Chapter 12

  Floor Two

  The end of the tunnel led us into… another tunnel. It was just bigger. Much bigger.

  “Floor Two is a troll kingdom,” said Kaelis. “It’s a huge network of underground tunnels. I’ve heard rumours from other Trialists that the troll king lives in a huge cavern in the centre, but I’ve never seen it with my own eyes.”

  Trolls?

  “Didn’t you say your last attendant died by impaling himself on a troll spear?” I asked.

  “Indeed,” said Kaelis with a small shake of his head. “It happened not too far from here actually. Perhaps we should observe a minute’s silence when we reach the spot. He may have died in a truly idiotic manner, but he was a dutiful attendant.”

  His face grew more serious as he turned his attention back to us.

  “Trolls are not like the mindless beasts we encountered on the first floor. They are cunning foes, and they have no compunction about using dishonourable tricks - ambushes, traps, poison, whatever works. We will move slowly and carefully. Ensure you keep your wits about you.”

  “That could be a problem,” Rel whispered.

  “What could be?” I asked. “The traps and poison?”

  “No, the ‘keeping your wits about you’ part,” he said innocently. “You don’t have any.”

  Dick.

  * * *

  Our first encounter with a troll happened very suddenly and without any warning. We were walking along what appeared to be an entirely innocuous tunnel when a troll ‘stepped out’ of the wall. The crafty fucker had used paint and moss to blend in with the rock, lying in wait to ambush us.

  It was a huge, lumbering thing – at least seven feet tall. It looked powerful, though not in the sense of rippling muscles, but in the way someone who’s worked on a building site their entire life does. Solid. Although not ripped, you know they’d embarrass any bodybuilder when it came to moving heavy shit.

  It burst forth, bellowing some unintelligible war cry, its spear darting forward with impressive speed and precision. The attack caught Kaelis entirely off-guard, and the troll’s spear struck the centre of his breastplate. It didn’t pierce the metal, but it hit with the force of a runaway train, sending the Trialist hurtling into the wall on the opposite side of the tunnel.

  The troll didn’t give him a moment to recover and launched itself after him, aiming another strike at Kaelis’s exposed face. The Trialist’s hand blurred upward, catching the spear mid-thrust, and with an explosive twist of his wrist, he snapped the point clean off.

  The troll was not deterred. It simply released the spear and threw itself at Kaelis, its fists raining down like falling boulders. It became a dirty and desperate fight, any pretence of civility and honour long gone. Kaelis reached up, hooked a hand around the troll’s neck, and yanked it downwards. He sank his teeth into the side of the creature’s face, tearing away a huge chunk of flesh.

  The troll roared in pain and staggered back, giving Kaelis the chance to rise to his feet. He didn’t hesitate. He charged, his arms blurring as he returned the favour, unleashing a flurry of devastating blows to the troll’s head and torso. The creature retreated under the barrage until it was backed up against the wall it had first emerged from. Kaelis's arms shot up, grabbed either side of the troll’s head, and slammed it back into the stone.

  Again.

  Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

  And again.

  The sickening sound of shattering bone echoed through the tunnel.

  Finally, Kaelis released his grip and the troll’s broken body fell to the ground in a crumpled heap.

  He turned to face us, blood splattered across his face and armour, his breathing heavy and a manic glint in his eyes.

  “See,” he said between ragged breaths. “Cunning bastards.”

  He reached down, tore a strip from the troll’s clothing and used it to wipe the blood from his armour.

  Both Rel and I stood with our mouths hanging slightly open.

  “Holy shit,” I whispered. “This guy’s a fucking badass.”

  Rel could only nod in response.

  * * *

  We pressed on, but much more carefully this time. We paid greater attention to our surroundings, particularly the walls. ‘Fool me once’ and what not.

  “As we draw closer to the heart of their kingdom, it’s unlikely we’ll encounter any more lone trolls,” said Kaelis, his voice low. “If we are attacked by a group, stay well back and avoid drawing attention to yourselves. If you are noticed, do your best to survive until I can deal with them.”

