Blood II

"...did you see Ganesha's guys passing through earlier?"

Chloe's ears perked up as she heard the passing conversation.

"The ones that were all beat up?"

"'Beat up' is putting it lightly. Wonder what's goin' on for Ganesha's second string to come back in tatters like that."

Noticing Chloe taking interest in something behind them, Shay began paying attention as well. As their small, four man group continued making their way through Rivira towards the entrance to the Great Tree Labyrinth, Van decided to speak up with Lily looking on curiously.

"What's got you two so distracted?"

"That's the third time we've passed people talking about Ganesha familia getting beat up, meow. From the way people are talking about it, something nasty must be down there."

"...so?"

Sounding almost as relaxed as Van, Shay thought he'd chime in.

"So something down there warranted Ganesha familia's attention, and even with preparation they lost."

Scoffing at the insinuation, Van made his confidence known.

"Ganesha familia's a bunch of wimps. Since even they made it back, we shouldn't have to worry. We can even use it as a chance to show our strength."

He made a point of looking directly at Shay as he continued.

"...Plus, it's the perfect chance to Level up. That's the whole reason I even joined this expedition."

Well, he's not entirely wrong.

Shay had spent the last six months or so practicing in Folkvangr and had yet again raised his ability scores to the maximum. On the weekends after training, he would regularly find himself hanging out with Chloe and Také familia at Maria's orphanage. Shay had begun heading into the Dungeon again after earning his spot among the Einherjar, and had let Freya convince him to work with a party since after a certain point the Dungeon was simply too dangerous to take on alone.

When she heard about this, Chloe immediately and enthusiastically offered to join Shay on his expeditions, which had been a very pleasant surprise. After some difficult and costly negotiations with Mia, Chloe and Shay began regularly partying up to tackle the Dungeon together. With Shay assimilated into the Einherjar and Van relieved of duty as his 'chaperone', the two became equals very quickly. When asked to join this most recent expedition, Van assented immediately, citing a need to vary his training methods in order to advance.

The last member to agree to join their party was Lily. Shay had been looking for a healer to accompany him for a while, but most of the Andhrímnir were busy facilitating the familia's daily training. Shay could've sworn he'd seen one of them stealing glances at him, but for some reason that stopped abruptly about three months into his time in Freya familia, right about when he'd caused that scene in the living quarters. Ever since then, she seemed to have been avoiding him. Shay managed to corner her just two days ago, and after a little reputation salvaging, Lily hesitantly agreed to join the party.

Continuing on their journey after the quick stop in Rivira, the group managed to make it all the way to the 27th floor after another day of travel. After finding out that Amphisbaena, the original target of their expedition, had been killed by Ishtar familia just a day before they made it to the Water Capital, they begrudgingly made camp at the 28th floor safety point and decided to prowl the Deep Forest Ravine farther down. Resting before heading out again, they had just begun charting the 29th floor when they felt the unmistakable rumbling of a large monster party.

"Hey, what's our animal person doing!? Isn't she supposed to be the early warning system?"

"Mew try it instead! Aren't purrums supposed to have good eyesight, meow!?"

"Now's not the time, guys!"

As the group jumped onto the eerily curling branches of a massive dead tree, a wave of trolls and bloodsauruses started to rush past. Whispering as they tried to hide from the seemingly never ending stream of monsters, Chloe voiced her concerns.

"What the heck is going on, meow! They just keep coming!"

"Why are you asking me? It's my first time down here too."

"Why are we even avoiding them? We've got two Level Fours… oh, Shay too."

"Hey."

"Even I know mew'll get crushed by numbers like this in the Dungeon, meow. Mew really are new to this, huh?"

"What'd you say, stupid cat?"

As her teammates began taking out their frustrations on each other as if they weren't in mortal peril, Lily softly spoke up.

"...It might be related to Ganesha's party…"

Right on cue, a stray bloodsaurus slammed into the tree they were in, falling backwards like it just noticed the massive landmark. Eliciting an unenthused groan and a resigned "Aw man" from the two Einherjar, the tree began to creak as the other monsters took notice of them. As they began to fall right into the increasingly agitated swarm of monsters, the group prepared for battle.

"Right then, protect the healer. We're gonna need her."

Not about to argue in the middle of a monster party, Shay nodded as they jumped out of the tree, forming a large triangle with Lily in the center. As the wave of enemies approached from all sides, Shay was about to use his enchantment when Lily spoke up with an uncharacteristic assertiveness.

