Chapter 22

How Zayne found himself in this kind of situation he didn’t know, he wasn’t paying that close attention to what he should have done. The situation that he found himself in was now a guide to the knights that he was meant to slaughter. But now he was leading them back to their keep while keeping them safe. Wasn’t what he originally planned on doing.

He replayed what happened in his head that led up to this moment, it started with Chris his not so faithful friend? Companion,… indentured servant. That was probably about right. Anyway, Chris was spouting some nonsense about following the knights back and claiming the reward for killing the brood mother, then they could get equipment and other such things that he didn’t understand and bla bla bla. He stopped listening to him at that point just shutting down completely. When he came to, he was already this far and had apparently killed a few wandering monsters on their way back.

Now, he was at the front and center of what was essentially three very large goblins, who were blocking his and the knight’s way. How the hell did this happen Zayne thought as he stood still in front of the things before him.

“Now he wants to talk, after being lost in the dark corner of his mind for the past three hours. Do you know what it's like riding in a body of a brain-dead guy. Its disturbing!” Foulness shouted out.

But he didn’t stop there. “I had no one to accompany me for except for Mr. goodie too shoe over here. He’s had a stick up his ass this entire time while being all noble like.” The sarcasm was as plain as it could be for Zayne as Foulness continued complained.

Zayne was about to respond but the large goblins started moving towards him. The sun hadn’t risen yet making it the darkest part of the night but he still had his vision to see the tree-sized creatures. They wielded said tree like clubs and had loose clothing on them hardly covering anything. The gore riddled faces gave them men and women pause as they took in the scene. Bodies laid out half hazardously along the beaten path soaked in blood. Most were half eaten with missing chunks and limbs about.

“There’s a few legs over there.” Foulness spoke up bringing Zayne’s attention to the legs sticking out of a bag. On closer inspection, the bag seemed to be made of skinned animals and humans alike.

The night captain and his men formed ranks in a crescent moon shape as the things started to charge. “Hold ranks! This isn’t the first time that we had to deal with a few trolls.” His voice rang out, giving the soldiers a sense of confidence. The thirty or so men made three lines of ten with the night captain in the center. Zayne and Chris were at the four front of the line standing beside Margellio.

“Oh, that’s what they’re called” Foulness said as a huge tree came swiping down on Zayne’s head.

Shields were up but his height was too much for the soldiers to completely cover Zayne’s frame, lucky for them. As the massive trunk came down, he threw out a casual arm blocking the attack. Wind whipped around the soldiers as the pressure of the attack was stopped cold in its tracks. The steel plating of his gauntlets shattered under the attack as two more blows came from the other trolls. The impromptu clubs went through the ranks of men killing a few instantly as they made their way to Zayne.

Flexing his hand, Zayne shattered the tree trunk freeing up his hand to catch the other two. Catching the other two, he pulled with all the force that he had taking the clubs away. One of the trolls let go as Zayne threw the club off into the distance, as for the other he had himself a tug of war match resulting bad for the troll. With both hands now able to help him he gave a mighty heave pulling the club and the arm that was attached to it with him. The sound of thick skin being torn off was apparent as the scream that accompanied it. Spears and swords went on the offensive as the ranks piled on the out-of-control troll.

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Margellio stepped up next to Zayne, “You take the one on the left and ill take the one on the right. If either of us finishes first then they will help the other, sound good my friend?” with those words of wisdom, Margellio charged with sword and shield at the indicated troll.

Zayne looked back over to Chris signaling him to shoot the damn things.

Chris on the other hand had other ideas, like letting Zayne be the hero and not showing off his magical gun too often. It was mostly the later of the two but the killer didn’t need to know that. Chris signed back making sure that Zayne would get the message that the best course of action was for him to just do it himself. The backhand that he got for telling Zayne to do something was expected.

The slap came and went causing Chris to drop to a knee as Zayne put his focus back onto the troll before him. The thing was waiting for Zayne to go and meet him but that was probably due to him tearing an arm off its kin. The arm was on the ground resting in the fist position with its hand still intact, past the wrist was bone as long as Zayne was tall. He moved forward activating his skill -Killing presence- striking fear into the troll. The constitution must have been low because it died soon after using it.

The night commander was almost done with his as he chose the method of a thousand cuts instead of just cutting the things damn head off. Zayne was feeling impatient about this whole thing and took that frustration out on the troll. He took a step closing the distance between them instantly as he jumped up high. The height of his jump put him in head height with the troll for the briefest of seconds as Zayne let loose a punch decapitating the troll.

The night captain didn’t look too surprised by the way it ended as he stood there grinning like a mad man.

“I knew it wouldn’t take you long.” The smile slowly lost its effect as he looked around, seeing that more knights and soldiers were dead and more families for him to tell. The thought wasn’t a pleasant one.

He gathered up the bodies having each of his men responsible for the ones they carried as he took it upon himself to carry two knights. The sun slowly rose shedding some warmth across the land, after having a night like they did it seemed the effect of the sun was immediate. These men and women were truly altruistic in nature.

“Alright men, let’s get back home.” With that said, Margellio and his men walked back to the keep swiftly. Zayne was still made to lead them as Chris and the night commander had a private talk.

“So, my lord Ogre here was planning on joining the joisting tournament. That is taking place here right, you haven’t heard anything like that did you?” Chris decided to get to the meat of his predicament.

Margellio on the other had was all to happy to share. “Yes I have. A few of my boys were planning to join this advent before this whole night started but I believe that the preliminaries are taking place today. A few of the lords here will also be joining but you shouldn’t be worried about them. No, the favored to win this year as he always wins is Sir John.” The words spoken held excitement in them as he continued on.

“There are others that your sir knight Ogre should look out for is Brook, the lady knight. She was close to winning last year but lost by a few points. Sir Sic was caught cheating but he only did that to beat Sir John and the last is Brim. Of course, there will be others but we wont know that till after the preliminaries are over.” The tone to his voice shifted when the keep was close. Chris could tell that the soldiers and the night commander had a visible weight lifted off them as they made their way back.

“Well, this is were we depart. I look forward to seeing your Sir knight joining the jousting tournament.” He stuck his hand out waiting for Chris to shake it.

He took him by the forearm clasping tightly. The shake was swift and Chris and his murder friend was left alone inside the outer wall. Chris didn’t know what to expect from doing this but one thing was sure, Zayne was going to find a way to make a mess of things here.