“The trolls have taken the bait, they’re distracted. Is everyone ready?” Ryan reported to the rest.

  “Ok, so this time without dying, right?” Ryan asked without expecting an answer.

  Steve and Payton went first, slowly picking their way through the forest to reach the three elk carcasses where the aurochs had lain.

  Scout and Ryan circled around outside of Steve and Payton’s path, to come up on the eating trolls from separate angles.

  Sage counted to thirty and then followed along the same path as Steve and Payton. She had a clay pot, unglazed and fresh from the market, in one hand and her instrument in the other. She was supposed to throw it on the nearest troll fighting with Steve. Payton was supposed to light her oversized stick-torch and then use that to light the lamp oil on that troll. Then she would switch to her magic to ignite the other trolls Ryan and Scout had managed to douse in the oil.

  That was the plan.

  That was not what happened.

  Two trolls attacked Steve and Payton and Payton was in the air in the grip of a troll. Steve had removed eight fingers from a troll hand, but the gouges in his shield were letting light through. Scout and Ryan had splashed two other trolls with the lamp oil but that was only half of the trolls not attacking Steve and Payton.

  Steve’s blade left charred meat and angry trolls behind. He couldn’t cut through the tougher bones with his sword in one hand, but if his shield fell apart he guessed he could try it with two hands. It would take a lot of shallow cutting to kill a healthy troll like this and Payton was in trouble now.

  Sage threw her pot of lamp oil on the troll holding her sister and Steve dashed away from his troll. The flash of his sword through the troll’s side ignited the oil. A cape of fire spread across the troll’s back and Payton was able to light her large club from the flames.

  Payton cracked the troll’s knee as she fell to the ground and Steve cut across its thigh. The other troll snatched at Steve and he only managed to get his shield up to stop the grab. He let go of the shield and the ten troll fingers snapped it to splinters. Sage’s violin kicked up and spider webs scattered across the clearing. The other trolls hardly seemed to notice the webs and were more annoyed at how hard it was to catch Ryan and Scout.

  Payton smashed the club into the burnt skin on the troll’s back and the troll staggered as the burns burrowed deep under its skin. Steve stabbed it between the ribs and steam billowed out of the wound.

  A troll foot slammed into Steve from behind and he flew to the ground without his sword in hand.

  Sage’s violin pierced through the snarls and shouts. Fire cascaded over the injured troll and it stopped moving. Blistered and scorched, it collapsed to the ground with a whine. Steve jerked his sword out of its ribs and turned on the last troll who wasn’t attacking Ryan or Scout.

  When his sword cut through troll flesh, it flared with the white light again and the oil on the skin ignited. The flash of fire raced across the troll’s back and blew back Steve’s hair. His eyebrows were singed and his face suddenly felt like it had a sunburn.

  The sudden fire and slow death of another troll distracted the three across the battlefield and they left Ryan and Scout. Their leaps brought them right on top of the fighting. Payton darted out of the way, but Steve went immediately to respawn under a foot.

  Sage’s violin raced through the chords and the instrument struggled to keep up with the notes demanded of it. Lightning broke through the branches and struck each troll in its turn.

  Ryan opened another pot of lamp oil and threw it on a prone troll.

  “Did that kill them?” Scout eased the tension off her bowstring and waited for the trolls to stir.

  “I wouldn’t count on it.” Ryan took Payton’s torch and went to light the newly doused troll.

  It grabbed the torch and Ryan immediately put a second hand on it. Payton grabbed on too and the three of them began struggling with the torch.

  The troll reached for the torch with its second hand, but the torch’s pitch began to melt. Burning droplets fell into the lamp oil and the oil ignited.

  The troll let go of the torch, giving it one last shove away, and began ineffectively swatting at the fire on its chest. Splatters of lamp oil and melted pitch flew with each slap. Payton chopped into the prone troll’s shoulder and kept chopping as the fire spread. The wounds began to heal, but stopped as the abuse continued.

  Sage grabbed her last jar of lamp oil and tried to splash it on the last two trolls who were struggling to get back up. A meaty hand slapped the jar against her chest, spilling the oil on her clothes.

  Ryan’s rope dart burst one of that troll’s left eyes and snaked away to strike at another eye. Sage stumbled backwards while she got her violin and bow ready again. She was uncomfortably aware how close her oil soaked armor was to the burning troll.

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  Payton scraped her ax over the burning troll, gathering up some dropped pitch and charged the troll fixated on her sister. A shout ripped out of her as her hot ax cut into its neck.

  Webs splattered across both trolls, meshing them together and rooting Payton and Ryan in place. The trolls struggled against each other, but Payton immediately started pulling herself out of the webs. Ryan twisted and broke free, leaping away because the next step in the plan was coming.

  Sage walked backwards as she played the next spell. Fire fanned across the trolls, igniting the webs and burning the trolls underneath.

  “I think that got them.” Ryan covered his mouth and stepped away from the burning trolls.

  “Just in time, I’m almost out of that experience boost.” Scout dumped a severed hand on the fire just to make sure it would stay dead. “I’m level twelve though, not bad.”

  “I must have run out during the fight, I’m still level ten.” Ryan glanced to his right with his eyes and sat down heavily on the grass. Now that fight was over and the adrenaline was bleeding away, his leg no longer wanted to hold him up.