"Rai–"

"Wait! Something must've caused this."

"...?"

"Just make do without it for a bit!"

Monster parties happen randomly, don't they?

Spotting some poison vermis amid the chaos, Shay was about to disregard Lily's warning when he thought back to the rumors they'd heard in Rivira.

Actually, if Ganesha's crew got called down to the Lower Floors, there's gotta be some Irregular down here, too. She might be onto something.

Resolving to trust in the healer Shay stood his ground, impaling the first bloodsaurus before swiping his spear towards another dinosaur type and bisecting two poison vermis on the way. After getting his weapon lodged in the fourth monster's armor, Shay ducked past a swipe of its claws and kicked off of it to reclaim the spear, spinning around for another attack and removing a chunk from the monster's head before reaching the ground.

As the group had already cut through at least ten monsters in the span of a few seconds, Shay realized he had initially overreacted. They were currently on the 29th floor, meaning the monsters down here were an average of middle Level Three. Simply put, if there wasn't a veritable ocean of enemies, there would be nothing to worry about for his high Level Four teammates. With a capable healer like Lily on their side, they could very realistically handle a situation like this. Combined with Shay's pseudo Level Four status and vastly improved magic, this party had even been prepared to (somewhat recklessly) take on the Level Five Amphisbaena.

After continuing to carve through the mass of poison vermis, trolls, and dinosaur type monsters for a solid fifteen minutes, the party's fatigue was starting to take its toll. Visibility was also an issue, as after killing countless monsters in the same spot, the area had become inundated with ash. With every strike, the roiling detritus was further disturbed and spread through the air, making it difficult to see more than a few meders in any direction. Without relying on his magic, Shay was physically fatigued enough to begin making careless mistakes, and as a consequence had been far more of a burden to their healer than the other two. Even after participating in Folkvangr for over 6 months and honing his techniques farther than ever before, Shay scowled as he noticed he was the first to fall apart.

Gods, that hurt! That's the fourth time Lily's had to heal my dumb ass. With the mind she's wasting, I might as well be using my magic! Chloe and Van combined haven't been even half the burden I have!

Attempting to quell his doubts with another thrust of his spear, Shay pierced the skull of yet another bloodsaurus and pushed off its face, removing his spear while jumping sideways towards a troll as he sliced through its neck. Sensing Shay's unease, Lily did what she could to raise morale, earning responses from the other two.

"If nothing else joins the fray, we should be done in under a minute! We're almost through!"

"Why would you say that!? Now more are guaranteed to join again!"

"Exactly, meow! This is litterally endless!"

Taking solace in the lighthearted responses of his party amid the roiling ash of decaying monsters, Shay realized he didn't have to worry about being a burden. If they were at ease enough to crack jokes like this, his party could probably stand to pick up a little slack. Thanking Lily with a brief smile, Shay resolved to finish off the last of his opponents with renewed vigor.

~

Two days after Shay's party began their expedition, Freya stood up from her lavish armchair, shelving the book she had been reading. The evening sun shone through the glass outer wall of Babel's top floor, casting her lengthened shadow onto the white marble beneath as she walked toward the edge of the room. She looked back as a polite knock came from the room's lone entrance, a two meder wide cylindrical cap that served as the highest exit of Babel tower's elevator system.

"Come in."

In response to the alluring voice of the Goddess, the doors of the cap slid back to reveal a somewhat expressionless attendant with ashen hair covering half her face. Entering the room with a bow, the Goddess's attendant offered up an envelope bearing the Guild's seal. As Freya began opening it, she addressed her follower.

"What's this about, Hörn?"

"A quest from the Guild, M'lady. It's not a mandatory mission, but it was made clear that our participation would be rewarded."

"Oh?"

The Goddess raised an intrigued eyebrow as she unfurled the letter, her attendant looking on without a change in expression. It was quite rare for Freya familia to receive a mission from the Guild given their strength, and the fact that this was instead an optional quest spoke to the uniqueness of the situation. Reading over the document as well as the Hieroglyphs interwoven with the letter's border, Freya began to glimpse a fuller picture of the situation.

"I see. So after nearly ten years that fool Ouranos has finally deemed that irregular too dangerous to be ignored."

Hörn stood silently as her Goddess mused almost indifferently. After a moment of thought, the Goddess turned to her attendant.

