“Alright. Let us go over the plan one more time.” Jen started but Sara cut her off.

“You have already gone over it three times during the nearly two hours we have rested. And Twice since then. Enough. We have been in this dungeon most of the day. Even with our reduced need for rest. I would like to get this over with before long.” Sara huffed. “Besides I know my part. And by now even the densest idiot would know their role. Luckily they don’t have to do more than stand there and get hit.” Sara glanced at Mike who smiled thru gritted teeth seeming to also just want to get started.

Jen sighed but nodded. Giving Mike the go-ahead they all started moving. Overhead the roots glowed with their ghastly light as they moved. But ahead they could see more of the same glow. For the first time, they saw it somewhere other than where they traveled. As they approached that glow the roots overhead dimmed and then went out. Leaving them in darkness as they approached what was a glowing curtain of the roots. The curtain covered an entrance easily wide enough for all four of them next to one another. While being high enough for them to all probably sit on one another’s shoulders before reaching the ceiling.

Dren activated his stealth skill for one of the few times in the dungeon and shifted a few lightly glowing roots to peer beyond. In a huge open cavern sat what he knew instantly was the troll boss. Even sitting it was taller than he was. In the ghostly pale blue light, its wrinkly skin looked a sickly blue. Though Dren wasn’t sure how much of that coloring was the light and how much its own skin color. It had a human shape, two legs, and two arms. But their proportions were way off. Its legs were short. Nearly half what a human’s legs would be compared to the size of its torso. But they were several times thicker. Its arms were surprisingly thin compared to the rest of its bulk, which still made them several times thicker than even Mike’s legs.

Those limbs were also long. As it sat there with its stubby legs sticking straight out. Its arms were also resting on the ground. Stretching well past its legs. It even had hair on its head. Altho it looked impossibly thick. So much so it was like it had long thin reeds sticking out of its head instead of hair. Its face had tiny dark eyes that simply looked forward while its mouth seemed to take up far too much of its face. Several jagged broken teeth jutted out from its thick lips while spittle dripped from its chin. Its nose might have been big at one point, but it almost looked like it had been smashed into its face and just stayed that way.

It wore a loin cloth, thankfully. And a giant club, more a small tree, sat next to it.

“Remember the plan is…” Jen started.

Mike cut her off. “I get its attention. You. Stabby stabby. And You set it on fire.” Mike said as he pointed to Dren and then Sara. “Oh, and you just stand there looking beautiful. And I guess. Keep me from dying.” He flashed Jen a smile and a wink.

Jen rolled her eyes but didn’t say anything else. With a nod, Mike rushed thru the curtain of glowing roots. He started shouting a war cry after he made it a few meters into the room. It might have been more impressive if his warcry hadn’t consisted of whooping and screaming obscenities.

Dren slipped thru the curtain of roots and started stealthing around the outer wall of the room. Behind him, the two women entered. For its part, the troll snorted as if awoken by the noise and started scrambling up on its stubby legs. It’s huge club already in hand. It barely made it to its feet before Mike slammed into it, shield first. Despite putting his full weight into the charge the towering monster didn’t even flinch. Let alone lose its balance as the defender had hoped. It swung an awkward swing with its club. More swatting at Mike with it than swinging, as it hadn’t yet gotten a proper grip on the weapon. Still, it smashed into the metal shield with a resounding clang that sent Mike skidding back slightly.

In response, Mike stabbed it in its rather generous gut. His sword pressed the almost rubbery skin inward some but did not pierce it. The troll's response was to slap him with its free hand. The blow struck Mike on his sword arm’s shoulder and nearly knocked him over. So far it seemed he had done little more than annoy the thing. Which was actually his job.

Before Mike could catch his balance or the troll could follow up. A glob of fire smashed into the giant’s face causing it to scream wildly as it kicked its stubby legs and flailed its overly long arms. Mike took another glancing blow, once again putting him off balance. It took the flames a bit longer to wink out this time but when they did. The enraged monster turned its small beady eyes on the red-robed mage. Charging forward it plowed right into Mike, who was carried forward by the monster's bulk.

Grunting the creature started raising that giant club, obviously preparing to crush the mage. Who simply stood staring at the charging giant in frozen terror. Before it could fully raise its arm. A figure leaped up and grabbed onto its bicep. Pulling itself up to stand on it. Two daggers started flashing along the length of the forearm and wrist of the behemoth. With a howl, it dropped its club. The small tree almost landed on Mike who barely dodged it before it crashed into the earthen floor. Swatting at its attacker with its other hand, the troll grunted as it missed completely. Its long arm was in full swing almost throwing it off balance as it failed to connect.

Dren had jumped up off the arm to land on the shoulder of the monster. Slamming his left dagger, his original one, into the side of the monster's face to free up his hand. He gripped a fist full of that thick and surprisingly greasy hair. As he clung to it he reached over to drag his other dagger across the troll’s throat. Blue-black blood sprayed from the open wound in a sudden gush before becoming a steady stream that flowed down its chest. During their breaks, Dren had finally finished filling all the mana veins in his second dagger. The one with his new bleed enchants on it and boy did it make the troll bleed.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

Wrenching his dagger out of the side of the troll's face he dropped down to avoid a swing from it as the brute tried to swat him. He stabbed both daggers into the back of the troll and let his body weight drag him down. Leaving two long deep slashes on its back before landing back on the ground. Several fast thrusts as he landed, struck the glowing parts of the troll's legs. Right behind its knees before he dived away. Mike had been kicked away in the flailing of the wounded troll. Now the enraged monster turned to chase after the one that had wounded it.

