F&L: Chapter 53

Almost immediately, I had to abandon my plans to cast at the Troll Chief as he launched himself into the air toward me. I was reminded of Ang Lee's Hulk from the way he did that. Either way, I didn't want to be stuck here when he came down. I threw myself out of the way bodily, practically diving headlong out of the blast zone as the Troll Chief came down with its wood and stone hammer, smashing up the area I'd been standing in previously. As I scrabbled to my feet, I cast an arrow-shooting spell at the Troll Chief, one which was deflected off the leather and bark tunic the Troll Chief wore like armor. I frowned on seeing that, but didn't have time to think about the implications as the Troll Chief let out a bellow and charged me again.

He swung his hammer at my head, forcing me to duck, the stone head passing just over my head by millimeters. I fired off a Globus Flammeum spell at the Troll Chief from point-blank range, but the spell sizzled into his magically resistant flesh and barely scorched him. In response, he booted me in the chest, which sent me flying backward to smash the back of my head against a tree trunk with a cracking noise, busting my scalp open and causing stars to explode behind my eyes as the tree toppled to the floor of the swamp. My grasp of the Mind Arts allowed me to focus up just in time to roll to the side, avoiding the swinging stone head of the Troll Chief's Hammer. I got to my feet and immediately tried to make a break for the trees, getting clipped in the shoulder by a punch from one of the Troll Chief's meaty hands that bruised my shoulder as I ran for it.

Nevertheless, I made it into a nearby copse of trees. Now, the Troll Chief couldn't swing his hammer freely, relegating him to short, less-powerful jabs with the hammer. That wasn't to say that such things weren't a problem in normal circumstances, but I had my Duster, which helped immensely on that front. I only got hit once with the hammer, a short, sharp, thrust forward that slammed into the True Orichalcum-reinforced Tebo-hide Duster. The armor qualities of my Duster turned what ordinarily might have been cracked ribs into bruised ribs, allowing me to keep fighting. Unfortunately, the Incendiary Bolt Spell I flung back at the Troll Chief was similarly deflected off the armor. This time, however, that shouldn't have been the case, and as I dodged another jab of the Troll Chief's Hammer, I began to recite the poem of Finn McCool and the Salmon of Knowledge, casting Radharc Oidhreachta.

What information I got was interesting, at least it was when I'd gotten past the obvious stuff like the fact I was fighting a Troll who was a veteran Hammer Fighter. Both the Troll Chief's armor and hammer were magical, but they weren't magical in the normal, wizarding way. Instead, I was getting a sense of something more Shamanic, as if the Troll Chief had undertaken some sort of ritual to allow the components of the various items to retain more of the spirit of what they had been made of. For the leather and bark of the armor, which was a combination of Dugbog Hide and Oak Bark to retain more of the sturdiness and strength of Oak and the Dugbog. For the stone head of the hammer, made of granite, to retain more of the solidity and heft of the rock face it had been quarried from. I got the sense that if I could just study the items, I might be able to unlock the rituals used by working backward from the finished product. It would have to wait, though.

What this meant was that not only was the hammer extra deadly, but I was gonna have a hard time doing any real damage to the Troll Chief between his magic armor, general resilience, and magic-resistant skin. I needed a new play, and as I ducked an attempt by the Troll Chief to grab me up in one meaty paw to strangle me, one came to my mind. Maybe it was the fact I'd just used Bardic Magic, maybe it was just that the Troll kept trying to grab me around the neck and throttle me, but I was suddenly reminded of the tale of Heracles and Antaeus. Anteaus was the son of Gaia, who could not be slain while standing on the ground. He had challenged Heracles to a fight to the death and, on realizing Antaeus' powers, Heracles hefted Antaeus into the air in a bear hug and crushed his chest till he suffocated.

I wasn't quite strong enough for that, even with potions, but there was a handy body of water nearby that would make a good substitute. I just had to get the Troll Chief into it. To that end, I darted under a third and final grab, before rushing past the Troll Chief, making a break out of the copse of trees for the relatively more open ground near the water. The Troll Chief let out a bellow, following after me in a burst of motion. He swung his club as he followed after me, clipping my back and causing me to stumble. If not for potions, my Duster, and my already forward momentum, I would have lost my footing and possibly had my shoulder blade broken. As it was, though, I simply kept running, using the added momentum of the strike to burst further ahead, closer to the shoreline.

As I ran, I cast the Ice Jinx on the ground behind me as I ran, coating it in a thin sheen of slippery frost. The Troll Chief slipped on the ice, stumbling around, and allowing me to enact phase two of my plan, transfiguring a stone out of the muddy ground for the Troll Chief to trip over. Of course, with my level of expertise and the lack of time, it was more like a hollow clay brick, but it did the job. The Troll Chief lost his footing entirely, hammer flying out of his grip to land in the mud with a thudding sound. An Incarcerus spell bound his legs together as he splashed down into the water. I finished with a Whirlpool Spell, effectively using magic to hold the Troll Chief under. The bubbles floated up to the surface of the water before slowly fading out as the Troll Chief drowned, which I confirmed via the Mind Arts, Empathy registering panic before there was a cessation of all emotion around the same time the bubbles stopped coming.