"Hörn, relay this to Ottarl and the others. The Bloodstained Troll has begun moving upwards, and was last seen on floor thirty-six. I would like someone to take care of it for me, and report it to the Guild."

"Yes."

Nodding as her attendant swiftly exited the room, Freya let her gaze wander over Orario's outer wall and towards the Deep Forest Seoro, her expression shifting to an amused smile.

"Although, I have a feeling that won't be necessary."

~

The ash slowly began to settle as peace returned to the dead forest.

"Haaah… It's finally over, meow!"

"That's all it takes to tire you out? We would've been screwed if we actually ended up fighting Amphisbaena, then. You too, Shay. Just cause you're a Level… below us… right, nevermind. Good job."

Shay let out a chuckle as he caught his breath in the gray world, the party descending the hill of ash they had created in the past twenty minutes. Resting up against the trunk of the fallen tree before gathering drop items and magic stones, Lily was the first to assess their situation.

"We didn't use any items, and I'm still good on mind. Our main concern is what caused the rush of monsters."

"Yeah. At first I was skeptical, but that was definitely too much. More and more monsters kept showing up, over and over."

Shay couldn't think of anything that could cause that kind of behavior short of a massive Irregular, but he hadn't heard anything of the sort when preparing for the expedition. Seemingly racking her brain, Chloe chimed in.

"All I can think of are some rumors I've heard at the pub, meow. Maybe around a week ago, a bunch of Loki familia's people were complaining about something stalking them in the Deep Levels."

The Deep Levels? That's too far to cause issues up here.

Impatiently swatting at the thinning ash to no avail, Van immediately shot down the idea.

"Probably just a rival familia who didn't have the guts to show their faces."

"Yeah, I thought so too, meow."

Almost out of the ash, Shay thought back to the guild's bulletin board.

Missing people on the Upper Floors, collecting Inferno Stones, retrieving Blue Papillon scales… was there really nothing about this?

Feeling uneasy, Shay tried to remember something useful. The party finally left the ash behind them, and Van began to slow down as he took in their surroundings. After exhausting his memory of the Guild's recent postings, Shay remembered the notice that had been on the board since he'd arrived in Orario. That particular notice was such a staple that it had been covered up by newer quests, causing Shay to forget about it until now. As he realized the potential danger they were in, he noticed Van had stopped walking.

"Hey. There's something here. Two o' clock."

As they all turned to look, Shay felt something akin to the instinctive dread of a prey animal beginning to drain his will.

The monster that's been prowling the Deep Levels, supposedly responsible for almost all the disappearances down there…

Both women of the group were visibly disturbed by the distant monster's gangly three meder frame, with Chloe sounding uncharacteristically serious as she assessed the monster in the distance.

"I can finally smell again… and that thing… is soaked in blood."

"Ganesha familia… So that's what happened."

The Bloodstained Troll.

The monster before them wore a horrifyingly empty expression as it silently stared down Shay's party. Large, faintly purple crystals broke through its sand colored skin, as if it had caught some kind of exotic illness. A disturbing splattering of dried blood covered over half its body, dividing its face into crystal covered and dark areas. Realizing he was the only one with knowledge about this beast, Shay willed himself to speak up.

"Chloe's rumor was right. That one's from the Deep Levels."

"You know it? Why would it have moved eight floors up?"

"I don't know why it's here, but we're in serious trouble. This thing's been killing Second Tiers since before I got to Orario."

At that, Van became deadly serious. Abandoning his usual combativeness, he plainly asked for advice.

"What's our move?"

"Escape if we can. Actually, no. If it keeps heading upwards… I can't imagine the kind of massacre that'd follow."

The monster in question hunched over slightly as it began walking towards the party, its arms and legs swinging in an eerily smooth manner. As the Irregular quietly closed the distance, Lily came dangerously close to sounding panicked.

"We're fighting it, then?"

"We'll take it back to the ash and gauge it with Chloe's magic. Let's go!"

As the monster picked up speed, the party turned back towards their previous battlefield. The ash had already settled by now, but the hill they'd created was still visible ahead. With the Troll quickly closing the distance, Van and Shay ran straight through the pile, kicking up as much ash as they could while Lily and Chloe followed, the latter disappearing behind the cloud before chanting her magic.

"Frolic, Feles Cruz!"

