NOVEL NEXT 165- Just Another Day in the Trials. Part 3.
I know the creature is intelligent, that it understands me even if only my intentions, and it must also sense that the spell has dissipated. It launches directly at my neck, with its three wolves following. At the last moment, it diverts its trajectory and lets its wolves attack me while it goes for my back.
The attack sacrifices its creatures to my sword. With a single slash, I cut all three in half, then try to turn and duck. I plan to set my sword vertically, tip aimed at its chest, so the alpha will impale itself when it leaps at me. But I'm too late. Finishing off its wolves has cost me a precious moment, and I fall to the ground with the alpha's jaws clamping down on my right shoulder, along with a good chunk of my back.
Or so it tries.
Blessed earth channeling. If it had actually bitten me, I really would have been frozen solid. I don't know how much protection the snow cloak would have given me, since it grants cold resistance, not freeze resistance.
And the pup doesn't just watch. Instead, he attacks the alpha wolf. I'm not sure where he strikes, but the alpha yelps, opens its jaws, and stops trying to bite me.
I quickly move back and spin around.
Right in the balls. He bit the alpha in the balls and won't let go.
Brave little seed, he can't reach any higher, and he doesn't need to. I'd imagined he would go for a tendon in the leg, but this is much better. While the alpha, furious, snaps at him, I bring my flaming sword down across its back.
I don't split it in half like the other snow wolves, but I do leave a deep wound. The pup seizes the chance, releases his grip and darts away. The wolf charges after him, and I burn my last two mana points on an earth wall to block its path. After all, earth control is slow, but earth wall is a quick-cast spell; that's why it costs more and can only create walls.
And yes, I realize it now: I can't summon the shadow wolf—I'm out of mana.
But I reacted without thinking, I just wanted to save the pup. He doesn't have his teleport available yet, since it's 5 minutes like my fire channeling, and he used it shortly after I did.
The alpha, with its snout wrinkled in rage and fury, turns toward me.
I take defensive stance with my sword ready to block.
It jumps.
This time there are no feints, no fake attacks. Just it and me. Several dozen kilos of alpha wolf with a wound in its private parts, and me. My sword pierces it, but not in the chest or head—through one of its paws. It tries to bite me again. This time, my entire head fits inside its mouth.
And the channeling holds.
So, while it tries to tear it off, I focus on burning and slashing it with my sword. I can't see, so I work carefully—I don't want to hurt myself. The downside of cauterizing wounds is that there's no bleeding. At some point, I notice the fire on the sword has been extinguished. Earth channeling has about three minutes left and it's holding wonderfully: the wolf can't penetrate my skin. Then it loosens its grip again and howls in pain.
But how clever is the damn evil seed!
The alpha, quickly, lunges at him, much faster than before. It doesn't want the pup to escape again. The wolf cub teleports to a shadow, I can't see which one. With my sword—without magic, but it doesn't matter: it's legendary, good steel, and has at least the +1 it gives to slashing damage—I look for one of its wounds in the belly area and insert it as far as I can, and twist.
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The alpha doesn't have much strength left. It bites my sword arm, but I don't give up.
It collapses lifeless before my channeling ends.
The pup comes running from the trees.
He jumps into my arms. I pet him and give gentle pats on his back. Now that he's so big he almost knocks me over.
"You're amazing," I tell him. "You really know how to save me, even in your puppy form."
Isn't he the best pet in the world? And totally adorable, though I'm not letting him lick me until he washes that mouth—I know where that thing has been.
I collect a fang from the alpha, in case Ronan wants it, and look for a secluded place to meditate, where I stay until I fully recover my mana. I also take some food out of my backpack, for me and the wolf. Good thing he doesn't practice cannibalism.
Then we go for the trolls.
Once I reach the vicinity of the first troll village, I hide the duffel bag I'm carrying, along with my backpack, deep in the forest bushes. The bag contains all the empty glass flasks. Then I approach in a crouch, careful not to be seen. At least as much as the shrubs and the last few trees the trolls haven't chopped down will allow.
Four mana points mean four minutes of earth channeling and five of fire. Since I want to go all out, I first put an air channeling on my sword, then earth on my body, and finally the longest-lasting one, fire, on my weapon.
The pup is in my backpack's pocket, and I'm not taking the pack off. On one hand, it's not very big and doesn't weigh much given my strength. On the other hand, I've got some mana and health potions inside just in case.
Without wasting a second, as soon as I finish the three spells, I cast flash to position myself behind a pair of trolls standing guard at the village entrance.
Since I was looking at them, I appear with my back to them. Flash doesn't change my orientation. As expected, I quickly pivot on one foot to make a 180-degree turn that gives momentum to my sword, which slams full force into one of the two trolls' waist.
I cut right through him.
As I already calculated, I deal 2 damage from my nine strength and intermediate sword mastery, 3 from fire channeling (high-level spell, INT 8, and high affinity), and 2 from air (low-level spell), plus 3 from the damage type variety. A total of 10.
I figure the troll has more than 10 HP, but if you get cut in half at the waist, you're supposed to die, right?
For a moment, as my sword continues its trajectory, I think about vampire and zombie movies from my world. It was staking the heart or cutting off the head.
It doesn't matter: if you get cut in two, no amount of troll regeneration is fixing that.
Besides, I'm sure I just dealt critical damage.
I don't stop to finish it off just in case, because its companion—the one next to it who's just starting to turn its head after noticing something's happening—is in my sword's path. The blade bites into its waist and halts there, carried by the last of my swing's momentum after slicing clean through its buddy.
In a single swing, I have sliced clean through one tough troll and carved about a sixth of the way into the next. is partially embedded in its flesh, buried about half a hand's length. Honestly? That's way better than I expected. Turns out, channeling twice into my weapon really boosts both its damage and its physical penetration.
As for the troll, it roars. Or screams. Or whatever.
It's deafening, and he's definitely just alerted his buddies.
Great.
I'm completely focused on the battle because I know it'd be easy to die here. I just have to make one mistake. How? Not renewing my earth protection in time, running out of mana, getting my sword stuck, letting them grab and immobilize me... I can think of so many ways.
Getting distracted by stupid thoughts is one of them.
That's why I've already pulled my sword from the troll's waist—it didn't even come close to hitting bone—and now I'm using it to block the club swing he's launching straight at my head. Obviously, I'm way shorter than he is.
When I have more mana, I will be able to fight using flash to dodge. For now, it's either dodge the old-fashioned way or block.
The massive wooden weapon crashes against my sword. The troll is strong. Stronger than me. My sword, being legendary, absorbs the impact without problems. If it had been a normal, low-quality one, it probably would've shattered right here.
The flames coating my sword are really powerful since my spell is at high level. I watch as the club's wood starts to burn. The troll doesn't seem to notice and pulls it back to land another blow. This time I dodge with a jump and run toward the nearest hut, climbing onto the roof.
It's not difficult. There are spots in the wooden walls where I can get footing and climb up. The roof is just a few logs covered with snow wolf pelts. I have to be careful to step on the actual beams, since I doubt the pelts would support my weight. Once temporarily out of the troll's reach, I take a moment to look around.
The village is starting to react.