Chapter 15: Chapter 13: Troll Hunting

“Now!” Veronica yelled. With that vocal command, Bike had begun to use his Vine Swing, placing a vine near Griffa and the carriage, visibly beginning to strain him.

“Nhgh!” He let out a groan as he pulled them out of the way of the rampaging beast, in the direction of the makeshift plan-map.

“Bram!” The sound shook the entire area, causing trees to vibrate while second their leaves, and some branches astray in the air. The Troll has struck its right shoulder on the tree it hit during its rampage.

“Great!” Veronica said out loud. They just had to keep it up until the troll had damaged itself enough.

[Barraging Troll: 90k/100k]

“We just have to keep going!” Veronica said in her head. She was planning to finish it off with Cardinal when It’s health was low. “Card, toss 2 Stamina and Mana Potions to Bike!”

“Sure thing, Boss!” Cardinal said as he threw the bottles near Bike. He quickly put this in his waist satchel and assumed his position again.

Veronica slightly smiled at being called Boss, but not for long as she quickly assumed her posture again, “We will finish it off when it gets low enough,” she started as she turned to Bike. “You should have 4 more left in you with the potions, get ready!”

Bike nodded, Followed by Griffa assuming her position too.

“Graugh!” The troll let out an ugly sound that echoed through the trees, beating its chest before running again.

[Enraged]

“Again!” Veronica screamed.

Bike pulled, first Griffa then the Carriage again.

“Thunk!” It hit its shoulder again. It groaned before turning its attention back to the carriage, more specifically, Griffa. Its eyes contained murderous intent.

[80k/100k]

“Okay, just a little more!” Veronica said excitedly, followed by a smile from Cardinal and a nod.

“W-Whatever you have to do to get us out of this!” The carriage driver said in a panicked frenzy. “I don’t know how much more of this my poor horses can take!”

“Stop whining,” Griffa said, narrowing her eyes again.

“Y-Yes Ma’am!” The carriage driver said.

The troll did its attack pattern once more, leading to another instance of damage on itself.

[70k/100k]

“Okay, we can finish this soon,” Veronica thought to herself. The group readied their plan again, but suddenly- Words Veronica didn’t ever witness before appeared on top of the troll.

[Barraging]

“The Hell?” She thought to herself internally. “Bike, Mo-”

Before she could give out her warning, the troll had already gained on them, right as it did, it smashed the back part of the carriage in half, barely missing them by the time Bike could use his Vine Swing.

“Damn it!” Cardinal yelled.

The beast of a troll had entered a stronger state. It was faster and more powerful, something none of them could even begin to account for.

“Agh!” Bike let out a gasp. He hit a tree- Hard! He wasn’t able to plan his trajectory fast enough and misslanded, by proxy, he sent Griffa flying into the air. The positive was that it had gotten the entirely out of the way of the onslaught and charge of the Troll.

“Griffa!” Yelled Cardinal. “Bike, Vine!” He yelled with urgency. With quickness, Bike used the remaining vine he didn't account for using yet, and sent it to Griffa, catching her as she trailed her way to the ground, preventing a very unsightly demise for a Regal Elf, such as her self.

“That, that went entirely wrong,” Griffa said, dazed at the trip in the air she had just taken, seeing as it was almost her last.

“No time, everyone, leave the fucking carriage!" In moments, the troll already began another charge. It ran, blitzing through the carriage, leaving just barely enough time for the carriage rider to get out.

Right as he escaped, he turned to see the horror of the troll’s line of destruction, more devastating than his life's work of a carriage. One of his horses had been severely injured, with its bone visibly exposed.

“Lucy!” the carriage rider screamed as he reached out his hand.

‘Get back, you idiot!” Griffa yelled as she pulled him back.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“I’ll help!” Bike yelled, trying to reach the horses for their safety with a vine, but it was all but useless. The horse let out a soul stopping shriek, before falling dead, The other horse tried to run, and right as it did, the troll had already ran through it, killing it instantly in its attempt to squash Griffa.