As the Troll made it past the debris they'd kicked up, it was immediately assailed by a catgirl adventurer. The assassin tried to get in close, but was instantly crushed by a horrifyingly quick strike from one of the Troll's long arms. Briefly satisfied, the Troll wore a small smile as chunks of dirt rained down around it. Slowly raising its gaze to the other adventurers, it was about to resume the chase when it saw another catgirl racing towards it from the side.

Seemingly agitated, the Troll swung again, its massive, purple crystal covered arm crashing into the ground as the girl dodged to the side. Preparing to dodge another strike, the girl looked stunned as particles of light began drifting from her into the purple crystals covering the Troll's body. After a few seconds of careful dodging, she began to lose shape entirely.

"No way, meow. It's absorbing the illusions!?"

A clearly baffled Chloe shouted in surprise at the absurd showing, as there were only a couple monsters that were known to be capable of such a thing.

Magic absorption? That's a huge problem for me.

As the annoyed Troll turned its sights back on the party, Van laid out an impromptu plan.

"That thing's easily Level Five, so we're gonna need support from the healer. Shay, you protect Lily. Chloe, you're with me. If it's not that draining, keep using your magic to distract it."

"We need all three! There's no way I can sit this one out!"

"Shay. You've got a short period of extreme strength. That's perfect for protecting the healer. If you see an opportunity, jump in, but other than that, don't forget your Level."

"..."

Shay grimaced as he watched his teammates run off toward the disquieting Irregular, Chloe chanting another round of her magic as the fight began. The Troll ran towards them, its eyes focused on Chloe as her doppelgangers charged straight forward, already bleeding motes of light into the crystals.

As the Troll struck the first illusion, Van took the opportunity to come up to the side, launching himself at its still extended arm. At the last moment the arm shifted, causing him to hit a patch of crystals that had broken through its skin. The twin swords made full contact, but were able to do nothing more than chip the monster's translucent armor as their owner arced through the air, spinning from the impact.

Nothing!?

Watching in horror as her teammate spun away, Chloe sent her other illusion to buy time, knowing full well that she needed him to help generate a real opening. After landing, Van immediately sprinted back, shouting instructions.

"We can't break the crystals! Go for the flesh!"

"Got it, meow!"

Shay watched nervously as his teammates made another pass, needing to dodge for almost a full, excruciating minute before an opportunity presented itself. As the troll became impatient, it used both arms to aggressively swing downward at Chloe. The impact caused the forest floor to shoot up in large chunks, knocking her into the air as the Troll began to give chase. Seeing the opportunity, Van came up from behind, jamming one of his swords in the small space between the plates of crystalian armor.

With a roar of pain, the Troll abandoned its previous target in favor of the one stuck to its back. In the blink of an eye, the monster bent its arm unnaturally far and grabbed Van by the wrist, its previously expressionless face now twisted in anger. Shay watched as Van's wrist made a horrible popping sound before the Troll threw him in a high arc away from the rest of the party.

"Lily, I'm tagging in! Raijin!"

Bright electricity flared to life on Shay's skin as the Troll turned its fury towards the still airborne Chloe. Shay sprinted towards the Troll as he watched her tumble through the air, and she was about five meders off the ground as it began to reach out its unsettlingly bony hand.

I won't make it!

Still running, Shay switched his grip on his spear and threw it towards the Troll's outstretched arm with all his strength, a wide eyed Chloe landing on the ground unharmed as Shay's spear pierced the Troll's unarmored elbow. Reeling from the unexpected pain, the Troll let out a screech as it angrily pulled the spear the rest of the way through its now crippled arm.

"We're buying time for Lily to heal Van! No more half measures, let's fight together!"

"...! Okay! I'll try poison! Frolic, Feles Cruz!"

As Chloe's illusions came to life once more, Shay prepared to fight the ridiculously powerful foe before him.

Looks like I can't match its Strength, I'll have to buy time with Agility.

Taking two kunai in his hands, a terrifyingly quick movement from his opponent saw Shay's own spear swiping past his head with a whip crack as he just barely managed to duck under it. As her illusions joined Shay in the deadly dance, Chloe sheathed her usual knife in favor of a dark violet karambit which she carefully unsheathed from the holster on her leg. This special knife, Violetta, was Chloe's treasured but dangerous trump card, and had been coated in all kinds of potent poisons from both in and outside the Dungeon. Conscious of the need to avoid so much as a scratch from her own weapon, Chloe began her assault.

Yeah, it's like I thought. The crystals absorb my magic, too.

