GERVAIS.

Gervais climbed down uncomfortably from the demented flying creature he'd requisitioned from the goblin marketplace. He'd had to force it into submission in order to ride from the caverns here to the base of the icy mountain pass in time. This kind of beast was definitely not his style, however he desperately hoped he'd be able intercept the White Orc, Leőn, Kylie and the Troll before they could evade him again. It was vital he get to that troll, otherwise he wouldn't be employing such... he looked at the blindfolded and muzzled creature, who twitched oddly and snapped at thin air... desperate means.

He handed the reins to a group of terrified soldiers.

"Tie it up over there," he ordered them, "and give it something to eat and drink. DO NOT remove it's blindfold."

"What even is this thing..." he heard the soldiers ask each other.

This unit of Joss' fighting force had marched day and night with little to no sleep to be here while Gervais had, unsuccessfully, pursued the fleeing troll into the deep caverns beyond the Goblin Town. He'd lost the trail, and with no other means of tracking them had cut his losses, and with frustration, given up his pursuit.

He had sent Joss to Thunderguard as soon as Goblin Town had been cleared. Although he didn't know the dungeons in this part of the Realm nearly as well as the White Orc, he suspected that the White Orcs escape route could likely lead through the Dwarf King's Domain. So either the King would capture them and place them under arrest, or they would somehow slip through his Kingdom undetected and end up here at the icy mountain pass. Gervais thought the latter was most likely, which is why he'd pushed so hard to get here now. If he'd timed it right they should be emerging from the Dwarf passages any day. He'd also made sure this encampment was well downhill from the exit door; he couldn't give them any reason to figure him out and slip back into the underground. There was a risk that they might take the North route through the icy mountain pass, but he doubted it. Four travellers alone, even powerful ones, would be foolish to try it.

He sensed something, connection, and tensed. They were here. Were they here? He sensed something... some of them were here maybe. He couldn't be sure. There was something very odd about the feeling...

"Guards!" he called, "Be on alert. I sense them close by."

"Sir!" the Sergeant called back, and passed orders to his men who spread out to their predetermined posts. It was going to be an ambush. Fast, dirty and importantly, giving no opportunity for escape no matter what cost to his troops or their party. He needed to get that troll.

The path down the mountainside widened the further down it went. At the top, where the door to the Dwarf Kingdom was, it was narrow and perilous but as it wound down the mountainside with widened to a reasonable road. On the southwest side of the road, boulder strewn snowy foothills with only sparse trees rose back up into the mountains, and on the northeast side the ground sloped downwards into dense snow covered pine forest. To cover the possible routes the party might take to descend from the mountain pass, Gervais had split the soldiers into five groups, there were two to the north watching the foothills, well concealed in boulder lookouts, two down in the cover of the pine forest, and one watching the road. Either the party would come straight down the road and walk into the central ambush, which Gervais thought unlikely, or they would try and stay off the main road and work their way down through the foothills above the road or the forest below it.

The strategy was to keep a look out for the party, once spotted to do nothing but watch until they had passed, and to send their best and most silent scout to the central command point to advise. Then, when the targets were within the boundaries of the five ambush teams, sound a horn, a single, short sharp blast, and begin pursuit, at which point the other four teams would close in on them from the other directions. The teams had had a few days now to map out the area, and Gervais was satisfied that the ambush locations they had setup would indeed cover all possible ways for the party to make their way down from the mountain. He trusted these men to pull it off competently. This time the troll would be caught.

Why don't I sense them all? The thought nagged at Gervais. He knew they were close, but the sense was still off somehow. Had they maybe been separated in the Dwarf mines? Were they not all here together? That could explain it...

Gervais was at the central command point. The teams were in position. All they could do now was wait.

scrunsh scrunsh scrunsh...

Very faint footsteps could be heard coming from the direction of one of the northeast forest teams. He walked with the barest minimum of sound and wore the unique scout tunic with white concealing cloak and hood over his armour. One of the scouts was bringing new of a sighting!

"They're in the forest!" whispered the scout from under his hood, "They're moving slowly and carefully, following the line of the road but within the cover of the trees. A troll, an elf, a big white thing and a fairy."

Strange... thought Gervais, they're all here after all...

scrunsh scrunsh scrunsh...