  “Are you dying?” Sage asked Payton. Payton cradled one arm against her chest and she was bleeding from a cut over her ear.

  “Maybe, I’m not sure. I’m pretty sure this is dislocated and I’m starting to feel cold.” Payton admitted and looked down. She was beginning to pool blood under her and as soon as she saw that she went to respawn.

  “We should have seen that coming.” Ryan commented and closed his eyes to meditate. It was the only ability to heal himself the monks had taught him and it was a pain in the butt when people were constantly interrupting you.

  “Oh, no. Are they alone again with those trolls?” Steve asked Payton when she appeared in the bell square next to him.

  “No, the trolls are dead. Sage is with Scout and Ryan, no reason to rush off. Does it suck to die for you? Cause I’m surprised how much it doesn’t suck. It’s more inconvenient.” Payton worked her now functional shoulder and enjoyed not having broken ribs again.

  “Did Ryan get killed or was it looking like he was going to die?” Steve asked with a side glance at Payton.

  “No, he’s fine. Doing that yoga healing when I went. I bled out.” Payton reported with a grunt.

  “Scout and Sage? I assume they’re ok?” Steve started walking out of bell square.

  “Scout I’m not so sure, Sage is fine.” Payton followed with her ax over her shoulder.

  “Great. That should be the last of the trolls. Now we should start heading west, right?” Steve asked. He counted the coins in his purse and started thinking about how many rations he could buy for the trip west.

  “We broke down camp for a reason. We’ll leave when they catch up.” Payton agreed. They were in the market by now and a gnoll with papers walked among the citizens.

  “What’s this?” Payton asked the grey-furred gnoll as it handed both of them a pamphlet.

  “A special message from our master. He requests to formalize his leadership of the region.” The gnoll gave them a doggy smile and moved on with his pamphlets.

  Steve unfolded the strangely fine paper and read the embossed lettering.

  “Where could they get these?” Payton ran a finger over the glossy surface.

  “Read it, you won’t care where they got this.” Steve stopped walking and turned to Payton.

  “They’re gnolls with fancy paper, I don’t want what religion they’re preaching.” Payton folded the pamphlet and looked for some place to throw it away.

  “It’s not from the gnolls, it’s from Fenton and you’re part of his demands.” Steve put a hand on her shoulder to stop her.

  “I’m what?” Payton took Steve’s pamphlet and started reading.

  “He’s demanding a pair of cute twins to keep him company among other things or he will turn his gnolls loose on Bent Spoon.” Steve said when it seemed like Payton was reading the whole pamphlet.

  “Are you kidding me?” Payton crushed the other pamphlet and jumped ahead to Fenton’s conveniently bullet point demands at the end.

  “It’s gross, right?” Steve took a half step back as Payton’s face turned red.

  “This weasel thinks he can just ask for women in a land grab? Yeah, that’s gross.” Payton started to tear the pamphlets apart. If she wanted to get sold off to some Earth Co shareholder, she could have just done that instead of working in the mines to pay for Sage’s college tuition.

  “I’m going to get another pamphlet or else the others aren’t going to believe this.” Steve didn’t have much trouble catching up to the gnoll to get another pamphlet. He had much more trouble keeping Payton from attacking any of the gnolls in Bent Spoon.

  Payton was surprisingly strong for her build and Steve had to get her out of town before they caused a scene. Still, outside the walls, a gnoll strayed into her reach. The ax work was fast, horrific, and unquestionably fatal. Payton only stopped when Steve took the ax out of her hands.

  “Now we gotta hide this thing before the other gnolls see.” Steve dropped the ax and his shield to grab the gnoll paw and start pulling. “At least he doesn’t have armor.”

  “I’m not going to apologize, this is completely ridiculous.” Payton grabbed the other paw and began pulling the gnoll to a ditch.

  “No one is going to tell you this Fenton is right or that you should rent yourself out to get at this Fenton. But we might need the gnolls to not know we’re enemies yet.” Steve rolled the gnoll into the ditch and then went back for a hand that had gotten left behind.

  “And you don’t get to think me and my sister are cute. You were supposed to be a professional!” Payton snarled.

  “I am professional! Wait, are you angry that I said you were cute?” Steve discretely tossed the ax a little further away.

  “You don’t get to think my sister is cute. Stay away from her.” Payton’s rage was starting to fade now, but she had enough in the tank to snarl at Steve.

  “Hold on,” Steve grabbed a returning guard. “Would you say this girl is cute?”

  “She’s covered in blood, but … yeah under the blood she looks cute. Angry, but cute too.” The guard was glad to get out of Steve’s grip and join his patrol entering Bent Spoon.

  “There. You’re going to have to be angry at a lot of people because you’re twins! If you’re cute, she’s cute. You look exactly alike except for the hair which is the only way I can tell you two apart!” Steve jabbed his finger in the air like he’d scored a point.

  “Stay away from my sister.” Payton repeated and stomped over to her ax. The blood started disappearing off her and thankfully from the grass too.

  “I’m not chasing your sister. We are doing our job, I’m not matching with her on Party Bumper.” Steve retrieved his shield.

  It was an awkward half hour waiting for the rest of the group to catch up and start on the road the gnolls were using to go west.