Cursing his luck as he felt his speed already dropping, Shay looked back to his teammate just in time to see her toss a smoke bomb on either side of their opponent. Recognizing the play from their time prowling the Dungeon together, Shay stopped relying on his eyes, sensing the magic flowing from Chloe's illusions to the crystals as they distracted the Troll. As he felt Chloe's first illusion pounce Shay used the moment to slash the back of a knee, cursing as his kunai bounced off the crystals in the low visibility.

I've done my job, though.

Retreating as the Troll angrily turned and swung its injured arm at him, Shay saw his teammate dash in as her illusion assaulted from the side. The Troll rapidly switched its focus to the side as motes of light bled from his new target. Jumping in from the newly generated blindspot, Chloe clawed the back of the monster's large neck with her treasured karambit as she kicked off Van's still embedded sword. Shay watched Chloe land as the Troll let out a horrifying roar, swatting wildly at the air around it with its one useful arm and dissipating the smoke that had served them so well.

Now on the opposite side of the Troll, Shay could see Van running back towards them, enveloped in a healing light with Lily in tow.

"How'd you guys piss it off even more!?"

"Poison, meow! It was just a scratch, but from here on it should be a waiting game!"

As the Troll roared in agony, scraping at the back of its neck with the ferocity of a wild animal, the party watched on in anticipation. Its expression now a far cry from the composed, empty one it wore earlier, the Troll roared once again as its gaze settled on Van. The erratic Irregular shifted its expression once again to confusion before it moved its gaze to Lily. Seemingly making up its mind, the Troll's expression went back to the eerie nothingness it wore when it first appeared.

"...!"

Before the party had a chance to think, the Troll started running again, its injured right arm flapping gruesomely at the elbow. Unnerved at the sudden change in demeanor, Shay reapplied his enchantment before the three adventurers charged in together, trying to pressure the Irregular before it had the chance to do something else unexpected. As the Troll barreled towards them, Shay couldn't shake a rising feeling of dread.

In order to quell his doubts Shay led the charge, using his heightened Agility to rush past his teammates and jump up to his opponent. Briefly balancing his Status midair with some Dexterity to dodge the Troll's counter, Shay instantly switched again to Strength as he was about to impact his opponent. Even though he landed a solid flying kick on the Troll's abdomen as they met, Shay's momentum wasn't quite enough to cancel out that of the Troll, and his direction was reversed as the pair continued through the air towards his comrades.

Quickly stabbing the Troll's good hand and forcing it to release its grip on his spear, Shay reclaimed his weapon as he leaped back off the beast. Landing to Van's right at the edge of the formation, Shay joined his teammates in an attempt to overwhelm the Bloodstained Troll.

—!?

To the adventurers' surprise, the Troll leaped upward as they were about to clash, arcing what looked to be ten stories into the air before landing on the side of the tallest dead tree in the area, digging its one good arm into the bark to support its weight. Looking on in shock, Van gave a voice to the group's thoughts.

"Is it running away?"

"...?"

As the Troll looked down at them, Shay had a horrible feeling that he was missing something. As he tried to puzzle through the possibilities, he heard a distant cracking as the monster released its grip on the bark, beginning to fall down towards them. Worried the Irregular might try to hunt down the healer, Shay and the rest of the party were completely unprepared for its next move.

–CRACK!

The Bloodstained Troll leaped off the tree nearly straight down, as it sped by the already falling pieces of gray and black bark. Floored by the display the party stood rooted to the spot, completely blindsided by the unorthodox movement. As the Troll crashed into the ground at a ridiculous speed, entire sections of dirt, grass and rock were flung high into the air along with the surprised adventurers on top of them. Not giving its opponents time to recover, the Troll bounded out of the crater towards a horrified Lily, who had been waiting alone on the sidelines to provide support.

"Ah!"

It really was going for Lily!

As the healer faced down the scene of the newly mangled Irregular with her comrades helpless in the air behind it, she screamed and ran with a desperation she hadn't felt since before she was saved by Lady Freya.

As he crouched upside down on a slab of rock ten meders in the air, Shay finally understood why this Irregular had survived so long. It didn't initially seem very smart but its unpredictability was incredible, on top of it having the capacity to learn to identify and target the healer. Realizing he wouldn't make it in time to save the healer, Shay resorted to a new technique that was usually too taxing for use in combat.

Alright, If I'm gonna use this, now's the time!