More faint footsteps could be heard coming from the direction of one of the southwest foothills teams. Another scout?

"They're up in the foothills!" whispered the scout, "They're picking their way through the boulders above the road. A troll, a fairy and an elf, and an orc."

Gervais narrowed his eyes. Something was wrong here. He turned to question the first scout, but he had disappeared.

Taaaaaa!

a clear sharp horn blast came from the foothills. That meant the foothills team had begun pursuit.

"ALL TEAMS PURSUE TO THE SOUTHWEST!" bellowed the Sergeant.

Taaaaa! Taaaaa!

Taaaaa!

Three clear sharp horn blasts came from the southwest and northeast simultaneously.

"WHAT!?" yelled the Sergeant

"THERE'S TRACKS DOWN HERE SIR, THEY'RE ESCAPING INTO THE TREES!!!" a shout carried up the hill from the northeast team.

"ALL TEAMS PURSUE THEM INTO THE FOREST!" bellowed the Sergeant.

"SIR WE'VE GOT THEM PINNED UP HERE, SEND REINFORCEMENTS!" a shout came down the hill.

"ALL TEAMS REINFORCE THE FOOTHILLS!" bellowed the Sergeant.

"THEIR FOOTPRINTS ARE ALL OVER THE ROAD HERE SIR, OVER HERE! THEY'RE FLEEING DOWN TO THE VALE!"

Gervais shoulders slumped.

"Sergeant, call them all back." he sighed.

"What Sir? We've nearly got them!"

"No, you don't. They aren't here. We're going to have to hike the mountain pass."

He really hated that Elf.

----------------------------------------

GOB.

The last Elemental leapt in to the air with an angry shriek before exploding into a shower of shards mid-flight.

Leőn was standing on the rim of the snow crater, knee deep, almost as invisible as the ice elementals had been, his bow in hand.

“Nice of you to save one for me!” he called to them.

The White Orc straightened up and massaged a crick out of the small of his back. Leőn laughed at him, "Getting old Orc?"

“Not so much old, as out of practice.” he retorted, “It was a nice healthy start to the morning."

Kylie flew to Gob, who was lying on his back in the snow, and landed on on his fluffy chest. He was cut and punctured all over his body and there was a thick, nearly frozen pool of his own black blood surrounding him.

“Well you look a mess” she said, her hands on her hips.

“giv mi sec” he said weakly, holding up a finger.

She turned to Leőn “Welcome back. So, what did you find?”

“Gob was right. It was a trap.” he answered “Gervais had set up a pretty neat ambush for us. There were at least fifty soldiers there to spring us, and they're of a decent quality too... for Humans. It wouldn’t have been pretty.”

“Did they see you?” asked the Orc. Leőn gave him a withering look.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

“Of course they saw me!” he said looking self satisfied, “I made sure they ‘saw’ all of us… I snuck past them to the downhill side and then set up some false tracks in the snow, some leading down to the Vale, some leading into the forest and some others leading up into the foothills. Then I knocked one of scouts over the head and dressed up in his gear, went into the command point and reported two different definite sightings of a small troll and glowing fairy, a white orc and an extremely good looking elf to Gervais in person! Then I blew a horn a few times, called out a some misdirections and snuck back up the pass. You should have seen them running around in circles, it was quite entertaining!”

“What would you have done if Gervais had worked it out?!” asked Kylie

“Well he didn't.” he replied, “I mean he did, but not quickly enough to be onto me!”

The White Orc went over to Gob, who was now sitting up tenderly. “Can you walk yet?” Gob slowly got to his feet and stepped out of the black puddle of his own blood he had been lying in.

“That's disgusting. And also outrageously hilarious.” said Leőn, “Gob, what is with the fluff? You look like a big cuddly pin cushion!"

"Gob has a skill that allows him to absorb surrounding affinities, and he inherits the troll archetype traits and skills consistent with that affinity. It's why he looked like a cave troll in the mines. Now he looks like a..." she giggled.

"A big cuddly pin cushion!" Leőn said again, both of them laughing now.

Gob growled, but it only made them laugh harder. He stalked off towards the White Orc instead.

