Laying wide eyed and frozen, Noa felt as if the One Ring to Rule Them All was luring him to his very doom. It was, in every sense, alluring; he desired to follow the word.

“Concede!” the [Druid] whispered to him again. Then came promises, the image before Noa shifting. The cavern fell away, as did the adrenaline, a sense of peace being beaten into his very soul, if even for this moment.

This moment in which he stood in front of... a mirror?

Noa, his expression quizzical, saw himself. Thick robes of white and gold laid over his shoulders, at least, in the mirror. He himself wore something very different. Tan linens, very unfashionable in comparison. Frodo most definitely wore something better when he had to deal with the ring.

Cursed mithril through half the journey! Noa couldn’t help but note, really wishing for something similar.

Turning away from the mirror, he looked about the room. It was quaint, holding nothing more than a cot and what could maybe pass for a laundry basket. Looking back at the mirror, the room behind his other self was very different━extravagant with beautifully carved white walls, gold trimming, and significantly more comfortable furniture.

“Come. Be the real you,” a whisper coaxed him, as did his other self, offering a hand out to him.

It... looked so easy. A force egging him on, and his current struggles... his current struggles...

What was I doing? Noa thought, clenching his jaw. It was important, he was... he was...

“Come. Be the [Grand Healer] you were meant to be!”

Huh?

The mirror shattered, the illusion breaking. As the mirror fell away, the sky, framed by a stony ceiling, gradually took its place. The centerpiece the lion that the [Druid] maintained his place on, reality no longer the distant memory it felt only moments ago.

Noa could feel the [Druid] desperately clawing at his brain, trying to find another way. He threw in a multitude of “desires”. Women, money, prestige, and with each one, Noa couldn’t help the laugh that escaped his mouth.

The One Ring, in a sense, had failed to do his job properly. I’m going to be a [Quickener], nitwit! he thought, feeling the [Druid] recoil entirely. In place of a mental attack came a roar from the lion, the [Druid] dismounting it. The maned beast leapt from its perch, jaw gaping and claws stretching as it flew towards Noa.

Mama Troll whipped about, Noa being shoved to one side of the basket from the inertia. He heard the punch, then something hard hit the ground several times.

“Not today, stupid. Fat. Kitty!” Mama Troll bellowed, and Noa cackled.

He hopped up, Mama Troll poised to give the lion another beating. The large beast, easily twice the size of the females, rolled up to its feet, beady red eyes staring them down.

“How’s your hand, Mama?” Noa asked.

“How do you think? It’s broken!”

Oh.

Noa drew two strands of Aether from his ruby, which had about half its light left. Pressing one to Mama Troll’s crooked looking hand, he got the sense that three fingers were fractured using one spell of [Lesser Examination].

System [Lesser Examination] level 29 → 30.

Pressing the second strand to it, Noa━

“Ack!” he let out, jerking to the other side of the basket as Mama troll jumped back, dodging. Miraculously, he managed to hold onto the singular strand of aether. That lasted all of two seconds when the lion came at them again.

Mama Troll jumped, simultaneously slamming her elbow into the head of the beast, throwing it aside.

“Let’s play, Kitty,” Mama Troll sneered.

Noa wasn’t entirely sure if the pregnant woman even needed her hand healed, and he was starting to get a certain... inkling.

Are women trolls stronger than men trolls? he thought.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

As if on cue, Chief took her turn at the lion, giving it a flying kick to the side. She threw it off kilter, giving more space for Mama Troll to back up and Baby-blue to step in front of her.

“Slingers, form a defensive perimeter. Focus your attacks on the females! I want one spearman for every two slingers to defend them. Everyone else, take out the male!” Armael barked, slingers moving to do so, leaving the male lion as the only beast within their inner circle. “Noa, I will continue to perform [Area Heal] for severe injuries. Focus on moderate ones. Leave minor and superficial injuries be.”

“Got it!” Noa nodded, the male lion lashing out towards Baby-blue. Disallowing the beast passage by him, he used his oversized spear to guard against it.

A grunt escaped Baby-blue, a massive claw digging its way in his shoulder, its reach eerily impressive. Bolstering its strength, the lion pressed on, the spear cracking. However, as Chief went to grab at its tail, it leapt to the side, rebounding on a third, full sized yellow troll. The troll stabbed at it, his spear hitting air as the lion sped right past it.

Noa, gripping tighter to the basket’s edge, prepared two strands of aether as the lion bit down on Yellow’s arm. He shot the strands towards the troll, the lion’s massive mane obscuring his view entirely.

