Feral Mage: Chapter 2

 Bryce wasted no time once he had the details from the Mayor and made his way south of Sawtown. The road vanished a short distance and he had to seek out the old overgrown road to find the path to continue. The woods were thick with trees and wildlife. Once the town was no longer in sight he pulled on his magic as an Aspect mage. He only had one aspect right now, the flightless manticore, still it was a very effective aspect and had allowed him to excel as a mercenary.

 His senses all heightened, hearing, smell, and sight, as he felt his nails grow on his hand. Looking down he saw each of his fingers were now tipped with sharp black claws that he knew were embedded with poison. He took a deep breath of the forest air as if smelling it for the first time.

 The scent of overwhelming pines was now just one of many he could pick up on. One scent struck him as repulsive, a scent of decay deep within the woods. Resting his hand on the hilt of his sword, he made his way towards the scent, following one of the old wagon trails now being choked by young saplings.

 As the saplings started to clear he paused at the first sign of the monster that called these woods home. A tree decorated with bones, bleached white by the sun. Most belonged to animals, but scattered among them were the skulls of humans or elves along with beastkin’s skulls judging from the larger canine teeth.

 “Intelligent,” Bryce said to himself as he examined the tree.

 This was some macabre art to serve as a territory marker. Not the kind of thing a monster with just the mind of an animal would do. This also told Bryce how he wanted to go at this creature. If it was creating territory markers, it was also probably creating traps within the woods.

 “Direct it is,” he said.

 As he walked down the path, he came across more and more trees that were covered in bones. Some with decaying meat still clinging to them. Soon the path opened up to where the old logging camp had been. A wide open space with several piles of trash. Bones, hides as well as armor and weapons from the various victims of the monster.

 The remains of what had probably once been a log cabin were now converted into some kind of holding pen where the monster kept its prey before devouring it. The monster was devouring the remains of a wild pig while sitting on a fallen tree trunk as Bryce approached. A primal troll. Its eyes fixated on him with curiosity as it tore the meat from the carcass.

 Primal trolls were bigger, stronger, and crueler than their civilized cousins. Their healing factor was also several times more powerful. While a civilized troll would heal a nasty cut within a day, primal trolls needed seconds.

 Bryce licked his lip as he drew his sword. Strength and a powerful healing factor sounded very useful to him. He had killed a few monsters as a mercenary, but never any he wanted to take as an aspect.

 The troll threw the pig’s carcass aside and picked up a stone club that was lying beside it on the ground. When it stood, Bryce guessed it was about nine feet tall. The troll walked towards him with a curious expression, probably used to everything fleeing from it. The monster stopped a few feet before him and stared down at him as it chewed a mouth full of pork.

 “Hello beautiful,” Bryce said as he looked at the troll's molted green skin face with yellow tusks.

 The troll said nothing as it swung the stone club at him. Bryce shot forward and plunged his sword into the troll's stomach before slipping behind it and hamstringing its right leg. The air took on a putrid scent, made worse by his heightened senses, as the troll's intestines spilled out onto the ground.

 Bryce tried to follow up with a strike to the troll's neck, but it swung the club behind itself, forcing Bryce to back off. He watched as the wound on the troll's leg healed closed as the troll stuffed its dangling intestines back into its body. As it turned to face Bryce, he saw the cut on its gut healing closed as well.

 “Yeah, you’ll be a good aspect to have,” Bryce said with a greedy smile as he twirled his blade.

 His smile was cut short as the troll hurled the stone club at him, forcing him to dodge out of the way. He heard it crash behind him, but his attention was focused on the troll rushing toward him.

 The troll slammed a ham-sized fist into the ground where Bryce had been seconds ago. He tried to take advantage of the opening and slashed at the troll's neck. His blade cut into its flesh, but not deep enough.

 He let out a frustrated groan as he ripped the blade free and darted away before the troll could grab him. The damn thing's neck was too thick.

 The wound on the troll's neck stitched itself back together with new flesh as it made another charge at him. He dodged the strike again and the next two to follow only to curse as he felt himself losing his footing as something caught his leg causing him to fall into a pile of bones.

 The bastard led him into one of the trash piles and he had slipped on a bone. The troll raised both its fists into the air with a twisted grin on its face. The thing knew it had him, Bryce glared back and was preparing to try and divert the blow with his blade and rely on his reflexes to escape.