Leőn followed him, "But seriously Gob, you and me need to have a little talk about STYLE. Mostly, I’d like to start by teaching you some defensive and combat theory so you can stop bleeding everywhere. Most normal Warriors don’t just go around being stabbed all the time OK? There’s ways to prevent this kind of thing happening.”

“dat sund good.” he said, surprised that the Elf would be so generous. “iz ok to walk. we go.”

As they walked, Leőn described the basics of close combat to him.

"There's two types of opponent," said Leőn, "balanced and unbalanced. That's the first question you ask yourself in a combat situation. You think to yourself 'is this individual WELL ROUNDED? Have they obviously equally strong in Mind, Body and Spirit?' If you're standing in front of a powerful Mage, you know the answer is 'yes'... because you can't gain a lot of imbalanced Magical power. The means even though he's a MAGE, he's going to also have a wide ranging repertoire of If you're facing off against a tribal goblin king, the answer is probably 'no'... he will have got to where he got by being the biggest and the fattest goblin in the cave. It doesn't mean he isn't powerful, but it does mean he will have a very exploitable weakness. What about those elementals you just battled? What did you think about them?"

"dey woz magiky, but not tuff" he replied.

"Right!" said Leőn, "So the worst thing you could have done was get Kylie to hit them with some Bright Magic, they would have just shrugged most of it off... even worse they probably would have turned it against you. Even the Orc's Crude Magic would have been less effective against them than a good hard beat up."

"dats wot he sed"

"So once you've thought about your opponent, then you have to make a call on how you're going to approach the confrontation. My personal strategy for powerful, balanced opponents is simply to run away. Because my skill set specialises in confusion, misdirection and concealment, my weakness is actually protracted bouts. If I can exit a confrontation that I'm not likely to win quickly, I'm out! If I don't have the option of slipping away, like against Gervais the other day in Goblin Town, then I'll duck and weave and try and piss them off enough that they make a mistake. You'd be surprised how many opportunities you will get if you make your opponent angry. Remember when I clipped Gervais robe? That was nearly enough for the Orc to disarm him!

"On the other hand, if I'm facing an opponent with an obvious weakness, I'll go straight in and test it violently. I'll try for a critical hit. I always fight fast and dirty, and win in the first turn if I can. I've actually got a charge skill:faceoff that allows me to get right into contact range and ignore almost all rebuffs and reactions."

"but i no fite lik dat." said Gob thoughtfully.

"No, and I'm not suggesting you should! We just need to make a strategy for you that takes into account your current skills, and also shows you the way forward for your own style. From the look of you after that last fight, you're using your initiative and your attacks to get started, which is great... you've already begun to develop a style yourself. But, when your turn is over you're just pausing to soak up hits until it's your turn again."

Gob nodded. That was exactly what he had been doing.

"There are so many turn sequence hacks you could be working on! So we need an off-turn defensive strategy for you. We call them saves. The most basic saves are just straight stat gains... get tougher. Increase constitution. Get faster and more agile so you can duck and weave. Basically if you're tougher or faster than your opponent is you beat the formula just on numbers."

Gob nodded, "da orc teld me abot da for-moolas"

"Meh, try not to think about them." scoffed Leőn, "You can spend so much time trying to out-calculate the system that you never progress. Just do you, and let the Spheraxis work it out... but, know that your stats are the basis of every save, and work hard on them."

"wot iz haks?"

"Ok good question. How many attacks do you have?"

"i haz too clor attacks, an wun bite if i can git clos enuf, an if i iz charged den i can frow dem away."

Leőn looked thoughtful. "Ok, that's actually pretty good for a low powered fighter. First question, just to get you thinking... what are your feet doing the whole time?"

"i stan on dem." said Gob

Leőn laughed at him. "Sometimes I forget you're a troll, and then you say something entirely ridiculous and I remember again!"

Gob frowned. "sumtim i foget yoo iz a elf coz we iz havin a good con-va-sayshun, an den yoo larf an i rememba how annoyin it iz."

"My laugh isn't that annoying!" he retorted

"iz da LEEST annoyin fing abot yoo. i woz juz tryin to be po-lite."

"I think the troll just burned me!" Leőn called out to Kylie.

"He did." she called back.

"What I meant was," he continued with a chuckle, "WHY aren't you using your feet for extra attacks?"