Come on, move! Noa cringed, the lion shaking its massive head to tear at the limb. Yellow jerked with the action, grabbing at the lion’s fur to stabilize somehow. Before the worst could happen, the beast released Yellow, jumping away as if it knew that Chief was coming in behind it. Moving further, it passed a spearman on another side, and bounded across the stony earth back towards Baby-blue.

Along the way, it dodged yet another spear coming after it, and...

“Armael!” Noa called, casting [Lesser Examination] on Yellow’s arm. “Is the [Druid] feeding information to the king?”

System [Lesser Examination] level 30 → 31.

“Not possible, not with the number of lions he’s sired. It’d be too much at once,” Armael said.

“Male lions lead the pride,” Mama Troll voiced, taking several steps back as Baby-blue slid past the lion, grabbing its back leg just before it could reach Mama Troll’s readied fist. He yanked, impressively tossing the lion back towards Chief.

Noa pressed his second aether strand against the moderate wound, having to pause to continue the conversation. Focusing on both was nearly impossible. “Is it possible, if that’s the case, that the [Druid] only needs to control the male lion to get the females to fight?”

“The females do as he commands,” Mama Troll said, tensing and spreading her stance when Scar II bounded back towards them, gaining only scratches from the attacking spearmen.

“Curses!” Armael swore. “Then that [Druid] has more aether than we can reasonably fight against. I need a slinger with the best aim!”

Baby-blue, acting as a last line of defense to the healers, bellowed as he grabbed the animal’s tail. He ripped it backwards, but the beast pushed forward. With a sickening sound, the tail popped off, and Noa recoiled.

Mama troll threw a fist, but the lion’s jaw snapped at her arm, crushing the fist, and arm in its massive bite. The rest of its form collided with the pregnant troll, and Noa gasped, falling back with the troll.

Crap! Noa yelled, scrambling to find a safe place to jump to as they fell, knowing that he and his basket would be crushed under the weight of a pregnant troll and a stupid. Fat. Kitty!

He leaped as they neared the ground, miraculously clearing the troll’s shoulder before hitting and rolling against rocks. Stumbling away, he turned, looking over his shoulder. A paw, claws nearly as big as he was, loomed over his form.

“Help!” Noa called, tripping over himself to move faster.

The paw came down, catching his legs. Noa collapsed, the wind knocked from him, yet he scrambled, grabbing at rocks to free himself.

“Help!” he called as soon as he filled his lungs, grunting and shaking as he desperately tried to free his trapped legs.

“Noa, kid!” Armael called, running towards him. He grabbed an arm, pulling.

“Holy curses you cursing man, run!” Noa screamed, his heart about ready to beat right out of his chest from his current rescuer’s stupidity! Why hadn’t a troll━

A distinct pressure was freed from his legs, and Armael dropped Noa’s arm. Noa turned, blinking. The lion, part of it still laying over an evolved Mama Troll, had four massive spears sticking out of its back. Baby-blue and Chief were lifting the other end of it from Noa to free Mama Troll. A now evolved Yellow was lifting the paw to free Noa. He scampered out from beneath it, allowing Yellow to put the paw down.

Glancing up at the ceiling, Noa saw that the [Druid] was gone.

“What...?”

Armael, giving a highly amused chuckle━the meaner━said, “One of the slingers killed him with a stone. Saved your life, kid.”

“It’s over?” Noa asked.

“Some of the spearmen are cleaning up the lionesses, others have fled now that the king is dead,” Armael explained. “Shame that we couldn’t capture the [Druid] alive. He was definitely targeting you, but now we don’t know who wants you dead.”

“The monarchy?” Noa asked, standing up and uselessly wiping his singular pant leg off.

Armael snorted. “That’s silly. Someone else, more likely. You’re too well known and too well liked at this point for the monarchy to want to assassinate you and deal with the political upheaval that would cause with the church.”

“Oh, that’s... both concerning and good to know,” Noa said, looking around as trolls began to gather around the dead king. About half of them were evolved, which was satisfying and aggravating. He did not want to have anymore battles like that one.

“I expected a better evolution turn out,” Armael said, humming. “Only one of the pregnant trolls evolved. Not many slingers evolved... Suppose we’ll need to hunt down the rest of the lionesses.”

“Or,” Noa held up a finger, “We don’t.”

“We need them evolved,” Armael raised an eyebrow, crossing his arms, his sleeves blending into the folds of his robes.

“Right...” Noa hummed, thinking. “Trolls need to push past their limits to evolve...” he said, considering potential options.

“Yes,” Armael affirmed.

Athletes are always pushing past their limits. Does this world have sports?

“Have you ever heard of football?” Noa asked.