Lamar stared down the troll, its foul breath rushing up the gorge towards him like a wave. The troll’s shoulders scraped the rock of the ravine, breaking old rock and stunted tree limbs. Its hide oozed oil and its beady eyes fixated on Lamar.
Lamar held his pocket watch in one hand. He rubbed his thumb over the metallic trinket, watching and waiting.
The troll’s lumber turned into a sprint, and it raced towards him. It brought a club of rotted wood and foul death cap mushrooms swinging down.
Lamar’s thumb hit the timer on the pocket watch. ‘Phase one.’
Lamar phased out of sync. The club swiped through him like he was a ghost and Lamar slid through its legs. His hand lashed out and hit the troll’s achilles tendon. Its skin was rubbery and too slick for his blade to cut.
He didn’t need to cut it, though.
The troll stumbled and tried to turn around. The narrow ravine hemmed it in, its club getting wedged between two sides.
‘Phase two.’ Lamar called, hitting a second button on the pocket watch.
Macy peeled off the ravine wall, breaking stealth. Her daggers glinted with blue liquid as she plunged them into the troll’s back, aiming for its kidneys.
Critical hit.
Excellent.
The troll bellowed and dislodged the club. It tried to turn again, only to see its foot buried in the ravine's rock floor. It grunted in surprise and began heaving on its thigh. Cracks appeared in the ground.
‘Kark, any time now.’ Lamar said.
Kark reared up from the ground, throwing off a carpet of fake foliage. A mountain of muscle, clad in pelts and furs, red ochre paint on his skin with pristine white hair. Kark had a jaw that could split rocks, fists capable of breaking rocks and...well, let’s just say rocks don’t fear the boogie man, they fear Kark.
Kark swung a massive war hammer and cracked into it the troll’s head. A clang echoed down the ravine.
Stun applied, 10 seconds.
The troll stumbled again. The bruises on its skull started regenerating before his eyes.
Hmmm....formula needs more work. Or time.
‘Phase four. Go get em sparkler.’ Lamar said.
Aribelle appeared above them, her long fiery red hair blowing in the breeze. She aimed an arcane tube downwards. She pointed it briefly at Lamar. ‘Never use that code name again.’
Lamar held up his hands as the troll gathered its wits.
‘Fine, fine, just make with the fire.’ Lamar hissed.
Aribelle narrowed her eyes and adjusted her sights. Arcane runes lit up on her hand-cannon. ‘Burning fury.’
It sparked, lit up…and fizzled. Aribelle cursed and hit it with her fist. The cannon sputtered again.
'Aribelle, any time now.' Lamar said. The troll bellowed in front of him, and swatted at him with its hand. It snapped its jaws a handsbreadth from his face.
'Just trouble shooting.' She said, and shook her cannon. Aribelle hit her cannon again, it lit up and she fired it down into the ravine.
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
White-hot fire lashed out at the troll in a cone. Blistering heat melted the surrounding stone. Smoke filled the ravine.
Lamar stepped backwards. ‘Alright Aribelle, ease up.’
The fire petered out, and Lamar stared intently into the smoke. Come on. The book said fire ought to do it...
The troll burst from the smoke, a meaty paw lunging for Lamar’s head. Its hide was smoldering and still burning in places. Blackened flesh tore as it sprinted forwards. A fleck of blue mixed in with the bleeding green ichor on its wounds.
There.
Lamar drew out his pocket watch, grasped it in his fist, wrapping the chain up his arm. Lamar twisted around the troll’s lunging palm, and slammed a fist into its sternum.
‘Acceleration.’ Lamar called out. A flash of red light burned into its chest, flashing all the way through the colour spectrum to violet.
The troll knocked him back down the ravine and Lamar tumbled across hard rocks. His leather armour cracked under the blow and he felt two ribs snap.
Frak.
HP: 14/118
Red warning blared on his status screen. Pain hammered in his chest. He looked up.
The troll grimaced and stepped forward. Then its leg crumbled into ash. Blue liquid surged through its open wounds, the green ichor fading. Its unnatural regeneration halted, and the troll collapsed.
