Lost Bloodline 3 - Chapter 14

Chapter 14

“So how ‘single’ does it need to be in order to steal the power of a troll?” Koda asked Arthene as their group snuck closer to the abandoned town while the trolls continued to scuffle with each other. “Is interrupting their fight going to prevent it from working? Since one is beating the stuffing out of the other?”

“It won’t affect it,” Arthene answered quickly. “This isn’t really a fight to the death. Those two are likely tussling over something they found and don’t want to share. A troll will heal from near death to full health in a matter of minutes. It still puts a weight on their body to do it, but with their sturdy constitution and enough food, they can survive anything.”

“So what about the hunters harrying them from a distance?” Koda asked, wanting to get more information.

Koda and Arthene decided to test themselves against the trolls first. That would allow them to gauge the threat of the trolls and see if they’d be something the others could handle to be able to grow more powerful. Between Arthene’s nature as a primal spirit and Koda’s goddess-boosted strength, they were the most dangerous of the regular fighters. Sienna and Calandra could keep up with their magic, but even admitted that they’d hesitate.

“The idea of single combat in the legends is that one would clash with a troll without support. But it’s not entirely true.” Arthene gestured for him to keep close and follow her around the edge of a low barn that was missing half its roof. “The more who participate in the slaying of a troll, the more ways it is split. And each split reduces the total gained. If I remember right, more than three means that the boost is smaller than any might recognize.”

“Then what contributes to the fight? Can a single arrow ruin it?” Koda was suddenly reminded of those who would steal kills in MMORPG’s by shooting a single arrow into them before you could damage the opponent.

“If the troll falls bearing unhealed wounds from more than one opponent, the split occurs.” Arthene gave a huff of irritation, glancing searchingly down at Koda. “Are you hesitating, my mate? Have more confidence in yourself. You can do this.”

“It’s not me I’m worried about,” Koda sighed as they edged up to the corner of a building, the fighting noises growing louder. “I’m worried about the others. It might be safer if we have them attack in groups to get the smaller portions, rather than die in the fight.”

Arthene snorted and shook her head in denial, an action that made her currently unbound hair bounce and shimmer in the afternoon light. She stopped shy of the corner of the building and turned to wrap her arms around Koda’s shoulders, crushing him into a hug that smushed his face into the tops of her prodigious breasts.

“I should have known that was your worry, my mate. I am sorry for doubting you,” Arthene rumbled in Koda’s ear.

Not wanting her to fall to self recrimination, Koda returned the hug. Not just because he was enjoying his plush prison. When they separated, he stood on tiptoes to give Arthene a quick peck on the lips.

“We will see what comes of it, my Arthene. How do you want to handle this?”

“I’ll take the one currently winning their little ‘argument.’ I’ve fought trolls before and he’s the larger of the two. Don’t expect this to be a quick fight, though. Focus on leading it away from the village and wearing it down. No troll can fight forever, but it only needs to get lucky once.”

“Got it,” Koda said with a nod, accepting the carved bone club that Arthene normally fought with when she handed it to him.

“Hold onto this for me. My bear form will make it easier to handle the troll, better leverage,” Arthene’s smirk widened into a feral grin before her body flowed.

Never gets old watching her do that, Koda thought with a grin. I might have goddess-blessed powers, but the idea of being a shape-shifter is just too neat. At least Arthene only has the one form to deal with, I don’t know if I’d be able to figure out how to make the most of an unbound ability to shape-shift.

Within a breath of time, Arthene’s form settled into her dire-bear form and she whirled to lead the charge around the corner and into the wide street that the two trolls were fighting in. Koda leaped to follow her, slinging the club over his shoulder onto the strap that Arthene had attached earlier in the day.

The two trolls had trashed most of the street. Building fronts were shattered or collapsed, and more than one roof had been swept clean in their brawl. Currently, the larger of the two trolls was sitting astride the chest of the smaller and using a fistful of adobe bricks to bludgeon his downed opponent with unrestrained fury.

Arthene hit him like a runaway semi-truck.

The big troll glanced up in time to see the blur of fur and widen its eyes in surprise before Arthene barreled into him, sending the troll sprawling into the street. She opened her mouth to bite into the troll, but rather than a throat, she only got its forearm.