Dren could see wiggling tendrils of flesh stretching to connect the severed flaps of its throat. But they seemed to have a hard time completely healing. Blood still flowed down its chest. Dren skurried away not willing to stay engaged with that brute. But even trying to stealth into the dim shadows of the cavern seemed pointless. The monster had a murder boner for him it seemed. Mike’s words. Which the troll didn’t seem to notice or care about. But it did turn around as a glob of fire smashed into it again. Then turned again when Mike’s new swears were infused with his taunt ability.

Dren did the same, skidding to a stop and darting back toward the troll. His eyes focused on it as various spots lit up to his gaze. Even as he closed in he could see all the wounds, even those dealt by his bleed-enchanted dagger had already healed. This was going to be a long fight.

*****

Mike stagged back from the troll's blow. Again, he tasted the metallic tang of his own blood but just as quickly felt the revitalizing energies of another of Jen’s heals. It had been over thirty minutes of constant, intense battling. But the troll was starting to slow. Jeremy’s attacks really seemed to hurt the thing. While Sara’s fire attacks kept it from healing as fast. As he thought this the behemoth staggered and dropped to one knee. He saw their team's assassin darting away. Blue-black blood dripped from two daggers before he made what seemed like an impossible change of direction to rush back at the monster from a slightly different angle. Their assassin jumped up to climb up the staggered beast, daggers stabbing into it as hand holds. Both daggers crossed before its throat and yanked back. Giving birth to another huge spray of blood. Almost instantly both daggers slammed into the eyes of the monster, twisted, and then were yanked out as their wielder kicked off the monster to fly out of its reach. ‘Fuck me I am glad stabby stabby is on our side.’ Was his thoughts even as he started moving back into position.

Dren landed and skid back a bit, starting to feel slightly winded again. He switched the daggers in his hand. While he was getting more and more comfortable wielding one in each hand. There was still a huge difference between using it in his dominate and offhand. The long fight had been great practice tho. Even more so, it had made his drain enchant shine. While the amount drained was a pathetic one health, stamina, or mana at random. It did go off with every blow. So, just making sure to land lots of blows added up. Especially in a long fight like this one.

Sara launched another fire attack. She was down to firing them off around twice a minute as that was all her mana regen allowed her anymore. She had even used a mana potion earlier. Apparently, she only had one left and refused to use it. Still, that seemed to be enough when combined with Dren’s bleed attacks to keep its regeneration from becoming more of an issue. Jen used her ability to see its health percentage to monitor their progress and if the thing started healing more than they were injuring it. Well, She would let them know to pick up the pace again. Which normally meant Dren was told to “Go be a stabby monster.”

Even as the monster stood back up on its regenerated leg. Dren darted in. Thrusting his draining dagger into it as rapidly as he could. Poking nearly a dozen holes in its leg before dodging back again. According to Jen they almost had the thing down to a quarter of its health already. This must have been good because she sounded purely shocked when she announced it.

Mike shouted out something obscene about the troll's mother as it started to turn on Dren again. Causing the beast to refocus on him. Dren changed his direction almost instantly from streaking away from the monster to charging at it. While killing the spiders had been decent enough in allowing Dren to get used to his healthy body’s still unfamiliar capabilities. It was nothing compared to the fight with the troll. Putting it through its paces had allowed him to adapt to it far better than at any other time since the system integration had started. And it showed.

He switched the weapons in his hands again. He saw Mike wince as he realized what Dren was going to do again. With his bleed dagger in his main hand, he rushed forward and dropped to his knees skidding forward right between the troll's legs. The bright glow in his vision passed over his head and he slashed at it. Dren snapped back to his feet as he emerged from between the troll's legs and spun away. Not even smashing into Mike this time. In his wake, a huge waterfall of brackish blood cascaded down from within the troll's loincloth.

“Dude. That is so wrong.” Mike said to Dren as he shot away in a dead sprint.

Dren just grunted as the troll ignored everyone else to waddle after him. The bleeding effect on his dagger slowed its healing, making the extremely critical wound even worse.

A little while later Mike’s taunt came off cooldown and he pulled its attention back to him. When he did. Dren skidded as he shifted his rapid retreat to a rapid charge. Just as he jumped up, intent on stabbing both daggers into the monster's back to climb up it. Something happened. Its pale blue skin suddenly turned a dark crimson. It spun around and backhanded the mid-air Dren with its club. Even as it kicked Mike with enough force to send the defender flying away as well. Dren managed to move his arms into a blocking position but felt them practically crumple under the force of the blow. The slightly upward swing sent him smashing into the ceiling. Then crashing into the ground and bouncing off that as he flew almost completely across the cavern.

It continued its spin and moved towards the downed Mike with surprising speed to slam its giant foot down on the man. Sara stood frozen while Jen rushed closer to Mike, needing to get the man back in range of her heals. Before his rapidly dwindling health emptied. She said a silent prayer for the Assassin but considering the force of that blow. He was probably out of the fight if even still alive.