  I nodded in understanding.

  “Did you hear that?” whispered Rel. “No getting carried away and shouting stupid shit this time.”

  Whatever.

  Our next few encounters with the trolls went far more smoothly than the first. Kaelis proved to be more than their match when the fight started on an even footing, and he cut through them like a knife through warm butter.

  It was all going very well.

  Too well.

  A sudden grating, rumbling noise sounded behind us. We spun on the spot and saw a wall of stone rising from the floor, cutting off our retreat. It was immediately followed by the deafening blare of a horn.

  Once the sound faded, silence descended for a few moments.

  Then chaos erupted – the thunder of hundreds of troll war cries and a stampede of footsteps closing in on our position.

  Kaelis looked back at us, his face an even paler blue than usual.

  “We’re trapped,” he said, a faint note of resignation in his voice. “I’m not sure this is a fight I can win. I’ll do my best to take as many with me as I can. Hide behind that protrusion over there. It’s not much, but perhaps it’ll allow you to avoid detection and figure something out.”

  With that, he turned and strode forward to meet the oncoming horde.

  Rel and I watched in morbid fascination as the two forces clashed - a lone knight versus an overwhelming number of foes.

  Honestly, it made me feel a little emotional. Kaelis might have been a stuck-up dick at times, but you couldn’t question the guy’s courage.

  He had some small success at first, managing to make quick work of the first few trolls to arrive, but he was soon overwhelmed, swallowed by a swarming, heaving mass of enemies.

  I turned to Rel.

  “Buddy, I think I’m going to have to break rule number two. He might be a bit of an ass, but he doesn’t deserve to go down like this,” I said, stepping out from behind our cover.

  “I was hoping you’d say that,” replied Rel.

  I glanced back at him and saw an insane glint in his eyes as a fireball burst into existence at the tip of his tail.

  He darted past me and shouted, his squeaky voice somehow rather terrifying, “Oi, you ugly bastards! How about picking on someone your own size?”

  It made absolutely no sense whatsoever, but it did the job.

  Several trolls near the edge of the mob turned at the noise, their confusion quickly replaced by terror as a blazing ball of fire crashed into their ranks. It detonated on impact, a wave of flame washing over them.

  Screams of pain and the smell of burning flesh filled the tunnel.

  My turn.

  * * *

  Kaelis curled into a ball on the floor as fists, axes, spears and maces rained down on him.

  All the fight had left him.

  He was going to die.

  A small voice in his head roared at him to fight, to take just one more down with him, but he was tired. So tired.

  His armour was dented. His bones were broken.

  The pain had been dreadful at first, but there is only so much the human body can take before it shuts down.

  All that was left was numbness.

  He was going to die.

  A cloud of darkness began to descend over his mind…

  An explosion of sound and light dragged him back to consciousness.

  The triumphant roars that had deafened him only moments earlier had been replaced by horrified screams of pain and confusion.

  What was happening?

  Kaelis opened his swollen eyes.

  Fire roared all around him. Trolls shrieked in agony as flesh melted from bone and charred bodies crumbled to ash.

  In the chaos, a gap had appeared in their ranks, and Kaelis could see down the tunnel to where his two attendants stood.

  Smoke still trailed from Rel’s tail, a look of demented satisfaction burning in the creature’s eyes.

  Pete stood beside him.

  Then vanished…

  The next moment, he was staggering to a stop beside Kaelis.

  “Don’t worry, boss,” he said calmly. “We’ll handle it from here.”

  Pete stood up.

  And changed.

  One moment, he was Kaelis’s bumbling attendant. The next, he was something else. It was not a physical change. It was his presence. It seemed to fill the tunnel, pressing down with the weight of a mountain.

  A troll, consumed by fear and madness, brought its club crashing down onto Pete’s head. Kaelis winced, expecting his skull to shatter from the impact.

  The club snapped.

  A terrifying smile crossed Pete’s lips as he turned to face the troll. A hole appeared in its chest, blood and bone painting the tunnel walls behind it.

  Who were these people?

  Kaelis’s consciousness slipped away.