies or attacks, but most likely a lot less than a mage who used magic to form stuff like fireballs, the difference was obvious. That was at least my own theory for now. From where gets a knight the confidence to be able to block the attacks of a troll without ending up as a cripple after the first hit? They sure had the support of magic to heal or reinforce their bodies and stuff like that. It only made sense since I had cat-magic like Darksight or Sanguine Symbolum myself.

Anyway, I finished with the mage, and there was not much blood flowing out of his body anymore. Looking at the troll, I saw that he was sitting on his ass, chewing on the body parts of the three knights that were fighting him when I arrived at this place. He didn't eat the plate-armor but didn't bother about the chainmail below or about their thick leather garments.

Hmm…

I found out that his eyesight was somewhat crap and that the troll couldn't see me. Still, I was too afraid to get close to the LvL 4 mage because the muscle brute was just a couple of meters away from the corpse. Not being able to see me didn't mean that the troll couldn't hear or smell me. He wasn't really fast, but still quick enough to be able to catch me if I have bad luck. The risk was way too high, and while I did help the troll kill these people, I was still unsure if he even noticed my heroic actions, or if the brute even wants to share his food with me.

The troll eventually finished eating the knights and moved towards the mages. My heart sunk at the thought that I was unable to get their blood when he stuffed the lady mage - the one which legs I clawed - into his mouth. It was a gruesome scene, and the noises the troll as he ate made let me shudder in disgust. The whole area where the fight took place looked like a murder scene and was littered with blood, pieces of armor, bent weapons, and bits of flesh.

'Huh?'

My eyes widened when the troll didn't touch the LvL 4 mage. His eyes turned to me, or better said to the corpse I was sitting on before he began to move in my direction. I jumped off the body and raced in a circle around him to the corpse of the fire-mage.

'Maybe he did notice my actions after all?' – I asked myself in thought.

But didn't waste time and used my claws to cut the throat of the mage open so I could harvest his life elixir. Yes, blood was very nourishing, and I already felt the rune on my chest becoming slightly more active the more I drank. It made me feel like a vampire, and I couldn't say that being one was all that bad. People loved romance stories with vampires, after all! Hehehe…

The troll was sitting on the grassy earth a couple of meters opposite me and let the body of the LvL 3 mage disappear in his mouth before he just sat there, looking as if he was deep in thought.

'What a nice fellow' – I praised in the back of my head.

I was now sure that the troll was indeed aware of the little cat that followed him. Maybe he is able to see me but decided to ignore the little kitten? Who Knows! But the fact that he accepted my presence made me sigh in relief, and I could only hope that I would get more opportunities like this to consume high-quality stuff by accompanying the troll.

That didn't mean that I will be a parasite from now on, no, I would help the big fellow in his fights when possible or if it was even necessary. I have nothing else to do anyway, might as well see how the life of a troll looks like.

"Ok, big boy, you can have the rest," I miaowed in a satisfied tone and jumped off the mage.

My meows attracted the attention of the troll, and he turned his head to see that I was sitting a couple of meters beside the corpse of the LvL 4 mage. I watched him stand up and approach the body before he picked it up to stuff it into his bug maw like a burrito.

The troll might look humanoid, but the way he forcefully stuffed the body into his maw made me doubt that he had any organs below his iron-like skin – most likely a bottomless pit. It didn't escape my notice that he already devoured around nine humans, and his body still looked normal. Well, by troll standards. His size was only around a higher taller than the tallest human in the group, and eating nine bodies should have turned his rather flat belly into a balloon.

'Should be his magic's doing' – I thought to myself in the back of my head as I analyzed the situation.

It was just a crude guess, but the regeneration magic I saw when the humans attacked the troll should require a lot of resources. Food is making you healthy and strong after all, and the big boy in front of me was a living example of my theory.

"Don't tell me that you still want to attack the village?" I meowed in a questioning tone when I saw the troll stand up to move in the direction of the human settlement.

Not that I could do anything against it, so I decided to tag along.

…

It wasn't hard to miss the village at this point, and I could see thick pillars of smoke rising in the sky from it from a distance. The buildings were built close to each other and the troll must have destroyed a fireplace or something that set a house on fire.

Anyway, I followed the troll who picked up the mace he forgot about before he let his gaze roam across the burning village. A satisfied grunt escaped his maw before he turned again to walk back from where we came.

"Don't tell me that he is still hungry for more villages?" I miaowed in a thoughtful tone as I watched the big boy stop down on the crops with so much passion as if he was trying to split the earth in two.

'Looks like he really hates humans' – I analyzed thoughtfully in the back of my mind.

The troll killed goblins too, but not with so much fury and passion behind his moves. He didn't squeeze their heads to much or ripped their bodies in two with the same naked brutality. I had no idea if this was normal behavior for a troll or if the big fella had a grudge with humans.

Well, I could understand him if he was fooled by a hunchbacked old geezer - just like it happened to myself. I almost ended up as a brainwashed pupped of a human that wanted to sacrifice my life only to find some random fool that could inherit his shitty legacy. And how would that guy do that? By drinking my blood? Sucking my soul out? I don't know, but it would have ended very badly for the poor little me.

…

The troll continued his travel on an old country road that wasn't far from the place where he killed the nine humans. We only stopped in front of a small river where the troll destroyed the wooden bridge that connected the land, but not before he let me pass first. It was almost baffling how much he seemed to hate every sight of human civilization. What was surprising was that he actually recognized the bridge as what it was and not as a pile of wood.

It made me reevaluate the intelligence of the troll, and I started to honestly believe that the dumb look that loomed over his face was just a tool to fool his foes. His expression was totally different after he killed the nine adventurers, he didn't look dumb, but more like a hunter that was planning something.

The big boy wasn't just a pile of muscles but maybe intelligent at that, which made him even more dangerous than I previously thought. His body was extremely robust at that with long powerful arms that were armed with claws and a layer of dreadful dagger-like spikes of stone that were covering his back like a protective shield. His head was bald and somewhat unprotected, but I was sure that his skull was thick enough to break a rock in two with ease.

"Oh? Is that a merchant caravan?" I miaowed in surprise when I saw a bunch of carriages and carts that were loaded with leather-bags, jute sacks, pottery, iron tools, and pelts appearing in the distance.

The caravan was surrounded by a bunch of grim-looking men that looked like bandits, but I assumed that they were guards and that they looked like this to scare off people with bad intentions. I could also see a bunch of other people that looked slightly more friendly and cultured, they were currently screaming in horror while looking in my direction, and I assumed that these must be the merchants.

"So much bloodshed in a single day," I miaowed with a sigh when the troll speedup towards the caravan.

This world must be pretty shitty if stuff like this happened everywhere. Not even half a day passed, but I had already witnessed more deaths than the yearly death-counts that were caused by murder, robbery, and violence in the city I lived in.

Regardless of that, I started sprinting after the troll and followed him to the caravan. I couldn't care or feel to many emotions for a bunch of humans that would probably craft a bag or a pair of gloves out of my fur. Altruism was a slow-killing poison for beasts like me who had to live after the laws of the jungle.

"TROLL!!!"