 Suddenly there was an arrow buried into the side of the troll’s head. Bryce had no idea who released it, but this was his chance. His free hand grabbed the closest thing in the bone pile as he stood up and swung his blade at the distracted troll's neck. The blade hacked into its windpipe, but as before, wasn’t enough to decapitate the monster. Bryce’s free hand shoved what it had grabbed into the exposed windpipe before the wound could heal. It turned out he had grabbed a skull.

 The troll was distracted by the continued barrage of arrows being fired at it and Bryce was able to slip away. The troll started to make a croaking sound as its neck healed around the skull.

 Desperately it started to claw at its throat, trying to open up an airway to draw breath. Its nails carved deep grooves into its flesh only to heal back a second later as the troll's face turned a purplish hue.

 Bryce broke his attention from the suffocating troll to examine his rescuer, who was still firing arrows at the troll. A wolfkin woman stood not far from the now destroyed pen with a bow and a pile of arrows at her feet. She was standing beside one of the trash heaps where Bryce guessed she had gathered the arrows.

 It seemed the troll had hurled his stone club into the pen, destroying it, and the wolfkin decided to join in on the fight instead of running. He turned back and looked at the troll who was now slumped over and looking like a pin cushion.

 He made his way toward the troll, figuring the wolfkin would have already started pelting arrows at him if she intended to. He cast her a glance as he stood beside the troll. The wolfkin stared into his eyes for a moment before turning her back to him and scanning the surroundings.

 Bryce lifted his sword and started hacking at the troll's neck. It took longer than it should have due to the troll's healing factor, but he soon had the head free and kicked it away from the body.

 He gave the wolfkin another glance and saw she was still keeping watch. He wondered how she would react to what he was about to do as he pulled out a knife from his belt and drove it into the troll's chest.

 He worked his knife through the troll's body until he found the liver. According to his master, that would be one of the organs related to the troll's healing abilities. He cut the liver free and quickly started to eat it. The flesh had to be fresh for him to absorb the aspect, no buying monsters that had been dead for hours if not days. The taste was putrid, far worse than when he had devoured the manticore’s stinger.

 He caught her watching him as he devoured the troll's liver, but quickly shifted her focus back to keeping watch. He had no idea why she was still here instead of fleeing, but he was grateful for someone watching his back as he did this.

 With his stomach full, Bryce sat on the ground and focused inwards on his body as he closed his eyes. He visualized pulling the essence from the troll as he digested it. He felt the aspect settle into his body, like a muscle his body never knew existed, but now realized it could flex.

 When he opened his eyes the wolfkin was crouched beside him now staring intently at him. He locked eyes with her and after a moment gave her a friendly smile.

 “Thanks for the help,” he said as he stood.

 He made his way to the troll's head. As he did he pulled on his new aspect, that of a primal troll. He felt his muscles go taunt and a surge of strength in them, but the strength wasn’t what he wanted from the troll. Bringing his knife up, he nicked his hand and smiled as the wound quickly healed.

 He could only have one aspect active at a time, and he needed some time between them. Otherwise, he risks becoming a chimera, or so he was told by his master.

 Bryce grabbed the troll's head and turned to head down the old logging road back to Sawtown. He didn’t make it far before he realized the wolfkin was following behind him.

 He stopped and looked at her as she walked up and stood beside him. She was covered in filth from being kept in the pen and looked as if she hadn’t had a decent meal in some time.

 “I bet your pack is missing you,” Bryce said.

 The wolfkin shook her head, her tangled and messy hair flying wildly around her. Then she pointed to the trees with bones in them.

 The meaning was clear, the troll had eaten the rest of her pack. Bryce recalled the beastkin skull he had seen in the first tree decorated with bones. He could already tell she was going to follow him like a lost puppy, pun not intended.

 “You understood me so I guess you speak trade-common as well?” Bryce asked.

 “Little,” the wolfkin said.

 “Right,” Bryce said, at least it was something. “My name is Bryce, what’s your name?”

 “Vex,” she said as she tapped her chest with her fist.

 “Thanks again for your help, Vex. I’m going to a human town, I don’t think you want to follow me,” Bryce tried to reason.

 Frontier towns, like Sawtown, sometimes clashed with beastkin packs that called the wilds home, usually because they were encroaching on the packs' territory. As a result, there was some hostility towards them by a lot of the frontier folk, or so Bryce had been told. He had befriended a few beastkin who worked as mercenaries.

 “I follow,” Vex said with a defiant look.

 Bryce sighed and he turned and walked down the road with Vex following close behind him. He did owe her for the help she gave him in taking down the troll. The least he could do was get her a decent meal and give her part of his reward, what was left after paying off Snowflower’s debt. That might give her a start at a decent life.