Ryuji stayed low to the ground behind the bushes and dipped a finger in the coal dust. He would cast a darkness of second-level spell that would exclude his party if he could. It took him a bit longer than it should while he tried to figure out the best phrasing to exclude his party from the magic fog of ink. He could feel the drain on his mana as he lay there sustaining the incomplete spell but he had to get this right.
A moment later, a blade of flame flew out of the cave and nearly hit Mia. She had to dive to the side to avoid the fiery spell blade of death by a mere palm span. The goblins on that side took quick advantage of her momentary lapse in guard and got a couple good hits with their crude spiked maces, little more than clubs with sharp rock chips but effective.
One of the larger goblins was holding an actual sword, a very old and rusty one but effective nonetheless. When she landed, he tried to stab her but she managed to block with a cleaver. There were too many weapons coming at her and now she was prone on the ground at his feet. She saw a moment too late that her cleaver was out of position to defend her from his next strike.
Just as the goblin warrior was about to stab the infuriating dark-elf in the eye, everything went black. The goblin tried to stab anyway but only hit dirt. Miyako saw the slight grey haze form in front of her and the hulking goblin hesitated a moment. As soon as he did, she rolled out of the way and swung her cleaver sideways taking off both his legs.
As she scrambled to her feet, she noted that all of the goblins were looking around as though they couldn’t see and were all yelling at each other. She was standing in the clear area amidst the dead goblins and noted that all of them couldn’t see her so she took a moment to catch her breath. This had to be the darkness thing that Ryuji did before but unlike before, she could see this time!
Ryuji knew that the second-level spell would last a little longer but he was forced to reserve some of the magic he would like to have put into it. He still needed to help out with the troll and take out the caster goblins. Knowing what the problem was with his last oxyhydrogen fireball, he prepared a new one and launched it at the distracted troll. The large walking tank was struck square in the middle of its shoulders and its entire head was suddenly engulfed in blue-white fire that sputtered orange as it burnt the fat out of its skin.
With a bellow of rage and pain, the troll started flailing wildly and doing more damage to its allies than anything else. Karen wisely stood back to let it rampage away from her while taking stock of the rest of the area. Kyarako was panting heavily but wasn’t willing to let this opportunity pass her by and began to K.O. all of the goblins close to her. Just then, Ryuji noticed a pair of spell circles forming near the cave and knew it was time to act.
He had saved as much magic as he could to hold one last spell. There were plenty of people who thought that air spells were mostly useless. Those people were not him. Ryuji quickly concentrated on the element that he wanted and began drawing his circle with just that component. The shamans were likely going to attack or try to clear the darkness and either was not something he could let happen when the safety of his party was involved.
He finished with a flourish and began pushing his mana into the circle in a slow steady stream. At the cave, there was no visible change but suddenly, the two shamans began shrieking and choking. All interest in the spells they were trying to cast was lost in favor of simply trying to breathe. Breathing is actually pretty hard to do in a pure nitrogen atmosphere, however. The two casters were not the only target though and even as they were gasping and flopping around, there were many goblins deeper in the cave that were having similar difficulty breathing.
Stolen story; please report.
Ryuji held the spell as long as he possibly could and came almost to the point of passing out before he was willing to relent. There was a severe ringing in his head and his vision had gone white for a moment. By the time he could see again, the magic darkness had vanished. He tried to focus but found it was nearly impossible. He could however see that the two casters didn’t seem to be moving.
The problem was that his spell had driven the living goblins that remained out of the cave. Once they exited the cave, the goblins were left with a few choices. They could either go towards the rampaging troll, flee into the seemingly safe area full of nothing but dead, burnt goblins, or they could charge the two women surrounded by dead goblins. Strangely, most of them decided to charge the pair of women in an attempt to overwhelm them.
Ryuji heard a scream and looked over to see Karen on the ground. Her face was a rictus of pain and she clutched at her left leg that looked wrong somehow. In her hands was her spear but she wasn’t in the right position to defend herself and it looked like the fire had gone out on the troll. It left his skull exposed as well as much of the muscle and bone of his upper body but the char was already sloughing off and his wounds were starting to heal.
Ryuji looked at his sword and pulled it out of the scabbard a good decimeter before the absurdity of that struck him. he had almost no training with the sword and wasn’t any good at it anyway. Then what? What should he do? He was out of magic and he was crap with a sword so what should he…
The realization was almost painful, it hit him so hard. He was a werewolf! He just needed to… but Karen didn’t know. If he transformed now, she would find out. There would be no way to hide it from her after that. Should he?
A screech of metal off of one of Mia’s cleavers followed a second later by another scream of pain from Karen decided for him. He rapidly divested himself of his clothing and in the shade of the tree, Ryuji became a monster that far outclassed the troll. He found he couldn’t stop himself from howling and just went with it. Then he was on the hunt!
Karen was sure that this was it. She had forced her way back into mercenary work and now she was going to pay the price. She was terrified that she was going to leave her siblings behind but had to pray that Ryuji and Teresa would take care of them. When her ankle had begun pulsing with pain, she had leaned on her other leg more but then it cramped on her and she dropped.
She hadn’t expected the cramp and that was why she couldn’t counter it and with the troll advancing on her, it was already too late. She regretted that she had let everyone down so badly. They were counting on her and Ryuji had even taken out the troll’s regeneration for a time but she had lost the chance to use it and now she couldn’t even get back on her feet to run, much less fight a troll.
Inconceivably, the situation managed to get even worse. Out of nowhere, a werewolf just jumped out of a bush and was barreling toward her and the troll. The troll hadn’t noticed yet but it still didn’t have eyes or ears yet and was still managing to grope ever closer to her prone position. The werewolf might be aiming for the troll but it still might enjoy her and her teammates as a snack afterward, especially considering how gods alarmingly huge it was. She thought it might be even bigger than the troll.
She was proven right a moment later when the werewolf stood up behind the troll and began literally rending flesh from bone with every swipe. Its claws were like daggers set in a row and slashing with such force and ferocity that the troll could think of nothing but trying to escape. The werewolf was having none of it and doubled down on its prey, adding its clawed feet and ferocious gaping maw to the mix. The troll didn’t stand even a shred of a chance. In seconds, the troll was torn to bloody chunks and its head pulverized in the werewolf’s maw. And then, in went the rest of the troll!