Preparing to put his newest technique into practice, Shay downed a mind potion before focusing on Agility once more. Leaping off the rock with all his speed, Shay inverted before hitting the ground running, concentrating as much of his magic as possible near the soles of his feet. Sprinting at a steeper angle than ever before, Shay felt his feet stick to the ground as they threw up dirt and grass behind him.

Ever since Level Two he'd had trouble unleashing the full power of his acceleration, and this was the solution he'd come up with. Shay wasn't entirely sure of the reason but his magic had a tendency to pull itself together, and by consciously extending it past his feet and into the ground he'd found a way to forcefully pull himself downward. This allowed him to unleash much closer to his full acceleration without leaving the ground, his speed now limited mostly by his ability to repeatedly and quickly manipulate his magic.

Concentrating only on acceleration, Shay left vortices of dirt and grass violently rotating behind him as he rapidly closed the distance to the Troll. Stopping before reaching the desperately running healer, the Bloodstained Troll looked back to see an arrow of lightning headed its way. With Shay's vision slightly tunneling from the speed, he felt a rush as he got his spear on target.

Right as they came within five meders of each other, the Troll turned forcefully as it sent its good arm at Shay, violently grabbing his face and holding on as Shay's spear embedded itself in its stomach. The impact sent the two spiraling through the air, with Shay totally disoriented as they crashed back into the ground, the Troll thrusting his head into the dirt and pinning it there.

"Shay!"

As he heard the muffled voices of his comrades, Shay felt a rib crack as what he could only assume was the Troll's other, mangled arm whipped into his torso. Shifting his magic to Defense in a desperate attempt to stave off some of the damage, he felt the large arm crack as it continued to be whipped against his body. As the damage rapidly piled up, Shay realized he was on a very short timer. This close to the crystals, he could feel his enchantment being absorbed with every hit, each becoming progressively more painful as he lost his defenses.

What do I do!? I've got ten seconds at most!

Panicking, Shay's adrenaline addled mind desperately searched for a way out, but he was unable to focus properly with the increasing pain of the continued blows. Stabbing desperately at the Troll's unmoving arm with a kunai, Shay's consciousness slowly began to fade as he felt blood pooling around him.

"Shay!"

He felt an impact shake the Troll's arm as Chloe's muffled voice desperately found its way to him. Realizing the Troll had no plans of releasing him even as it was further poisoned by Chloe, Shay made a desperate gambit.

Shit! Do I really have to use this!? Ah screw it, a hand isn't worth my life!

"Get clear!"

Hoping to the Gods that Chloe heard him, Shay poured everything he had into his magic in the moment just after another of the Troll's strikes. As it was rearing up again, Shay condensed his enchantment as much as he could before purposefully relinquishing control. As he felt the spiraling chaos of an oncoming Ignis Fatuus, Shay briefly stole back control of a small amount of his magic, using it as a shell and funneling the energetic chaos out from his now outstretched left arm.

A thunderous explosion rang out as Shay's ears began to ring, the Troll finally releasing its grip on his head as it stumbled backwards. His vision blurred, Shay could just barely make out the horrible beast from behind the red vapor of the explosion, with sparkling shards of crystal raining down around them as his teammates rushed in to help.

Looking down at him was Chloe, who's panicked expression was a decidedly bad sign. Being dragged away to the healer as he watched Van stab through the now flailing Troll's knee, the last thing Shay noticed before consciousness left him was the assortment of crystal shards now embedded in his abdomen.

~

It had never felt this kind of pain before. As it swung in furious confusion at the small one that had pierced its knee, the Bloodstained Troll writhed in agony at the burning sensation of the newly exposed flesh on the left side of its face. The crystals that had once protected it had been blown off by the fast one, taking its skin with them. The fast one was bleeding, being fussed over by the singing one, and the Troll knew that it would get no better opportunity than this to strike.

That was, if it could. No matter what part of itself it tried to rouse to action, it received only pain in response. Its knee and right arm, crippled at the joints. Its left hand, stabbed and bleeding. The flesh of its face, burning. Its neck, sliced and spreading excruciating pain. It had only been this close to death once, in the moments before it had learned of the power it could make its own, the power hiding within its brethren.

Rousing new anger within itself, the Troll resolved to at least get revenge. The cat who had caused it the most pain had also fussed over the fast one after he'd injured its face. It could at least kill her.

