In the meantime, Isla continued to relentlessly attacked the giant’s legs while dodging kick attempts, steadily making progress. Numerous bloody cuts adorned both of the giant’s massive limbs. Vanya stood about ten feet away from the giant and began to glow. At first, it was just a faint light, barely visible in the light of the lone sun that remained in the sky, but within a few seconds, it had grown around her, and the color was clearly the same blue as her breath attacks had been before. Vanya stood resolute, her aura growing brighter and brighter, capturing the giant’s attention as it began to move toward her. With the giant only a few steps away, Vanya released a chilling wave of cold air at it. At that precise moment, Vultressant, sensing the opportunity, triggered his bolt spell.
Vanya thrust her arms out to her sides as the wave of cold air pummeled the giant. Her other attacks had been brief, but this one lasted for several seconds. The giant howled in outrage and pain at first, but the howls quickly changed to those of panic. Ice formed on the giant everywhere Vanya’s breath touched it, and the creature’s movements slowed significantly. Vultressant’s bolt landed in the middle of this, and while it struck the side of the giant, the bolt was enveloped in the cold assault, doing little damage itself. The giant tried to move away, but it made it only one step before toppling to the ground. It landed heavily on the arm that it had used in a vain attempt to shield itself from her attack, and the arm broke in half when the giant collapsed onto the rocky ground.
Vanya fell to the ground when the light around her faded. Ewtain and Maroftis ran to help her. This time, Ewtain was the one to administer a healing potion. Isla and Taloc continued to attack the downed giant, even though it was clearly dead.
As Vultressant approached, his gaze darted to Vanya. “How is she?” he asked in a shaky voice.
Ewtain sat by her side, cradling her head in his lap. “I managed to get her to drink the potion, but it’s not helping. It worked for me earlier. All she did was use a potion to attack, so how did she end up like this?”
Vultressant pondered several possibilities before sharing them with the group. “There could be a limit on how many potions of that type that can be safely used within a certain time frame. She used all three of them in just this battle, and the last one seemed to be far more powerful than the other two had been. Either there was a cumulative effect to increase the power, or it was something that she was doing herself. If she was amplifying the potion with her mana points, then this may be the same thing that happened to me when I used more mana than I had.”
Taloc interjected, “She still has mana.” Vultressant checked his party window to see that she did indeed have almost a quarter of her mana remaining.
Vultressant checked his own mana, and it was under half, so he said, “I have to wait a bit before trying to extract this thing’s essence, or I might end up like Vanya here. Is she stable?”
“It looks like it,” Taloc replied. “She’s maintaining HP and mana. She even has most of her energy.”
The news made Vultressant feel a little better. He couldn’t help Vanya, so he decided to check on the giant’s essence. It was strong, so he knew that he had some time. He checked his mana and found that he was at 201 out of 450. He had gained a level and a free bump in Intellect. He upped his Intellect with the remaining four points. This brought his mana to 241 out of 490.
He clicked on the tab that accessed his character sheet:
Name: Vultressant
Race: Gnome
Level: 8
Attributes:
Charisma: 14
Dexterity: 13
Fate: 14
Intellect: 49
Psyche: 32
Strength: 11
Vitality: 20
HP: 200
MP: 490
The Psyche was higher than he remembered, so he checked the rest of his notifications, and he found that he had gone up in fire magic three times and was now level ten. That level had given him the bonus point in Psyche and increased the power of his fire-based spells. He checked his bolt of fire spell: the mana requirement had lowered from 50 mana to 45, and the base damage had increased from 20–25 damage to 22–28 damage. Also, the cooldown had gone down to 27 seconds.
He chided himself for putting the points into Intellect; he was stressed out by the battle and not thinking straight. Not only would it be better for him to add more to Psyche as that increased mana regeneration speed, but he also had an easy way to get his Intellect up.
“Great job!” Jallik’s voice rang out as he approached, leading the ox and cart toward the group.
“No thanks to you,” Ewtain said under his breath, but loud enough for the Dwarf to hear him.
Jallik laughed. “I am no the one getting paid to fight Rock Trolls,” he said, pointing at the downed giant. “Frankly, I was betting on the Troll.” He patted the ox on the neck. “I owe Angus extra rations tonight.” The ox actually made a mooing noise in response.
“What would you have done if we had lost?” Isla asked. She had sheathed her sword and shouldered her shield, and she stood in front of the Dwarf with her arms folded across her chest.
Jallik scratched his beard. “Well, I would have turned the cart around and hoped that the Troll would fill up on you lot, but if he followed, then I would have given him Angus.” The ox made almost a growling sound, and the Dwarf patted its neck again. “It would have killed me, boy, but what choice would I have?” Angus turned his head away from the Dwarf. “Do no be like that,” Jallik pleaded, and he continued talking to the ox in low tones that Vultressant could no longer hear.
“So, is there any demand for Troll parts?” Ewtain asked.
“What the hell do you mean?” Isla asked.
