Chapter 41.

That was the second time they encountered such a wild monster, but the first they were forced to fight it. And, unsurprisingly, they were all frightened. Rose felt like they could not do it, even without trying. She knew this feeling came from a long time of passivity and uselessness. But she was done with that ! "Now I can fight. Now I can kill !". Without thinking she used a Sunlight Beam, aiming at the Troll's face. She missed the target though, as if it knew what she was doing before she did it. The ray only hit the beast's left pectoral muscle, cooking its surface medium-rare.

The others seemed to get back to reality after the initial surprise and instinctively took their usual positions : Enora in front with her shield and plain short sword, Nick right behind with his dark silver spear. It definitely appeared to be a huge mistake right in the next moment, as the Troll swept its bone club through them. The tanned warrior was brutally sent five meters away, crashing into the nearest grey wall in a loud noise mixing the metal of her brigandine, the distinct breaking of bones and her painful scream. The horror of the scene froze Rose.

With a second swing, the monster attacked Nick, who tried as best as he could to avoid it. He jumped back a bit, energizing his legs, but tripped over a blanket and ended up sprawled on the dirt soil. He chose to roll on the side, evading a powerful strike that formed a pit through the pelt. The trembling ground, growling sounds and violent movements drew the petite blond out of her torpor, pushing her brain into fast thinking : what to do ?

The small warrior began by unsheathing her long knife, taking a battle stance while preparing the different energies she had stored in her appendix. Nick had just gotten up five or six meters away from her, facing the beast while tightening his grip around his spear. He had a serious and panicked expression, clearly looking for a way to kill his enemy as fast as possible. Rose gave him an opportunity by sprinting right behind the focused monster and slicing one of its calves. The wound was not that deep, as the skin was clearly tough, but even some bleeding was enough. She quickly took some distance from it while sending a strand of flames to make it crispy. The two humans were both on opposite sides of the Ash Troll, doing their best to avoid its onslaught and inflict injuries.

After a while, the beast had three cuts on its legs, two deep wounds on its stomach and multiple burnt patches of skin here and there, from flames and light. But it was still ferocious, roaring with hatred and challenge at those little pesky insects that were supposed to become its meal. Enraged, Rose saw it take two fast steps towards the man and make not only a large move with its left arm but preparing its club with the other. It feinted a grab ! And, at the moment, Nick just did not see it until it was too late. He avoided the hand and was surprised by the bone club that came hurling at him next. The impact was formidable, clearly bending his left arm and torso into unnatural angles before making him fly almost a dozen meters towards the river. His body landed near the shore, unmoving.

- Nick ?!, Rose screamed in panic.

She was the only fighter left, and the Ash Troll knew it, turning to her and disgustingly twisting its fang-filled maw. With a powerful shout, it began walking and preparing its weapon, already seeing the feast about to happen. But the woman knew she could not just give up. She was not the strongest, the fastest or the smartest of the three, but she was all they had left. She controlled her trembling arms, relaxed her legs and prepared for the next assault.

What could be said about it, really ? Glorious ? Epic ? Hell no ! It was a fight to the death with a monstrous beast directly out of nightmares, and the one fighting was not a great knight, but a small blond woman with a knife. She could obviously not afford to go about it fair and square, face to face. She did everything she could, using wild magic to propel herself between its legs, letting out a Sunlight Beam on its groin and slashing its ankles on the way. She threw many flames at its many eyes and tried her best to slice its fingers. The result was impressive, slowing the monster a lot, covering its grey skin in crimson and changing its smell to cooked meat. But it still moved about. Such a very sturdy thing.

With her small build and lightweight, Rose evaded every strike, her heart beating crazily and her breath ragged. She was not tough enough for long fights, and she definitely knew it. That was why she did not fight madly without rhyme or reason. When she finally got to her objective, she smiled a bit. For the whole encounter, she had been trying to get Nick's spear, forced to move all the time. But at that moment, when she grabbed the heavy weapon, she thought she might have a chance. With a large part of the basic energy she had left, she sprinted as fast as she could, then jumped. When jumping, she became vulnerable. The Ash Troll knew it, she knew it, the whole world knew it, but that was not the point of this action. At the apex of her leap, she used all her magic left to throw the spear. Like a javelin, it left her small hand, and the strength of this throw made a surprising contrast with her small figure. A bright streak traversed the scenery, plunging right through the huge figure's throat and only stopping in the brown ground behind.

A painful howl resounded while the blond panicked a bit from her uncontrolled descent. The beast was too focused on clutching its neck and stop it from gushing profusely to take care of her. Fortunately so, as she was at her most vulnerable until rejoining the soil. A second later, she hit the floor and, as soft as it may have been, a fall from more than three meters without knowledge of how to cushion it was a recipe for injuries. She let out a cry when feeling something in her legs snap somewhere, directly laying flat in one fluid movement. She used her arms to prop herself up, turning her head towards the Ash Troll. It was still angrily moving about, on one knee, its throat spurting blood in a great geyser everywhere around. Its movements were clearly getting slower and slower, it body closer and closer to the earth, until only a twitching form laid down.