Koda had to look away, because the downed troll was already rolling to its feet. Blood streamed from scratches and scrapes on its face, but the injuries sealed up like someone had hit the fast forward button on a time-lapse video.

Ten feet of height didn’t look as intimidating from a distance, but up close like this with the beast towering nearly twice Koda’s height, it was intense. The troll shook its head, scattering drops of its blood all over the place. The wide maw set into its pumpkin-shaped head yawned into a roar while it turned to set upon Arthene, but Koda acted first.

He’d already summoned his totemic gauntlets on the approach, and kept in mind Arthene’s words. He needed to whittle down this monster. His weapons were not long enough to cause critical damage unless he could get at its eyes or throat, which were well out of reach at the moment.

Gotta cut him down to size. Like Calandra would do for the larger Crooked, he thought with a fierce grin. His dwarven mate was with the others, standing ready up on the hill to come racing down and assist them if they needed it, or divert if another troll showed up. He could almost feel her intense stare as she watched the glimpses of the fight they could pick out from the hilltop.

As the troll turned and raised both boulder-shaped fists over its head to slam down on Arthene’s back, Koda darted forward with his arms held wide. His lunge fell just short of dodging between the troll’s legs and he snapped both arms forward, each clawed hand going to drag as deeply as possible into the thick tendons in the back of the trunk-like thighs of the troll.

Roaring in pain, the troll stumbled and flailed, his hammer-blow attack aborting as Koda’s blows tore through his granite-colored skin. Blood spurted, but not the torrent of life-fluid that Koda was used to. The troll’s thick skin was already beginning to seal up, but he continued his assault.

Half-stepping to keep in place—Koda did not want to end up underneath the troll’s hairy backside after all—he applied another slash to the same sections of meaty thigh, digging deeper past the hardened skin and tearing into muscle and tendons. This time, the troll's roar was not just of surprise and pain, but fear as its right leg crumpled with the tendons cut.

Skipping to one side, Koda let the beast fall to the ground, slapping out with his claws instinctively to draw large, bleeding furrows in its sides, arms, and thighs as the creature crashed down.

Sparing a glance to where Arthene wrestled with her troll, Koda was astonished to see Arthene bodily thrown off the larger troll, sent tumbling across the ground. For once, her massive weight and strength in dire bear form was not enough to simply crush her foe.

The troll she’d been savaging sat up and shook it’s shredded arm in fury at Arthene before snatching a length of wood up from the wreckage to use as a club before the two clashed once more.

Focus on your fight, I have this, Arthene sent him along the spiritual connection they shared and Koda whipped his attention back to the troll in front of him. 

The wounds were sealing before his eyes, though blood bathed the troll’s side. But he definitely had the knobbly monster's attention now. Its pumpkin-shaped head split in half, spraying spittle as it roared loud enough that Koda’s ribcage vibrated in response.

Displaying a level of cunning he hadn’t expected, the troll whipped into a roll at him. He thought the creature was trying to snatch him despite being out of range, but the fistful of stones that the creature flung slammed into Koda like plus-sized buckshot and sent him sprawling.

Must have grabbed them when it fell, Koda thought with a groan. The rocks hadn’t been large enough to break anything, but he knew that his girls were going to yell at him for getting hurt when the bruises he could feel presented themselves. Be glad it wasn’t one larger rock that caved in your chest. Stupid. You fought Crooked warleaders and champions, don’t let some dumb troll with a rock end your story.

Letting the fall carry him into a roll away down the lane, Koda scrambled to his feet as soon as the tumbling ended. The troll’s mashed face split into a cruel grin as it too ripped off a length of lumber to use as a club before limping after him. The cuts on its legs were already healed, but the tendons he’d severed in the right leg were still giving it trouble.

Got it, hamstrings, tendons, and joints. Focus on those, Koda thought grimly as he returned to his feet.

So the troll kept focused on him, he scooped up a watermelon-sized rock with one hand and flung it at the creature’s head. The troll’s beady little eyes widened in surprise moments before the hunk of stone bounced off its skull, splitting the skin and sending a fresh wave of blood down it, but not slowing the creature.

