As soon as it saw the two of them, the troll started to rush forward. Hurida cursed, moving to meet it with her warhammer drawn. “Don’t get close!” She called back, her grey aura visible around her as she used it to strengthen herself.
And for good reason. Tahir only needed to take one look at the troll to tell it could slice through his aura shield like paper. As they met, he watched Hurida duck under a swiping claw from the troll, then swing with her hammer and destroy its elbow. He looked on in horror as she narrowly avoided a swipe from its other claw, while its elbow snapped and cracked back into place.
He rapidly went over what he remembered about trolls. Voracious monsters with an absurd regeneration ability that were prone to mutation. Fortunately for Tahir and Hurida, he didn't think it had any mutations, and he even knew how to deal with its regeneration. Fire and acid stopped it temporarily, but unless they destroyed a significant part of its body with incredibly destructive magic, he had to torch it several times to keep its regeneration from outhealing the damage Hurida caused.
Though she called for him to stay back, Tahir didn’t think Hurida could last in melee with the troll by herself for too long. He watched the troll finally graze her, ripping away a sizable chunk of her aura shield with its claws. If he used all his mana damaging it with fire, he wouldn’t be able to kill it when they brought it down. But if he waited too long it might rip Hurida apart. He had to act fast.
With a deep breath, he called to the fire spirit. Flames licked across his body as the bond formed, merging his soul with that of the spirit’s. With that, he came to know heat and flame, and understand its desire to burn eternal and consume. He strained to keep his focus on the troll instead of the thoughts and understanding flooding into his mind. After getting a handle on them, he leveled his hand at the troll, and drew the sigil in the air for a bolt of fire like he cast before. He held the spell until he could be sure he wouldn’t hit Hurida, but noted that he found holding the spell back more difficult than usual.
With a crack, the bolt shot out from the top of Tahir’s wand like a cannonball, slamming into the troll’s back in a burst of flame. Tahir stood aghast at the intensity of the spell, while Hurida took a step back to catch her breath from the staggering troll. Its attention turned fully to Tahir as it growled, and started lumbering toward him with a speed that belied its large frame.
Well, shit. He’d banked on his fire bolt not being noticeable enough compared to Hurida for the troll to care, but he couldn’t really complain about the fire spirit making the spell that much more powerful. The half-orc followed behind the troll, quick as she could, but Tahir would have to survive a few seconds in close range before she’d reach.
He took a risk and invoked the wind spirit as well. He couldn’t find a lot of research about invoking multiple spirits at the same time, other than that it increased the likelihood of possession, but tier zero spirits had that designation due them having a low chance of possessing anyone. Since his mana pool hadn’t suffered too terribly to meld with the first, he took his chances on calling another.
As the second spirit melded with his soul, he understood the wind. Its desire to flow freely and pass all obstacles by. He knew what to expect from summoning the fire spirit, so he let the thoughts flow as best he could while focusing on the oncoming troll. Without warning, he halted in his tracks as the two spirits' values and desires met in his soul. The conflict made him seize up, and he had to take a moment to meld and separate them where he could, finding harmony between the two.
In that time, the troll reached him. Hurida called out, and Tahir felt himself able to move right as the troll raised its arms to crush him into the dirt. In a short, harsh cry of a spell, Tahir called forth a strong but brief burst of wind that knocked the troll’s fists off course. They slammed into the ground inches from Tahir, and he ducked out of the way to the opposite side to avoid a follow up claw that slashed out toward him. Hurida rammed into the troll a second later and caught it right in the chest with an upward swing as it stumbled backward.
A stream of warm air swirled constantly around Tahir, causing his short, dark hair to whip around as if in a storm. The two spirits cost him a third of his mana pool, but melding their ideals and concepts together nearly cost him his life. Thankfully his wind magic’s power increased in the same way that his fire magic did. A normal gust like that definitely wouldn’t have diverted the troll’s fists otherwise.
He took another deep breath, finding air passing steadier than normal, and leaped forward toward the troll. Hurida couldn’t last long against it, by herself, Tahir would hardly survive one hit, but together they stood a chance of taking it down.
The spirits didn’t just improve his magic’s firepower; he gained an inherent understanding of fire and wind magic that he didn’t have before he summoned them. Now that he had some time to process the flood of information, he could create a firebolt with the power he was familiar with, but with a minimal mana cost. He sliced into the troll’s back with his shortsword, ducked back when it swiped at him, and shot flame at the wound he left behind before it could regenerate. Hurida followed suit, striking a heavy blow with her hammer while Tahir distracted the troll to press their advantage. As the two of them closed in, the troll flailed wildly to try to strike the two combatants, but Tahir proved fast enough to avoid it and Hurida’s aura enhanced strength let her deflect blows with her warhammer.
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They littered the troll with wounds. Cuts, bruises and broken bones across its body that Tahir kept from regenerating with his fire mage. After a shared look between the two of them, they went in at once, intent on finishing it off. At that moment, the troll made a feint that caught both of them off guard, turning toward Hurida but aiming for Tahir with his claws.