“Nghg!” Griffa made a groaning sound as she threw the man out of the way, being able to dodge the troll by a centimeter. Its massive foot let a print right near her as it readied its other foot to kill her with it.

“No!” Cardinal yelled, before it finished lifting its food, Cardinal had thrown a smoke ball in its face, causing it to yell as it swatted away the smoke.

“Graeugh!” It yelled. It made the ugliest sounds when it was uncomfortable, a sound that the group was already getting entirely sick of. Following its yell, Cardinal launched himself after he drank a health potion, starting a spinning motion with his momentum, making his blades look like a silver and bone tornado.

“Skrhh!” Blood sprayed in a diagonal line as the daggers tore through the facial flesh of the Troll.

“I’ve damn near had it up to here with this fucking thing!” Cardinal yelled as he slid down, causing more damage with his daggers

“Skrhsh!” Even more blood sprayed out! It decorated the grass and trees with every slash, but it came to an end. “You’re just too damn ann-”

“Swat!” In an instant, the smoke cleared, revealing the image of Cardinal being swatted like a fly into a tree, the Troll visibly more upset than it was before the assault with homicidal rage fuming from its very being. “F-fuck!” Cardinal said as he laid on the ground.

“No!” Veronica yelled as she ran to him. She had no worry of the troll as Griffa was its target, and she had Bike assisting her. “Summon Skeletons!” she yelled, creating skeletons to help with the Troll while she attended to him.

“Are you okay?” She yelled, the worry becoming its own form of communication.

Cardinal giggled a bit, “I-I’m good, I have all those health potions from the dungeon, remember?” He said, she looked, and saw that he had already had some of the potion.

“How?” she asked as she placed her hand on his shoulders.

“Easy,” He started, “I mixed em!”

“I, uh, was not aware you could do that…” Veronica said. Offering slight comedic relief for the very dire situation they had found themselves in.

“We gotta get back to the others!” Cardinal pointed, causing Veronica to turn and witness the last of her summoned skeletons being turned to bone dust by the troll, still in its pursuit of Griffa.

“Yeah!” Veronica said, helping Cardinal up and running toward the site of the action.

“Boom!” The troll threw a nearby stray boulder at Griffa.

“It won’t be that easy, monster!” she yelled as she shot multiple rapid shots into it, breaking it into hundreds of pieces.

“Perfect,” Cardinal said, this time, amped up on a full Speed Potion, not a mixed concoction like before. He quickly began his assault again, digging his daggers into the back of the beast.

“Aharhg!” It screeched, as it reached to get him off of it. To no avail, he persisted like a mosquito, taking jabs at its weakening hide and then moving to another spot to tenderize it in the same fashion. Within a few seconds Cardinal had opened multiple wounds on the troll, wounds that were clearly taking its toll. The health bar was dropping, all to Veronica's excitement.

‘I’ll pitch in too!” Veronica said, summoning skeletons that tore at the wounds of the troll even more.

“Skrt! Skrth! Skrth!” The flesh was being torn from the monster's skin in such a violent fashion, that paired with the vine lashings and arrows from Bike and Griffa, the group had finally turned the Troll into their targets, not the other way around.

The successful attacks showed their weight.

[Barraging Troll: 40k/100k]

Just as Veronica was preparing a mana beam, the troll roared.

“Grawough!” It shook her to her core, temporarily stunning her. “What?” She yelled, before taking small knockback damage from the troll as it pushed her and everyone else outward in an AOE circle.

“It’s the final push!” Griffa yelled.”

“Wait a moment,” Veronica said, taking the scroll out from before. It was the Golem Scroll. She had used it as a plan-map because she thought she wasn't able to use it with her current state allotments.

“I got it!” She said in her head. She took out the Stat awakening cube and pressed something the others did not see. She had wondered why her stats were so low, like why she didn’t do that much damage as someone in a class that needed nerfs in a patch. Now was the perfect time to use it!