Koda grimaced. He’d caved in chests on Crooked with throws like that before, but the troll treated it like a snowball studded with rocks. It didn’t help that, now that the creature was facing him, Koda could tell that it was a male of its species as the crude loincloth it’d been wearing had been torn off in the fight with its fellow troll.

Not something I want to see ever again, Koda thought and grimaced, snatching up another rock and fast-balling it at the troll’s exposed junk.

With the sort of instinctive wariness that most males had, the troll twisted to take the rock on its thigh rather than its family jewels before bellowing and charging Koda, the club in its hand held high.

Koda feinted to one side before throwing himself into a roll on the creature’s left when the troll bought the feint. He slashed out at the creature’s ankle as he passed, but the troll’s thick bones kept him from doing more than surface damage to it.

The bruises on his chest throbbed angrily from the earlier thrown stones, and Koda landed awkwardly in the roll as he’d forgotten he had Arthene’s club strapped to his back, the length of thigh bone throwing off his balance.

With more speed than he had expected, the troll whirled and slammed its club down at Koda, only missing him by inches as he used his goddess-blessed strength to toss himself into a handspring out of the way of the blow.

Landing on his feet, Koda snatched Arthene’s club off of his back and brandished it threateningly at the troll while the creature limped in a circle to recover and angle towards him. In the distance behind the troll, he could see the outlines of the rest of his team watching on the hillside. A red-headed figure that he knew to be Sienna was pumping her spear over her head encouragingly, while the shorter figure next to her was spinning her weapon anxiously.

“All right, shitbag,” Koda growled, dragging his attention back to the troll. “You wanna fight with weapons? Let’s see if your club holds up to mine.”

The troll roared in fury and lunged forward, the club held high over its head. While it had no finesse in it’s attack, there was an amount of raw power that demanded respect as the creature pounded towards Koda. And while he could tap into a fury all his own, Koda knew that in this moment, cunning would carry the battle.

Arthene’s club was a good four feet or more long and had stood the test of many battles. Koda was confident in its durability and strength. The runes that he’d seen his wife carving into the shaft and head of the club were to further strengthen the weapon, or at least that was what she’d told him. So when the troll charged, Koda met that charge with one of his own, then slipped to one side at the last second.

The troll’s club crashed to the ground in an explosion of dirt, flying splinters, and fury. It missed Koda by half a foot, but he felt several large fragments of wood slam into his back and pierce his clothing.

Koda’s blow met the troll’s left knee just after it planted the limb to strike, the rounded knob of bone at the end of his club meeting the troll’s patella with every ounce of power and leverage Koda could muster. He felt the unearthly presence of Thera within the weapon as she guided his attack, just as she had taught him how to use her totemic claws weeks before, and that allowed the maximum force to be transmitted into the blow.

The troll's joint shattered and its leg bent the opposite direction with a gross crackling and tearing of flesh that would have made Koda’s stomach turn if they weren’t currently in the middle of a fight.

Howling in pain, the troll crashed forward onto its chest, both legs incapacitated at the moment. Koda did not let the opportunity go to waste. He rapidly slung the club over his shoulder once more before diving onto the troll’s back as it writhed in pain on the ground for a moment. Several blows to the backs of its thighs ensured the healing tendon on the right stayed severed and then tore through the one on the left. He then scampered up the troll’s back as it swatted furiously at him, digging his claws into the creature’s wrist to sever tendons there and leave a flopping glove of meat behind in its right hand.

Reaching the troll’s head, Koda did not hesitate to drive the claws of his right hand into the glaring black eye on the left side of the troll’s face when it turned to snap at him. The howls of fury turned into screeches of pain when he yanked his hand out of the ruined eye-socket of the troll.

Flailing wildly, Koda’s opponent finally managed to dislodge him in its frantic movements, sending the champion tumbling across the dirt packed street once more. Koda wanted to check on Arthene, to see how her fight was going, but he had to focus on his own battle. Just the troll throwing him loose had rewarded him with another bruise and a gash on his forehead that was bleeding sluggishly.