Ding! You have slain a mountain troll Level 6.
+ 400 XP (share of party XP).
+ 10 gold.
Quest Contract: Troll Hunt in the Wilds completes.
Reward: +500 XP, + 15 gold.
+5 to Company Reputation: Current company reputation is negative 15 (-15 Dishonoured)
Kark planted a foot on the troll and rested the head of his war hammer on it. ‘Well, it looks like...’
‘Don’t say it.’ Aribelle said.
‘He karked it.’ Kark winked at them.
‘Damnit Kark, we talked about this.’ Aribelle said. ‘An adventuring company is only as good as its brand. We need to look heroic.’
Kark scratched his chin. ‘What, can’t we just be heroic?’
Lamar clapped them both on the shoulders. ‘My friends, my friends, just think of it like this. You scare people with your war paint, right, Kark?’
Kark nodded, touching the red ochre patterns on his arm.
‘Branding is like war paint.’ Lamar said.
‘War paint for the ears?’ Kark asked.
‘Yeah sure. That’s why we have the logo on the badge.’ Lamar pointed.
Kark cracked his head and tried to read upside down.
‘Heroes for hire, results....guaranteed?’ He responded, as though Lamar hadn’t shown him a dozen times before.
Macy, with her short bob cut blue hair, five feet of vivacious energy, took a needle and plunged it into the trolls neck. She pulled forth a viscous green liquid with blobs of blue floating through it.
Macy punched the air. ‘Yes, this trollsbane poison is going to put us on the map Lamar. We’re going to be beating away clients with a stick.’
Lamar nodded. Without his acceleration, the troll’s bane poison still wasn’t quite potent enough. But best not to put a damper on everyone’s mood.
Lamar tucked his pocket watch away. ‘Hey, Healbot, could use medical attention, and a loot bonus.’
A clunking automaton on a single unicycle wheel trundled out of a concealed sheet in the ravine. About four feet tall, parts made of bronze, and a set of red eye gems, Healbot clunked up the ravine towards them.
'Commencing triage.' Healbot said and poked Lamar's ribs. Lamar winced.
'My triage sensors indicate broken ribs.' Healbot said holding up its finger.
Okay, maybe they'd got him on a bit of a discount.
Healbot grabbed both sides of Lamar's chest and crunched the ribs into place. Red healing energy washed over him, as the pain from his ribs flared, then started to ease.
+30 HP.
Healbot bent over the troll corpse and started examining. The automaton was a decent healer, no offensive capabilities but a good mana well and some anatomy training from a one month stint at the royal college. He’d said it didn’t suit him there. The real value, was his primary ability.
Loot Monster.
The chance of rare drops was increased by Healbot checking slain monsters. Instead of common tools or bronze, he could find mythic weapons or gold.
Healbot, their medic/accountant.
Healbot’s metallic eyebrows furrowed, and he held up a message in a bottle for Lamar. ‘Low value item detected, assigning to company captain for assessment.’
Lamar pulled the message from the bottle and read it.
Dear Heroes,
The city of Trail’s End is in dire need. A monster wave from the local Rift is threatening to overrun our defences. A wicked necromancer named Tlaloc, the Unholy Storm, has risen in the wilds. Our leader is missing and presumed…slain. Whoever finds this, please, come to our rescue.
Princess Hilda.
A map marking the nearby outpost and a quest contact appeared before him in the air. The rest of the company studied it with a mix of expressions.
‘Lamar...’ Aribelle said, her flame-cannon twitching on her hand. ‘I haven’t had a shower in two weeks. You promised me a proper bed and an inn once the quest was done. Don’t do it....’
Lamar winked. ‘They’re looking for heroes, Aribelle, and Super Adventure Company Plus just happens to need a new job.’
Quest Contract accepted.
[https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1056728480768868442/1111866144471666799/CJ_Timms_mountain_troll_anime_style_with_club_in_ravine_95817a90-496a-4f55-a03f-5169e5ac58bc.png]