“Cardinal, throw this!” Quickly, Cardinal threw the cube at the troll, it activated, blinding it with flashing light while also making Veronica glow.

After she was done glowing, she took out the scroll and yelled, “Scroll: Summon Golem!” With that, out came a ginormous golem from the seams of the scroll. It had still worked despite being torn up.

“That’s magnificently awesome!” Bike said from afar. He had repositioned himself.

“What he said!” Bike agreed.

“What an ally!” Griffa said. This time, they had time to appreciate the creature, seeing a it wasn’t throwing cow-sized boulders at them. Within seconds of being summoned, the golem went head-to-head with the troll, stopping it from its charged up attack on Griffa.

“Fwoom!” The hits hurled out like a tiny boulders

“Graugh!” The troll yelled, but its roar had no effect on such a giant being like the golem. It continued its punching barrage.

‘Frwoom!” It got a direct hit on the face!

“Frwoom” One in the stomach! Before the troll could even react it had taken a multitude of hits from the golem. The health had lowered so greatly, even Veronica was surprised.

[10k/100k]

There was no time for celebration though, the golem had soon enough extended its on-field time, dissipating after its last damaging combined punching attacks.

“Finish it!” Veronica yelled to Bike

He nodded, as Veronica turned when expected, she saw empty Stamina and Mana potions near him. Above him, there was a giant piece of combined debris, without a chance to react, Veronica yelled, “Out the way!”

Quickly, everyone scrambled to move, followed by the thunderous sound of the impact of the debris, which was a mix of the broken carriage parts and nearby trees that had been destroyed. The troll had finished himself with the same thing he destroyed in the beginning.

[Boss: Defeated]

The group let out a sigh of relief, Bike, just as exhausted as Cardinal had fallen down on his back in the same manner. It seemed everyone was glad at the outcome of the battle, except for the carriage rider.

“Y-You all are t-truly incredible!” he said in praise.

“Yeah, we know,” Cardinal said while smirking.

“But, my horses…” the carriage rider said somberly.

“Cardinal frowned sympathetically, “We are so sorry about Lucy and the, uh, other one.”

“Margret,” the carriage rider said as he sighed.

“Thank you for bringing us this far, even when you knew the dangers.” Veronica said to the carriage rider. He smiled a little, although shortly.

“Yes, thank you,” Griffa said.

“I agree,” Bike said.

Veronica went up to the man and gave him some gold, 5 thousand to be exact. “Here, you can have this,” she said.”

“But what will I do with it?” asked the carriage rider.

“You’ll be able to afford a stay at the end, and your travel wont be too expensive either,” as she spoke, Veronica went over to Lucy and Margret with her hands held out. “Raise Minor Undead,” she said unnecessarily.

Within a moment, the two horses had risen, albeit clearly the result of necromancy, the man was not appalled in the slightest.

“My girls!” he said. Oh, thank you!”

Veronicas spirit lightened, but she came stern. “Don’t thank me, they wont last for more than a day with my current skills.’

“A day is all I need!” The man said. Quickly, he saddled the horses and left. As he rose into the distance and became a spec, Veronica saw words.

{New Skills: Summon Skeletal Horse}

“Neat,” She said.

“Why did you give that idiot both of them!” Cardinal asked, angrily pacing in a circle as he wondered how they would get to Wistgardia now.

Griffa laughed , “Don’t worry,” she started, pointing to the remnants of the carriage, remnants Bike had started using his class skills to repair to a presentable degree. “I think Veronica and Bike already have something planned.”

“Something along those lines,” Veronica said.

When the carriage was complete, Veronica summoned two skeletal horses. Bike made makeshift saddles out of vines and soft foliage nearby. Veronica and Cardinal Banned the front, while Griff Stayed in the back in case she needed a higher point of advantage. Bike stayed in the back while sorting through the group's things. They found a safe spot to stop in a forested area, since the summon was bound to wear off soon. They rested and prepared for the day they would have under a makeshift, and somewhat protective vine barrier Bike had made.