Really would appreciate that armor, Thera, Koda sent to the goddess. Her response of a ‘oh hush, you’ feeling made his fierce grin spread wider.

The troll continued to flail on the dirt, one hand over its ruined eye while the other raked over the soil as if it could find Koda by digging hard enough. Blood spattered the ground in steaming sprays while ragged meat flapped until it began to heal. The creature’s flailing was actually buying the time needed to let its healing take effect, so Koda couldn’t hesitate for long.

Again, he unslung Arthene’s club and darted forward, dropping to all fours to power his movement with the strange primal magic that Thera had infused his entire body with.

Approaching from the troll’s blind side, Koda leaped over the creature, swinging as he flew to put his entire body weight behind the blow. The rounded head of the bone club connected with the side of the troll’s skull with an ominous cracking noise that caused the creature to slump. The sensation of impact was so strong that it actually arrested Koda’s flight and he tumbled into a heap on the far side of the monster.

Rolling to his feet, he quickly inspected Arthene’s club.

She’s gonna kill me if I broke it, he thought furiously, but there were no signs of a break in the sturdy thigh bone, just fresh smears of blood from where it had ruined his enemy’s flesh.

Returning his attention to the present, Koda looked towards the troll. It’s flailing was weaker now, but it was dragging itself towards him. The one remaining eye glared at him hatefully amongst a mess of blood and damaged flesh that writhed while it tried to reform. But just as Arthene had told him, if he dealt enough damage to the creature it’s healing would slow. The dent in the side of its skull and the ruin of its ear didn’t hurt either.

“You really are like a rabid beast,” Koda growled as he took a moment to get himself in order. The multiple tumbles and blows had shredded his shirt, leaving it hanging in rags that displayed his muscled torso and the speckling of bruises from the fight, but other than those and some deep scratches, he was in far better condition than the troll was.

And how much of that is Thera’s blessings? Strength, endurance, and agility are huge boons that you’ve learned to wield properly, Koda questioned himself as the troll’s skull began to balloon outwards once more, the ear slowly filling back in. A quiet crunch and it had both hands to use once more.

“Enough,” Koda growled and lunged forward, club whirling up and over his shoulder into a blow like a blacksmith pounding down to flatten out metal.

The troll's long arms lunged forward, reaching for Koda’s legs to try and catch him. The troll was intelligent enough to realize that if it could get hold of the smaller man, it could rend him limb from limb. But Koda wasn’t going to just stand there and let it catch him.

Digging his feet in like a baseball slide, Koda arrested his charge early, forcing the pendulum of his club to come crashing down on the troll’s elbow with such force that it blasted the joint apart like someone hitting a sausage with a hammer. When the troll roared in pain, he turned and slammed the head of the club into the creature’s open mouth, shattering several teeth in the process before the troll began to choke on the bone.

It’s one remaining eye bugged wide and the arm that worked properly reached to try and stop Koda, but he released his grip on the club to lunge forward. His left hand drove into the other eye of the beast while his right opened the troll’s throat in a spray of gore.

A sharp kick diverted it’s one good arm before he pinned it down with one foot and dug the claws of both hands into the creature’s elbow, shredding meat and tendons until that limb went limp.

But still, its flesh writhed unnaturally and tried to knit itself together.

“Die already!” Koda roared, using the club choking the creature as a lever to flip it over before slashing into its throat once more. Blood and chunks of flesh flew through the air as Koda hacked into its thick throat until he found its spine and severed that as well.

Like a puppet with its strings cut, the troll went limp suddenly. Blood flowed thickly over the grass, but the creature’s unnatural healing finally slowed and stopped.

Caked in blood from fingertips to his waist, Koda panted in exertion at the battle. Unwilling to accept the creature was fully dead, he yanked Arthene’s club from its throat and brought the weapon up over his head, intent on crushing the troll’s skull.

As the weapon descended, Koda felt the weight of a mountain come crashing down on his shoulders. Power enveloped him like an avalanche and sank deep into his soul as he roared in fury at his opponent.

The bone club, which had previously only dented the troll’s skull when he’d struck with all his power, slammed home like a meteor coming to earth and shattered the creature's head into a thousand pieces.