King of the Goblins 2—Chapter 27

I looked around, trying to figure out exactly where I was.

“Well, now we have eleven more to take care of,” I said.

Silvy looked ill when I said that.

“You think you can keep doing that thing with the dagger and the tree?” I asked her.

She frowned. “Maybe. It takes a lot out of me. Troll magic is very difficult.” She left and walked towards the shaman.

How were we going to kill eleven more trolls? These two had been hard enough, and luck had been on our side. I watched as Silvy bent down and pulled her dagger from the shaman’s side, then wiped the stone blade on his fat body. She then rejoined me.

“They’re still trying to burn the trees,” she said, pointing to my left. “They won’t be able to accomplish much with their shaman dead, but they’re still a problem.”

“Let’s go,” I said, reaching out for her. Funny how I still wanted to hold her hand, even amidst a battle with trolls. She gave a soft chuckle and grabbed my hand.

We slowly made our way through the woods, keeping an eye out for troll warriors. They were easy enough to spot, and once we got closer we saw them.

My heart sank when I saw the blackened bark of the great trees. The flames hadn’t caught, thank god, but the trees had suffered plenty. Without the shaman to maintain the fire on the torches, the trolls had mostly cast them aside. One troll still held his torch to the base of a great tree, blowing on it through tiny holes in his helmet. Arrows fell all around him and struck his armor. He ignored them.

“How the fuck are we going to do this?” I said, mostly just thinking out loud.

“We should draw them away from the trees,” Silvy said. “They’ll be more vulnerable in the tunnel.”

I thought for a moment about their armor and how that would work in the narrow confines of the tunnel. It was going to be a hard fight, much harder than we expected, but I had an idea.

“I need you to run back home,” I told Silvy. “I’m much faster than you. I’ll get their attention and then join you.”

Silvy chuckled softly. “See? You called it home as well.”

I smiled. “Yeah, it works in some ways. At least being underground, things will be quiet and peaceful. Our bit of solace amidst this chaos.” I snapped my fingers. “That’s it!”

Silvy looked up at me. “Huh?”

“We’re naming the city that. Solace.”

“Hopefully we’ll have a city left after all this,” Silvy said, her voice grim.

“Well, now we have to. I like that name.” I bent down and kissed the top of her head. “Okay, I need you to hurry away. I’ll catch up.” I took a moment to explain my plan to her. She nodded as she listened. Fortunately, it was a simple plan, so it only took me a few seconds to tell her.

Silvy took a deep breath. “Hold on.” 

We hid behind a large tree and she turned to face it, then began chanting again. The harsh, guttural words she spoke had a tribal feel to them. I knew it was a magical language because I couldn’t understand a bit of it.

The troll closest to us was kneeling on the ground and holding his torch against the base of a great tree. Silvy’s arm suddenly emerged from a thick root and went right up his chain skirt. Her dagger sank into his leg, and she pulled her arm back before the troll could snap it off. He fell onto his back, clutching his knee and roaring in pain.

“That’s it for me,” Silvy said. I could hear the exhaustion in her voice. She reached out and squeezed my hand. “Be careful, Aaron.”

“I love you, honey,” I said. I kissed the top of her head again.

Silvy sheathed her stone dagger, then held onto both of her large breasts and began jogging away. I heard her mutter something about the risk of getting two black eyes with breasts that large.

I turned back and saw the troll warrior stagger to his feet. Reaching out with blood magic, I forced as much of his blood as I could to spray from the wound in his leg. He walked with a limp and turned in a circle, looking for whoever was attacking him.

I slipped the shadow stone back into my mouth. Almost forgot about that thing.

The troll stopped suddenly and I turned to see what he was facing. I couldn’t see his face through the helmet, but I got the impression he had seen something that caught his attention.

It was Silvy. He had seen her.

He staggered a few steps, then lurched into a loping jog. Shit, with his height he’d catch up to her in less than a minute. She would stand no chance. I had to do something.

Arrows fell all around, but thankfully the elves had incredibly precise aim. Most of the arrows struck the troll’s helmet and torso. Some archers aimed for his legs, but the mail skirt protected him.

The troll ran by the tree I was hiding behind and my desire to protect Silvy made me do something incredibly stupid that I immediately regretted. I slammed my shoulder into his leg in an effort to trip him, the same leg he had been stabbed in.

Well, I did manage to trip him. However, his legs were taller than I was, so the force of his leg moving sent me flying through the air like a piece of litter tumbling down a Cleveland street.

My side hurt and I thought I had a broken finger, but there was no time to check either. I scrambled to my feet and rushed towards the troll. Arrows still fell, but if I removed the shadow stone so the elves could see me, the troll would be able to see me as well. Speed was my only option.

Moving as quickly as possible, I reached out and grabbed his mail skirt and yanked it up, then ran my sword along the back of one leg and stabbed into the inner thigh of the other leg. The razor-sharp steel sliced a deep groove in the back of his hamstring right as an arrow struck me in the face. The only saving grace was that another arrow hit the troll in the back of the leg before I released his mail skirt. Damn thing was heavy.

