Taking Advantage of the Troll's Being Dumb

Now that the group had met a troll, Aurora was able to sniff them out, and they were able to head directly to the nearest one. Since they knew where they were going, they were able to spot it a ways away, as it was in a clearing in the trees.

“How should we deal with this one?” Kara asked as she unhooked a knife.

Damien thought for a few moments, then turned to Poppy. “Can you distract it by flying above it's head and distracting it? Don't let it hit you, but just keep it busy, then we'll attack it.”

Poppy nodded, then flew up high above the troll.

“Hey! You stink!” Poppy yelled down at it.

The troll, which was sitting, looked side to side as if trying to find the source of the voice.

Poppy started shooting Pixie Beam's at it's head, which seemed to anger it a bit as it stood up. After getting hit a dozen times, it finally looked up and saw Poppy, and began swinging it's club wildly around. Luckily, Poppy was well out of range, and the troll started jumping up trying to whack her.

'Try using your Pixie Dust' Damien Message'd to her.

Poppy started circling around, dropping her sleeping powder from her wings as the troll spun around with her.

Is it really... Damien thought, before his suspicion became reality and the troll stumbled and fell over from dizziness. After it fell, it didn't get back up, and looked to now be asleep as well.

“Should we go?” Bluey asked, squirming to jump out of their cover into the clearing.

Damien waited a moment, but it still wasn't moving, so he nodded.

Everyone jumped out into the clearing and started pounding the troll with spells and attacks. It started to wake up after a few moments, but writhed in agony and confusion as to what was going on. The group continued to pound on it until it eventually stopped moving.

Poppy flew down, hugging Damien. “Did I do it right?”

Damien smiled and patted her head. “Yeah, that was great, we can use that every time. Just keep being careful.”

They used the same strategy on two more trolls to success, before stopping for lunch.

After they were done eating, they continued on finding the nearest trolls. However, the first one after lunch turned out to be a group of three trolls together.

“Hold on Poppy,” Damien said as she started to fly out.

“What's wrong?”

“I'm a little worried about three of them...” he replied, holding his chin as he thought about the situation.

“We want to put them in a bad position, right?” Betty asked.

Damien nodded. “It's a little harder when there's three, even if we can put one to sleep, the others will just wake it up, and I'm not sure if it'll last long enough to put all three to sleep.” He felt a tap on his shoulder, and turned to look and see it had been Kara.

Kara had a confident look on her face, and said, “I have an idea, stay here for a bit.”

Damien nodded, deciding to trust Kara's idea. The group waited, watching the trolls mill about, one sharpening it's club with another club, while the other two sat next to a large fire, grunting over something.

A few minutes passed, and Kara returned, motioning them to follow her. The group went down the trail she had made in the brush until they found a ravine. It was probably between three and four meters across. “If we can get them to fall in here, we'll have an easy time just raining spells on them.”

Damien gave a big grin. “That's a great idea!”

Kara blushed slightly but smiled back.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“Won't it be dangerous on this side, though? What if they don't all fall?” Betty asked, keeping away from the edge while leaning to look down.

Kara thought for a moment. “We can go to the far side,” she said, jumping over.

“I don't think we all can,” he said over to her. Aurora was able to jump over just fine, and Bluey did with ease. Damien wasn't sure if he'd be able too, and Betty and Feya didn't even consider trying.

“Master, I got it,” Bluey said, bounding back over. She picked him up in a princess carry and bounded over, setting him down next to the others.

“Uhh...I guess that works,” Damien replied.

Bluey jumped back over to get Betty, and then Feya, until everyone was on the opposite side.

Damien motioned to Poppy, who flew back to the trolls.

They waited a few minutes, but weren't hearing anything. Damien Message'd 'Everything alright?'

A slightly exasperated Poppy replied back. Yes, it just took a bit to get them to follow me. They're coming now.

“They're coming,” Damien said. They soon heard some thundering footsteps and the sound of trees falling over as the trolls came into view.

Poppy flew over them, and they watched as the trolls came to the ravine. The first one seemed to completely not notice it, trying to step where open air was and falling into the opening. The second seemed to notice at the last minute but mistimed his jump, and went headfirst into the opposite wall of the ravine. The third one managed to stop in time, and started shouting across the ravine.

“Master...” Aurora said, but didn't get any farther as the yelling troll jumped the ravine, and them, landing behind them.

