Chasing the younger boy through the woods was somewhat nostalgic for Adam. It reminded him of better times in the orphanage, the times before Harold. In those days, he had been trying to have fun with the younger children, and they played games and chased each other all over the expansive structure. Or at least they would until the guards and caretakers put a stop to it.
Of course there were differences.
Trees instead of walls, trolls instead of guards, screams of fear instead of laughter. Realization of the last point calmed Adam enough to stop with the roaring. It had been funny at first, but he was starting to feel bad for scaring Jay so much. He also didn’t want the boy in pants wetting terror. No wet bottomed boy would be riding him.
It was only later that he realized his mistake.
He hadn’t needed to herd Jay in the correct direction, as he’d run exactly where they needed to. At the beginning of their little adventure running through the woods, he had even caught a glimpse of Martin’s shocked face, before it was lost to the foliage and distance. Their path had been decided based on the idea of there being less trolls on it. Less did not mean none.
Unbeknownst to most people, trolls were cautious of bears. They weren’t afraid, simply wary. This caused them to give bears a healthy respect that trolls were normally incapable of, except in cases of direst purpose. Dragons, for instance. Bears weren’t exactly capable of killing a troll, but they could easily overpower them. With their regeneration, trolls were often hunted down by bears to serve as long term provisions during birthing seasons. A sow, knowing she’d be dropping cubs soon, would find a troll and crush it into being incapable of resistance. Then she’d drag it back to her den, where she would keep it broken and pinned while she tore off limbs to eat or feed to her cubs. Once the cubs were large enough to search for food on their own, the troll would be beaten and dismembered into a near death state, and left somewhere else. Naturally, the survivors of such treatment warned the rest of their kindred, and a culture where bears were avoided as best they could be was born.
When Adam was roaring through the forest in pursuit of Jay, the trolls, as much as they were capable, had all breathed a sigh of relief that the bear was planning to eat something else. However, not all trolls had heard or seen Adam during his chase. And once he stopped roaring, there was no longer a safe barrier around Jay. Adam had no idea that their amusing, but ultimately safe, passage through the forest was already at an end.
From thirty yards back, Adam watched a troll step out of the shadows of a tree, where it had been perfectly camouflaged. Jay, ten yards closer, took a few more steps before freezing solid, the scream dying in his throat. Unlike the other boy, Adam didn’t stop running. As he pushed himself to move even faster in the face of impending death, he contemplated the things he could have done to prevent the only outcome he could see.
Maul wasn’t the only skill he had opened up in the Protection tree. There had been a skill that increased the fearing effect of his roar, as well as a charging skill. Either would have been perfect to save Jay from the troll barrelling down on the frozen boy. Even Maul would have been useful to help him fight the ambulatory stench monster. With its increased severity of damage dealt and healing prevention, it was nearly perfect for fighting trolls. Or he could have also used Shhhhh to silence Jay’s screams, preventing him from calling down every troll in the area.
The one thing he didn’t remember was the actual effects of Mama Bear.
Mama Bear: All mothers should be protective of their children, but a Mother takes it to an extreme. Much like the wild bear this skill transforms the user into, Mothers will give their everything to defend their children from harm. Be warned, giving your everything has a cost. Deactivates when threat is no longer perceived.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
All physical aspects increased to match the perceived power of the threat at the moment of skill use. Status set to Berserk (Defensive) if children are present. Period of weakness follows use. Duration and severity of weakness dependant on the amount of power needed to match the threat. Can only be activated in defense of yourself, or your children.
Somewhere, hidden within the description of the very skill he was using, were a multitude of answers to the problem he was facing. Adam the human child might not be aware of the history between bears and trolls, but Adam the wild Mama Bear had an instinctual understanding that the troll attempting to attack its child was both a threat and a never ending series of meals. That same Mama Bear also instinctively knew something else the human child didn’t. All those skills that he was contemplating didn’t give a bear those abilities, they simply enhanced abilities that bears naturally had.
Mama Bear hadn’t been activated with the perception that all the trolls would be attacking Jay at once, but that they would be sneaking away from the majority of the herd. So while he wasn’t empowered to nearly the state he was when he splattered Harold, he had received enough juice to take on the one or two trolls that he had anticipated attacking them.
With a threat to its child and a meal in front of it, Adam’s bearform didn’t hesitate to put all of that advanced power into its charging form. The boy didn’t know if the roar that bellowed forth from his throat was the issuing of a challenge, an attempt to warn the troll off, or a warning for Jay to move aside, but it managed to partially succeed in all three.
Jay didn’t move aside, but instead dropped to the ground in a crumpled heap of quivering fear. He wasn’t having a good day.
The troll, also not having a good day, vacillated between running from the Fear effect of the roar, or attacking to answer the challenge. Its hesitation stopped the raised tree club before it even began its descent.
In the final moments before the clash of monsters, time seemed to slow for Adam as Multi Task spread his perception around to catch it all. He watched closely as his instinctually hijacked body overran the collapsed boy. Despite his speed, each paw was carefully placed to avoid even the chance of harming the boy. A portion of a second was spared to notice that Jay had definitely ruined a second pair of pants for the day.
After that brief detour, all of his attention was focused on the troll. He had the time to realize that he was attacking yet another injured troll, but this one was no pup. The monstrosity was more than three times his own current height on all fours, and double his standing height. Like the earlier cub it too was missing an arm, but it was also showing a significant amount of other damage. One of the legs was missing head sized chunks of flesh along its length, and the torso had a series of furrows clawed through it that exposed the shattered remains of ribs, and a scarred lung that was barely holding together. One of the furrows crossed the shoulder of the remaining arm, while another ended in the jagged flesh where the other arm had been torn free, apparently caught on the claw as it passed through.
Adam, a passenger in his own mind, again, was watching the interactions between his skills more closely than before. The injuries were helpfully cataloged and processed by a combination of Multi Task and Mother Knows Best, then were passed to Mama Bear, where, despite the instinctual nature of the bear’s mind, it still received and grasped the knowledge it was given. Not that it used it at all. He managed to catch a glimpse of Multi Task during the exchange, but it moved so fast he was only left with the impression of a multitude of wings and the sharp edge of broken glass.
The emotionally torn troll never had a chance to decide if it wanted to attack or flee before the bear was upon him. With a much lower center of gravity, the bear plowed straight into the troll’s legs, knocking the taller creature head over heels. While it struggled to stand with a weak leg, one arm, and a tree club complicating the process, the bear got itself turned around. Just before the troll got its legs under it, a paw lashed out and tore the arm off at the shoulder. The weakened flesh and torn ligaments were no defense against a pissed off bear.
With its arm removed, the troll face planted, only to be pressed further into the ground as the triumphant bear announced its victory to the surroundings.
Soon after, a bear was spotted strolling through the forest by more nervous trolls. Their nerves were understandable, as the bear was carrying a small, human shaped lunch on its back, and a dinner of troll arm in its mouth.