~

Shay faded in and out of consciousness as he was repeatedly enveloped by a rapidly fading warm light. Regaining awareness after a few rounds of this, he felt a burning sensation as Lily's shaking hand materialized in his vision, covered in blood and removing a chunk of purple crystal as she summoned her healing light once more. Still lying in a daze, Shay looked over at his left arm, discovering to his surprise that it was still there, although he couldn't move the hand.

That one must've been perfect…

After the explosion he'd caused on the battlefield when he first joined Freya familia, he had a crazy idea. If adventurers could somehow learn to harness an Ignis Fatuus, then any mage would be able to learn short range explosion magic. Three months later, he'd gotten to the point of pushing it in a direction, which had caused him to crash through the wall of his room. After six months of small scale practice, he'd taken this idea as far as it would go, evidently getting good enough to avoid permanently crippling himself, even using all the power he could muster.

Mentally congratulating himself as his eyes regained their focus, Shay noticed the eerie quiet around him. As his heartbeat thrummed in his ears breaking the silence, he looked up instinctively when a drop of liquid hit his cheek. His heart dropped as his eyes met Lily's, her usually hidden scarring plainly visible from under her bangs. The scar was wet and twisted in despair, another tear falling down onto Shay's face as he followed the distraught healer's gaze.

The first thing he saw was blood. A dirt sullied, visceral splatter became a trail ending at an elbow, which belonged to a still bleeding but deathly still half prum. His arm was nowhere to be found, and Shay couldn't tell if he was even breathing under his misshapen breastplate.

—Crunch!

"Aaahh!"

Following the anguished scream, Shay's eyes settled on a scene he would never forget. Tears leaking from her eyes Chloe dragged herself along the dirt, desperately trying to escape as the Bloodstained Troll hobbled ever closer to its prey. With her right leg bent at a gruesome angle and her left barely recognizable, it was all she could do to scrape herself along the ground, buying every extra excruciating second she could.

No…

The Bloodstained Troll wouldn't even afford Shay the time to take in the horrible scene, raising its arm for the killing blow. His soul screaming at him to act, Shay did the only thing he was truly good at.

"RAIJIN!"

Brilliant white-blue lightning flared to life, the dancing light reflecting off the blood stains on his armor as a battered Shay got to his feet, instantly enhancing his Agility and repeating his acceleration technique. Rocketing towards the Troll as it turned to face him, he jumped to chest height before getting in range. Compressing his enchantment into his left hand, he once again caused an Ignis Fatuus before regaining control and forcing it out, this time causing a tight cone of smoke and flame to explode violently out of his hand as the Troll moved to counter.

The jet of fire sent the Troll flying backwards as Shay spun from the slightly off center explosion. With his own momentum nearly stopped, he landed in a crystal shower near Chloe as the Troll crashed through a dead tree, bouncing off the ground before coming to a stop in a dense part of the dead forest.

"...I'm sorry..."

Shay couldn't bear to meet Chloe's eyes as he went to face down his opponent once more.

Hopefully Lily's still got some healing left for them. Well, my potions got crushed, so if I don't end this soon it won't matter anyways… I have to stay focused.

The Troll got up angrily, leaning on its one good leg as it stared down the adventurer before it. Both of the combatants were completely battered, with Shay's mangled left hand and abdomen still bleeding and his consciousness threatening to fade once more.

With a roar, the Troll charged as Shay matched its urgency, sprinting between the trees to break line of sight. As they neared a clash, Shay abruptly stopped behind a tree before jumping, turning ninety degrees and sprinting up the bark with his downforce technique. As the Troll neared the base of the tree, Shay jumped to another, latching on in the same manner and staying out of sight.

Infuriated, the Troll thrashed the tree with its good arm, cutting it down as it heard a —ting! to its side. Ready to pummel the source of noise into the ground, it turned its head only to be hit in the cheek by a lightning coated shuriken. With the largest of its crystals blown off by the two explosions, the Troll was briefly paralyzed by the lightning magic, unable to react as Shay dug a kunai into the back of its neck, reinforcing the paralysis with another burst of lightning.

"Raijin!"

Reapplying his magic to enhance his Strength, Shay dug his kunai in as far as it would go before jamming his left arm into the wound, concentrating his enchantment into his hand one last time. Pouring in every last drop of mind and willpower he had left as the Troll began to regain its movement, Shay let his magic run wild, a red glow emanating from under the beast's skin. His eyes becoming heavy, the last thing Shay saw was a dominating red flare as he finally succumbed to Mind Down.