A quick gust spell and pivot from Tahir took him out of the direct line of the strike, but even a glancing blow from the troll sent him flying, shattering his aura shield and leaving three red cuts across his chest. He rolled as he landed several feet away, righting himself and gritting his teeth at the pain. He could see the troll getting ready to rush toward him to finish him off - probably so it could continue regenerating, but Hurida’s aura enhanced hammer caught it on the back of the head with a sickening crack.
Even that only staggered it, but it gave Tahir the moment he needed to fire off another cannonball of fire to blast against its chest. With a final, guttural cry, the troll finally collapsed. Struggling to his feet, Tahir stumbled over and covered it in flame over multiple shots, just to make sure he’d stopped its regeneration.
He’d barely holstered his wand before Hurida grabbed him. “The hells was that!?” She forced him to the ground with one hand, fiddling with something on her belt. With the rush of the fight finally catching up to him, his vision blurred and he couldn’t tell immediately what she had. He blinked away the blurriness just in time to see her biting a cork of a potion bottle and pulling it off before pouring the red liquid over his chest. “You said you had new tricks to try, but you didn’t say baiting the damn troll into killing you was one of em.”
The healing potion stung on contact with the wounds, but gave way to blessed relief as they began to close. Coupled with aura enhanced healing, the wounds wouldn’t trouble him in a couple days, but the potion definitely kept him out of any immediate danger. “Sorry, that was unexpected.” He admitted, standing when she finally released him. “A little bit of system shock, I think. But I definitely got results, wouldn’t you say?”
“Aye. I’ll give you that.” Hurida said with a sigh. She glanced down at the remains of the troll, growing silent for several seconds. “This is why I don’t work alone.”
Tahir nodded, carefully moving over and poking it with his shortsword. Something like a troll stayed within a gold rating. A well prepared gold rank Redcloud could take proper preparations. Fire magic like Tahir used, but a torch and a flask of oil, or vials of acid. Without any of that, though, even if Hurida proved the better fighter, its regeneration would have let it outlast her.
The two of them brushed up against the inherent danger that taking a request with an unknown element possessed. If the two of them spotted a platinum ranked threat emerging from the forest, then they could only run, and hope it had more interest in ripping apart the cows rather than going after them. Within the past year, Tahir came close to death numerous times. Fighting his fair share of weaker monsters and hostile wildlife. Giant rats, spiders, and centipedes still proved deadly for unprepared bronze and silver ranked Redclouds, but he’d never fought something that could end his life with one good strike like this.
Confirming its death, Tahir knelt down next to the troll. “Well, I know for a fact troll blood is a component in healing potions. Want a few vials?”
“Keep em.” Hurida walked off, heading toward the group of boars they killed. Looks like she planned on making Tahir carry loot after all.
Blessedly, the half-orc left half of the boars with the farmers, leaving Tahir to carry a hefty sack of meat. He’d managed to siphon five vials of the troll’s blood, and during the walk back to Balrech, he closed the bond between him and the two spirits. The knowledge he’d gained did not leave his mind, but he felt the chill of the evening breeze, and the weight of the heavy sack of meat brought him to labored breathing in a matter of moments.
He made a mental note to write down his observations. The spirits gave him passive benefits while bonded, but also magical knowledge that persisted past the bond, and pseudo-affinities. He’d not soon forget the complete stop he came to when the conflicting ideals of the spirits collided as well. In all of the research he found in the library on spirit magic, none of it mentioned that sort of conflict. It worked out for him in the end here, but he would be more careful in the future, and make sure he experienced summoning spirits before he went into a fight with them.
Once in the city, they took another carriage ride back to the Redcloud guild building to confirm a job complete and get their pay, making sure to mention the fact that something in the woods themselves might be driving animals, and woodland monsters like the troll, out toward the farmland.
With that done, the two of them parted with 50 gold pieces each. With that and whatever money Hurida would make from selling the boar meat, she could take care of herself for a while. Which meant they probably wouldn’t team up again for a gold ranked mission for a couple of weeks or so. Tahir on the other hand, already thought ahead to what he’d spend the money on. Funds for another ritual to get more tier zero spirits would cut it in half, but he still needed to see how much he could sell the vials of troll blood for. Those might give him an unexpected windfall, given their use in creating healing potions. He even knew an alchemist to sell to, and while he had some daylight left, he’d try to catch them before their store closed.
Free of the heavy burden of the boar meat, Tahir broke out in a brisk jog as he left the Redclouds’ HQ. His mind raced, going over the memories of the day. Though it surprised everyone involved, Tahir himself almost couldn’t believe the improvement to his magic the bond with the spirits brought him. The fire bolts nearly stepped out of basic magic and moved into the next tier at intermediate. He also retained his memories of fire and wind to manipulate them, and if they faded he could refresh the bond to bring them back to his mind.
He didn’t think to try when he fought the troll, but he could potentially augment his spells with fire or wind and change them or create an entirely new spell. Something he never thought he’d do without decades of magical training. On top of that, everything he managed came from a bond with two tier zero spirits.
A tier one might just push him into the qualifications for a gold ranking.