Agility: 26
Dexterity: 29
Constitution: 146
Endurance: 72
Intelligence: 3
Wisdom: 2
Charisma: 2
Luck: 8
Well, that helped fuckall, he thought with irritation. Good to know that it’s an unstoppable killing machine that only gets stronger when it eats us! Still, if it was to be done, best to be done quickly! He ran at the wild troll, raising one sword. The chaos seed had pushed beyond the goblin line, but the battle had degraded to a brawl, and clear lines were hard to find. Sion was right behind him.
Richter’s left short sword was raised high, but at the last minute, he ducked low, aiming to chop through the troll’s leg. Richter executed a nearly flawless Reaping Wheat. His moonstone blade bit into the troll’s leg followed by his Sonic Elementum Short Sword. Both cut deep but failed to sever the tree trunk-thick limb.
It screamed, more in rage than anger. Richter reversed his blades to finish the amputation. Before he could attack again, though, one of the troll’s oversized hands struck him hard in the chest. Its black claws scored against his chest plate, but thanks to his new gaseous form, Richter avoided being impaled. The troll’s hand hit as hard as a warhammer, and the chaos seed went spinning through the air. He landed behind fifteen feet away and knocked down two of his own healers.
“Shitttt,” he moaned. That had gone horribly! Richter got back to his feet, though and ran back into the fray.
Meanwhile, the panther had dealt elegantly with the shield wall facing it. The damn thing had jumped over it! In the space of seconds, it had killed two aeromancers and one biomage with sweeps of its terrible claws. The villagers rallied, but the shield wall was broken. Richter’s guards fought back against it, but even their enchanted blades did little damage against its magically strengthened fur and skin. Caulder led the counterassault, his body hazy from having imbibed a Potion of Gaseous Form, but even his heavy mace had little effect.
The goblins were not wasting the opportunity. They attacked with renewed vigor, wearing the defenders down. Caught between the deadly panther and the bloodthirsty goblins, Richter’s people began to die.
The troll was wreaking devastation as well. Its insanely high strength and absolute disregard for damage had let it cut deep into the villagers’ ranks. So deep in fact that the shield wall had been able to reform and the allied forces were able to form a cohesive defense against the goblins and their troll allies.
Guards back from the front line continued to face the mountain troll with shields, but each swing of its preternaturally long arms knocked men back and sometimes caused major damage. Sion and Terrod were occupying its attention now, both of their bodies hazy, as Richter leaped back into the fray. The agile sprite was moving as quickly as possible, stabbing the troll here and there. The wounds inflicted with his poisoned short sword took longer to heal than other injuries, but the troll’s flesh was still closing. The poison had also worn off, and now Sion was doing little more than annoying it. Meanwhile, the goblins and troll mercenaries were bearing down on village soldiers as well. If not for the withering fire of the sprites, the guards would most likely have been in full rout.
Sion’s luck finally ran out, and he took a hard swipe on the side. Just like Richter, the sprite went spinning end over end and landed in a heap. The troll turned its attention to another one of the meidon sprites. It struck savagely, and the sprite went down with a cry. Red blood dripped from the ends of its claws. It reached down and pulled the sprite’s arm free, shoving the limb in its mouth, armor and all. As it chewed, its wounds started closing faster than before. The meidon sprite lay on the ground, shock having already set in. Another swipe of the troll’s claws ended his life and, miles away, a pixie screamed and went feral.
Richter got closer to the troll and saw that the wound he had inflicted on its leg was still open, but it was barely bleeding and was half as large as it should have been. The troll had turned its full attention on the captain. Terrod was completely on the defensive. His high steel kite shield was held up in front of him, but the troll’s fifty-two points of Strength were like boulders falling from the sky. Other guards were stabbing and striking the troll, but it didn’t even notice, fully intent on killing Richter’s Companion.
The chaos seed was about to dive back into battle when something caught his eye. It was a detail he hadn’t noticed before, but as the troll reared up to scream in rage, Richter saw a glint on the creature’s neck. His identification Talent activated and suddenly he possessed in-depth information about the enchanted item.
You have found:
Trollium Collar of Submission
Durability: 112/267
Item Class: Scarce
Quality: Well Crafted
Weight: 0.7 kg
Traits: If you manage to collar a monster with this item, they will become your slave. The monster will be unable to harm you and will strictly follow your commands. Can only be used once.
Richter’s eyes widened. He had assumed that the troll soldiers had tamed the beast or that they had some type of racial magic to make it fight on their side. It turned out it was much more simple. It also gave him an absolutely horrible idea.
The chaos seed ran at the troll’s back and jumped as high as he could. One blade plunged into the monster’s back. The troll roared and turned quickly. Richter’s legs flew out to the side as if he and the troll were a spinning top, but he maintained his grip. With a hard pull, Richter leveraged himself closer to the monster and slammed his second blade even higher into the troll’s back.
Once again, everything seemed to stop for a moment, and all sound faded away. An inane, possibly insane, part of his brain noted that this was the second time he had climbed using his weapons in the past two days. He really had to get some of those climbing claws. The world sped back up, and the troll’s rage-filled scream filled his ears.