Lazybones
Adventurer
Thanks, fixed that.Drowbane said:"anarchic blade flaring with power as it opened terrible wounds in the bodies of the chaotic trolls"
Shouldn't that be "...axiomatic blade..."
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Chapter 144
BLOOD AND ASHES
Talen felt like his body was about to explode. The troll holding onto him continued to pound his arm into the boulder, but Talen stubbornly refused to relinquish his grip on his weapon. The other troll, the one whose arm he’d taken off, had gotten back up and apparently had decided to get into the game as well, picking up a rock and smashing it into Talen’s head. Even through his full helm, the blow sent a flare of bright lights dancing across his vision, and he tasted his own blood, warm and salty in his mouth.
A shadow fell over him, and suddenly the troll holding him was flung backward as a loud scream echoed through Talen’s battered senses. Blinking against the flashing lights that still threatened to blind him, he saw the troll battling a creature of wings and claws almost as big as it was. The other troll, the one that had bashed him with a rock, was reaching for a smaller form that Talen only belatedly recognized as Varo.
Talen tried to shout a warcry, but it only came out as a bloody hiss. He made his point, however, as he thrust the full length of Beatus Incendia into the troll’s body. The creature screamed and collapsed as the holy sword pierced it, and this time, it didn’t get up, at least not at once.
“Good timing,” Talen tried to say, but only gibberish came out. He would have fallen, but Varo held him up, leaning him against the boulder as he began casting a healing spell.
Allera tried to squirm free of the troll holding her, but its claw holding her leg may as well have been a steel cable for all her efforts. She was not frail by any means, but her leg was already growing numb, and she knew that it if the troll got a secure purchase with its other claw, it would tear her apart. She heard an angry trill from somewhere above, but she wasn’t entirely sure what Snaggletooth could do to help her; for all the dragon’s will and magic, it was still only a foot and a half long.
She caught sight of a shadow passing above her, and then something shot right past her head into the troll. The creature stiffened, and Allera felt its grasp loosen. The healer at once pulled herself up, to see Shay standing there, her sword buried into the monster’s throat.
“Thanks,” the healer said. But the scout had already drawn out her sword, and was rushing to the aid of the others.
Dar had been driven to the ground by his foe, but felt an incredible pressure as the troll bit down on his neck—thankfully protected by a gorget, or his story might have ended right there. Even as the curved metal plate began to buckle, Dar thrust Valor up blindly into the troll’s face. The creature screamed as the sword pierced its right eye, and it fell back off him. He rolled over to see another troll looming over him, but before either of them could strike, an arrow slammed hard into it, and it turned just in time for Shay to leap into it, burying her sword deep into its gut. The troll swatted her, but its movements were slow, and the scout rolled with the hit, coming up into a crouch a few feet away.
Baraka Suhn had come to aid of Travius, opening deep gashes in the troll’s legs with his sickles. The pair continued cutting the troll as it fell to the ground. Bullo was still locked in its embrace, the fighter no longer moving. Allera was there at once to help them roll the heavy monster off the fighter, whose limp body was soaked with blood. She reached in between the troll’s leathery arms and touched his neck, letting out a sigh of relief at the fluttering pulse she felt there. She immediately started casting a healing spell.
The only trolls left standing were the pair between Dar and Shay, both covered in grievous wounds. Varo’s summoned griffon was tearing apart another on the far side of the boulder mound, while Kalend applied oil from his flask to another that was just beginning to stir once more. Several other bodies were still moving.
“Commander, your sword!” Varo urged. “You can destroy them before they regenerate!”
Talen, still barely able to walk despite Varo’s healing, nodded and staggered over to the nearest body. With a roar he clove the troll’s skull with the burning sword, holding the blade in place until the troll’s flesh had melted away from the holy flame. Then he headed over to the next, stabbing it in the heart even as it tried to get back up.
Dar and Shay had already put down the last pair, and Shay was already getting oil out of her bag of holding, while Dar looked around for any that looked ready to get back up anytime soon. The fighter’s cloak and surcoat had been torn away from his body, leaving only dull metal caked with mud mixed with black troll blood.
From that point, it was just cleanup. The troll that Snaggletooth had befuddled with his breath weapon did not return; possibly it saw the smoke rising from the pyres of its brethren, and elected to avoid a similar fate.
“We would be wise not to linger here,” Varo said, as his summoned steed vanished back into the aether from which had appeared. The cleric had escaped serious damage in the melee, but that was more that could be said for most of his companions. Bullo had been brought to the very brink of death before Allera had yanked him back, and Talen and Dar might have joined him, but for the healer’s potent mass cure spell during the melee. The clerics assisted the healer in treating their wounds, using their innate abilities to conserve as much of the power in their wands as possible.
“Perhaps we should seek out another fortified place to rest, before proceeding,” Pella said. The archer had fired most of her shafts, but Shay had a few extra bundles in the bag of holding, enabling the armswoman to refresh her quiver during the lull.
Shay shook her head as she handed arrows to the archer. “That storm will hit within the hour, and it won’t be pleasant up here when it comes. And it will be that much harder to get down into the gorge with the rain and wind.”
Talen nodded. “Do what you need to do, but Shay’s right. We’re moving on.”
The companions cleaned their clothes and gear as best they could, and once the healers had finished their work, they gathered again at the edge of the cliff, leaving eight burning mounds pouring smoke into the dreary sky behind them.