"wot I meen woz, coz i is STANDIN on dem. wen i woz in da den fitin mi siblins i tri to kik sumtims an i aways fal ova. atualy dat iz how i assidently lern da body frow. i fald ova wile i woz kikin jik, an i pul him ova an he frew away!"

"Ok, well first good story! Second, we will work on your balance, because if you have better balance you'll be able to pick up first one more attack, and second, when you're really good, probably two more. NOW, here's why it's essential. This is the HACK: Any attack you DON'T use in your offensive turn CAN STILL BE USED IN YOUR DEFENSIVE TURN!"

Gob thought about that for a moment, then his eyes widened. "yoo meen i get moor hits even wen i iz bein hitted?!"

"Well, sort of... they're not quite as good as hits, but you can definitely work in that direction. An unused attack that you retain as a save can be used as a reaction. You see there's actually no such things as 'offensive' or 'defensive' skills. They just are what they are, but they behave a bit differently when you use them differently. So you claw an enemy once, then they hit you back, but you use your second claw to stop the attack. That reaction is called a block. It's another reason why initiative can be such a game changer early on... not only do you get to go first, but they can't block either in that first turn! They do have other saves, but you essentially get a freebie that they never will, because by the time they get to attack, you can block!"

"can i blok wiv mi teef?" asked Gob.

Leőn looked like he would laugh again, but restrained himself, then made a face.

"Actually that's an in interesting question... Sometimes being naive can open interesting new considerations!" he answered, "I think it might be best NOT to test that during a live battle though..."

"wot ova savez iz der?" asked Gob enthusiastically.

"Well, after blocks there are some skills and traits that will allow you to develop the other sort of reaction: a rebuff. Your skill:bodyfrow is actually a rebuff skill... because you can only use it when someone charges into combat range right?"

"rite"

"So you are using that skill to deflect their attack into your own attack. That's a specialty skill, and you were lucky to get it so early... especially so seeing as you found it through your own sheer clumsiness! But there are also some other standard rebuffs everyone should have in their repertoire, like shoulderbarge: if someone attacks you and you see they've overextended themselves and are a bit off balance, you just lean in with your shoulder and give them a bump... sometimes it will cause them to miss entirely! Ahh, taunt is one of my favourites... you'd be good at that, you're a bit of a trash-talker! Next time someone attacks you, block them and at the same tell them how much their skills suck and see what happens. Oh and it's early for you, but releasesphere is absolutely essential to learn, and the earlier you start, the better you'll be at it later when it matters. You probably missed it back in Goblin Town but Gervais released his Sphere and it basically signalled the end of the battle, as there was no way we were ever going to get close to him."

"wot abot sheelds an armor an... an my trollhide"

"You got it! Gear, and traits like hides, or chitin or scales for those of you lucky enough to grow your own, they are the last save. Traits, you should treat as a stat to be progressed constantly. In the case of gear, I'd only warn that though they give you an instant and sometimes massive gain, they come at the cost of style. A shield for example has to be held, reducing a potential extra attack. Not a problem if it suits your style, but a lot of fighters pick up shields and armour early and never learn how to defend themselves without them. They become a crutch... a dangerous one if they're lost for any reason. ALWAYS favour skills over gear. Remember that before you get too entranced with your gear:tuskybite! While you're violently obliterating enemies, you're probably only progressing your skill:miteybite by half. So remember to get all your gear off sometimes... do it in the raw I say!"

"Oh and always, always, ALWAYS STACK SAVES. There is NO limit on how many layers of save you have, so use your defensive turn to absolutely NULLIFY everything your opponent's got to the best of your ability. I had a formal complaint made against me to the High Council after a tournament for unfair save stacking. I've had it framed and hung on my wall!"

"ok. stak savez. i werk on dis. fanks leon, i meen it."

"Wait, I have one more thing. It probably matters more than saves. It's this: fix your instability."

"da orc say he iz goin to help me wiv dat. but wy iz it bad to be unstabl? dat iz wer i git mi fero-sity from. i fort it iz good to be fero-shus?"

"It's nothing to do with ferocity, I saw you fight that phase spider, believe me I know you're a ferocious little git! I like that about you. But ferocity can emerge just as readily from stability too.

"No," he said simply, "instability means that at your very core, you doubt yourself.

So you fight like you're expecting to lose."