Ewtain shrugged. “Like parts for magical potions—our resident potion expert is currently out, so we can’t ask her. Maybe Dwarves like to eat them. Hey Jallik! Is Rock Troll penis a delicacy?” The Dwarf frowned and gave him a severe look before going back to console his ox. Ewtain shrugged again and slapped Maroftis on the back. “I think that it might make you larger. Don’t look at me like that. You’ve been going on about drinking from another fountain ever since you grew larger from the last one.” Ewtain pointed at Jallik. “If that Dwarf said that eating Rock Troll penis would make you bigger, you would totally do it.”
“We’re not going to eat the penis,” Maroftis said.
“Dude, what if it makes us stronger, or lets us fly?” Ewtain asked.
Maroftis considered for a moment. “All right, let’s eat the penis,” he said and started to walk towards the Rock Troll.
“What?” Isla nearly screamed.
“It’s fine,” Ewtain said. “Let him have this. You know he really wants to fly.”
“Why would it make him fly?”
Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.
Ewtain shrugged. “Magic?”
“Maroftis,” Vultressant called. “at least wait until I get its essence.”
Maroftis paused, and a smile spread across Vultressant’s face as Ewtain and Isla’s argument carried on. Maroftis appeared mostly healed, save for his still-limp arm, though his regeneration likely was working on that too.
Vultressant approached the Troll, sensing its essence, albeit weaker than before. With only 294 mana, he hoped it would suffice. He concentrated, drawing the essence toward him. This proved far more challenging than any he’d encountered before. After minutes of struggle, an idea struck him. It was like wrestling a massive fish; sometimes he pulled, other times he held firm to prevent losing ground. Alternating between pulling and holding, he eventually wrested the essence into his grasp. To his astonishment, it gleamed with a deep blue hue.
He checked his notification: Congratulations! You have successfully extracted a Rock Troll essence. You have gained 3 levels in extract essence, and your skill is now level 8. He opened the next notification: Greater Sapphire Essence. Tags: Strength, Vitality, Regeneration. That was more information than he had ever been given concerning the essences. Before this moment, Vultressant had only been acknowledged for extracting essences labeled as ‘Gnoll essence’ or something similar, with no indication of their quality or traits. It seemed the information system had updated itself to reflect his evolving understanding of essences—not merely red or green, but now described as ruby or emerald, and in this case, sapphire. He stared at the vial of blue-glowing liquid in awe. How did he instinctively know its traits? Strength and Vitality seemed apparent, but he had never witnessed the creature regenerate or observed any healing abilities.
Vultressant went back to the cart, where the others were tending to Vanya. “Hey, Jallik, do Rock Trolls regenerate?” he asked. The Dwarf seemed to have not heard, so he asked his question again.
Jallik pinched his earlobe, where he wore a small diamond stud earring, and finally noticed Vultressant looking at him expectantly. “What can I do for you?” he asked in his accented voice. Vultressant was confused by his behavior; Jallik had acted like someone who was viewing something on his HUD, but it was like he was talking to someone; maybe there was a spoken element to the interface?
“The Rock Troll essence has a trait, or tag, I guess, of regeneration. Do they regenerate?”
Jallik frowned and looked at Vultressant as if he had just been told that he was the Rock Troll. When Vultressant only waited, Jallik finally said, “I thought that you knew that the way you were peppering it with your fire arrows.”
He did know of some game systems where fire prevented regeneration. “I didn’t know,” he admitted. “I can only shoot arrows, fire, cold, and wind at things, and the fire is the most effective from a distance, which is where I like to stay for health reasons.”
Jallik nodded in understanding. “Well, it was good that you did; it was looking pretty bad for you lot even with your fire preventing the Troll’s regeneration ability.”
Vultressant agreed and said, “I thought that the thing was a Giant, not a Troll. How big are Giants, comparatively speaking?”
“Some be larger, some be smaller. You lot handled the Rock Troll well enough, but if you see more than one actual Giant, I suggest that you run,” Jallik said, chuckling. “Ha! Maybe if it just be one, you should run.” The Dwarf rubbed his ear and walked to the back of the cart, while Vultressant went to check on Vanya.
Taloc approached the Troll and accessed the loot option. Finding nothing for butchering or skinning, he mentally accepted the offered coin. As he did, a large pouch materialized beside the giant, which Taloc promptly collected. “Hey guys,” he called out as he returned to the group, “We got 500 silver from the Troll.” With a grin, he opened the pouch to reveal its contents to everyone.
“That will help,” Vultressant said as he looked up from tending to Vanya.
Isla and Ewtain were also hovering over Vanya, who was lying next to the cart. Ewtain was holding up her head, and Isla was about to pour another healing potion into her mouth. “I don’t think that will work,” Vultressant said, pointing to the potion. She was still breathing, but she was icy cold. “We should build a fire to keep her warm,” he said with concern.”
“Why not give her the potion?” Ewtain asked, looking over at him. “The one that I gave her might have stabilized her.”