I collapsed on the ground and pushed myself behind a tree, shaking from the pain. It was immediately obvious what had happened; the arrow hit me in the cheek, passed right through my mouth, and exited the other cheek. Blood poured into my mouth, and my tongue didn’t work right. It had been halfway severed

I spat the blood out and pushed myself to my feet right as the troll swung a fist in my direction. He was too far away to hit me, but he knew I was there, even if he couldn’t see me. He pulled a massive club from his belt and used it like a cane, pushing himself to his feet.

I ran for the next tree and moved behind it. Now that he was back on his feet, the troll ignored the arrows that rained down on him. Using blood magic, I focused on making him bleed out. I wasn’t sure if I had been able to stab deep enough in his one leg to hit his femoral artery, but at least it was another spot for him to lose blood. 

Red puddles formed with each step, and the troll angrily swung his club all around him. I knew from a previous experience that trolls had excellent senses of smell, but that helmet probably ruined things. I kept pushing with blood magic. It was the only thing I could do. When the troll came closer I backed away, trying my best to be silent, and to avoid any arrows. I didn’t have any armor, after all.

I spat out another mouthful of blood, and as the blood sprayed through the air I realized something. The moment it left my mouth, it became visible. 

The troll saw a mouthful of blood appear out of nowhere and strike the ground. He let out a grunting roar and limped towards me.

“Ah, fuck,” I said, backing away. Mistake. The troll heard that as well.

With that, I turned and ran. There was no fighting something that size, especially out in the open. Besides, if I could get him to run, he’d bleed out faster. I looked over my shoulder and the troll did, in fact, move faster. He couldn’t really run any longer, but he tried his best to catch up to me. I swiped my sword across a bush, letting him know right where I was.

I figured something as big as a troll would have a ton of blood, so this wouldn’t be a fast process. I needed a plan, though. I turned to my left and ran back to where the other trolls were still attacking the great trees. The troll followed, moving slower every second.

“It’s about fucking time,” I said when he fell to his knees. 

The arrows largely stopped at that point, so I circled around behind him. The troll’s armor was designed to deflect anything attacking from above or in front of him. I walked up behind him, looking for gaps. 

I had to give it to the troll smiths, the armor was incredibly well-made. But from my vantage point, there were openings. I took the tip of my sword and slid it beneath his bell-shaped helmet, slicing a deep gash along the side of his neck. He let out a whimper of pain, then fell forwards onto the ground. 

With that troll dying, I finally took some time to heal myself. Having to spit out blood every few seconds was no fun, that much was certain. Using blood magic, I forced the wounds in my cheeks to close, and my tongue pulled itself back together. One of my teeth had a chip in it, but I didn’t think there was anything I could do about that. I tried anyway.

“How am I going to get you guys to follow me?” I wondered aloud. “And how am I going to survive it? That’s the real issue.”

I walked closer to the nearest living troll. Having discarded his torch, he was now trying to climb the stairs at the base of a great tree. They were too small for him, so his arms were spread out, holding onto the massive trunk to keep his balance. It was slow going, especially with the arrows.

Using blood magic against the trolls was tough, but I tried anyway. I drained as much blood as I could from one of his legs. From where I was, I heard him shout curses and saw him stamp his foot. It wasn’t enough to stop him, but he definitely noticed.

“Hey!” I called out. At least, due to Silvy’s magic, I could speak the troll language. “Hey, you giant fat pussy! Stop trying to fuck that tree and come see the goblins if you want a real fight!” 

I began backing away after that. Trolls seemed like the kind of guys that could be goaded. At least, I hoped so. But as I watched, the troll did little more than shout a few curses in my general direction.

I focused my magic on a single foot, hoping I could do more damage to a small area. After a few seconds the troll stomped his foot, trying to battle the feeling of it falling asleep. 

Luck was with me that day, and his stomping weakened the wooden stairs. Well, that and the fact that he probably weighed a full ton. One of the steps splintered and cracked, dropping him to the ground.

I laughed at the top of my lungs, loud enough for him to hear me. Beyond him, I saw other trolls attacking the great trees. One of them had a massive axe and was slowly chopping away. This wasn’t going to work.

I pulled the shadow stone from my mouth so he could see me. “Hey!” I yelled. “Hey, you stupid bastard! I’m the one that killed your shaman. I’ve also killed two of your warriors so far. You’re next.”

Well, that got his attention. The troll pushed himself up to his hands and knees and looked right at me. At least, he tried to.

Using blood magic, I felt through his head and found his beady little eyes. I increased the blood pressure to his eyes as much as I could, hoping to affect his vision. The troll shook his head and swung his fists around, then clambered to his feet. Perfect.

I backed away, knowing my chances of living through this were slim and depending on me being fast. 

“Grab your girlfriends and come see me in the goblin city, unless you’re a fucking coward!” I shouted as I stepped back. “I’ll make sure to tell your new king that you were too chickenshit to fight a human!”

The troll stood in place for a moment, watching me. I kept backing away, knowing I had struck a nerve when I saw him turn towards the next troll. 

I slipped the shadow stone back into my mouth, turned, and ran.