Chapter Seventeen One Hundred Acorns #3
Saeldian roared in fury. The troll-thing’s second head swallowed and burped, and an arm pointed at Saeldian as it laughed.
“No! No!” Saeldian, screaming and lost to anything but rage, blasted it again, but it barely rocked backward. The wounds closed again. It clambered to its feet.
“Troll!” Kell shouted. He fired his crossbow, nicking the troll on the arm, but that was enough. The bolt flared purple as the spell hit the beast, and it staggered.
“Tough luck, ugly!” Kell yelled. “My bane on you!”
The troll faced him, snarling, until the second head clapped a hand over its throat. It made a sound of distress, and it bent over and vomited up hunks of meat, several fingers, and a whole toad, who hopped once before becoming Jubilee, scrambling to her feet.
“Eighty-six,” she called, and pitched an acorn at Kell.
She sprinted toward them before spinning to face the monster that tried to eat her. A bolt of fire launched from her other hand and hit the troll in its second face.
It yelped and wouldn’t stop.
“How did you—”
“Toads can sweat acid when they’re in danger,” Jubilee said, and lunged to slice at the troll’s thigh with her light little dagger. Vines sprouted from the wound, tangling around its legs. It struggled and ripped free.
The troll’s first head roared in fury, and the troll swung a huge greatmace at Saeldian, who danced out of its arc. They hurled a fist-sized ball of fire at the monster, which smacked into it and bloomed on its filthy clothes. “I can’t use acid. It’ll hurt the oak.”
“That’s thoughtful,” the oak said. “The fire’s not comforting either.”
The troll-thing screamed and flailed. Saeldian hit it again with two fast blasts of eldritch force. Those wounds knitted shut as the troll got back on its feet.
Kell loaded his crossbow and fired. The bolt glowed green with his whispered words mid-flight and landed in the troll’s chest. They staggered, screaming as that pain sank in.
But Kell didn’t have enough of those spells to kill it.
“What did we just say about acid?” the oak scolded.
“I’ll hold it. Get those acorns,” Saeldian said. “Hurry!”
“Ninety-five!” Lorzok shouted. “Ninety-six—Timtim, come back!”
Saeldian cast another stone-sized ball of fire, then punched the troll with bolts of pure force. It flew backward, falling to the ground. Burns blackened its skin.
“You can’t hurt it with those bolts,” Kell said.
“I know. But it keeps them back. You?”
“My sword.”
Saeldian launched a bolt of fire that made the troll squeal. “Too close. Forget it. Get those acorns.”
“Can you cast another fire spell?”
“I’ll handle it.” Saeldian fired two more bolts, knocking the troll-mass back. “Go. Move!”
“Ninety-seven!” Jubilee yelled, so Kell got moving. Acorn. Acorn! Fucking acorns, where are they—
A thud. A scream. A triumphant howl, interrupted. Saeldian still stood, but bent, with one arm curled close to their ribs. They kept casting more bolts, fighting to keep the troll back.
“Ninety-eight!” Lorzok yelled.
“Ninety-nine!” Kell shouted. “One hundred! Let’s go!”
Lorzok laid his hands on the oak tree. It glowed as the magic grew.
Jubilee shot arrows at the troll, the bolts flying past Saeldian and into the monster’s flesh, but it shrugged and picked itself back up.
It wasn’t falling as far as it had with Saeldian’s first spells, and Saeldian’s casting was slowing down.
“It’s open. Go,” Lorzok said. “Take Timtim.”
Jubilee scooped up the almiraj and fled through the portal. Kell yelled, “It’s open! Time to go!”
“Can’t,” Saeldian shouted back. “It’ll catch up. Go!”
“I have to hold the spell,” Lorzok said, “and I can’t hold it long enough.”
“Go!” Saeldian shouted. A bolt of fire hit the troll, but it was so tiny. “Move!”
Saeldian’s spells were fading. They stepped back, but the troll-thing moved faster than they could. They would die if they didn’t flee.
Saeldian was going to die to let them all get away.
“Lorzok! Can you hold it from the other side?”
“I think so—come back!” Lorzok yelled.
Kell wasn’t listening. He dashed for Saeldian, who was swaying on their feet, trying to cast another blast of force to hold the monster back. It smacked into the troll’s shoulder.
It didn’t even flinch.
“I can’t hold it!” Lorzok yelled. “Kell!”
“Coming!”
Kell conjured a spear of fire in his hand. He threw it at the troll, and it hit just in time to make the troll choke on a cruel laugh and drop its greatmace. Kell scooped Saeldian around the waist.
The troll’s clawed hand swiped across Kell’s shoulder and down his chest.
It was like fire. Every breath made something in his chest stab him, and he knew the blood he smelled was his. There was no time to stumble. No time to be weak. He had one chance.
He squeezed Saeldian tight and cast his last spell. “And elsewhere!”
Kell was already running when they reappeared before the portal. Kell shoved Saeldian through and tripped on the roots of the oak beside the brew hut as the troll’s scream cut off.
“I’m okay,” Kell said. “Help Sheld—”
He was trying to fall in the opposite direction when it all went dark.