“I think what happened to her is similar to what happened to me in the forest. Perhaps she overloaded the spell the potion enabled her to cast. Even though she still had mana left, if she powered it with her own mana, it might not have been compatible with the spell’s type. It could have caused issues, acting as if she tried to use more mana than she had. From what Rena, the Enchantress at the foundry, has told me, we shouldn’t attempt that. It could be fatal.”
“Well, we have to do something,” Isla said.
“Agreed, but we don’t have many of the potions—certainly not enough to be just wasting them,” he replied. “Also, it hasn’t been an hour since Ewtain gave her one. Another will be less potent.” He could see that Isla was worried, so he attempted a more sympathetic tone. “Sorry. I’m worried about her too. I hope that the potion works, but don’t get your hopes up.”
Isla fed Vanya the potion, but as he had expected, it failed to do anything. To make matters worse, Jallik refused to stay there and set up what he referred to as a ‘beacon fire.’ They were forced to carry her since Jallik also refused to allow her to be stored in the cart. The cart was packed with boxes and sacks of food and equipment, and they would have needed to remove several things if she was to be carried inside it. Taloc had suggested that their inventories could hold several things, certainly enough to make room for Vanya in the cart, but Jallik flatly refused to let them carry anything. This was likely for the best, because if anything toppled onto her while riding, it would only make things worse for her. In the end, Maroftis carried her over one shoulder until his other arm was fully mended, and then he held her like he would a small child. His enormous size was more than sufficient for the task.
Before nightfall, they reached a valley nestled between several peaks, where they made camp for the night beneath the shelter of towering conifer trees. Vultressant sat down next to Taloc, who was tending a small fire that he had managed to start. “I could have helped you with that, you know,” he said, motioning to the fire.
Taloc held his hands over the fire to warm them, and then he too sat down. “I try to do these things myself, because every so often I gain a level in wilderness lore. If it’s raining or something, then I’ll take you up on that offer.”
“What level is the skill at now?”
“It’s up to five now,” Taloc replied.
“How do you like the new sword?” he asked.
Taloc beamed. “It’s amazing! I’m still getting used to it, but it does great damage, and the shadow form is handy. It needs time to recharge that ability, so I can only use it once a fight, or possibly only once a day. I hadn’t tried it since we left Ildul, so it could even be more than a day. Rena had told me that as I use it more, the bond will get stronger. Hopefully, I’ll be able to understand more of its workings with time.”
Vultressant nodded. “I saw you cut the Troll without leaving a mark; that’s something that the shadow demon did to me. He swiped at me, but his claw went right through me. Is that what happened?”
“I think so,” Taloc replied, and he stroked the hilt absently. “It only did that twice during the fight, and the other times it cut as you would expect a sword to cut. I’m not sure why it acted that way or, more specifically, why it chose to do it when it did. I certainly didn’t have any control over that.”
“Well, it’s a good thing that we had it made and that it came out as well as it did,” Vultressant said. “I mean, the way that they were talking, it sounded like we could have ended up with nothing.”
Isla knelt next to Vanya, whom she had propped up next to the side of the cart; she was trying to pour a little water into the Elf’s mouth. Vultressant pointed over at them. “Is that what you had to do with me when I was out?”
Taloc looked at him slyly. “What? We just left you where you fell. Well, maybe Vanya did a little somethin’ somethin’ for you, but I was off scouting a lot.”
The expression on the Ranger’s face was a bit unsettling. “What are you saying? You think that she’s interested in me?”
“Well, I don’t think that she touches you on the arm whenever possible because she thinks that you are a gross, bald gargoyle. I mean, that is girl code for ‘ask me out’.”
Vultressant thought about it, and she did do that a fair amount, but that certainly didn’t mean... He looked up to see Taloc just shaking his head and smiling. “You really didn’t know?” Taloc asked him.
Vultressant shrugged. “I really hadn’t considered anything but this world since we arrived. I’ve been focused on trying to learn everything about it, and... well, I guess that I was just oblivious to it.”
Taloc cleared his throat. “I know you have a girl back home. How serious is it?”
Vultressant thought about the question for a moment. He had dated several women, but there were only a few that he had considered to be a girlfriend. “More serious than most,” he finally decided. “I have thought about her, but most of those thoughts are tangled up in the ‘I won’t see her again, because I won’t make it back to our world’ thoughts. I thought that our situation would make me focus on getting back to her, but it just hasn’t. I’ve spent a lot of time with Vanya, since we’re the only casters.”
“Sure, that’s the reason.”
“It’s true that I care about Vanya, but I care about all of you.”
“Do you feel the same way about Vanya as you do about Isla?”
“Point taken,” Vultressant admitted. “So, are there any other budding romances in the group?” he asked jokingly, trying to move the conversation away from himself.
“I think that something is up between Isla and Ewt, but I can never get a good look at his face to see his expressions.”
“Really?” Taloc liked messing with him, but he seemed sincere. “They fight like cats and dogs.”
“You know, opposites attract.”
“That’s not the vibe that I get from them, but I’ll try to pay more attention in the future,” Vultressant promised.
Taloc laughed softly. “No, you won’t.”
Vultressant smiled. “No, I won’t,” he agreed.