Shit...I didn't expect that.

The troll starting swinging wildly, and Betty and Feya put up a barrier to protect them. Aurora and Bluey had been too quick though, and were circling around the troll.

“Be careful!” Damien shouted.

“What about the other ones?” Betty said, trying to look behind them.

“Can you try and Bind them to keep them from trying to climb up? And Feya, Bind this one.”

Both did as he directed after letting the barriers down. Damien and Kara went over to where Aurora and Bluey were, casting spells from the sides.

“Should I grab it?” Bluey shouted.

“No, let's just keep circling and attacking it,” Damien shouted back.

This strategy seemed to work, as while it struggled against the Bind it couldn't seem to focus on one of them. However, after a bit they started to get low on MP, but the troll was still fighting, and starting to break free.

“Poppy, blind it,” he shouted.

However, Poppy didn't respond, and he couldn't see her.

Guess I'll do it, he thought, walking out in front of it.

The troll swung up it's club, so he used Pixie Sparkle to blind it.

Like the other trolls that had been blinded, it started swinging it's club around wildly.

“Master, I'm going to knock it over,” Bluey said, running up a tree. She then jumped off it, landing a kick on the troll's face while it couldn't see, causing it to drop it's club and falling over.

Kara ran up with two knives, slicing it's neck. It clutched at it, but it was bleeding heavily and losing strength quickly.

Damien didn't wait, and turned around. “Poppy!” 'Poppy, where are you?' he Message'd.

In the ravine Master.

Damien ran over and saw Betty still standing next to it.

“Did you get the other one?” Betty said, as she was focusing on her Bind spell.

“Yeah, it's a goner,” he said, before looking down.

Poppy was a bit below, and flew up when she saw him. “I was keeping these two busy since you didn't tell me to do anything.”

Damien smiled. “Good thinking.”

Poppy pointed to one, which looked curled up in a ball, “That one's leg is broken, and with the Bind spell, it could barely move, so I put it to sleep easily.” She pointed to the other, which was lying face down. “That one wasn't moving even without the Bind spell, but I put some Dust on it anyway.”

Damien nodded. Maybe it broke it's neck? The others had gathered around him, so he said, “Wait until our MP is back up, then we'll attack these two. Focus the curled up one first.”

The others all nodded and waited.

The rest of the fight was basically just sitting around waiting for their MP to recover. The curled up troll squirmed as it was attacked but was unable to do much. It tried to throw a rock but it didn't even get halfway up, then it seemed to give up, until they had finished it off. The one lying face down never even moved, and they just attacked it until they noticed they had gotten the XP for it.

After they were done, the group sat down and recovered for a bit, tired from the fight and the extensive magic use.

“That worked out great! We only have a couple more to do now,” Bluey said excitedly, giving a fist pump.

Damien nodded but sighed, “Yeah, I think I'd rather just fight one at a time, though. If we had to fight two at the same time there, that could have been dicey.”

The rest of the day, they searched for only trolls that were solo, until near dusk they had finally killed enough to complete their requests. Since it was getting late, they hiked a bit until they were out of any dangerous territory and set up camp.

“Should we stay and train more?” Bluey asked, obviously rearing to fight more trolls.

Damien wasn't sure. “I don't know, we did get a lot of XP, but I'd rather work on some quests.”

Betty chimed in, “Damien needs to go see Diana and Liz. Plus Carleen might need our help with wedding arrangements. We can't stay out of town for too long.”

Damien smiled and scratched his cheek. “Yeah, and that.”

Bluey seemed a bit down but nodded.

Feya grabbed Bluey's arm. “If they're busy, we can go on some training together! Kara will come, too!”

“Why are you volunteering me!? Not that I'd mind, of course...” Kara replied.

Bluey smiled and hugged her back.

Damien smiled as well, glad the group was looking out for each other, when he felt a tug on his shirt. He turned around to see Aurora looking up at him.

“Master?”

Damien turned around. “What's wrong?”

Aurora blushed slightly. “Um...could I discuss something with you when we are back?”

Damien raised an eyebrow. “Of course. We can talk now, if you want.”

Aurora blushed a bit more and shook her head. “I would like to do so privately.”

Damien, though slightly worried, nodded and gave her a hug. “Okay. I'm here if you need me.”

Aurora smiled and hugged him back. “I know.”