Chapter 639: Troll ignorance
The troll-giant was a lot faster than anticipated. It lunged with cunning, hungry eyes as Mason came in, hands out and claws swiping to close off any rout of escape.
But Mason didn’t try to escape. He raced straight through the middle gap between the giant’s arms, slashing with his first Exploiting and Predator’s Strikes the moment he reached the creature’s legs.
Streak went high, jumping the giant’s claws with increasing strength (and skill with his Pack Brother version of Mason’s Boots of Nature). He sailed right past the thing’s face, chomping an ear and swinging around its head to scramble onto a shoulder.
The troll roared in pain and surprise, seeming a lot more concerned about its long ear becoming a dog toy than Mason cutting its knees to the bone. It reared up and spun, knocking Mason sliding away but doing little to stop him from coming right back slashing.
“Yes hold on!” he shouted to a questioning Streak. “Unless you shouldn’t. Use…discretion!”
The wolf kept chewing and raking, swinging like the world’s worst earring. The troll reached up and batted him with a clawed hand, which only made the jaws on his ear shred more flesh. He howled and kept swiping as Mason hacked up his legs.
Streak eventually lost his grip, or maybe tore off the ear. Either way he went sailing at a wall with a small, sad howl. Mason winced, expecting a crunch. But the son of a bitch looked like he dropped his weight in time, and pretty much bounced off with little more than a grunt.
“No you aren’t ‘better’ than I am,” he yelled, dodging a foot, and then a claw as he slashed Exploiting Strike on cooldown, and brought out his Honor Blades. “I can fucking fly! Well, sort of!”
His new and improved Claws were slicing lines of black blood, but his marilith knives struck like plastic cutlery on rubbery steak. Apparently this troll was made of stern stuff. And it was regenerating. Fast. This wasn’t a shock but still a problem. Some of the lines carved in its flesh were already closing completely.
“No I don’t know how we kill it,” he called as Streak leapt on the troll’s back and went back to raking with its claws. “Why don’t you come up with an idea for once?”
Ranger’s Mark wasn’t encouraging. The thing had more bone than muscle, and it had a lot of muscle. Its big, black heart was buried in so many angled ribs it must have been painful to move around. Its brain, such as it was, looked like a seed in a bone acorn. And even Mason’s upgraded, divine Claws were struggling with that bone.
In other words, this thing was no joke. And he was beginning to suspect there was a reason even the daughter of a god decided to stay well away. On the plus side, after fighting Jeong and the other Endless avatar, it felt very slow. Not nearly as slow as it should have been for being that size, but still.
He dodged the claws and a driving knee, pushing off the the thing’s leg as he spun away and slashed a fat cankle down to the bone. Then a few more times for science, shaking his head as it healed.
He thought about the objective as he inspected, deciding only one thing really made sense. The ice princess had asked him for the thing’s head. As far as he could tell, cutting into that thick neck and breaking through the (relatively) thin spine was probably the only way he was ending this. Maybe after enough Exploiting Strikes, and yanking at it until his passives made him strong enough…
A surprise backhand sent him sliding across the muddy ground. The troll spun and chased him on all fours, moving fast enough it caught him after the daze. Huge hands crushed on either side of his arms, and he growled as he pushed.
“Got you!” The troll bellowed, yellow fangs exposed as the troll’s muscled body rippled with effort as it squeezed.
Duality of Strength woke up, and went wild. Mason tried for a quip but he was too busy not snapping, breath held as he pushed his arms and legs outward. They met eyes and stared as they fought, the giant looking somewhere between happy he’d caught his target, and confused it wasn’t breaking.
Streak leapt up and landed right on its face. It made a surprised sort of ‘hur’ sound as the wolf bit its eyelid and started raking chin and neck with his back legs. The troll held on and tried to bite it back, but couldn’t quite get the animal in its teeth.
“We make….quite a…scene,” Mason managed, arms finally strong enough to force the troll’s grip from his torso. The beast finally spun and threw its head around, carrying Mason as it managed to toss Streak across the cavern again.
It looked down with animal rage, bloody face dripping and one eye ravaged. It seemed to realize its target’s bones weren’t snapping, so it lunged forward with gaping maw to try biting his head off.
Mason got just enough of the grip loosened to drop down deeper into the troll’s hands. Its jaw slammed down on the top of its hands, a few fangs still driving against Mason’s scalp. He growled and plunged his shorter Claw into his enemy’s palm, finally causing the creature to let go with a yelp of pain.
He and Streak circled on either side of their giant foe, readying another attack. The giant turned and ran straight at the nearest wall. Mason wasn’t sure what the hell it was doing, but he summoned his bow and loosed all his shots on cooldown, making sure the flexible melee or ranged Exploiting Strike was still cycling and building.
The troll didn’t slow down, striking the side of the room with a clatter and crack that echoed around the room. Mud and stone fell apart. A gush of water poured through the giant’s legs, more and more breaking through and covering the floor as Mason loosed dozens of arrows.
But his mana was ticking, and his concern was growing as the water kept coming. The troll splashed back towards them, slapping Streak away like he was waiting to try and fight again.
The water rose, and rose. It went to Mason’s waist and kept rising. He had a very bad feeling as he re-summoned his Claws, not sure if he should jump or rush or explore whatever was beyond the now broken wall.
The troll had apparently decided that was enough water. It came towards him spraying in its wake, and he realized he couldn’t out-run it now. Unless he could drop his weight and somehow skim on the top…
He jumped instead, flying straight at the wall to his left as the troll charged. Figuring out how to walk on water like Jesus seemed like the kind of thing you might practice without a giant troll trying to eat you.
One with Nature was also pinging for attention, and he realized the water was swimming with some kind of giant fish. Hungry, giant fish. Possibly hungry, giant piranhas.
But trying to kill a druid with murderous fish wasn’t wise. He easily connected to their minds as he jumped between walls.
That troll will feed you forever. I want the head, you can have the rest.
Fish weren’t exactly smart, but ‘giant meal’ they understood. He also felt a useful shot of resentment, and guessed where the giant got most of his protein. However much fish could dislike a thing was how much they disliked this troll.
Tails splashed all over the place as the animals either swam off and waited, or took little nips at the troll’s legs like they were testing their meal.
It growled in surprise and slapped at the water, still chasing Mason with an enraged scowl as it waded forward. He waited until it was close, then used the wall to leap off again, deciding it was time to Shapeshift to help climb if needed.
As he flew across and transformed in the air, he reached out to sense how Streak was doing. The wolf was apparently having a blast. He swam by at surprising speed, reminding Mason the weird, post-apocalypse wolf also had gills, and strong webbing between his paws.
“No the water isn’t good,” he shouted. “It’s bad for me, and getting higher. And I’m kinda worried that…”
He jumped away again, but this time the troll flopped into the rising water. The splash sprayed everything, but from his perch Mason still saw the creature moving beneath the dark liquid.
It moved like a fucking Olympic swimmer. The big legs flicked with aquatic skill, arms slithering like dark green snakes. It moved with shocking speed towards Mason on the other side of the room.
“That,” he finished with a sigh. “I was worried about that.”