I canceled my spells and took a deep breath before casting a seize and pull charm on the Troll Chief's Body, hauling it out of the murky water. Then I began to loot, stripping the Troll Chief of his armor and stuffing it into my Mokeskin Pouch, along with his fallen Hammer. Nothing else the Troll Chief had on him was useful, so I began to render him down for parts, using some empty potion vials to store Troll Blood in lieu of proper storage containers. I'd need to look into buying more of those in the future, but Potion Vials would do for the time being. They were effectively the same thing, only smaller, after all. By the time I was finished with that, the sun had fully risen. An hour later, I made my way into Stonecircle, wounded, likely concussed, but victorious.

Entering the Druid's Staff, I saw that various people were in here having breakfast. The smell of bacon, eggs, and laverbread assaulted my nose as I entered, causing my stomach to growl as I bellied up to the Bar. Llewellyn Rosier nodded at me as I approached, which I returned.

"You look like you spent the night in the Marsh. You didn't sleep there, did you?" Questioned Llewellyn Rosier.

"No. I took a wide-eye potion. There won't be any Joint-Halver Spawn in my stomach." I answered.

"Good, though you've got a pretty big knot forming on the back of your head." Warned Llewellyn Rosier.

"Don't worry about that. I'll take care of it when I get home." I waved off.

"All right. Are you hungry?" Queried Llewellyn Rosier.

"I feel like I could eat a Hippogriff." I nodded.

"Well, we don't serve that here, but we do have lots of other food. What can I get you?" Asked Llewellyn Rosier.

"Bacon, Eggs, Sausage, and Welsh Rarebit. Some breakfast tea would be good too." I answered.

"Coming right up." Grinned Llewellyn Rosier.

So, for the next hour or so, I sat there in the Druid's Staff, having breakfast and generally shooting the shit with Llewellyn Rosier, whenever he wasn't serving other customers. I had to admit, the food here was excellent. It was perfectly balanced between the four major post-adventure food groups, those being sugar, starch, grease, and burnt crunchy bits. Eventually, however, the odd-looking kid in the armored duster who looked like he'd just come out of a fight with Marsh Trolls was starting to draw attention. I also needed to get back so that Lucia didn't bug the Greengrasses to send in the Cavalry. I wound up paying for my breakfast and for the use of the Floo, taking a pinch of the green powder and tossing it into the flames of the fireplace, causing them to flare up green.

"Pallazzo Zabini, Kent." I intoned.

Then, as soon as the flames flared up further, I nodded to myself once before stepping through. This time, I returned home and with a quick Scourgify, set myself to go looking for Lucia. I shouldn't have bothered, as it turned out. No sooner had I cleaned all the blood, muck, and marsh water off my clothing than Lucia arrived in the Foyer with a pop of displaced air. She looked concerned, but when she saw me, that concern melted into a look of relief. I nodded at her and gave Lucia my best lopsided grin, attempting to effect that aura of effortless grace that was so crucial to a sense of sprezzatura. Unfortunately, Lucia had known me for too long and wasn't having it.

"Signore cut things a bit too fine. Lucia was just about to contact the Greengrasses to send them looking for Signore." Huffed Lucia.

"I stopped for food." I shrugged.

"And Signore has a knot forming on the back of Signore's head. Lucia was worried." Intoned Lucia.

"Sorry, Lucia. I didn't mean to worry you." I apologized.

"Sit down, Signore, and let Lucia take a look at that knot." Insisted Lucia.

I didn't argue, making my way over to one of the various baroque chairs that lined the foyer and taking a seat. For the next two hours or so, I was subjected to the ministrations of a Frustrated House Elf as Lucia acted as my self-appointed nurse, poking and prodding my various aches. Apparently, my Mother had insisted she have some level of medical training. It figured, the woman who dealt with poisons frequently wanted someone who could help her in case she accidentally poisoned herself while brewing up Weedosoros or something, though I'm sure having a Baby around also played a part in that decision. Lucia poked and prodded my various cuts, bruises, and aches, consulting three separate medical and healers tomes, before going back to poking and prodding as the process began anew all over again.

In the end, after two hours of this, I was administered no less than a half dozen different healing potions from the Mansion's stock and told not to go on any more adventures today. That wasn't going to be a problem, as the Wide-Eye Potion that had gotten me through the night was wearing off now, as noon crept over the horizon. I was crashing hard enough that I barely had the wherewithal to drag my arse into the shower, change into some pajamas, and crawl into my bed to sleep the sleep of the dead. As it would turn out, I would be asleep for thirty-six hours, the various potions doing their work while I slumbered. By the time I woke up, I was ravenous. Lucia had anticipated that, however, and swiftly drew me into another cooking lesson to begin my next cycle of training and so on.

True to my word, there would be no further adventures on my end for the remainder of the Summer. . .

XXXX

AN: All right, so here we have the next chapter. Blaise has effectively finished up his adventure for the Summer between First and Second Year. He has a lot of research and crafting material that he wants to use in order to lap Malfoy, as he knows that Draco is getting special tutoring over the Summer in anticipation of the prohibition on messing with Blaise and his friends expiring at the start of Second Year. Not only does Blaise now have the Grimoire of Gwynedd to pull spells from, but he also has reverse-engineering of Shamanic Rituals from the Troll Chief's Armor and Hammer, along with enchanting his Duster using the Greater Toadstone, and more. It's gonna be a busy month and a half for Blaise.

Speaking of which, the next chapter will be a timeskippy one showing Blaise's various efforts over the rest of the Summer. Then we'll officially begin the Alternate Version of Chamber of Secrets with the Diagon Alley Trip for Year Two.

Stay tuned. . .